The Magonides were opposed to the continuation of the peace talks, arguing that the greed and ambition of the Dionians could be seen from the terms of the peace talks put forward by the King of Dionia, and that they wanted to occupy the land and wealth controlled by Carthage, destroy the hegemony of Carthage, and reduce Carthage to an ordinary city-state, which was unacceptable to all Carthaginian citizens! The senators must abandon the illusion of peace, renew their determination, and devote all their strength to support the Carthaginian army of Sicily and fight Dionysia to the end, and perhaps the tide of war will turn around as time goes by!

The neutralists, led by Esyaruba, said that the negotiations could continue, but not in too much of a hurry, and that they could drag it out first, and increase military support for Marco and Morbar, hoping to change the arrogant attitude of the Dionians with one or two victories, so as to make the negotiations easier.

The Senate was debating for several days because of the peace talks, and was unable to reach a final resolution, but the situation became more and more powerful against the Magonides, as the news of the peace talks leaked out, and the people learned of the harsh conditions put forward by Dionia, and in anger, they forgot about the threat of the Dionian navy to Africa, and strongly demanded that the Senate continue to fight Dionysa to the end.

It can be said that the city of Carthage is very lively these days, and there are people everywhere who gather to criticize Diony's greed and shamelessness, so when the Dionian fleet attacks today, there will be a lot of Carthaginian merchant ship owners gathered and took the initiative to express a strong desire to fight to Morbar, you must know that although the Carthaginian fleet won in the previous naval battle, the losses of Carthaginian merchant ships were heavy, and more than half of the shipowners and crews failed to return to port.

"Hmph, if this naval battle is won, then what more peace talks! If our fleet can continue to fight, and continue to win a second and third victory, and finally regain control of the western seas of Sicily, then Margot's army will no longer have to worry about the transportation of food, and can go to war with the Dionian army, and the whole battle will be in our favor! Pretakuba said loudly from the side.

Ocliton wanted to retort, but Hanno said loudly, "We all want it!" Hope Barr. Harmon bless Carthage! After saying that, he actually closed his eyes and began to pray.

Seeing this, the surrounding patriarchs also vied with each other to pray, and in an instant, the atmosphere in the whole city became solemn.

But their prayers didn't seem to have played much of a role, the Carthaginian merchant ships disrupted the formation of the Dionian fleet, giving the Carthaginian fleet an advantage in the initial attack, but this advantage was not too great, because the usual starry formation of Dionya has always placed the crow warship at the forefront of the attack, and today is no exception, although because of the confusion of the formation, the forward speed of all the warships was affected, but using speed to ram is not the characteristic of the crow warship, what it is good at is that the bow is 12 meters long, The flexible swiveling drawbridge, which swings its bow in place even if the ship is stagnant, poses a threat to ships that come close to it.

Of course, the confusion of the formation will cause the ships in the rear to not be able to reinforce the raven ships in the front in time, especially when the drawbridge of the raven ships hooks the enemy ships. And the Carthaginian double column formation is precisely to use speed, cut into the enemy formation, and non-stop to create a dilemma for the enemy ship to fight more and less, of course, this requires the crew to have superb ship management skills, and the Carthaginians are best at this.

So at the beginning, there were many such scenes on the battlefield, the drawbridge of the crow warship had just nailed a Carthaginian three-layer paddle warship, not long after the fleet infantry rushed onto the enemy's deck, the crow warship was slowly sunk because the friendly ship failed to reinforce in time, and was hit hard by the next Carthaginian warship and slowly sank, and the Carthaginian oarsmen were no longer afraid of the 40 fleet infantry who rushed into the bottom warehouse because they were inspired by the heroic behavior of the merchant ships and the ardent hope of their families on the shore in the rear. They drew out daggers that had only been equipped not long ago (because only hanging daggers would not interfere with their paddles, and they were relatively cheap and easy to equip) and wood pulp, and put up a stubborn resistance.

Even if the infantry of the Dionian fleet had undergone a long period of military training and were heavily armed, it would have been almost impossible to defeat the nearly 200 high-morale Carthaginian sailors and completely occupy the entire ship without spending a certain amount of time and casualties.

The Dionian Third Fleet was at a disadvantage in the early stages of the battle, but after years of hard training and the Naval Battle of Sardinia, the crew was convinced that victory would still be theirs no matter how difficult the situation was, so they fought stubbornly and tried to correct their previous mistakes.

With the passage of time, the initial decline was slowly reversed by the Third Fleet, the most important reason is that the warships of both sides have been in full contact, and have entered a full-scale melee from the initial tactical contest, and such a battle situation is more beneficial to the Dionian fleet that has been training continuously all year round.

However, there was only one type of three-layer oared warship in the Carthaginian fleet (because the Carthaginian senate considered that more warships should be built as soon as possible in order to form a new fleet, so the four-slayer oared warships and double-headed dragon warships were not included in the construction plan for the time being due to the time-consuming manufacturing of them), and their tactics of mutual cooperation were relatively monotonous, and the crews had to worry about not being nailed by the bow of the raven warship and its drawbridge, and they also had to be wary of the sudden attack of the elusive fast warship, and often took care of one or the other.

When the naval battle entered the white heat, most of the Carthaginian merchant ships had sunk, and the remaining small part did not dare to be in the battlefield at all, because the warships were so dense, whether it was the enemy or our side, they were all engrossed in maneuvering the warships without stopping to charge, circle, turn, and crash, and fight to the death with the opponent, and they would not dodge because of the existence of merchant ships at all, and a slight impact could capsize them, and even the most arrogant Barikos drove the merchant ships and retreated to the coast.

When he came ashore, the Carthaginian people bowed to him to show their respect, and then shouted his name and applauded as a sign of etiquette for heroes.

Barikos was inevitably smug in his heart, and in front of the crowd of people, he bragged about his adventures in the merchant ship to tease the Dionian warship.

Just as some of the porters were attracted by Barikos's remarks and exclaimed from time to time, suddenly the whole beach was in an uproar, and people kept exclaiming: "Our fleet seems to be retreating!" ”

"It can't be!" Barikos wanted to refute these nasty voices loudly, he didn't want to see the opportunities he and his companions create by their adventures and sacrifices go to waste.

But in the distance, all the warships of Carthage were indeed retreating.

The two sides have been fighting until now, even the flagship of Midorades has been thrown into the battle, the only one who has not joined the battle is the Carthaginian flagship where Morbar is, it has been stationed not far from the battlefield, the lookout on the mainmast has been describing the battlefield he saw to Barikos on the deck, Morbar judged the development of the battle according to this, when he realized that the Carthaginian fleet had lost the initial advantage, and the Dionian fleet entered into a stalemate melee with the Dionian fleet, He already understood that the tide of the battle was beginning to turn against the Carthaginian fleet.

So, he decisively let more than a dozen buglers blow the horn of retreat.

The Carthaginian captains, who had received Morbar's solemn instructions before boarding the ship, heard this trumpet, and immediately turned their ships and retreated without hesitation.

Naval warfare is different from land warfare, although the two sides are engaged in a melee, but the warship needs enough space to fight, so the interval between ships is still large, once you choose to retreat, it is difficult to be surrounded.

Moreover, the Dionian fleet has a weakness that is not too big, as the main force of the crow warship is not as fast as the ordinary three-layer oared warship, if the opponent escapes with all his strength, it is difficult to catch up, and the fast warship that is known for its speed and flexibility is relatively small in size and weaker than the ordinary three-paddle warship, so it does not dare to break away from the crow warship too much and pursue the enemy ship for a long time to prevent being counterattacked. So the Carthaginian fleet, having paid some price, began to break away from the battlefield and retreat eastward.

After learning about the sudden change in the situation of the battle, of course, Midorades would not allow the Carthaginian fleet, which had been lured out with great difficulty, to escape into the port smoothly without suffering too much losses, so he ordered: The fleet will pursue with all its strength while basically maintaining its formation!

The Carthaginian fleet was retreating, the Third Fleet was in pursuit, and there was no time to stop, and the original battlefield was full of floating crews, broken beds, some oarsmen killed by the fleet's infantry, or ships that were visibly damaged and unable to move......

Seeing this situation on the seashore, Barikos feared another defeat of the fleet, but he was even more worried about his compatriots who were soaked in the sea, so he raised his arms and shouted: "Follow me to save our brave warriors!" ”

With that, he took his crew and pushed the cargo ship docked on the beach back into the sea and headed for the battlefield ahead, and the other remnants of the merchant ships soon followed.

Inspired by this, many port people also drove their own fishing boats to the battlefield to rescue their compatriots.