After receiving Hasdruba's order, the Iberian infantry, armed with rations and weapons, began to climb south over the mountains. Hasdruba, on the other hand, continued to attack Cerrodæham City to attract the attention of the defenders.

The Iberian infantry crossed the hill and made a great circle, and in the early morning of the third day appeared in the mountain pass behind the side of the city of Cerrodium, where the defensive camp of Cerrodium was unprepared and quickly fell under the rapid onslaught of the Iberian infantry, and then the Iberians quickly approached the east of the city of Cerrodium.

The Cerrodium people soon learned of the news that "the enemy had appeared in the rear" and were alarmed. Because after being reminded by the Dionians, they only concentrated their manpower to strengthen the western wall in a limited time, and for the eastern wall, they only had time to make simple repairs, and its walls were not only short, but also did not make any defenses outside the city, but they were lucky, thinking that this direction could not be attacked by the Carthaginians for the time being, after all, this was already in the sphere of influence of the friendly city-states of Dionia, and could be reinforced by the Diocanians at any time, and the Carthaginians would take a great risk if they wanted to land here, As for the Carthaginians to climb over the mountains, those towering mountains are not so easy to climb, and the Carthaginians are not good at this. But they didn't expect that their worst fears would come true.

At the same time, Hasdruba's army also launched a strong attack on the walls of Cerrodium in the west, and the defenders of Cerrodham immediately appeared to be undermanned, and they had a premonition that the situation was critical, and hastily organized all the citizens who could fight to defend the city, and at the same time sent people to the port to take a clipper boat to Messina to ask for help, and they also arranged for the people in the city to begin to retreat to the port.

In fact, on the sea near the city of Cerrodham City, Dionia's clippers patrol and observe the battle every day. When they saw the Carthaginian army appear east of the city of Cerrodium, they realized that the situation was not good, and immediately returned to Messina, so when the messenger of the city of Cerrodium came to ask for help, the governor of Messina, Amicles, had already organized a fleet and was ready to set out for the rescue.

It was accompanied by the Third Fleet. After the Carthaginians divided their army into two parts and attacked east from the north and south coasts at the same time, Secrean also had to divide the Sicilian fleet he was responsible for into two parts, the first fleet in Catania and the third fleet in Messina, as the war progressed, most of the ships of the First Fleet were later stationed in the military port of Geira, so as to be able to prevent the Carthaginian fleet from assisting the army on both coasts in time to go around to the rear of the friendly city-states of Dionya to land, At the same time, it can also protect the convoy transporting baggage or refugees in time, and this time the Third Fleet sortie is obviously for the latter purpose.

By the time Theonia's fleet reached the sea near the city of Cerrodium, the eastern wall of Cerrodium had been breached by the Iberian infantry, and the citizens had to abandon the defenses of the city and retreat partly to the fortifications and partly to the port.

Fortunately, when Cerrodium was founded, the harbor was enclosed within the city, but separated by walls, and was originally intended to prevent slaves and freedmen from entering and leaving the city at will, disturbing the order of the city, and now it plays a key role.

The Cerrodham Citizen Soldiers had fortified the port walls beforehand, and they had also smashed the stone stairs leading up to the walls and blocked the holes in and out of the harbor, after all, the main purpose of the wall was to prevent the enemies of the harbor from entering the city, and they only hoped to buy time for the people to escape from the harbor.

After the ships that were originally staying in the harbor were full of people from Cerrodium, they quickly left one after another, and the fleet of Dionyas also quickly sailed into the harbor, continuing to pick up the panicked people who stayed at the docks, and some ships from Tyndareus, Caleacte, and Haluntium also came to the rescue, although the scene was a little chaotic, and there were even ship collisions and capsizing, but at this moment, All the sailors of the Greek city-states on the north coast were working together to rescue the people, with only one thought in mind: to get the people of Cerrodium out as soon as possible and avoid being slaughtered by the Carthaginians.

Cerrodham was not a big city, and the population was not large, and soon the old and young, women and children, got on the boats and began to load the citizens who had arrived at the docks......

The ships of the Third Fleet were displayed in the sea west of the harbor to protect against the sudden attack of the Carthaginian fleet. The clipper approached and reported to Commander Flarios of the Third Fleet on the flagship: "The people of Cerrodium in the harbor have all boarded the ship. ”

Vlarios nodded to indicate that he knew, he couldn't raise much energy for such a risky escort mission, he didn't think about letting the fleet infantry on the Raven Warship land in the harbor and assist the Cerrodium people in defending the port, but after learning about the actual battle situation, he gave up this idea, he didn't think that 4,000 fleet infantry could only hold back the attack of 20,000 enemies who were already about to break the city with their impenetrable walls, It is not worth it to lose the hard-trained infantry of the fleet in this unimportant place.

"When the fleet is gone, we'll sail back." Frinhos had just finished delivering the order.

Suddenly, the lookout on the mast shouted: "General, there is an enemy ahead!" ”

Flarios tightened his heart, looked up into the distance, and through the gaps of several warships, he saw two yellow flags floating on the mast of the westernmost warship.

It's Carthage's fleet, and the number of warships is about the same as ours...... Flarios immediately made a judgment based on the words of the flags (raising the yellow flag means that there is an enemy situation, one yellow flag means that the enemy fleet is less than the number of Ionians on the side, two yellow flags means that the two sides are approximately equal in number, three yellow flags means that the enemy fleet has more ships than the Dionian fleet, and four yellow flags means that the enemy fleet is much more numerous).

Flarios was in high spirits, and he immediately changed his order: "Blow the trumpet, raise the black flag!" ”

On the flagship, five trumpeters blew the crooked brass trumpet at the same time, resounding throughout the sea, and a long black flag fluttered high on the mast.

"Under the darkness of the night there will be stars." Starry Sky was the most typical tactic of the Dionian navy, which maximized the power of the Raven warship, and it was with it that the Dionian navy was able to defeat the mighty Syracuse navy. But after ten years of development, due to the change in the composition of the fleet warships, this tactic has taken a new turn, and he is in need of a big battle to prove its effectiveness.

The captains and crews of all the warships were immediately excited when they received the order: the deck handlers began to lift the drawbridge resting on the deck to the foremast for laying; The helmsman adjusted the direction of the ship and began to arrange the formation; The sailors began to swallow rations and apply oil to the cushions; The infantrymen sitting in the tunnel of the bunk began to put on their armor...... Everyone is gearing up, anxiously waiting for this naval battle to come.

……………………………………………

The fleet from the west came from Iberia, and to be precise, it was under the command of the Iberian governor Margo.

The African coast was flat but devoid of tall and sturdy trees, and a well-known seafaring race like Carthage had long regarded the Iberian Peninsula as an important resource base, not only because of its rich gold and silver mines, but also because of its abundant timber resources, most of which came from Iberia.

After Margo became the governor of Iberia, he did not have the right to command the fleet at first, in fact, in the process of conquering southern Iberia, he did not use the fleet for most of the time, but Margo considered that in the future, when the army was to be used for other battles, it would be a big trouble to transport troops by sea without the protection of the fleet, and if he wanted to mobilize the Carthaginian fleet to Iberia, he would definitely be hindered by the Senate headed by Hanno, so he decided to use the money earned in Iberia and the trees of Iberia, Build a fleet of your own.

A few years later, an Iberian fleet of 120 three-sculled ships and a total of 180 ships was formed, commanded by Admika of the House of Magonides, half of the sailors from the Phoenician city-states, the rest from Numibia and Mauritania, none of whom were Carthaginians. The fleet soon found itself on the Iberian coast and near the Pillars of Hercules.

When Hanno learned about this, he was very jealous, so this time, when the fleet escorted Hasdruba's army to Lili, Sicily, Hanno instructed the commander of the Carthaginian fleet, Anobas, to take it in.

This was met with firm opposition from Ademia, who said: "Lord Margo only agreed to put the army units under the command of Monte Adenor, not to make the fleet also under the command of the Carthaginian navy." ”

And Anobus retorted: "Since they are all Carthaginian armies, of course they must be under unified command, so that it is beneficial to the battle!" Good for Carthage! ”

Admika refused, and the two sides came close to clashing.

In the end, the lawsuit reached the Senate, which had to send someone to negotiate with Marco again, and the tedious negotiations began again. The two fleets, one at Carthage and the other at Lilipa, were in a stalemate, which is why Monte Addno had never seen a Carthaginian fleet in the waters off the south coast of Sicily to defend its troops.

It wasn't until Hasdruba learned of this that he asked the fleet to come to his aid on the grounds that he was about to capture the city of Cerrodium and to prevent the enemy from escaping from the sea, which is why the Iberian fleet happened to be here.