After everything was arranged, Fasipesas was still a little worried: "My lord, if it still rains tomorrow and ...... next few days."

"You can rest assured that I asked a few old fishermen who have lived here for decades, and they all agreed that it will be sunny from tomorrow, and you can see that the rain is much lighter today!" Dionysius looked around at the crowd and encouraged: "Everyone, you must seize these two days and build enough siege equipment as soon as possible!" Fasipesas, your task is a bit heavy, in order to prevent the siege tower from being pushed in front of the north gate of Crotone due to the muddy ground, you must build at least five strong causeways, can you do it?! ”

"General, you've already allocated me enough manpower, it's no problem at all!" Fasipesas promised.

"Good!" Dionysius looked at everyone with confidence: "Guys, in two days, we will attack Crotone again!" After this battle, I will celebrate you in the temple of Apollo in Crotone, and don't let me down! ”

The generals swore in unison: "Apollo is above, we will definitely break through the city of Crotone!" ”

The atmosphere in the tent was warm, and Dionysius was also infected by it, and said with a smile to Master Phoebe, who had been silent on the side: "That Davos dares to proclaim himself king, and Sparta has no punishment for this?" ”

You must know that before the Greco-Persian War, Sparta had a name called "liberators", and they also claimed to be liberators, because they overthrew one tyrant after another in Greece proper, and even on the islands of the Aegean Sea, such as the descendants of the tyrant Pisistratus of Athens, the Areus family of Thessaly, etc., so the Greeks once thought that Sparta was extremely hostile to the dictatorship.

Phoebidas glanced at Dionysius and said, "You only know about Davers, why don't you look at yourself first?!"

Of course, he couldn't have replied like this, but replied coldly: "Isn't it enough to have Syracuse as a punishment?" ”

Dionysius laughed.

At that moment the tabernacle was lifted, and the attendant hurried in and whispered beside Dionysius.

Dionysius's smile suddenly froze on his face, and his face immediately became extremely ugly, and he said, "Ah! With a roar of rage, he suddenly kicked over the table beside him, and then grabbed the attendant officer with one hand, and shouted angrily: "Where's Reptines! Where's this damn bastard?! Let him roll over and see me!! ”

The attendant was shocked by the anger of Dionysius, and said in a trembling voice, "Your Excellency...... Master Leptignes...... wounded, in his tent...... Receiving treatment ......"

"Get this coward out of here! Even if he dies, bring his body to me! Dionysius was furious, and shouted in a cold tone.

"Yes...... It's ......" the attendant ran out of the big tent in a hurry.

There was silence in the tent, except for the rapid breathing of Dionysius and the sound of pacing back and forth.

"Could it be that the fleet has suffered a setback?" Finally someone asked the question that everyone wanted to ask.

Dionysius glared at each other and found that the person who spoke was Phoebedas, and only this Spartan dared to speak when Dionysius was angry.

Dionysius looked at him, turned back to sit back on the wooden chair, and exhaled heavily: "It's not just a setback, it's a great defeat!" ”

Defeated?! And all the people in the tent were astonished.

"My lord, is it ...... Did the Carthaginians go to war? Fasipesas asked cautiously.

The hearts of the people were tight: with the strength of the Syracuse navy, only the Carthaginians could be called an opponent in the western Mediterranean. If Carthage were to go to war, Syracuse in Sicily might be in some danger!

Facing more than a dozen pairs of slightly panicked eyes, Dionysius felt even more breathless in his chest: "Don't think about it, Carthage did not participate in the war, it is the fleet of Dionia...... Single-handedly defeated our navy and left our more than 300 warships ...... Two-thirds were lost, of which nearly 200 were lost by the three-layer oared warships......"

What the!!! It was as if the tent had exploded, and the crowd could not believe the fact that the Syracuse navy would have been so badly defeated in the face of the Ionian fleet, which was far weaker than it!

You must know that since the last naval defeat to Carthage, after several years of construction and accumulation, it was not easy for Syracuse to make the number of warships reach 500, including more than 300 three-layer oars. In this expedition to Great Greece, Reptines accompanied all of them except for a few dozen ships to stay in the port of Syracuse, and then stationed dozens of ships in Messina to blockade Ligem and control the strait. The rest of the ships were led by Reptines himself, and all of them took part in this naval battle, only to be defeated and defeated by Dionia, who had not had a ship a few years earlier! It's simply ......

"Don't make any noise!" Dionysius, who was already irritable, was even more upset by the dispute among the generals: "What happened in this naval battle, I will know all when Reptines comes, now keep me quiet!" ”

As soon as the words fell, silence returned to the tent. Only this time, the restless and irritable became all the people in the tent.

With the order of Dionysius, Reptines came quickly, only to see him stumble into the big tent, plop down on his knees, and say in a trembling voice: "Great ...... My lord, I ...... I'm guilty! ”

When Dionysius saw that his head and arms were wrapped in linen, and the blood stained him red, and his appearance was miserable, a trace of unbearability rose in his heart, and he was immediately overwhelmed with anger: "You have come at the right time, everyone really wants to know how you destroyed more than 300 warships!" ”

There was so much hatred in his voice that Leptinies couldn't help but shudder several times.

Dionysius looked at him like this, and his heart was even more angry, and he grabbed the iron sheet that had just been picked up by the guards on the table, threw it violently, and hit Leptinies on the forehead, and immediately the blood flowed out, but he did not dare to scream.

"Say it quickly!" Dionysius pointed at him and roared.

"Yes! Be! ......," Reptines replied.

The generals who were originally angry with him all felt a little pitiful for him at the moment, but Phoebidas looked calm. Spartans were beaten with sticks by instructors if they were disobedient from an early age, and when they grew up, they would be beaten if they failed the training assessment, and they would be beaten even more if they failed in battle...... The Spartans were cruel to their own citizens, even more so to the blacks and the allied soldiers, and this kind of stick violence often made other city-states reluctant to approach Sparta, and the Spartan citizens had long been accustomed to it. Therefore, Phoebidas even felt in his heart: for this kind of general, who caused huge losses to the city-state, he should be hung up and beaten to death.

Reptines trembled and briefly recounted the entire naval battle.

After listening, Dionysius's face was calm and fell into thought: "You mean...... The Ionians installed wooden bridges on their warships that could hook approaching ships and then won by soldiers boarding the ships to fight? ”

"Yes...... Yes. This wooden bridge of theirs is nimble and can be turned in all directions, so that our ships cannot attack around the rear. Reptines hurriedly argued.

"Now that you already know that the ship-ramming tactics don't work, why not retreat in time?!" Dionysius cursed.

Reptines was speechless.

"He wants to capture the new king of Dionya and end the war." Phoebe Das sighed: "So that Davers guessed your idea in advance, so he used himself as a bait to lure your warships to attack desperately, thus capturing a large number of your warships, leading to your fiasco...... What an amazing commander Davers is! ”

Dionysius glared at him, but Phoebidas didn't care at all.

Fasipesas found a problem in Reptines's account and asked urgently: "General Reptines, to hear you say this, those warships captured by the Dionians did not cause much damage, wouldn't they soon be able to use these warships against us?!" ”

Everyone's faces changed.

"Uh...... This ......," Reptines was a little confused about how to answer.

"Humph! If the Dioyans want to expand their fleet, they need to have so many sailors! Dionysius's words reminded the generals present: That's right, there are a hundred three-layer oared warships captured in Syracuse, and to restore them to combat effectiveness, at least thirty or forty thousand sailors are needed. Judging from the situation of the Dionian Alliance territory that we have learned so far, their young and middle-aged people have been invested in the expanded army and navy to cope with the wars that have occurred in many places, and they should not be able to take out such a large number of young and middle-aged manpower. And not everyone can become a qualified sailor immediately, which requires a long period of cooperation training. Experienced helmsmen aren't easy to get together!

The generals breathed a sigh of relief.

"Leptinies, your defeat has caused great trouble for our army!" Dionysius looked angry and asked in a cold voice, "I ask you now, if the Dionian fleet comes to attack, do you have the confidence to lead the remaining ships to victory?" ”

The generals immediately turned their attention to Reptines again, which made him even more nervous and afraid, and he subconsciously touched the bandage wrapped around his head with his hand, and the wound under the bandage was still cut by himself with a knife, in order to win a trace of sympathy from his brother.

"Speak!" Dionysius shouted angrily, and he was so frightened that he hurriedly said, "Such as...... If I can lead the fleet of Dionyas into the deep sea, and slowly circulate with them, I ...... I have some certainty of defeating them. Their warship erected such a large wooden bridge on the foremast, which easily caused the warship to be heavy in the bow and light in the tail, not only ...... Not only is the speed and flexibility worse, but it is also easier to capsize when the sea encounters strong winds and waves, but it is ...... If you are offshore—" Reptines cautiously glanced up at Dionysius, then lowered his head and said, "Resist their attack head-on, and our fleet will probably ...... Will it fail......" In the end, his voice was completely weakened.

Dionysius was no longer as angry as he had been at the beginning, and after thinking about it, he had to admit that this novel naval tactic of Dionya had caused great trouble to Syracuse, and that anyone who was the commander of the fleet would suffer greatly without knowing it.