Chapter 356 The Battle of Carthage (2)

The Margonides opposed the continuation of the peace talks. They believed that the greed and ambition of the Dionysians could be seen from the terms of the peace talks put forward by King Dionia, who wanted to occupy the land controlled by Carthage. And wealth, destroy the hegemony of Carthage, and reduce Carthage to an ordinary city-state, which is unacceptable to all Carthaginian citizens! The elders must give up the illusion of peace, make up their minds again, do everything in their power to support the Carthaginian army in Sicily, and fight Dionia to the end. Maybe with the passage of time, there will be a turning point in the war!

And the neutral faction led by Ace Yaruba said: Negotiations can continue, but don’t be too anxious, you can delay first, increase military support for Margo and Morbar, and hope to use one or two victories to change the arrogant attitude of the Dionians, thus making negotiations easier.

Because of the peace talks, the Senate has been arguing for several days, and has not been able to reach a final resolution, but the situation has become more and more powerful for the Margonides, because the news of the peace talks has leaked out, and the people understand When it came to Dionysian's harsh conditions, he forgot the threat of Dionysian navy to Africa in his anger, and strongly demanded that the Senate continue to fight Dionia to the end.

It can be said that the city of Carthage has been very lively these days. People are gathering everywhere to criticize Dionysian's greed and shamelessness. Therefore, when the Dionysian fleet strikes today, there will be a lot of Carthaginians. The merchant ship owners gathered together and expressed their strong desire to fight to Morbal. It should be known that although the Carthaginian fleet had won the previous naval battle, the losses of the Carthaginian merchant ships could be described as heavy. More than half of the shipowners and None of the crew members were able to return to port.

"Hmph, if this naval battle is won, then what peace talks are there! Our fleet can continue to fight, continue to win the second and third times, and finally regain control of the western waters of Sicily, then Marco The army of your lord no longer has to worry about food transportation, and can let go of the full battle with the Dionysian army, then the whole battle situation will become favorable for us!" Pretakuba said loudly.

Okredon wanted to refute, but Hanno said loudly: "We all hope so! I hope Barr Harmon bless Carthage!" After speaking, he actually closed his eyes and began to pray.

Seeing this, the surrounding elders also competed to do their devout prayers, and the atmosphere in the entire city became solemn and solemn in an instant.

But their prayers did not seem to have had much effect. The Carthaginian merchant ships disrupted the formation of the Dionian fleet, giving the Carthaginian fleet an advantage in the initial attack, but the advantage was not too great, because Dio Nia's usual starry formation has always placed the crow warships at the forefront in the attack, and today is no exception. Although the forward speed of all warships was affected due to the chaos of the formation, they used their speed to collide with the enemy. It is not the characteristics of the crow warship. What it is good at is the 12-meter-long, flexible suspension bridge at the bow. Even if the warship is stagnant, swinging the bow in the same place will pose a threat to the warships approaching it. .

Of course, the chaos of the formation will cause the warships in the rear to not be able to reinforce the Raven warships in the front row in time, especially when the drawbridge of the Raven warships hooks the enemy ships. And Carthage's double-column formation is precisely to use speed, cut into the enemy's line, and constantly create a dilemma for enemy ships to fight more and less. Of course, this requires the crew to have superb ship steering skills, and the Carthaginians are best at this. .

So from the very beginning, there were many such scenes on the battlefield. The drawbridge of the Raven warship had just nailed a Carthaginian three-tier oared warship, and it was not long after the infantry of the fleet rushed to the enemy's deck.

The Raven warship sank slowly because the friendly ships failed to reinforce in time, and was slammed by the next Carthaginian warship. The ardent hope of the family in the rear on the shore, they are no longer afraid of the 40 fleet infantry rushing into the bottom warehouse, and they have drawn out the daggers that were only equipped not long ago (because only the hanging daggers will not affect their oars, and its price It is also relatively cheap and easy to equip) and wood pulp for tenacious resistance.

Even if the infantry of the Dionysian fleet had undergone long-term military training and were fully armed, in order to defeat the nearly 200 highly motivated Carthaginian sailors and completely occupy the entire ship, it would not take a certain amount of time and pay a certain amount of casualties, almost is not possible.

The Dionysian Third Fleet was at a disadvantage at the beginning of the battle, but after years of hard training, coupled with the tempering of the Sardinian naval battle, the crew members firmly believed that no matter how difficult the situation was, the final victory still belonged to them. So they fight equally as tenacious and try to right their mistakes.

With the passage of time, the initial decline was slowly pulled back by the Third Fleet. The most important reason is that the warships of both sides have been in full contact and have entered a full-scale melee from the initial tactical contest. Among them, such a battle situation is more beneficial to the Dionysian fleet, which has been continuously training all the year round. One of the crow warship and the fast three-layer oar warship is good at jumping gang combat, and the other is good at flexible and fast assault. The tacit cooperation between the two It started to show its power.

In the Carthage fleet, however, there is only one kind of three-tiered oar warship (because the Carthaginian Senate considered that more warships should be produced as soon as possible to form a new fleet, so the four-tiered oar warship and the two-headed dragon This type of warship is not included in the construction plan because it is time-consuming to manufacture), and its cooperating tactics are relatively monotonous. Its suspension bridge is nailed, and it is necessary to be alert to the sudden attack of the elusive and fast warships, often taking care of one thing and another.

When the naval battle was in full swing, most of the Carthaginian merchant ships had sunk, and the remaining small part did not dare to be in the battlefield at all, because the warships were so dense, whether it was the enemy or our side, they were all focused. Manipulating the warship to charge, circle, turn, and collide non-stop, and fight for life and death with the opponent. There is no way to dodge because of the existence of the merchant ship. A light impact can make it overturn, even the most arrogant Barry. Coase also drove the merchant ship and retreated to the coast.

After landing, the people of Carthage bowed to him to show their respect, and then shouted his name and applauded. This is the etiquette for heroes.

Barricos was unavoidably proud of himself. Facing the crowded crowd, he boasted in high spirits about his adventures in driving the merchant ship to tease the Dionysian warship.

Just when some people in the port were attracted by Barikos's remarks and exclaimed from time to time, suddenly the people on the entire beach were in a commotion, and people kept exclaiming: "Our fleet seems to be retreating!"

"It's impossible!" Barricos loudly wanted to refute these annoying voices. He didn't want to see the opportunities created by his and his companions' adventures and sacrifices being wasted in vain.

But on the far sea, all the ships of Carthage were indeed retreating.

The two sides have fought until now, and even the flagship of Midorades has been involved in the battle. The only one that has not joined the battle is the flagship of Carthage, where Morbar is located. It has been parked not far from the battlefield, on the main mast. The lookout had been describing to Barricos on the deck what he had seen of the battlefield, Morbard judged the development of the battle according to this, when he realized that the Carthaginian fleet had lost the advantage it had initially gained, and Theo After the Nia fleet entered the stalemate, he already understood that the war situation was starting to be unfavorable for the Carthaginian fleet.

So, he decisively let more than a dozen trumpeters sound the trumpet for retreat.

The Carthaginian captains, who had been solemnly instructed by Morbal before boarding the ship, heard the sound of the horn, and immediately turned the ship's bow and retreated without any hesitation.

The sea battle is different from the land battle. Although the two sides are engaged in a melee, the warship needs enough space to fight, so the interval between the ships is still large. Once you choose to retreat, it is difficult to be surrounded. .

And the Dionysian fleet has a not too big weakness. The crow warship as the main force is not as fast as the ordinary three-layer oar warship. The fast warships with agility and speed are relatively small and their protection is weaker than the ordinary three-layer oar warships, so they dare not get too far away from the crow warships and pursue the enemy ships for a long time to prevent counterattacks. So the Carthaginian fleet, after paying some price, began to leave the battlefield and retreated east.

After learning about the sudden change in the war situation, Midorads certainly would not allow the Carthaginian fleet, which was finally lured out, to escape into the port without much loss, so he ordered: the fleet is basically maintained. In the case of formation, pursue with all your strength!

The Carthaginian Fleet was retreating, and the Third Fleet was chasing after each other, and there was no time to stop. The original battlefield was full of sailors floating on the sea, broken bed boards, some oarsmen killed by the fleet's infantry, or the ship's hull was obvious. Damaged and immobile warships...

Barricos saw this situation by the sea. Although he was worried that the fleet would fail again, he was more worried about those compatriots who were soaked in the sea, so he raised his arms and shouted: "Follow me and rescue our brave warriors!"

After that, he took his crew and pushed the cargo ship docked on the beach into the sea again, heading towards the battlefield ahead, and other remaining merchant ships quickly followed.

Inspired by it, many people in the port also drove their own fishing boats and rushed to the battlefield to rescue their compatriots.