Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 959: Pincer Attack in the Saros Sea

A deep horn blasted, and two long streamers—one red, one black—soon fluttered from the peak of the Flagship's mainmast.

The rest of the Warships spotted the warning flags ahead. When the Flagship followed up with an attack signal, the once-somber fleet instantly sprang to life. Captains barked orders, lookouts shouted warnings, and sailors chanted in unison across the decks, shifting the entire fleet's formation.

The Third Fleet broke its four-column formation, rapidly expanding forward and out to the flanks. The gaps between ships in the horizontal lines widened, while the spaces between ships in the columns tightened. The entire fleet's formation transformed from a long serpent into a great goose spreading its wings. Having been established for nearly a decade, the Warships of the Third Fleet shifted into their array with extremely practiced, coordinated speed, constantly closing the distance with the Carthaginian Fleet opposite them.

At this moment, stationed aboard the Flagship of the Carthaginian Fleet was the Carthaginian naval commander Annobas. The appearance of the Daonian Fleet in these waters left him shocked:

"My lord, should we temporarily fall back?" the Flagship's captain asked carefully.

Annobas stared ahead, pondering for a moment before answering decisively: "Although this strays somewhat from our plan, the Theonians remain in a disadvantageous position. As long as we intercept them, the final victory will certainly be ours!"

"My lord, but will Admika and the others be able to arrive in time...?" the captain asked hesitantly.

Annobas understood his meaning and replied in a heavy voice, "This naval battle is extremely important to Carthage! It is also extremely important to Lord Mago! Admika definitely understands its importance; he will go all out!"

With that said, Annobas loudly issued an order: "Form a circular array! Prepare for battle!"

To save time and construct more Warships, the shipyards of Carthage and its allies had temporarily abandoned the construction of Quadriremes and massive Flagships. As a result, the Flagship Annobas rode in was merely a converted Trireme Warship with no sterncastle, an absence he found somewhat uncomfortable.

The circular array was a defensive ship formation where the Warships were arranged in a tight ring. With only their bows facing outward, their vulnerable flanks and sterns remained protected by allied Warships. It resembled a curled-up hedgehog with its spikes raised, leaving attacking enemy vessels with no place to bite.

While the circular array carried the drawback of causing the Warships within it to move sluggishly, its supreme defensive capability was exactly what Annobas needed right now. After all, having experienced the last massive naval clash with the Daonian Sicilian Fleet, he still harbored lingering trepidation regarding the Daonian Warships' offensive power. Therefore, he intended to use the circular array to stall for time and wait for a favorable combat opportunity to arrive.

However, compared to other ship formations, the circular array was not only far more difficult to arrange, but it also consumed more time. By the time the Carthaginian Warships received the Flagship's orders and began converging toward the Carthaginian Flagship under their captains' commands, the Daunian 3rd Fleet had already launched its attack.

Every Warship in the Third Fleet had already lowered its sails, and the Corvus Warships had all been fitted with boarding bridges. Upon hearing the order to attack, every sailor fell into a state of excitement. They quickly shoved their carried rations into their mouths, chewing as they listened to the boatswains and pipers, manipulating their oars and constantly increasing their rowing speed.

Just then, the lookout atop the Flagship's mainmast shouted in panic, "General, a warning from the rear Warships! Double yellow flags! Enemy ships have appeared, and their numbers are roughly equal to our own!"

Midorades's heart tightened as the lingering doubts in his mind were instantly unraveled: Why hadn't the Carthaginian merchant ships fled along the coast, running instead toward the dangerous open sea? Why had these seemingly fully loaded Carthaginian merchant ships been able to maintain such rapid speeds and display such masterful sailing techniques? ...This was a stratagem by the Carthaginian Fleet! They had long since hidden Warships in ambush in the open sea, using the merchant vessels to lure them there. While they were engaged in combat, another fleet would rush over from the rear to catch them in a pincer attack. Coupled with the fact that open-sea combat hindered the effectiveness of the Corvus Warships, the Third Fleet was extremely likely to suffer a miserable defeat!

A chill of retrospective fear ran down Midorades's spine; he rejoiced that his previous failure had kept him vigilant.

"General, what do we do?! Should we have the rear First Squadron turn around and head over to intercept?!" the captain asked nervously.

Faced with this crisis, perhaps fueled by the relief of narrowly escaping disaster, Midorades's mind was exceptionally clear at this moment. He shook his head and said in a heavy voice, "The combined number of enemy Warships is nearly double our own; splitting our forces for combat will only further weaken our offensive strength... The enemies to the rear have only just been discovered, placing them at least three away, while the enemies ahead are already close at hand—"

He paused, his gaze hardening as his tone turned suddenly ruthless: "Raise two more red flags! No Warship is permitted to make any stops; all of you, charge up for me!"

Three red streamers and one black streamer fluttered from the peak of the Flagship's mainmast. For the other Warships that had previously seen the warning from the rear Warships, this eliminated the hesitation and uncertainty in their hearts; for the Warships ahead currently closing in on the enemy array, this was even more of a stimulant: Attack! Attack again! Fight a bloody battle to the end!

Under the encouragement of the boatswains, every sailor's fighting spirit soared, and their rowing speeds skyrocketed, sending every Warship shooting toward the Carthaginian ship array like an arrow leaving the bowstring.

The Corvus Warships charged directly at the enemy vessels. When the two ships were very close, the sailors immediately pulled in their oars, and the Warships glided forward on their inertia under the control of the helmsmen. On the decks, the operators firmly gripped the wheel axles for the boarding bridges. At the very moment the two ships were about to collide, the operators pressed the levers. The boarding bridges rapidly smashed down onto the opposing bows. A thunderous crash actually caused the sterns of both ships to jump upward simultaneously, and the sailors in the cabins all stumbled and fell into a tangled heap.

Meanwhile, the fleet infantry inside the Corvus Warships worked hard to control their bodies, rushing out from the cabins onto the decks and rapidly charging across the boarding bridges. The opposing Warships carried only a small number of soldiers and archers; faced with the fully armed fleet infantry, the Carthaginian sailors' resistance was destined to be a tragedy.

As screams of misery continuously drifted over from the vanguard, Annobas suddenly realized that he had made a massive mistake: the circular array was indeed the best defensive formation for Warships, but that was directed against enemies who similarly operated conventional Trireme Warships. Right now, he was facing the Daunian Navy, who excelled at using boarding bridges to hook ships and engage in boarding combat. Arranging the vessels into a circular array to the point of inconvenient movement had instead turned them into targets for the opponent to attack willfully.

Annobas complained incessantly in regret at this moment, instead venting his resentment onto the captain: "Why didn't you remind me just now?!"

The captain was left speechless. Like Annobas, he had been subjected to the nurturing influence of traditional naval tactics for a long time. Under the circumstances of suddenly encountering the enemy just now, his instincts had defaulted to selecting the most suitable tactic to respond. This meant he had felt Annobas's adopted strategy was correct just now, which was why he had expressed no objections, yet completely forgetting that what they were encountering was an enemy that absolutely did not fight according to conventional naval tactics. The main reason was still because Annobas and the others had only engaged the Daunian Navy once before, leaving them with an impression of its fleet's tactics that was not too deep.

"Quick! Quick! Quickly blow the retreat horn! Have the respective Warships scatter and evade!" Annobas shouted, flustered and exasperated.

The captain blanked. "My lord, are we not going to hold on for a little longer?! Admika and the others might arrive at any moment!"

"By the time Admika arrives, our fleet will probably already be finished!" Annobas roared in exasperation, entirely forgetting the words he had just spoken previously. Because the Daonian Fleet was blocking the way ahead, he still did not know at this time that Admika was currently leading his fleet and rushing over at top speed.

Unlike the Daunian Navy, which had formulated a complex flag-signaling system following Davos's pointers to transmit orders clearly and promptly, the Carthaginian navy, which had traversed the seas for hundreds of years, similarly possessed its own set of methods for transmitting orders at sea.

Ten buglers on the Flagship's deck simultaneously blew the retreat horn, the urgent blasts surging out in all directions.

Although the Carthaginian Fleet's circular array had not been thoroughly completed, the Warships were all closing in toward the Flagship, making it just right for them to hear the horn blasts with absolute clarity. However, wanting to immediately execute this order and have the entire fleet instantly pull back was impossible. Because this was a circular array, the outer Warships had to retreat first to clear up space before the inner Warships would be able to withdraw.

However, the Warships of the Daunian 3rd Fleet rapidly pressed up across the entire line, coming into full contact with half of the Carthaginian circular array's outer perimeter in a short amount of time.

Under the swift and fierce offensive of the Daonian Warships, achieving a smooth retreat was fundamentally not easy to begin with. Now, the Warships situated in the front ranks saw the allied vessels ahead currently engaged in battle being hooked by enemy boarding bridges one after another, followed by soldiers of the Daonian Fleet charging onto the decks like ravenous wolves. Then, amid a continuous expanse of miserable screams, there was not a single Carthaginian sailor who was not trembling with fear, deeply afraid of following in their footsteps. The sounding of the retreat horn allowed them to feel as if they had been relieved of a heavy burden, and they successively turned around to pull back, which consequently led to the inherently narrow internal space of the circular array becoming even more cramped, impacting the speed of the Warships' withdrawal.

Right at this exact moment, Annobas, who was currently regretting things endlessly, suddenly stopped complaining and said uncertainly to the Flagship's captain, "I think I heard our attack horn!"

The captain blanked, immediately straining his ears to listen.

At this time, the lookout on the mast shouted loudly, "A fleet has appeared to the rear of the Daonian Fleet! It's our fleet! Lord Admika has arrived!"

Annobas completely swept away his previous dejection; Admika, whom he had previously loathed and despised, had become his most welcomed individual at this moment. He shouted excitedly, "Well done, Admika! Quick! Quickly order all Warships to halt their retreat! Immediately launch an attack against the enemy!"