Chapter 895
Carthage's mother, Tyre, did not hesitate when he received the request for help from Carthage's messenger. He quickly contacted the other neighboring Phoenician city-states, such as Sidon, Acca, Avady, and so on. In the end, they all agreed to help Carthage. After all, one of the main reasons why the Phoenicians were able to live a relatively comfortable life under the rule of Persia was that they offered a large amount of gold and silver to the Persia royal court every year. These gold and silver were mainly traded to them by Carthage at a lower price.
Although there were not many Phoenician city-states under the Kingdom of Persia, and their territory was not large, they had hundreds of warships. Because the people of Persia were located inland, they were not good at sailing. Therefore, its navy was provided by foreigners, mainly from the Phoenicians and the Greeks of Asia Minor. In recent years, the king of Persia had the intention to take back Egypt, so he had been preparing for war. The Phoenicians were the main force of the Persia navy, and they did not lack training.
However, there was an important problem. The Phoenician city-states in the eastern Mediterranean Sea were under the rule of Persia, and their warships were also under the Persia navy. Of course, they could not leave without permission and go to the western Mediterranean Sea. Therefore, Tyre, Sidon … had to send messengers to the Persia royal court to seek permission from Artaxerxes, the king of Persia.
Ever since the signing of the Great Contract, the Greek city-states, which were Persia's biggest enemies, not only did not become enemies with Persia, but they also allowed Persia to act as an arbitrator to mediate the conflicts and disputes between the Greek city-states. This was equivalent to expressing their allegiance to Persia. Artaxerxes felt that he had achieved great feats that the great kings of the past had never achieved. Moreover, the political situation in Persia at that time was stable, and all the barbarians had submitted to him, so his throne was very secure. Therefore, he was full of satisfaction, and thought of a plan to attack Egypt. Though he suffered a small setback, he was not seriously injured.
Under his order, the kingdom was making more thorough preparations to attack Egypt.
Tyre's messengers met with Artaxerxes and conveyed the request of the Phoenicians.
This was not the first time Artaxerxes had heard of the name "Diónia". Although the two countries were thousands of miles apart, the prosperous sea trade in the Mediterranean Sea made the news spread quickly. The magical story of the rapid rise of Diónia was also widely spread in Asia Minor. Naturally, it was also spread in Persia.
The reason why Artaxerxes, the king of Persia, began to pay attention to this newly rising kingdom in the far west was because his intelligence department found out that Diónia was originally a country established by the Greek mercenaries who followed Cyrus the Younger in the rebellion. After all, the story of the Greek mercenaries fighting for thousands of miles in Persia and finally successfully escaping was widely spread in Greece. It was also spread in Asia Minor, but it was a humiliation for Artaxerxes and his Persia army.
After further investigation by the royal intelligence department, Artaxerxes learned more. For example, he knew that the Kingdom of Diónia, like Persia, was more tolerant towards the gods and religions of other races. He also knew that the Kingdom of Diónia, like Persia, exercised stricter control over the conquered lands. He even knew that not long ago, Diónia and Egypt had formed a military alliance. Therefore, in Artaxerxes' heart, the Kingdom of Diónia was the enemy of Persia. It was just that this country was too far away, and its strength was too insignificant (Artaxerxes and many Persia officials thought so), so he did not pay much attention to it in the past.
But now that Diónia was involved, of course, Artaxerxes was willing to give it some trouble. Therefore, he did not think too much and agreed to the matter of the Phoenicians sending a fleet to aid Carthage. He also generously allowed them to use the flag of Persia if necessary.
With the promise of the king of Persia, the East Phoenicians quickly sent a fleet consisting of 130 warships of various sizes. Among them, 90 were three-oared warships, and 30 were cargo ships carrying food supplies. Under the flag of Persia's navy, the fleet sailed westward along the coast of Asia Minor without any hindrance. Along the way, the Greek city-states who saw the fleet felt a little nervous. They all secretly speculated that the Persia was planning a major military operation again.
The people of Athens were undoubtedly the most nervous, because at this time, they were allied with the Thebes against Sparta. The Persia fleet sailing westward at this time could not help but panic. Could it be that Persia wanted to support Sparta and join the war? If that was the case, the future of Athens would be very bad!
The East Phoenician fleet was like a stone falling into a water bottle, stirring up waves. However, it did not attract too much attention from the people of Diónia. Because Diónia was fully focused on dealing with several wars, they could not spare the energy to pay attention to the eastern Mediterranean. Moreover, in the hearts of the people of Diónia, they believed that the Persia fleet would not attack the western Mediterranean. The more chaos they caused in the eastern Mediterranean, the better.
Moreover, it was almost autumn, and the farmlands in Diónia were about to have a bumper harvest. The merchants of the kingdom no longer bought food from the eastern Mediterranean. Instead, they transferred a lot of manpower to the Latin region in central Italy, in an attempt to obtain new business opportunities and more profits from this newly conquered land. Naturally, the number of Diónia merchant ships shuttling on the eastern Mediterranean's trade routes had decreased significantly. This also caused the Ministry of Military Affairs to not get much information about the Persia fleet.
Later, the East Phoenician fleet docked at the port of Kydonia in Crete. This made the people of Athens even more nervous, because the city-states of Crete were allies of Sparta, and Kydonia was closer to the mainland of Greece.
However, a few days later, the people of Athens received news that the Persia fleet had disappeared from Crete. This made them puzzled, but no one saw any trace of the fleet on the coast of the mainland of Greece.
In fact, after the East Phoenician fleet rested in Kydonia, one day when a strong north wind blew on the sea, they quietly left the port and sailed southwest, avoiding the commonly used route of Greek merchant ships. They reached Cyrenaica, a sub-state of Sparta, and then continued west along the coast of Africa to the easternmost colony of the Phoenicians in Africa, Leptis.
(Leptis).
After arriving here and being warmly welcomed by the people of the town, the crew of the Phoenician fleet finally relaxed. The fleet continued westward, eventually arriving at Hadrumetum.
This Phoenician city-state attached to Carthage was just south of Carthage, but it was rarely visited by foreign merchant ships. After the Phoenician fleet docked at the port, they no longer headed west. This was because the shrewd East Phoenicians, after talking to their compatriots along the way, realized that the Diónia navy they were about to fight was strong, so they refused to enter the city of Carthage. They did not want to be forced to confront the navy of Carthage because they could not refuse the pleas of the Carthage people. Instead, they wanted to choose the right time to attack.
Of course, there was another reason that they did not say. Although the East Phoenicians had close commercial relations with Carthage, there had been few high-level political and military exchanges between the two sides for decades. On one hand, it was because of Persia. On the other hand, the East Phoenicians (especially the Tyre nobles) had always resented Carthage for taking away all their colonial trading points in the Western Mediterranean. They did not want to enter the city of Carthage, which was known as the "center of Western Phoenicians".
Later, the East Phoenician fleet that stayed in Hadrumetum refused to provide protection for the Carthage army when it landed in Sicily, because it would inevitably mean that they would have to bear the crazy attack of the Diónia navy.
It was not until the Carthage army risked landing in Sicily that the attention of the Diónia navy was focused on the west of Sicily. Under the suggestion of Carthage Commander Margo, the Senate of Carthage and the East Phoenician fleet finally agreed to Margo's plan.
The fleet quietly left Hadrumetum, sailed north, and reluctantly entered Kossyra.
Cossula was a small island belonging to Carthage. There was a Carthaginian town of about 2000 people on the island and a small port on the south side of the island. The island was located between Sicily and Carthage, facing the city of Serinus to the north.
The East Phoenician fleet crowded the island of Kossyra. After staying for a few days, the fast ships sent out to investigate brought back news. Sure enough, as Margo had expected, the warships of Diónia were leaving the port full of soldiers!
How could the East Phoenician fleet let go of such a great opportunity to annihilate the enemy? So the warships left the port, raised their sails, and sailed north with the help of the weak south wind. Finally, they caught up with the Dionysian fleet in time.
The East Phoenician warships lowered their sails and began to speed up. The entire fleet gradually spread out to both sides as they advanced, but they did not implement any special tactics. The situation of the Dionysian fleet in front of them was not worth their time. They just tried to increase the number of warships in the front as much as possible, striving to sink as many enemy ships as possible in the first attack.
Now, the Diónia fast ships in the outer patrol position, from west to east, had raised two yellow flags one after another. The rough information of the enemy's situation had been spread throughout the fleet. The warships near Miltias' flagship had begun to retreat to the coast, while the warships in the east had just received the signal to "approach the flagship". The entire fleet was in disarray, unable to coordinate, and the warships had almost lost the ability to fight, causing the crew to panic and low morale.
… …
At this moment, Sykerian, who already knew the enemy's situation, directed his fast ship to catch up with a three-oared warship that was returning. Then he anxiously ordered the fast ship to approach immediately.
Then, he stood at the bow of the ship and shouted, "I am Sykerian, who is the captain of this ship?!"
As soon as he finished speaking, there was a clamor in the cabin of the opposite warship. "Did you hear that? It's Lord Sykerian's voice! "
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