ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 740 The Naval Battle of Cerrodium ([-])

After receiving Hasdrubal's order, the Iberian infantry carried rations and weapons and began to cross the mountains southward.Hasdrubal continued to attack the city of Cerrodium to attract the attention of the defenders.

The Iberian infantry crossed the mountains and made a large circle. In the early morning of the third day, they appeared at the mountain pass behind the city of Cerrodium. It quickly fell under the rapid attack, and then the Iberians quickly approached the east of the city of Cerodiam.

The people of Cerodiam soon learned the news that "the enemy appeared in the rear" and were very panicked.Because after being reminded by the Dionians, they only concentrated their efforts on strengthening the west city wall within a limited time. As for the east city wall, they only had time to make simple repairs. Build any defensive facilities, but they are lucky and believe that this direction is unlikely to be attacked by the Carthaginians for the time being. After all, this is already within the sphere of influence of the Dionian friendly city-states and may receive reinforcements from the Dionians at any time. , if the Carthaginians want to land here, they will take great risks. As for the Carthaginians if they want to climb over the mountains, those high mountains are not so easy to climb, and the Carthaginians are not in this regard. not good at.But they didn't expect that what they were most worried about would happen.

At this time, Hasdrubal's army also launched a strong attack on the city wall of Cerrodium in the west. The defenders of Cerrodium immediately seemed to be out of strength. They had a premonition that the situation was critical and organized in a hurry. They sent all the citizens who could fight to the city to defend themselves. They also sent people to the port to take speedboats and rush to Messina for help. In addition, they also arranged for the people in the city to begin to retreat to the port.

In fact, on the sea near Cerodiam City, Dionia's clippers patrol and observe the battle situation every day.When they saw the Carthaginian army appearing east of Cerrodium, they realized that the situation was not good and immediately returned to Messina. So when the envoy from Cerrodium came to ask for help, The administrator of Messina, Amycles, has organized a fleet of ships and is ready to set off for rescue.

Accompanying it is the Third Fleet.After the Carthaginians divided their army into two parts and attacked eastward from the north and south coasts at the same time, Seclian also had to divide the Sicilian fleet in his charge into two parts. The first fleet was in Catania, and the second fleet was in Catania. The Third Fleet was in Messina. As the war progressed, most of the warships of the First Fleet later stationed themselves at the military port of Gela. This was done to prevent the Carthaginian fleet from assisting the army on both coasts in time, bypassing Landing at the rear of the friendly city-state of Dionia can also promptly protect the fleet transporting baggage or refugees, and this time the dispatch of the third fleet is obviously for the latter purpose.

When Dionia's fleet arrived at the sea near Cerodiam City, the defense of the east wall of Cerodiam City had been breached by the Iberian infantry, and the citizen soldiers had to abandon the defense of the city wall. Part of them retreated to the garrison, and part of them retreated to the port.

Fortunately, when Cerodiam was first built, although the port was included in the city, it was separated by city walls. The original purpose was to prevent the slaves and free people in the port from entering and leaving the city at will and disturbing the city. order, but now it plays a key role.

The Citizen Soldiers of Cerodiam had deployed defenses on the port city wall in advance, and also destroyed the stone stairs leading up to the city wall, blocking the entrances to and from the port. After all, this wall was mainly to prevent enemies from the port from entering the city. They only hoped to provide a safe environment for the people. Escape from the port to buy time.

After the ships originally staying in the port were loaded with the people of Cerrodiam, they quickly left one after another. The Dionia fleet also quickly entered the port and continued to move the frightened people staying at the dock. The people picked him up, and some ships from Tyndares, Caleacte, and Haluntium also came to the rescue. Although the scene was a bit chaotic, there were even ships colliding and capsizing. Things happened, but at this moment, all the sailors of the Greek city-states on the north coast were working together to rescue, with only one thought in their minds: to rescue the people of Cerodium as soon as possible to avoid being massacred by the Carthaginians.

Cerrodium is not a big city, and its population is not large. Soon, the old, young, women and children all boarded the ship and began to load the citizen soldiers who rushed to the dock...

The warships of the Third Fleet were displayed on the sea west of the port to prevent a sudden attack by the Carthaginian fleet.The clipper ship arrived and reported to the commander of the Third Fleet, Flarios, on the flagship: "All the people of Cerrodiam in the port have boarded the ship."

Flarios nodded and said he understood. He couldn't muster much energy for such a risk-free escort mission. He had not considered letting the fleet infantry from the Crow Warship land at the port to help the people of Cerodiam defend it. port, but after understanding the actual battle situation, he gave up this idea. He did not think that the 4000 fleet infantry could block the attack of the [-] enemy who were about to break the city with only the weak city wall. The fleet that had finally been trained with great difficulty The loss of infantry in this unimportant place is really not worth it.

"We will return after all the fleet has left." Freenios had just finished conveying the order.

Suddenly, the lookout on the mast shouted: "General, there is an enemy situation ahead!"

Flarios felt nervous, raised his head and stared into the distance, passing through the gaps between many warships, and saw two yellow flags flying on the top of the mast of the westernmost warship.

It is the fleet of Carthage, and the number of warships is about the same as ours...Florios immediately made a judgment based on the flag language (raising a yellow flag means there is an enemy situation, one yellow flag means that the number of enemy fleets is less than that of Dionia, two One yellow flag means that the number of both sides is approximately equal, three yellow flags means that the number of enemy ships is greater than that of the Dionian fleet, and four yellow flags means that the number of enemy ships is far greater).

Frario suddenly became energetic and immediately changed his order: "Blow the bugle and raise the black flag!"

On the flagship, five buglers blew the curved copper horns at the same time, resounding throughout the sea area, and long black flags flew high on the mast.

"Under the dark night, there must be stars." Starry sky is the most typical tactic of the Dionia Navy, which can maximize the power of the crow warship. It was relying on it that the Dionia navy was first built. Only then defeated the mighty Syracuse navy.But after ten years of development, due to changes in the composition of the fleet and warships, this tactic has undergone new changes. He just needs a war to verify its effectiveness.

After receiving the order, the captains and crew members of all the warships became excited immediately: the deck controller began to lift the drawbridge resting on the deck to the forward mast for installation; the helmsman adjusted the direction of the warship and began to arrange the formation; The soldiers began to swallow their rations and lubricate the seat cushions; the infantrymen sitting in the aisle of the bottom warehouse began to put on their armor... Everyone was gearing up, anxiously waiting for the arrival of this naval battle.

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This fleet coming from the west comes from Iberia. To be precise, it is under the control of Mago, the governor of Iberia.

The terrain along the coast of Africa is flat, but there are no tall and sturdy trees. A famous seafaring race like Carthage has long regarded the Iberian Peninsula as an important resource base, not only because of the rich gold and silver mines there, but also Because there were abundant timber resources there, most of Carthage's ship timber came from Iberia.

After Mago became the governor of Iberia, he initially did not have the right to command the fleet. In fact, during the process of conquering southern Iberia, the fleet was not used for most of the time. However, Mago considered the future and wanted to use the fleet. When fighting elsewhere, transporting troops by sea without the protection of the fleet will be a big trouble. However, if he wants to mobilize the Carthaginian fleet to come to Iberia, he will definitely be blocked by the Senate headed by Hanno, so he Then he decided to use the money earned in Iberia and the trees in Iberia to build a fleet of his own.

A few years later, an Iberian fleet consisting of 120 triremes, plus small and medium-sized warships, totaling 180 warships, was established. Its commander was Admika of the Magonid family, and its sailors were Half came from the Phoenician city-state, and the rest came from Numbia and Mauritania, and none of them were Carthaginians.This fleet soon stalked the Iberian coast and near the Pillars of Hercules.

After Hanno knew about it, he was very afraid of it, so this time, when the fleet escorted Hasdrubal's army to Lilibei, Sicily, Hanno ordered the Carthaginian fleet commander Annobus To incorporate it.

This was met with firm opposition by Admika, who said: "Lord Mago only agreed to allow the army to accept the command of Monte Adeno, and did not say that the fleet would also accept the command of the Carthaginian navy."

Annobas retorted: "Since they are all Carthage's armies, of course they must be under unified command. This will be beneficial to the battle! It will be beneficial to Carthage!"

Admika refused to obey, and the two sides almost clashed.

In the end, the lawsuit reached the Senate, and the Senate had to send people to discuss with Mago again, which started tedious negotiations again.The two fleets, one docked at Carthage and the other at Lilybae, were in a stalemate with each other. This is why Monte Adeno had never seen a Carthage fleet appear in the sea near the south coast of Sicily before. Reasons for troop protection.

Until Hasdrubal learned about this, he asked the fleet to come to help on the grounds that "he was about to capture the city of Cerodiam and to prevent the enemy from escaping from the sea." This is why the Iberian fleet happened to appear here. s reason.

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(End of this chapter)