Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Carthage's mother state, Ter, received help from Carthage's messengers, and did not neglect. He quickly contacted other neighboring Phoenician city states, such as Sidon, Akka, and Awadi. They finally agreed to assist Carthage. After all, one of the main reasons why the Phoenicians under the Persian rule has been able to live more comfortably in recent years is that each year they offer a huge amount of gold and silver to the court of the Persian king. Taiji traded them at a lower price.

Not to mention that the Phoenician city-state to which the Persian kingdom belongs is not many, and the territory is not large, but they own hundreds of warships. Because the Persians are inland, they are not good at sailing, so its navy is provided by aliens. , Mainly from the Phoenicians and the Greeks of Asia Minor, and in recent years, the Persian king has been regaining Egypt and has been preparing for the army. The Phoenicians are the main force of the Persian navy and there is no lack of training.

But there is an important issue. The Phoenician city-state of the Eastern Mediterranean is under the Persian rule. Their warships are also part of the Persian Navy. Of course, it is impossible to leave without permission and go to the Western Mediterranean, so Tyre, Sidon... must also be sent The messenger went to the court of the Persian king and asked for permission from Artaxerxes, the king of Persia.

Since the signing of the King’s contract, the biggest enemy of Persia, the Greek city-states, no longer no longer enemies with Persia, but let Persia act as an arbitrator to mediate the conflicts and disputes of the Greek city-states, which is equivalent to showing surrender to Persia.Artaxerxes consciously obtained the great achievements that the great first kings failed to achieve, plus the political stability in the Persian territory at this time, and the Siyi worship, his throne is very stable, so he is contented, he will be quiet. Moved, ordered an attack on Egypt, although suffered a small setback, but did not hurt.

Under his orders, the kingdom is preparing to attack Egypt more fully.

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

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 has also made the news spread quickly and the Kingdom of Dionysia quickly The magical story of the rise is also widely spread in Asia Minor, and naturally also spread in Persia.

The Persian king Artaxerxes began to pay attention to this newly emerging kingdom in the far west, because his intelligence department discovered that Dionysia was originally a country established by the Greek mercenaries who followed the rebellion of the small Cyrus, after all, Greece The story of mercenary soldiers fleeing thousands of miles in Persian territory and finally escaping smoothly is popular in the mainland of Greece, and also spread in Asia Minor, but it is a shame for Artaxerxes and its Persian army.

Under the further investigation of the royal intelligence department, Artaxerxes knew more. For example, he knew that the Kingdom of Dionysia was more tolerant of gods and religions of aliens like Persia; he knew that the Kingdom of Dionysia was like Persia. Similarly, stricter control over the conquered land; he even knew that not long ago Dionysia and Egypt formed a military alliance...so in the heart of Artaxerxes, the Kingdom of Dionysia was Persian The enemy is just that the country is too far apart and the power is too insignificant (Alta Xerxes and many Persian officials think so), so I haven’t paid much attention to it in the past.

But now that something is involved in Dionysia, Artaxerxes is of course willing to give it some trouble, so he did not think much about it, and agreed to the "Phoenicians send a fleet to help Carthage", and They also generously allowed them to carry the Persian flag when necessary.

With the promise of the King of Persia, the East Phoenicians quickly dispatched a fleet of 130 large and small warships, including 90 three-tier paddle warships, and another 30 cargo ships carrying food supplies. Under the banner of the Persian navy, unimpeded westward travel along the coast of Asia Minor, the Greek city-states who saw this fleet along the way felt a little nervous and were speculating in secret: What other major military action did the Persians have?

The most nervous is undoubtedly the Athenians, because at this time it was fighting against Sparta with Thebes, and the Persian fleet sailed west at this time, and they couldn’t help but panic: Did Persia want to support Sparta and join the war ?If so, the outlook for Athens will be very bad!

The East Phoenician fleet was like a stone falling into a water bottle, which caused waves, but it did not attract too much attention from the Dionysians, because Dionyssia was working hard to deal with several wars. No effort can be made to focus on the things in the Eastern Mediterranean, and in the minds of the Dionysians, it is impossible for the Persian fleet to attack the Western Mediterranean, allowing them to stir up the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean as chaotically as possible.

In addition, as autumn is approaching, the farmland in Dionysia is about to receive a bumper harvest. Merchants in the Kingdom no longer buy food from the Eastern Mediterranean, but instead mobilize a lot of people to flock to the Latina region of central Italy in an attempt to The Kingdom’s new conquest ground has new business opportunities and more profits. Naturally, the number of Dionysia merchant ships traveling on the Eastern Mediterranean trade routes has been greatly reduced, which also allows the Ministry of Military Affairs to obtain little information about this Persian fleet. .

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

But a few days later, the Athenians got the message "This Persian fleet disappeared in Crete", which puzzled them, but then no one really saw the trail of this fleet on the coast of mainland Greece.

In fact, after the rest of the Eastern Phoenician Fleet in Cedonia, taking advantage of the strong north wind from the sea one day, they quietly sailed out of the port and sailed southwest, avoiding the frequently used routes of Greek merchant ships, and arriving in Sri Lanka. Bada's son Bongsilanja, and then along the coast of Africa, continued westwards to the Leptis, the colonial city most east of the Phoenicians in the Afrikaans colony.

After arriving here and being warmly welcomed by the townspeople, the crew of the Phoenician Fleet relaxed.The fleet continued its westbound journey and eventually reached Hadrumetum.

This Phoenician city-state attached to Carthage was just south of Carthage, but few foreign merchant ships patronized. After the Phoenician fleet stayed at the port, it no longer headed west because of the smart East Phoebe After talking with their compatriots along the way, the Nikki realized that the Dionysia navy they were about to fight with was strong, so they refused to enter the city of Carthage and avoided being forced to rid the Carthaginians of their pleadings. Against the Carthage Navy directly, but want to choose the timing of the attack.

Of course, there is another reason not to preach. Although the East Phoenicians have close trade ties with Carthage, the two sides have rarely engaged in high-level political and military exchanges for decades. The reason, on the other hand, is that the East Phoenicians (especially the Nobles) have always cared about Carthage, who once took away all their colonial trading points in the Western Mediterranean, and do not want to enter Carthage-this is The city called "The Phoenician Center".

Later, the East Phoenician fleet staying in Hadrumetum refused to provide protection for the Carthage army to land in Sicily, because that would inevitably mean that they would withstand the crazy attack of the Dionysian navy.

After Carthage’s military ventured to land in Sicily, the Dionysian Navy’s attention was focused on the west of Sicily. At the suggestion of Carthage’s commander, Marco, the Carthage Senate and the Eastern Phoenician Fleet negotiated and they Only finally agreed to Marco's plan.

The fleet quietly left Hadrummetum and sailed north, barely stationed in Kossyra.

Cosula is a small island belonging to Carthage. There is a Carthage 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 East Phoenician fleet was crowded on the island of Cosula. After a few days, the clippers sent to investigate brought back the news. As expected by Marco, the ship of Dionysia was leaving the port with full of soldiers!

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

The East Phoenician warship lowered its sails and began to accelerate the speed of the pulp. The entire fleet gradually expanded to the sides as they progressed, but they did not implement any special tactics. The condition of the Dionysian fleet in front was not worth their time. To arrange tactics, they just increased the number of battleships in the forefront as much as possible, striving to sink enough enemy ships during the first impact.

The Dionysian Clippers, now in the outpost position, have raised two yellow flags one by one from west to east. The rough message of the enemy's situation has spread throughout the team. The warships near the flagship of Miltias have begun to When the coast retreated, the easternmost warship had just received the signal of "close to the flagship". The entire fleet was chaotically organized and unable to coordinate, and the warships almost lost their combat capabilities, causing the crew to panic and demoralize.

…………………………………………

At this moment, Sekelian, who was already known to be hostile, commanded the clipper to catch up with a three-story paddle warship that was returning, and then he anxiously ordered: the clipper immediately leaned over.

Then he stood on the bow of the ship and shouted loudly: "I am Seckrian, who is the captain of this ship?!"

As soon as his voice fell, a noisy exclamation sounded in the cabin of the warship opposite: "Have you heard? It's the voice of Lord Sectrian!"