"Every time I talk to you, I always get rid of a lot of troubles." Pelopidas said half-jokingly and half-seriously: "I won't talk to you more, I will visit the other councillors next...... By the way, we should let the Dionians know how much pressure we have put on and how much effort we have put in to maintain this alliance, and it is better that you quietly send someone to Messenia tomorrow to let the Dionians know about this and prepare early. ”

"Okay, I'll send someone." After Ipamilonda sent Peropidas out of the door, he returned to the study, looked at the plan of the Dionian military camp drawn on papyrus, and picked up the pen again, but his mind was too disordered to calm down for a while, he subconsciously tapped the word "Dionia" on the paper with the tip of the pen, and only thought about one thing in his heart: no matter how beautiful Peropidas's idea was, first of all, it had to be up to Dionysia to defeat the Spartans as soon as possible......

…………………………………………………………

These days, the commander of the First Fleet, Seklian, was in a bad mood, not because the new army commander, Klotocatax, although when he first arrived, Sekrian did not go to greet him out of the reserved nature of a veteran, but on the second day His Royal Highness the prince personally visited the camp of the First Fleet near the coast, and treated Sekrian very respectfully, and finally moved Sekrion, and he took the initiative to promise that he was willing to lead the fleet to fully cooperate with the army.

The reason for Sekerion's displeasure was that although he had already occupied the island of Kythera in the Gulf of Laconia and completely blockaded the coast of Sparta, Sparta's mercenaries recruited from outside the mainland had landed in the Peloponnese, making it more difficult for the army to conquer Sparta.

Although this was not the fault of the First Fleet, and before Seclian left Turiyi, Davos had instructed him that after the First Fleet reached the waters south of the Peloponnese, it should try not to cross the Gulf of Laggonia and patrol the east coast of the Peloponnese, or even further north, to avoid arousing the displeasure of the coastal city-states of Argos, Corinth, and even Athens.

Sekerian had been strictly following the teachings of King Davers, but he did not expect that the cunning Spartans not only let the mercenaries land in the port of Corinth, but also that in the past few days, there have been frequent grain ships into the port of Corinth, with enough mercenaries and a steady supply of military rations, the Spartans have the confidence to fight the Dionian army......

Just as Sekerian was sulking in his tent, the staff officer walked into the tent: "Your Excellency, you have just received a report from the clippers and found 5 cargo ships full of soldiers, heading for the Isthmus of Corinth. ”

Sekrian stood up suddenly: "Where did you find it?" Which city-state's ship is it? ”

"It should be near the island of Naxos (not Naxos in Sicily, but an island in the Aegean Sea), and it is estimated that it has now entered the port of Corinth. As in the past, these ships flew the flags of the Greek city-states of Asia Minor, such as Miletus, Samos, Ephesus, and Halicarnassus. The staff officer replied with a slight indignation.

"Bang!" Sekrian kicked over the seat, his face cold as frost, and he paced quickly in the tent, his hands clenched into fists.

Suddenly, he stopped and shouted like thunder: "Order the crew to push the ship into the sea and prepare to sail!" ”

The staff officer immediately understood his intentions and hurriedly persuaded him: "Your Excellency, please calm down! His Majesty Davers has given an order—"

"That's not an order, it's just a reminder, and Your Majesty uses the word 'as much as possible'!" Secrean said emotionally: "We didn't want to have a conflict with these city-states, but these Greek city-states colluded with the Persians, took advantage of our forbearance, and continued to transport food to the Spartans, and now they are sending soldiers to Sparta again, in the long run, our war with Sparta will become very difficult, which will cause huge losses to the interests of the kingdom, so our navy can no longer stand by, we must take action!" ”

Speaking of this, he softened his tone: "You are still young and not familiar with Your Majesty's style, he never gives death orders to the generals of the unified army who go on expeditions to war, but allows them to make their own battle plans according to the actual situation on the battlefield. Now it's time for us to change our strategy! ”

"My lord, I see." The staff officer quickly accepted Sekerion's point of view, in fact, he was also holding back a fire in his heart: "Which detachment are you going to send?" ”

Sekrian replied categorically: "All the ships of the First Fleet!" ”

"The entire First Fleet?!" The staff officer was amazed: the more than 500 warships of the 1st Fleet, just to sink a few troop and grain carriers, it is simply a knife to kill chickens.

Secrean saw through his thoughts, and said in a deep voice: "This time it is not only to capture or sink all the ships that carry grain and troops to the port of Corinth, but to completely hurt them, so that they will never dare to help the Spartans in the future!" At the same time, it is also an armed voyage of our 1st Dionian Fleet into the Aegean Sea, to show the Greek city-states that we are powerful, and to make the city-states who want to oppose us reconsider whether they are capable of it! ”

"Yes! I'm going to tell the whole fleet to get ready to sail at once! ”

More than an hour later, Sekrian boarded his flagship, hoisted the flag of sailing, and the trumpet was sounded, except for the two ship columns anchored on the island of Kythera, a total of 50 warships, to blockade the Spartan coast, (after the Western Mediterranean War, under the instructions of Davers, the Ministry of War made a readjustment of the navy, not only changed the four fleets into three major fleets, but also changed the composition of the fleet, clearly stipulating that the detachment had 100 warships under its jurisdiction, consisting of four columns, each column was 25 warships, Thus the warship column became the smallest unit of the Dionian navy) All the remaining warships, about 500 ships, arranged in four columns, sailed mightily eastward.

After the fleet had rounded the cape and turned north, Sekrian gave another order: given the large number of islands in this area and the fact that the fleet was unfamiliar with the sea conditions, it slowed down and moved along the east coast.

After giving the order, Sekrian returned to his seat to rest.

After the end of the Western Mediterranean War, the Ministry of War held discussions with the commanders and shipbuilding engineers of the fleets on the question of whether the flagships of the fleets needed to be redesigned and improved.

It was proposed to create "the flagship of the fleet based on the double-headed dragon ship of Carthage"; It was also suggested that "the former Carthaginian four-decker galleys could be improved as the flagship of the fleet......

Sekrian objected, arguing that both the two-headed dragon and the four-layer oared warship were too clumsy and bloated, and the admiral would never let one ship slow down the entire fleet and affect the combat efficiency because of greed for enjoyment......

Sekerion's opinion was supported by the commander of the 2nd Fleet, Midorades, and the commander of the 3rd Fleet, Stefacas, and in the end the change of the flagship was not resolved.

Aside from a slightly larger hull and a taller mast, Sekerion's flagship was not much different from the Raven Ship. The stern of the ship was sitting, and the tail of the ship was tilted upwards like a scorpion's tail to form a pocket, in which a wooden chair was placed, and he was comfortable sitting in it because of the top of the ship to block the sun.

Sekrian put his hands on the handles of the wooden chairs and looked out of the warship: the water here was exceptionally blue, and the wind and waves were very small, and the warship sailed very smoothly; Turn your head to the left to look, not far from the coast on the strange rocks, strange peaks stand, because it is the good season of spring, the cliffs are full of green trees and red flowers, pleasing to the eye; Looking up at the sky, there are white clouds floating leisurely above the clear sky, flocks of seabirds chirping from time to time, and the gentle sea breeze carrying the cold water gently brushing over the face, which is refreshing......

While Sekrian was enjoying a rare moment of comfort, the inhabitants of the shore were terrified. This stretch of coast is still part of Sparta, and although most of it is steep, there are still a few small seaside villages and towns.

During these years of war, the people of the villages and towns here often saw fleets passing through the nearby seas, either ships from Athens and their allies, or the fleets of the Peloponnesian League, but they had never seen such a terrible scene: countless warships covered most of the sea as far as their eyes could see, and each ship was as black as ink, as if the blue water had been blackened......

Just as they were panicking and running north along the coast to inform the people of Sparta of this astonishing news, the advance of the black fleet had turned to the northeast.

After bypassing the peninsula to the east of Argos's territory, the 1st Fleet entered a large bay, the Bay of Salon, as if from a sparsely populated countryside into a bustling town, and hundreds of ships loaded with goods could be seen passing through this large bay, most of them to Athens in the north, some to Corinth in the east, and a very small part to Megara in the southeast, even during the war. As a result, it has long been one of the most prosperous bays in the Mediterranean.

But at this moment, the First Fleet of Dionya was like a hungry wolf breaking into the flock, and for a time the chickens and dogs jumped, and the panicked ships took refuge, and soon the lively bay became much quieter again, and there were no other ships around the ships of the First Fleet.

The captains of the 1st Fleet apparently did not care about such a change, and they had planned to turn their ships around and head east, deep into the interior of the bay.