ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 1168 Sekerian’s Determination

"Every time I talk to you, it always relieves me of a lot of troubles." Pelopidas said half-jokingly and half-seriously: "I won't talk to you anymore. Next, I have to visit other congressmen... By the way, we should let the Dionians know how much pressure we have endured and how much effort we have made to maintain this alliance. It is best if you quietly send people to Messenia tomorrow to let Dionians If people know about this, they should prepare in advance.”

"Okay, leave it to me to send people." After Ipamilonda sent Pelopidas out the door, he returned to the study, looked at the floor plan of the Dionysian military camp drawn on the papyrus, and picked up the pen again, but His thoughts were too chaotic and he couldn't calm down to write for a while. He subconsciously tapped the word "Dionia" on the paper with his pen, thinking only of one thing: no matter how beautiful Pelopidas's conception was, But first it depends on whether Dionia can completely defeat the Spartans as soon as possible...

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These days, First Fleet Commander Sekerian is in a bad mood, and it is not because of the new army commander Crotokartax. Although when he first arrived, Sekerian out of the reserve of a veteran, He did not go to greet him, but on the second day, His Royal Highness the Prince personally visited the First Fleet camp near the coast and paid a very respectful courtesy to Sekerian. In the end, Sekerian was moved and he took the initiative to make a promise: Lead the fleet to fully cooperate with the army in combat.

The reason why Sekerian was unhappy was that although he had occupied the island of Kythira in the Gulf of Laconia and completely blocked the coast of Sparta, the mercenaries recruited by Sparta from outside the mainland still landed. The Peloponnese was conquered, making it more difficult for the army to conquer Sparta.

Although this is not the fault of the First Fleet, and before Sekerian left Thurii, Davos once told him: After the First Fleet arrives in the waters south of the Peloponnese, try not to cross Lagogni. Asia Gulf, patrolling the east coast of the Peloponnese and even the waters further north to avoid causing dissatisfaction with coastal city-states such as Argos, Corinth, and even Athens.

Sekerian has been strictly following the teachings of King Davos, but he did not expect that the cunning Spartans not only allowed mercenaries to land at the Corinth port, but also frequently had grain ships entering the Corinth port in the past few days. With enough mercenaries and a steady supply of military rations, the Spartans had the confidence to continue fighting the Dionysian army...

Just when Sekerian was sitting in the military tent sulking, the staff officer walked into the tent: "Your Majesty Commander, I just received the report from the clipper ship and found that there are 5 cargo ships full of soldiers heading towards the Isthmus of Corinth. "

Sekerian stood up suddenly: "Where was it found? Which city-state's ship is it?"

"It should be near the island of Naxos (not Naxos in Sicily, but an island in the Aegean Sea), and it is estimated that it has entered the port of Corinth now. As before, these cargo ships are linked to Mili The flags of the Greek city-states in Asia Minor such as Capital, Samos, Ephesus, Halicarnassus, etc." the staff officer replied slightly angrily.

"Bang!" Sekerian kicked the seat over. His face was as cold as frost, and he paced quickly in the tent, but his hands were clenched into fists.

Suddenly he stopped and shouted like thunder: "Order the crew to push the ship into the sea and prepare to sail!"

The staff officer immediately understood his intention and hurriedly advised: "Commander, please calm down! His Majesty Davos has issued an order——"

"That's not an order, that's just a reminder, and His Majesty used the word 'try your best'!" Sekerian said emotionally: "We didn't want to conflict with these city-states, but these Greek city-states colluded with the Persians. Taking advantage of our forbearance, we continued to transport food to the Spartans, and now we are once again transporting soldiers to Sparta. If this continues, our war with Sparta will become very difficult, which will have a negative impact on the kingdom. The interests have caused huge losses, so our navy can no longer sit on the sidelines and must take action!"

Having said this, he softened his tone: "You are still young and not yet familiar with His Majesty's style. He never gives orders to the generals who go on expeditions, but allows them to independently formulate combat plans based on the actual situation on the battlefield. . Now it’s time for us to change our combat strategy!”

"Sir, I understand." The staff officer quickly accepted Sekerian's point of view. In fact, he was also holding back anger in his heart: "Which squadron are you planning to send?"

Sekerian answered decisively: "All warships of the First Fleet!"

"The entire First Fleet?!" The staff officer was surprised: The First Fleet had more than 1 warships, just to sink a few troop and grain transport ships, it was simply killing a chicken with a knife.

Sekerian saw through his mind and said in a deep voice: "This time we not only want to capture or sink all the ships transporting food and troops to the port of Corinth, but also beat them thoroughly so that they will never dare to help again in the future. Spartans! At the same time, this is also an armed voyage of our Dionysian First Fleet into the Aegean Sea, showing our powerful power to those Greek city-states, and making those city-states who want to go against us reconsider whether they Have this ability!"

"Yes! I will immediately notify the entire fleet to prepare for sailing!"

More than an hour later, Sekerian boarded his flagship, raised the sailing flag, and the bugle was blown. In addition to the two ship columns anchored on Kythera, a total of 50 warships were to blockade Off the coast of Sparta, (after the Western Mediterranean War, under the instructions of Davos, the Ministry of Military Affairs made some adjustments to the navy, not only changing the four fleets into three fleets, but also re-changing the fleet organization, clearly It is stipulated that the squadron has 100 warships, consisting of 4 columns, each column has 25 warships, so the warship column has become the smallest unit of the Dionian Navy) all the remaining warships, about 500 The ships were arranged in four columns and sailed eastward mightily.

After the fleet rounded the cape and turned around to head north, Sekerian issued another order: In view of the large number of islands in this sea area, the fleet was unfamiliar with the sea conditions here, so it slowed down and moved along the east coast.

After giving the order, Sekerian returned to his seat to rest.

After the Western Mediterranean War, the Ministry of Military Affairs discussed the issue of "whether the flagships of each fleet need to be redesigned and improved" with the fleet commanders and shipbuilding engineers.

Some people have proposed that "the Carthage double-headed dragon warship can be used as a model to build the flagship of the fleet"; others have proposed that "the former Carthage four-layered paddle warship can be improved and used as the flagship of the fleet"...

Sekerian raised objections, believing that whether it was a double-headed dragon ship or a four-layered oar warship, they were too clumsy and bloated. A naval admiral would never let one ship slow down the entire fleet just for the sake of enjoyment. Navigation speed affects combat efficiency...

Sekerian's opinion was supported by the captains of the 2nd Fleet, Midolades, and the [-]rd Fleet, Stefakas, and finally the change of the flagship was nothing.

Apart from its slightly larger hull and taller mast, Sekerian's flagship was not much different from the Raven Warship.The place where Sekerian was sitting was at the stern of the ship. The stern of the warship was tilted up like a scorpion's tail, forming a pocket with a wooden chair inside. Since the top could block the sun, he was relatively comfortable sitting in it.

Sekerian held the handle of the wooden chair with both hands and looked outside the warship: the water here was exceptionally blue, and the wind and waves were very small, so the warship sailed very smoothly. Turning to the left, he saw rugged rocks on the coast not far away. The strange peaks stand tall, because it is the good time of spring, there are green trees and red flowers everywhere on the cliffs, which are pleasing to the eye; looking up at the sky, there are white clouds floating leisurely on the clear sky, and groups of seabirds sing and pass by from time to time , the cool water carried by the gentle sea breeze gently brushes over the face, making people feel relaxed and happy...

While Sekerian was enjoying a rare moment of comfort, the residents on the shore were very frightened.This coast is still the territory of Sparta. Although most of it is cliffs, there are still some small seaside villages and towns.

Wars have been frequent in recent years, and people in villages and towns here often see fleets passing by in the nearby waters, either ships from Athens and its allies, or fleets from the Peloponnesian League, but they have never seen such a terrifying scene: Countless warships covered most of the sea that they could see. Each ship was as black as ink, seeming to dye the blue water into black...

Just as they were running north along the coast in panic to tell the people in Sparta the shocking news, the forward of the black fleet had already turned northeast.

After bypassing the peninsula to the east of the Argos territory, the 1st Fleet entered a large bay-Salon Bay. It was like entering an extremely lively town from a sparsely populated countryside, with hundreds of thousands of people everywhere. Ships loaded with cargo entered and left this large bay. Most of them sailed to Athens in the north, some to Corinth in the east, and a very small number of them sailed to Megara in the southeast. Even during the war, This happened every day during this period, so it became one of the most prosperous bays in the Mediterranean a long time ago.

But at this moment, the first fleet of Dionysia was like a hungry wolf breaking into the flock of sheep. It made the chickens and dogs jump for a while, and the panicked ships fled one after another. It didn't take long for the extremely lively bay to become a lot quieter again. , no other ships appeared around the First Fleet warship.

The captains of the 1st Fleet obviously did not care about such changes. According to their prior plan, they turned the warships eastward and penetrated deep into the bay.

(End of this chapter)