Instead of sailing northwest with the fleet, Davers sailed straight ahead, through the second water gate, towards the real port of Tarantum.

Despite the wartime, the port of Tarantum was still very busy, even more than usual, because the war increased the demand for various materials in the city, so it took a long time for Davers's ship to dock despite the full assistance of the port personnel.

Davers was not in a hurry, he carefully observed the port, comparing it to the port of Turiyi......

Upon going ashore, Davers and his party, especially the heavily uniformed guards led by Maltius, attracted the attention of many Tarantumites, who stopped what they were doing and watched curiously, and some insiders guessed that this might be Dionian reinforcements, but none of them expressed welcome, let alone the cheers that were common in the port of Turiyi, they just watched indifferently, and some even showed sadness in their eyes. Davos noticed that many of the women wore black cloth on their heads, and that the shadow of defeat in the war was already hanging over the people of Tarantum.

The men of the Senate of Tarantum, out of the reserve of the old powerhouse, did not go to the port to greet them, but waited at the city gates.

"They're coming!" With this shout, everyone shook their spirits and looked forward.

He was greeted by a young man, his expression was calm, his steps were steady, and his body exuded a steadiness that was far different from that of ordinary young people, but as an archon of the city-state alliance, he was indeed too young.

Eumacus touched Diomiras, who was still in deep thought, and was about to remind him.

Diomyras understood what he meant, and preemptively said, "Don't say it, I understand, who told us to ask for help." ”

With that, he strode forward: "Welcome, young consul of Dionia. Like parched fields waiting for rain, we await the arrival of reinforcements from our close allies, Ionia. Thank you, gods, for finally coming! ”

Eumarcus frowned, fearing that Davers would be upset to hear this.

Davers immediately said apologetically: "I'm really sorry!" As you are sure you know, the Dionian Alliance has been in existence for less than two years, and for the first time it has sent nearly 20,000 reinforcements, which is almost two-thirds of the number of citizens of Turii, and it is also in the season of the autumn harvest, and for the first time to transport so many soldiers across the sea, the affairs are too complicated, and we have no experience, so we have only arrived today, and I hope that there is no delay in major events. ”

"It's not too late! It's not too late! You've come just in time! Eumacus hurriedly said, "I really didn't expect Dionia to send such a large team, this really helped us a lot!" Davers, we at Tarantum thank you so much for your generosity! ”

Only then did Polydorus have a chance to interject: "Lord Davers, this is our Archon of Tarantum, Eumacus. ”

Judging from what he had just said, the consul had at least some affection for Dionia, and Davers saluted seriously.

"This is Diomiras, the Archon of Tarantum." Polydorus continued.

And this ...... Davers glanced at him: narrow eyes, thin nose, thin lips, a serious expression, and a mean look, obviously prejudiced against Dionia, according to Aristiras's information, such people were not many in the Tarantum Senate, but Davers still saluted seriously.

Next, he greeted the senators of the Senate of Tarantum, which came from the Council of Elders of Sparta, but compared to the 30 seats of the Council of Elders of Sparta, there were many more senators in Tarantum, and the Senate seats of the Senate of Tarantum, like the consuls, were elected by all citizens every year.

"This is—" Before Polydorus could finish his words, the old man in front of him raised his eyebrows and glared, pointed at Davers and scolded: "You still have the face to come to Tarantum, you swore to promote our school in Amendora, so we sent an apprentice to Amendorara to help you. Who knew that you would not only make them defect from the school, but also let them use money to lure more apprentices out of Tarantum! Because my son still regards you as a friend, is this how you repay the Pythagoreans for their selfless help to Dionia! I'm telling you, you're not welcome in Tarantum! ”

Davers didn't expect to meet someone from the Pythagoreans here, and he was a little embarrassed, so he hurriedly looked back at Polydorus: "Who is this?" ”

"Acheta's father—Histiavis." Polydorus replied.

Davers was moved, he stepped forward, no matter how unhappy the old man was, he bowed respectfully: "Acheta is my friend, I will definitely avenge him, repel the Mesapi, welcome back his body, I hope you can mourn uncle!" ”

"Without the help of Dionia, we in Tarantum can defeat the Mesapi and take back my son's body!" Histiavis had tears in his eyes, but he was still stiff-mouthed.

At this moment, a cavalryman galloped in, shouting repeatedly all the way: "The fleet is back!" The fleet is back! ……”

The senators who heard the news didn't say a word, and immediately left Davers and his party and ran to the port.

Polydorus hurriedly explained to him, and Davers understood and offered to go and see the situation together.

Stand high up outside the harbor and look down at the beach: in the most crowded central pier of Tarantum Harbour, warships line up and slowly enter the ......

Polydorus widened his eyes and counted the number of ships, and the more he counted, the more panicked he became, until finally his voice trembled: "Only...... Only 19 warships, 25 passenger ships ......"

If Davers hadn't held him up in time, he would have collapsed to the ground.

Davos also frowned, according to Glass Dorus: When the Tarantum fleet left the port, it had 80 warships, a hundred troop carriers, and 4,000 soldiers, and now only 1/4 of the ships have returned, and the loss of Tarantum is huge, not only the warships and soldiers, but also the sailors, a three-layer oared warship is full but it takes nearly two hundred sailors, you can imagine how much damage this caused to the manpower of the port of Tarantus......

This also gave Davers a warning: Before gaining absolute sea dominance, we must be cautious when using ships to transport soldiers across the sea to fight!

Everyone in the harbor was in great grief, and Davers could still hear the deafening cry from such a distance, which made him a little moved when he was accustomed to life and death.

Polydorus was still craned his neck to look ahead, hoping that there were still lagging ships that had not entered the harbor in time, but in the end he finally gave up, held Davers's hands tightly, and said in a loud voice: "Lord Davers, Tarantum really needs Dionia's full help!" ”

Davos nodded, thinking to himself: Counting this naval battle, the war between Tarantum and Mesapi may have caused tens of thousands of casualties among Tarantum soldiers, and it has indeed broken bones.

With the Tarantum Senate busy dealing with the aftermath, the forthcoming joint operations meeting had to be postponed.

Davers didn't care, and it was just in time to go back and camp with the soldiers.

……………………………

The defeat of a major naval battle will have repercussions in all directions. Compensating for casualties was only the most basic, and there was also the repair of the remaining ships, the speed of the rebuilding of a new fleet, the pacification of the merchants in the ports, and the fact that the sea trade routes were not cut off by the enemy...... Wait, these complicated aftermath matters could not have been solved in a day or two, but the urgent war situation forced Tarantum to temporarily put it aside the next day, and it was necessary to immediately convene a joint combat meeting to launch a land counterattack against the Meppu coalition forces as soon as possible to reduce the enemy's threat to Tarantum City.

Considering that yesterday the consul of Dionya had been snubbed due to an unexpected incident, Eumacus decided to go and invite him personally.

Riding to the northwest corner of the bay, he was taken aback by the sight of a huge barracks towering in front of him, with trenches, fences, gates, watchtowers, tents...... As soon as it was ready, it only took a day for the Dioonians to build a "city" in this relatively sparsely populated area, which is too efficient!

Of course, Eumacus did not know that Dionya attached great importance to the construction of the camp during the war, and under the initiative of Davers, the army engineers had standardized some of the camp facilities after research and repeated experiments, such as: the materials required for the camp gate and guard tower were made in advance in Turiyi, transported by the baggage battalion with the ship, and after arriving at the destination, they were assembled according to the actual situation, which saved time and effort, and was taken away when the camp was pulled. Of course, the premise is to have a strong logistical transport capacity and good road conditions.

When Eumacus was startled, he heard someone calling him, and when he looked closely, it was Timias, a theater owner in Tarantum City, and he couldn't help but ask a little strangely, "Why are you here?" ”

"Business, of course." Timias pointed to a few women dressed in bewitching clothes around him, and said helplessly: "The war with Mesapi has failed, where do the citizens still have the heart to watch the play, nor do they have the heart to play with the girls, I have not made any profit for two months now." I heard that nearly 20,000 reinforcements from Dionya had arrived, so I came to see if there was any chance to make money, but the guards here didn't let us in! ”

Hearing this, Eumacus was slightly embarrassed, Timias's theater mainly relied on some vulgar and obscene plays to attract the people to earn money, and also provided prostitutes and male prostitutes to the rich part-time, because most of them were actors, and they were more popular, but he did not expect him to pimp and pull them to the Dionian camp. So, he admonished: "There is a war coming soon, so don't disturb the rest of the Dioonians here." ”