However, this tragic scene was largely absent, and the vast majority of the Carthaginian fleet deftly avoided the swift collision, which was comparable to the Dionian warships.

After such a thrilling scene, most of the Carthaginian sailors not only did not feel afraid, but shouted even more excitedly: "See, Dionians, this is the true strength of our Carthaginian sailors!" ”

"Hey, you guys are so clumsy, you look like old ladies in their sixties or seventies!"

"Dare to compete with us at such a level of boat management, collide with you a hundred times, and you don't want to touch me!"

……

The Dioonians could not understand the shouts of the Carthaginian crew, but they could read the humiliating gestures of the enemy, especially when some Carthaginians lifted their clothes and pulled out the thing to urinate on them, which was a shame!

Even the captain of the flagship with a steady personality couldn't help but scold: "Damn the Carthaginians! If there were bows and arrows on board, I would have killed them with one arrow! ”

Sekelian was also angry in his heart, but as the commander-in-chief, of course, he could not show this, but said in a deep voice: "These Carthaginians are too early to be happy, our fast ships will send them to meet Poseidon!" ”

Sekrian adopted a staggered arrangement of double horizontal formations, in order to use more agile and fast warships as the rear line, to take out those merchant ships that had escaped the first round of shock, but he did not expect that the front warship charge would hardly get any results.

So he turned and looked expectantly at the stern.

As a result, he saw in disbelief: the Carthaginian merchant ships were like swimming fish, taking advantage of the surging waves of the sea, once again narrowly avoiding the impact of the fast warships, passing through the gap between the warships, and at the same time the laughter was faintly heard from the rear again.

Sekrian couldn't hold back his emotions any longer, slammed his fist on the mast, and roared, "Chase me and sink these damn merchant ships!" ”

In fact, there was no need for him to give an order, and almost all the warships quickly turned their bows and chased after the Carthaginian merchant ships that were moving away.

The Dionian Navy has developed rapidly over the years, and its achievements are outstanding, except for that natural storm, they have hardly suffered defeats, even the once powerful Carthaginian Navy has been trampled under their feet, how proud and proud they are in their hearts, when have they suffered such humiliation, all the crew will never allow these Carthaginian merchant ships that have trampled on their dignity to go away like this, everyone is holding their breath, not only the captain asks to speed up, but the sailors also push the oars harder, The warships chased after the merchant ships ahead at a faster speed, vowing to sink them in order to relieve their hatred.

At this time, it would be difficult for anyone to stop the pursuit in a short period of time, and Sekrian knew his fleet, so he encouraged them to continue the attack.

A sea chase began.

The Dionysian Sicilian fleet was now divided into two parts: 80 warships pursued and intercepted more than 200 Carthaginian merchant ships circling the island in the waters near Erux; 200 warships chased and teased 60 Carthaginian merchant ships in the waters near Lilipa.

…………………………………………

The chase in the south had just begun, and the encirclement and interception in the north had been going on for some time, although the cunning Carthaginian merchant ships shuttled through the islands and reefs in this sea, so that the Ionian warships, who were not very familiar with the sea conditions here, had to slow down and pursue cautiously, giving the Carthaginian merchant ships more opportunities to get rid of the pursuit, but when the warships under the command of Stepakas were completely dispersed throughout the sea, the disaster of the Carthaginian merchant ships came.

After all, as soon as the fleet was dispersed, and the Daioria ships were each in charge of a small area of the sea, Carthaginian merchant ships inevitably encountered the ships frequently. These Carthaginian sailors were indeed very capable of maneuvering sailing ships, but sailing ships mainly relied on the wind, and when they went against the wind, the speed was naturally affected, while the Dionian warships relied on oarsmen, almost unaffected by the wind direction, and the narrow waterways divided by the islands and reefs also made the Carthaginian merchant ships lose enough space to evade, and once the two sides met head-on, the merchant ships that did not have the ability to fight almost collided and sank.

After more than half an hour, nearly half of the Carthaginian merchant ships were lost, and there were many Carthaginian sailors who swam ashore after the ship sank on various islands and reefs, and at this speed, in another half an hour, the Carthaginian fleet could be completely wiped out.

But Stefakas was not carried away by the victory in front of him, and he had two doubts: first, why were these merchant ships still fighting them in this area, since this escape tactic of the Carthaginian fleet had failed? Second, he had just discovered that the Carthaginian merchant ships were stacked with simple empty wooden cages, tightly covered with linen, which looked like they were full of cargo, and all of them floated after the ship sank.

Carthaginian merchant ships used such a disguise to achieve some kind of purpose by luring them! …… Stepacas heightened his vigilance, and he stopped chasing the enemy ships and sailed to the west between the islands of Agusa and Phorbantia, which was the center of the sea, and sent several clippers to scout the surroundings, especially to the west.

The reason why he did not immediately assemble the ships was because he believed that in a few moments, his fleet would be able to basically annihilate the Carthaginian merchant ships that had deceived them, which would not only be a great blow to the Carthaginians, but also complete the task given to them by the Secrean governor, and also give them a bad breath.

"General, look! Another merchant ship, sunk! The crew on deck shouted excitedly.

"The captain of that fast ship is Elias, right?" Stefacas looked ahead with interest and said, "Irias's mind is very nimble to be able to take a reverse row and use the stern of the ship to knock over a merchant ship as soon as he misses the target!" ”

"Compared to merchant ships, our warships are behemoths, and they can sink them with both the bow and the stern, but until now, I have seen Ilias's warships adopt this new tactic, and I have never thought of it myself, Ilias is the best captain in our fleet!" The captain of the ship on the side was sincerely impressed.

"Traditional habits imprison our minds!" Stefacas nodded his head and said seriously: "After we go back, we will promote this new tactic, and when the fleet encounters Carthaginian merchant ships in the future, we will have one more weapon." ”

"Yes!"

"There is an enemy!" The lookout on the main mast suddenly shouted nervously: "The clipper ship to the west has raised the yellow flag!" It's three yellow flags! ”

Stefatas was shocked in his heart: Whatever you are worried about, you will come! Needless to say, it was the Carthaginian fleet that struck, much outnumbering its own detachments!

"Blow the trumpet! Raise the yellow flag! Raise the Apollo flag! Stefacas shouted, he was very nervous, he had to gather all the scattered ships at once, so as not to be destroyed by each one.

Then, he said with a solemn expression: "Inform a clipper ship, rush to the south at once, and tell Lord Sekrian that the Carthaginian fleet is coming, and we need to get reinforcements immediately!" ”

After Stefakas gave the order, he was a little relieved, and he thought in his heart: the discovery of the enemy by the clippers meant that the enemy's fleet was still four or five miles away, and the radius of this sea area was only four or five miles, and his fleet still had time to adjust its tactics and make responses.

But what he didn't know was that there was an island called Hiera directly west of the flagship, and that the clipper was originally located on the west side of the island of Hiera, and when his lookout spotted the Carthaginian fleet coming from the west, he immediately raised the yellow flag, but after a long time, the captain of the clipper did not hear the trumpet of the flagship of the detachment (according to the regulations of the Dionian Navy, the flagship should blow the trumpet at the same time to alert the warships under its command when delivering orders), and was surprised, It didn't take long for him to realize that he had made a mistake, because Gila Island was blocking it, and the flagship lookout might not be able to see the raised flag at all, so he hurriedly let the clipper ship go around Hira Island, and soon heard the sound of the military horn, but this tossing and turning had already taken some time.

Although the 80 Dionian warships are scattered in this sea area, not too far from the flagship, and they can almost hear the sound of the military horn, it will take a little time to know the orders issued by the flagship, because the warships in battle will not let the lookout stay on the mast, otherwise the huge impact force will cause the lookout to fall down, and the speed of the ship must be slowed down and the lookout will climb the main mast. There are also some warships that are separated by islands, and there is no flag at all, and the warships have to go around...... So it will take time for all the warships to regroup around the Stefacas flagship.

And now time was of the essence, and at the same time as the flagship of the Dionian detachment sounded the trumpet, the Carthaginian admiral Morbar had already led 170 warships to the west side of the island of Hira and immediately launched an attack on the three Dionian warships chasing the merchant ships here.

At the same time, the Carthaginian fleet quickly split into two groups of 75 ships each, one from the north and the other from the south to bypass the island of Hira to attack the other Dionian ships.

The sailors of the merchant ships on the island of Hira saw that the Carthaginian fleet had finally appeared, and they all cheered and shouted: "The time has come for our revenge!" Send all the Dionians to the sea to feed the fish! ……”

Among the three Dionian warships, two ravens and one fast warship, they patronized and intercepted several fleeing Carthaginian merchant ships, and by the time they found the Carthaginian fleet approaching, it was a little too late to retreat.