After estimating the position of the bow, the Prime Minister deliberately turned the compass nearly 180 degrees this time before gently placing it on the water again.
Without hesitation, the compass slowly turned, and soon it turned to the position where the needle tip pointed north, and then stopped!
"It's incredible! This is incredible!"
"This is a groundbreaking invention! You'll never get lost at sea again!"
"With this thing, why should we be afraid of the Athenian navy?"
The experiment was repeated, and the same result was obtained. The Prime Minister, the High Priest, and Hector all cheered.
Hector, in particular, instantly realized the military value of the compass.
According to ancient practice, when the direction is unclear on rainy days, the fleet dare not stray too far from the land at sea.
Otherwise, once the ship loses its position and loses its way, it will drift aimlessly on the sea and may enter dangerous waters, resulting in shipwreck and death.
Even if they can successfully escape the danger, the supply of food and fresh water is still a big problem.
If you can't find supplies from land, you will die of starvation or thirst sooner or later!
The king had just said that he wanted to take advantage of the night to launch a surprise attack on the Athenian navy heading north. Hector objected.
His main reason was that even if they could successfully find the Athenian fleet and achieve some results, there was no guarantee that they would return in the right direction.
If they had not returned to the main fleet by daybreak, the special forces that participated in the surprise attack would be easily wiped out by the Athenian navy!
But with a compass, everything is completely different.
When fighting a war, what we fight for is intelligence.
One side is blind and deaf, while the other side knows exactly where to go. If we fight this battle, we'll definitely get twice the result with half the effort!
Let's attack the Athenian fleet tonight, there's hope!
late at night.
In the resting Athenian fleet.
Themistocles tossed and turned, feeling uneasy.
This was his intuition that had been with him for many years and had saved his life several times.
"Tell the patrol fleet to be more careful. I have to hurry up and prevent the joint fleet of the six nations from launching a surprise attack tonight!" Themistocles instructed his personal guards.
"General, you are confused! There are no stars tonight, and we are dozens of nautical miles away from the joint fleet of the six nations. Even if they can detect our position, they dare not take the risk to attack. They will get lost in the vast ocean!" The guard answered subconsciously.
No starlight?
Hearing this, Themistocles walked outside the cabin and looked up at the sky carefully.
Sure enough, nothing could be seen in the sky.
All the stars have been blocked by clouds.
"Oh, maybe I'm overthinking it! I'm getting older and more cautious!" Themistocles said self-deprecatingly.
Then, he turned around and went back to the cabin to sleep.
He knew that the guard was right.
In such weather, even if the joint fleet of the six nations wanted to launch a surprise attack, they would not be able to determine the direction.
There are several reefs and storm areas around this route.
If we go in the wrong direction, it will be a disaster.
Neither Eurybiades nor Hector would have made such a mistake.
After all, it was the Athenian fleet that suffered during the day.
According to common sense, the joint fleet of the six nations must be in a good mood at this moment, and there is no need to take the risk of launching a surprise attack at night.
Perhaps they had already thought that in the days to come, they could rely on that cautious tactic to defeat the Athenian navy.
But who was Themistocles?
As soon as he realized the intention of the joint fleet of the six countries, he thought of a way to break the situation while commanding the fleet to break away from contact.
Before nightfall, Themistocles had ordered the ships to remove the rams on their bows and instead deploy a large number of boarding hooks.
When the war breaks out again tomorrow, we will risk losing another one or two hundred ships.
Themistocles was fully confident that he could bring the main fleets of both sides into close combat.
Then, relying on the Athenian navy's powerful boarding combat capabilities and its numerical advantage, Themistocles planned to engage in direct hand-to-hand combat on the deck!
Although our side would suffer greater losses, we would still be able to capture the enemy ship intact.
When the enemy's morale collapsed, they began to flee in all directions.
The outcome is no longer in doubt.
As for gold coins.
Only those slow-moving enemy ships are likely to be carrying heavy loads of gold coins.
As long as we pursue the victory and seize all those ships, the loss of gold coins on Tino Island will not be too great.
In this way, this mission can be considered successfully completed.
Thinking of this, Themistocles finally lay down and soon fell asleep.
It was not until the sound of collision and shouting outside that Themistocles suddenly woke up.
"What's going on? What happened?"
Themistocles pushed open the door of the rest cabin with an angry shout and saw the flames rising from the southeast corner of the fleet at a glance.
At that location, hundreds of warships of the Athenian navy had been set on fire.
"Report to the general! The enemy, the enemy is launching a surprise attack! They approached the southeast corner of our fleet silently, and suddenly fired a volley of fire! Our army was caught off guard, and at least 500 warships were burned! Then, the enemy retreated directly!" A guard hurried to report.
"How many ships have the enemy brought?" Themistocles asked.
"Only about a hundred ships. More than fifty of them are those strange fire-breathing ships!" the guard replied.
"Send out a thousand warships to pursue us. We can't let our warships be destroyed in vain!" Themistocles said angrily.
I never thought that a strange ship like Stoby's would dare to launch a sneak attack under the cover of night.
Themistocles felt that they must all be annihilated here.
Only by eliminating the threat of this type of ship can subsequent wars be fought with fewer concerns.
Moreover, the direction the enemy was coming from happened to require them to pass through a reef area and a storm area.
Themistocles felt that as long as his side persisted in the pursuit and pressed harder.
In the dark of night, the enemy troops would panic and not know where to go, and there was a high possibility that they would run to their deaths.
In short.
No matter what, these strange ships from Stoby must be dealt with tonight!
Otherwise, there will be endless troubles!
The ones who set the fire were, of course, Xia Zhe and his Stoby Ironclad Fleet. The Prime Minister was also in command of the fleet.
As for the high priest, Xia Zhe left him in the six-nation joint fleet.
It is always unsafe without a middleman.
The remaining fifty or so Trojan ships were commanded by Hector himself and were responsible for providing reconnaissance intelligence to the Stoic fleet.
With the help of the night and the compass, Hector quickly found the location of the Athenian fleet.
Seeing the other party's specific resting position, Hector's admiration for Themistocles increased a little more.
The Athenian fleet did not choose to rest directly north of the six-nation coalition fleet, but instead moved about twenty nautical miles to the east.
They chose this place for a reason.
To the south of here, on one side is an area full of reefs, and on the other side is a storm center.
If the joint fleet of the six nations wanted to launch a surprise attack, there was only one safe passage that was not very wide.
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