The cautious Aritaka even refused the request of the new military commander of Western Asia Minor, Fanabazos, on the pretext of following the orders of the Persian king and guarding the Near East seas, hoping that the Persian fleet would assist the army in Asia Minor and cut off the sea transportation lines of the Greek army landing in Asia Minor, and finally Fanabazos had to let the coastal city-states of western Asia Minor form a new fleet.

Aritaka's rejection of Phanabazos was also partly motivated by selfish reasons: the Phoenician and Greeks in Asia Minor were in commercial rivalry, and the two races had a historical feud (the Persian fleet, consisting mainly of Phoenicians, assisted Darius in conquering the Greek city-states of western Asia Minor), so the two races did not get along well today.

However, when he learned the news that "the newly formed Fleet of Asia Minor was ambushed and annihilated by the Dionian Fleet", although he was glad that he did not agree to Fanabazos's request, he was also very uneasy: after the Dionian Fleet took control of the western waters of Asia Minor, it was likely that its next target would be the Near East Seas!

Therefore, he not only stepped up patrols in the Near East seas, but also intensified the training of the entire Persian fleet, and severely punished several Cypriot and Syrian generals who did not obey orders, and received the full support of the Persian king.

It wasn't long before another important news came from the south: "The king of Dionya himself had landed in Egypt with a large army", and both the Jews and the Phoenicians began to panic because they realized that the Dionian army was really going to invade Persia from Egypt!

But more than a month later, the Dionian army in Egypt did not move, and the Persian generals stationed in Gaza City sent scouts across the desert to spy on the Egyptian border several times, but there was no news.

In order to avoid losses, the Persian general repeatedly sent envoys to Cyprus, asking that the Persian fleet be able to send clippers to the coast of Egypt to spy on the movements of the Dionian army.

Alitaka agreed to the request and sent clippers to Egyptian waters several times, but most of them never returned, and the crew who had managed to escape reported to him that the Dioonians had arranged a lot of warships to patrol the Egyptian waters, and they were heavily guarded, and it was difficult for the speedboats to get close to the coast.

In order to avoid losses, Yalitaka no longer sent ships south to reconnoiter Egypt, but he also strengthened his vigilance in the southern seas.

During this time, the Phoenicians had been looking forward to the arrival of the Persian army, but according to the news from Babylon, the Persian army had been stationed near Baghdad, not far from Babylon, and had no intention of advancing west to aid the Near East......

Among the many rumors, there was one that caused uneasiness among the Phoenicians: "The king of Persia feared the might of the Dionian army, and therefore needed more time to gather more troops before he could confront it."

Aritaka did not pay attention to these rumors, he was concerned with ensuring the safety of the Near East before the arrival of the Persian prince's army, so he would arrive at the fleet headquarters in the largest military port in Cyprus very early every day, and listen carefully to the reports of their patrol teams to find out if there were any anomalies in the entire Near East sea.

On the last day of the end of March, Aritaka came to the fleet headquarters as usual, everything was as usual, he thought that today would be another peaceful day, but at dawn, a patrol ship rushed back to the military port, and the captain hurried into the headquarters and reported to Aritaka in a panic: a large Dionian fleet had been found in the southern waters of the island of Cyprus!

Patrol ships then rushed back to the port, and Alitaka was astonished at what they had discovered: a convoy of about a hundred troop carriers and cargo ships, escorted by hundreds of Ionian ships, was heading for Cyprus......

The intentions of the Dionians are very obvious, they want to capture the island of Cyprus! …… Aritaka suddenly became nervous, of course he knew that in order to prevent the Ionian army from landing on the island of Cyprus, or even completely destroy this troop convoy in the sea, he must first defeat the Deonian fleet of escort ships, which must be a super-large-scale naval battle!

Before he could summon the generals, the Cypriot admirals, who were worried about the safety of their home state, broke into the headquarters, and the admirals of Phoenicia and Cyprus, the two pillars of the Persian fleet, quickly reached an agreement, formulated a battle plan, and then rushed to the military port where their fleet was anchored as soon as possible, and urgently ordered the crew to board and leave the port.

………………………………………………………………

The First Fleet escorted the Dionian troop transports from Egypt to the right and the second to the left, almost in the middle, in a relatively tight mixed formation more than a mile wide and three or four miles long.

The Third Fleet, which served as a reserve, escorted a convoy of heavy ships laden with supplies a few hours after the departure of the First and Second Fleets, and also sailed from the port of Naukratis to Cyprus.

However, after several days of continuous sailing, the huge formation of ships composed of the First and Second Fleets and troop carriers was no longer as neat as it had been when it first set off, and although it did not encounter a storm during the voyage, the strong southerly wind of the day before yesterday also caused more than a dozen Raven warships and troop transports to capsize, and the entire fleet was blown apart, and it took more than half a day to regroup.

In the early hours of this morning, due to the influence of heavy fog and changeable sea breezes at sea, it was not until dawn that Secrean received the news that the entire fleet had once again been dispersed, and that the First and Second Fleets of the First Fleet, most of the Third Fleet of the Second Fleet, a part of the Fourth Fleet, and nearly 100 troop transports were still gathered together, while the other ships were nowhere to be found.

Seklian, who had always been energetic, was a little tired after a few days of wandering at sea, and he didn't even want to complain, but reluctantly gave an order: send clippers in all directions, search for other ships, and inform them to move closer to him as soon as possible.

To this end, he went on to order his ship to slow down and let the guide determine the approximate position of the fleet as soon as possible.

The vast sea has no reference, not to mention the constellation that is daytime and cannot see the sky, and even the most experienced guide cannot determine the position, so he can only roughly judge that the entire fleet is still heading northeast based on the rising sun.

But Sekerian's distress didn't last long, as he received news from the clipper lookout who was directly in front of the fleet that a small warship had been spotted ahead and quickly turned away.

Is it a patrol ship of the Persian fleet ?! …… Sekrian was not surprised: the discovery of Persian ships here does not mean that the Persian military port was nearby! Maybe the island of Cyprus is not far ahead?!

He made a quick decision and sent two more clippers to investigate in the direction in which the Persian ship had disappeared.

While waiting for news, several smaller Persian warships appeared near the convoy one after another, and then quickly sailed away.

The situation is already very obvious, there must be a Persian military port nearby, after these Persian patrol ships go back to report, it is likely that there will be a Persian fleet to intercept it, but at this time there are more than half of the Dionian warships, and the enemy is likely to be at a disadvantage, and the situation is a little grim! …… But after a moment of contemplation, Sekrian gave a decisive order: all ships raised their sails and accelerated to the northeast.

At the same time, he left two clippers behind, stayed where they were, waited for the return of the clippers searching for the remainder of the fleet, and then rushed to the island of Cyprus with the found fleet and fleet.

It can be said that this decision of Sekrian was quite risky, but because of his prestige in the navy, none of the admirals and shipowners present dared to disagree, so the whole fleet had to speed north.

About twenty minutes later, they encountered the clipper boat that had gone to explore the way and returned, and when they learned that the island of Cyprus was 15 miles ahead, both the crew and the soldiers were immediately refreshed.

With the help of a not very strong southerly wind, after forty minutes the flotilla approached the island of Cyprus.

The soldiers on the troop carrier cheered and began to actively organize the packages and weapons, and the crew paddled more vigorously.

Guided by a guide, the flotilla sailed around the western side of the island to the beach where you could land. All the ships were guarding the outer edge of the troop convoy, and the lookouts climbed the masts, all watching the movement in the open sea with wide eyes.

Knowing that there was no enemy defending on the landing beach, and that there was no Persian fleet in the surrounding seas for the time being, Sekrian breathed a sigh of relief and knew that his adventure had been successful: although the fleet had been discovered by the Persian patrol ships, due to the suddenness of the incident and the swiftness of the fleet, it was clear that neither the Persian fleet nor the enemy forces on the island of Cyprus had received the news, but had not had enough time to prepare for a counterattack.

But Sekrian did not dare to take it lightly, he knew that the Persian fleet could appear at any time, so he ordered the crew and soldiers of the fleet to hurry, replenish their water, and regain their strength.

More than 4,000 Ionian legionnaires finally landed on the beach and began to unload the cargo ship in batches.

Seeing this situation, the captain of the flagship of the First Fleet immediately asked Sekorian for instructions: "My lord, our mission to cover the landing has been completed, do you want to return to join the Second and Third Fleets first, and then come back here to find the Persian fleet for a decisive battle?" ”