ancient greece mediterranean ruler

Chapter 731 Dionia VS Carthage ([-])

Ansitanos continued: "In addition, His Majesty Davos also asked me to remind you that the war between Dionia and Samona is a contest between warriors. No matter how many casualties there are, Dionia will not go." Sadly, but what if! If you Samoni people dare to point your spears at the unarmed people of Dionysia and kill them wantonly! Then Dionysia will desperately let the fury of revenge pour into Samoni area, let the Samnite people experience even 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 Samnite messenger ignored Ansitanos's warnings and threats, but in his heart, a shadow fell over him.

At the same time, Ansitanos also brought Davos's apology to Alexis. After all, Davos's nod will allow the Samnites to increase their strength by thousands more, which will definitely give the Dionian army a chance to fight on the road. The fighting in Nepal has brought more troubles.

But Alexis asked Ansitanos to tell King Davos to rest assured and said: This move will not have any impact on the army. On the contrary, he is confident that he will capture more Samnite prisoners in the future!

Driven by Ansitanos, the words spoken by Davos quickly spread throughout the Dauni region.In addition, soon after, the captured Dauni people were released one after another. The Dauni people were even more inexplicably grateful to King Davos, and they became more proud of being Dionysians. He is more focused on his homeland, and at the same time, he is even more hostile to the Samnites.

And this incident not only had a great impact on the Dauni people, but also on the neighboring Puchetti and Messape peoples.

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Just as Alexis's entire army was converging at Dauni, Leotyzides in Sicily also led his army to the Minoa region.

Along the way, the Dionysian army was warmly welcomed by many Greek city-states such as Camanlina, Gela, Pacinus, Agrigento... and they changed their previous battles for Dionysia. He was pleased with the brave action of planning and taking the initiative to attack the Carthaginian army that was approaching. Therefore, he not only provided a large amount of food supplies, but also sent out his own citizen soldiers, so that when this army arrived in Minoa, it was already composed of The 15000 people who set off quickly swelled to more than 32000.

Since the Dionian army marched along the coast with great fanfare along the way, its movement had been detected by the Carthaginians long ago. Therefore, the Carthaginian army did not attack the city with all its strength in the past few days, but instead focused on strengthening the camp.

At the same time, as the Dionian army approached, Monte Adeno began to feel uneasy. He sent envoys back to Lilibi several times, asking the Lord of Lilibi, Semimre, to immediately transfer Carthage to Sicily. Organize the young and middle-aged citizens of the colonial city and the Phoenician city-state. The more numerous the better, and then immediately send them to the Carthaginian camp in Minoa. Don't forget to send the Sican army as well. Come.

When the Dionian army arrived in Minoa, Monte Adeno had already withdrawn the Carthaginian army to the camp on the west bank of the Pletala River.

Leotizides did not attack rashly. He rejected the invitation of the Minoans. After inspecting the surrounding environment, he began to build camps on several rolling hills not far north of the city of Minoa.

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

For this reason, Leotizides' men and allied generals were confused because "he has not allowed the army to attack." In order to unify their understanding, he also made a special explanation: "We have few soldiers, Carthage has many soldiers, and The Carthaginian camp is fairly well-defended. If we rush to attack rashly, we will suffer heavy casualties and the chance of victory is too small. We should wait for the Carthaginians to attack, and then take advantage of the defense to kill a large number of enemies and ultimately defeat them. "

"But the Carthaginians are not attacking us now." Agrigento's general, Michidamus, said doubtfully.

Leotizides smiled slightly and said confidently: "Our King, His Majesty Davos, once said, 'This war with Carthage will be a long war. The longer time goes by, the more difficult it will be for Daivos." Onia will be able to get rid of the impact of the drought and restore normal domestic food supply. At that time, it will be able to send more troops to Sicily to fight a decisive battle with Carthage...'So we don't have to worry, let the ignorant Carthage Let the basic people continue to consume the time that would be beneficial to them."

There is another point that Leotizides did not say: most of the food supplies for his tens of thousands of soldiers are provided by these Greek city-states on the south coast, which greatly reduces the pressure on the food supply of the Sicilian territory of Dionia. , he certainly has reason to leisurely defend Minoa.

"But... the Carthaginians may continue to increase their troops and finally launch a fierce attack on us!" Polyad, the Minoan general who came to attend the military meeting, still said worriedly.

"That's why I ask you to strictly and conscientiously arrange defensive facilities according to Dionia's camp standards when building your own camp, so that you can withstand the attack of the Carthaginian army!" Leotizides' expression Said seriously: "Moreover, the Carthaginians have concentrated their troops in Minoa, and the defense behind them must be relatively empty, which is conducive to the Dionian fleet attacking them. And the more enemies here, the more food they have." The greater the demand, the more frequent the transportation of food will be. This will help the West Kells attack their food teams and cut off their food routes. Once such a large army is short of food, they will attack without us. Rout!"

Leotizides' explanation temporarily allayed the concerns of the allied generals.

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In the main tent of the Carthage military camp, Monte Adeno, who had also not gone to war, explained to Milephio: "The reason why I didn't go to war is because...according to the intelligence from the reconnaissance, the Dionians' The army has more than 3 people, and most of them are heavy infantry. We only have 1 more people than them, and half of them are lowly Numibians. You have also seen their performance in sieges before. I don’t think they can withstand the attack of the Greek heavy infantry, even if they are outnumbered! So we need more soldiers, really brave and noble Carthaginian soldiers or Phoenician soldiers-"

"But you still have our [-] Holy Order infantry under your command. We are enough to repel the larger Greek heavy infantry. There is nothing to be afraid of!" Milephio said proudly.

"You are right!" Monte Adeno followed the opponent's tone and said: "There is no doubt about the ability and courage of the infantry of the Holy Regiment. I fully believe that you can repel the Dionians, but you will have to bear the burden of the attack. On your shoulders, your casualties will increase! The infantry of the Holy Order are the essence of our Carthage citizens, because we are not only focusing on this battle, but will also occupy the Sicily Islands and even expedition to Magna Graecia. , so I must protect you, Carthage’s best army, and make good use of your excellent army! Therefore, I will urge Semimre to organize more Carthage or Phoenician soldiers, Strengthen our strength so that we can defeat the Dionians on the opposite side more smoothly!"

Milephio was immediately convinced. He hesitated and said, "...Maybe we can bring Hasdrubal's army back."

When Monte Adeno heard this, he immediately shook his head like a rattle: "No! No! No! Milephio, don't you understand yet! It was Hasdrubal who was unwilling to obey the command and insisted on acting independently. Now that we ask him to come back again, wouldn't it make him mistakenly think that we can't do it without leaving the Iberian army? Then wouldn't he be even more arrogant? Then we will not command him, but he will command us!
Before I set off, Lord Hanno had repeatedly warned me that the command of the Carthaginian army could only belong to Hanno, not to Magonides, and the glory of winning this war could only be shared by us. Nothing to do with Iberia! "

In fact, Milephio regretted it as soon as he said it. How could he not know what Monte Adeno said, so he had no choice but to remain silent at this moment.

Monte Adno continued: "What we urgently need now is not Hasdrubal's army, but our Carthage navy! I don't know what happened to our fleet, why are there only Seeing Dionia's warships showing off their power, where is our navy?! Millefio, I suggest you write a letter immediately and urge Lord Hanno, we need a powerful Carthaginian navy to protect our empty In the rear, they even defeated the enemy's fleet, harassed their rear, and made the Dionians vulnerable to enemies on both sides!..."

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

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Both the Dionysian and Carthaginian armies are trying to postpone the battle as late as possible in order to be more fully prepared.

However, the two huge military camps stretch for seven or eight miles from north to south, and are only three or four miles apart from east to west. Standing on the highest hill where the Dionia military camp is located, looking to the west, you can even see the center of the Carthage camp. Military tent.There are so many soldiers gathered at such a close distance. Due to the characteristics of the city-state army, the generals cannot completely control these citizen soldiers. Often a small conflict or friction will lead the battle situation in an unexpected direction.

It was already February 14 of the Kingdom of Dionia (2 BC). Although it was still spring, the weather in some seaside towns in the Mediterranean had begun to heat up. Especially on this day, the temperature in Minoa suddenly increased. Several degrees higher, and by noon, the ground was scorching hot from the scorching sun. Whether they were soldiers from the Dionian allies or Carthaginian soldiers, many could not bear the discomfort and thirst caused by the high temperature and ran away. After leaving the camp, we went to the Puletala River not far from the camp to draw water and even take a bath.

The Puletala River is a small river. Except for a section near the outlet 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 land, the water flow is gentle, and the water depth is no more than knee.

Therefore, soldiers from both sides were only more than ten meters apart on both sides of the river. They could even hear clearly what the other side looked like and what they were saying (of course, they may not be able to understand it).

　Thanks to Chiyoko Fujiwara for the tip!Your support is my motivation to write! !

　　
　
(End of this chapter)