Chapter 140 The Shock of the Syracuses

After everything was arranged, Fasipesas was still a little worried: "Sir, if it still rains in the next few days..."

"You can rest assured about this question. I specifically asked several old fishermen who have lived here for decades. They all agreed that it will always be sunny from tomorrow. You can see that the rain today is much less!" Dionysius looked around the crowd and encouraged him: "Everyone, you must hurry up these two days to build enough siege equipment as soon as possible! Fasipesas, your task is a bit heavy, in order to prevent the siege tower from falling on the ground. Muddy and impossible to push to the north gate of Crotone, you have to build at least five strong causeways, can you do that?!"

"General, you have assigned me enough manpower, there is no problem at all!" Fasipesas promised.

"Very good!" Dionysius looked at everyone confidently: "Everyone, in two days, we will attack Crotone again! After this battle, I will be at the Temple of Apollo in Crotone. Celebrate for you, don't let me down!"

The generals vowed in unison: "Apollo is on, we will definitely break the city of Crotone!"

The atmosphere in the tent was warm, and Dionysius was also infected by it. He smiled and said to Master Phoebe, who had been silent all the time: "That Davos dared to declare himself a king, didn't Sparta punish him?"

You must know that before the Hippo War, Sparta once called a "Liberator", and they also claimed to be liberators, because they overthrew one tyranny after another in mainland Greece and even on the islands of the Aegean Sea. Regimes, such as the descendants of the tyrant Pisistratus of Athens, the Areuada family of Thessaly, etc., so the Greeks once thought that Sparta was extremely hostile to the dictatorship.

Phoebe Das glanced at Dionysius and slandered: You only know about Davos, why don't you look at yourself first? !

Of course, he couldn't answer like this, but replied coldly: "Isn't it enough to have Syracuse as a punishment?"

Dionysius laughed.

At this moment, the tent was opened, and the attendant hurried in and whispered beside Dionysius.

Dionysius's smile suddenly solidified on his face, and his face became extremely ugly. With a roar of "Ah!", he suddenly kicked the table beside him, then grabbed the attendant with one hand and shouted angrily: " Where's Leptines! Where's this goddamn bastard?! Let him roll over and meet me!!"

The attendant was shocked by Dionysius' anger, and said in a trembling voice: "My lord... Lord Leptines... was wounded, in his tent... receiving treatment..."

"Let this coward roll over to me immediately! Even if he is dead,

Bring his body to me too! "Dionysius roared in a cold tone.

"Yes... yes..." The attendant rushed out of the tent in a hurry.

There was silence in the tent, except for Dionysius' rapid breathing and the sound of pacing back and forth.

"Could it be that the fleet encountered a setback?" Someone finally asked the question everyone wanted to ask.

Dionysius glanced at it and found that the speaker was Phoebe Das, and only this Spartan dared to speak when Dionysius was angry.

Dionysius looked at him, turned back and sat back on the wooden chair, and exhaled heavily: "It's not just a setback, it's a big defeat!"

Big defeat? ! Everyone in the tent was shocked.

"My lord, could it be that... the Carthaginians joined the war?" Fasipesas asked cautiously.

Everyone's heart was tight: with the strength of the Syracuse navy, only the Carthaginians could be called opponents in the Western Mediterranean. Syracuse in Sicily might be a little dangerous if Carthage goes to war!

In the face of more than ten pairs of slightly panicked eyes, Dionysius felt his chest hold his breath even more: "Don't think too much, Carthage did not participate in the war, it was Dionysian's fleet... alone defeated our navy and let We lost two-thirds of our 300-odd warships, nearly 200 of them three-deck oars..."

what! ! ! The big tent seemed to explode, and everyone couldn't believe the fact that the Syracuse Navy would lose so much against the Dionysian fleet, which was far weaker than it!

You must know that since the last naval battle was defeated by Carthage, after several years of construction and accumulation, Syracuse finally managed to bring the number of warships to 500, including more than 300 three-layer oar warships. On this expedition to Great Greece, Leptines, except for leaving dozens of warships at the port of Syracuse, all accompanied the expedition, and then stationed dozens of warships in Messina to blockade Libya. Jim, control the channel. The rest of the warships were led by Leputines himself, and they all participated in this naval battle. In the end, they were defeated, and they were defeated by Dionia, who had not had a warship a few years ago! This is simply...

"Don't be arguing!" Dionysius, who was already irritable, was even more upset by the disputes between the generals: "What happened to this naval battle, I will know it all when Leputines arrives. Keep quiet for me now!"

As soon as the voice fell, the large tent returned to silence again. Only this time, the restless and irritable people became everyone in the account.

With the order of Dionysius, Leputines came quickly, only to see him stumble into the tent, kneel on the ground with a plop, and tremblingly said: "My lord, I... I am guilty. !"

Dionysius saw that his head and arms were wrapped in linen cloth, dyed red with blood, and his appearance was miserable, and a trace of unbearableness rose in his heart, and was immediately overwhelmed by anger: "You came just right, everyone really wants to know How did you destroy more than 300 warships!"

There was boundless hatred in his sinister voice, and Leptines couldn't help shivering several times.

Dionysius was even more angry when he saw his useless appearance. He grabbed the iron sheet on the table that the guards had just picked up, and threw it violently, hitting Leptinius on the forehead, and the blood immediately flowed out. When he came out, he didn't dare to scream.

"Speak!" Dionysius roared, pointing at him.

"Yes! Yes!..." Leptines responded repeatedly.

The generals who were originally angry at him felt that he was a little pitiful at this moment, but Phoebe Das looked calm. When Spartans were disobedient, they would be beaten by instructors with clubs. When they grew up, they would be beaten if they failed the training and assessment. If they failed in battle, they would be beaten even more. Ruthless, this stick violence often makes other city-states reluctant to approach Sparta, and Spartan citizens have long been accustomed to it. Therefore, Phoebe Das even felt in his heart that this general who caused huge losses to the city-state should be hanged and beaten to death.

Leptines shivered and briefly described the entire naval battle.

After listening to this, Dionysius' face was sullen and he was lost in thought: "You mean... The Dionysians installed wooden bridges on their warships, which could hook the approaching warships, and then rely on soldiers to board the ships to fight. And won?"

"Yes... Yes. Their wooden bridge is very flexible and can be turned in all directions, making it impossible for our warships to turn around and attack." Leptines hurriedly defended.

"Since we already know that collision tactics don't work, why didn't we retreat in time?!" Dionysius cursed.

Leptines was speechless.

"He wants to capture the new king of Dionia and end this war." Phoebe Das sighed: "So that Davos guessed your idea in advance, so he will use his own As bait, lure your warships to attack desperately, thus capturing a large number of your warships and causing your fiasco... Davos is an amazing commander!"

Dionysius glared at him, Phoebe Das didn't care at all.

Fasipesas found a problem in Leptines' narrative and asked eagerly: "General Leptines, listen to you, those warships captured by the Dionysians have nothing to do with them. Big damage, wouldn't they be able to use these warships against us soon?!"

Everyone's face changed.

"Uh...this..." Leptines didn't know how to answer.

"Humph! If the Dionysians want to expand their fleet, they must have so many sailors!" Dionysius' words reminded the generals present: Yes, the three captured Syracuse There are hundreds of galley warships, and to restore their combat effectiveness, at least 30,000 to 40,000 sailors are needed. Judging from the situation in the Dionysian Alliance territory that I have learned so far, their young adults have already invested in the expanded army and navy to cope with the wars that have occurred in many places. And not everyone can become a qualified sailor immediately, which requires long-term cooperative training. Experienced helmsman is not so easy to cobble together!

The generals breathed a sigh of relief.

"Leptines, your defeat has caused great trouble for our army!" Dionysius asked coldly with a look of indifference, "I ask you now, if Dionysius The Asian fleet is coming to attack, do you have the confidence to lead the remaining warships to turn defeat into victory?"

The generals immediately turned their attention to Leputines again, which made him even more nervous and afraid. He subconsciously touched the bandage wrapped around his head with his hand. The wound under the bandage was still cut by himself with a knife. , in order to win a trace of sympathy from his brother.

"Speak up!" Dionysius shouted angrily, scaring him to say quickly: "If...if I can lead Dionysian's fleet to the deep sea and deal with them slowly, I...I have a certain amount of time. They have the confidence to defeat them. Their warships erected such a large wooden bridge on the fore mast, which would easily lead to the warship being heavy on the bow and light on the tail. It’s easier to overturn when it’s too big, but… if it’s offshore—” Leputines looked up at Dionysius cautiously, then lowered his head and said in a low voice, “If we resist their attack head-on, our fleet will be afraid. ... will fail..." At the end, his voice completely weakened.

Dionysius was no longer as furious as he had been at the beginning. After thinking about it, he had to admit that Dionysian's novel naval tactics had caused great trouble to Syracuse. Anyone who is the commander of this fleet will suffer a great loss without knowing it.