Hearing the marshal's words, the generals suddenly quieted down and nervously waited for his final decision.

Mendez glanced at everyone at the scene and said in a deep voice: "No matter what conspiracy the other party has, we must not miss this opportunity to annihilate the enemy fleet." The war had been fought for several years, and there had been no less than ten large-scale battles on land, from the lower Danube to Thermopylae. But at sea, our record has been very disappointing. Not only did you not win a single battle, but you didn't even have a decent battle! People laugh at you for being lazy, saying that you are incompetent and have wasted three times as many enemy ships, do you think you are convinced?!"

The admirals, of course, were not convinced, but they had not fought for several years, and they could only bow their heads in shame when they could not refute it.

The marshal then added: "As you know, the war on land is dominated by Holy Rome, and we can only be subservient to it, but the navy is dominated by our Eastern Roman fleet. At present, the army has not been able to open up the situation in the crucial battle of Hot Springs, and there is even a tendency to gradually turn the tide of the war by the enemy. At such a critical moment, we, the Eastern Roman Navy, should exert all our strength and do our best to achieve victory, and how can we retreat just because we are afraid of the enemy's deception? If we do this, will not the Holy Romans look down on us even more?"

Hearing this, the generals couldn't help but shout loudly: "No! We must not back down from this, and we must take this opportunity to make a name for ourselves as the Eastern Roman Navy!"

Mendez finally nodded with satisfaction and said with a smile: "Very good! This battle must be fought, but you must not recklessly fall into the enemy's trap...... I command you to lead the Holy Roman Navy in front of you, to catch up with the enemy fleet and launch an immediate attack. Don't let them escape! If you find any special circumstances, report them to me immediately!"

The tall and sturdy general named Archaius immediately saluted and said, "Please rest assured, Your Excellency. I promise to get the job done!"

Mendez returned the salute, turned his head and said, "Thalassa, you are responsible for leading the Slavic fleet to guard the left flank!"

The thin general also saluted and replied, "Yes!"

The people had finished deliberating. They all returned to their respective warships. Mendez was still standing in the conning tower of the heavy battleship Nicea, the flagship, looking out at the sea ahead.

A short time later, two smaller fleets crossed the line and accelerated to the front and left, respectively. The main force of the Eastern Roman fleet, commanded by Mendez himself, remained in a tight formation and slowly advanced in the direction of the retreat of the Olympians......

The Holy Roman fleet under the command of Admiral Archaius advanced at full speed and soon caught up with the fleet of the Southern Navy of the Olympian League.

Archaius immediately sent the news back to the rear and ordered a preemptive attack, and the rear fleet of the Southern Navy immediately returned fire. But the fighting was not very intense.

Archaius' mission was to bite the enemy, not let them escape, and wait for the main fleet to arrive before fighting the enemy to the death. The Southern Navy, on the other hand, had no intention of fighting, and fought and retreated under the personal command of Marshal Ptolemy, and at dusk, the fleets of both sides finally entered the Strait of Salamis, Ptolemy's intended decisive battle.

Located between the island of Salamis and the Greek peninsula, the Strait of Salamis is about 50 kilometers long, with a narrow interior of only 2 kilometers at its widest point. After the Southern Navy retreated to the southern end of the Strait. Immediately halted the advance, turned around and regrouped, more than 100 warships quietly anchored in the still misty sea, and more than 20,000 naval officers and men waited for them. Prepare to take on the oncoming enemy.

Soon after, Archaius, who had caught up, also noticed the other party's unusual behavior, and he immediately ordered the Holy Roman fleet to stop the pursuit. Set up a position in the strait to confront the Olympian navy, and at the same time transmit the latest intelligence back to the rear. By this time the main force of the Eastern Roman fleet had entered the wider northern entrance to the Strait of Salamis. Due to the fog and unfamiliarity with the terrain, Mendes was unaware of the crisis. When receiving information from Archaius. Mendez ordered the fleet to line up in battle formation and move on, preparing for a decisive battle with the Olympian navy.

However, as the main force of the Eastern Roman fleet continued to penetrate, Mendez slowly realized that something was wrong, and the two sides of the Strait of Salamis became narrower and narrower. His fleet had to constantly change its formation, from a line at the beginning, to two, three, and finally to a long snake formation. At this time, the front of the fleet had become only able to accommodate five huge ships or ten small ships side by side, and the marshal looked at the cliffs on both sides of the strait, and suddenly realized that the crisis was approaching! The terrain in front of him was simply the best place for an ambush, and if the enemy troops laid an ambush at both ends of the strait and attacked from front to back, they would be bound to the narrow terrain and it would be difficult to change their formation, and they could only be beaten passively, and the consequences would be unimaginable!

Thinking of this, Mendes was so shocked that a cold sweat also flowed down, and he immediately summoned a vice admiral beside him and shouted loudly: "Immediately send the order to go down, and the fleet will retreat immediately!!"

The adjutant general was stunned for a moment, and hesitated: "But the sea is narrow, and if you want to maintain the formation and turn around, I am afraid it will cause a lot of chaos!"

Mendes gritted his teeth and said: "Give up the existing formation, use the rear formation for the front formation, turn around on the spot, and rush out as much as possible!"

The adjutant immediately took the order, but then the marshal thought about it and shouted again: "Slow down...... Order Archaius to cover the retreat of the main force and immediately preemptively attack the enemy army!"

A short time later, Mendez's order had spread throughout the combined fleet. The main force of the Eastern Roman fleet, the Holy Roman and Slavic fleets as the co-operative warships began to move, but the interior of the Salamisa Strait was extremely narrow, and it was very difficult to turn around on the spot, and the fleet fell into chaos for a while. The only one remaining in formation was the Holy Roman fleet under the command of Archaius, whose mission was to immediately launch a suicidal attack on the main enemy force that was in front of them. However, this order was collectively opposed by the Holy Roman admirals in the fleet, and the attack was delayed.

In the rear of the entire fleet, the Slavic fleet, which was supposed to cover the right side, became a rear after entering the strait. After receiving the order to retreat, General Thalassa, who was in charge, finally got out of the confusion and led the fleet to turn around and rush towards the exit of the strait. However, a situation that frightened him was at this time, and when he approached the exit, he was confronted by a large number of enemy troops lying in ambush here!

(To be continued......)