Published at 15th of April 2024 11:42 am

Chapter 894: Naval Battle of Thermae (I)

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“Stop panicking; Lord Seclian is here!”

“With Lord Seclian here, we no longer need to fear the enemy!…”

At the same time, a commotion arose on the deck. Despite the soldiers from the reserve legions stationed in various towns throughout Theonia's territory in Sicily being undoubtedly aware of Seclian's reputation, they didn't show the same respect towards him as the Theonian navy did.

A man in leather armour and a helmet quickly stepped onto the deck. He approached the ship's side and saluted, saying, “My lord, I am the ship's captain, Elias of the First Fleet!”

Seclian became relieved after hearing he was his subordinate. He then immediately said, “I know you, Elias. Every time we conducted the fleet warship’s assessment, the triremes under your command were always at the top… Now, I order you to immediately have all the soldiers on the ship jump into the sea and then take your warship to follow me and face the enemy!”

Elias was taken aback and hesitatedly said, “…but…commander Miltiades had raised the flag of Apollo and asked us to…”

“Miltiades is a fool!” Seclian interrupted angrily, “What's the point of gathering together when the enemy is rushing toward us, and all the ships are still full of soldiers who are completely incapable of fighting?! Did he order this so that it would be convenient for the enemy to sink us?! I am now ordering you to carry out the order at once as the navarch of the First Fleet!”

“Y…yes!” Elias responded loudly. Deep down, he was completely in favour of Seclian because Seclian raised the First Fleet under his belief of never backing down and never being passive.

The soldiers on the deck began clamouring upon hearing their conversation, as they didn't want to be thrown out of the ship.

Elias then faced them and began persuading, “Warriors of Theonia, our fleet is now in a dire situation of encountering a strong enemy! Unfortunately, our warships are unable to face them while carrying you. Therefore, you must make a choice: either jump overboard so that we may proceed to fight and repel the enemy, returning to rescue you afterwards, or remain on board and await the arrival of the enemy ships to sink us and capture everyone aboard… make your choice immediately!”

Silence suddenly descended on the deck. Then, soon, a man stepped forward.

“Squad leader!” The soldiers earnestly shouted as they focused their hopeful gaze on him.

“Brothers, we're in for trouble once the navy's done for!” With a determined look, the squad leader said, “Grab your shields, and let's jump into the sea to show the navy that they are not the only ones who know how to swim.”

After he finished speaking, not a single soldier voiced any objection. Then, one by one, they successively took up their shields on the deck. Such was the strict discipline of the Theonian Legion, even if they were only from the Reserve Legion.

“Please keep the rest of our armour and weapon safe.” The squad leader requested Elias, and then he picked up his long shield and jumped into the sea first, followed by the rest of the soldiers…

Throughout this process, Elias kept his salute.

After giving his orders, Seclian didn't stop by this warship but went on to catch up with the others. Since these warships were filled with soldiers and were slow, it wasn't difficult for him to catch up with them. After stopping a few of them one after another, he discovered that all the warships he had encountered were ships of the First Fleet(These ships were the ones that had escaped the disaster by breaking into the port of Selinus during the storm) and that the ships were full of soldiers that were mostly soldiers of the Reserve Legion.

After a moment of thinking, Seclian understood that this wasn't by chance.

To seize the moment, Miltiades ordered the warships to depart first as soon as they finished loading the soldiers. The soldiers of the Reserve Legion, having received more training and being more organised than the citizen soldiers of other city-states, were able to assemble at the port and board the warships as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, Miltiades was the last to depart, as he had to supervise the entire boarding process. Military commanders generally had a habit of gathering their most trusted troops around them, so it would be more convenient to command them and play a greater role in combat despite them just transporting troops. Thus, Miltiades had habitually had the First Fleet's ship dock first, hence why the Fourth Fleet's ships, which had followed him for over a decade, departed later and were closer to him.

Miltiades' unintentional arrangement made it convenient for Seclian, who could more smoothly make the ships of the First Fleet and the soldiers of the Reserve Legion to carry out his orders. For the fast-sailing triremes, all soldiers on them jumped into the sea while the corvus had kept forty soldiers, and the rest jumped into the sea.

Naturally, Seclian would also encounter soldiers of friendly city-states on the warship, who are obviously resistant to this order, with some even threatening to use force to occupy the ships. Unfortunately, the captain can only persuade them patiently. However, after witnessing soldiers from a nearby warship jump into the sea to set an example for these resistant soldiers, most of them ultimately comply. Still, this action also wastes some time.

.............

While Seclian anxiously pursued the ships to the east to make them obey his orders, the Eastern Phoenician fleet sped up and chased the Theonian warships retreating towards the coast.

Despite the Theonian sailors rowing hard, the soldiers on the ship had seriously affected the warship's speed. Gradually, the Eastern Phoenician fleet got closer despite already increasing their speed to the highest.

Like tigers and wolves, the Eastern Phoenician warships rushed towards the fat sheep in their sight.

Seeing that escape was impossible, the Theonian warships that lagged behind simply turned around and bravely rushed to meet the enemy ships. Unfortunately, the Theonian warships, which had lost their speed and agility, were no match for the Eastern Phoenician warships. This led to their oars breaking and their hulls being struck, with Theonian soldiers frequently forced to jump into the sea in alarm.

Of course, there were occasional exceptions. Despite the Eastern Phoenicians learning about the Theonian fleet from their kinsmen, they hadn't experienced it firsthand. So, in a moment of carelessness, a few of the Eastern Phoenician warships got hooked by the twelve-metre drawbridge of the corvus warships in a head-on collision and allowed the fully armed soldiers of the friendly city-state to swarm in for the kill.

The other Phoenician warships that saw this terrifying scene quickly learned their lesson and began avoiding the bow when facing the corvus warships and instead attacked their stern. As a result, the corvus warship, which couldn't rotate due to the large number of soldiers that slowed down their speed and was inflexible, and without the protection of the fast-sailing triremes, became the main target of the Phoenician warships.

Miltiades' flagship was hurrying towards the coast that happened to be the one where the marines had landed during the night raids a few days before. Despite the fact they were just a kilometre away and getting closer, there was no joy on Miltiades' face as he had been suffering internally.

He had been sitting in the stern to observe the movement of the other ships. However, what he saw instead were countless enemy ships rushing in with the wind to attack the vessels that had fallen behind. Despite their tenacious resistance, these ships either sank or broke. Thus, they could only float on the sea stiffly, vulnerable to enemy harassment. The alarmed crews and soldiers cried out as more and more of them fell into the sea…

This sight was like a knife through Miltiades' heart. After all, these warships were the ones he had shamelessly petitioned the Ministry of Military for over a decade, meticulously maintained and repaired daily, painstakingly saved up. In the blink of an eye, they had become nothing! And these brothers, who had been with him day and night for more than a decade but had never faced a major battle, tirelessly trained, brought to Sicily with eagerness to achieve. Yet now, they were on the brink of losing their lives…

He could no longer endure and stood up, shouting, “Stop the ship at once! Leave forty soldiers behind, and let the rest jump off the ship and swim to the beach! Hurry! Hurry!”

At this moment, Miltiades gave the same order as Seclian. In fact, he had already thought of this before. However, he still had wishful thinking at the time, and he was worried that making them jump off the ship into the sea would lead to protests from the soldiers of their friendly city-states afterwards, which would be detrimental to him. After all, he had already made a mistake…a momentary mistake that caused them to encounter trouble, which he now regrets deeply.

Fortunately, the soldiers from their friendly city-state on the deck didn't argue like those on the eastern warships. Having witnessed the dire situation at sea behind them, they quickly complied with the orders, realising it might not be safer to remain on board than to jump into the sea.

Rather than steering his flagship directly toward the enemy ships, Miltiades swiftly commanded it to sail toward the nearby warship. His goal was to gather as many scattered ships outside the battlefield as possible to confront the unknown enemy fleet.

In fact, due to the dire situation, there was no need for Miltiades to remind the other ships as the soldiers on the Theonian warships had voluntarily jumped into the sea, allowing the warships to participate in the battle.

However, the first wave of the Eastern Phoenician Fleet destroyed at least ten Theonian triremes, turning the already scattered rear of the Theonian fleet into disarray. Then, the following Phoenician ships took advantage of the scattering of Theonian warships in an attempt to capture the fleet's rear completely.

Miltiades' flagship, with a wide hull and a blood-red flag host on its mast, naturally became the main target of the Eastern Phoenicians. As a result, a total of five Phoenician warships quickly sailed towards them, forcing Miltiades to abandon his original plan.

After making up his mind, Miltiades ordered a corvus and a fast-sailing trireme to gather on both sides of his ship.

Quickly, the corvus ship and his flagship turned around and headed towards the coast, while the fast-sailing trireme took a U-turn and sailed in a parallel direction along the coast, distancing itself from them.

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