Vol 8 Chapter 239: Unfamiliar fleet

After Miltias left, Leo Tizides immediately said: "Tagru, you have to inform the troops to be rescued and immediately rush to the port."
"Yes, the commander is an adult." Taglu received the order and did not immediately execute it. Instead, he asked with some doubts: "Is the Carthaginians too risky? They sent tens of thousands of troops to cross the traffic. Inconvenient, inaccessible mountainous areas, across Selinus and Minoa, want to capture Agrigento, once our reinforcements arrived, let their attempts fall through, these tens of thousands of Carthaginians may even Without us to attack, we will be defeated because food cannot be supplied in time..."
"Yeah, this Carthage commander Markey is really adventurous. It seems that he is very convinced of his army's ability." Leo Tizides looked at the map of the wooden board hanging on the wall, his eyes sparkling with light: "So we The speed of reinforcements must be fast."
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Since the occupation of Serenus by the Dionysian army, half of its port was quickly converted into a simple military port, which not only enabled the Sicilian fleet to be recharged, but also could be pushed ashore for maintenance and repair... There is a stable and secure foothold in western Sicily that facilitates patrolling and attacking the western waters.
Now, more than 150 warships of the Sicilian fleet are docked at the docks, and soldiers from the South Coast friendly city states such as Minoa, Agrigento, Gera, Cammanina and Eknom, and 1,000 The Dionysian Reserve Corps soldiers, a total of 6,000 soldiers are boarding the warships in batches.
In order to be able to transport the support army to the port of Agrigento in one time, Miltias did not even let the fleet soldiers board the crow warship, in order to free up more space for warships.
In this regard, Sekleian expressed his opposition. He believed that the entire fleet could not be used to transport soldiers. At least half of the warships needed to be used as guards. This is a must-have for a naval commander.
Miltias retorted that only half of the warships were vacated, which meant that half of the soldiers had to carry out the second shipment. Now the enemy is in an emergency, and if Agrigento is broken due to insufficient strength, this responsibility Who is responsible? And after the completion of the force delivery, the Sicilian fleet must also go to the west to cruise, so it can not be delayed.
The two sides are not happy again.
Seklelyn simply boarded the first express ship to leave the port, and he didn’t bother to see it.
In order to save time, every warship will start as soon as it is full of soldiers. Therefore, when Miltias boarded the flagship of the last departure and left the port, the entire fleet spread eastward for four or five miles, showing a bend. A single straight line of bending, because each ship is full of soldiers, so the speed of navigation is slow.
Miltias was also a little anxious about this. He frowned at the soldiers lying on the deck and estimated the time it took from Serenus to Agrigento at such a speed. I am afraid that the delivery will end in the afternoon. It is impossible for the fleet to patrol again.
At this moment, he hopes to have a stronger northwesterly wind like the day when the Carthage army landed, so that the sailing time can be greatly shortened.
And just as he was thinking about it, the exclamation of his head suddenly sounded at the top of his head: "Attention! Attention! There is an enemy in the southeast!!"
Miltias was shocked and immediately wondered: Carthage’s warships were destroyed, and the enemy in the southeast sea came from?
When he was confused, the hope on the mast shouted anxiously again: "The Clippers raised two blue flags! Two blue flags!"
The blue flag means that the Carthage is not the ship, otherwise the Clippers will raise the yellow flag for the first time, but the two blue flags mean that there is a fleet nearby, and the number is comparable to the Sicilian fleet, regardless of whether it Hostility is a considerable threat to the Sicilian fleet.
Miltias felt flustered. He stared at the ship's side and tried to look southeast, but he could only see a few small points on the far sea.
Among the four major fleets, Miltias and Fralios did not independently command the experience of large-scale naval battles. At the South Italian War, Miltias was only the captain of a three-layer paddle warship. After the establishment of the fourth fleet, the Military Department had provided Davis with candidates for multiple fleet commanders. Their qualifications and achievements. The abilities are similar, and Daves has a hard time making a choice. In the end, he chose Miltias because of the captain of Daves who had served as Miltias. Daves had some impressions on him, and this one added points to him.
After becoming the command of the Fourth Fleet, Miltias led the fleet to cruise the Adriatic Sea most of the time, fighting against pirates and helping the Army to carry heavy weights. The only so-called naval battle was to conquer Mesape, Pu in Dionia. Chetty attacked the Meip United Fleet at the time, because the opponent was too weak and hard to beat him with almost no effort.
Now that Miltiaus may encounter the first sea battle, the situation is so complicated: the other side is an enemy or a friend, and it is still impossible to distinguish, so that he can not suddenly make a decision to fight; the fleet of his own side not only has no formation. And every warship is full of soldiers, causing the speed to slow down and weakening the ability to fight; at this time the entire fleet is located in the sea near Germe, so there is also difficulty in retreating, as a small town, The narrow and rudimentary port of Germe is simply unable to accommodate the Sicilian fleet.
Under such circumstances, he was inevitably a bit flustered. He tried to calm himself down and then issued the first order: "Grow the flag of Apollo and blow the squad!"
With the sound of the military number, the golden flag rose to the top of the mast and fluttered in the wind.
The warships in front of the flagship heard the sound of the military squad, saw the waving flag, and turned the bow of the ship, and moved closer to the ship of Miltias.
The slogan of the Apollo flag is: with the flagship as the center, moving closer to it, the distance between the warship and the warship is shortened, which is convenient for command and defense.
The idea of ​​Miltias at this time is: now the fleet is full of soldiers, not conducive to combat, and his flagship is located closer to Serinus, when all the ships approached him, if this strange fleet really To launch an attack, he can lead the fleet back to Serinus.
The distance between the Dionysian fleet on the sea is too long, especially in the forefront of the warship. The gaze can not see the flag on the flagship of the last party, nor can it see the signal on the Clippers on the side rear. They can only see the rear of the warship to make a tactical maneuver before they can make corresponding changes, and the transmission of this message is somewhat slow at this critical moment.
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The Clippers on Sekerian’s speed had already opened a little distance from the entire fleet because he was on the boat after he got on the boat. The crew saw that he was in a bad mood and no one dared to come forward to bother him. The whole ship is very quiet.
At this moment, he suddenly looked at his eyes, touched his ears, and asked the captain who was watching the sea at the side: "Have you heard it? It seems that there is a military sound."
The captain shook his head stunnedly, and listened for a while, then answered the truth: "Adult, I didn't hear it."
The captain’s words did not make Seclean safe. He stood up and looked at the rear, then looked up and asked:
What is the change in the warship behind?

After a while, the lookout at the top of the mast replied: "They haven't changed."
"Adult, maybe you got it wrong." The captain said.
There was a uneasiness in his heart, and perhaps this uneasiness was buried when he learned that Miltias had loaded the entire fleet with soldiers instead of guarding the warships. The feeling has become stronger.
He no longer hesitated and decisively said: "Turn back and look back."
The captain complained a bit in his heart that he was suspicious, but did not dare to express his opposition in person. After all, Seklely was the hero of the former naval commander, the general victory and the crew, and the prestige was too high.
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Just as the Dionysian warships turned back and returned to each other~EbookFREE.me~ This fleet is also approaching the Sicilian fleet, and there have been many small black spots in the view of Miltias, which made him feel Frightened and beat.
At this moment, he heard the exclamation of the top of the mast: "Two yellow flags! Two yellow flags were raised! It is an enemy! It is an enemy!!..."
The last fluke in the heart of Miltias was shattered. Now that other warships have not completely come together, it is too late to retreat to Serinus. Fortunately, in the process of waiting, he already has a preparatory plan: "again Blow the military number, let the warships land on the nearest beach, put down the soldiers, and return to combat!"
Of course, these latter words cannot be expressed in semaphores, so his flagship must take the lead in making other ships look like they are going, so after the order was issued, the flagship went straight to the coast.
The Dionysian Clippers, which were explored on the southeast side of the fleet, did not know the fleet that was coming, but as the opposing ship continued to approach, the formation slowly spread, the sails descended, and the oars began to accelerate. However, the standard fleet entered the pre-combat preparation process, of course, the enemy is undoubted.
It turned out that this fleet was not from Carthage but from the Phoenician region of the Eastern Mediterranean. Since the storm destroyed the naval of Carthage, the Carthaginians completely lost their maritime superiority. The Dionysian Sicilian fleet was rampant at sea, not only to cut off the connection between Carthage and Sicily, but also threatened the basics of Carthage. Maritime trade in the city. At this time of life and death, when Carthage stepped up to build a new warship, he also thought of his mother state.