Davers sighed, put his hands on his shoulders, and said sincerely: "Even if I face such a terrible situation in which Syracuse has a great advantage in forces, the sea has become the world of their navy, and there is a terrible opponent such as Dionysius as the commander-in-chief, I will lose!" Moreover, you managed to keep most of the soldiers of the two legions, and at the same time cooperated with Crotone to hold on until the arrival of reinforcements, giving us hope of turning defeat into victory. No, but I should thank you! All the people of Ionia should thank you! ”

These words brought tears to the eyes of Phellisius, tears of relief.

"Dracos' death is not your fault! I know him, he never admits defeat, so whether he takes the initiative to break off and is captured, or crashes to the ground and dies, he makes the most correct choice he thinks! All we can do is capture Dionysius and use his head to honor the spirit of Dracos! ”

"Yes! …… Be!! Phellisius nodded repeatedly.

"What is the mood of the soldiers of the Fifth Legion?" Davers asked with concern. The soldiers of the Fifth Legion, a regiment made up of Bruti people, witnessed the death of the commander who created it, and the Bruti region was in turmoil during this time, and Davers was of course worried about their state.

"The soldiers can't wait to fight the Syracuse and avenge Drakos!" Phellisius replied immediately.

"That's good." Davers exhorted him: "I met your wife Delia when I was leading my army out of Turiyi, and she asked me to bring you a message, 'She and the children are all well now, and I hope you will lead the soldiers to drive the enemy out of Great Greece as soon as possible!'" ’”

When Phellisius came, he was depressed, his head bowed, and his body shrunk; When he walked, he was relaxed and strode into a meteor.

Davers looked at his departing back, but he thought in his heart: Felicius is too gentle and not strong-willed, he is really not a general who can take charge of himself, and he will still be engaged in case work in the military department in the future.

In fact, he had another reason to thank Philisius that he did not say: the defeat at the Battle of the Ramato River had greatly weakened the Greek power in southern Greece, and it was no longer able to resist Syracuse, but how could this not be the same for Dionia?

………………………………

The Dionian fleet continued southward, approaching the sea near the city of Lockley.

It can be said that of these port cities on the east coast, only the port of Lockley is still frequented by merchant ships, even busier than before the war. Because of the blockade and suppression of the ports of the cities of the Southern Italian Alliance by the Syracuse navy, merchant ships passing through the eastern and western Mediterranean routes could transit or trade in the port of Lokri.

"Lower the sails!" Sekrian looked at a sail shadow in the distance, and his eyes flashed with a cold light: "Attack!" ”

As the horn sounded, the ships of the fleet gradually unfolded, and the sailors excitedly accelerated the pulp frequency, and the merchant ships did not pose any threat to them, so that they had a kind of pleasure of abusing vegetables, and they could also exercise their actual combat experience.

Driven by the high-speed oars, the speed of the warship reached a terrifying 13 knots, and other merchant ships could not escape at all without the help of strong winds, and the volume of the merchant ships compared to the three-layer oars warships, it was undoubtedly a child facing adults, not an opponent at all, and soon capsized under the impact of the warship.

The sea is full of broken ships, people calling for help, large and small cargo...... Seeing this, the ships in the distance fled in all directions, and soon there were no other ships in sight except for the Dionian fleet in the sea outside the port of Lorkry.

Sekrian led the fleet back and forth several times outside the harbor before leaving.

Lockri was furious, but could not do anything about it, because two days earlier the Syracuse had taken 30 of their three-sculled warships against the Dionian fleet. Seeing the enemy ships flaunting outside the harbor, a bad premonition rose in everyone's hearts.

"It seems that Syracuse's fleet has been defeated again!" Demordokas said with a gloomy face.

"yes!" "From now on, the Dionian warships will be in control of the east coast, which will deal a huge blow to our maritime trade!" I am more concerned that Syracuse will also be defeated by Dionya on land, knowing that the young consul of Dionya has returned to Turiyi. ”

"The defeat of the Syracuse on land is impossible!" Demordocas retorted without hesitation: "You and I have seen with our own eyes the army of more than 80,000 people of the Syracuse, which is not something that any Greek city-state can resist, including Sparta!" ”

Having said that, Demordocas was still a little irritable in his heart, and he knew very well that because of the support of Dionysius, Demordocas had controlled the supreme power in Lockry for many years, and he was already a de facto "tyrant". For this reason, he fiercely suppressed his political opponents and brutally suppressed those who opposed him, and the people were dissatisfied with him. During this time, this discontent intensified, because in order to ensure the supply of the fighting army and part of the army of Syracuse, he imposed a relatively high "special tax on war" among the populace of the city-state to increase the revenue of the state treasury to buy war materials. Once the Syracuse army was defeated, it was hard for him to imagine what the seemingly mild-and-calm populace would do at the instigation of his political enemies.

"The city is too empty now, and if Dionia's army lands here, we will be in danger!" Demordokas suddenly said, "The troops stationed in Maidma City must be brought back. ”

Panticapes was stunned: "What about Madema City?" ”

"Lijim's army has already suffered heavy losses, and even if they want to attack Madema City, it will not be able to take it anytime soon, and we can reinforce it at any time." Demordokas replied.

………………………………

The Dionian fleet continued southward and soon reached the southernmost point of Greater Greece.

Secrean's ship was at the head of the procession, carefully leading the fleet around the tip of the peninsula, turning north into the Strait of Messina.

After sailing for a short time, he approached Lijim.

It was already dusk, and although Seclian was more curious about the city of Messina, the port of Messina was at the narrowest part of the strait, at least a dozen miles away.

Previously, when the Syracuse rebuilt the city of Messina, which had been destroyed by the Carthaginians, the city was relocated and the port was abandoned, but it was soon taken over by immigrants mainly from the Syracuse, Lokri and their allies, and was vigorously exploited. Prior to the outbreak of the Great Greek War, Syracuse also sent a fleet to maintain the security of the port, control the ships entering and leaving the strait, and blockade the port of Ligem. Although a few days ago, all the three-layer oared warships in Messina's fleet were transferred to Siriting to participate in the naval battle with Dionia, and there were only more than 30 small and medium-sized warships left in the port, but this was not something that Lijim could fight. Had it not been for the Syracuse's speedboats, which discovered the arrival of the Dionian fleet from afar and quickly withdrew the ships to the port, the fleet led by Sekrian would have seen the ships of Syracuse cruising outside the port of Lijim when they arrived at the port of Lijim, and a battle would have been inevitable.

Considering that it was getting late, and that there was still business to be done by King Davers, Sekrian temporarily resisted the urge to let the fleet continue north, and took the lead in sailing to the port of Lijim.

The Ligems had not seen any foreign ships enter the harbor for two months, and when they heard that the Dionian fleet was coming, they rushed out of the city and rushed to the harbor with great joy.

Guided by the Lijim patrol ship, the Sekrian fleet entered the military port, and while the Dionian sailors were disembarking, the Lijim people rushed over and surrounded the warship, asking loudly about the battle outside.

No wonder they were so eager, because Lijim had been tightly sealed by the Syracuse fleet for more than a month, and they knew nothing about the outside world. Generally speaking, it is difficult to completely lock down a coastal city, after all, it is impossible for a warship to soak in the sea for a long time, they need to be regularly repaired, they need to be towed to the shore to bask in the sun, the ship maggots are removed, and the door needs to be ashore to rest and eat. But Messina was so close to Ligem that the two cities were only a dozen miles apart across the strait, and the people of Syracuse were determined to completely blind the Lijim and cause them to panic, so they divided the fleet stationed in the port of Messina into several groups and blockaded Lijim in turn without interruption. Coupled with the fact that Lijim had overland access to the outside world, blocked by Lockrie on the east and Lockrie troops stationed in Mademar on the west, the Ligem-Taurina forces had completely withdrawn south of the Maro River since the defeat in the last battle.

The arrival of the Dionian fleet was therefore a great surprise to the people of Lijim, especially when they learned that the Dionian fleet had completely defeated the Syracuse navy and became the new ruler of the coast near Great Greece. The people of Lijim surrounded the Dionian sailors and sang and danced, as if they were holding a ceremonial procession, and welcomed the Dioonians into the city of Ligim.

That night, Ligim's chief general, Artilicrus, entertained Sekerian.

At the banquet, at the request of the guests, Sekelian recounted the battle of Taranto, which drew bursts of cheers and admiration......

At this time, Artilicrus coughed dryly a few times and asked loudly: "General Sekerian, out of friendship with Dionia, Lijim generously lent all our three-layer oared warships, and even because he had no fleet, he was blockaded by the Syracuse for a long time. Now that Dionya has successfully defeated the Syracuse navy with our help, is it time to return our ships? ”