ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 959: Pincer attack before and after the sea battle of Saros
"Woo!..." The bugle sounded, and two long cloth ribbons, one red and one black, quickly fluttered on the top of the flag on the main mast of the flagship.

The other warships also saw the warning flag ahead. At this time, the flagship sent out an attack message again. The originally dull fleet suddenly began to become lively. The captain's orders, the lookout's reminders, and the sailors' trumpets continued from there. The news came out from each warship, causing the formation of the entire fleet to begin to change.

The Third Fleet is no longer a column of four-way warships, but rapidly expands forward and to both wings. The distance between the ships in the horizontal column is widened, while the distance between the ships in the column is narrowed. The formation of the entire fleet From the original long snake, it turned into a wild goose with wings spread. The warships of the Third Fleet, which had been established for nearly ten years, were arranging the formation at an extremely skillful and tacit speed. At the same time, they were also constantly shortening their distance from the Carthage on the opposite side. Fleet distance.

At this time, sitting on the flagship of the Carthaginian fleet was the Carthaginian naval commander Annobas. The appearance of the Dionian fleet in this sea area surprised him: Could it be that the Dionians saw through our plan to lure the enemy? ? !

"Sir, should we stay out of the way for now?" the flagship captain asked cautiously.

Annobas looked ahead, pondered for a moment, and then said decisively: "Although it is somewhat inconsistent with our plan, the Dionysians are still in an unfavorable situation. As long as we intercept them, the final victory must belong to us!"

"Sir, but can Admika and the others arrive in time..." The captain's words were cryptic.

But Annobas understood what he meant and said in a deep voice: "This naval battle is very important to Carthage! It is also very important to Lord Mago! Admika must understand its importance, and he will do his best to Go!"

Having said that, Annobas issued an order loudly: "Form a circular formation, prepare to fight!"

After the order was given, Annobas looked up at the scorching sun above his head with disgust, got up and went down to the cabin.

In order to save time and build more warships, the shipyards of Carthage and its allies temporarily gave up the construction of four-row warships and large flagships, so the flagship Annobus was riding was only a three-row warship. The ship was modified and there was no ship building, which made him feel a little uncomfortable.

The circle formation is a defensive ship formation. The warships are arranged in a circle. The warships are closely spaced. Only the bow of the ship faces outward, and the sides and rear are protected by one's own warships. It is like a shrinking ship. The hedgehogs formed into a ball with spikes erect, leaving the attacking enemy ships nowhere to eat.

Although the circular formation has the disadvantage of making the warships in the formation move slowly, its super defensive power is exactly what Annobas needs at this moment. After all, he experienced the last battle with the Dionysian Sicilian fleet. In the sea battle, I was still worried about the attack power of the Dionian warship, so I wanted to use a circular formation to delay the time, waiting for the arrival of a favorable fighter opportunity.

However, compared with other ship formations, the circular formation is not only much more difficult to arrange, but also takes a longer time.Just when the Carthaginian warships received the order from the flagship and began to gather towards the Carthage flagship under the command of the captains, the Dionia Third Fleet had already begun to launch an attack.

All the warships of the Third Fleet have lowered their sails, and the Crow warships have also been mounted on the drawbridge. After hearing the order to attack, all the sailors fell into excitement and quickly stuffed the rations they carried into their mouths. While chewing, he listened to the orders of the boatswain and the flute player, controlled the oars, and continuously increased the oar speed.

At this moment, the lookout on the main mast of the flagship shouted in panic: "General, there is a warning for warships in the rear! Double yellow flags! There are enemy ships appearing, and the number of ships is about the same as ours!"

Midorades's heart tightened, and some doubts in his heart were suddenly solved: Why did the Carthaginian merchant ships not flee along the coast, but to run to the dangerous open sea?Why are these Carthaginian merchant ships, seemingly loaded with cargo, able to maintain high speeds and possess superb ship-handling skills? ...This is the plan of the Carthage fleet!They had warships ambushing us in the distant sea, and used merchant ships to lure us there. When we were fighting, another fleet came from behind, attacking from both sides. In addition, fighting in the distant sea was not conducive to the performance of the Crow warship. The third fleet is likely to suffer a disastrous defeat!

Midorades felt scared, but he was thankful that his last failure had kept him vigilant.

"General, what should we do?! Do we want the First Squadron behind us to turn around and go to intercept it?!" the captain asked nervously.

Facing a crisis, perhaps he was lucky to have escaped. Midorades' mind was particularly clear at the moment. He shook his head and said in a deep voice: "The enemy's combined number of warships is nearly twice that of our own warships. Divide your forces and fight." It will only further weaken our offensive power... Now the enemy in the rear has just been discovered and is at least three miles away from us, while the enemy in the front is already close at hand——"

He paused for a moment, his eyes became determined, and his tone suddenly became harsh: "Raise two more red flags! All warships are not allowed to make any stops, and they all rush forward!"

Three red and one black strips of cloth fluttered on the top of the main mast of the flagship. For other warships who had seen the warning on the rear warship before, it eliminated the hesitation and hesitation in their hearts. For the warships approaching the enemy's formation in front, This is a shot in the arm: attack!Attack again!Fight to the end!
Inspired by the boatswain, each sailor's fighting spirit was high, and the speed of the oars soared, so that every warship shot towards the Carthaginian formation like an arrow from the string.

The Crow warship was rushing towards the enemy ship. When the two ships were very close to each other, the sailors immediately put away the oars. The warship slid forward by inertia under the control of the helmsman. The controller on the deck held tightly Turning the axle of the suspension bridge, when the two ships were about to collide, the operator pressed the handle, and the suspension bridge quickly fell toward the bow of the other ship. With a "boom" sound, the sterns of both ships jumped upward at the same time. The sailors in the cabin They all staggered around and fell into pieces.

The fleet infantry in the Crow Warship worked hard to control their bodies, rushed from the cabin to the deck, and quickly rushed across the drawbridge.There were only a few soldiers and archers on the opposing warship. Facing the fully armed fleet infantry, the resistance of the Carthaginian sailors was destined to be a tragedy.

When screams came from the front from time to time, Annobas suddenly realized that he had made a huge mistake: the circle formation was indeed the best warship defense formation, but it was against people who also controlled conventional triremes. The enemy of warships, and what he is now facing is the Dionian navy, which is good at connecting ships with suspension bridges and engaging in gang-hopping operations. The ships are arranged in a circular formation and are inconvenient to move, but they have become the target of the opponent's wanton attacks.

Annobas regretted it so much at this moment that he vented his resentment on the captain: "Why didn't you remind me just now?!"

The captain was speechless because, like Annobas, he had been influenced by traditional naval tactics for a long time. When he suddenly encountered an enemy just now, he would instinctively choose the most appropriate tactics to deal with it. In other words, he Just now, I felt that the strategy adopted by Annobas was correct, so I did not express any objection, but they completely forgot that they were encountering an enemy who did not fight according to conventional naval tactics at all.Mainly because Annobas and the others had only fought once with the Dionian Navy, and were not very impressed with the tactics of their fleet.

"Quick! Quick! Blow the retreat bugle! Let each warship take shelter!" Annobas shouted angrily.

The captain was stunned: "Sir, can't we hold on for a while?! Admika and the others may arrive soon!"

"By the time Admika arrives, our fleet will probably be finished!" Annobas roared angrily, completely forgetting what he had just said before. Since the Dionia fleet was in front of him, he was here At that time, I didn’t know that Admika was leading a fleet to rush over.

The Carthage Navy is not like the Dionysian Navy. After Davos's suggestions, it developed a complex semaphore system that can convey orders clearly and in a timely manner. However, the Carthage Navy, which has been at sea for hundreds of years, also has its own A method of conveying orders at sea.

The 10 buglers on the flagship deck blew the retreat horn at the same time, and the rapid trumpet sound spread out in all directions.

Although the Carthage fleet's circular formation was not completely completed, the warships were moving closer to the flagship, just enough to hear the trumpet sound clearly.However, it is impossible to execute this order immediately and have the entire fleet retreat immediately, because this is a circular formation, and the outer warships must retreat first to make space before the inner warships can retreat.

However, the warships of the Dionian 3rd Fleet quickly pressed forward across the board, and in a short period of time they were in full contact with half of the periphery of the Carthage circular formation.

Under the rapid attack of the Dionian warships, it is not easy to achieve a smooth retreat. The warships now at the forefront saw that the friendly ships in front of them were being hooked by the enemy ship's drawbridge one after another, and then Dai The soldiers of the Onian fleet rushed to the deck like wolves and tigers, and then screamed. The Carthaginian crew were all frightened, fearing that they would follow in their footsteps. The sound of the retreat horn made them relieved, and they all turned around and retreated, which caused the The internal space of the narrow circular formation became even narrower, affecting the retreat speed of the warships.

At this moment, Annobas, who was full of regrets, suddenly stopped complaining and said uncertainly to the captain of the flagship: "I seem to have heard our attack horn!"

The captain was stunned and immediately listened.

At this time, the lookout on the mast shouted loudly: "A fleet appeared behind the Dionia fleet! It's our fleet! Lord Admika has arrived!"

Annobas swept away his previous depression. Admika, whom he used to hate and despise, now became his most popular object. He shouted excitedly: "Admika did a good job! Hurry! Order the warships quickly." Stop retreating! Attack the enemy immediately!"

(End of this chapter)