Because of the island of Hira on the east side, the three Dionian warships had to bypass it in order to retreat, so that the sides and stern of the ships were exposed to enemy attacks, and perhaps the fast warships could escape the attack, but the two clumsy clumsy Raven warships were probably not able to escape their fate, and in such a dangerous situation, the three warships invariably chose to stay and fight.

Morbar originally thought that the three Dionian warships would choose to retreat, because the difference in strength was so great, but the other party chose to stay and fight, the battle morale of the Dionian Navy was so strong that he sighed today, so he changed his mind, and did not command the flagship to follow the two fleets together, but chose to stay with the other 19 warships, although he had learned a lot about the Dionian Navy from many people before, and now he wanted to see with his own eyes what the combat level and tactical characteristics of the Dionian warships were?

Next, the actions taken by the Dionian warships made him frown again, for they did not attack blindly, but quickly gathered and retreated to the coast of the island of Hira, the two crow warships were in the front, in the shape of an inverted "eight", and the fast warships were in the rear, in the middle, this shape was like a lobster sticking out of its burrow and sticking out two large mastiffs, because there were islands in the back as a barrier, they only had to deal with the threat from the front.

It can be seen that the Dionian Navy not only has a high morale, but also is well-trained, tacitly coordinated, and has a high sense of tactics! …… Morbar's face was solemn.

The Carthaginian warships began to attack: first, the two warships went around the flanks of the two raven warships and made a charge, and the crows moved their bows to the side and back, so that the two warships did not dare to act rashly; However, the crow warship deviated outward, which inevitably exposed their inner hull more, so two more Carthaginian warships quickly rushed towards the inner hull of the Raven warship, for the Raven warship, if it moved its bow inward, it would inevitably expose the outer hull to the other two warships under the collision angle, which was a dilemma.

At this moment, the captain of the fast warship shouted to the crow warships on both sides: "In the middle of me! ”

After saying this, the sailors on the ship tried their best to speed up the row, and the fast warship quickly turned from stationary to forward, because his bow was not facing any of the enemy ships, but was going to pass between the two ships, which gave the captains of the two Carthaginian warships the illusion that the enemy saw that the situation was not good, and was ready to take advantage of the gap to escape.

It was too late, too soon, and the boatswain of the fast warship heard the captain on deck shouting: "Turn left!" Hit horizontally! Fast! Fast! ”

The boatswain was stunned: Wouldn't this be to completely expose his hull to the enemy ships outside?!

But he immediately understood the captain's intentions, and suddenly his eyes were red, and he hissed, "Turn left...... Hit horizontally! ”

Although the sailors also had doubts, years of hard training allowed them to quickly carry out their orders.

And at this moment, the two Raven warships moved inward at the same time, which immediately compressed the dodge space of the two Carthaginian warships on the inside. When the surrounding Carthaginian warships realized the danger, they immediately launched an attack on the three Dionian warships.

However, the Dionian warship did not dodge, and the two crow drawbridges landed on the deck of the Carthaginian warship on the inside, and the fleet infantry quickly rushed across the drawbridge, while at the same time, the sailors, at the urging of the boatswain, reluctantly left the cabin, went up to the deck, and watched the Carthaginian warship rush towards their warship with tears in their eyes: most of them were survivors of the storm at sea, and finally there was a new warship, and the first battle would be sunk......

The three Dionian ships were hit by the Carthaginian ships, and the crews jumped into the sea, but the fleet infantry quickly cut down the few Carthaginian infantry on deck, rushed into the bilge, and faced the panicked Carthaginian oarsmen, this time the fleet infantry stabbed them to death one by one.

The screams of the Carthaginian sailors resounded across the sea, and the other Carthaginian captains were so moved that they should send all the deck soldiers on the ships to these two ships to defeat the Dionian soldiers and save the oarsmen on board.

Morbar flatly refused, he was already half-absorbed into the loess, he was used to life and death, and did not care too much about the lives of these three or four hundred Carthaginian and Phoenician lowly oarsmen, and did not want these warships to be delayed for this, and judging from the current situation, even if all the deck soldiers were dispatched, they might not be able to defeat these well-trained infantry of the Dionian fleet.

Up to now, the surprise in his heart had not dissipated: with his own side occupying an absolute advantage, the three Dionian warships quickly and decisively adopted effective tactics while they were still trying to seize their own warships, and actually succeeded in capturing two warships at the moment when the rabbit fell!

The outstanding performance of the Dionian warship made him shudder and his heart was very uneasy, so he did not hesitate to give the order to "sink his own warship".

When the warship was rammed, dozens of Dionian soldiers with short swords and leather shields quickly rushed to the deck, jumped into the blood-stained water, and swam to the beach not far away with relative ease...... While Molbar was surprised, he knew that the Carthaginian sailors on the island of Hira were in serious trouble.

But he had no time to care about this at the moment, and he had to immediately lead these warships into battle against the lured Ionian fleet, and destroy as many Diorian ships as possible, so as to live up to the sacrifice of these Carthaginian merchant ships.

The Dionian ships scattered on both sides of the island of Hira were also besieged by the superior forces of the Carthaginian fleet, and they also put up a stubborn resistance to delay the Carthaginian fleet's sweep to the east.

In the small area of sea in the middle of several islands, with the flagship of Stefacas as as the center, warships are gradually converging......

When Morbal led his fleet around the island of Hira, Stefacas, who had gathered just over 30 ships, did not hesitate to attack the Carthaginian fleet, which outnumbered him.

Morbar had realized in the previous observation of the battle that the Dionian fleet had a terrible advantage in the overall tactical coordination and gang jumping operations, and between the island of Hira and the islands on the east side formed a small circular sea area but there was not enough space for the Carthaginian warships to do a large range of maneuvers, but it was conducive to the greater play of the unique tactics of the Dionian fleet. Destroy the scattered Ionian warships, and finally gnaw off the hard bone in the center".

Of course, Morbar also wanted to see the enemy in the center continue to pursue and sail away from this narrow sea, so that the Carthaginian fleet would not hesitate to concentrate all its forces and destroy it.

……………………………………

The Carthaginian fleet led by Barikos followed a zigzag route, trying to keep a short distance from the Dionian fleet.

The main fleet led by Sekrian pursued them relentlessly, especially the fast warships gradually approached, and sank many merchant ships. Another 10 fast warships, under the orders of Secrean, did not follow closely behind like the other warships, but sailed straight to the port of Lilippa as fast as they could, cutting off the return route of the Carthaginian fleet, and gradually forming an encirclement.

When Barikos saw an enemy ship intercepting in front of him, he did not panic, but gave a frantic order: "Turn around!" ”

In a completely headwind, the ship that had just turned around had little speed, and thanks to the skilful maneuvering of the helmsman and oarsman, it narrowly avoided the Ionian warship that had to move forward by inertia, and the other Carthaginian merchant ships did the same, but in the process, at least seven merchant ships were rammed and sunk.

The Dionian crews were not happy about this, because the rest of the Carthaginian merchant ships once again broke through their encirclement, which was simply a silent humiliation of the Dionian navy.

The Dionian ships turned in pursuit, but Barikos turned their bows again, facing east, and the sails turned to the right, and with the help of the southwest wind, they clinged to the Dionian ships and staggered past them.

At this time, the crew of the Dionian warship was already so angry that their faces were red and their necks were thick, and even some of the fleet infantry on the Raven warship actually threw their short swords directly at the Carthaginians on the merchant ships that approached them.

Barikos led more than 30 merchant ships through the gap between the Dionian warships, sailed directly to the coast not far away, and then clinged to the coastline and turned south.

Secrean was dumbfounded, he didn't expect the Carthaginians to play this trick: that's the coast! The Carthaginian merchant ship was small and light, and it could be stranded in a position that could be stranded for the warship, and there were many reefs near the coast, and the Carthaginians were familiar with the sea conditions, but the Dioonians were not, and it was easy for the ship to crash into the reef and be damaged.

The Carthaginian merchant ships toyed with the Dionysian Sicilian fleet to applause, angering the ever-confident Secrean, who, in order to save the honor of the navy, vowed to sink these daring enemies today.

While he sent a small number of warships to speed up to Mazara and Lilipa, the others cruised along the coast between the two cities, keeping an eye on the Carthaginian merchant ships, and unless they abandoned their ships and landed, the Sicilian fleet would confront them in this way, and even Secrean was ready to call back a few clippers and let them try to approach the Carthaginian merchant ships.

After a while, several clippers arrived, and the extra one brought an emergency.

"Our detachment is being raided by the Carthaginian fleet to the north!" When Secrean heard the news, the anger burning in his heart was instantly extinguished, and some of his doubts about the previous two Carthaginian fleets were instantly solved, but his anxiety was expanding sharply: obviously this was a conspiracy planned by the Carthaginian navy, and there must be sufficient preparations, and the situation of the detachment was very dangerous!

At this time, Sekrian could not care about the Carthaginian fleet in front of him, which had repeatedly challenged his dignity, and he quickly recalled the warships scattered in the sea between Liliba and Mazara, which took some time.

………………………………………

Morbar, of course, had not forgotten the main Dionian fleet to the south, and he was quick to get the news when Sekrian assembled his ships and headed north.