It should be said that Barikos successfully completed the task, and the fleet he led dragged the main fleet of Dionya for more than three hours.

However, for Morbar, the results he achieved were not satisfactory, sinking 35 Dionian warships and losing 7 of his own, which was still the result he obtained after carefully watching the Carthaginian warships attack the Dionian warships for the first time and changing his tactics, but it was still far from his original plan, and he originally planned to destroy all the Dionian warships that were lured out.

The reason for this failure was that the Dionian commander of this fleet had gathered more than half of the ships in time, but instead of leading them out of the small area to rescue the ships scattered on the periphery, he had set up an irregular circle in that area and focused his defense on the relatively open west.

After destroying the other lone Diorians, the Carthaginian fleet regrouped and surrounded the remaining Dionian ships, and tentatively launched several attacks, but the Dioonic ships were heavily defended, and Morbal did not dare to make up his mind to attack.

Receiving the news that "the main fleet of Dionya is coming to help", Morbar finally made up his mind: "Inform the warships to assemble on the west side of the island of Hira and complete the final mission." ”

"My lord, what about our sailors on these islands?" His men reminded.

"Everyone dies, and so do you ......and me," said Morbar, who still regretted it a little in his heart, and sighed again: he should have reminded them to swim to Sicily after falling overboard!

During this time, the Carthaginian fleet had the upper hand in this sea area, but on the various islands and reefs, it was the Dionian crew that fell overboard, although most of the Carthaginian crew members who fell into the water were rescued by nearby friendly ships, but most of the merchant sailors who were sunk by the Dionian fleet before swam to various islands and reefs, how could they be the opponents of the Dionian crew with fleet infantry, either killed or captured.

As Sseclian led his fleet into the sea, his mood suddenly became very bad, as he occasionally saw the debris of warships floating on the surface of the sea, and heard the joyful cries for help of the Dionian crew on the nearby islands......

"Stefacas, what did you do!" The worry in his heart grew stronger and stronger, and he couldn't help but cry out.

But after seeing the remaining 40 ships and hearing Stepacas recount the entire battle, Seclian did not get angry again, but reluctantly said, "We are all fooled......

When Stepacas continued: "According to the report of the clippers, the Carthaginian fleet is arraying on the west side of the island of Hira"

Secrean's anger erupted again: "The Carthaginians attacked us and won a small victory, and they thought they were so proud that they wanted to fight us!" Very good! Very good!! Very good!!! Order all ships to bypass the island of Hira and fight to the death with the Carthaginian fleet! ”

Secrean first ordered several warships to take charge of bringing the crews of the various islands and reefs onto the ship, and at the same time he led about 240 warships to the west side of the island of Hira, and sure enough, he saw the Carthaginian fleet waiting in formation.

Without hesitation, Sekrian blew his trumpet, raised the red and black flags, and all the ships of the entire fleet quickly lined up in a starry array as they advanced towards the Carthaginian fleet.

However, the Carthaginian fleet suddenly turned its bow away from the Dionian fleet and headed south.

"Don't let them escape into the port of Lilibal!" Unwilling, Sekrian gave the order to "pursue".

However, the Dionian fleet was originally about two miles away from the Carthaginian fleet, and the speed of the crow ships was relatively slow, and the speed of the fast ships was fast, but the Carthaginian fleet was neat and had just won the battle, and Secrean did not dare to let the fast ships advance too much, otherwise they would be too far away from the crow ships, and it would be easy to be counterattacked by the other side and cause losses.

In fact, the Carthaginian fleet did not intend to engage the Dionian fleet again or enter the port of Lililian, but led the Dionian fleet around the waters near Lililla and Mazara before turning west to Carthage.

Reluctantly, Sekrian led his team to chase for another while, and finally had to return.

It was already afternoon, and it was approaching dusk, and for most of the day the Sicilian fleet had been teased, raided, and pursued fruitlessly...... After a series of aggrieved events, both Sekrian and the crew were physically and mentally exhausted, where did they still have the physical strength and energy to continue cruising the western seas, and they all drove the warship back to the port of Selinus with grievances......

………………………………………

The main army led by Davers was stationed in Minoa, not far from Selinus, and it was impossible to hide the news that "the new fleet of Sicily was defeated in the first battle".

Of course, Sekrian didn't want to hide it, although it was not a big failure, but he did feel a little ashamed, so he wrote a battle report truthfully, and then prepared to let the clipper ship send to King Davers early in the morning of the second day on the grounds that "he still has to carry out the task of patrolling the waters of Sicily", and he did not go to apologize in person for the time being, but led the fleet to look for fighters in the western seas, and after winning back his dignity, he went to meet Davers.

But what he did not expect was that before he could lead the fleet out of port, a messenger from the king arrived from Minoa and read to him the warrant of Davers, telling him to rush to Minoa to meet King Davos at once.

Secrean arrived at the Minoa barracks with trepidation.

When Davers, who looked stern, saw him, he handed him a scroll of papyrus without waiting for him to speak.

After reading it quickly, Sekrian looked surprised: "Yesterday, there were thousands of merchant ships full of military rations docked in the bay north of Erix?!" ”

To the north of Erlux there were two slender hills about a mile or two into the sea to the west, like the crooked horns of an ox, thus forming a large bay, in which there were indeed two ports established by the Phoenicians, but neither of them were large, and there had never been so many merchant ships docked in them.

Davers said in a cold voice: "This is the information that the secret agents of the kingdom's intelligence department in Sicily ventured to get, and it was only delivered to me late last night, there will be no mistake!" When the Sicilian fleet was teased by the Carthaginian navy, I am afraid you did not think that the real purpose of the Carthaginian navy was actually to deliver military rations to the Carthaginian army on the island of Sicily, which was about to run out of food! And all the people of the Sicilian fleet, including you, are like enraged bulls, staring only at the enemy in front of them, completely oblivious to your real mission! The Carthaginian army now has food and enough patience to confront us, which will definitely cause us great trouble! Sekrion, this time, you've disappointed me a bit. ”

Sekeli was both ashamed and surprised: everything the Carthaginians did yesterday was finally because of this?! But the Carthaginians never showed the slightest intention to protect the huge convoy of convoys and intercept the Sicilian fleet cruising north, but it is true that he and his men put all their minds on the enemy, and they did not even have the intention of sending warships to cross Eryx and explore north, yesterday's incident made him very annoyed, but he did not expect that he would lose more!

Seeing that he was silent, Davers said in a cold voice, "What?!" Frightened by the Carthaginians?! ”

Secrean raised his head, looked at Davers, and said in a deep voice: "No, Your Majesty, I admit that this time I lost to the Carthaginians, but there will be no next time!" ”

"Well, this is the Dionian Admiral I know well." Davers nodded, and said in a soothing tone: "The Dionian Military Law emphasizes that 'as a commander, you must always remain calm, and you must not let any bad emotions affect your mind and make wrong judgments. And this time the anger has blinded you and made you make these mistakes, I hope you will learn the lesson, remember that you are the commander in chief of the Sicilian fleet, and the orders you give are not only related to the life and death of the Sicilian fleet, but also to the victory or defeat of the entire Sicilian war! Don't be like a captain who is obsessed with sinking an enemy ship! Instead, you should open your mind and focus on the whole situation! Do you understand?! ”

This time, Sekrian nodded thoughtfully.

"The development of the kingdom's navy has been smooth since its establishment, and there have been no major setbacks, which has led to a very high morale in the navy, but it is also easy to generate pride......," Davers continued, reminding: "Yesterday's defeat is also a good thing, allowing the navy soldiers to calm down and take the enemy more seriously. After all, Carthage is a maritime power in the Western Mediterranean, with a deep heritage, and their new naval commander is not a simple figure, he was a Carthaginian hero who led a fleet to sail the oceans, and he has been fighting at sea for decades, if he can defeat such a general, it will make your victory more valuable! ”

Davers looked at Seclian, who had thrown away his frustration and had regained his fighting spirits, and asked, "What do you think of the Carthaginian merchant ships that are teasing you?" ”

At this moment, Sekrian's heart was already in turmoil, he thought about it, and said seriously: "Your Majesty, I admit that these Carthaginians are indeed very seafaring, but last night we interrogated the captured Carthaginian merchant sailors, and learned from them that this Admiral of the Gallenia Taiji named Morbal specially summoned all the skilled sailors in Carthage and the nearby Phoenician city-state, and more than half of them were his old subordinates. Desperate for a hero to save' to motivate them, and at the same time promising a high amount of compensation, these two Carthaginian fleets were formed to lure the Sicilian fleet with them.

Although his tactics worked in the end, it was a method of killing chickens and eggs, and in fact it was an excessive consumption of the Carthaginian sea power, which just shows that after our successive naval victories, the Carthaginian navy was already strained, and had to resort to such extreme methods to gain some advantages, but this method could neither be sustained nor deceived by our navy.

Your Majesty, I have developed a new plan of action for the current state of the Carthaginian navy, and I am sure that soon you will hear the news of the victory of our Sicilian fleet! ”