ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 977 Carthage Grain Fleet

Unexpectedly, on the way to escape, they ran into the defeated troops escaping from the West City and realized that the West City Wall had been lost. Everyone was panicked and didn't know where to go for a while. Some people even cried bitterly: "It's over...Syracuse is over... …”

Suddenly someone shouted: "We can go to Ortygia!"

These words reminded the panicked MPs: Yes, we still have Ortygia Island!
As the birthplace of Syracuse and the acropolis of Syracuse, Ortigia was built into a strong fortress during the reign of Dionysius, and a palace was also built on the island.After Dionysius was overthrown, Herolis allowed the original inhabitants of Ortygia, who had been forcibly driven out by Dionysius, to return to the island.

Someone in the council once proposed that the city walls of Ortygia should be demolished to prevent it from becoming a place where ambitious politicians gather again.

But it was opposed by many people. The reason is: Ortygia Island, as the acropolis of Syracuse, should have strong defense. When the city of Syracuse is in danger, it will be a refuge for the people. .

Now this has come true!
When a riot broke out in Syracuse and Dionysius retreated to Ortygia, Herolis had an absolute advantage, but there was nothing he could do about him. In the end, it was the Spartans who deceived him out of Ortygia. Ortigia, so the island's defense is absolutely trustworthy, and most of the people on the island are descendants of the founders of Syracuse, and their loyalty to this city-state is trustworthy, so Ortygia is an ideal refuge. Place.

The councilors calmed down a bit, and while they gathered their broken troops and retreated to Ortygia (many soldiers refused to go to Ortygia because they were worried about their families), they also sent people to notify Falecus and Theagenis, hoping that They can hold on for a while longer, giving the people in the city a buffer time to retreat to Ortygia Island.In particular, the port area is very close to the isthmus. Once the enemy breaks through the inner wall, it is possible to cut off the isthmus.

The defense line of the inner wall was already shaky, but Falakus was really trying his best to support it.However, after Theagenis learned that the southern section of the western city wall had been lost, he did not continue to defend the city. Instead, he fled directly to the island of Ortygia with a few citizen soldiers who were willing to follow him.

The defenders on the east city wall also saw the fire in the city, and their reactions were almost the same as those on the west city wall.

The Dionian coalition finally broke through the defense of the east city wall, and as the commander, Zantiparis finally breathed a sigh of relief.You must know that compared with the main force of Dionia on the western front, the troops attacking the eastern city wall are all citizens of the Allies. Of course, they cannot obey orders, obey orders, and attack regardless of casualties like the soldiers of the Dionia Legion. It was to convince the generals of these allied armies to lead their respective troops to attack continuously that Zantiparis spent all his time. Therefore, the battle on the eastern front was not fierce, but it still held back thousands of defenders. This created conditions for the Dionian army to break through in other directions.

By dusk, the troops on the east and west fronts successfully joined forces in the Apollo Square in Syracuse.

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The main force led by Davos has always stayed in Minoa, and the troops led by Lizaru and Epithenes have also been staying in Enna, and they are reinforcing the city defense every day.

Under such a situation, Mago had nothing to do. Even if he wanted to attack one side, the shortage of food made him give up the idea. After five or six days of confrontation in Minoa, he finally led his army to retreat westward to Segas. tower.

After Davers received the news of the "Third Fleet's victory", he strengthened his determination to implement the strategy of "land defense and sea attack".

These days, new warships have been added to the Sicilian fleet one after another. The total number of warships has reached 320, and the main force has moved forward to the port of Selinus.

Every morning, Sekerian would lead his fleet to leave the port, sail to the west in a mighty manner, sweep the entire western coast of Sicily, and not return until dusk.Because he recently received information from King Davos: Recently, a large number of ships are gathering in the ports of Carthage and its surrounding Phoenician allies. At the same time, the city is also stepping up its efforts to raise food, and it is likely that it will send food to Carthage. Shipping grain to Sicily.

In the early morning of this day, it was raining lightly in the western sea area of ​​​​Sicily, and the sky was a bit dark. Although there was a breeze, the waves were not strong.

Sekerian, who returned to the commander-in-chief of the Sicilian fleet, learned the lessons from the last time. He specially hired several old sailors who had lived here for decades as consultants to provide him with analysis of the sea conditions and climate in this area. A definite judgment is made for once: it is unlikely that there will be big waves in the western sea today.

Therefore, although Seclian hesitated, he still let the Sicilian fleet leave the port as usual and head west along the coast.

Due to the rain, the sea was covered with mist, resulting in poor visibility. To prevent accidents, all warships slowed down, and the entire fleet of 280 warships maintained a dense formation (another 40 warships were anchored in Mino A simple port to meet the needs of the main force led by Daves).

Therefore, the voyage that usually only takes one hour now took two hours before the fleet reached the sea near Mazara and began to sail northwest.

At this time, the drizzle has stopped, the sky is getting brighter, the fog is gradually dissipating, the sky is clear, the sea is blue, stretching as far as the eye can see, and the breeze is blowing, making people feel relaxed and happy.

Sekerian was relieved and said to the two consultant sailors with a smile: "Your judgment is very accurate! You are worthy of being called a person who is favored by the Poseidon!"

These two old sailors from Selinus responded quickly and humbly. As Greek sailors, they had a low status in Selinus and relied on fishing and transporting goods for a living. How could they ever have the same status as those with high status and command hundreds of warships? The generals of the kingdom have an opportunity to talk to each other on an equal footing.

Seeing them nodding and hunching, Sekerian frowned, but said nothing. He turned to the captain of the ship and gave an order: "Notify the fleet to return to normal speed, send out clippers, and carefully search for targets on the sea."

Not long after, the speed of the entire fleet increased, and more than 10 clippers broke away from the large force and moved forward quickly.

A few ten minutes later, the clipper running at the front had already approached the sea surface of Lilibi. The lookout hand on the mast moved his numb hands and feet, lowered his head and shouted below: "Captain!"

When the clipper captain heard this, he immediately asked excitedly: "Is there any enemy situation?!"

The lookout wanted to say: "Is it time for rotation? I should let the next one replace me." But the captain's question made him subconsciously glance at the sea ahead again, and then he was stunned. , blinked, widened his eyes again, and stared ahead. After a moment, he also shouted excitedly: "There are enemy ships! One, two, three...many Carthage ships!"

"Sir Commander, the warship in front has raised a white flag!" The lookout on the main mast of the flagship saw the flag signal passed by the flagship of the squadron in front, and shouted excitedly: "It's two white flags! It's and An ordinary fleet with equal numbers of our warships!”

Seclian immediately understood the meaning of the rest, and he also became excited: the ordinary fleet encountered in this sea area could only be from Carthage. It seems that the information given by His Majesty is correct, and the Carthaginians are indeed here to transport Military rations!

He gave the order without hesitation: "Tell Stefankas to lead his squadron and sink all these Carthage cargo ships! If one of them escapes, let him accept military punishment!"

After receiving this order, the commander of the squadron, Stefankas, immediately showed great energy and ordered the warships of the squadron he commanded as the vanguard to spread out in a straight line and move quickly in the direction of discovering the enemy's situation.

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These more than 200 Carthaginian merchant ships lined up in two columns and were moving in the direction of Lilibei. On the leading merchant ship, a sailor was standing on the top of the mast and looking nervously ahead. Suddenly, he eagerly Shouted: "Old man, the Dionian warship... the Dionian warship is here!"

After saying that, he quickly slid down from the mast.

Unlike warships, merchant ships generally have only one mast, and it is located at the end of the bed. People are usually not allowed to stand on the top of the mast to look out.On the one hand, this is because merchant ships rely heavily on the propulsion of sails and are afraid of damaging the mast; on the other hand, standing on the mast for a long time can easily destroy the balance of the whole body and lead to accidents.But today's situation is special, and they need to know the movements of the Dionia fleet early.

"I think I'm really crazy, actually agreeing to Morbar, sailing a merchant ship to face the warship." The old captain with white hair did not appear nervous, but sighed.

Next to him was a helmsman with an equally wrinkled face who consoled him: "We are pretty good. Like Barikos, they even have to operate merchant ships and break into the ship array of Dionia. That's really crazy!" "

The old captain sighed again: "Who said that we were all Morbar's old subordinates. We have followed him for so many years and received a lot of help from him... Besides, the motherland is in trouble now. We old people who are about to die can Play a small role and provide some help to it. I believe that even if you die, it will be an honor for us!"

The old helmsman nodded sympathetically.

"Old man, don't miss the past! The Dionian warship is coming soon. Hurry up and sail the ship to the designated place according to the plan. It is too far from the coast. If the ship is sunk, we may not be able to swim. Get to the shore!" urged the young sailor who had just been watching from the mast.

"Don't worry, don't worry." The old captain said calmly, closed his eyes, and felt the wind direction attentively: "It seems that the wind is a little stronger."

(End of this chapter)