ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 542 Syracuse Allied Forces Attack
As a result, Hilos slowed down the progress of the siege again, cut down trees and made siege equipment.

As the Dionians were about to launch an attack on Medema, the Locris, who were confronting the Coronian army, wanted to rescue them, but they were powerless.

What worries them even more is that once the Dionians capture Medema and the Daley coalition forces pour out of the ancient road from west to east, Lockley's situation will become very dangerous!
Therefore, Lockley sent five [-]-speed clippers, took huge risks, paid a heavy price of two ships being sunk, and two ships being captured, broke through the blockade of the Dionia fleet, and entered the Siliting port.

Only then did Dionysius know: Not only was he using the peace talks to delay time in the past few days, Davos was also not idle. Not only did he force Coronia to surrender, but he also dared to divide his troops and defeat him while besieging him. Locklee's army took Trina and Hibernian lightly, and even Maderma was in jeopardy, completely separating Siritium and Locklee.It can be seen that Davers may not have the sincerity of the peace talks at all!
This discovery made Dionysius feel sad: obviously the young consul was not as politically naive as his age, but as insidious as his military command. While paralyzing himself, he was quickly devouring Scylla. Kuza's allied forces in Magna Graecia hope to finally completely annihilate their own army here!
After realizing Davos' true intention, how could Dionysius sit still and wait for death? No matter when reinforcements arrived, he must be prepared first.

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On the next day, Antonios met the men sent by Antrapolis, the head of Davos's intelligence department in Sicily. He brought Antrapolis's advice: he hoped that Antonios could use Meiya Luo used Luo as a bait to lure Syracuse and its allies to attack, in order to create a void in the internal defense forces of Catanai, Leotini, Syracuse and other city-states, and became an opponent of Dionysius. Create conditions for them to riot.

After roughly understanding the layout of several major city-states in eastern and central Sicily, and in order to reduce the obstacles to future attacks, Antonios agreed after thinking about it.

While waiting for the enemy to attack, he released the old people, women and children of Sikuli who had been imprisoned before. On the one hand, he wanted to reduce food consumption, and on the other hand, he also asked these people to bring a message to the people of Sikuli: Dioni The Asians came to Sicily only to avenge the Syracusans who invaded Magna Greece. They had no intention of occupying the territory of any city-state, nor did they intend to become enemies of other city-states. They were also willing to work with the city-states of Sicily to overthrow the tyranny of Dionysius. rule.

Antonius likewise sent a brave Naxos northward to Tauromeanion with the same message.However, the envoys sent did not return, which shows the malice of these Campania mercenaries towards Dionia. However, these mercenaries did not rush out of the city and go down the mountain to attack those who were heading east along the Alcantara Valley. Crowd of exiles.

These exiles are entering Mayaro in an endless stream and are warmly welcomed by the soldiers of the First Legion in the town.The available troops for Antonios gradually became abundant. While he asked Laodicean and Lysiperatus to place these newcomers in place, he also selected young and strong men and issued them with leather shields and bayonet spears. In less than two days, he had nearly two thousand more available reserve soldiers.

That afternoon, just as Antonios was delighted with the increase in the strength of his army, he received a report from the reconnaissance cavalry: an army holding high the "three-legged pattern" flag and with a large number of soldiers was entering Sikuli.

Antonios knew that Syracuse's army was coming.

Soon, the few scouts under his command were driven back by the Syracuse cavalry and had to retreat to the north bank of the Alcantara River. On the south bank, several generals wearing colorful crowned helmets appeared under the protection of the guards. , gesticulating something in the direction of Mayaro, and stayed for a while before leaving.

Antonios knew: The war will only come in a day or two. Even if it is too late today and the Syracuseans will not attack, there will definitely be a fierce battle in Mayaro Town tomorrow!

He suppressed the tension in his heart and carefully reviewed in his mind the arrangements he had made over the past two days in order to discover if there were any oversights or omissions...

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The next day, the weather was clear and windless, perfect for fighting.For Antonios, this is not good news. He hopes that it will rain heavily, which will undoubtedly increase the difficulty for the Syracuseans to attack Mearo, especially the swollen Alcantara River. It was so painful that even crossing the river gave me a headache.

By morning, the sentry on the watchtower could already see the billowing dust and smoke to the south.

But it was the port that first discovered the enemy's situation. Syracuse's fleet appeared on the sea in the port.

Antonios did not show any abnormal emotions after receiving the news, but he knew in his heart: the Syracuse people were advancing by sea and land, obviously to cut off the First Army's retreat, cut off the First Army's backup, and to encircle and annihilate them.

So, he hurriedly asked: "How many triremes are there?!"

"I don't know the exact number, it doesn't seem to be less than our fleet!" The sentinel of the port lighthouse replied.Unlike the troops on land, the fleet at sea can occupy a dozen miles of sea surface when sailing, and it cannot be detected clearly by just relying on the fixed watchtowers on the shore.

Of course Antonios also knew something about this. He couldn't exert his strength in the battle at sea and had to rely on Sekolian.

"Let the people and patrols at the port withdraw into the town immediately!" Antonios immediately gave the order.The port is not in the town of Mayaro, and there is no city wall protection. With the army pressing on the border, there is no need to waste limited manpower to protect a port that is impossible to hold. He must concentrate his forces to deal with the upcoming land attack.Even if the Syracuse fleet were to land on the coast near the port and burn the port where supplies were transferred for his First Army, he couldn't care less at this moment...

But the Syracuse fleet did not land at the port, nor did it burn the port, because the Sicilian merchant ships that plied this route in the past two days had already informed Syracuse of the detection: every morning the Dionia fleet would sail from Lijim Set off, arrive at the port of Mearo, patrol until the afternoon, and then return to Lijim. Therefore, unless the naval commander of Syracuse is a fool, the warships that land at the port at this time and parked at the dock will become Dai Dai's troops who arrive later. A target for the Onian fleet to practice ramming.

The commander of this Syracuse fleet is called Paronissus. He is a Syracuse noble. He was also one of the friends who strongly supported Dionysius' rise to power along with Herolis. He was quite talented in command, so when the navy led by Leptinius defeated Carthage, the people of Syracuse called for him to be appointed as the new naval commander.

But when Dionysius led his army to invade Magna Greece, he still appointed his younger brother as the commander of the navy. This made Paronissus dissatisfied. He believed that this was Dionysius helping his younger brother to recover. Reputation, everyone knows that Dionia's fleet is weak, and victory is easy.

Unexpectedly, when the news of the fiasco of the Syracuse Navy came again and again, Paronisus also uttered a bad breath while being shocked.This time, in order to eliminate the Dionians who landed, and taking into account the resentment of the civilians and free people in the bay against the city-state, Philistos specially chose Palonissus as the naval commander, just to use his ability on the water. The prestige in his hands made the attack on the sea smoother, and Palonissus also wanted to use a big victory to prove to Dionysius that the choice he made was wrong.

At this time, Syracuse's warships were all anchored on the sea outside the port, with their bows facing north, waiting for the arrival of the Dionia fleet.

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The Dionian fleet is heading south along the east coast of Sicily.

Repeating tasks such as escorting the Lijim fleet and patrolling the sea near Mearo day after day has made Sekerian a little tired. Seeing the land forces of Dionia massively attacking the enemies of Magna Graecia, attacking the city, The results of the war were brilliant, but the navy, which first laid the foundation for the victory of the Dionian Alliance, could only assist the army in escorting, patrolling and other insignificant tasks. Sekerian felt helpless. If it were not for the importance of this expedition to Sicily, he would rather stay In Lijim, let his subordinates do this boring task for him.

Just as he was sitting on the deck, wondering whether he should take the fleet south to explore the great port of Syracuse after escorting the fleet this time, the lookout on the mast suddenly shouted: "There is a fleet ahead. !There are many warships!”

When Sekelian heard this, he immediately stood up: the fleet that can appear in this sea area can only be the people of Syracuse!

He finally became excited: "Syracuse's fleet is coming to attack. Sound the attack bugle and we will meet them!"

At this time, the captain of the ship said with some worry: "General, the people of Syracuse are well prepared. I'm afraid there are more warships than us, and there are no 'Ravens' on our warships. Look... right? For now—"

"Shut up!" Sekerian shouted, glared at him, and scolded him with an angry look: "Why didn't I realize that you are a coward! You don't dare to have a naval battle without the Crow Suspension Bridge?! Are you still worthy? Are you a brave sailor! Why don't you become a heavy infantry!
Decades ago, the weak Athenian navy could defeat the Persians, and the inexperienced Spartan navy could defeat the Athenians. Today, I, Sekolian, can defeat the Syracuseans in the most orthodox naval battle without relying on infantry! "

Seclian looked forward proudly, and the captain lowered his head in shame.

　Thanks to Zhan Billy and Yi Jian 68 for the reward!Your support is my biggest motivation for writing! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)