It wasn't until the sun set and night fell that the crippled Sicilian fleet slowly sailed into the port of Selinus with the captured ships and captured Phoenician crews......

In this naval battle, only 43 of the 130 ships of the Eastern Phoenician fleet remained, while 31 of the 150 ships of the Dionian Sicilian fleet remained (including 6 damaged), and 23 Phoenician ships were captured. In addition, only about 2,000 of the 6,000 soldiers carried by the Sicilian fleet returned safely to Selinus, most of them were legionary reserves.

The Dionian Sicilian fleet ended up with a crushing victory, but strategically they lost. On this very day, Hasdruba led some 17,000 soldiers from the Iberian army to attack the city of Agrigento again, using only sandalwood and ladders.

Faced with the dilemma that the rations had been exhausted and the city could not be captured, the soldiers bravely took the lead and fought to the death. In particular, the ferocity of the Lusitanian warriors and the Celtic warriors in the mountains of northern Iberia caused great trouble for the defenders of Agrigento.

Agrigento's citizen soldiers suffered a lot of losses in the previous battle of Minoa, and then because the Carthaginian army besieged Selinus, Leotizides's request for help, Agrigento sent reinforcements again, so there were not many defenders in the city, although they repelled the enemy's attack in yesterday's battle to defend the city, they also killed and wounded many soldiers, and today they waited for reinforcements for a long time, and the bloody battle lasted until the afternoon, and the Agrigentos finally could not resist the enemy's attack, and the Carthaginians broke through the city.

Hasdruba indulged his soldiers in looting and killing in the city, and with the exception of some of the Agrigentos who fled to the port and fled by boat, the rest were slaughtered.

……………………………………

Early in the morning of the second day, Seclian arrived at the castle lord's mansion in Selinus and met Leotizides, who was sitting in the hall waiting.

"Prosous, long time no see, I hope you called me this time, not to borrow the fleet's infantry, or to convert our temporarily idle sailors into light infantry." Secrean's remarks were clearly an expression of dissatisfaction with Leotizides' previous approach.

Leotizides did not react to his taunt in the slightest, looked at him indifferently, and spat out a sentence: "Miltias is dead in battle." ”

When Sekrian heard this, he immediately expressed his dissatisfaction: "Who did you listen to?!" Yesterday we searched for a long time, but we couldn't find it, where did you get it?"

"Look at this." Leotizides interrupted him coldly and pushed the wooden box on the table.

Sekrian immediately focused his gaze on the wooden box, which did not resemble the Greek style, and a terrible thought suddenly crossed into his mind, and he stepped forward with heavy steps and opened the lid of the box carefully.

"When the Carthaginian commander Margot sent messengers saying that their army was attacking our sailors and soldiers on the beach, only Miltias led the unarmed crew to attack them, and before he died in battle, he cut down two Carthaginian soldiers, and a Celtic chief from Iberia admired his bravery and cut off his head as his own booty...... When Margo found out about this, he ransomed it, but the body could not be found, so he had to send us his head......"

Ringing in the flat, lifeless voice of Leotizides, Secrean stared at the vaguely recognizable face of his former colleague in the wooden box, and after a moment he whispered, "Miltias, you fool......" and gently closed the box.

After sitting back in his wooden chair, he could no longer suppress the resentment in his heart: "It has only been a few months since the war in Sicily, and our Dionian navy has not only suffered heavy losses, but also killed the two fleet commanders of Vlarios and Miltias...... Damn the Carthaginians! Damn that what a Margo! ……”

Sekrian scolded loudly to vent his grief.

"The Carthaginian envoy also brought a request." Ignoring his anger, Leotizides continued: "They captured several thousand of our crews, hoping to exchange them with us for the Phoenician sailors we had captured. ”

"The Carthaginians want beauty, and I haven't made enough of these Phoenicians who have attacked my fleet!" Sekrian said hatefully.

"So you're rejecting the Carthaginians' offer?"

"No, swap with them!" Sekrian raised his eyebrows: "The lives of our naval crews are very precious, how can these Phoenicians from Persia compare, let them go, I believe that in a few days, they will become our prisoners." ”

After the naval battle, the Sicilian fleet brought the captives back to Selinus, and after interrogation, Seclian was temporarily relieved: it turned out that this fleet was reinforcements from the Phoenician city-states of Tyre and Sidon in the Eastern Mediterranean, not that Carthage had built a group of ships earlier than Dionia. In the case of Carthage's mother state, it was obviously impossible for them to send fleets all the way to aid Carthage on a frequent basis.

"After a while, you and I will send someone to negotiate with the Carthaginian envoy to complete the exchange of prisoners as soon as possible."

"Okay." McLean replied simply, and then asked sensitively: "In such a hurry, what happened?" ”

"This morning, the messenger of Cipros brought bad news, that Kefaro Ition had been captured by the Carthaginians."

"Kefaro Ition?" Secrean was puzzled, he had been at the naval base in Tarantum before, had only been in Sicily for a few months, and had been busy with the affairs of the Sicilian fleet, so he did not know much about the interior of Sicily, and the name of the town was completely unfamiliar to him.

"Kepharo Ition is a town of the Sickels, in the inner mountains of Sicily, northwest of Agrigento, on the border between the kingdom and the Carthaginians in Sicily, and bordering the territory of the Sicans......," Leotizides explained, with a rare explanation, as Secrean struggled to recall the location of the town.

Seeing this, Mukru, the lieutenant at the head of the city, immediately went and fetched a map of Sicily, laid it on the table beside Sekrian, and pointed out the location of the town.

"This West Kel town is home to the former Tanike tribe." Leotizides' next sentence made Secrean have an impression, after all, the incident of Laodecien back then set off a huge storm in the kingdom's political arena.

"How did you lose it?" Sekrian was interested.

"According to the messenger, a few days ago, when the Carthaginian army was besieging Selinus, more than 2,000 Sikkers invaded the territory of the Sikerians, and the Sichaels have always maintained a strong position against the Sikans, so they did not hesitate to gather 4,000 warriors and wanted to completely defeat them......" Leotizides pursed the corners of his mouth, as if to mock the stupidity of the Sikerians: "As a result, in the middle of the battle, the Carthaginian army suddenly appeared, and the Sichaels suffered a crushing defeat, and the Carthaginians took advantage of the victory to pursue and successfully occupied Kefalo Ition.

Then, the Carthaginians united with the Sikanians to continue to attack the city of Enna to the east, and the leader of the Taninian tribe who had fled to western Sicily, Aconis, became the Carthaginians' guide, and also helped the Carthaginians to persuade the tribes of Sikhel to surrender, so that the hearts of the tribes of Siker were fluctuating, although Sipros had asked the governor of Hena, Kreru, to send reinforcements to Enna, but the situation in Enna was not optimistic.

…… In addition, since yesterday we did not send reinforcements to Agrigento, I am also concerned about the situation in the city of Agrigento. Once it is captured, allowing tens of thousands of Carthaginian soldiers to gain a foothold in the middle of the south coast will threaten not only the security of neighboring friendly city-states, but also ours. ”

Seclian sat up straight, looked at Leotizides, and asked seriously, "Do you want our navy to send reinforcements to Agrigento again?" ”

"Of course I have this idea, now you are the highest-ranking military commander of the Sicilian Fleet (although Secrean is not yet the commander of the Sicilian Fleet, but after the death of Miltias, the new commander of the Sicilian Fleet has not yet been appointed, as the commander of the First Fleet, McLean has the highest military position in the Sicilian Fleet, so he naturally becomes the speaker of this fleet), of course I need to consult with you, with the current situation of the Sicilian Fleet, can I carry out the task of transporting reinforcements?" Leotizides asked with a serious expression.

"Of course you can!" Secrean replied simply, in the face of military priorities related to the interests of the kingdom, he has always distinguished the importance: "I can use the captured Phoenician warships as troop carriers and use the Sicilian fleet to escort them, yesterday the Phoenicians were still repulsed by us with the advantage, I am afraid that they will hide in the harbor for the next few days and dare not come out, if they really dare to come, it is just right to wipe them all out!" This time, though, we won't be able to transport that many soldiers. ”

"Even if you can transport it, I don't have so many reinforcements, just 2,000 people." Although Leotizides said plainly, Seclian still felt a little helpless from his words, he looked at the Sicilian army commander who usually rarely interacted, and then said: "It's no problem to transport 2,000 people, I'll go back and hurry up and start making preparations, and set off before noon as soon as possible." ”

Leotizides did not express his gratitude, but continued: "There is one more thing, you need to know, I have sent a message to Cipros when he returns to Catanay, and he has asked him to send a fleet of ships as soon as possible to transport the troops here to Gela, and then I will need your Sicilian fleet to escort them. ”