Chapter 1017
Instead of complaining, he said, "Leader Tinum, now that the Carthage's Lili has been occupied, the Carthage's food supply route to Sicily has been cut off. It won't be long before the soldiers in the entire camp will face the threat of starvation. What do you think about this?"
Tinum blinked and showed a nonchalant expression. "Lili has been occupied, but the Carthage can still transport food to Mazara. Moreover, they will take down Salinus and recapture Lili, so there's no need to worry too much."
"Leader Tinum," Tinum said with a sneer, "the Carthage can recapture Salinus and Lili?! You overestimate the ability of the Carthage. Just to take down a small town of Paragonia, the Carthage spent a lot of time, and how many people died in battle! You've been in Sicily for so long, you should be well aware of the strength of the Diónia when it comes to defending their cities, yet you still have such delusions and think that the Carthage dares to transport food to Mazara! Don't you know that the Diónia Navy is stronger?! Not only did they completely defeat the Carthage Navy, but I heard that they also occupied Corsica and Sardinia, which are ruled by the Carthage. They even landed in Afrika and burned several of Carthage's allies! "
"Where did you hear all this?!" Tinum's expression changed drastically as he asked sternly.
Margo had strict control over the army. All the war reports were only known to him, Pomirka, and a few other high-ranking generals. Furthermore, the entire army was confined to Sicily, and it was difficult for them to receive news from the outside world. It was even more impossible for a foreign cavalry unit like Tinum to have their own sources of information, so they were very unfamiliar with the development of the entire war.
Tinum took a deep breath, and his expression became secretive. He whispered, "I did participate in this war, but I did not fight with Margo. Instead, I followed Monte Adeno. You may have heard that he led his army to attack Minoa and suffered a crushing defeat. At that time, I was captured by the Diónia …"
Tinum's eyes widened, "You surrendered to the Diónia?!"
Kynomus made a shushing gesture and whispered, "No, the King of Diónia doesn't want us to surrender, but to be an ally of the Numibians! He wants to help us get rid of the oppression of the Carthage people, restore our independence, and take back our land … "
The more Kinormus spoke, the more agitated he became. But Tinum suddenly cut him off and said coldly, "What does this have to do with me?"
"Of course it matters!" "Do you know that Carthage's men have already sent messengers to the Diónia camp to request peace talks? They can't hold out much longer! But the people of Diónia would never agree so easily. They had completely blocked the sea route to the west of Sicily. Without the support of the City of Carthage, Margo's army was so huge. How many days could the food he stored last? When they ran out of food, they could only surrender! You and your people will become captives, perhaps even slaves of the people of Diónia! "
Kynomus sighed softly and said emotionally, "It's precisely because we used to have a good relationship that I didn't try to persuade my eastern kinsmen after I blended in with the defeated army. Instead, I came to you first, hoping that you can see the situation clearly and make a choice that is beneficial to your tribe!"
What Kynomus said was actually a lie. The reason he chose to come to Tinum was that the people of Eastern Numibia helped Carthage in battle. They basically served as infantry, with a certain number of people drawn from each tribe. The officers could only be Phoenicians or Carthage people. And after the successful night attack by Serinus' garrison, Margo had sent outstanding soldiers from the Iberian army who were loyal to him to serve as officers. Therefore, it was very risky to incite the Eastern Numibian soldiers to defect from Carthage's army on a large scale, and the success rate was not high.
As the lands of Western Numibia were not controlled by the people of Carthage, they and the people of Carthage were more like the dependent relationship between a large tribe and a small tribe. Carthage hired them to fight, and they were mostly cavalry. They did not send outsiders to serve as officers, and the tribal leaders led their people. They only needed to listen to the commander's orders during battle. The supervision was very lax, and this created the conditions for Kynomus to blend in and persuade them to defect.
Tinum fell into deep thought. Although he was not sure if the terrible situation described by Kynomus was true, he was not a fool. During this time, he had more or less noticed some signs: Lili had been captured by the people of Diónia, which was a fact, he saw it with his own eyes; Palemos had fallen, although he did not see it, the Numibian cavalry who followed Hasdrubal had communicated with him and told him that 4,000 strong Iberian natives had been wiped out; if the Carthage navy was not at a disadvantage, how could they have allowed the people of Diónia to land on the western coast at will, so much so that Margo had sent them to patrol the coast every day, and in the past few days, he did not see any food transport team from Mazara to the Carthage camp … Could the situation really be that bad?!
The more Tinum thought about it, the more his heart sank.
There was silence in the tent, and the faint light of the oil lamp swayed on his face that was gradually shrouded in haze.
After a long time, he looked at Tinum and asked hesitantly, "The people of Diónia … What benefits can they give me?"
Kynomus was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "Whatever Carthage can give you, the people of Diónia can also give you, and it will only be better. For example, the people of Diónia will sell you high-quality ironware and armor that Carthage has banned … And as long as you can successfully lead most of the Numibian cavalry to surrender to Diónia, the king of Diónia also promised, 'In the future, when the Masili tribe and other West Numibian tribes have conflicts, Diónia will stand by your side!'"
When Tinum heard this, he was shocked: the Masili tribe was a large tribe, stronger than most West Numibian tribes. Several generations of leaders had always had a dream, which was to unify the loose West Numibian tribes and form a West Numibian Alliance led by the Masili tribe. That was what they thought, and that was what they did. However, it was clear that the people of Carthage would not allow their wish to come true. Not only did they support his opponent, but they also repeatedly suppressed the Masili tribe, repeatedly weakening their strength and losing several ranches. In fact, Tinum had been secretly dissatisfied with Carthage for a long time.
This was also the reason why Kynomus first chose to persuade the Masili tribe.
Although Tinum was a little tempted, he still tried his best to remain calm. "Kynomus, these promises made by Diónia sound good, but it will be very difficult to achieve, because the center of Diónia is on the big island in the north (referring to Italy), and the land of Afrika where we live is ruled by the people of Carthage."
"Tinum, you don't understand how great the king of Diónia is. It only took him a decade or so to make the newly established Kingdom of Diónia into a powerful force that even the people of Carthage fear. He has promised me that when Margo's army is destroyed, he will let the Dionysian Army land in Afrika and help us East Numibians. By then, whether Carthage can still exist is a question, and I'm afraid they will be dreaming if they want to meddle in our affairs!"
Tinum was a little disapproving. Of course, he would not have high hopes for Diónia like Kynomus did. After all, Carthage's hegemony in Afrika had lasted for a hundred years. Even if they suffered a defeat in this war, he did not think that things would change so quickly. However, the promise made by the people of Diónia was indeed tempting. He thought about it for a long time and decided not to agree for the time being, but he would not reject Kynomus's request either. Instead, he would carefully observe the development of the situation before making a decision.
For this reason, he even forced Kynomus to stay in his army to prevent him from coming into contact with others.
… …
On the second day, Carthage's army launched another attack on the city of Serinus.
This time, Amyntas did not deploy too many soldiers on the city walls. Instead, he used the city walls to resist for a while. After repelling an attack by Carthage's men, he took advantage of the short gap before the next wave of attack to decisively give the order to retreat.
Carthage's army successfully occupied the city walls. Their morale was boosted, and they blindly attacked the city in an attempt to take the whole city in one go.
Soon, they suffered from the various traps laid by the Diónia soldiers in the city, and were finally stopped in front of a wide trench. Behind the trench was another towering city wall.
Countless Diónia soldiers suddenly appeared on the seemingly empty city wall and launched a fierce attack on the enemy below.
Carthage's soldiers were disorganized in the process of breaking into the city. They lacked a general to command them, gathered in front of the trench, and did not carry any siege equipment. Suddenly, they were violently attacked by a rain of arrows and javelins. It was chaos.
Amyntas decisively gave the order to counterattack. The heavy soldiers of the legion, who had been lying in ambush for a long time, rushed out from the several tunnels they had prepared.
The Carthage army below the city was routed, scrambling to escape.
After the Diónia soldiers chased for a while, they immediately retreated to the second wall after being reminded by their officers, leaving the follow-up troops of Carthage empty-handed.
When Margo, who was at the rear, heard that there was another wall behind the city wall, he immediately thought of Paragonia's encounter. He hurriedly ordered all the troops in the city to retreat immediately and sent scouts into the block between the two walls to carefully investigate whether there were a large number of combustible items buried.
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