ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1015 The ship approaches the city
On this day, although the Carthaginian army occupied the outer city wall of Selinus, they failed to conquer the entire city. Instead, they suffered a lot of casualties. The new wall inside the city meant that they still had to carry out an arduous siege. war, which led to low morale among the soldiers.

Especially the Numibians, as the main force in the siege, always suffered the most casualties, and naturally the resentment in their hearts became stronger, and some rumors began to spread among them.

Genomus was far from the only one who infiltrated the Sikan territory and routed the troops. Although Mago sent his trusted team officers to the Numibian army, most of their positions were middle and senior team officers. After all, if the assigned team officers Too many, and it will be difficult for his own Iberian troops to maintain combat effectiveness, so most of the bottom team captains are the original East Numibians, which gives these Numibi who were persuaded by the Dionians The Asian prisoners had the opportunity to break through and sneak into the Carthage camp.

In this war, whether they attacked Paragonia or Selinus, the Numibians were always the main force in the battle, so they suffered the most casualties. Their dissatisfaction with the Carthaginians accumulated day by day, and their resentment was very strong. Therefore, these spies quietly told their compatriots about the situation of this war and the news that Dionia was willing to support Numibia in rising up against Carthage and gaining independence, which naturally aroused a great response.

Some rumors even spread to other armies, such as the disastrous defeat of the Carthaginian navy, and the complete blockade of the western Sicilian sea by the Dionian navy... and the Dionian navy repeatedly attacked the African coast and burned Hadru Mentum and Ogiergely City...

This seriously affected the morale of the Carthaginian and Phoenician soldiers. Many soldiers even gathered and asked their officers whether the news was true.

Mago was shocked after learning this. He had to immediately stop planning the next attack on Selinus City and focus on purging the army and boosting morale. Otherwise, the army would In danger of collapse.

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In the early morning, a Carthaginian fleet of 30 cargo ships departed from Cadiz for Carthage, each ship loaded with silver bricks.

As the war progresses, Corsica has fallen, Sardinia has fallen into war, Sicily has been blockaded, and Carthage's port trade has been depressed. The precious metals of the Iberian Peninsula have become Carthage's main source of treasury revenue. For this reason, in The mine owners of Carthage in Iberia added mining slaves and expanded the mining volume of silver mines. After these silver bricks were transported to Carthage, they would be melted into silver coins, which were mainly used to build warships and pay for employment. Soldiers' pay.

Due to the recent strength of the Dionian fleet, this fleet is very careful and has been sailing eastward close to the coast of Africa. Once the enemy is discovered, they can immediately enter the ports of nearby city-states to avoid this method. This method is quite effective, so the war begins Since then, a precious metal cargo ship from Iberia has never been hijacked by the Dionia fleet.

After spending the night in coastal towns and ports for two consecutive days, the fleet entered the core waters controlled by Carthage in the early morning of the third day. The fleet began to gradually move away from the coast, because the basic city of Carthage is located on a peninsula protruding to the north. On the sea, the distance to sail directly to it is the shortest, and the Dionian fleet has not dared to break into this sea area so far.

In the morning, the fleet had arrived at the sea near Carthage. At this time, the crew saw a fleet composed of countless black warships appearing in the north, rushing towards them.

"That's the Dionian fleet!!..." The crew shouted in panic, desperately driving the cargo ship and escaping towards the Carthage port. However, the cargo ship was overloaded, the wind was not going smoothly, and the oarsmen were not able to As a result, the Dionian warship got ahead of them and cut off the route to the port.

"General, our warships successfully intercepted the Carthage fleet!" the flagship's telescope shouted excitedly.

Midorades was not too happy. He had been planning this operation for a long time. In order to intercept the Carthaginian fleet from Iberia, he sent a number of fast ships to Sardinia. Ross was the station, and his daily task was to disguise himself as a Phoenician cargo ship, sneak into the southern sea, and monitor the route from Iberia to Carthage.This fleet was discovered one day after leaving Cadiz, and has been under surveillance by Dionia Fast Food ever since.Based on the intelligence sent back one after another, Midorades was able to intercept it in front of the Carthage port in time.

The first step has been successful, but the key depends on its subsequent development! ... Midorades said in a deep voice: | "Continue to observe closely!"

"Yes!"

The Dionian warship intercepted the Carthaginian fleet, and instead of annihilating it in one go, they played a game of cat and mouse. Instead of using the bronze ram on the bow, they used the hull to pinch off The cargo ship's oars and even the crew on the deck specially prepared rope hooks in an attempt to catch the cargo ship when the two ships were close.

It seems that they are going to capture the cargo ship and bring it back to the base. After all, [-] ships of silver bricks are a huge fortune, but this will take a long time, because the place where it happened is just a few miles away. The sea outside the port is not far away, not only the sentinels on the breakwater of the port of Carthage can see clearly, but also the crew of other Carthage or Phoenician cargo ships entering the port have also seen this terrible scene, vying for successors Therefore, when the sentry quickly reported the situation to the port officials, and the port officials immediately reported to the Senate of Carthage, the news of "the attack of the Dionia fleet" had spread quickly in the port. and urban spread.

Some time ago, the Dionians burned the Phoenician allies in Africa several times, which made the Carthaginian people obviously afraid. Now these terrible enemies have actually attacked Carthage, and the people are even more panicked. For a while, Rumors that "the Dionians are going to attack the city of Carthage" are rampant.

The elders of Carthage were shocked after receiving the news from the port. They did not expect the Dionia fleet to be so bold that they dared to come to the port of Carthage to act wildly. Something that has never happened before!

In addition, they immediately received news of "riots in the city". At this time, no matter Hanno, Preta Kuba, or Esiyaruba had any differences, they quickly reached a unanimous opinion: order More Barr led the Carthaginian fleet to attack immediately, repelling the rampant Dionian fleet, protecting Carthage's wealth and giving the people confidence!
Since the Senate ordered the Carthaginian fleet to strengthen the defense of the city and its allies on the African coast, naval commander Morbar had no choice but to no longer lead the fleet to the western waters of Sicily. Instead, he sat at the Carthage naval port and sent many clippers to patrol. On the east and west coasts with Carthage as the center (because the city of Ogilvy was burned, the scope of patrols was further expanded). Once the enemy is discovered, he can lead the fleet to attack, and he can arrive in time, or even Defeat the Dionia fleet that has sent fleet infantry ashore to plunder...

Morbar's plan was good, but the Dionysian fleet has not appeared on the African coast since those two attacks.Today, after he got the news that the Dionysian fleet attacked the fleet from Iberia in front of the Carthage port, he was not as angry as his men. On the contrary, he fell into deep thought, because since he became the commander of the navy After that, in view of the greater advantage held by the Dionysian navy, he has been avoiding direct battles with the enemy, and now the Dionysian fleet is coming directly to the door, which is obviously to force the Carthage fleet to fight with it.

Although many of his subordinates asked him to fight, saying: "The number of warships in this Dionysian fleet in front of the port is less than that of our Carthage fleet, and we are fighting in front of our own home. It is entirely possible that we will be completely defeated." Destroy it, so as to restore some decline..."

But Morbar still had concerns, so he hesitated to make a decision.

But what he didn't expect was that the attack of the Dionia fleet had caused an uproar among the people of Carthage. Hundreds of elders headed by Hanno, Pretakuba, and Esyaruba came to the military port in person. Hand over the resolution passed by the Senate to his hands.

Naturally, Morbar could no longer refuse, but he had a battle plan in advance. He arranged military orders one by one, and soon led hundreds of warships that had slid into the military port from the dry dock and were ready to sail out of the port.

The senators then boarded the city wall on the breakwater, preparing to pay attention to this crucial naval battle for Carthage.

As soon as the first Carthaginian warship sailed out of the port, the Dionia Clipper, which was ordered to monitor the port, immediately issued a semaphore, and the Dionia 1rd Fleet 3st Squadron warship was responsible for intercepting the Iberian fleet. He no longer tormented the enemy like a kid and started to be ruthless, so one cargo ship after another was quickly hit and the hulls were damaged. The white silver bricks followed the broken cargo ships and sank into the sea, leaving people standing on the city wall The senators who were watching on the ground all felt sorry, and the captains and crew members on the deck of the Carthaginian warships that were sailing out of the port and in formation were angry. So some warships simply couldn't wait for the formation and went straight to Rushed towards the Dionian fleet to save their compatriots who were trapped in the siege.

Morbar, who left the port later, coughed angrily when he saw this. Since he took office, he has been paying close attention to the training and discipline of the newly formed fleet, hoping to compete with the Dionians, but obviously the time is too short and the effect Not ideal. Under such circumstances, he had to use another prepared battle plan in advance: "Inform Barikos and them, and follow us to attack now!"

(End of this chapter)