v8 Chapter 315： Carthage Grain Transport Fleet

Who knows that on the way to escape, I met the squadron who escaped from Xicheng, and I knew that the West Wall had fallen. Everyone was panicked. I didn’t know where to go. Some people even burst into tears: "It’s over... Syracuse is finished... ..."

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

This reminds the conspirators: Yes, we still have Ortigia!

As the birthplace of Syracuse and the acropolis of Syracuse, during the reign of Dionysius, the island of Ortigia was built into a strong fortress and a palace was built on the island. After Dionysius was overthrown, Herolis allowed the indigenous inhabitants of Ortigia, who had been forcibly evicted by Dionysius, to return to life on the island.

It was proposed by the council to dismantle the walls of Ortigia Island and prevent it from becoming a place where ambitions of politicians are once again entrenched.

However, it has been opposed by many people. The reason is that the island of Ortigia, as the acropolis of Syracuse, should have a strong defense. When the city of Syracuse is in distress, it will be a sanctuary for the people. .

Now this is fulfilled!

At the beginning, there was a riot in Syracuse. Dionysius retired to Ortigia. Helios had an absolute advantage, but he had no way to take him. He eventually deceived him by the Spartans. Tigia, so the defense on the island is absolutely trustworthy, and most of the people on the island are descendants of the city of Siracusa, and the loyalty to the city is also trustworthy, so the island of Ortigia is an ideal refuge. All.

The members of the parliament were slightly determined, and they gathered together to defeat the Otija Island (many soldiers refused to go to Ortigia because they were worried about their family), and sent people to inform Falekus and Taiagnis. They can stay on for a while and allow the people in the city to have time to retreat to the island of Ortigia. Especially the port area is very close to the isthmus. Once the enemy is broken through the inner wall, the isthmus may be cut off.

The defense of the inner wall is already crumbling, but Falekus is indeed trying to support it. However, after learning that the south section of the West Wall fell, Taigengens did not continue to defend in the city, but fled directly to the island of Ortigia with a few civic soldiers who were willing to follow him.

The defenders of the East Wall also saw the fire in the city, and their reaction was similar to that of the Xicheng defenders.

The Dionysian coalition finally broke the defense of the East Wall, and as the commander, Zantiparis finally breathed a sigh of relief. You must know that compared with the main force of the West Line, the army that attacks the East Wall is composed of allied citizens. Of course, they cannot obey orders, obey orders, and ignore casualties like the soldiers of the Daiyan Army. It is to persuade the generals of these several allied forces to lead their troops to the uninterrupted attack, so that Zandiparis has tried his best, so the battle on the Eastern Front is not intense, but it has always dragged thousands of defenders. Created conditions for the breakthrough of the Dionysian army in other directions.

At dusk, the troops on the East and West lines successfully met at the Apollo Plaza in the city of Syracuse.

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The main force led by Daves always clung to Minoa, and the army led by Lizzar and Epiphanis had been staying at Enna and strengthening the city defense every day.

In this situation, Marco couldn't do anything. Even if he wanted to attack the side, the shortage of food made him dismissed. After five or six days of confrontation in Minoa, he finally led the army to retreat west to Seghers. tower.

After receiving the news of the "third fleet victory", Davers further strengthened his determination to implement the strategy of "land defense, sea attack".

These days, new warships have been added to the Sicilian fleet. The total number of warships has reached 320, and its main force has been moved to the port of Serinus.

Every morning, Seklelyn led the fleet to leave the port, sailing to the west, sweeping across the western coast of Sicily, and returning after dusk. Because he recently received information from King Daves: Recently, a large number of ships are being concentrated in the ports of the Phoenician allies in and around Carthage, and the city is also stepping up to raise food, which is likely to Sicily transports grain.

In the early morning of this day, there was light rain in the western waters of Sicily. The sky was a bit dark. Although there was a breeze, the wind and waves were not big.

Seclelian, the re-elected commander of the Sicilian fleet, learned the last lesson. He specially hired several old sailors who have lived here for decades as consultants to provide him with an analysis of the sea conditions and climate of the sea. Make an affirmative judgment once: It is unlikely that there will be big storms in the western waters today.

Therefore, Seckley, though hesitant, still let the Sicilian fleet leave the port as usual and head west along the coast.

Due to the rain, the sea covered the mist, resulting in poor visibility. To prevent accidents, all the ships slowed down, and the entire fleet of 280 ships maintained a dense formation (the other 40 ships were moored in Minor). A simple port to guarantee the needs of the main force led by Daves).

Therefore, it took only one hour for the voyage, but now it took two hours. The fleet arrived at the sea near Mazara and began to sail to the northwest.

At this time, the drizzle has stopped, the sky is getting brighter, the fog is gradually dissipating, the blue sky is washed, the sea is blue, and the wind is breezy, and the breeze is noisy.

Sekleian was relieved and smiled and said to the two consultant sailors: "Your judgment is very accurate! It is worthy of being called "Get the **** of the sea"!"

The two old sailors from Sellinus hurriedly responded humbly. As Greek sailors, they have a low status in Sellinus, relying on fishing and shipping for a living. How have they been valuable and led hundreds of warships? The opportunity for the generals of the kingdom to have an equal dialogue.

Seeing that they nodded, Seckley frowned, but did not say anything, turned to the captain of the ship to order: "Notify the fleet, resume normal speed, send the Clippers, and carefully search for maritime targets."

Not long after, the speed of the entire fleet increased, and more than 10 Clippers also left the big forces and quickly went out.

After a few minutes, the Clippers, which was at the forefront, were already close to the sea in Lili, and the hands on the masts had their hands and feet, and shouted to the bottom: "Captain!"

As soon as the Captain of the Clippers heard it, he was excited and asked: "Is there a hostile situation?!"

Wang Wang wanted to say: "Is the time for rotation to be there? Let the next one replace yourself." But the captain’s question made him subconsciously look at the sea ahead, and then he stopped. He rubbed his eyes, raised his eyes again, and stared at the front. After a while, he also shouted excitedly: "There are enemy ships! One, two, three... a lot of Carthage boats!"

"Commander adults, the front of the warship raised a white flag!" On the flagship main mast, the hopeful hand saw the slogan passed by the front of the flagship of the sub-fleet, excitedly shouted: "It is two white flags! Yes and We have an equal number of ordinary ships!"

Sekleian immediately understood the meaning of the rest, and he was excited: the ordinary fleet in this sea area may only come from Carthage, it seems that the information given by His Majesty is not wrong, the Carthaginians are indeed shipping Military food!

He did not hesitate to give orders: "Tell Stifakas, lead his sub-fleet, and give me all these Carthage cargo ships sinking! If you run a ship, let him accept military punishment!"

After receiving this order, the sub-fleet commander Stefacas immediately took out the spirit of twelve points and ordered him to command the division's fleet of warships as a forward, and proceeded in the direction of finding the enemy.

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The more than 200 Carthage merchant ships are arranged in two columns and are moving in the direction of Lili. On the merchant ship in the lead, a sailor is standing on the top of the mast and looking forward. Suddenly he is anxious. Shouted: "The old man, the Dionian warship... The Dionian warship is coming!"

After that, he quickly slipped off the mast.

Unlike a warship, a merchant ship usually has only one mast and is located at the end of the bed. Usually it does not make people stand on the mast. On the one hand, because merchant ships are extremely dependent on the promotion of sails, they are afraid of stepping on the masts. On the other hand, standing on the mast for a long time is easy to damage the balance of the whole body and lead to accidents. But today this is a special situation, they need to know the movement of the Dania fleet early.

"I think I am really crazy I will promise Morbar, driving a merchant ship to face the warship." The old captain who is white is not nervous, but sighs.

Next to him is an equally wrinkled rudderman who comforted: "We are still good, like Barricos they even have to manipulate merchant ships and break into the ship of Dionia, that is really crazy! ”

The old captain sighed again: "Who told us that we used to be the old men of Molbal, followed him for so many years, and got a lot of help from him... Besides, the mother state is now in a difficult situation, and all of us who are about to enter the earth can Give a little play and help it, I believe that even if we die, it is a glory for us!"

The old helmsman nodded with deep sympathy.

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

"Don't worry, don't worry." The old captain said without hesitation, closing his eyes and feeling the wind: "It seems like the wind is a little bigger."