Chapter 76 Dionia VS Carthage (1)

Ancitanos continued: "In addition, His Majesty Davos also asked me to remind you, 'The war between Dionia and Samonei is a contest between warriors, no matter how many casualties, Dionia will not go Sorrow, but if! If you Samonais dare to point spears at the unarmed Dionysian people and slaughter them wantonly! Then Dionysus will be desperate to let the wrath of revenge pour out on Samone. Let the Samonei people experience more cruel revenge!' Please think carefully about the tragic end of Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse in Sicily, and his mercenary cavalry!"

On the surface, the messenger of Samone disapproved of Ancitanos' warnings and threats, but a shadow was shrouded in his heart.

At the same time, Ancitanos also brought Davos's apology to Alexis. After all, Davos' nod will add thousands of troops to the Samonais, which will inevitably give the Dionysian army a chance to fight. The fighting in the Nepal region brought more trouble.

But Alexis asked Ancitanos to speak, please rest assured King Davos, and said: This move will not have any impact on the army, on the contrary, he is confident to capture more Samonai prisoners in the future!

The words that Davos said were quickly spread throughout the Downey area under the impetus of Ancitanos. In addition, not long after, the captive people of Downey were released one after another. The Downeys were even more grateful to King Davos, and they were even more proud of being a Dionysian. He is more attentive, and at the same time, he is more sympathetic to the Samonais.

And this incident not only affected the Downeys, but also the neighboring Puchetti and Mesapis.

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Just as Alexis' entire army was meeting at Dawny, Leotides in Sicily led his army to the Minoan region.

Along the way, the Dionysian army was warmly welcomed by many Greek city-states such as Kamanlina, Gera, Pachinus, Agrigento, etc. They changed the previous battle for Dionia I was delighted by the brave action of planning and taking the initiative to confront the Carthaginian army that had been approaching. Therefore, not only did they provide a large amount of food supplies, but they also sent their own civilian soldiers, so that when the army reached Minoa, it was already The 15,000 at the time of departure quickly swelled to more than 32,000.

As the Dionysian army marched along the coast with great fanfare, its movements were detected by the Carthaginians long ago. Therefore, the Carthaginian army did not attack the city with all their strength in the past few days, but instead focused on strengthening the camp.

At the same time, as the Dionysian army approached, Monteardno began to feel uneasy in his heart. He sent messengers several times to rush back to Lilibe, and asked the lord of Lilibe, Samimre, to immediately take Carthage on the island of Sicily. The young and middle-aged citizens of the colonial city and the Phoenician city-state organized, as many as possible, and immediately sent them to the Carthaginian camp in Minoa,

At the same time, don't forget to send the army of the Xikan people.

By the time the Dionysian army reached Minoa, Monteardno had withdrawn the Carthaginian army to their camp on the west bank of the Praetara.

And Leotidides did not attack rashly. He refused the invitation of the Minoans. After inspecting the surrounding environment, he began to build a camp on several rolling hills not far north of the Minoan city.

The military camps of the two sides met for about four miles, separated by the Praetara River. They faced off for several days and remained calm.

For this reason, Leotidides's men and allied generals were puzzled because "he never let the army attack", and in order to have a unified understanding, he also specifically explained: "We have few soldiers, Carthage has many soldiers, and The Carthaginian camp is fairly well-defended, and if we rush to attack, the casualties will be large and the chance of victory is too small. We should wait for the Carthaginians to attack, so as to take advantage of the defense, kill a large number of enemies, and finally defeat them. "

"However, the Carthaginians are not attacking us now." Agrigento's commander-in-chief, Mitch Damus, said suspiciously.

Leotidas smiled and said confidently: "Our King Davos once said, 'This war with Carthage will be a long war, and the more time goes on, the more Onia will be able to get rid of the impact of the drought, restore the normal food supply in the country, and then be able to send more troops to Sicily to fight Carthage...' So we don't have to worry, let the ignorant Carthage The base people continue to consume the time that would have benefited them."

There is another point that Leotides did not say: most of the food supply for his tens of thousands of soldiers was provided by these Greek city-states on the south coast, which greatly relieved the pressure on the food supply of Dionia's Sicilian territory. , of course he had reason to take a leisurely defense in Minoa.

"But... the Carthaginians may continue to increase their forces, and finally attack us!" The Minoan general Polyad who came to the military conference said still worriedly.

"That's why I asked you to set up defensive facilities in accordance with Dionia's camp standards when building your own camp, so that you can resist the attack of the Carthaginian army!" He said solemnly: "And the Carthaginians have concentrated their troops on Minoa, and the defense behind it must be relatively empty, which is conducive to the Dionysian fleet to harass it. And the more enemies here, the more they have to deal with the food. The greater the demand, the more frequent the transportation of food will be, which will help the Sikelians to attack their food teams and cut off their food passages. Once such a huge army is short of food, they will not attack without us. Defeated!"

Leotidides' explanation temporarily eased the concerns of the Allied generals.

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In the tent of the Carthaginian army camp, Monte Ardeno, who also never fought, explained to Milefio: "The reason why I did not fight is because...According to the information from the reconnaissance, the Dionian's There are more than 30,000 troops in the army, and most of them are heavy infantry. We are only 10,000 more than them, and half of them are lowly Numibians. You have also seen the performance of their previous siege. I don't think they'll be able to withstand the Greek heavy infantry, even if they're large! So we need more soldiers, really brave, noble Carthaginians or Phoenicians—"

"But you still have 10,000 Holy Regiment infantry under your command. We are enough to repel the larger number of Greek heavy infantry. There is nothing to be afraid of!" Milefio said proudly.

"You're right!" Monte Ardno said following the other's tone: "There is no doubt about the ability and courage of the Holy Legion's infantry. I fully believe that you can repel the Dionysians, but put the burden of attacking on them. On your shoulders, it will cause your casualties to increase! The Holy Legion infantry are the essence of our Carthaginian citizens, because we are not only watching this battle, but also occupying the Sicily Islands and even expeditioning to Greater Greece. , so I must protect your best Carthaginian army and make good use of your excellent army! Therefore, I will urge Semimre to organize more Carthaginian or Phoenician soldiers, Strengthen our strength in order to defeat the Dionysians on the opposite side more smoothly!"

Milfio was immediately persuaded, he hesitated, and said, "...Maybe we can bring Hasdrubal's army back."

When Monte Ardeno heard this, he immediately shook his head like a rattle: "No! No! No! Milefio, don't you understand! It was Hasdrubal who didn't want to obey orders and insisted on acting independently. Now that we ask him to come back again, wouldn't this make him mistakenly think that we left the Iberian army, and he would be even more arrogant, and then we won't command him, but he will command us!

Before I set off, Lord Hanno once warned me again and again that the command of the Carthaginian army can only belong to Hanno, not to Margonid, and the glory of winning this war can only be shared by us. Nothing to do with Iberia! "

In fact, Milefio regretted the words as soon as he said it. How could he not know what Monte Ardeno said, so he had to be silent at this moment.

Monte Ardeno continued: "Now what we urgently need is not Hasdrubal's army, but our Carthaginian navy! I don't know what happened to our fleet, why these days only on the sea. Where is our navy when you see Dionia's ships in action?! Milefio, I suggest you write at once, urging Lord Hanno, we need a strong Carthaginian navy to guard our emptiness Rear, and even defeat enemy fleets, harassing their rear, and leaving the Dionysians at risk from both sides!  …”

Milefio obviously realized the importance of this issue and agreed without hesitation.

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Both Dionia and the Carthaginian army were trying to delay the battle as far back as possible in order to be better prepared.

But the two huge military camps stretched for seven or eight miles from north to south, and only three or four miles apart from east to west. Standing on the highest hill where the Dionysian camp was located, looking west, you could even see the middle of the Carthaginian camp. Army tent. With so many soldiers gathered at such a close distance, with the characteristics of the city-state army, the generals could not completely control these citizens and soldiers, and often a small conflict and friction would lead the war to an unexpected direction.

At this time, it was already February of the 14th year of the Kingdom of Dionia (379 BC). Although it was still spring, the weather in some seaside towns in the Mediterranean Sea had begun to heat up. Especially on this day, the temperature in Minoa suddenly increased. After several degrees, at noon, the ground was scorched by the scorching sun. Whether it was the soldiers of the Dionian allies or the soldiers of Carthage, many of them could not bear the discomfort and thirst caused by the high temperature, and ran away. After leaving the camp, he went to the Praetara River not far from the camp to draw water and even take a bath.

The Plaitara River is a small river. Except for the section near the estuary, where the river width exceeds 30 meters, the average river width is less than 20 meters, and some sections are even only ten meters wide. And its downstream flows on flat ground, the water is gentle, and the water depth is not more than knees.

Therefore, the soldiers on both sides of the river were no more than ten meters apart, and they could even understand what the other party looked like and what they were saying (of course they might not be able to understand). ()

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