Rome must fall.

Chapter 345 Water Battle (Continued)

The riverbank fell into silence, and Iberus began to feel lucky: when he led his team to escape, these special forces did not appear, otherwise...

"Chief, should we wait any longer? The enemy has cavalry, and it may be difficult for them to escape back!" The sailors on the ship couldn't help but persuade him.

Iberus was still hesitating when the oarsman standing at the bow suddenly shouted, "Captain, there is a fleet heading towards us!"

Iberus was startled. He jumped to the side of the oarsman in two steps. Sure enough, he saw several boats appearing at the bend in the river ahead. The boats were full of people and were going downstream towards the riverbank...

"The Nyx have a fleet!..." Iberus opened his mouth in astonishment.

After the Nixes occupied the main fortress of Segestica, he had sent ships upstream several times to explore the hinterland, but he had never found any trace of the Nixes' fleet. Although he was afraid of being intercepted and suffering losses, the ships he sent did not boldly sail near the main fortress. But if the Nixes had formed a fleet, shouldn't they patrol the river every day and be familiar with the water conditions? But the exploration ships he sent out never encountered it once! Is this just a fleet put together at random? But why did they come so quickly? ! ……

Iberus certainly didn't know that in order to protect the wooden bridge, the Knicks fleet had been training and patrolling in the river section near the wooden bridge since its formation.

Regardless of whether the fleet coming towards them was temporarily assembled or had been formed long ago... the situation on Iberus' side was that more than 400 tribesmen occupied more than 4 ships, with an average of only people on each ship, which was not suitable for naval battles. However, the situation was urgent and there was no time to replace them.

Iberus quickly ordered: "Everyone, drive the boats away from the river bank immediately and retreat to Lake Gonam!"

Facing the enemy's attack, the Iberus tribesmen performed poorly on land, but they were relatively calm on the Sava River. They did not rush to get on the road, but instead left the riverbank one by one in an orderly manner...

Soon, Iberus' fleet formed a long column, close to the east bank of the Sava River, and went downstream.

At this moment, Knicks' fleet also caught up, but did not approach the Iberus fleet, but was twenty or thirty meters away.

The two fleets were like two parallel lines on the river, extending southward, except that the Iberus fleet was in front and the Knyx fleet was behind.

However, the Knicks fleet sailed faster and gradually caught up, because they had more crew members on each ship and the sailors were paddling desperately.

It seemed that the leading ship of the Knicks fleet was about to catch up with the ship of Iberus at the front.

Iberus was not panicked. After observing this section of waterway, he had thought it through clearly: the Knicks fleet had fewer ships than his own, but the enemy had more people on each ship while his own had fewer people. They would definitely not be able to compete in a speed contest, but having fewer people also had advantages. The ship was light and flexible in changing direction, and his own people were all good at manipulating the ship. If the enemy was willing to expend their energy and row hard, then let them row. But if they wanted to overtake to the front and block his fleet, or wanted to get close to his ships to fight, then the people could use the water flow to flexibly control the ship, avoid the attack of the enemy ship, and escape from the enemy's blockade... By the time they arrived at Lake Gonammy, the enemy's physical strength would probably be almost exhausted, and then it would be a good opportunity for everyone to fight back.

Although Iberus was unable to convey his orders to the ships behind him, the fact that his ship maintained its course and sailed along the current was equivalent to telling the tribesmen behind him his decision, so Iberus's fleet remained unchanged, allowing the Nix crew to row desperately...

Iberus watched without blinking as the enemy ship on his right side passed him, but strangely, the ship did not turn in front of him, but continued to move forward parallel to him. The enemy sitting on the bow pointed at him and said something, and then he saw the two people who were originally sitting idly in the middle of the boat raised their hands in his direction.

Since the ships used by the Nix fleet were different from those of Iberus and his men, they were about the same length but had wider hulls. They were once mainly used to travel between the two banks and transport goods in the core area of ​​Segestica. After the Nix confiscated them and organized them into a fleet, this time they arranged ten people on each ship. In addition to the sailor and helmsman, and six rowers on both sides, there were two people sitting empty in the middle... So Iberus thought that the enemy ships were bulky and could not be intercepted.

At this time, the two Nyx people in the middle of the boat were holding a wooden object in their hands, but in the center of the wood was a shiny black point, which made Iberus feel palpitations.

Before he could remind the crew, he saw the two men's hands shaking.

He subconsciously dodged, but the distance of more than 20 meters was too close. He immediately felt a sharp pain in his left chest. A crossbow arrow pierced deeply into his chest, and he fell on his back in the boat.

At the same time, the helmsman of the ship was also shot in the face by a crossbow arrow and fell into the river. Then, the crossbowmen in other Nix ships also fired crossbow arrows at the enemy.

The helmsmen of the Iberus fleet were shot down one after another, and the ships lost control for a while, crashing into each other and causing chaos...

Based on decades of sailing experience, the crew of Lake Gonamay knew that river battles were ship-to-ship collisions, boarding, and fighting on boats, which relied on boat handling skills, the crew's water ability and courage, and were all close-range combat. They never expected that the Knicks fleet changed its combat mode and placed crossbowmen on board for long-range sniping, so they were caught off guard.

The helmsman of a ship was shot down, and the other crew members hurried to take his place, but were then shot down by the crossbowmen who were reloading the crossbows... There were only four or five people on the ship in total, and after two rounds of shooting, there were no more people left on the ship.

The attack of the Nix fleet was swift and deadly. The Iberus fleet was trapped without any resistance. Except for a few people who jumped into the water and escaped, the remaining survivors had no choice but to surrender...

..............................................................................

"Report to the leader, Amphirtaus, the captain of the Sava River fleet, sent a fast horse to bring a victory message. He led his fleet to fight with the Pannonian fleet on the river and won a great victory! More than 200 Pannonian sailors were captured, including the seriously injured Pannonian fleet leader Iberus. All the enemy's warships, a total of 103 ships, were captured, and they did not suffer any losses themselves!
That means Amphirtaas led the fleet to annihilate the enemy fleet! Leader, the battle report from the Third Legion said that nearly half of the enemies escaped the ambush and escaped to the ship. I was worried that they would run away, but now I am relieved! "Frantinus smiled happily.

"We were worried before that our fleet could not defeat these Segestica boat people who have been rampant on Lake Gonami for many years. Now it seems that although Amphitheatre is commanding a naval battle for the first time, his ability is still very good. You can rest assured, Ministry of War!" Maximus also praised with a smile.

Today, Maximus and several officers from the Ministry of War gathered in the main hall, waiting for the results of the various troops' counterattacks against the enemy invasion, and also to discuss and formulate new battle plans in time in case of accidents, so as to prevent the enemy from causing great losses to the territory. Now the results of several battles have finally gone smoothly as planned, so the atmosphere in the hall has become relaxed and cheerful.

Quintus also said with a relaxed expression: "Captain, the victory of Amphitheatre's fleet was of course inseparable from his excellent command! However, if the Nix Barracks and Village No. 123 had not successively lit smoke warnings, Amphitheatre would not have been able to lead the fleet to arrive in time.

The fleet was able to win a great victory without any damage, and the crossbowmen must have played a major role in it. If you, the leader, did not approve the crossbowmen to join the fleet——"

"Quintus, you have learned to speak well now." Maximus reminded with a smile: "After all your talk, don't forget that we were able to easily thwart the enemy's harassment plan and prevent our new territory from suffering losses, all thanks to Gillicus' accurate intelligence!"

Gillicus was also in the hall. He was now the chief of the tribal military intelligence department and one of the heads of the Ministry of War. Moreover, the military intelligence department had promptly discovered the Pannonian attack on the new territory of the Nixes, so he had also received Maximus' invitation to this military meeting.

For Gilicus, this was his first time to attend a military meeting of the Nix tribe. Facing the three military chiefs who had followed Chief Maximus from the beginning and made countless contributions, especially Quintus and Frontinus, Gilicus, who was born a surrendered man and had only been in the Nix tribe for two months, sat obediently in the back, silent like a little transparent.

When he heard Maximus mention him, Gilicus humbly said, "Captain, you are flattering me. This is the responsibility of our Military Intelligence Department."

"The Military Intelligence Department established by the Chief is great! Gillicus is the chief officer and has done an excellent job! In such a short period of time, he was able to establish what you called an intelligence network in the Gomi Lake area and the Brochi territory, and he was able to put it into use right away and obtain such accurate and important intelligence. It was completely beyond my expectation!"

Although Quintus was usually low-key, he was actually very proud in his heart. However, his undisguised praise of Gillicus was because this counterattack had made him deeply aware of the importance of the leader's newly established Military Intelligence Department to the General Staff.

Gillicus was somewhat flattered by the sincere praise from his immediate superior. He said modestly: "Because the Brochi people and the Segestica people of Lake Gonammy were too careless, the talents of our intelligence department were able to pretend to be fleeing Segestica refugees and blend in with the refugees stranded in Lake Gonammy and Brochi...

Moreover, they were planning to launch a sneak attack on our tribe without any attempt to conceal it. That Prikas was recruiting warriors in the refugee camp, and Iberus was gathering a fleet and training in Lake Gonam for several days... My men only needed to use some tricks to get information out of these sailors and warriors who were going out to fight."

"Indeed, the Pannoni tribe's loose and backward military organization and management are like a sieve with holes everywhere in the face of our targeted investigations, and they can't keep any secrets. However, your Military Intelligence Department can not only obtain accurate information about the enemy's sneak attack, but also the method of transmitting intelligence is very clever. This is really admirable!" Quintus continued to praise.

(End of this chapter)