Who knew that on the way to escape, they met the rout soldiers who fled back from the west city, only to know that the west city wall had been lost, everyone panicked, and they didn't know where to go for a while, and some people even cried bitterly: "It's over...... Syracuse finished ......"

Suddenly, someone shouted: "We can go to the island of Ortigia!" ”

This reminded the panicked councillors: yes, we still have the island of Ortigia!

As the birthplace of Syracuse and the acropolis of Syracuse, Ortigea was built into a strong fortress during the reign of Dionysius, and a palace was built on the island. After the overthrow of Dionysius, Herolis allowed the original inhabitants of Ortigia, who had been forcibly expelled by Dionysius, to return to live on the island.

There was a proposal in the council to tear down the walls of Ortiquia to prevent it from once again becoming a gathering place for ambitious politicians.

However, it was opposed by many people on the grounds that Ortigia Island, as the acropolis of Syracuse, was supposed to have strong defenses, and when the city of Syracuse was in danger, it would be a refuge for the people.

Now it has been fulfilled!

At the beginning, there was a riot in Syracuse, Dionysius retreated to Ortigia, Herolis had an absolute advantage, but there was nothing he could do about him, and finally relied on the Spartans to deceive him out of Ortigia, so the island's defense is absolutely trustworthy, and most of the people on the island are the descendants of the builders of Syracuse, and their loyalty to this city-state is also trustworthy, so Ortigia Island is an ideal refuge.

The councillors were relieved to gather their rout and retreat to the island of Ortigia (many of whom refused to go to Ortigea for fear of their families), and sent to inform Falekus and Theagenis, hoping that they would hold out for a while longer, so that the people of the city would have a buffer time to retreat to the island of Ortigia. In particular, the port area is very close to the isthmus, and it is possible to cut the isthmus once the enemy breaks through the inner walls.

The interior wall was already crumbling, but Falekus was doing his best to hold it up. However, after learning that the southern section of the western wall had been lost, Theagenis did not continue to insist on defending the city, but fled directly to the island of Ortigia with a few citizen soldiers who were willing to follow him.

The defenders of the eastern city wall also saw the fire in the city, and their reaction was not much different from that of the defenders of the western city.

When the Dionian coalition finally broke through the defenses of the eastern wall, Zantiparis, as commander, was finally relieved. You must know that compared with the main force of Dionya on the Western Front, the army attacking the eastern wall is composed of allied citizens, of course, they can't be like the Dionian legionnaires, obey orders, obey commands, and attack regardless of casualties, just to persuade the generals of these allied armies to lead their respective troops to attack without interruption, it makes Zantiparis exhausted, so the battle on the Eastern Front is not fierce, but it always drags thousands of defenders and creates conditions for the breakthrough of the Dionian army in other directions.

By dusk, the troops of the eastern and western fronts had successfully joined forces in Apollo Square in the city of Syracuse.

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The main army led by Davos was always holding on to Minoa, and the army led by Lizaru and Epitenis also stayed in Enna, and strengthened the city every day.

In this situation, Marco had nothing to do, and even if he wanted to attack one side, the lack of food discouraged him, and after five or six days of confrontation with Minoa, he finally led his army to retreat west to Segsta.

After receiving the news of the "great victory of the Third Fleet," Davers strengthened his determination to carry out the strategy of "land defense and sea attack."

These days, new ships have been added to the Sicilian fleet, bringing the total number of ships to 320, and its main force has moved forward to the port of Selinus.

Every morning, Secrean would leave the harbor with his fleet and sail westward, sweeping the entire western coast of Sicily until dusk. For he had recently received information from King Davos that a large number of ships were being concentrated in the ports of Carthage and its surrounding Phoenician allies, and that the city was also stepping up its efforts to raise grain, which was likely to be shipped to Sicily.

In the early morning of this day, it was raining lightly in the western part of Sicily, and the sky was a little dark, although there was a light wind, but the wind and waves were not strong.

Secrean, who had returned to command of the Sicilian fleet, had learned the lesson of the previous time, and he hired several veteran sailors who had lived here for decades as advisers to provide him with an analysis of the sea conditions and climate in the sea, and they all made a positive judgment at one time: it is unlikely that there will be strong winds and waves in the western seas today.

Therefore, despite his hesitation, Seclian let the Sicilian fleet leave the port as in the past and head west along the coast.

Due to the rain, the sea was shrouded in mist, resulting in poor visibility, and in order to prevent accidents, the speed of all warships was slowed down, and the entire fleet of 280 warships maintained a dense formation (another 40 warships were moored in the Minoa improvised port to meet the needs of the main force led by Davers).

Thus, a voyage that normally took only an hour, but now it took two hours for the fleet to reach the waters near Mazara and begin to turn northwest.

At this time, the drizzle has stopped, the sky is gradually brightening, the fog is gradually dissipating, the blue sky is like a wash, the sea is blue, as far as the eye can see, and the breeze is blowing, which makes people feel refreshed.

Sekrian was relieved and smiled and said to the two adviser sailors, "Your judgment is very accurate! He is worthy of being called 'favored by the god of the sea'! ”

The two old sailors from Selinus hurriedly and modestly responded, as Greek sailors, they had a low status in Selinus, relying on fishing and transporting goods for a living, and how could they have had the opportunity to talk on an equal footing with the royal generals who were of high status and led hundreds of warships.

Seeing their nodding and bowing faces, Sekrian frowned, but didn't say anything, turned his head and gave an order to the captain of the ship: "Notify the fleet, return to normal speed, send out fast ships, and carefully search for sea targets." ”

It didn't take long for the speed of the entire fleet to increase, and more than 10 clippers also broke away from the large force and quickly moved forward.

Dozens of minutes later, the clipper running at the front had approached the surface of the Lilili Sea, and the lookout on the mast moved his numb hands and feet, bowed his head and shouted down: "Captain! ”

When the captain of the clipper heard this, he immediately asked excitedly: "Is there an enemy?!" ”

The lookout wanted to say, "Is it time for the rotation?" It's time for the next one to replace him. But the captain's question made him subconsciously glance at the sea in front of him again, and then he froze, blinked, increased his eyes again, stared ahead, and after a while, he also excitedly shouted: "There is an enemy ship!" One, two, three...... What a lot of Carthaginian ships! ”

"Lord Commander, the white flag has been raised on the ship ahead!" The lookout on the main mast of the flagship saw the flag transmitted by the flagship of the detachment in front of him, and shouted excitedly: "It's two white flags!" It's an ordinary fleet equal to the number of our ships! ”

Secrean immediately understood the meaning of the rest, and he also became excited: encountering an ordinary fleet in this sea area can only come from Carthage, it seems that the information given by His Majesty is not wrong, and the Carthaginians have indeed come to transport military rations!

Without hesitation, he gave the order: "Tell Stefacas, lead his detachment, and sink all these Carthaginian cargo ships for me!" If you let one go, let him accept military punishment! ”

After receiving this order, Stefacas, the commander of the detachment, immediately showed the spirit of 12 points and ordered the warships of the detachment under his command to be the vanguard to spread out in a line and move quickly in the direction of discovering the enemy's situation.

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The more than 200 Carthaginian merchant ships were marching in two columns in the direction of Lililian, and on the merchant ship in the lead, a sailor was standing on the top of the mast and looking nervously ahead, when suddenly he called out eagerly: "Old man, the Dionian warship...... The Dionian ship is here! ”

With that, he quickly slid off the mast.

Unlike warships, merchant ships generally have only one mast, and they are located at the foot of the bed, and they are usually not allowed to stand on the top of the mast to look out. On the one hand, it is because merchant ships are extremely dependent on the propulsion of sails and are afraid of stepping on the masts; On the other hand, standing on the mast for a long time can easily disrupt the balance of the whole body and lead to accidents. But today the situation is special, and they need to know the movements of the Dionian fleet early.

"I think I'm crazy enough to promise Morbar to sail a merchant ship against a warship." The old captain, who had gray hair, did not look nervous, but sighed.

Next to him was a helmsman with an equally wrinkled face, comforting: "We're still good, like Barikos they even have to maneuver merchant ships and break into the Dionian ship, that's crazy!" ”

The old captain sighed again: "Who told us that we used to be all old subordinates of Morbar, who followed him for so many years and got a lot of help from him...... Besides, the mother state is now in a difficult situation, and we, the old people who are about to enter the earth, can play a little role and provide some help to it, and I believe that even if we die, it will be an honor for us! ”

The old helmsman nodded sympathetically.

"Old man, don't be nostalgic for the past! The Dionian ship is about to come, and we must follow the plan and sail it to the designated place, which is too far from the coast for if the ship is rammed and sunk, and we may not be able to swim to shore! The young sailor, who had just been watching from the mast, urged.

"Don't worry, don't worry." The old captain said unhurriedly, closed his eyes, and felt the direction of the wind intently: "It seems that the wind is a little stronger." ”

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