Pomilka was stunned for a moment and asked, "Aren't we going to capture Selinus City first?" ”

Margo's face was slightly red, and he still said seriously: "After this period of siege, I believe you also know that Selinus is not only well defended, but also the main force of Dionya is also in Selinus City, their morale is very good, even if our soldiers are far superior to them, but to capture this city, we need to spend more time, and time is very important to me!" ”

Pomilka then remembered the promise Marco had made at the Senate, and he no longer hesitated, and immediately expressed his willingness to go on the expedition.

Margo smiled a little and said generously: "You will lead 10,000 Carthaginian citizen soldiers, 15,000 citizen soldiers composed of Phoenician allies, and 25,000 Numibian soldiers, a total of 50,000 people, which is 10,000 more than when Monte Adno attacked Minoa!" I hope you will lead your army to Minoa tomorrow, and don't make the mistake of Monte Adno, and take Minoa as soon as possible! ”

Bomilcar was not excited about the imminent leadership of such a large army, but asked with concern: "Lord Margo, according to this arrangement, there are not many soldiers left around you, in case the Dioonians in the city go out of the city to attack again"

Although Pomilka did not say any more, he had already expressed his concern, and in his opinion, if he had left with his army as Marco had suggested, Marco would have less than 20,000 troops left with him from Iberia, a multi-racial army that seemed to be very effective, but not easy to manage, and lacked loyalty. There were also nearly 10,000 citizen soldiers formed by the western allies of Sicily, who were poorly trained and were better suited to carry baggage and build camps than to fight; The remaining nearly 10,000 Numibian soldiers were the same soldiers from the camp that had been subjected to night raids before, and it was clear that the attack on Dionya had frightened the dark-skinned Numibians, and in order not to let their panic affect the morale of the other troops, Margo had specially divided them, and had been busy training for the past few days, and was even preparing to send them to Lilibal to replace the defenders there.

But Margo was not worried, and said confidently, "If the Dioonians act as you say, that's exactly what I want." ”

Pomilka no longer persuaded, he accepted the order. In fact, even if he didn't accept it, Marco would force him to accept it, because he had forcibly replaced many Carthaginian generals and taken over by officers of the Iberian army he trusted, which not only made the soldiers of the army formed by Carthage feel very uneasy, but also caused the Senate to criticize after the news reached Carthage, and the Hannonites even criticized him for doing so, claiming that he wanted to make the entire army become the private army of the Magonides family in order to facilitate his dictatorship.

Margo asked the neutral senator Pomilcar to temporarily take over Carthage's army, both to appease the soldiers and to reassure them.

……………………………………

On the second day, Pomilka led his army out of camp and marched east along the coast.

Margo did not hide this military operation, so the large-scale movement of the Carthaginians in the barracks was clearly seen by Leotizides at the head of the city, and he was a little anxious, because he could guess why this Carthaginian army left, and he did not think about it: take this opportunity to lead the whole army out of the city to attack the Carthaginian army that was still in the camp, but the previous night attack had already sounded the alarm for the Carthaginians, and since they dared to do so, they were obviously on guard.

Leotizides held the only main force of the Dionian kingdom in Sicily, and he had no choice but to take action with a good chance of victory when outnumbered, so he was now anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Catanay fleet.

……………………………………

Hasdruba allowed his soldiers to plunder and slaughter the entire city of Agrigento, on the one hand, in memory of his father Shimirko (who also led his army to occupy the city of Agrigento), so that his soldiers could be released and rewarded after a hard march and hard fighting in the mountains; On the other hand, it is also to get enough food.

His purpose was achieved. Agrigento's territory was either mountainous or hilly, and although it was not known for its agriculture, it was a well-known cattle city on the island of Sicily, so Hasdruba obtained a large number of livestock, enough to feed an army of 20,000 men for half a month.

So after a day's rest, while Pomilca was marching on Minoa, Hasdruba left 1,000 men to garrison the city of Agrigento, leading 16,000 men, and marching east along the coast, aiming at Gela.

Why hadn't Leotizides had sent reinforcements to the city on their way through the city of Ekonomi, and why hadn't Hasdruba targeted the city? Because it was a small Greek city, only slightly larger than Germe, and its low walls could only be used to hold off wild beasts, and could not hold back the enemy's attacks at all, Leotizides did not have hope for it, and Hasdruba did not see it as an obstacle. (Note: Historically, it was only a hundred years before the tyrants of Agrigento built a new city on the Cape of Eknom, and a few decades later, in the First Punic War, the largest naval battle in the history of Western antiquity took place near the promontory of the city, with Carthage and Rome committing a total of 680 warships carrying about 290,000 sailors and soldiers, and Rome finally won.) ）

Sure enough, by the time Hasdruba arrived, the inhabitants of Ekonomim had fled, leaving only an empty city. The Carthaginian army was successfully stationed.

After a night's rest, the march continued eastward on Day 2 and entered Gera territory at noon.

The city of Gela is steeped in history, it was founded only four or five years after the founding of Syracuse, and was founded by colonists from Rhodes and Crete, named after the Gela River within the territory.

Because the Gela River washed down a large amount of soil from the mountains, forming a fertile river plain in the territory of Gera, after decades of successful transformation of the river swamp by the Gela people, Gela became prosperous, and at this time the city of Agrigento had just been established, and the city of Syracuse was still limited to the island of Ortigia, so a hundred years ago, the tyrant Hippocrates and his successor Dillon launched a war of conquest to the east, and finally from Mexico to Camanlina and other Greek colonial cities in eastern Sicily submitted to Gera, Dillon took a fancy to Syracuse's location and moved there, and let his brother Shiron take over Jera, and moved half of the population of his birthplace Jera to Syracuse, thus creating the beginning of Syracuse's prosperity. After Dillon's death, Shilon moved to Syracuse...... After this, the tyrants of Jera abandoned the original city and made Syracuse their ruling center, and Jera began to decline from the most powerful Greek city-state in Sicily. But at this point, Jera also developed a fairly close relationship with Syracuse.

The first conflict between Gera and Syracuse came more than 20 years ago, when the Carthaginian commander Shimilko led a large army to attack Syracuse, first capturing Agrigento and then besieging Gera. Dionysius promised to send reinforcements, but in the end the reinforcements did not arrive, and Gera was captured. The contradiction deepened after the return of the Gera people, Syracuse had become the overlord of the Greek city-states of Sicily, and Dionysius exploited and oppressed the allied people, including Gera, of course, who was very dissatisfied with him, but feared his powerful force and could only obey.

It wasn't until Dionya defeated Syracuse that the Dera people were grateful to the Dionians, but they were also wary of outsiders entering Sicily, and Dionya was able to let down his guard after 10 years of friendly relations with the city-states around Sicily. During the war between Dionya and Carthage, Gera also actively provided material aid and sent troops to the war.

Now that the Carthaginian army was pushing under the city, it not only made the people nervous, but also shook Syracuse and Katanai, who were closer to them than they had been in the west and attracted more attention than the previous series of battles in the west.

……………………………………

"Commander, Calcides is here." Muqru reports to Leotizides.

"Invite him in."

A middle-aged team officer wearing a purple crowned helmet strode into the hall of the City Lord's mansion.

His name was Calcidis, and he was born in Catanay. After Dionysius conquered Catanay, he became an outcast, fled to a mountain settlement for a while, and then quietly returned to the port of Catanay, where he sold his labor for a living. During the Southern Italian War, Antrapolis lurked in the port of Catane, where he received great help, and in the subsequent rebellion of Catanay, his freedmen were also one of the main forces. After the successful recovery of Qatanay, he also led his troops to assist the First Army in pursuing the rout of Masias.

However, after the end of the war and the annexation of the Cataneh to the Kingdom of Dionia, the hero of the Katanai people refused to become a kingdom official or a member of the city council, and instead volunteered to become a tribune, and was elected by the Katanai people to participate in the kingdom's tribune assembly every year because of his outstanding performance. At the same time, he was also the captain of the First Brigade of the Eighth Legion, and was deeply relied on by Leotizides.

"Commander, Calcides is here to report!" Calcides gave a powerful military salute.