Chapter 297 Flanking Before and After the Saros Naval Battle

"Woo!..." The bugle blew, and two long cloth ribbons, one red and one black, quickly fluttered on the top of the flag on the flagship's main mast.

The other warships also saw the warning flag ahead. At this time, the flagship sent out the message of attack, and the originally dull fleet suddenly became lively. The captain's command, the reminder of the watchman, and the horns of the sailors kept changing. Each warship was sent out, causing the formation of the entire fleet to begin to change.

The Third Fleet is no longer a column of four-way warships, but rapidly moves forward and expands to the two wings. The distance between the ships in the horizontal group increases, while the distance between the ships in the column narrows. The formation of the entire fleet From a long snake to a wild goose, the warships of the Third Fleet, which had been established for nearly ten years, were lined up with extremely skilled and tacit speed, and at the same time, they were constantly shortening their distance from the opposite Carthage. Fleet distance.

At this time, on the flagship of the Carthaginian fleet was Annobas, the commander of the Carthaginian navy, and the appearance of the Dionysian fleet in this sea surprised him: Did the Dionysians see through our plan to lure the enemy? ? !

"Sir, do we want to evade temporarily?" the flagship captain asked cautiously.

Annobas looked ahead, pondered for a moment, and then said decisively: "Although some of them are not in line with our plan, the Dionysians are still in a disadvantageous situation. As long as we intercept them, the final victory must belong to us!"

"Sir, but can Admika and the others arrive in time..." The captain's words were vague.

But Annobas understood what he meant, and said in a deep voice: "This naval battle is very important to Carthage! It is also very important to Lord Margo! Admika must understand its importance, and he will do his best to fight for it. go!"

Having said this, Annobas gave a loud order: "Form a circle, prepare for battle!"

After the order was issued, Annobas looked up at the hot sun above his head in disgust, got up and went down into the cabin.

In order to save time and build more warships, the shipyards of Carthage and its allies temporarily gave up the construction of four-tier oar warships and large flagships, so the flagship that Annobas rode on was only three-tier oars. The ship was refitted and there was no ship building, which made him feel a little uncomfortable.

A circular array is a defensive ship array. The warships are arranged in a circle, and the warships are closely spaced. Only the bow of the ship is outward, and the sides and rear are under the protection of their warships, just like a shrinking warship. Hedgehogs with spiky spines formed into a mass, leaving the attacking enemy ships with nowhere to turn their mouths.

Although the circular formation has the disadvantage of slowing the movement of the warships in the formation, its super defensive power is exactly what Annobas needs at this moment. After all, he has experienced the last battle with the Dionysian Sicilian fleet. During the sea battle, I had lingering fears about the attack power of the Dionian warships, so I wanted to use a circular formation to delay the time to wait for the arrival of favorable fighters.

However, compared with other ship arrays, the circular array is not only much more difficult to arrange, but also takes a long time. Just when the ships of Carthage received the command of the flagship, and under the command of the captains, began to gather towards the flagship of Carthage, the Dionysian Third Fleet had already launched an attack.

All the warships of the Third Fleet have lowered their sails, and the Raven warships have also been equipped with drawbridges. After hearing the order to attack, all the sailors fell into excitement, and they quickly stuffed their rations into the mouth. In the middle, while chewing, listening to the commands of the boatswain and the piper, manipulating the oar, constantly increasing the speed of the oar.

At this moment, the watchman on the main mast of the flagship shouted in panic: "General,

A warning appears on the rear warships! Double yellow flags! Enemy ships appear, and the number of ships is similar to ours! "

Midorades's heart tightened, and some doubts in his heart were immediately solved: Why did the Carthaginian merchant ships not flee along the coast, but run to the dangerous sea? Why are these Carthaginian merchant ships seemingly loaded with cargo able to maintain a relatively fast speed and have superb ship handling skills? ... This is the conspiracy of the Carthaginian fleet! They had already had warships ambushing in the open sea, and they used merchant ships to lure us there. When they were at war with us, another fleet came from behind and attacked from both sides. In addition, the battle in the open sea was not conducive to the performance of the crow warships. The three fleets are very likely to suffer a fiasco!

Midorades was terrified, thankful that his last defeat had kept him on his toes.

"General, what should I do?! Do you want the 1st Squadron behind to turn around and go to intercept?!" The captain asked nervously.

In the face of a crisis, perhaps because he was lucky to have escaped the catastrophe, Midorades' mind was particularly clear at the moment, he shook his head, and said in a deep voice: "The number of warships combined by the enemy is nearly twice that of his own warships. It will only weaken our offensive strength... Now the enemy in the rear has just been discovered, and it is at least three miles away from us, and the enemy in front is already close at hand.”

He paused for a while, his eyes became firm, and his tone suddenly became fierce: "Raise two more red flags! All warships are not allowed to make any stops, rush them all for me!"

Three red and one black strips of cloth fluttered on the top of the flagship's main mast. For other warships who had seen warnings on the warships behind, they eliminated the hesitation and hesitation in their hearts. This is even more of a shot in the arm: Offensive! Attack again! Bloody battle to the end!

Encouraged by the boatswain, every sailor had a high fighting spirit, and the speed of the oars soared, making every warship shoot towards the Carthaginian ship array like an arrow from the string.

The crow warship was rushing towards the enemy ship. When the two ships were very close to each other, the sailors immediately put up the oars, and the warship slid forward by inertia under the control of the helmsman. Turning the axle of the drawbridge, when the two ships were about to collide, the operator pressed the handle, and the drawbridge slammed down to the bow of the other ship. They all staggered and fell into pieces.

And the fleet infantry in the crow warship tried their best to control their bodies, rushed to the deck from the cabin, and quickly rushed across the drawbridge. There were only a few soldiers and archers on the opposing warships, and the resistance of the Carthaginian sailors against the heavily armed infantry of the fleet was bound to be a tragedy.

When screams came from the front from time to time, Annobas suddenly realized that he had made a huge mistake: the circular formation was indeed the best defensive formation for warships, but it was also aimed at manipulating conventional three-tier oars. The enemy of the warship, and he is now facing the Dionysian Navy, which is good at hooking ships with drawbridges and conducting gang jumping operations.

Annobas felt regretful at the moment, and instead vented his resentment on the captain: "Why didn't you remind me just now?!"

The captain was speechless because, like Annobas, he had been influenced by traditional naval tactics for a long time. When he encountered an enemy just now, he instinctively would choose the most appropriate tactics to deal with. That is to say, he Just now, I felt that the strategy adopted by Annobas was correct, so I did not express any objection, but completely forgot that what they encountered was an enemy who did not fight according to conventional naval tactics at all. Mainly because Annobas and the others had only fought the Dionysian Navy once, and they were not very impressed with the tactics of their fleet.

"Quick! Quick! Quickly sound the bugle to retreat! Let the warships dodge themselves!" Annobas shouted in exasperation.

The captain was stunned: "Sir, can't we hold on for a while?! Admika and the others may arrive soon!"

"When Admika arrives, our fleet will probably be over!" Annobas roared angrily, completely forgetting what he had just said before. Because of the Dionia fleet ahead, he was here. At that time, he didn't know that Admika was leading the fleet to come quickly.

Unlike the Dionysian Navy, the Carthaginian Navy has developed a complex semaphore system after Davos's suggestion, which can convey orders in a timely and clear manner, but the Carthaginian Navy, which has been at sea for hundreds of years, also has its own a set of methods for communicating orders at sea.

The 10 trumpeters on the flagship deck sounded the trumpets for retreat at the same time, and the hurried trumpets swept out in all directions.

Although the circular formation of the Carthaginian fleet has not been completely completed, the warships are moving closer to the flagship, and the sound of the horn can be heard clearly. But it is impossible to execute this order immediately and let the entire fleet retreat immediately, because this is a circular formation, and the outer warships must retreat first to make room, and the inner warships can retreat.

However, the battleships of Dionia's 3rd Fleet quickly pressed on the entire line, and in a short period of time, they were in full contact with half of the periphery of the Carthaginian circle.

Under the rapid attack of the Dionian warships, it was not easy to retreat smoothly. Now the warships in the forefront saw the friendly ships in front of them being hooked by the drawbridges of the enemy ships one after another. The soldiers of the Onia Fleet rushed to the deck like wolves, and then screamed. The Carthaginian crew members were all frightened and scared to follow in their footsteps. The sound of the retreat trumpet made them feel relieved, and they turned around and retreated one after another. The inner space of the narrow circle became even narrower, affecting the speed of the warship's retreat.

And just at this moment, Annobas, who was regretful, suddenly stopped complaining, and said to the flagship captain uncertainly: "I seem to hear the sound of our attack horn!"

The captain was stunned for a moment, and immediately listened.

At this time, the watchman on the mast shouted loudly: "A fleet has appeared behind the Dionysian fleet! It is our fleet! Lord Admika has arrived!"

Annobas swept away the previous depression. Admika, whom he used to hate and despise in the past, became his most welcome object. He shouted excitedly: "Admika did a good job! Quick! Quickly order the warships. Stop retreating! Immediately attack the enemy!"