Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 1294: The Great Naval Battle of Cyprus (1)

Secilian gently shook his head. "The reason His Majesty had us take such enormous risks to travel all the way here," he said calmly, "is not just to capture Cyprus. That is only a secondary objective. The most important goal is to destroy the Persian Fleet and seize control of the Near East Waters. Now that over 4,000 heavy infantrymen have landed, they pose a massive threat to Cyprus and have already shattered the Persian Fleet's attempt to intercept us at sea. Under these circumstances, when faced with the threat of our powerful Daonian Fleet, the enemy will very likely choose to retreat temporarily. They will instead transport reinforcements and supplies to towns like Nicosia, making it difficult for our army to conquer them."

"After all, our fleet has traveled a great distance, and the supplies we brought cannot sustain the massive consumption of our crews. If the army cannot swiftly capture Nicosia and the other towns, our fleet will have to retreat first. And when that happens... hmph, the Persian Fleet will easily sever the landing force's maritime supply lines, putting the army in serious trouble—"

Secilian's expression turned incredibly grave. "The army's misfortune is secondary. The key issue is that His Majesty is personally leading the forces this time, seeking the great glory of conquering Persia. We, the navy, have been entrusted with the heavy responsibility of annihilating the Persian Fleet and securing dominance over the Eastern Mediterranean. If our passivity causes the mission of luring the enemy to fail, or even leads to a defeat in the first battle that impacts the entire war to conquer Persia, I will have failed His Majesty's trust. I wouldn't even have the face to meet those army generals I used to mock!"

"It can't be that serious..." the Flagship's captain muttered.

Secilian glared at him in displeasure. "I am the commander of this operation," he said in a low, heavy voice. "I must seize every possible opportunity to ensure it proceeds smoothly. That is why we must stay right here! We cannot leave! To the Persian Fleet, what could be more enticing than destroying a Daonian Fleet far smaller than their own, while simultaneously trapping thousands of soldiers from the Daionian Army on the island!"

"My lord, we have too few Warships after all. I'm just worried that the Persian Fleet... really will swallow us whole like a tasty morsel—"

The captain barely managed to stammer out his sentence before Secilian sharply cut him off. "Even if the Persian Warships outnumber us two or three to one, the fleet led by me, Secilian, will undoubtedly be a hard rock that shatters their teeth! What's more, I trust Midorades. Not only does he possess rich experience in naval warfare, but he also has excellent intuition. He will definitely lead the other Warships to converge with us in time, so we can annihilate the Persian Fleet together!"

Once Secilian had made up his mind, the Flagship's captain dared not offer further advice. Instead, he relayed the fleet commander's orders to all the Warships: equip all Corvus Warships with the Corvus, and prepare for battle!

Over an hour passed without a trace of enemy vessels. However, a small number of Cypriot cavalrymen had appeared on the island. They spied from a distance on the Theonia Legion soldiers building a camp near the beach, yet never dared to approach. It seemed the Cypriots had no intention of rallying an army to engage the landed Daionian Army in a decisive battle.

"The fast ship to the south has raised a yellow flag!" the lookout atop the Flagship's mast suddenly bellowed.

Secilian, who had been waiting anxiously, didn't feel any excitement. Instead, he muttered in confusion, "The arriving Persian Warships are fewer than ours?"

Seeing the dissatisfaction on Secilian's face, the Flagship's captain let out a soft breath of relief. "My lord, should we notify the Warships to prepare for battle?"

Secilian paced back and forth across the deck, deep in thought for a moment before speaking in a low voice. "Wait a little longer! Have all the fast ships split into two groups. One group will bypass the Persian Warships and continue scouting south; the other will scout to the north."

The Flagship's captain's heart skipped a beat. "My lord, do you suspect the Persian Fleet has divided their forces?"

Secilian replied calmly, "I don't think the Persians are bold enough to attack us with just a handful of Warships. Furthermore, I firmly believe our fleet doesn't even need much preparation to easily crush this number of enemy vessels!"

Just as the crews aboard the southernmost Warships of the Daonian Fleet could spot the silhouettes of enemy vessels in the extreme distance, the Daonian Fast Ships speeding south altered the flags on their masts, relaying new information back to the fleet.

"Two yellow flags!" The lookout's shout left Secilian in continued silence. Conversely, upon hearing the lookout's next report, the Flagship's captain clenched his fists in tension: "The Persian Warships are less than four li away from us!"

He looked at Secilian, who sat on the deck as still as a clay statue, hesitating several times to speak.

Right then, the lookout's voice rang out again. "Three yellow flags! The fast ship to the south has raised three yellow flags! No changes from the north!"

Secilian immediately leaped to his feet. "Three yellow flags! The Persian Warships outnumber ours, which means their main force is here. The Persians took the bait!"

Dancing with excitement, Secilian instantly laid out the battle plan he had already formulated. "Sound the horn! Have all the Warships form a circular formation for defensive combat!"

"A circular formation?!" The Flagship's captain was momentarily stunned.

"What? Did you think I only knew how to attack and not defend?!" Secilian remarked with a half-smile.

"I will relay the order immediately!" The Flagship's captain's internal anxieties eased. Clearly, the fleet commander he respected so much hadn't lost his cool in the face of an impending battle.

"Oh, and arrange all the ironclad ships at the very front of the circular formation, directly facing the direction of the Persian Fleet's approach!"

"Yes, sir!"

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This Persian Fleet, spearheaded by Phoenicia and Cyprus, boasted nearly a thousand Warships distributed across various Military Ports in eastern Cyprus. After receiving the orders issued by Alitaka, the Cypriot crews acted the most proactively. They boarded their Warships at top speed, scrambling over each other to sail out of the ports. Then, without even waiting for the ships behind them to form a cohesive formation, they set off westward along the coast of Cyprus Island.

By the time Alitaka's Flagship sailed out of the port, he realized that, spurred on by the Cypriots, many of the Warships hadn't lingered after leaving the harbor; instead, they were swarming westward like a hive of bees.

As the fleet commander, Alitaka stomped his feet in fury, yet he was utterly helpless to stop them. He could only inwardly curse the Cypriots for their stupidity while hoping that the Daonian Fleet wouldn't have arrived by the time his entire armada reached the western coast of Cyprus Island, giving him time to reorganize his ranks.

Upon leaving the port, the Persian Fleet had already formed a long column. As they sailed, differences in the dedication of crews from various Persian regions caused this extended column to gradually fracture. The Cypriot Warships took the lead, the Phoenicians held the center, and the ships from Syria and other regions fell to the rear... Even the Cypriot Warships at the front were scattered, with those departing from the westernmost Larnaca Military Port leading the absolute vanguard...

After more than three hours of sailing, the Cypriot Warships rounded the island's westernmost cape from the south. Aided by the south wind, their speed surged once again. Barely twenty minutes later, the lookouts aboard the Cypriot vessels spotted the Daonian Fleet resting in the bay, numerous Daionian cargo ships moored on the beach, and streams of Daionian soldiers marching from the cargo ships to the shore. (In reality, the soldiers of the Daionian Army were just ferrying supplies back and forth from the cargo ships, but the extreme distance and psychological tension created an illusion for the Cypriot lookouts.)

The Daionians were landing! ...This news gripped all the Cypriot crews with tension. The conviction to defend their homeland made them forget their exhaustion and impressed upon them the urgency of the situation. According to military orders, they were supposed to halt their advance upon discovering the Daonian Fleet, regroup with the other Warships, and wait for the fleet commander's signal before launching an attack.

But now, under the command of the Cypriot naval generals, they merely slowed down slightly while shifting formations. Once complete, they actually continued to accelerate, charging headlong at the Daonian Fleet in a double-column formation.

During the Greco-Persian Wars, the Warships of the Near East city-states were world-renowned for their massive, heavy hulls and large crews. Yet, they suffered defeat at the Battle of Salamis against the smaller, nimbler Warships of the Greek expeditionary army. Later, during Athens' expansion into the Eastern Mediterranean, they lost to the Athenian Navy time and time again. This forced the city-states of the Near East to abandon their disproportionately massive vessels and rebuild their fleets with Trireme Warships as the core. This was true even for the Phoenician City-States. As a result, by later eras, double-headed dragon Warships, Quadriremes, and quinqueremes were exclusively used by Carthage in the western Mediterranean, while the composition of the Persian Fleet—with the Near East city-states as its core naval force—had become entirely identical to that of the Athenian Fleet.

By now, although the Cypriot Warships had lowered their sails, the sailors rowed so fiercely that the vessels' forward speed only continued to climb. Soon, the Daonian Warships were right before their eyes. Amidst the frantic sailing, the Cypriot crews on the decks even cast curious glances at the Corvus mechanisms towering high and swaying slightly on the enemy ships ahead. Although they had never clashed with the Daonian Fleet before, they had heard rumors of these peculiar Warships belonging to the Daunian Navy, instilling them with a certain degree of caution.

Since the Daonian Warships were merely pivoting in place, the opposing vessels remained fixed in a bow-to-bow standoff. At this juncture, the Cypriot Warships had no desire for mutual destruction. The helmsmen slightly shifted their rudders, while the captains simultaneously hollered down to the lower holds, "Retract the oars!"