ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 491 The Battle of Crotone ([-])

Nearly 200 panicked sailors rushed to the deck and heard a loud "boom". The entire warship was shaking and shaking, and the sailors fell down one after another amid the screams.

A large hole was seen in the middle side of the right side of the Dionian warship. The bow of the enemy ship revealed its ferocious appearance from the hole, followed by a surging seawater.

The enemy ship's momentum did not stop, and it continued to cut forward, widening the breach again. The powerful forward force actually caused the Dionia warship to move several meters.

The Dionian paddlers knew that the shipwreck was inevitable and jumped into the sea one after another.

Poor Melisander had just climbed onto the ship and had to jump into the sea again holding her long shield.

He heard the sailors floating on the sea complaining: "Why didn't there be a fast boat to block the cover for us?!"

In fact, more than half of Dionia's 30 clippers have been lost due to exhaustion.

When Leptiles let the untrained heavy infantry hide in the captain again, he had already estimated that the Syracusans would not have the upper hand in the battle on the ship, but this time the three layers of the Syracuse navy There were nearly 50 more oar warships than the opponent, so he decisively adopted the "circuit navigation" tactic, taking advantage of the large number of ships to surround him from the outside with the extra warships.When both the enemy and the enemy are fighting against each other, they can take the opportunity to enter the battlefield and ram the immobile enemy ships.

If it was in the last naval battle, the legionnaires on the Dionian warship could quickly deal with the enemy ship, allowing their own warship to quickly retract the drawbridge and rejoin the battle.But this time the increased heavy infantry on the Syracuse warship greatly prolonged the battle time after the legionnaires boarded the ship, thus providing an opportunity for the intruding Syracuse warship.

After nearly ten Dionian warships were sunk and damaged one after another, the rest of the warships also realized that the situation was not good. Before the legionnaires solved the enemy ships, they took back the Crow Suspension Bridge one after another and began to engage in real battles with the enemy. During the battle at sea, they did not dare to use the drawbridge to hook each other, because there were no legionnaires on the warships (they were fighting on enemy ships), so they took the time to unload the crow drawbridge.

The Syracuse warship has more experience in naval battles and the sailors cooperate more tacitly, but because it carries more soldiers, it is inferior in speed and flexibility; the Dionian warship lacks ship-to-ship combat experience , but because they had released their soldiers and had an advantage in speed, the situation on both sides was somewhat opposite to the last naval battle.

Warships from both sides looked for opportunities on the sea, chasing, circling, sprinting, and ramming...

From time to time, the wood pulp of warships was broken, warships were damaged, or even sank...

As time went by, Syracuse began to be at a disadvantage in the head-on battle between ships.After all, once disconnected, there are more warships in the Dionian fleet that can participate in the battle than Syracuse's warships, often leaving the Syracuse warships in a bad one-on-two situation.

Leptinius, who was at the rear and was not involved in the battle, learned about the fleet's situation through the lookout on the ship. He was very anxious and a little flustered: Is it going to happen again this time? !

At this time, the lookout shouted from above: "A fleet is coming from behind!"

A fleet coming from the south?Is it ours? !Leptinius knew that Dionysius had not sent an order to the city of Syracuse to mobilize the warships in the great harbor, but he was still eagerly looking forward to it.

But after a while, his expectations were shattered by the lookout's cry: "It's a black warship! A black warship!"

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Finally arrived!Looking at the fierce naval battle ahead, Midolades breathed a sigh of relief.

Before departure, Certorian and other admirals had already formulated a plan for this naval battle: because they were worried that the Syracuseans would see their fleet as too large and too powerful and avoid the battle, so everyone decided after discussion to move the fleet together. Divided into two, the squadron of more than 60 Syracuse triple-layer propeller warships captured last time was led by Midorades. After setting off from the port of Thurii, it headed southeast to avoid Si. The Lacuza clipper's reconnaissance circled a large semicircle and met up with the main fleet heading south along the coast led by Seclian in Siliting.

But what they didn't expect was that the Syracuse fleet originally stationed at the port of Siliting had moved to Crotone this morning. The Midorades squadron, which had not received timely information, arrived at Siliting and found that they were attacking. Empty.

Midorades made a prompt decision and turned the fleet back, finally discovering the two warring parties on the sea near Crotone.

Midorades gave an order, and the squadron quickly entered the battle, attacking from both sides, sounding the final death knell for the Syracuse fleet!

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Dionysius, who watched the entire naval battle from the port lighthouse, turned livid at the end and turned around to step down without saying a word.

Phoebus, who was walking at the end, continued to look at the maritime battlefield that was coming to an end in the distance, but what he thought in his heart was: Dionia's novel naval battle method is quite suitable for Sparta. Go back Do you want to make suggestions to the Council of Elders?
As for Dionia's continuous victory in naval battles, it may have a relatively large impact on the battle situation in Magna Graecia, changing the balance of strength between Dionia and Syracuse.He is happy to see this, because the Western Mediterranean still needs a city-state alliance that can check and balance Syracuse, and he has a premonition that Syracuse's attack on Dionia on land will be more fierce...

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The naval battle has ended, but it is different from the relatively clean maritime battlefield at the end of the last naval battle. At this time, the sea near Crotone is filled with scattered wooden oars, broken ship planks, broken warships that are about to sink, and floating boats. There were heavy dead bodies, and countless sailors and soldiers struggling in the water calling for help.

The Dionians drove the damaged warships back and forth on the sea, began to rescue the Dionian sailors and soldiers who fell into the water, and arranged them as much as possible on the warships captured by the legionnaires.

Before setting off, Davos had reminded Seclian, "After the victory of the naval battle, if conditions permit, try to rescue the Syracuse people who fell into the water." 'So the Dionian Navy also extended a helping hand to them, but after boarding the ship, they would be tied up and detained.

Some Syracuseans were relatively close to the shore when they fell into the water, so they refused to receive assistance and swam desperately to the shore.In this regard, the Dionians will change their attitude and drive a warship to crush them directly...

The cleaning and rescue work on the entire battlefield continued until dusk, when the brilliance of the setting sun dyed the warships on the sea orange, and Sekerian gave the order to "return".

In the huge Dionia fleet, the captured Syracuse warship is located in the center, and the Dionia warship is on the periphery.Although the sailors were tired, their joy of victory made their trumpets resound across the sea. In the melodious flute sound, they pushed and pulled the wooden oars forcefully, and the fleet slowly sailed north...

Sekerian looked back at the battlefield where he had fought fiercely. The thrilling scene of his ship being nearly hit by an enemy ship came to mind, which made him feel excited at the moment.His sight moved to the far distance, where the sky connected with the sea, and it was vast...

A surge of pride arose in his heart, and he shouted excitedly to the captain: "From now on, we have the final say on this sea!"

In this naval battle, except for the more than 40 triremes led by Leptinius, which escaped into the Crotone port in time, the remaining warships of the Syracuse fleet were either sunk or captured.

The Deolian fleet had 23 crow warships sunk, more than ten more were damaged, 68 Syracuse triremes were captured, and nearly 1 Syracuse sailors were captured.

What made Dionysius most angry was that only more than 9000 of the 2000 Syracuse heavy infantry he sent returned. Most of the soldiers either died in battle or drowned in the sea and were captured by the Dionysian fleet. With thousands of people, it can be said that they not only lost the naval battle, but also lost the land battle.Of course, Dionia's First Army also suffered more than 2000 casualties.

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The Dionysian army did not stop when they arrived at the city of Castellon. The chief general Amycles and the city-state senior officials were waiting in front of the wooden bridge built by Heraclid the Younger for Castellon. The Dionian army saw off and at the same time sent more than 1000 Castellon soldiers and a hundred cavalry to join the expedition as a duty to the allies.

Although the Dionian army hurried to the road, Davos still rushed to the wooden bridge, thanked Castron's leadership, and then exchanged a few words, and some potential unhappiness dissipated in laughter.

Since the First Legion went to the Dionian Fleet, the front line of the entire team was led by the Second Legion.Although Amyntas was brave in battle, as the commander of the Second Legion, he must be responsible for the safety of the entire legionnaire at this moment, so after crossing the Trionto River, he increased the marching column to ten columns. And the middle row is light infantry.Although the Dionian Second Army had not yet fought against the Syracuse mercenary cavalry, Amyntas did not take it lightly due to Daves' reminder.

In the past few years, due to the extensive development of the Dionysians, the swamp area of ​​​​the Racoeli River has not only disappeared in large quantities, but has also begun to transform into high-quality plains, and the population has also increased sharply.But what the legionnaires saw today were the ruins of several villages along the road.

The sailors of the Syracuse Naval Landing invaded Union territory so far!While the legionnaires were surprised, they were also angry at the enemy's atrocities: Fortunately, the Syracuse Navy had been defeated in the previous naval battle and could no longer harm Dionia's territory, but there were still those damn mercenary cavalry!

　Thanks to Tianlin 1993, Zhan Billy, and handsome Xida Pang. Can you please give me more rewards!Your support is my biggest motivation for writing! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)