Mazara is a town founded by the Phoenicians, which has long been under the jurisdiction of Carthage, and is only more than 30 miles away from the city of Lilibal, but the Carthaginian army moves slowly, not only has a large number of baggage, Monteadeno also brings some Carthaginian merchants and even prostitutes, so the team is bloated, and the formation is also a little scattered, and the marching speed is relatively slow.

The next day, the procession continued on its way, again reaching the city of Selinus, about 40 miles from Mazara, at dusk.

Selinus was founded by Greek colonists and was once known for its rich agriculture and fishing. During the Peloponnesian War, it clashed with Segesta, a short distance to the northwest of it, and became the trigger for the Athenian expedition to Sicily. In the ensuing long-term battle between Carthage and Syracuse, Selinus and Segersta, a pair of Greek colonial towns in western Sicily and surrounded by Phoenician towns, were repeatedly captured, and most of its Greek residents fled to eastern Sicily, and most of the people who moved in later were Phoenicians, so when Dionya signed an agreement with Carthage, Davos agreed to put Selinus under Carthaginian jurisdiction.

On the third day, the Carthaginian army reached another town of Therae at dusk, and the Carthaginian soldiers were tired but excited.

Just look at the name of the town, this place has hot springs. It was because of the hot springs in the Carlogiro Mountains that Selinus built a village here, and after the Carthaginians occupied this place and strengthened friendly relations with Dionia, the thermal baths of Turij inspired the Carthaginians, who were born as merchants, so they vigorously developed this place, building several thermal baths similar to Turrij, attracting countless Carthaginians to enjoy the sulfur hot springs here, and the village soon developed into a town.

The soldiers simply built the camp and went to bathe in batches, and Monteadeno even summoned a few women to bathe with him.

The next day, the Carthaginian army, which had been washed by the hot springs, both the generals and the soldiers, continued to march east in good spirits and briskly.

In the afternoon, the army reached the city of Heraclia-Minoa. It was a Greek colonial city perched on a hill on the east bank of the mouth of the Halikas, overlooking the fertile lowlands of the west bank and the port to the east. For more than a decade, the city-state had close ties with Dionia, and even developed friendly ties with the kingdom's city of Heraclia because of its name. Therefore, the Minoans did not hesitate to refuse the Carthaginians' persuasion.

Monteadeno had anticipated this, and he ordered the army to camp on the west bank of the Halikas River.

For the next three days, the Carthaginians were preparing for the siege, and the Carthaginian clippers sent to the eastern coast to reconnoiter reported that Dionya had sent reinforcements to Minoa.

Monte Adno was immediately relieved and decided to launch an all-out attack on the city of Minoa tomorrow.

But he did not know that the tribes of Sichael, in the northwest of Minoa and in the city of Enna, in the center of the interior of Sicily, had already sent a thousand warriors to cross the mountains and trek through the valleys towards Minoa.

The next day, the Carthaginian army crossed the Halicas River, reached the city of Minoa, lined up, surrounded the city of Minoa, and then sounded the trumpet of the attack.

The city of Minoa was not large, the population was not too large, the city had less than 4,000 young and middle-aged citizens who could fight, there was no moat in front of the city, the height of the hill on which it was located was less than 150 meters, and the slope was gentle. However, the Minoans were completely obedient to the instructions of the officers sent by Dionia, and not only laid a large number of traps, but also cut down all the trees on the hills, and even dug up rocks that could be used as cover for the attack, which were used as stones to defend against the enemy.

Because of the existence of hills, the large siege equipment made by Carthage not only required more manpower to push to the front of the city, but also its movement must be very slow, and the attack of the ballista was also greatly reduced in accuracy and power because of the long distance, so the Numibian soldiers who served as the main force of the attack carried the ladder and rushed to the front, and as a result, they were deeply troubled by traps.

Moreover, the Minoans pushed down the large stones polished into a round shape towards the place where the Carthaginian army attacked intensively under the city, and the stones rolled down the mountain, crushing many Numibian soldiers along the way, and even crashing into the siege equipment, which eventually led to the retreat of the siege troops......

Monte Adno, after learning of the battle in the Great Tent, was not in a hurry, and ordered the troops to regroup and continue the attack.

Seeing the low morale of the Numibian soldiers slowly advancing towards the city of Minoa, the anxious Millefio broke into the big tent and asked Monte Adno to send the Holy Order troops he led to serve as the main attack, but the commander refused, he earnestly persuaded "Attacking such a dangerous and well-defended city cannot be successful in a day or two, we must be patient!" Our Holy Legion troops, Carthaginian citizen soldiers, and even the Phoenician soldiers of our allies are too precious to be consumed in a long and arduous siege. And the Numibians are not only numerous, but also lowly, and if one group dies, another group will be brought in, which will also contribute to the stability of the Numibian region......"

Millefio was silent.

In the afternoon, the Carthaginian army attacked the city and began a terrible siege.

As the battle heated up, trumpets sounded outside the northern city of Minoa and behind the battlefield, and thousands of Sichael warriors rushed out of the mountains to the north to kill the Carthaginian army who were fighting fiercely.

The negligent Monte Adno was influenced by the information reported by the clippers, and after the siege began, he did not send spies and scouts to investigate the enemy around the battlefield, nor did he set up a reserve force behind the siege force as a guard, especially to the north of Minoa.

Dressed only in cloth robes and armed with spears and javelins, the Sichael warriors were fast, and in a blink of an eye they climbed the hill and ran to the bottom of the city to attack the Numibian soldiers who were attacking the city with all their might, and the Numibians who were not high in morale were immediately defeated.

The rout of the Numibians outside the northern city soon affected the troops in other directions, and the soldiers shouted in panic "Enemy reinforcements are coming!" Enemy reinforcements are coming! ...... "scrambled down the hill faster than the pursuing Sichael, who watched in amazement as thousands of Numibian soldiers fled across the Halikas River, and even fled into the camp with the Carthaginian troops who had come to stop them.

Millefio, with the Order's cavalry and infantry, rounded the rout and went to stop the enemy's reinforcements, only to find that the poorly armed and few enemies did not enter the city of Minoa, but quickly ran into the mountains.

The tens of thousands of Carthaginian troops were repulsed by the Sichael mountain people, who were only a thousand men! Filomeo felt immense shame and anger in his heart.

Monteadeno, however, was calm, and in his opinion that although the Sichael's attack had led to the rout of the siege force, the casualties were not large (less than 1,000), which was nothing for a siege of this scale. On the contrary, the attack of the Sichaels was revealing the intentions of the Dionians, and as long as the Carthaginian army was on guard, the Sichaels could not inflict any more losses on the army.

Listening to Monteadeno's reassurance, Millefio returned to the camp feeling that Monteadeno was not enterprising enough and did not seem to be able to command such a large army, so he immediately wrote to his father-in-law, Hanno, expressing his concerns.

Two days later, a clipper ship from Carthage brought Hanno's own letter, in which Hanno warned Monte Adeno to deal with the war with all his might, to achieve some results as soon as possible, and to let the Senate know that he had made the right decision to appoint Monte Adeno as commander-in-chief of the army!

At the same time, he also warned Monte Adeno not to be negligent and let the army suffer losses! Otherwise, even if some people in the Senate do not impeach him, he will not be able to face the wrath of the people!

After reading the letter, Monte Adno felt the pressure, and he finally stopped being drunk in the big tent, and personally reorganized the army and commanded the soldiers to attack the city of Minoa.

And the Minoans seized the rest time of these two or three days to rearrange the defenses that had been destroyed by the Carthaginians, and once again caused great trouble for the Carthaginian army.

During the Carthaginian siege, the Sichaels roamed the fringes of the battlefield, raiding from time to time, and at one point narrowly approaching the Carthaginian camp. Although Monteadeno had been prepared for this, and the damage caused was not large, they restrained a lot of the Carthaginians' energy. And in the Carthaginian army, not only the cavalry, but also the infantry came from the plains and deserts of Africa, and there was no way to take this Sikel army, which had no mountains to walk on flat ground.

Monteadeno pondered and meditated on the Sikans who lived in the mountains of western Sicily and were attached to the Carthaginians, so he sent someone to order Semimre of Liliba to quickly organize a force of the Sikans and send them to Minoa to fight.

The news that "a thousand Sichael warriors defeated the 40,000 siege army of Carthage" also reached the ears of Leotizides, the Sicilian commander of Dionya, who was closely following the battle in Catanay, and he was also surprised.

After inquiring in detail about the entire course of the battle, he stared at the map and fell into deep thought.

After a long time, he took out the information about the Carthaginian army that the intelligence department had given him, read it several times, and finally made up his mind.

Soon, the wartime governor of Sicily, Sicily, Siplos, hurriedly came, "Lord Prosious, you are in such a hurry to find me, has the situation of the war changed?!" ”

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