After Alexander's fleet completed preparations, he arranged enough shield-bearers on the ship to engage in broadside fighting, and on the first downwind day - although the warships at that time relied almost entirely on oar power, they were reluctant to sail on the ship. Fighting against the wind - they set sail towards Tyre, trying to engage in a naval battle with the opponent as soon as possible. Alexander himself led the right wing of Cypriots and Phoenicians, while Craterus and Nytagoras commanded the left wing. After this magnificent fleet approached Tire, Alexander paused his advance in order to reorganize his line, much as he had slowed the phalanx's advance at the Battle of Issus. It was not until the slow-moving ships caught up that the king resumed his march. The Tyrians, who were originally determined to resist and had already proven their skills, were surprised that the number of ships gathered by Alexander had exceeded their own. They were also frustrated by the abandonment of their original allies. What surprised them even more was the absolute boldness of Alexander's challenge to them. confidence. Therefore, they refused to leave the port, but only deployed as many triline warships as possible at the exit of Sidon Harbor to blockade the port, and pointed the bows of the ships out of the harbor to avoid being captured. After seeing this situation, Alexander did not try to break through to the harbor. However, the Phoenician fleet used superb maneuvers to cut off and destroy three triremes that ventured out of the harbor, and the latter's sailors swam back to the coast. Alexander anchored his fleet on either side of the causeway, sheltering it from the wind. Andromachus led the Cypriot fleet to anchor in the port of Sidon, while the Phoenician fleet anchored in the port of Egypt. Alexander's command post was located on the side of the Phoenician fleet. By this time, Tire's fall was only a matter of time.
A large number of siege machinery was either collected from Cyprus or Phoenicia, or built locally. Almost all the technology and some brand-new inventions of that era were put to use. Some of these siege weapons were arranged on the causeways, while the rest were installed on flat-bottomed boats, merchant ships, or some slower three-row battleships. Some battleships also built siege towers with suspension bridges that could build against the opponent's walls. These floating siege weapons ships parked facing the city and began to exert their power. However, the Tyrians were still able to flexibly and skillfully fight against them by building arrow towers on the walls facing the causeways and siege warships. This not only prevents the opponent from placing the drawbridge against the city wall, but also allows one's own excellent projectile machinery to exert its firepower. They fired flaming arrows at approaching ships and trebuchets hurled fireballs. The walls of Tire were 150 feet high and relatively wide. Its structure consists of huge stones hewn into cubes, with cement filled between the stones. The details of this highly skilled and patient construction method are no longer known. In addition to the arrows shot from the city wall, the seabed at the foot of the city wall is also covered with stones designed to prevent the enemy from approaching, which makes it almost impossible for siege warships to approach the city wall. Alexander now set about salvaging the stones, a task that required skill and patience that cannot be underestimated. And soon after, the ships anchored under the city wall for this work were disturbed by some Tire armored three-row battleships. On these battleships, the Tires used long-handled scythes to cut off the anchors of the salvage ships. chain, making them unmoorable. Alexander followed suit and installed some battleships with iron armor and placed them in front of the salvage ships to prevent them from being cut off by the Tyrians. But the Tyrians were still able to use frogmen to cut the anchor chain underwater - Tyre was a trading center for sponges, so there were many frogmen and they were highly skilled. Alexander rendered the frogmen helpless by switching to iron anchor chains. After that, the stones were finally dragged out of the water using ropes and cranes with live buckles under a lot of manual labor, and then transported away and thrown into deep water. Through these efforts, siege weapons were finally able to approach and attack a portion of the wall that had been selected as an attack point earlier.
Naturally, the Tyrians looked to their richest colony, Carthage, for support. They had already sent their families there long before Alexandria's causeway posed a real threat. But in the end, Carthage did not provide any support to Tire, which undoubtedly made them extremely disappointed with the Carthaginians who had forgotten their roots. It must be mentioned that Carthage itself was at war with other countries. But in any case, just as they later did in Hannibal's time, Carthage always pursued a very selfish national policy.
Tire's fleet was divided into two parts, anchored in two ports respectively. The Macedonian fleet was also deployed at the mouth of the port to prevent the Tire fleet from breaking through and preventing their fleets from joining together to launch a counterattack. The strength of the Tyrian fleet was not enough to carry out any effective operations, but after being harassed, the Tyrians decided to conduct a quick sortie, preparing to attack the Cypriot warships anchored on the north side of the causeway.
The Tyrians pretended to dry the sails by hanging them at the harbor exit, thus blocking Alexander's view, and placed their best oarsmen and bravest soldiers on 13 warships - 3 quinquettes, 3 Four-row battleships and seven three-row battleships. By about noon, while Alexander's sailors were scattered ashore to feed and he himself was resting in his command post on the other side of the causeway, facing the port of Egypt, the Tyrians sailed out of the harbor. At first they made as little noise as possible while sailing. After sailing halfway, they suddenly made a huge roar and rushed towards the Cyprus fleet at full speed. The sudden attack gave the Tyrians an advantage at the beginning, sinking, damaging, or driving many Cypriot warships to the coast. However, Alexander's sentries quickly told him the news (it is also recorded that Alexander happened to come out of the camp earlier than usual that day and saw the attack with his own eyes), and he immediately gathered all the troops on the south bank of the causeway who could be mobilized immediately. He used some of the undermanned warships to blockade the southern port to prevent the Tyr warships here from taking the opportunity to break out. He himself took all five-row warships and five three-row warships to the battlefield on the north side of the causeway. Since the causeway was very close to the city wall at this time, Alexander had to make a full circle around the city of Tire before reaching the place opposite the Port of Sidon where the Tire warships were aggressively attacking. However, Alexander's current position also allowed him to strike behind the Tyrian battleship. Seeing Alexander's swift action (the speed of these rowers was even equal to the average speed of today's steamships), the Tyrians sent a return signal to their warships from the city walls. But before the Tyrian ships, drowned by the noise of the battlefield and dazzled by their rare victory, heard the signal and began to retreat, Alexander had already begun his attack. The Tyrians immediately fled, but the king completely destroyed several warships and captured two - a pentagon and a quadruple. Through such an action, Alexander proved that he was also an outstanding naval general.
Earlier, due to trade issues, Li Ning's fleet, after completing most of the tasks of the Black Sea operation, began to expand to the waters west of the Bosphorus Strait, especially with other places with busy trade, and here In the process, friction with various Greek city-states, especially Athens, became the main theme of this period, and the Persians' hatred of Li Ning also caused the group of bandits on the Kells Islands to launch a campaign against Li Ning's merchant ships. A large-scale attack.
The only good thing is that Li Ning seems to have been prepared for all this. Although Quanzhou, the hometown of Fuchuan, had not yet fully utilized its powerful manufacturing capabilities during the Song Dynasty, and had not even integrated the Arab shipbuilding technology acquired from Puyane, the brutal watertight cutting warehouse design had already begun. . To ensure the normal operation of merchant ships, even if Type 3 Party A media pokes countless holes in the hull of a merchant ship, such a ship may not sink easily.
What's more, the Song Dynasty was an era when armed merchant ships were slowly awakening. The chaos at sea made merchants pay more attention to safety. Although the Song Dynasty strictly controlled the issue of carrying weapons in maritime trade and frequently punished private individuals with the death penalty for privately holding weapons. But this time, because Li Ning advanced the navigation system that only appeared in the late Ming Dynasty to the Song Dynasty and branded it as an official camp, many Hunan troops also participated in the battle to protect merchants. This was previously the case with the Asia Minor Peninsula. This was already very obvious when expanding trade, so the imperial court began to provide free weapon protection for these merchant ships. However, due to the special nature of water warfare, some equipment needed to be installed on the ship to be strong, so the two sides also signed a more detailed agreement. The contract stipulates that the weapons and equipment on these merchant ships must be controlled and maintained by the military, and merchants are not allowed to use them privately.
According to such regulations, there is no doubt that it is divorced from reality, and sometimes it is simply useless. Therefore, businessmen still have extremely high rights to use weapons.
It's a pity that such sneaky behavior is destined to not give them enough time to practice, so in some special times, their usual tricks are not helpful. In some previous conflicts, including with the Persians and Athenians The sea kites all showed a helpless side.
Many of the tribesmen and cronies who followed the merchants died in the battle at sea. This is Li Ning's fleet, which is not as important as Alexander's at this time.
