Samors looked at Hanno and said frankly, "Lord Hanno, we must consider giving up Numibia for the time being. The crushing defeat of Carthage has given the tribes of East Numibia hope of breaking away from our rule, and the reason why I am now able to cope with their rebellion is that most of the young men of the tribes have been transferred to Sicily, and now they are probably all captives of the Dionians.

If I were the commander of the Dionians, and I wanted to land in Africa and attack Carthage, I would definitely encircle these Numibians and make them a boost to the Dionian army......"

"You are alarmist, Numibia was conquered by our Carthaginians for decades, how much money and manpower it took to conquer, how can you say that you will give up!" Delevica yelled in a bit of annoyance.

"Alas...... Samors is right, it's time for us to recognize reality! Hanno sighed heavily, his face showed a look of pain, and he said slowly in a heavy tone: "Delevica, once the Dioonians attack Carthage, will the eight thousand citizen soldiers still be able to stay in the territory of Numibia?!" It is better to take the initiative to transfer them back, as long as they hold Carthage, there will be a chance to regain the land of Numibia in the future!

In addition, we can negotiate with the surrounding Phoenician allies that when the Ionian army lands in Africa, they can take refuge in Carthage temporarily, so that we can act as the leader of the alliance and ensure their safety, and at the same time have more defenses......"

"Lord Hanno, that's a good idea! But it will increase our food consumption! Samors reminded.

"Could it be that our Phoenician allies will hide in the city of Carthage with bare hands?! Won't we remind them to move all the food from their city to our city?! Tepanrako reminded.

Samors looked slightly embarrassed, he was too anxious to forget about it.

Hanno continued: "We can also send messengers to Tyre to ask our mother state for help, and ask them if they can get Persia to intervene in this war. ”

Persia! The others' eyes lit up.

Tepanrako immediately asked, "Will Persia agree to this invitation?" ”

"I heard that the king of Persia did not have a favorable opinion of Dionia, otherwise he would not have allowed the fleet of the Eastern Phoenicians to come under the banner of Persia...... The security of Carthage in the western Mediterranean was only good for Persia, not bad, and I believe that the king of Persia would make the right choice. Hanno said confidently.

"With the pressure of the Persians, I believe that the Dionians will have to carefully consider the issue of an armistice, and perhaps we can use this to win back more benefits in the negotiations." Dravica finally smiled.

Ochliton, however, was a little worried, reminding: "I think the king of Dionysia is a tough man, and he has chosen to go to war with Rome despite our protests. And according to intelligence, Dionya also formed an alliance with Egypt, don't the Dionians know that Egypt is now a mortal enemy of Persia?! It can be seen that the Dionians, unlike the Greeks, were very afraid of Persia, and we can rely on the power of Persia, but we can't rely on it too much! ”

"Ocriton, you're right, Persia is still too far away from the western Mediterranean, and the possibility of them sending reinforcements like Tyre is very small, and the Diocans can indeed have nothing to fear, but at least it's a pressure on them." Hanno said this, and fell into deep thought, and after a long while, he made up his mind, and said in a deep voice: "Since you have concluded that the Dioonians do have the will to negotiate peace, we can continue to make concessions in the negotiations while strengthening the defense and security of Carthage, and when the benefits of the negotiations outweigh the possible losses in the war, the Dioonians will choose to sign a peace agreement with us......"

Hanno's gaze was a little sad and slowly swept over everyone's faces: "Corsica, Sardinia, and western Sicily have fallen under the control of the Dionians, and it is impossible to take them back, so they can be used as bargaining chips and given up if necessary; Cadiz, Huelva, Malaga in the south of Iberia...... It is an important impetus for the rise of our Carthage, and the only remaining source of precious metal trade after we may lose Corsica and Sardinia, which must not be handed over to the Ionians; But other territories in southern Iberia...... We can give up if necessary. ”

At this point, Hanno suddenly became angry, and he exclaimed, "Dravica, you are right, Marco is a sinner in Carthage!" His brother Himirko was also a carthaginian sinner! More than ten years ago, Shimirko provoked a war in Sicily, and suffered a crushing defeat, which seriously damaged Carthage's national strength, which led to the fact that when Dionia and Syracuse went to war, we Carthage could only watch from the sidelines, and finally had to sign an agreement with Dionia to keep the peace! And this time, Margo's incompetence buried our army of 100,000 and put Carthage in such a dangerous situation...... The Magonides must be severely punished by the Senate!

The land they conquered in Iberia, which was said to be for the benefit of the Carthaginians, had in fact become the domain of the Magonides family, and they did not obey the orders of the Senate at all, and did not accept the officials sent by the Senate. ”

Hanno blames the Magonides family for the reason why Carthage has fallen to the precarious position it is today, and in fact covers up his own mistake of being too lenient and not strictly restricting it for more than 10 years. As far as Tepanlaco and Ocliton were concerned, they did not dispute Hanno's decision because they belonged to the Hanno faction and had not previously received any benefits from southern Iberia.

Samors had his own opinion on this, because through previous war reports, he believed that there were a large number of well-qualified soldiers in southern Iberia, and in fact, they should be preserved as much as possible. But he didn't say it, after all, he was not a pure soldier, he was a patriarch of the Hanno faction, and saying such things at this special time would only arouse Hanno's suspicions.

And at this time, it happened that Hanno set his eyes on him, which made his heart jump suddenly: Could it be that Hanno saw my thoughts?

"Samoles is right, now that we don't have enough troops to keep the land of Numibia, what about agreeing to Dionia's terms? When we regain our strength, we can just take it back, anyway, the land is there, and it can't run away......"

Hanno's tone of voice seemed relaxed, but the few people present could feel the pain in his heart, after all, it was he who raised the banner of "marching inland", gathered many Carthaginian elites around him, led the citizens of Carthage for more than 10 years, seized a large amount of land in East Numibia, and consolidated his own leadership in the Senate, his prestige among the people, and now everything has come to naught......

Thinking of this, everyone present looked gloomy.

…………………………………………

On the second day, the Hannoite senators, who had reached a consensus, passed one resolution after another at the meeting: recall 8,000 citizen soldiers, mobilize for war again in the city, send emissaries to negotiate with the surrounding Phoenician allies, and send emissaries to Tyre in the eastern Mediterranean......

However, when the two conditions for negotiation were proposed, "the cession of southern Iberia and the return of the Numibian lands", there was an immediate uproar.

Most of the Magonides and Centrist senators were adamantly opposed, and angrily denounced the greed of the Dionians, and denounced the Hannoites for betrayal.

The Senate was mired in a fierce quarrel and was unable to come to a unified opinion.

By this time, the situation in Sicily was becoming clearer.

On the third day after the Battle of Selinus, the Segsta people quietly sent an envoy to Selinus and asked for surrender.

It turned out that the tens of thousands of defeated soldiers who fled into the city of Segsta, most of them were Carthaginian citizens, they seemed to regard themselves as the new masters of Segstad, not only forcibly occupied the houses of the Segstads, robbed them of food, but also called them as slaves, the Segstads were miserable, so they conspired with the Dionian army, quietly opened the city gates at night, and quickly pacified the rout.

Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, led a large army to besiege Segosta for more than half a year, but failed to conquer Segesta, but now the tenacious Segersta obediently surrendered to Dionia, which undoubtedly boosted the morale of the Dionian soldiers.

Two days later, Mazara also opened the gates to the Dionian army.

It turned out that the rout that fled into Mazara was under the control of Hasdruba, and the situation was much better than that of Segesta at the beginning, but this rout was mainly composed of Phoenus infantry, Iberian infantry, Lusitanian soldiers, and Celtic soldiers, most of whom were indigenous Iberians, who were either conquered by Margo's force or attracted by good salaries, so they participated in this war, and now not only did they not get any benefits, but because of the crushing defeat of Carthage, they were in a difficult situation, Naturally, I had other thoughts in my heart.

However, Hasdruba, who was bent on regrouping, did not realize the changes in the psychology of these natives, but acted in accordance with the previous military law, severely punished several Lusitanian warriors who robbed the inhabitants of Mazara in the city, originally wanted to kill chickens and monkeys and clean up the army, but intensified the conflict, leading to a mutiny among the Iberian natives, and later Hasdruba completely lost control of the army, and the alien soldiers respected him as a brave warrior, and only took him prisoner, but did not kill him.

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