At first, both parties were safe, enjoying the coolness and comfort brought by the river.

However, in the upper part of the lower reaches of the Pletara, where the river is narrower and just over ten meters wide at its widest, it is the soldiers of Agrigento (their camp is nearby) who draw water on the east bank, and the soldiers of the Carthaginian Order on the opposite bank (because the upper end of the Pletara River is already close to the mountains, the Sichaels often harass the Carthaginian camp from the north, and the Numibian troops originally stationed in the north were attacked and caused confusion, and Monte Adno had to transfer his most comfortable troops here).

The full name of the Holy Order is the "Carthaginian Holy Legion", which is called the "Hammer of Baal" by the Carthaginian people, and most of its soldiers are the elite selected from the oldest famous families in the Carthaginian city-state, and they are outstanding in terms of equipment and trainingSome of them lay down directly by the river to drink, and suddenly showed disdain, and laughed at each other with their companions: the Greeks on the other side of the river are poor ghosts who do not pay attention to hygiene! ……

But what they didn't know was that the Greek soldiers on the other side of the river were citizens from Agrigento.

Agrigento was once the second largest Greek state in Sicily after Syracuse, and their history is even older than Syracuse. Syracuse was able to grow decades ago thanks to Agrigento's support and immigration, and even Dillon, who contributed greatly to the prosperity of Syracuse, was also an Agrigento, and with the help of Agrigento's power, he sat on the throne of Syracuse's tyrant.

But nearly 20 years ago, the Athenian expedition to Sicily weakened the Greek city-states on the island, and the Carthaginians took the opportunity to make Hannibal, the patriarch of the Magonides' family, the commander-in-chief, launch an attack on eastern Sicily. But it didn't take long for him to be killed by the Syracuse democrats who incited the populace and used his dictatorship as a justification.

It didn't take long for the Carthaginians to attack again. This time it was the new patriarch of the House of Magonides and Hannibal's cousin Himilko as commander, and this was his first time as commander of the Carthaginian army, and he first targeted Agrigento, the second largest Greek city-state in Sicily.

Agrigento faced the attack of the Shimilko army, and although the number of soldiers was far smaller, they were undaunted, because the Agrigentos had always respected Sparta, their citizens were much more trained in military training than the average Greek city-state, and they also hired a Spartan army in the city.

The Carthaginian siege lasted more than eight months, during which Agligento won several small victories, but the Carthaginians were too superior, and Shimilko bribed and threatened with money, causing Agrigento's reinforcements and mercenaries to abandon the rescue or defect, including Syracuse and Sparta.

The Agrigentos finally despaired, and the vast majority of the population fled to Gera in the dark, and the Carthaginians stormed the city, killing all those who remained in the city, looting the entire city, and burning the temple, and even decided to destroy it completely and rebuild a Carthaginian city, only to lose the battle later, so that Himirko could not do so.

When Dionysius led a large army to attack western Sicily, these exiles of Agrigento were finally able to return to their homeland, and for 20 years the former generation of fugitive children grew up to be the pillars of the city-state, and the hatred not only did not disappear with time, but grew stronger, although they could not understand the Carthaginian language spoken on the other side, but from the unbridled laughter and disdainful eyes of the other party, they could not understand that the other party was humiliating themselves, so the anger burned in their hearts.

When an Agrigento soldier picked up a pebble from the river and threw it at the Carthaginian soldiers on the opposite bank, the surrounding Agrigento people did the same.

The Carthaginians, who were attacked, immediately returned fire with stones.

Although the stone does not cause fatal injuries, it still hurts to hit the body, and most of them are only wearing underwear, or naked, and the severe pain is more of a rage among these young and vigorous soldiers, so some people simply do not throw stones, but rush directly across the river, clench their fists, and punch each other...... The conflict between the two sides quickly shifted from stone-throwing to physical combat, and the scope of the conflict also expanded rapidly, and soldiers from both sides near the river were also affected by it and joined the fight.

At this time, the clever Numibian slaves rushed back to the camp to ask for help from the other Order's soldiers, and even carried the weapons and equipment left by their masters in their tents to the river.

The addition of heavily armed Carthaginian soldiers pushed the growing conflict to a new stage.

And the few Agrigento soldiers who watched by the river and did not join the battle group saw the arrival of the heavily armed enemy, although the anger in their chests was burning, but they were not stupid enough to resist the heavily armed Carthaginians, so they shouted loudly for their comrades to withdraw quickly, but the scene was too chaotic for a while no one listened.

However, the conflict was provoked by Agrigento soldiers, and it was not so easy to end it.

The arrogant soldiers of the Carthaginian Order refused to give up, and with sharp weapons in their hands, the enemy was not far away like a lamb to the slaughter, this was simply fat in their hands, how could they not eat it! They waved their shield spears and stepped into the Pletala River.

The comrades who had been fighting before took the initiative to make way for them, and they squeezed to the front and stabbed their spears at the Agrigento soldiers who tried to escape......

At this time, on this stretch of the upper part of the lower reaches of the Pletara River, in order to fight in groups, nearly a thousand soldiers from both sides were piled up, and the Agligento soldiers at the front saw that the situation was not good and wanted to escape, but the people behind did not know what was happening, and did not get out of the way in time, and the spears of the Carthaginian soldiers easily pierced the bodies of the almost naked Agligento soldiers.

When the screams rang out, the blood stained the surface of the Pletara, and the horror overwhelmed the anger in their hearts, the Agligento soldiers began to flee back in panic, and in the midst of pushing and shoving, some of them stumbled and fell, either stabbed to death or drowned.

At this time, Millefio had just reported to Monte Adenno what he had learned in the past two days about "why the Carthaginian fleet had failed to show up to escort him" in the Great Tent of the Chinese army, and on the way back to his camp, he learned from the adjutant who had arrived what had happened on the Pletara River.

He immediately rode to the Pletala River, just in time to see that the heavily armed soldiers of the Order had rushed to the opposite bank, along which they were slaughtering the fleeing Greeks.

The young-blooded Millefio did not sound the horn of retreat, and ordered the soldiers under his command who had violated the military order and provoked the battle to retreat to the west bank immediately, but sent a herald to inform the remaining soldiers of the Holy Order and the cavalry of the Holy Order in the camp to rush to the Pletara River immediately, and at the same time ordered the naked soldiers on the bank of the river to immediately put on their armor, take up their weapons, and line up.

After all this was deployed, Millefio said to the herald beside him: "You go to the camp of the Chinese army and inform Lord Monteadeno that the Greeks took the initiative to provoke the soldiers of our Holy Order, and as a result, there was a battle, and now the entire army and cavalry of the Holy Legion have been fully engaged with the Greeks!" ”

The herald turned to leave, but he stopped him again, emphatically speaking: "Slow down, don't rush too quickly!" ”

The herald immediately understood, and then slowly advanced towards the main camp.

The reason why the young and vigorous Millefio lied about the military situation was because he was dissatisfied with Monteadeno's conservative cowardice, he became the leading general of the most elite Holy Legion in Carthage at such a young age, he did not want others to think that this was the credit of his father-in-law Hanno, he needed to prove his ability with brilliant military exploits, and now he thought it was a good fighter.

The soldiers of the Order who had crossed the river pursued and killed the fleeing Agrigento soldiers along the riverbank.

The Agligentos, who had noticed that the situation was not good, had already run back to the camp to call for reinforcements. It wasn't long before heavily armed Agligento soldiers arrived, along with some soldiers from other city-states.

The killing of the Carthaginian Order's soldiers was stopped, and even as more Greek soldiers arrived, the Carthaginians, who were fighting on the east bank, quickly switched from offensive to defensive because of their small numbers, and began to gradually retreat.

The Carthaginian Order's soldiers, though proud of their origins, were well trained, and not long after Millefio's order they had lined up a phalanx about a mile long and seven or eight columns thick on the west bank.

They wore open helmets similar to the Ionian hoplites, with no visor and only cheek guards, crowned with a long red or white cap, and wore thick linen cuirass, which they could have covered with fine chain mail, but these soldiers preferred to wear a layer of leather armor with brilliant colors and ornamentation over the linen cuirass than to wear a dark chain mail that ruined the beauty. Polished bronze armor was worn on the calf, the feet were dressed in fine leather sandals, the right hand held a sharp spear more than two meters long, and the left hand carried a large copper shield with a diameter of more than one meter, each of which was painted with exquisite lace and patterns, which the soldiers often boasted or compared to beauty. In addition, these soldiers had enough property to provide rich nutrition to keep their bodies warm, and all of them grew tall and strong, and the phalanx they formed was both majestic and colorful.

On the right flank of the infantry phalanx were a thousand Templar cavalry, whose real name was the Carthaginian Noble Cavalry, also composed of the sons of the famous Carthaginian families, who also wore the best armor, armed with extra-long cavalry spears more than three meters long, and carried high-quality short swords at their waists, and their crotch mounts were selected from the toughest horses of Iberia.

"Attack!" Millefio couldn't wait to give the order. ()

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