ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 980 The Sicilian Squadron’s response

Because there is Hilla Island on the east side, these three Dionian warships must go around it before retreating. In this way, the sides and stern of the ship are exposed to enemy attacks. Perhaps the fast warships can escape. Attack, but the two clumsy crow warships may not be able to escape their fate. In such a dangerous situation, the three warships unanimously chose to stay and fight.

Morbar originally thought that the three Dionian warships would choose to retreat because of such a disparity in strength, but the other side actually chose to stay and fight. He sighed at the strong fighting morale of the Dionian navy, so he changed his mind. , instead of commanding the flagship to follow the two fleets, he chose to stay with the other 19 warships. Although he had learned a lot about the Dionian Navy from many people before, now he wanted to see it with his own eyes. What is the combat level and tactical characteristics of the Dionian warship?

Next, the actions taken by the Dionian warships once again made him frown, because they did not attack blindly, but quickly gathered together and retreated to the coast of Hilla Island. The two crow warships were closer to the front. It is in the shape of an inverted "eight", and the fast warship is located behind and in the middle. The shape is like a lobster that has poked out of its cave and stretched out two large mastiffs. Since there are islands behind as a barrier, they only need to deal with the front. A threat from the side.

This shows that the Dionysian navy not only has high morale, but is also well-trained, cooperative, and has a high level of tactical awareness! ...Morbar's face was solemn.

The Carthaginian warships began to attack: first, the two warships circled the sides of the two Crow warships and sprinted. The Crow warship deflected its bow sideways and rearward, making the two warships dare not move rashly. ; But the Crow Warship deflected outwards, which inevitably exposed more of their inner hulls, so two more Carthaginian warships quickly aimed at the inner hull of the Crow Warship. For the Crow Warship For example, if it moves the bow inward, it will inevitably expose the outer hull to the collision angle of the other two warships. This is a dilemma.

At this moment, the captain of the fast warship shouted to the crow warships on both sides: "I-in the middle!"

After saying that, the sailors on the ship tried their best to speed up the oars. The fast warship quickly changed from stationary to sprinting forward. Because its bow was not facing any enemy ship, but wanted to pass through the middle of the two ships. However, this caused the captains of the two Carthaginian warships to have an illusion, thinking that the enemy was seeing a bad situation and was preparing to take advantage of the opportunity to escape.

It was too late to say it, and it was fast at that time. The bosun of the fast warship heard the captain shouting on the deck: "Turn left! Go horizontal! Quick! Quick!"

The boatswain was stunned: By doing this, wouldn't he completely expose his hull to the enemy ships outside? !
But he immediately understood the captain's intention, his eyes turned red, and he shouted in a hissing voice: "Turn left... crosswise!"

Although the sailors had doubts, years of hard training allowed them to quickly execute the order.

At this moment, the two Crow warships moved inward at the same time, immediately compressing the dodge space of the two Carthage warships on the inside.When the surrounding Carthaginian warships realized the danger, they immediately attacked the three Dionysian warships.

However, the Dionian warships did not dodge. The two crow suspension bridges fell on the deck of the Carthaginian warship inside. The fleet infantry quickly rushed across the suspension bridge. At the same time, the sailors were under the boatswain's hand. Under the urging, they reluctantly left the cabin, went to the deck, and watched with tears in their eyes the Carthaginian warships rushing towards their warships: most of them were survivors of that sea storm. With a new warship, the first battle will be to sink...

Three Dionian warships were hit by Carthaginian warships one after another. The crew members jumped into the sea one after another, and the fleet infantry quickly chopped down the few Carthaginian infantry on the deck and rushed into the bottom cabin. For the panicked Carthaginian oarsmen, this time the fleet infantry stabbed them to death one by one without mercy.

The screams of the Carthaginian crew resounded across the sea, and the other Carthaginian captains were moved. They all told Morbar: Send all the deck soldiers on the warships to these two ships. Defeat the Dionian soldiers and save the oarsmen on the ship.

Morbar flatly refused. He had already seen life and death, and he didn't care much about the lives of these three or four hundred lowly Carthaginian and Phoenician oarsmen. He didn't want these warships to waste time for this. And judging from the current situation, sending all the deck soldiers may not necessarily be able to defeat these well-trained Dionian fleet infantry.

Until now, the surprise in his heart has not dissipated: with his own side having an absolute advantage, the three Dionian warships seized their own warships and quickly and decisively adopted effective tactics when they were still testing. At the moment when the rabbit rises and the falcon falls, two warships were successfully captured!

The outstanding performance of the Dionian warship made him shudder and felt very uneasy, so he did not hesitate to issue the order to "sink his own warship".

I saw that when the warship was hit, dozens of Dionian soldiers holding daggers and leather shields quickly rushed onto the deck, jumped into the blood-stained water, and swam to the beach not far away with ease. ...While Morbar was surprised, he knew that the Carthaginian sailors on Shira Island would probably be in big trouble.

But he has no time to take care of this at the moment. He must immediately lead these warships into the battle against the lured Dionian fleet and destroy as many Dionian warships as possible in order to live up to these Carthaginian warships. The sacrifice of the base merchant ship.

The Dionian warships scattered on both sides of Hilla Island were also besieged by the superior force of the Carthage fleet. They also resisted tenaciously to delay the Carthage fleet's eastward sweep.

In the small area of ​​​​sea between several islands, with the Stefankas flagship as the center, warships are gradually gathering...

When Morbal led the fleet around Hira Island, Stefakas, who only gathered more than 30 warships, did not hesitate to attack the Carthaginian fleet, which had far more warships than his own.

Morbar had already realized the terrifying advantages of the Dionysian fleet in the overall tactical cooperation and gang-hopping operations in his previous viewings, and a small ring was formed between Hilla Island and the islands on the east side. There is not enough space in the sea area for the Carthaginian warships to make large-scale maneuvers. On the contrary, it is conducive to the greater use of the unique tactics of the Dionia fleet. After finally gaining a huge local advantage, Morbar, of course, Unwilling to fight head-on like this, he issued the order to "sweep the outside of the island first, eliminate the scattered Dionian warships, and finally gnaw away the hard bone in the center."

Of course, Morbar also hopes to see the enemy in the center continue to pursue them and sail away from this narrow sea area. Then the Carthage fleet will not hesitate to concentrate all its efforts to destroy it.

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The Carthaginian fleet led by Barikos followed a zigzag route, trying to keep a close distance from the Dionian fleet.

The main fleet led by Sekerian pursued them relentlessly, especially the fast warships that gradually approached and sank many merchant ships.Another 10 fast warships, under the command of Cykerian, did not follow closely behind like other warships, but sailed directly to the port of Lilibi at the fastest speed, cutting off the return path of the Carthaginian fleet. , gradually formed an encirclement.

When Barikos saw an enemy ship intercepting the front, he did not panic, but issued a crazy order: "Turn around!"

In a completely headwind situation, the boat that had just turned around had almost no speed. It relied entirely on the exquisite control of the helmsman and oarsmen to narrowly avoid the Dionian battle that had to move forward under the action of inertia. The other Carthaginian merchant ships did the same, but in the process, at least seven merchant ships were rammed and sunk.

The crew of Dionia were not happy because the remaining Carthaginian merchant ships broke through their encirclement again, which was a silent humiliation of the Dionia navy.

The Dionysian warships turned around to pursue, but Barricos and the others actually turned the bows again, facing east, and the sails turned to the right. With the help of the southwest wind, they clung to the Dionysian warships and staggered past them.

At this time, the crew members on the Dionia warship were already blushing and thick-necked with anger, and even some fleet infantry on the Crow warship actually threw their daggers directly at the Carthaginians on the merchant ship approaching them.

Barikos led more than 30 merchant ships through the gap between the Dionian warships, sailed directly to the coast not far away, then followed the coastline, turned around and sailed south.

Seclian was dumbfounded. He didn't expect the Carthaginians to pull this trick: That's the coast!The Carthaginian merchant ship was small and light, but the position it could operate in was likely to be stranded for a warship, and there were many rocks near the coast. The Carthaginians were familiar with the sea conditions here, but the Dionians were not very familiar with it. It is easy for warships to hit rocks and be damaged.

The Carthaginian merchant ship played with the Dionia Sicilian fleet between applause, which angered the self-confident Sekelian. In order to restore the honor of the navy, he vowed to sink these daring enemies today.

While he sent a small number of warships to speed up to Mazara and Lilibi, other warships cruised near the coast between the two cities, always keeping an eye on these Carthaginian merchant ships. Unless they abandoned the ship and landed, the Sicilian fleet would Confronted with them like this, Sekerian even prepared to call back a few clippers and let them try to approach the Carthage merchant ship.

After a while, several clippers were ordered to arrive, and an extra ship brought urgent military information.

"Our squadron is being raided by the Carthaginian fleet in the north!" When Sekerian heard the news, the burning anger in his heart was instantly extinguished, and some of his doubts about the two previous Carthaginian fleets were instantly solved. But the anxiety is expanding rapidly: obviously this is a conspiracy planned by the Carthage Navy, and there must be sufficient preparations. The squadron is in a very dangerous situation!

At this time, Cykerian could not care about the Carthaginian fleet in front of him, which repeatedly challenged his dignity. He quickly recalled the warships scattered in the sea between Lilibei and Mazara, which took some time.

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Of course, Morbar did not forget the main Dionian fleet in the south. When Sekerian gathered the warships and headed north, he quickly got the news.

(End of this chapter)