Chapter 1296
The cautious Arritaka even rejected the request of the new military commander of the western Asia Minor, Fanabazos, on the grounds of obeying the order of the king of Persia and guarding the Near East Sea. He hoped that the Persia fleet could assist the Asia Minor army and cut off the sea transportation line of the Greek army that landed in Asia Minor. In the end, Fanabazos had to let the coastal city-states of western Asia Minor form a new fleet.
Arritaka rejected Fanabazos partly out of selfishness: the Phoenicians and the Greeks of Asia Minor had commercial competition, and there was a lot of resentment between the two races in history (the Persia fleet, which was mainly composed of Phoenicians, helped Darius conquer the Greek city-states of western Asia Minor), so the relationship between the two races was not good.
However, when he learned that the newly formed Asia Minor fleet was ambushed and wiped out by the Dionysian fleet, he was glad that he did not agree to Fanabazos' request. At the same time, he felt very uneasy: after the Dionysian fleet controlled the western Asia Minor, it was likely that their next target would be the Near East Sea!
Therefore, not only did he step up the patrols in the Near East Sea, but he also increased the training of the entire Persia fleet. For this reason, he also severely punished several Cyprus and Syria generals who did not follow his orders, and received the full support of the king of Persia.
Not long after, another important news came from the south: "The king of Diónia personally led the army to land in Egypt." Both the Jews and the Phoenicians began to panic because they realized that the Dionysian Army was really going to invade Persia from Egypt!
However, more than a month had passed, there was no movement from the Egyptian Dionysian Army. The Persia general stationed in Gaza City sent scouts through the desert several times to spy on the Egyptian border, but there was no news.
In order to avoid losses, the Persia general sent messengers to Cyprus many times, asking the Persia fleet to send fast ships to the Egyptian coast to spy on the Dionysian Army's movements.
Alitaka agreed to the request and sent many clippers to the Egyptian sea. However, most of them never returned. The crew that managed to escape reported to him that the Diónia had deployed many warships to patrol the Egyptian sea. It was heavily guarded and it was difficult for clippers to get close to the coast.
In order to avoid losses, Alitaka no longer sent ships south to scout Egypt, but he also increased the vigilance of the southern sea.
During this time, the Phoenicians had been looking forward to the arrival of the Persia army. However, according to the news from Babylon, the Persia army had been stationed near Baghdad, not far from Babylon. They had no intention of going west to help the Near East. Of course, the most popular explanation was that Persia's territory was too large and it took too long for the full mobilization of the military. The king of Persia was still waiting for the Persia elite troops, the Scythians, and the Indians, who had different tactical styles, to the east and were stationed in Persia's Polis.
Among the many rumors, there was one that caused the Phoenicians to feel uneasy. "The king of Persia is afraid of the strength of the Dionysian Army, so he needs more time to gather more troops to fight against it."
Alitaka did not care about these rumors. What he was concerned about was ensuring the safety of the Near East before the king of Persia arrived with his army. Therefore, he would arrive at the fleet headquarters in the largest military port of Cyprus early every day and listen to the reports of the patrol teams to understand if there were any abnormalities in the entire Near East Sea.
On the last day of the end of March, Alitaka came to the fleet headquarters as usual. Everything was as usual. He thought that today would be another peaceful day. However, when the sky was bright, a patrol ship quickly returned to the military port. The captain hurriedly ran into the headquarters and reported to Alitaka that a large Diónia fleet was found in the southern sea of Cyprus!
Then, one patrol ship after another rushed back to the military port. Alitaka could not help but be shocked by the information he obtained. There were about a hundred troop and cargo ships heading towards Cyprus under the escort of a few hundred Diónia warships …
The intention of the Diónia was very obvious. They wanted to attack Cyprus! Alitaka suddenly became nervous. Of course, he understood that in order to prevent the Dionysian Army from landing on Cyprus, or even completely destroy this troop in the sea, they must first defeat the Dionysian fleet that was escorting the troop. This was bound to be a large-scale naval battle!
Before he could summon the generals, the Cyprus naval generals who were worried about the safety of their motherland rushed into the headquarters. As the two pillars of the Persia fleet, the Phoenician and Cyprus naval generals quickly reached an agreement and formulated a battle plan. Then, they rushed to the military port where their fleet was anchored at the fastest speed and urgently ordered the crew to board the ship and leave the port.
… …
The Diónia troop convoy was escorted by the First and Second Fleets. When they set off from Egypt, the First Fleet guarded the entire fleet on the right while the Second Fleet guarded the left, almost protecting the troop convoy in the middle. They were arranged in a relatively tight mixed formation of more than a mile wide and three to four miles long.
A few hours after the First and Second Fleets set off, the Third Fleet, as the reserve force, escorted the full supply fleet from the port of Naukratis and sailed to Cyprus.
However, after a few days of continuous sailing, the First and Second Fleets, as well as the troopships, were no longer as organized as they were when they first set out. Although they did not encounter any storms during the voyage, the strong southerly gale the day before yesterday had caused a dozen of the Raven Warships and troopships to capsize. The entire fleet was blown apart, and it took them more than half a day to reassemble.
In the early hours of this morning, due to the influence of the sea fog and the ever-changing sea breeze, Secorian only received news when the sky was bright. The entire formation was once again scattered. The First and Second Fleets of the First Fleet, most of the Third Fleet of the Second Fleet, a part of the Fourth Fleet, and nearly 100 troop convoy were still gathered together. The other ships were nowhere to be found.
After drifting at sea for a few days, the usually energetic Secorian was a little tired. He did not even want to complain. He could only helplessly send out clippers in all directions to search for the other ships and inform them to come closer to him as soon as possible.
For this reason, he also ordered the ships to slow down and let the guides determine the approximate position of the fleet as soon as possible.
There was no point of reference in the vast sea. Moreover, it was daytime and the constellations in the sky could not be seen. Even the most experienced guides could not determine their position. They could only roughly determine that the fleet was still moving northeast based on the rising sun.
But Secorian's distress did not last long. He received news from the lookout on the clippers at the front of the fleet. A small warship was spotted ahead and it quickly turned around and sailed away.
Is it a patrol ship of the Persia fleet?! Sekerian was not surprised. Instead, he was delighted. Finding traces of a Persia ship here meant that the Persia's military port was nearby! Perhaps Cyprus Island was not far ahead?!
He made a prompt decision and sent out two clippers to investigate in the direction in which the Persia warship disappeared.
While waiting for news, several small Persia warships appeared near the fleet one after another and then quickly sailed away.
The situation was already very clear. There must be a Persia military port nearby. After these Persia patrol ships returned to report, it was likely that the Persia fleet would come to intercept them. At this time, more than half of the Diónia warships were gone. If they were to face the enemy head-on, it was likely that they would be at a disadvantage. The situation was somewhat grim! But after a moment of contemplation, Secorian decisively ordered all ships to raise their sails and speed up toward the northeast.
At the same time, he left two clippers in place and waited for the clippers that were searching for the remaining fleets to return. Then, he would bring the fleet they found to Cyprus Island.
It could be said that this decision of Sekerian was quite risky. But because of his prestige in the navy, none of the admirals and ship owners present dared to object. So, the entire fleet had to speed up north.
About 20 minutes later, they encountered the clippers that had gone to explore and returned. When they learned that Cyprus Island was 15 miles ahead, both the crew and the soldiers were immediately in high spirits.
With the help of the south wind that was not considered strong, the fleet approached Cyprus Island after 40 minutes.
The soldiers on the troop transport ships cheered and began to actively pack up their parcels and weapons. The crew rowed even more energetically.
Under the guidance of the guide, the fleet circled around the west side of Cyprus Island and sailed to the beach where they could land. All the warships guarded the outer edge of the troop transport fleet. The lookouts climbed up the mast and opened their eyes wide to observe the movements in the open sea.
Knowing that there was no enemy defense on the landing beach and that there was no Persia fleet in the surrounding waters for the time being, Sekerian let out a long sigh of relief. He knew that his risk was successful. Although the fleet was discovered by Persia's patrol ships, it happened suddenly and the fleet moved quickly. Whether it was the Persia fleet or the enemy on Cyprus Island, even if they received the news, they obviously did not have enough time to prepare for a counterattack.
But Secorian did not dare to let his guard down. He knew that the Persia fleet could appear at any time. So, he ordered the crew and soldiers of the fleet to seize the time to replenish their food and water and recover their strength.
More than 4,000 soldiers of the Legion of Dionysia finally landed on the beach and began to unload the supplies on the ships in batches.
Seeing this situation, the flagship captain of the First Fleet immediately asked Secorian, "Sir, our mission to cover the landing has been completed. Should we first return to rendezvous with the Second and Third Fleets before coming back here to fight the Persia fleet?"
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