On this day, the Carthaginian army captured the outer walls of Selinus, but failed to conquer the entire city, but paid a lot of casualties, and the new walls inside the city meant that they had to fight a hard siege, which led to low morale among the soldiers.

The Numibians, in particular, were always the most casualties as the main force in the siege, and the resentment in their hearts was naturally stronger, and some rumors began to spread among them.

Kinomus was not the only one who infiltrated the Sikan territory, although Margo sent his trusted officers to the Numibian troops, but most of their positions were middle and high-level officers, after all, if there were too many officers divided, it would be difficult to maintain the combat effectiveness of his own Iberian troops, so the lowest squad leaders were mostly the original East Numibians, which gave these Numibian captives who were persuaded by the Dionians a chance to pass the rout and blend into the Carthaginian camp.

The Numibians had been the main force in this war, whether it was attacking Palagonian or Selinus, so they suffered the greatest casualties, and their dissatisfaction with the Carthaginians was accumulating day by day, and the resentment was very strong, so these spies quietly told their compatriots about the situation of the war and the news that Dionya was willing to support Numibia to rise up against Carthage and gain independence, which naturally caused a great reaction.

Rumors even spread to other armies, such as the crushing defeat of the Carthaginian navy and the complete blockade of the waters of western Sicily by the Dionian navy...... Another example is the fact that the Dionian navy repeatedly attacked the coast of Africa and burned the cities of Hadru Mentum and Ogirgil......

This seriously affected the morale of the Carthaginian and Phoenician soldiers, and many soldiers even gathered to ask their officers if the news was true.

Margo was shocked to learn of this, and he had to immediately stop the next attack on Selinus that he was planning, and focus on cleaning up the army and boosting morale, otherwise the army would be in danger of collapsing.

………………………………………

Early in the morning, a Carthaginian flotilla of 30 cargo ships departed from Cadiz and headed for Carthage, each loaded with silver bricks.

Since the war, Corsica has fallen, Sardinia has fallen into war, Sicily has been blocked, Carthaginian port trade has been depressed, and the precious metals of the Iberian Peninsula have become the main source of revenue for Carthage's treasury.

Due to the recent strength of the Dionian fleet, this fleet has been very careful to sail east close to the coast of Africa, and if they detect an enemy, they can immediately enter the ports of nearby city-states to take refuge, this method is quite effective, so that since the beginning of the war, the precious metal cargo ships from Iberia have not been hijacked by the Dionian fleet.

After two consecutive days of spending the night in the coastal towns and harbors, the fleet entered the Carthaginian-controlled core in the early morning of the third day, and the fleet began to gradually move away from the coast, because the Carthaginian city was located on a peninsula jutting out to the north, and the Dionian fleet had not dared to break into this sea so far.

In the morning, the fleet had approached the sea near Carthage, when the crew saw a fleet of countless black ships appearing in the north, hurrying towards them.

"That's the fleet of the Dionians!! …????” The crew shouted in panic and fled desperately towards the port of Carthage, but the ship was overloaded, not downwind, and there were not many oarsmen, so that the Dionian ship preempted them and cut off the route to the port.

"General, our warships have successfully intercepted the Carthaginian fleet!" The flagship's lookout shouted excitedly.

Midorades was not too happy, he had been planning this operation for a long time, in order to intercept the Carthaginian fleet from Iberia, he sent a number of clippers to Saros in Sardinia, and every day the task was to disguise themselves as Phoenician cargo ships, blend into the southern seas, and monitor the route from Iberia to Carthage. The fleet was discovered a day after leaving Cadiz, and has been under the watchful eye of Dionian Fast Food ever since. According to the information sent back by Midorades, he was able to intercept it in front of the port of Carthage in time.

Step 1 has been successful, but the key depends on its subsequent development! …… Midorades said in a deep voice: | Keep watching closely! ”

"Yes!"

The Dionian ships intercepted the Carthaginian convoy and did not annihilate it in one fell swoop, but played a game of cat and mouse, they did not use the bronze ramming horns in the bow, but used the hull to pinch the ship's pulp, and even the crew on the deck specially prepared rope hooks in an attempt to catch the cargo ship when the two ships approached.

It seems that they are going to capture the cargo ship and bring it back to the base, after all, twenty ships of silver bricks are a huge fortune, but it will take a long time, because the place where it happened is not far from the sea outside the port, not only the sentries on the breakwater of the port of Carthage can see it clearly, but even the crew members of other Carthaginian or Phoenician cargo ships who entered the port have seen this terrible scene and scramble to hide in the port, so when the sentry quickly reported the situation to the port officials, By the time the port officials immediately reported to the Carthaginian Senate, news of the "attack of the Dionian fleet" had spread rapidly through the port and the city.

Some time ago, the Dionicians burned the Phoenician allies in Africa several times to make the Carthaginian people feel afraid, and now these terrible enemies have actually attacked Carthage, and the people are even more panicked, and for a time the rumors that "the Dioonians are going to attack Carthaginian City" are rampant.

The Carthaginian senators were shocked when they received the news from the port, they did not expect that the Dionian fleet would be so bold and dare to come to the port of Carthage to spread wilderness, which had never happened since the establishment of Carthage!

In addition, they immediately received the news that "there was a riot in the city", and at this time, neither Hanno, nor Pretakuba, nor Esyaruba had any differences, and quickly reached an agreement: order Morbar to lead the Carthaginian fleet to attack immediately, repel the rampant Dionian fleet, protect the wealth of Carthage, and give confidence to the people!

Since the Senate ordered the Carthaginian fleet to strengthen the defense of the city and its allies on the African coast, the naval commander Morbar had no choice but to no longer lead the fleet to the western waters of Sicily, but to sit in the Carthaginian military port, and sent many clippers to patrol the coast on the east and west sides of Carthage (because the city of Ogirgilli was burned, so the patrol area was further expanded), once the enemy situation was discovered, he led the fleet to attack, and he could arrive in time. Even defeat the Dionian fleet, which had already sent the infantry of the fleet ashore to plunder......

Morbar's plan was good, but the Dionian fleet had not been seen on the Afrikaner coast since those two attacks. Today, when he received the news that the Dionian fleet was attacking the Iberian fleet in front of the port of Carthage, he was not as angry as his men, but on the contrary he fell into deep thought, because since he became the commander of the navy, he had avoided a frontal battle with the enemy in view of the superiority of the Dionian navy, and now the Dionian fleet had come directly to the door, which was obviously intended to force the Carthaginian fleet to fight with it.

Although many of his men asked him for battle, saying: "The Ionian fleet in front of the harbor has fewer ships than our Carthaginian fleet, and we are fighting in front of our own door, it is entirely possible to defeat them completely, and thus save some of our declining ......"

But Morbal still had some concerns, so he delayed making a decision.

But what he did not expect was that the attack of the Dionian fleet had already caused an uproar among the Carthaginian people, and hundreds of senators, led by Hanno, Pretakuba, and Esyaruba, came to the military port in person and handed over the resolution passed by the Senate to him.

Naturally, Morbar could no longer excuse himself, but he had a battle plan in advance, and he quickly led hundreds of warships that had already slipped from the dry dock into the military port and were ready to sail out of the port in turn.

The senators then climbed the walls of the breakwater, ready to pay attention to this naval battle that would be crucial for Carthage.

As soon as the first Carthaginian ship sailed out of the port, the Ionian clippers who were ordered to monitor the harbor immediately raised the flag, and the battleships of the 1st Detachment of the 3rd Fleet of the Ionian Fleet, which was responsible for intercepting the Iberian fleet, no longer played and tossed the enemy, and began to be ruthless, so one cargo ship after another was quickly knocked into the hull, and the white silver bricks followed the broken cargo ship and sank into the sea, which made the senators who stood on the city wall and watched all feel sorry, and also let the sail out of the port. The captains and crews of the Carthaginian ships on the deck were furious, and some of the ships could not wait to be lined up and rushed straight to the Dionian fleet to save their besieged compatriots.

Seeing this, Morbar, who left the port later, was so angry that he coughed repeatedly, he had been paying close attention to the training and discipline of the newly formed fleet since he took office, hoping to compete with the Dionians, but obviously the time was too short and the effect was not ideal, in this case he had to use another pre-prepared battle plan in advance: "Inform Barikos that they will follow us now!" ”