"God, I have often given you something to give, and today you must grant my request and shoot arrows at the enemy!" —Greetings from the ancient Greeks

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"One decked, two, three," at the tower erected on the east bank of the old port, two centurions of the native Ligurian regiment blinked, counting one by one the size of the local fleet that appeared in the port of Masseria, "seventeen three-rowed ships with decks, nine double-row raiders, thirty-six fast ships without decks. The crew on it is fully equipped, with scythes, axes, and 'crow' suspension bridge equipment. Finally, the watchman leaned wearily against the wall, resting with his sore eyes, and then the recorder handed the tablet to Sabo.

Outside the tower, Massella's fleet was showing off its might, entering and exiting the port, and showing off its strength was a daily necessity, and now Dumijuanus and Cato the Younger had regained their confidence - although the previous Albician barbarians had suffered a heavy blow, Triari had also attacked and occupied the city's outer canals, and Li Bida was unable to blockade the harbor, which meant that in less than two months, Pompey's army would be continuously supplied from the sea.

He sent four brigades of the Sixth Army Corps to monitor Tri Ali's movements on the flanks, and then let the rest of his corps, together with the Sixteenth Army Corps, begin to build an even more terrifying "siege beast" under the noses of the city soldiers-the siege equipment assembly point designed by Li Bida. It's in two places. One is close to the streets of Liguria. In order to protect the equipment from the enemy's surprise attack and incineration, the soldiers of the legion first built a nine-Roman foot high earthen rampart in the vertical direction, holding shields, and stretched out in a trapezoidal shape on both sides. The upper end was about three Roman feet wide, so that it could block the enemy's cavalry attacks laterally and divide the enemy's forces from the front. Later, when they had built the fortified Acropolis of Masseria (three-quarters of the walls of Masseria were on the sea, and only a quarter of them were facing six places, and they had built the fortress on this site, between the Acropolis and the market, and between the acropolis and the market, and the fragmented steep cliffs, and the deep trenches), the soldiers began to fire with their crossbows and arrows, and the soldiers began to ram the earth in various directions. Horizontally, they are connected in series to form a "T" shaped wall. When the earth was excavated and a circular trench was formed, a watchtower was erected, and the ballista and stick throwers were moved forward, thus tightening the blockade inward.

Then, Li Bida's soldiers must have been building siege equipment behind the T-shaped wall, at least Dumijus judged it this way, so he hurriedly sent Munajus, who arrived with Cato the Younger, and Marclus, the judicial officer, to lead the men to strengthen the acropolis and prevent the enemy from attacking.

But unexpectedly, three days later, Li Bida personally took four infantry battalions of the 15th Legion, two archery brigades, and 500 cavalry, and rode on the only eighteen warships he brought from Cyrene, put the transport ship transporting soldiers behind, and when the city fleet returned to the port, he suddenly seized an unnamed island in the southeast sea of Massalia, and moored all the ships in the harbor of the island. It can be seen that as long as the besieging side does not forcibly attack the city and leads to heavy losses, they have enough right to maneuver.

When little Cato learned of this movement, he immediately summoned all the generals and senior centurions, and consulted the presbyterian council of the city about the origin of the island, and received the answer:

"This island is called Seamos Island, and when the old port was still prosperous, it served as a beacon to direct traffic, but then the old port was silted up and declined, and the island was abandoned, so there were no troops stationed at it before."

"Is there a water source on the island, is there a warehouse?" Cato Jr. continued, which was his primary concern.

"The island is mostly rocky, only small streams, and it is difficult to supply a large number of people, but it is not far from the six places on the edge of the old port, and there are only about five stadias."

This answer made little Cato very excited, and after carefully checking the number of ships of the other side, he pointed to the sand table and said, "Our fleet is superior in numbers, especially the large ships with upper decks, which are three times larger than the other side, and I have heard that Massella has the best seamen and helmsmen, and the Albisians can fight on the water." Now that the local brain commander has landed on that island with a large number of soldiers and horses in a daze, we should attack and destroy his fleet and isolate the island from the 6 places, so that in less than three or five days, the other party will be completely finished! ”

Cato Jr.'s plan was bold enough that many people echoed it, but it was his brother-in-law Dumijus who was worried, "Li Bida obviously laid a large number of siege troops in front of the acropolis, but now he personally led people to seize this small island, it seems that it is not just a simple desire to have a base for commanding naval battles, will he win the support of the Ligurians, thinking that Liguria can provide him with a large number of ships in a short time?" ”

"It's the hot rainy season soon, and even if it's convenient for Guria to build new ships, it won't be able to dry the timber quickly, so the temporary advantage is still on our side. I am afraid that this superiority will be even more obvious after the arrival of the Spanish navy, and we will be the first to blow the trumpet of victory at sea. Dumijuans, this naval battle will be in your command. Little Cato was full of ambition.

Unwilling to sit still, Dumijus mobilized all the shipwrights of Marcelia to repair in the dockyard the dozens of ships and ships that Cato the Younger had brought from Sicily, both large and small, with wood and glue paint, for many of them were damaged during the voyage, but the restoration was no matter to the Masserians, and Dumijus was prepared to use them as a second-line reserve to ensure that he could maintain an uninterrupted attack on Lipida.

He then carefully armed all the seventeen large warships provided in the city, because the Brass ramming angle was limited, and could only equip eight of them, so for the rest, Dumijus had a large number of Marcellian citizens carry bows and arrows to carry them on board to serve as long-range fire suppression. As for the rest of the small assault ships, Dumijuans also had the Albisians armed with spears and short swords, fill them, and set up drawbridges, ready to approach the battle. As for the flagship he sat on, Dumijus not only hung the banner of the Golden Seahorse, but also armed a large number of tenants and patrons of the Cato family to serve as his own escort in the naval battle.

And just as Dumijus was preparing, Li Bida was obviously also rushing for time, and he began to mobilize his soldiers, rushing to build a bridge at the protruding headland on the east coast of the island and the old port! (To be continued......)

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