Davers listened to these words, but he didn't think so, during the time he spent with Midorades in Latium, according to his observations: Midorades is indeed not an extroverted person, but he is also a strong person, the reason why he has never made any harsh demands to the Ministry of War in the past, unlike Sekrian who often proposed to the Ministry of War to increase the number of warships, increase the number of personnel, improve the port facilities, etc., is because he may feel that he does not have any outstanding records, so he is not qualified to open this mouth, But his performance in this war can be said to be quite impressive, even better than the performance of the Sicilian fleet led by Secrean, in this case his mentality will naturally be different from the past, and the mentality of the crew of the Third Fleet will also rise, and it may not be easy to let them bow down and be small.

At this time, Printors said: "Your Majesty, although the Third Fleet has only 150 ships, they can defeat the Carthaginian new fleet that once guarded Sardinia, and I think they can also deal with the current Carthaginian fleet independently." And judging from the performance of the Third Fleet some time ago, they are very good at raiding the enemy on the shore, in this case, we can completely let the Sicilian Fleet and the Third Fleet be one south and one north, and not subordinate each other, and at the same time give them the task of blockading the western waters of Sicily, attacking Carthage and allied territories, and annihilating the Carthaginian fleet......"

"Hmm......" Davers' eyes lit up, and he subconsciously tapped the back of the chair with his fingers.

"Your Majesty, how can this be done, this will be a mess! Not to mention that Secrean will be dissatisfied, the two fleets are not subordinate, there is no coordination, and then it will be chaotic, such as blockading the western waters of Sicily at the same time, such as raiding the same place at the same time......"

"It's a problem, but Seklian and Midorades are very smart people, and they consciously coordinate each other's actions." Davers said disapprovingly, and then he raised his voice again: "Let the Sicilian Fleet and the Third Fleet go their separate ways, to accomplish the same mission, and let them compete with each other." I think it's a good idea, because competition will force both fleets to reach their potential more, give them more motivation, and make them more proactive, and that will be a disaster for the Carthaginians! ”

“…… I understand. Tolmide glanced at Printors and asked, "Your Majesty, do you want to tell Sekrian about this?" ”

Davers shook his head and said: "The Sicilian fleet was humiliated before, Sekrian was inspired to decide to carry out this raid mission, he now needs more patience and meticulous preparation, tell him at this time, I am afraid that he will be mentally unbalanced, and tell him after he successfully returns." ”

"Yes."

There is another important reason why Davers readily agreed that the two fleets would compete with each other: no high-ranking general could dominate the army, Alexis and Prosous were slightly stronger, Amintas, Shilos, and Kapus were not bad, and most importantly, his own position in the army was unshakable. But for the navy, Seklian's prestige is too high, and Davers can't personally command the navy, so in the past, Sekerian said nothing in the navy, although Davers took some measures, such as "building four fleets, no naval commander...... but during the war, he still had to rely on Seklian, and now there is finally a Midorades with outstanding ability, of course he has to give support, which is conducive to the separation of power in the navy.

So he continued: "Although the Ninth Legion cannot come to Sicily, but Plesonius has captured the main city of Syracuse, and the Seventh Legion and the Eighth Legion have no task for the time being, so they can follow the Third Legion to operate on the north coast, the Carthaginians must not know this news yet, the Phoenician city-state on the north coast should be relatively empty in defense, and it is just right to seize this opportunity to give the Carthaginian army a surprise blow, as for the specific target of the attack, let Prosous and Midorades discuss and decide." ”

Tolmide and Printors nodded yes.

"How are the troops doing?" Davers asked again.

"Because there are a lot of new recruits in the legions, and there are also Roman soldiers who have joined the legions, they are training these days to integrate these recruits into the legion as soon as possible......," Tolmide said.

"Let them hold on tighter, it may not be long before they go to war."

……………………………………

At dusk, Sekrian received an order from Davers to approve his raid, and he quickly gave the order to put all the crew to bed as soon as possible, so as to have enough energy for the second day of adventure.

He consulted with some of Selinus' old sailors, determined the route of the voyage, and discussed with the three commanders of the detachment and the infantry commander of the Sicilian fleet how to storm the city of Hadrumentum according to the information confided by the Phoenician captives from the eastern Mediterranean, and was busy until late at night.

On the second day, before dawn, the port of Selinus was bustling.

The crew got up early, washed, dressed, and had breakfast, and then, under the leadership of the boatswain, they went to the dock of the warship to which they belonged, and everyone worked together to drag the warship into the water, and then boarded the ship, and took their places. Then the fleet infantry that had already been assembled in a group of 40 quickly went up to the deck of the Raven warship.

When all of this was in place, a glimmer of light was just showing at sea level.

Sekrian strode onto the flagship, and the captain greeted him with a look of joy: "My lord, Poseidon bless, there is a slight north wind now!" ”

"Okay, that's a good omen!" Sekrian smiled as well, took the large wooden cup from the captain's hand, walked to the side of the ship, prayed and thanked Poseidon, and solemnly poured the wine from the wooden cup into the sea.

"Let's go." He said.

The flagship raised the green flag, but did not blow the trumpet, for fear of alarming the Carthaginian army outside Selinus, and alerting them to inform the Carthaginian fleet.

But the captain of each warship kept an eye on the flagship, and as soon as he saw it sound the flag, he immediately prepared to set off.

The first to leave the port was the detachment led by Stepakas, who was last attacked by the Carthaginian fleet, but Stepacas showed calm and managed to save more than half of the ships, so Seclian was still relieved to give him the responsibility of being the vanguard, because of his steadiness.

Stefacas's ship sailed at the head of the team, and on the deck sat two old sailors of Selinus, in this era when there was no compass, it was more difficult to discern the direction on the vast sea, especially at night, experienced old sailors were good at observing the stars in the night sky to discern the direction, and now the sky was just bright, the stars were still visible in the gray sky, and at the same time, there was the sun on the horizon as a mark, it was easier to grasp the course.

All the ships of the Sicilian fleet hoisted their sails and went straight south by the north wind.

More than two hours later, Stefacas, sitting on the lookout on the ship's main mast, shouted: "There is an island ahead!" ”

Stepacas immediately leaned on the railing at the bow of the ship and stared forward, while asking, "Is it Ursula?!" ”

The two old sailors looked ahead with wide eyes, but they were too far away to see clearly.

After a while, until they saw the outline of the island, they nodded again and again and said, "That's right, it's it!" ”

"Raise three green flags! Order the sailors to sprint at speed! Stefakas gave the order decisively, and his greatest fear was that the people on the island found their fleet and fled in advance.

But he was clearly overthinking.

At this time, the sun had just jumped out of the sky, and many people of Kosula had not yet gotten up, and no one had gone out to sea to fish so early.

As a result, the ships of the detachment led by Stepacas arrived quickly and blocked the only port on the south side of the island.

The 1,500 infantry of the fleet, who had already stripped off their armor, only leather shields on their chests (because of their buoyancy) and short swords strapped to their backs, all jumped into the sea, swam past the improvised barrage chains and water gates, swam into the harbor, and soon boarded the docks.

By the time all the Sicilian fleet had gathered in front of the port of Korsura, the entire island had already been captured by the fleet's infantry.

The first step was a success, and it did not relax Sekrian, and he gave the order: leave half of the clippers, with the island of Korsura as the center, to investigate the situation in the sea to the southwest, and if there is anything unusual, immediately rush to the coast of Hadrumentum and inform the entire fleet. All the ships did not stop here, and continued to sail south, heading straight for the city of Hadrumentum.

……………………………………

Psyrica, the commander of the Phoenician Combined Fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean, as a great nobleman of Tyre, he was actually very reluctant to lead his army to the Western Mediterranean, but Tyre and other Phoenician city-states relied heavily on the precious metals provided by Carthage to protect the position of the Phoenician region in the Persian Empire, so they had to help Carthage win the war at sea and ensure the smooth navigation routes, and as the admiral of Tyre who served for Persia, he was the undisputed commander of the Combined Fleet.

The Tyrians, especially the aristocracy, had mixed feelings towards Carthage. Hundreds of years ago, a group of rebels were expelled from Tyre and eventually exiled to the Western Mediterranean, where Carthage was founded. At the time, the officials Tyre sent to the Western Mediterranean in charge of the mining and transportation of precious metals did not even bother to stay in the city-state founded by the rebels.

Who knows that hundreds of years of changes, Phoenicia was first conquered by Assyria, and later became a dependency of Persia, Tyre's control and influence on the Phoenician colonies in the Western Mediterranean was greatly weakened, while Carthage gradually rose, and gradually took over the power and wealth left in the Western Mediterranean by Tyre, Sidon and other Phoenician city-states in the Eastern Mediterranean, and finally became the most powerful Phoenician colonial city in the Western Mediterranean.