Chapter 1010
"Of course not." Secorian looked contemptuously at the two Carthage captives who were gagged, "This is the masterpiece of the greedy Carthage merchants! … "
It turned out that Lilibo was first built by Himilco and later remodeled by Mago. Originally, Carthage was going to build a military defense system with it as the center to resist the attack of Syracuse. But unexpectedly, not long after, Syracuse was defeated by Diónia and lost its hegemony. Carthage and Diónia immediately signed a peace treaty. Since then, Sicily was restored to peace, and the original defense plan was aborted.
However, out of natural vigilance against the new Greek Kingdom of Dionysia, Lili's status as a key military town in Sicily was still retained. Along with that, the garrison stationed in Lili was also retained, although the number of public militia was greatly reduced.
This period coincided with the departure of the Magonid family from Carthage to Iberia, and the Senate was under Hanno's control. Under his vigorous promotion, the people of Carthage began to advance inland and occupy the land of the Numibians on a large scale. The citizens of Carthage were busy sharing the fruits of the war, and no one was willing to be selected to defend the city of Lilibo, even if it was only a rotation. So, Carthage gave the garrison of Lilibo sufficient logistical support and extra pay so that they could perform their duties with peace of mind. But even so, in the hearts of the citizens of Carthage, going to Lilibo to defend the city was still a hard job.
Seven years ago, a member of the Hanno family was appointed as the garrison general of Lilibo. He was unwilling to go, and even went to Hanno to plead for him, but in the end, he did not succeed, because the position of the garrison general of Lilibo had become a big problem. None of the nobles of Carthage were willing to take up the post, and as the ruler, Hanno, of course, had to set an example. He could only come to Lili with a belly full of resentment. He had only stayed for a few days when Lan Pukuba of the port area came to visit. After the two of them had a secret talk, the garrison general's resentment completely disappeared and he seriously performed his duty.
Since the signing of the peace agreement with Diónia, the maritime trade in Lilibo had become more and more prosperous, and it had also led to more and more residents of Lilibo. However, because of the high threshold to settle in the urban area, many people from Carthage and the Phoenician allies could only choose to live in the port area. Since Lilibo had very little farmland outside the city, they could not be self-sufficient in food, but the demand was very high. They could only rely on the maritime trade of food, mainly from Carthage. Although the people of Carthage relied on the vast land of Numibia and had sufficient food every year, the price of food shipped to Lilibo was not low, and the competition was fierce.
Lampukuba was also a member of the Hanno family. He settled in the port area of Lilibo ten years ago and mainly engaged in the food trade. In the past few years of competition in the business world, he did not benefit much, so he racked his brains to find other ways to make money. As a result, he found that the supply of military food in the barracks in the city was very sufficient. Every year at the end of the year, there would be a lot of surplus. It just so happened that the garrison general who took office at this time was also a member of the Hanno family. The two used to be on good terms, so he came to him to secretly discuss cooperation.
For the mercantilist people of Carthage, it was not a shameful thing to be able to use power to obtain money. The garrison general of Lilibo was naturally happy to agree, but there was a problem: to transport military food from the city to the port, it must pass through the tightly-checked city gate checkpoints, and this matter would be known to the world. After all, selling military supplies privately was against the laws of Carthage, and the governor of Lilibo at that time happened to be a member of Magonid's faction. It was hard to guarantee that he would not make a big fuss about this. At that time, the garrison general and Lampukuba would inevitably be punished by the Senate. So after some discussion, they decided to use a method that would not be known to the public — that was to dig a tunnel.
In fact, at that time, because it was very difficult for foreigners to enter and leave the city of Lilibo, out of various needs, several tunnels had already appeared in the port area, and people were secretly sent in to work as servants of officials, the rich, and temporary labor …
However, the two of them were even more secretive: Lampukuba spent a lot of money to buy land near the southwest military camp's city wall, built tall walls and warehouses, and let his family's servants secretly dig the tunnel; the garrison general let his trusted subordinates and his own servants use training as an excuse to set up a restricted area in the military camp's supply barracks and secretly dig the tunnel. With the joint efforts of both sides, it took less than half a year to dig through, and in the process of smuggling military food to the port area, they were also constantly perfecting the tunnel.
The garrison general falsified the roster of soldiers, inflated the number of soldiers, and generously granted long holidays to the citizen soldiers who were selected but were unwilling to come to Lilibo for duty … and other methods to turn a large amount of surplus military food into his own. On the other hand, Lampukuba used these military food, which did not cost money at all, to enrich his own granary, and also lowered the price of selling food, so that the other grain merchants in the port could not compete at all, allowing him to finally monopolize the profitable food market and become the richest man here.
The garrison general made a lot of money, so naturally, he was unwilling to leave again, and took the initiative to continue in this position many times. Some of the senators in Carthage more or less knew that there might be something fishy in this, but many of them were bribed by him. In addition, other than him, the candidates for the garrison general of Lilibo had always been more difficult to produce, so everyone turned a blind eye.
Therefore, the garrison general stayed in Lilibo for four or five years, until last year, when the relationship with Diónia became tense and the clouds of war loomed over the city. The Senate strictly ordered the cities in western Sicily to increase their vigilance, reorganize their armaments, strengthen their training, and prepare for war.
The new mayor of Lilibo, Imisere, sent a patrol team to completely block the tunnels that had existed for many years and were known to everyone. He also issued a notice: If anyone was found digging tunnels again, they would be sentenced to death for treason!
The garrison general felt that the situation was not good. After discussing with Lampukuba, he let his trusted subordinates block the tunnel entrance at the military camp, and then bribed the senators with a large amount of money to transfer him back to Carthage, to avoid becoming a victim of the upcoming war.
Lampukuba, on the other hand, still kept the tunnel, waiting for the war to end before continuing to use it …
"So, the other end of the tunnel has been blocked?" Leotychides asked when he heard this.
Cykerian pointed at the two captives and said, "According to them, they only blocked the exit at that side, and not many places were blocked. I have already sent soldiers in to investigate …"
As he spoke, footsteps came from the tunnel, and a few Mountain Ridge scouts quickly appeared in front of them.
"Sir, if you walk forward 150 meters in the tunnel, you will see the blocked area. It is indeed as the captives said, sealed with soil. I think it won't take long to see the exit."
The words of the Mountain Ridge scouts made Cykerian excited. He smiled and said, "Sir Prososus, you can now bring your troops over. Follow this tunnel and kill your way into the city!"
At this moment, the one who went that day was calm. "Don't be anxious. We have to make some arrangements first to divert the attention of the garrison in Carthage."
… …
"Sir, look! The people of Diónia are preparing to attack the city! "A team officer shouted as he pointed to the bottom of the city wall.
There was no need for him to remind him. Imisere had already noticed that on his right, thousands of Diónia soldiers in black helmets and armor appeared in the area illuminated by the fire on the city wall. They were in formation, and the soldiers at the front were carrying long ladders. It seemed that they were preparing to carry out the construction …
He poked his head out, wanting to take a closer look, and heard his subordinate beside him shouting, "Sir, be careful!" He dragged him behind a cloud of dust and heard a deafening "boom". Several stone bullets smashed into the wall not far from him. The flying stone shards injured a few of the defending soldiers.
The frightened Imisere immediately shouted, "Go get Ragnaca, the people of Diónia are going to attack the city!"
When Ragnaca was forcibly summoned, he was a little angry because the attack of the Diónia soldiers at the tower gate was so fierce that the gate was deformed by the black wood. If it were not for the large number of stones blocking the gate, they would have rushed in. Moreover, the long-range attacks of the Diónia light infantry were also very powerful, causing many casualties to the archers of Carthage behind the tower gate. They also carried the ballistae to the walkway of the gate and fired, posing a huge threat to the javelin throwers on both sides of the tower. The light infantry had been replaced several times. Ragnaca was now highly nervous and commanding the soldiers to defend with all their might. He had no spare energy to care about anything else.
So when he saw the situation of the enemy below the city wall, he scolded angrily, "The enemy is so close to us, why don't they attack with bows and arrows?"
Imisere responded coldly, "The light infantry have been sent to the tower gate by you, where are the archers here?"
Ragnaca then remembered the measures he had taken before. He saw that the mayor was a little dissatisfied, so he coughed twice and softened his tone, "It doesn't matter if there are no light infantry. The ballistae of the Diónia people may look terrible, but they can't destroy our thick and tall walls. If they want to attack the top of the wall, they have to rely on those wooden ladders. When they come to the bottom of the wall, we can attack them with wood, stones, asphalt … and cause them casualties, but-"
Ragnaca looked to the left where countless people were gathered more than 100 meters away. That was where the city gate was located. He reminded, "Be careful that the Diónia people disperse the people and use the black wood to break through the gate. So we have to strengthen the defense there. It is best to send people to block the gate."
Although Imisere was a little worried, he thought about it and still shook his head and refused, "We can't block the gate. Otherwise, when Lord Margo arrives with his army, he won't be able to quickly attack the Diónia people."
"Then leave an army under the city. In case the enemy breaks through the gate, let them stop them …" After Ragnaca arranged the defensive measures here, he hurried to the tower gate.
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