第六卷 双雄会 第一百四十章 锡拉库扎人的震惊

After everything was arranged, Phasipesas still had concerns: "My lord, what if it keeps raining the next day or two…"

"You can rest assured on this matter. I specifically asked several old fishermen who have lived here for decades, and they all agreed that starting tomorrow it will be clear and sunny. Look, today's rain has already lessened!" Dionysius looked around at the group and encouraged them: "Everyone, you must seize these two days to finish building enough siege equipment! Phasipesas, your task is heavy. To prevent the siege tower from being unable to be pushed to the north gate of Croton due to muddy ground, you must build at least five sturdy causeways. Can you do it?"

"General, you have already assigned me enough men. This is no problem at all!" Phasipesas promised.

"Good!" Dionysius looked at everyone with confidence: "Everyone, in two days, we will attack Croton again! After this battle, I want to hold a celebration for you in the Temple of Apollo in Croton. Do not disappoint me!"

The generals swore in unison: "By Apollo above, we will surely breach the city of Croton!"

The atmosphere in the tent was lively. Dionysius, infected by it, smiled at Phoebidas, who had remained silent, and said: "That Davos dares to call himself king. Does Sparta have no punishment for this?"

One must know that before the Greco-Persian Wars, Sparta was once called "the Liberator," and they declared themselves as such, because they overthrew one tyrannical regime after another in mainland Greece and even on the Aegean islands, such as the descendants of Peisistratus the tyrant of Athens, and the Aleuadae family of Thessaly. So the Greeks once believed that Sparta was extremely hostile to autocratic regimes.

Phoebidas glanced at Dionysius and thought to himself: You only talk about Davos, why don't you look at yourself first?!

Of course he couldn't answer that way. Instead, he coldly replied: "Isn't having Syracuse as punishment enough?"

Dionysius laughed heartily.

Just then, the tent flap opened, and an aide rushed in hurriedly, whispering in Dionysius's ear.

Dionysius's smile instantly froze on his face, and his expression turned extremely ugly. He roared "Ah!" and suddenly kicked over the table beside him, then grabbed the aide and shouted angrily: "Where is Leptines! Where is that damned bastard?! Tell him to get over here to see me!!"

The aide, intimidated by Dionysius's fury, said in a trembling voice: "My lord… Lord Leptines is… injured, in his tent… receiving treatment…"

"Tell that coward to get over here immediately! Even if he's dead, carry his corpse over to me!" Dionysius's anger did not abate, and he roared in a cold, harsh tone.

"Yes… yes…" The aide hurried out of the tent in panic.

The tent fell into silence, only the sound of Dionysius's rapid breathing and pacing.

"Could it be that the fleet encountered a setback?" Someone finally asked the question everyone was thinking.

Dionysius glared towards the speaker and found it was Phoebidas. Only this Spartan dared to speak when Dionysius was in a rage.

Dionysius looked at him, turned back and sat down on the wooden chair, sighing heavily: "Not just a setback—a major defeat!"

"A major defeat?!" Everyone in the tent was shocked.

"My lord, could it be… the Carthaginians joined the battle?" Phasipesas asked cautiously.

Everyone's heart tightened: In the western Mediterranean, only the Carthaginians could rival the Syracusan navy. If Carthage joined the war, Syracuse in Sicily might be in danger!

Facing more than a dozen pairs of somewhat panicked eyes, Dionysius felt even more suffocated: "Don't overthink it. Carthage did not join the battle. It was the Daonian fleet… that single-handedly defeated our navy, causing our 300-plus warships to lose two-thirds, including nearly 200 triremes…"

What!!! The tent exploded like a boiling pot. No one could believe this fact: The Syracusan navy, facing a much weaker Daonian fleet, could suffer such a crushing defeat!

One must know that since the disastrous naval battle against Carthage last time, after years of construction and accumulation, Syracuse had finally managed to bring its warship count to 500, including over 300 triremes. For this expedition to Magna Graecia, Leptines had brought almost all of them except for a few dozen left to guard the port of Syracuse. Later, he stationed several dozen warships at Messina to blockade Rhegium and control the strait. The remaining warships were personally led by Leptines and participated in this naval battle, and yet they were defeated—and by a Daonia that didn't even have a single warship a few years ago! This is simply…

"Stop arguing!" Dionysius, already agitated, was even more annoyed by the generals' disputes: "We'll know what happened in this naval battle when Leptines comes. Now keep quiet!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the tent fell silent again. But this time, the unease and agitation had spread to everyone inside.

With Dionysius's order, Leptines arrived quickly. He stumbled into the tent, fell to his knees with a thud, and said in a trembling voice: "My… my lord, I… I am guilty!"

Dionysius saw that his head and arms were wrapped in linen, stained red with blood, presenting a pitiful sight. A flicker of pity arose in his heart, but was quickly drowned by a surge of rage: "You've come just in time. Everyone really wants to know how you managed to lose over 300 warships!"

His sinister voice contained infinite hatred, and Leptines could not help but shiver several times.

Dionysius, seeing his cowardly appearance, grew even angrier. He grabbed the iron plate that a guard had just picked up from the table and threw it fiercely, hitting Leptines square on the forehead. Blood immediately flowed, but he did not dare to cry out.

"Speak quickly!" Dionysius pointed at him and roared.

"Yes! Yes!…" Leptines responded repeatedly.

The generals, originally angry at him, now felt a bit of pity for him. However, Phoebidas remained calm. Spartans were beaten with sticks by their instructors from childhood for disobedience; as adults, they were beaten if they failed training assessments, and even more severely for defeat in battle… The Spartans were harsh on their own citizens, even harsher on Helots and allied soldiers. Such violent beatings often made other city-states unwilling to approach Sparta, but Spartan citizens were long accustomed to it. So Phoebidas even thought to himself: Such a general who caused such huge losses to the city-state should be hanged and beaten to death.

Leptines, trembling, briefly recounted the entire naval battle.

After hearing it, Dionysius's face darkened, and he fell into thought: "You mean… the Daonians installed wooden bridges on their warships that could hook onto approaching ships, and then won by having soldiers board and fight?"

"Yes… yes. Their wooden bridges were very flexible, able to rotate in various directions, preventing our ships from attacking from behind." Leptines quickly defended himself.

"Since you knew the ramming tactic wasn't working, why didn't you retreat in time?!" Dionysius cursed.

Leptines had no answer.

"He wanted to capture the new king of Daonia and end this war," Phoebidas sighed. "So that Davos had foreseen your thoughts, used himself as bait to lure your ships to attack fiercely, thus capturing a large number of your warships and causing your disastrous defeat… Davos is truly an outstanding commander!"

Dionysius glared at him, but Phoebidas didn't care.

Phasipesas noticed a problem in Leptines's account and asked urgently: "General Leptines, from what you say, the warships captured by the Daonians were not heavily damaged. Won't they be able to use those ships against us soon?!"

Everyone's expression changed.

"Uh… well…" Leptines didn't know how to answer.

"Hmph! For the Daonians to expand their fleet, they need enough sailors!" Dionysius's words reminded the assembled generals: That's right, Syracuse had over a hundred triremes captured. To restore their combat effectiveness, they would need at least thirty to forty thousand sailors. From what is known about the Daonian Alliance's territory, all their able-bodied men have already been thrown into the expanded army and navy to deal with multiple wars. They shouldn't be able to produce such a huge number of able-bodied men. Moreover, not just anyone can immediately become a qualified sailor; it requires long-term coordinated training. Experienced helmsmen are not easy to gather either!

The generals relaxed a bit.

"Leptines, your failure has caused great trouble for our army!" Dionysius looked at him with a mixture of anger and disappointment, asking coldly: "I ask you now: If the Daonian fleet comes to attack, do you have the confidence to lead the remaining warships to turn defeat into victory?"

The generals immediately turned their attention back to Leptines, which made him even more nervous and fearful. He subconsciously touched the bandage on his head. The wound under the bandage was actually self-inflicted with a knife, to win some sympathy from his brother.

"Speak quickly!" Dionysius roared, startling him into saying: "If… if I can lure the Daonian fleet into deep waters and engage them slowly, I… I have some confidence in defeating them. Their warships have that large wooden bridge erected on the foremast, which makes the ship top-heavy. Not only are they slower and less maneuverable, but they are also more likely to capsize in rough seas. But… if in coastal waters—" Leptines cautiously looked up at Dionysius, then lowered his head, lowering his voice: "—if we face their attack head-on, our fleet might… still be defeated…" At the end, his voice faded away.

Dionysius was no longer as furious as at the beginning. Calming down and thinking, he had to admit that this novel naval tactic of Daonia caused great trouble for Syracuse. Anyone in command of the fleet, caught unaware, would have suffered a heavy loss.