As soon as Miltias left, Leotizides said, "Tagru, you go and inform the troops who are going to the rescue to rush to the port immediately." ”

"Yes, Commander." When Tagru received the order, he did not immediately carry it out, but asked with some confusion: "Are the Carthaginians too risky?" They sent an army of tens of thousands of men through the mountainous areas where transportation and grain transportation were inconvenient, separated by Selinus and Minoa, to capture Agrigento, and once our reinforcements arrived and their attempts were frustrated, these tens of thousands of Carthaginians might not even need us to attack, and they would be defeated because of the lack of timely supply of food......"

"Yes, this Carthaginian commander Marco is really adventurous, and it seems that he has great confidence in the capabilities of his army." Leotizides looked at the wooden map hanging on the wall, his eyes shining: "So our reinforcements must be fast. ”

……………………………………

Since the occupation of Selinus by the Dionian army, half of its harbor was quickly converted into a rudimentary military port, which not only allowed the ships of the Sicilian fleet to dock for supplies, but also to be pushed ashore for maintenance and repairs...... This enabled the fleet to have a stable and secure foothold in western Sicily and facilitated its patrols and attacks on the western seas.

Now, more than 150 warships of the Sicilian fleet are docked at the docks, and soldiers from the friendly city-states of Minoa, Agrigento, Gera, Kamanlina, Eknom and other friendly cities on the south coast, as well as 1,000 Dionian reserve legionnaires, a total of 6,000 soldiers are boarding the ships in batches.

In order to be able to transport this support to the port of Agrigento in one go, Milthias did not even let the soldiers of the fleet board the Raven warship, just to make more space for the warship.

Sekrian objected to this, arguing that the entire fleet should not be used to transport soldiers, but at least half of the warships needed to be used as escorts, which was a necessary vigilance for a naval commander.

Miltias retorted: "If only half of the ships are freed, it means that half of the soldiers must be transported a second time, and now that the enemy situation is urgent, who will bear the responsibility in case Agrigento is defeated due to lack of troops?" Moreover, after completing the delivery of troops, the Sicilian fleet had to go to the west for a cruise, so there was no delay.

Once again, the two sides parted unhappily.

Sekrian simply boarded the first Clipper to leave the port, out of sight and out of mind.

In order to save time, each ship was to be loaded with soldiers, and then set off immediately, so that when Miltias boarded the last flagship and left the port, the whole fleet spread eastward for four or five miles, forming a single straight line that zigzagged and slowed down, as each ship was full of soldiers.

Miltias was also a little anxious about this, and he looked at the soldiers lying on the deck with a sad eye, and estimated the time it would take to get from Selinus to Agrigento at such a speed, and by the time the transport was over, it would have been afternoon, and it would be impossible for the fleet to patrol again.

At this moment, he hoped that there would be a relatively strong northwest wind like the day the Carthaginian army landed, so that the voyage time could be greatly shortened.

And just as he was thinking about it, an exclamation suddenly sounded above his head: "Attention! Note! There is an enemy situation in the southeast!! ”

Miltias was shocked, and then wondered: the ships of Carthage had been destroyed, where did the enemy come from on the southeast sea?

While he was confused, the lookout on the mast shouted anxiously again: "The clipper has raised two blue flags!" Two blue flags! ”

The blue flag means that it is not the Carthaginian warship that appears, otherwise the clipper ship will raise the yellow flag as soon as possible, but the two blue flags mean that there is a fleet nearby, and the number is comparable to that of the Sicilian fleet, regardless of whether it is hostile or not, it poses a considerable threat to the Sicilian fleet.

Miltias felt panicked, and he gripped the side of the ship and tried to look southeast, but he could only faintly see a few small dots on the sea in the distance.

Neither Miltias nor Flarios had any experience in commanding large-scale naval battles on their own. During the Southern Italian War, Miltias was only the captain of a three-layer oared warship, and after the establishment of the 4th Fleet, the Ministry of War once provided Davers with a number of candidates for fleet commander, whose qualifications, achievements, and abilities were similar, and Davers was difficult to choose for a while. In the end, he chose Miltias because Miltias had served as the captain of the ship on which Davers was sitting, and Davers still had some impressions of him, which added points to him.

After becoming the commander of the Fourth Fleet, Miltias spent most of his time leading fleets cruising the Adriatic Sea, fighting pirates, and helping the army transport baggage, and the only so-called naval battle was to attack the Meppu Combined Fleet when Dionia conquered Mesapi and Puchetti, because the opponent was too weak to defeat it with little effort.

Now that Miltias might encounter the first naval battle, the situation was so complicated: it was impossible to distinguish whether the other side was friend or foe, so that he could not make a sudden decision to meet him; Not only did their own fleet not form a formation, but each ship was full of soldiers, which slowed down the speed and weakened the ability to fight; At this time, the entire fleet was located in the sea near Germe, so it was difficult to retreat, and as a small town, Germe's small and humble port could not accommodate the Sicilian fleet.

Under such circumstances, he inevitably panicked, tried his best to calm himself down, and then gave the first order: "Raise the banner of Apollo and blow the trumpet!" ”

With the blowing of the military trumpet, the golden flag rose to the top of the mast and fluttered in the wind.

The ships in front of the flagship heard the sound of the trumpet, saw the fluttering flag, and turned their bows to move closer to the ship of Miltias.

The slogan of the Apollo flag is: take the flagship as the center, move closer to it, and shorten the distance between the warships to facilitate command and defense.

Mirthias's thought at this time was that now the fleet was full of soldiers, which was not conducive to combat, and his flagship was located closer to Selinus, and when all the ships were coming towards him, if this strange fleet really attacked, then he could lead the fleet back to Selinus first.

The Dionian fleet stretched too long on the sea, especially the ships at the front, and the lookouts could not see the flag on the rear flagship, nor the signal from the clippers cruising in the flanks and rear, and they could only make corresponding changes after seeing the ships in the rear make tactical maneuvers, and the transmission of this message was a little slow at this critical moment.

……………………………………

The clipper that Secrean was riding on had already distanced himself from the whole fleet because he had gone the earliest, and since he had been sitting in the bow of the ship since he got on board, the crew could see that he was in a bad mood, and no one dared to come forward to disturb him, and the whole ship was unusually quiet.

At this time, he suddenly froze, touched his ears, and asked the captain who was watching the sea conditions, "Did you hear that?" It seems that there is a military trumpet. ”

The captain shook his head blankly, listened attentively for a while, and then replied truthfully: "My lord, I didn't hear it. ”

The captain's words did not reassure Sekrian, he stood up, looked behind, and then looked up and asked, "What happened to the ships behind?" ”

After a while, the lookout at the top of the mast replied, "They haven't changed much." ”

"Your Excellency, maybe you misheard." The captain said.

Secrean was stunned, and there was a uneasiness in his heart that might have been planted when he learned that Miltias had filled his fleet with soldiers without escorting the ships, but now it had become stronger.

He no longer hesitated, and said decisively: "Turn around and drive back to see." ”

The captain complained a little in his heart that he was suspicious, but he did not dare to object to his face, after all, Seklian was a hero admired by the former naval commander, the victorious general, and the crew, and his prestige was too high.

………………………………………

Just as the Dionian ships were turning around and returning, the fleet was also approaching the Sicilian fleet, and many small black dots had appeared in Miltias's field of vision, which made his heart tremble.

At that moment, he heard the exclamation of the mast-top looker: "Two yellow flags!" Two yellow flags were raised! It's the enemy! It's the enemy!! ……”

The last luck in Mirtias's heart was shattered, and now the other warships have not completely approached, and it is too late to retreat back to Selinus, but fortunately, while waiting, he already has a prepared plan: "Blow the trumpet again, let the warships dock at the nearest beach, lay down the soldiers, and then return to battle!" ”

Of course, these latter words could not be expressed in the words of the flag, so his flagship had to be the first to set an example for the other warships to follow suit, so after giving the order, the flagship headed straight for the coast.

The Dionian clippers cruising on the southeast side of the fleet didn't actually know the approaching fleet, but as the opposing ships continued to approach, the formation slowly expanded, the sails were lowered, and the oars began to slide at an accelerated pace, this was the process of preparation for the standard fleet before entering the battle, and of course it was undoubtedly the enemy.

It turned out that the fleet was not from Carthage, but from the Phoenician region of the Eastern Mediterranean. After the storm destroyed Carthage's navy, the Carthaginians lost their naval superiority completely, and the Dionyan Sicilian fleet ran rampant at sea, not only cutting off Carthage from Sicily, but also beginning to threaten the Carthaginian city's maritime trade. At this time of life and death, Carthage was thinking of its home country while stepping up the construction of new warships.