Chapter 158 The Battle of Crotone (3)

Nearly 200 panicked sailors rushed to the deck, when they heard a loud "bang", the whole warship was shaking and shaking, and the sailors fell one after another in the screams.

It was seen that the bottom tank in the middle of the right side of the Dionian warship was smashed into a large hole, and the bow of the enemy ship revealed its hideous appearance from the hole, followed by the turbulent sea water.

The enemy ship's momentum did not stop, and it continued to cut forward, expanding the breach again. The powerful forward thrust force actually caused the Dionysian warship to move several meters in translation.

The Dionian oarsmen, knowing that the sinking of the ship was inevitable, jumped into the sea.

Poor Melisanda had just climbed into the boat, and had to jump into the sea again with her shield in her arms.

He heard the sailors floating on the sea complaining: "Why didn't the Clippers come to block and cover us?!!"

In fact, Dionia's 30 Clippers have already lost more than half of them.

When Leptiris let the untrained heavy infantry hide in the captain again, he had already estimated that the Syracuses would not have the upper hand in the battle on the ship, but this time the Syracuse Navy's three-tiered There were nearly 50 more oar warships than the opponent, so he decisively adopted the tactic of "circling around", taking advantage of the large number of ships to surround the extra warships from the outside. When both the enemy and the enemy are fighting, they can take the opportunity to cut into the battlefield and ram the immobile enemy ships.

If in the last naval battle, the legionnaires on the Dionysian warship could quickly deal with the enemy ships, allowing their warships to quickly retract the drawbridge and re-enter the battle. But this time, the increased heavy infantry on the Syracuse warships greatly extended the fighting time after the legionnaires boarded the ship, thus providing opportunities for the intruding Syracuse warships.

After nearly ten Dionysian warships were sunk and damaged, the rest of the warships also realized that the situation was not good. Before the legionnaires could deal with the enemy ships, they all retracted the Raven Suspension Bridge and began to conduct real battles with the enemy. In the sea battle, they dared not use the drawbridge to hook each other, because there were no legionnaires on the warship (they fought on the enemy ship), so they took the time to unload the Raven drawbridge.

The Syracuse warship has more experience in naval battles, and the sailors cooperate more tacitly, but because of the more soldiers, it is less in speed and flexibility; the Dionysian warship lacks ship-to-ship combat experience , but because the soldiers were emptied and had the advantage in speed, the situation on both sides was somewhat opposite to the previous naval battle.

The warships of both sides looked for opportunities on the sea, chasing, circling, sprinting, ramming...

From time to time, the wood pulp of the warships is broken, the warships are bruised, and even sink...

Over time,

Syracuse began to lose in the ship-to-ship head-to-head battle. After all, once disconnected, there are more ships in the Dionysian fleet that can participate in battles than Syracuse's ships, often leaving Syracuse's ships in a bad one-to-two situation.

Leptines, who was in the rear and was not involved in the battle, learned about the situation of the fleet through the lookout on the ship. !

At this time, the lookout shouted from above: "A fleet is coming from the rear!"

Fleet from the south? Is it ours? ! Leptines knew that Dionysius had not sent an order to Syracuse to bring back the warships in the Great Harbor, but he was still eagerly looking forward to it.

But after a while, the lookout's cry shattered his expectations: "It's a black warship! A black warship!"

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Finally arrived! Midorades looked at the fierce naval battle ahead and heaved a sigh of relief.

Before setting off, Sedorian and other admirals had already made plans for this naval battle: because they were worried that the Syracuses would see their fleet was too large and too strong to avoid the battle, after deliberation, everyone decided to send the fleet into one. Divided into two, a squadron of more than 60 Syracuse three-layer slurry warships that had been captured last time was led by Midorades. After setting out from the port of Turii, they drove southeast, avoiding the tin. The reconnaissance of the Lacuza Clipper, which went around a large semicircle, joined the main fleet that was heading south along the coast, led by Sekirian, at the Celestial Court.

But what they didn't expect was that the Syracuse Fleet originally stationed at the port of Cilitin had moved to Crotone this morning. empty.

Midorades made a decisive decision and let the fleet turn around and return, and finally found the warring parties on the sea near Crotone.

With an order from Midorades, the squadron quickly entered the battle, attacking back and forth, sounding the final death knell for the Syracuse fleet!

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Dionysius, who watched the whole process of the naval battle from the port lighthouse, turned ashen at the end, turned and stepped down without saying a word.

Phoebe Das, who was walking at the end, continued to look at the sea battlefield that was far away and had come to an end, but what he thought was: Dionia's novel method of sea battle is quite suitable for Sparta, go back Would you like to advise the council of elders?

As for Dionia's consecutive victories in naval battles, it may have a relatively large impact on the entire Greater Greece war situation, changing the strength of Dionia and Syracuse. He is very happy to see this, because the Western Mediterranean still needs a city-state alliance that can check and balance Syracuse, and he has a hunch that Syracuse's attack on Dionia will be more violent on land...

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The naval battle has ended, but unlike the relatively clean maritime battlefield at the end of the last naval battle, scattered wooden oars, broken ship boards, broken warships, floating floating floating on the sea near Crotone Heavy dead bodies, as well as countless sailors and soldiers struggling in the water and calling for help.

The Dionians drove the broken warships back and forth across the sea, and began to rescue the drowning Dionian sailors and soldiers, and put them as much as possible on the warships captured by the legionnaires.

Because before departure, Davos had reminded Cykrian, 'After the victory of the naval battle, if conditions permit, try to rescue the Syracuse who fell into the water. ’ So the Dionysian navy also helped them, but after they got on the ship, they would be bound and held in custody.

Some Syracuses were close to the shore when they fell into the water, so they did not accept assistance, but swam desperately to the shore. In this regard, the Dionysians will change their attitude and drive the warship to directly crush it...

The clean-up and rescue work of the entire battlefield continued until dusk, and the brilliance of the setting sun dyed the warships on the sea orange, and Sekelian gave the order to "return".

In the vast Dionian fleet, the captured Syracuse ships were in the center, and the Dionian ships were on the periphery. Although the sailors were tired, the joy of victory made their horns resound through the sea. In the melodious sound of the flute, they vigorously pushed and pulled the wooden oars, and the fleet slowly sailed north...

Seekrian looked back at the battlefield where he had fought fiercely. The thrilling picture of his ship almost being hit by the enemy ship came to his mind, which made him feel excited at the moment. His eyes moved to the extreme distance, where the sky was connected to the sea, the vast expanse...

A sense of pride rose in his heart, and excitedly shouted to the captain: "From now on, we will have the final say on this sea!"

In this naval battle, the Syracuse fleet, except for the more than 40 three-deck oars led by Leputines, escaped into the port of Crotone in time, the rest of the warships either sank or were captured.

In the Diorian Fleet, 23 Raven ships were sunk, and more than ten were damaged. 68 Syracuse three-deck oars were captured, and nearly 10,000 Syracuse sailors were captured.

What angered Dionysius the most was that only 2,000 of the 9,000 Syracuse heavy infantry he sent returned, and most of the soldiers were either killed or drowned in the sea, and not enough captured by the Dionysian fleet. Thousands of people, it can be said that not only lost the naval battle, but also lost the land battle. Of course, Dionia's First Army also suffered more than 2,000 casualties.

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The Dionysian army did not stop when they arrived at Castellon City. The chief general Amicris and the city-state leaders waited in front of the wooden bridge built for Castellon by Heraclid, in order to rush to the battlefield. The Dionysian army saw off, and at the same time, more than a thousand Castellon soldiers and a hundred cavalry were sent to join the expedition team, as the responsibility of the allies.

Although the Dionian army hurry up, Davos still rushed to the wooden bridge, thanked Castellon's leadership, and then exchanged a few words, some potential unpleasantness dissipated in laughter.

Since the First Legion went to the Dionian fleet, the second legion was at the forefront of the entire procession. Although Amintas was brave in battle, as the commander of the Second Legion, he must be responsible for the safety of the entire legionnaire at this moment, so after crossing the Trionto River, he increased the marching column to ten columns, And the middle row is light infantry. Although the Second Dionysian Corps had not yet fought against Syracuse's mercenary cavalry, due to Davos' reminder, Amyntas did not take it lightly.

Due to the extensive development of the Dionian people in the swamp area of ​​the Lakoeli River in recent years, not only has the swamp disappeared in large numbers, but it has also begun to transform into a high-quality plain, and the population has also increased sharply. But what the legionnaires see today are the ruins of several villages along the road.

The sailors who landed in the Syracuse Navy invaded the Union territory so far! While surprised, the Legionnaires were also angry at the atrocities of the enemy: fortunately, the Syracuse Navy had been defeated in the previous naval battle, and it was impossible to endanger Dionia's territory again, but there were still those damn mercenary cavalry!