As a result, Shilos slowed down the siege again, cutting down trees and making siege equipment.

As the Dionians were about to begin their assault on Maidma, the Lokry, who were confronting the Corennian army, wanted to come to the rescue, but they were powerless.

What worries them even more is that once the Dioonians capture Mademar and the Daly coalition forces pour out of the ancient road from west to east, Lockley's situation will become very dangerous!

Therefore, Lockrie sent five fifty-slurry clippers, risking a huge risk, paying the heavy price of two being rammed and sunk and two captured, to break through the blockade of the Dionian fleet and enter the port of Siritin.

Only then did Dionysius know that not only was he using the peace talks to delay time in the past few days, but Davers was also not idle, he not only forced Coronia to surrender, but also dared to divide his troops to defeat Locklee's army while besieging him, and took Trina and Hibernian lightly, and even Medmar was in danger, completely separating Siritin from Lockley. It can be seen from this that Davers probably has no sincerity in peace talks at all!

This discovery pained Dionysius: it was clear that the young consul was not as politically naïve as his age, but as insidious as his military command, paralyzing himself while rapidly devouring Syracuse's allies in Greater Greece, hoping to finally annihilate his army completely!

Sensing Davers's true intentions, Dionysius would not sit idly by, and whenever reinforcements arrived, he had to be ready.

………………………………

The next day, Antonios met with a subordinate sent by Antrapolis, the head of Davers's intelligence service in Sicily, who brought Antrapolis' suggestion: he hoped that Antonios would use Meiaro as a bait to lure Syracuse and his allies to attack, so as to void the defenses of the city-states of Catanay, Leotini, and Syracuse, and create conditions for Dionysius' opponents to riot.

After a cursory understanding of the arrangement of Antrapolis in several major city-states in eastern and central Sicily, and in order to reduce the obstacles to future attacks, Antonios agreed after thinking about it.

While waiting for the enemy to attack, he freed the old men, women, and children of Sikuli who had been imprisoned, on the one hand to reduce the consumption of food, and on the other hand, to have these people bring a message to the people of Sikuli: the Dioonians had come to Sicily only to avenge the invasion of Great Greece by the Syracuses, and had no intention of encroaching on the territory of any city-state, nor were they intended to be enemies of other city-states, and were willing to work with the Sicilian city-states to overthrow the tyrannical rule of Dionysius.

Antonios also sent a brave Naxos to Tauromegnan to the north, conveying the same message to them. However, the envoys sent did not return, which shows the ill will of the Campanian mercenaries towards Dionia, but they did not rush out of the city and down the mountain to attack the exile crowd who were marching east along the valley of the Alcatara.

The exiles were making their way into Mejaro and were warmly welcomed by the town's First Legion. Antonios' available troops gradually became abundant, and he put Laodisian and Lesipellatus in charge of placing these newcomers, and at the same time sent out the young and strong ones and issued them with leather shields and bayonet guns, and in less than two days, he had nearly two thousand more reserve soldiers available to him.

That afternoon, just as Antonios was rejoicing at the strength of his army, he received a report from the scouts: an army with a banner of "three-legged patterns" and a large number of soldiers was entering Sikuli.

Antonios knew that the army of Syracuse was coming.

Soon, his few scouts were driven away by the Syracuse cavalry and had to retreat to the north bank of the Alcantara River, while on the south bank appeared several generals wearing colorful crowned helmets, under the protection of the guards, gesturing in the direction of Meyaro, and stayed for a while before leaving.

Antonios knew that the arrival of the war would only be a matter of one or two days, and even if it was too late today for the Syracuse to attack, there would be a fierce battle in the town of Meyaro tomorrow!

He suppressed the tension in his heart and carefully recalled in his mind the deployment he had made in the past two days, so as to find out if there were any oversights and omissions......

………………………………

The next day, the weather was clear and windless, which was just right for combat. This was not good news for Antonios, who hoped that heavy rain would undoubtedly make it more difficult for the Syracuse to attack Meiaro, especially since the swelling Alcantara River would make it difficult for the Syracuse to cross the river.

By morning, the sentry on the watchtower could already see the billowing dust and smoke to the south.

But it was the port that first discovered the enemy, and the sea of the port appeared with the fleet of Syracuse.

Antonios, who received the news, did not show any unusual emotions, but he knew in his heart: the Syracuse people were advancing by sea and land, obviously to cut off the retreat of the First Army, cut off the support of the First Army, and to encircle and annihilate.

So, he hurriedly asked, "How many three-layer oared warships are there?!" ”

"The exact number is not clear, it looks no less than our fleet!" The sentry at the harbor lighthouse replied. The fleet at sea is not like the troops on land, which can occupy a radius of more than ten miles when sailing, and it cannot be explored only by relying on the fixed watchtower on the shore.

Of course, Antonios also knew something about this, and he could not fight at sea, so he had to rely on Secorian.

"Let the people and patrols of the port withdraw to the town immediately!" Antonios immediately gave the order. The port was not in the town of Meyaro, and there were no walls to protect it, so there was no need to waste limited manpower to protect a port that was impossible to hold when a large army was overwhelmed, and he had to concentrate his forces on the impending land attack. Even if the Syracuse fleet were to land on the coast near the port and burn the port for the transfer of supplies for his First Legion, he could not care about it at the moment......

But the Syracuse fleet did not land in the port, nor did it burn it, because the Sicilian merchant ships that had been on this route for the past two days had already informed Syracuse of what they had discovered: every morning the Dionian fleet would depart from Ligim and arrive at the port of Meyaro, patrol until the afternoon, and then return to Ligem, so unless the naval commander of Syracuse was a fool, the ships anchored at the pier would have become the targets of the subsequent arrival of the Dionian fleet to practice ramming.

The commander of this Syracuse fleet was called Paronisus, he was a Syracuse nobleman, and he was also one of the friends who supported Dionysius with Herolis at the beginning, and he was quite talented in commanding ships, so when the navy led by Reptines defeated Carthage, the people of Syracuse called for him to be the new commander of the navy.

However, when Dionysius led his army to invade Great Greece, he still appointed his younger brother as commander-in-chief, which made Paronisus unhappy, and he believed that this was Dionysius helping his brother to restore his reputation, and everyone knew that Dionia's fleet was weak and victory was easy.

Who knows, when the news of the Syracuse navy's repeated defeats came, Paronissus was shocked and angry. This time, in order to destroy the landed Dionians, considering the resentment of the civilians and freedmen in the bay against the city-state, Felistosus chose Palonisus as the commander of the navy, just to use his prestige among the sailors to make the attack at sea smoother, and Palonisus also wanted to prove to Dionysius that his choice was wrong with a big victory.

At this time, the ships of Syracuse were moored in the sea outside the harbor, with their bows facing north, waiting for the arrival of the Dionian fleet.

…………………………………

The Dionian fleet was heading south along the east coast of Sicily.

Day after day, the repetition of tasks such as escorting the Lijim fleet and patrolling the sea near Mejaro had already made Sekrian a little bored, seeing that Dionia's land forces were attacking the enemy in Greater Greece on a large scale, attacking the city and achieving brilliant results, while the navy, which first laid the foundation for the victory of the Dionian Alliance, could only assist the army in escorting, patrolling and other inconsequential tasks, Sekrian felt helpless, if it were not for the importance of this expedition to Sicily, he would rather stay in Liguim, Let the subordinate do this boring task for him.

Just as he was sitting on the deck, wondering whether to continue exploring the great harbor of Syracuse with the fleet after escorting the fleet this time, the lookout on the mast suddenly shouted: "There is a fleet ahead!" There are a lot of warships! ”

As soon as Sekrian heard this, he immediately got up: the fleet that can appear in this sea area can only be the Syracuses!

He finally became excited: "Syracuse's fleet is coming to attack, blow the trumpet of attack, and we will meet it!" ”

At this time, the captain of the ship said with some concern: "General, the people of Syracuse are prepared, I am afraid that there are more warships than us, and there are no 'crows' on our warships, you see...... Isn't it for now—"

"Shut up!" Sekrian shouted, glared at him, looked angry, and reprimanded, "How did I not find out that you are a coward!" Don't you dare to have a naval battle without the Raven Drawbridge?! Do you still deserve to be a brave sailor? Just go and be a hoplite!

A few decades ago, the weakened Athenian navy was able to defeat the Persians, the inexperienced Spartan navy was able to defeat the Athenians, and today I, Secorian, can defeat the Syracuse in the most orthodox naval battles without relying on infantry! ”

Sekrian looked proudly ahead, and the captain bowed his head in shame.