Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - v9 Chapter 244： The Great Battle in Cyprus (1)

Cyclian shook his head slightly, and said calmly: “The reason why your Majesty let us come here at great risk and travel long distances is that the occupation of Cyprus is only a secondary purpose. The most important thing is to destroy the Persian fleet and control the seas in the Near East. Dominance… Now that more than 4,000 heavy infantry have landed, this has caused a great threat to Cyprus and has disrupted the Persian fleet’s attempt to intercept us at sea. Under such circumstances, they are likely to be face to face. When threats to our powerful Dionian fleet, we chose to temporarily retreat, and instead transported reinforcements and supplies to Nicosia and other towns on the island so that it could not be easily overcome by our army.

After all, our fleet has travelled long distances, and the materials it carries cannot guarantee the material consumption of the huge crew of our fleet. If the army cannot quickly capture towns such as Nicosia, our fleet will have to retreat first. At that time…huh, Persia The fleet can easily cut off the sea supply line for the landing army, and the army will be in big trouble—”

Speaking of this, Sekrian’s face became very serious: “The army’s bad luck is second. The key is that this time your Majesty leads the army. In order to obtain the great honor of conquering Persia, our navy was given the task of destroying the Persian fleet, The important task of gaining dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. If the task of luring the enemy fails due to passive avoidance, or even the first battle is lost, affecting the entire war to conquer Persia, I will be ashamed of Your Majesty’s trust, and even speechless to meet those. The army generals I have laughed at!”

“It’s not that serious…” the flagship captain murmured.

Sekerian gave him a dissatisfied look, and said in a deep voice: “I am the commander of this operation. I must seize every possible opportunity to ensure that the operation can proceed smoothly. Therefore, we must stay here and cannot leave. For the Persian fleet, what could be more attractive to them than destroying a Diorian fleet that was far fewer than them, and simultaneously besieging thousands of Diorian armies on the island!”

“My lord, we have too few warships after all. I’m worried about the Persian fleet… I really took us as a delicacy–”

As soon as the captain stammered, he was interrupted by Sekerian sternly: “Even if the number of Persian warships is two or three times ours, the fleet led by me Sekerian will definitely be a hard rock. , Will break the teeth of the Persian fleet! What’s more, I believe that Midolades, not only has rich experience in naval warfare, but also has good intuition. He will surely lead other warships to join us in time to destroy the Persian fleet together! ”

After Sechelian made up his mind, the captain of the flagship did not dare to persuade him anymore. Instead, he relayed the command of the fleet commander to all the warships: all the raven warships were installed on the drawbridge and prepared for battle!

More than an hour later, no trace of the enemy ship was found, but a small number of Cavalry soldiers from Cyprus have appeared on the island. They spied on the soldiers of the Dionian regiment building a camp near the beach, but they did not dare to approach. It seems that the Cypriots have no plans to assemble the army and engage in a decisive battle with the landing Dionian army.

Of course, the landing Dionian Army also had no plans. What they have to do now is to stick to the landing site to facilitate the arrival of subsequent troops.

“The Clippers to the south have raised a yellow flag!” The watchman on the flagship mast suddenly shouted.

Sekelian, who was waiting anxiously, was not excited, but muttered to himself with some doubts: “There are fewer Persian warships coming than us?”

Seeing Sekelian’s expression of dissatisfaction, the captain of the flagship sighed slightly and asked, “My lord, do you want to tell the ships to prepare for battle?”

Cyclion paced back and forth on the deck, pondering for a while, and then said in a deep voice, “Wait a second! Let all the Clippers be divided into two parts, one part bypasses the Persian warship, and the other part goes north. Probe.”

The flagship captain’s heart moved: “My lord, do you suspect that the Persian fleet is divided?”

Sekerian replied calmly: “I don’t think the Persians are so courageous, they dare to lead a small number of warships to attack us. What’s more, I am convinced that our fleet does not need to do much preparation, and can easily control this number. All the enemy ships were defeated!”

Just when the crew on the southernmost warship of the Dionian fleet could see the outline of the enemy ship at a great distance, the Dionian Clippers hurried to the south by changing the flag on the mast to relay the information back. fleet.

“Two yellow flags!” The lookout’s shout made Sekerian still silent. On the contrary, the flagship captain heard another report from the lookout and tightened his fists nervously: “The Persian warship is not far from us. To Four Mile!”

He looked at Sekelion sitting on the deck like a clay sculpture, and hesitated several times.

At this moment, the watcher’s voice sounded again: “Three yellow flags! Three yellow flags have been raised by the Clippers in the south! Nothing has changed in the north!”

Sekelian immediately jumped up: “Three yellow flags! The number of Persian warships exceeds ours, indicating that their main force has come, and the Persians have taken the bait!”

Sekerian was so excited that he immediately said the battle plan he had thought about: “Blow the bugle and arrange all warships in a circle for defensive operations!”

“Circular formation?!” The captain of the flagship was taken aback.

“What? I thought I could only attack but not defend?!” Sai Klian said with a smile.

“I’ll go to convey it right away!” The worries in the heart of the flagship captain were alleviated. Obviously, his respected fleet commander did not lose his composure because of the arrival of the fighter.

“By the way, arrange all the iron ships at the forefront of the circle, facing the direction of the Persian fleet!”

“Yes!”

……………………………………………………

This Persian fleet, headed by Phoenician and Cyprus, has nearly a thousand warships stationed in various military ports in eastern Cyprus. After receiving the order from Yalitaka, the Cypriot crew acted the most actively. I boarded my warship quickly, rushed out of the military port, and then set off to the west along the coast of the island of Cyprus without waiting for the warships behind to line up together.

When the flagship of Yalitaka sailed out of the military port, he discovered that under the leadership of the Cypriots, many warships did not stop after leaving the port, and swarmed westward.

As the commander-in-chief of the fleet, Yalitaka stomped his feet with anger, but he had no choice but to whisper the Cypriots for being stupid. At the same time, he hoped that when the entire fleet arrived in the west coast of Cyprus, the Dionian fleet had not arrived. He still has time to reorganize the fleet.

The Persian fleet has formed a long column after leaving the port, and in the process of traveling, due to the different levels of involvement of the crews belonging to the various regions of Persia, this long column has gradually begun to be out of touch, and the Cyprus warship is at the forefront. , The Phoenicians are in the center, Syria and other warships are at the end… and the Cypriot warship at the front is also out of touch. The warship from the Larnaca military port, which is the most to the west, is at the forefront… …

After more than three hours of voyage, the Cypriot warship bypassed the westernmost promontory of the island from the south. With the help of the southerly wind, the speed increased again. Only 20 minutes later, the watchman on the Cyprus warship We saw the Dionian fleet staying in the bay, the many Dionian cargo ships docked on the beach, and the Dionian soldiers who kept moving from the cargo ships to the beach (actually, the Dionian soldiers back and forth) Moving the materials on the cargo ship, due to the long distance and psychological effects, gave the Cyprus watchers an illusion).

The Diorians are landing! … This news made all the Cypriot crews feel nervous. The belief in defending their homeland made them forget fatigue and made them feel the urgency of the situation. According to the military order, they should stop advancing after discovering the Dionia fleet, and after meeting with other warships, they should follow the command of the fleet commander to launch an offensive.

But at this moment, under the command of the generals of the Cyprus Navy, they only slowed down a bit during the process of changing their formations. After completion, they continued to accelerate, and launched a charge against the Dionia fleet in a double-column formation. .

During the Hippo War, UU read www. uukanshu.com The warships of the city-states in the Near East are known for their large and heavy hulls and a large number of crews. As a result, they were defeated by the small and flexible Greek coalition warships in the Battle of Salamis. Afterwards, Athens moved towards the eastern Mediterranean. In the process of expansion, it was defeated many times by the Athens Navy, forcing the city-states in the Near East to abandon the large and inappropriate warships and rebuild the fleet with three-layer paddle warships as the main body, even the Phoenician city-states. , Those two-headed dragon warships, four-layer oars warships, and five-layer oars warships are still in use only in Carthage in the Western Mediterranean. The composition of the Persian fleet with the city-states in the Near East as the main navy is completely consistent with the Athens fleet. .

At this time, although the Cypriot warship had lowered its sails, the sailors were rowing hard, and the speed of the warship was accelerating. Soon the Dionian warship was close at hand, and the Cypriot crew were even still on the deck. In the nervous maneuvering, they curiously looked at the tall and swaying crow suspension bridge on the enemy ship ahead. Although they had never fought against the Dionian fleet before, they had also heard of the strangeness of the Dionian Navy. The warship is somewhat on guard.

Since the Dionian warship is almost only rotating in place, the two warships are always bow to bow. At this time, the Cypriot warship does not want to die with the other side, so the helmsman slightly turned the rudder, and the captain also moved towards the bottom deck. Shouted: “Retract the oars!”

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