Chapter 230

When the news spread, the Anti-Spartan League was excited, and Agesilaus was shocked. He had a premonition that the situation was not good, and immediately ordered: the troops gave up the ports and cities they had previously occupied in the Gulf of Corinth, in order to avoid being destroyed by each .

But the order came too late. Under the leadership of Aifikrates, the revitalized Allied forces attacked separately and successively recaptured the Port of Pileon and Sidon... In this way, the Spartan Allied Forces were stationed in many ports occupied by the Gulf of Corinth. The small town, the army that was almost deep into the Pioxia area, was cut off from the way back.

Agesilaus urgently ordered his brother Teleutias to lead a fleet from the sea in an effort to bring back these scattered garrisons and place them at Lykeion and Sigion, focusing on the defense of these two important towns in the Corinthian region and port. As a result, the offensive momentum of the Spartan coalition was severely frustrated and had to be turned to defense.

The anti-Spartan allies attacked Lekion several times, but they were all repelled and had to stop the attack.

The two sides entered a stalemate again.

But the adventurous Ifikrates was not resigned to the status quo. He led his light infantry, carrying rations, and without the rear, boldly invaded the central part of the Peloponnese, the most loyal subordinate area of ​​Sparta—— Arcadia, began to raid villages, looted food, destroyed farmland, and repeatedly ambushed the Arcadian troops that came to attack them, and finally made the Arcadians dare not fight them, and could not ignore them Its frenzied sabotage can only ask Agesilaus for help.

Agesilaus was embarrassed when he received the Arcadians' request for help. At this time, the Spartan coalition was facing the offensive pressure of the enemy with high morale and was feeling the strain, and Ifikrates's troops It was the most troublesome thing for him. In his heart, he had already regarded this person as a formidable enemy: if there were fewer soldiers sent to rescue, he might only be defeated by this cunning Athenian general; The enemy took the opportunity to counterattack.

But Arcadia had to save, because Sparta, the leader of the Peloponnesian League, was very different from Athens, the former leader of the Delian League.

Athens' attitude towards its allies can be said to be domineering: pay tribute, dispatch armed colonies, and support democrats close to Athens. Athenian merchants have privileges in allies, and local disputes must be resolved in Athens courts, and once they join The alliance, if you want to withdraw, will be attacked by the Athenian army...

The attitude of the Spartans towards their allies was much better. As long as it does not betray it, Sparta often negotiates and decides affairs with its allies, because it does not have the huge population of Athens, nor the strong financial resources of Athens, nor the powerful navy of Athens, or even among the soldiers of the Spartan League. The real Spartan warriors will always occupy a minority. Sparta relies only on the illustrious name established by the Spartan warriors for a hundred years, but without the allies, Sparta cannot do anything. Therefore, although the Spartans became domineering and domineering after defeating Athens, their attitude towards allies changed, but the essential thing remained the same - Sparta needed allies.

As the king, Agesilaus knew this very well, so he finally decided: to return to Sparta, explain to the council of elders the reason for the setback of the battle during this period, and at the same time ask the council to send more reinforcements to Arcadia .

………………………………

Early the next morning, as soon as Davos finished his breakfast, the captain of the guard, Martius, entered the tent: "Your Majesty, Midorades asks to see you."

Davos moved in his heart: "Let him in."

Midorades walked into the tent with an uneasy expression, and immediately knelt down on one knee: "Your Majesty, I'm here to apologize to you! After you issued an order yesterday, I sent more warships to patrol outside the port of Sirius. As you might expect, an enemy ship did burst out of the port in the middle of the night. Our warships tried their best to block it, but the enemy maneuvered the ship with great skill and escaped our encirclement and fled to the south. Our two ships The Clippers have been chasing, so far no news has come back..."

"Why are the Syracuses willing to risk the great danger of sailing in the middle of the night to escape the blockade of the Dionysian fleet?" Shouting: "Dionysius! Must be Dionysius!"

Midorades was shocked when he heard the words, and hurriedly looked at Davos, only to see the wise young king's brows slightly wrinkled, then stretched out again, and said with a smile: "Don't rashly judge Divers just based on this piece of information. Onysius ran away. Midorades, the sea outside the port of Sirius is so wide that even if we put all our warships on it, it may not be able to fill it up, not to mention that only four or five fast ships can be dispatched at night. The ship is patrolling, the enemy is determined to escape, and the fleet cannot be stopped."

"Your Majesty!" Midorades was deeply grateful for Davos' understanding.

"But enemy ships break in and break out as if our fleet didn't exist, a humiliation to the Dionysian fleet! A humiliation to every Dionysian sailor and captain!" Diver S's expression became serious: "Our fleet cannot be complacent just because we have defeated Syracuse many times, forgetting that we are not as good as Syracuse in terms of the manipulation skills of a single warship or the formation conversion and coordination of the entire fleet. , the guarantee of our fleet's many victories is nothing but 'raven', relying on the strength of the legion!"

Davos' remarks made Midorades blushed, and he said with shame: "Your Majesty, please rest assured! After I go back, I will definitely step up the fleet training with Lord Sekelian. A year later... No, After half a year, you will see a marked improvement in the level of the Dionysian fleet!"

Davos nodded gratified and said, "Very good, I look forward to seeing a more powerful Dionysian fleet in half a year!"

Then he said: "Get up, Midorades. If I punish my respected generals just because one or two enemy ships escaped, I'm afraid it won't be long before Dionia has no good admirals."

Davos' joke made Midorades' nervous mood a little relaxed. He stood up and asked hesitantly, "But Dionysius—"

Davos interrupted him: "This is not your concern. What you need to do now is to strengthen the vigilance of the port to prevent the escape of the Syracuse fleet. At the same time, send 30 three-deck oars to Lebanon as soon as possible. Jim, Cykrian's fleet needs to be strengthened to gain Sicily's maritime dominance, can it be done in two days?"

"It won't take two days, Your Majesty. I can deliver the required warships to Lijim today." Midorads immediately promised.

After sending the admiral away, Henepolis hurriedly asked, "Your Majesty, what if Dionysius really escaped?!"

Davos has made a decision on this issue at this moment, and he said calmly: "What are you panicking! Dionysius escaped, which means that the battle in Great Greece is over, which is good for us!"

"But the first army in Sicily and your majesty's riot plan there may be affected!" When Davos sent the first army to Sicily, Henepolis heard Davos talk about it. Over his plans in Sicily, he now expresses concern.

Davos looked at him and said softly, "Herny, you overestimate Dionysius, no matter how strong he is, don't forget that the entire army he will bring will stay in Great Greece, A person fled back to Syracuse, but he was a deserter! What would the people who lost their loved ones in Syracuse think?! What would the people of Sicily's allies think?! Although I don't know how the situation in Sicily has been in the past two days , but Dionysius is definitely not easy to appease the anger of the people! He ruled Syracuse and Sicily by force, and now most of his army remains here— —”

Davos pointed to the city of Sirius in front and said with a sneer: "Without enough troops, can he still suppress the people of Syracuse who want to overthrow him?!"

Henepolis' eyes lit up: "So it's a good thing for Dionysius to escape!"

Davos was silent for a moment. In fact, what he said was to comfort himself: Dionysius dared to run away alone, and there must be a way to deal with the predicament of Syracuse. After all, he had been operating in Sicily for many years. If he successfully escaped, Davos' plan to disrupt Sicily may fail, and it may even allow the tyrant to lead reinforcements to attack Greater Greece after annihilating the First Army...

Therefore, Davos had a sense of urgency in his heart, and he said: "First of all, we have to make sure that Dionysius has escaped!"

To this end, he called Izam of the Mountain Reconnaissance Brigade, and asked him to send soldiers from all directions of Siliting City to pay close attention to the movements in the city and report back at any time.

For the whole morning, the city of Siriting remained calm. No messengers were sent to the Dionysian Camp to seek peace, not even the Syracuse scout cavalry that was cruising in front of the city every day. The number of soldiers has not changed, but Dionysius, who usually appears at the front of the city every morning to observe the enemy's situation, did not appear today...

After learning about these situations, Davos had a bottom line.

In the afternoon, he once again sent the soldiers of the mountain reconnaissance brigade to shout in front of the city of Siridin: "Syracuse, you are here to defend the city seriously, but your tyrant Dionysius has escaped!"

"Syracuse, surrender! Dionysius has abandoned you, why are you still fighting here!"

"Why did Dionysius run away?! Because our Dionysian 1st Legion has captured Siculi and Catane, and is now attacking Syracuse! Dionysius will return if he does not run away. No more home!"

"We didn't deceive you. When you attacked our camp yesterday, did you see our First Army?! No, right! They have already landed in the Gulf of Naxos! Dionysius blocked the news , just to make it easier for you to escape!"

"Dionysius didn't show up in the city today! He has run away! If you don't believe it, you can go to his tent and see if he is still there!"

...

The shouting of the Dionian soldiers under the city was like throwing boulders into a calm pond, splashing countless waves.