Chapter 240 Eastern Phoenician Fleet

Tyre, the mother state of Carthage, received the help of the envoys of Carthage, and did not neglect, and quickly contacted other neighboring Phoenician city-states, such as Sidon, Akka, Arwady, etc. They finally agreed to help Carthage. After all, one of the main reasons why the Phoenicians under the Persian rule over the years have been able to live more comfortably is that they offer a large amount of gold and silver to the Persian royal court every year, and these gold and silver are mainly made by Jia Taiji traded to them at a lower price.

Don't look at the Phoenician city-states that the Persian Kingdom belongs to, and the territory is not large, but they have hundreds of warships. Because the Persians are located inland and are not good at sailing, their navy is provided by aliens , mainly from the Phoenicians and the Greeks from Asia Minor, and the Persian king has been interested in retaking Egypt in recent years, and has been preparing for war. The Phoenicians are the main force of the Persian navy, and there is no lack of training.

But there is an important problem. The Phoenician city-states in the Eastern Mediterranean are under Persian rule, and their warships are also attached to the Persian Navy. Of course, it is impossible to leave privately and go to the Western Mediterranean. Therefore, Tyre, Sidon... must also send The messenger went to the Persian royal court and sought permission from the Persian king Artaxerxes.

Since the signing of the Great King's Contract, the Greek city-states, Persia's biggest enemy, have not only ceased to be enemies with Persia, but instead let Persia act as an arbitrator to mediate conflicts and disputes between the Greek city-states, which is equivalent to expressing submission to Persia. Artaxerxes consciously achieved great feats that the great ancestors could not achieve. In addition, the political situation in Persia was stable at this time, and the four barbarians worshipped him. His throne was very stable. Moved, ordered to attack Egypt, although suffered a small setback, but did not hurt.

Under his orders, more adequate preparations for an attack on Egypt were under way in the kingdom.

The messenger of Tyre met Artaxerxes and conveyed to him the request of the Phoenicians.

This is not the first time Artaxerxes has heard the name "Dionia". Although the two countries are thousands of miles apart, the prosperous maritime trade in the Mediterranean also makes the news spread quickly, and the Kingdom of Dionia quickly The magical story of the rise is also widely spread in Asia Minor, and naturally in Persia.

The Persian King Artaxerxes began to pay attention to this newly rising kingdom in the far west because his intelligence department discovered that Dionysus was originally a country established by the Greek mercenaries who followed the rebellion of Cyrus. After all, Greece The story of the mercenaries who traveled thousands of miles in Persia and finally escaped was popular in Greece and also spread in Asia Minor, but it was a disgrace to Artaxerxes and his Persian army.

Under further investigation by the royal intelligence services, Artaxerxes learned more. For example, he knew that the Dionysian kingdom was more tolerant of foreign gods and religions like Persia; he knew that the Dionysian kingdom was like Persia. the same, to exercise stricter control over the conquered lands; he even knew that Dionia and Egypt had formed a military alliance not long ago... So in Artaxerxes' mind, the kingdom of Dionia was Persian. The enemy, but the country is too far apart, and its strength is too insignificant (Artaxerxes and many Persian officials think so), so I didn't take it too seriously in the past.

But since something involved Dionia now, Artaxerxes was of course willing to cause some trouble for it, so he did not think too much about it, and agreed to "the Phoenicians sent a fleet to aid Carthage", and They were also generously allowed to use the Persian flag if necessary.

With the promise of the Persian king, the Eastern Phoenicians soon dispatched a fleet of 130 large and small warships, including 90 three-tier oars and 30 cargo ships carrying food supplies. Under the banner of the Persian Navy,

Unimpeded along the coast of Asia Minor all the way west, the Greek city-states who saw this fleet along the way felt a little nervous, and they all secretly speculated: What major military action is the Persians doing?

The most nervous is undoubtedly the Athenians, because at this time it is uniting with Thebes against Sparta, and the Persian fleet sailing west at this time can not help but make them panic: Does Persia want to support Sparta and join the war ? If so, the prospects for Athens will be very bad!

The Eastern Phoenician fleet was like a stone that fell into a water bottle, causing waves, but it did not attract much attention from the Dionysians, because Dionia was dealing with several wars with all her might and was temporarily divided. They don't have the energy to pay attention to the affairs of the Eastern Mediterranean, and in the hearts of the Dionians, they believe that it is impossible for the Persian fleet to attack the Western Mediterranean, and let them stir up the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean as much as possible.

Furthermore, as autumn is approaching, the farmland in Dionia is about to get a bumper harvest. The merchants of the kingdom no longer buy grain from the Eastern Mediterranean, but instead dispatch a lot of people to the Latium region in central Italy, in an attempt to make a fortune in this area. The newly conquered territories of the kingdom gained new business opportunities and gained more profits. Naturally, the number of Dionysian merchant ships passing through the trade routes of the Eastern Mediterranean was greatly reduced, which also made the Ministry of War obtain little information about the Persian fleet. .

Later, the westbound Eastern Phoenician fleet docked at the port of kydonia in Crete, which made the Athenians even more nervous, because the Cretan city-states were allies of Sparta, among which Kydonia Asia is closer to the Greek mainland side.

But a few days later, the Athenians got the news that "the Persian fleet has disappeared in Crete", which made them puzzled, but then no one saw the fleet on the coast of mainland Greece.

In fact, after the East Phoenician fleet rested in Kedonia, taking advantage of the strong north wind blowing on the sea one day, it quietly left the port and sailed to the southwest, avoiding the frequent and common routes of Greek merchant ships, and arrived in Sri Lanka. Bada's son, Cyrenaica, then continued west along the coast of Africa to Leptis, the easternmost Phoenician colony in Africa.

The crew of the Phoenician fleet relaxed only after arriving here and being warmly welcomed by the townspeople. The fleet continued westward, eventually reaching hadrumetum.

This Phoenician city-state attached to Carthage is just south of the city of Carthage, but there are few foreign merchant ships. After talking to their compatriots along the way, the Nikians realized that the Dionysian navy with which they were about to fight was strong, so they refused to enter the city of Carthage, lest they be forced to do so because they could not evade the Carthaginians' pleas. To confront the Carthaginian navy head-on, but to choose the timing of the attack.

Of course, there is another reason not to be declared. Although the Eastern Phoenicians have close business contacts with Carthage, the two sides have rarely conducted high-level political and military exchanges for decades. On the one hand, it is because of the Persian The reason, on the other hand, is that the East Phoenicians (especially the Tyre nobles) have always cared about Carthage, which once took away all their colonial trade points in the Western Mediterranean, and did not want to enter Carthage, which is called "The center of the West Phoenicians".

Later, the Eastern Phoenician fleet at Hadrumetum refused to provide escort for the landing of the Carthaginian army in Sicily, because it would necessarily mean that they would be subjected to a frenzied attack by the Dionysian navy.

After the Carthaginian army ventured into Sicily, the Dionysian navy focused its attention on western Sicily. At the suggestion of Marco, the commander of Carthage, the Carthaginian senate consulted with the East Phoenician fleet. Only finally agreed to Marco's plan.

The fleet quietly left Hadrumetum and sailed north, barely making it to Kossyra.

Kosula is a small island belonging to Carthage, with a Carthaginian town of about 2,000 people and a small port on the south side of the island. The island is located between Sicily and Carthage, facing the city of Serinus to the north.

The Eastern Phoenician fleet was crowded on the island of Kosula. After a few days, the clippers sent out to investigate brought back the news. As expected, Dionia's warship was leaving the port with a full load of soldiers!

How could the East Phoenician fleet miss this great opportunity to annihilate the enemy, so the warship left the port, raised its sails, and sailed north on the weak south wind, finally catching up with the Dionysian fleet in time.

The Eastern Phoenician ships lowered their sails and began to speed up their paddles. The entire fleet gradually spread to both sides as they advanced, but they did not implement any special tactics. The situation of the Dionian fleet ahead was not worth their time. To arrange tactics, they just try to increase the number of front-line warships as much as possible, and strive to sink enough enemy ships in the first impact.

The Dionysian Clippers, which are now in the outer patrol position, have raised two yellow flags one by one from west to east. The rough information on the enemy's situation has been spread throughout the team, and the warships near the flagship of Myrtias have begun to move towards The coast retreated, but the easternmost warship had just received the signal to "close to the flagship". The entire fleet was chaotic and unable to coordinate, and the warship was almost incapacitated, causing the crew to panic and demoralize.

……………………………………

At this moment, Sekelian, who already knew that there was an enemy, commanded the clipper to catch up with a returning three-tier oared warship, and then he anxiously ordered: the clipper immediately approached.

Then, standing on the bow, he shouted, "I'm Cykrian, who is the captain of this ship?!"

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a loud exclamation from the cabin of the opposite warship: "Did you hear it? It's the voice of Lord Sekelian!"