ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 892 A strange fleet

After Miltias left, Leotizides immediately said: "Tagru, hurry up and notify the rescue troops to rush to the port immediately."

"Yes, Commander." Taglu did not immediately execute the order after receiving the order, but asked with some doubts: "Aren't the Carthaginians too risky? They sent an army of tens of thousands of people across the traffic Inconvenient and inconvenient mountainous areas for food transportation, across Selinus and Minoa, want to capture Agrigento, once our reinforcements arrive and their attempt fails, these tens of thousands of Carthaginians may even If we don't need to attack, we will be defeated because the food cannot be supplied in time..."

"Yes, this Carthaginian commander Mago really dares to take risks. It seems that he believes in the ability of his army." Leotizides looked at the wooden map hanging on the wall, his eyes flashing: "So we The speed of reinforcements must be fast."

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Since the Dionian army occupied Selinus, half of its port was quickly converted into a simple military port, which not only allowed the warships of the Sicilian fleet to dock for supplies, but also could be pushed ashore for maintenance and repairs... making the fleet Having a stable and secure foothold in western Sicily provides convenience for patrolling and attacking the western sea.

Now, more than 150 warships of the Sicilian fleet are docked at the pier, soldiers from Minoa, Agrigento, Gela, Kamanlina, Eknom and other friendly city-states on the south coast, as well as 1000 soldiers Dionia reserve legion soldiers, a total of 6000 soldiers, are boarding the warships in batches.

In order to be able to transport this support force to the port of Agrigento at one time, Miltias did not even let the fleet soldiers board the crow warship, just to free up more space on the warship.

In this regard, Sekerian objected. He believed that the entire fleet cannot be used to transport soldiers, and at least half of the warships should be used as escorts. This is the vigilance that a naval commander must have.

And Miltias retorted: Only half of the warships are vacated, which means that half of the soldiers must be transported for the second time. Now the enemy's situation is urgent. Who is responsible?Moreover, after completing the transportation of troops, the Sicilian fleet had to cruise west, so there was no room for delay.

The two sides broke up again.

Sekerian simply boarded the earliest clipper to leave the port, out of sight and out of mind.

In order to save time, each warship must be loaded with soldiers and set off immediately. Therefore, when Miltias boarded the last flagship and left the port, the entire fleet spread as much as four or five miles eastward, forming a curve. A single, curved line, each ship was packed with soldiers and therefore sailed slowly.

Miltias was also a little anxious about this. He looked at the soldiers lying on the deck with a frown, and estimated the time it would take to get from Selinus to Agrigento at this speed. By the time the transportation was completed, it would probably be already in the afternoon. , it is simply impossible for the fleet to patrol anymore.

At this moment, he hoped that there would be a relatively strong northwest wind like the day the Carthaginian army landed, so that the sailing time could be greatly shortened.

And just when he was thinking about it, the lookout suddenly shouted from above his head: "Attention! Attention! There is enemy territory in the southeast!!"

Miltias was shocked, and then he became confused: all the Carthaginian warships were destroyed, where was the enemy in the southeast sea?
When he was confused, the lookout on the mast shouted anxiously again: "Two blue flags are hoisted on the clipper! Two blue flags!"

The blue flag means that it is not a Carthaginian warship, otherwise the Clippers will raise the yellow flag immediately, but two blue flags mean that there is a fleet nearby, and the number is equivalent to the Sicilian fleet, regardless of whether it is There was hostility, all posing a considerable threat to the Sicilian fleet.

Miltias felt panicked. He leaned against the side of the ship and tried his best to look to the southeast, but he could only vaguely see a few small dots on the sea in the distance.

Among the commanders of the four major fleets, neither Miltias nor Flarios had any experience in independently commanding large-scale naval battles.During the South Italian War, Miltias was only the captain of a trireme. After the establishment of the 4th Fleet, the Ministry of Military Affairs provided Davos with multiple candidates for fleet leadership. Their qualifications and achievements , and have similar abilities, Davos couldn't make a choice for a while.In the end, he chose Miltias because Miltias had served as the captain of Davos's ship. Davos still had some impressions of him, which gave him extra points.

After becoming the commander of the Fourth Fleet, Miltias spent most of his time leading the fleet to patrol the Adriatic Sea, combating pirates, and helping the army transport supplies. The only so-called naval battle was the conquest of Messape and Pudu in Dionia. When Chetty attacked the Mapu United Fleet, because the opponent was too weak, it was defeated with almost no effort.

Now when Miltias may encounter the first great sea battle, the situation is so complicated: it is still unclear whether the opponent is an enemy or a friend, making it impossible for him to make a sudden decision to fight; not only does his own fleet have no formation, , and each warship was full of soldiers, which slowed down the speed and weakened the combat capability; but at this time, the entire fleet was located on the sea near Germe, so it was difficult to retreat. As a small town, The small and crude port of Germe could not accommodate the Sicilian fleet.

Under such circumstances, he was inevitably a little panicked. He tried his best to calm down, and then issued the first order: "Raise the Apollo flag and sound the bugle!"

As the bugle blew, the golden flag was raised to the top of the mast and fluttered in the wind.

The warships in front of the flagship heard the sound of the bugle and saw the waving flags. They all turned their bows and moved closer to Miltias' ship.

The semaphore of the Apollo flag is: center on the flagship and move closer to it, shortening the distance between warships to facilitate command and defense.

Miltias' thoughts at this time are: the fleet is full of soldiers now, which is not conducive to combat, and his flagship is located closer to Selinus. When all the warships approach him, if this strange fleet really If he launches an attack, he can lead the fleet back to Selinus first.

The Dionysian fleet extends too far on the sea, especially the warships at the front. The observer can neither see the flag on the rearmost flagship nor the signal from the speedboat cruising behind. , they can only make corresponding changes after seeing the warships behind them make tactical maneuvers, and the transmission of this message seems a bit slow at this critical moment.

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Because the clipper ship Sekerian was on was the first to leave, it was already a little far away from the entire fleet. Since he sat sullenly on the bow after boarding the ship, the crew could see that he was in a bad mood, and no one dared to come forward to disturb him. , the whole ship was unusually quiet.

At this time, he suddenly became calm, touched his ears, and asked the captain who was watching the sea conditions: "Did you hear it? There seems to be a bugle sound."

The captain shook his head blankly, listened carefully for a while, and then answered truthfully: "Sir, I didn't hear it."

The captain's words did not reassure Sekerian. He stood up, looked behind him, then raised his head and asked, "What happened to the warship behind?"

After a while, the lookout at the masthead replied: "They haven't changed much."

"My lord, maybe you heard wrong." the captain said.

Seclian seemed not to have heard of it, and there was an uneasiness in his heart. Perhaps this uneasiness was buried when he learned that Miltias had the entire fleet full of soldiers without escorting warships, but now this kind of uneasiness The feeling became stronger.

He no longer hesitated and said decisively: "Turn around and drive back to take a look."

The captain complained a little in his heart that he was suspicious, but he didn't dare to express his objection in person. After all, Sekelian was the hero worshiped by the former naval commander, general Changsheng and the crew, and his prestige was too high.

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Just as the Dionian warships turned around and returned one after another, this fleet was also approaching the Sicilian fleet. Many small black spots had appeared in Miltias's field of vision, which made him feel frightened.

At this moment, he heard the lookout at the top of the mast exclaim: "Two yellow flags! Two yellow flags are raised! It's the enemy! It's the enemy!!..."

The last luck in Miltias's heart was shattered. Now that the other warships have not yet completely approached, it is too late to retreat back to Selinus. Fortunately, while waiting, he already had a prepared plan: "Let's go again." Sound the bugle and let the warships dock at the nearest beach, put down the soldiers, and then return to fight!"

Of course, the following words cannot be expressed in semaphores, so his flagship must take the lead in setting an example for other warships to follow. So after giving the order, the flagship sailed straight towards the coast.

The Dionia Clipper, which was cruising on the southeast side of the fleet to explore, actually did not know the approaching fleet. However, as the opponent's warships continued to approach, the formation slowly unfolded, the sails lowered, and the oars began to slide faster, this But the standard fleet preparation process before entering the battle, of course, is undoubtedly the enemy.

It turned out that this fleet did not come from Carthage, but from the Phoenician region in the Eastern Mediterranean.Since the storm destroyed Carthage's navy, the Carthaginians have completely lost their maritime superiority. The Dionysian Sicilian fleet is rampant on the sea, not only trying to cut off the connection between Carthage and Sicily, but also beginning to threaten Carthage's base. The city's maritime trade.At this critical moment of life and death, while Carthage was stepping up its efforts to build new warships, it also thought of its mother state.

(End of this chapter)