Chapter 1018
On this day, although the Carthage army occupied the outer walls of Serinus, they failed to capture the entire city. Instead, they suffered a lot of casualties. The new walls inside the city meant that they still had to carry out a difficult siege, which caused the morale of the soldiers to plummet.
The Numibians, in particular, suffered the most casualties as the main force of the siege. Naturally, the resentment in their hearts was even stronger, and some rumors began to spread among them.
Ginormus was not the only one who had infiltrated the Sican territory. Although Margo had sent his own trusted team officers to the Numibian troops, most of them were mid-level and senior officers. After all, if there were too many team officers, it would be difficult to maintain the combat effectiveness of his own Iberian troops. Therefore, the lowest-level team leaders were mostly Eastern Numibians. This gave the Numibian captives, who had been persuaded by the Diónia, a chance to sneak into the Carthage camp through the defeated soldiers.
The Numibians had always been the main force in this war, whether it was the attack on Paragonia or Serinus, so they suffered the most casualties. Their dissatisfaction with the Carthage people had accumulated over the years, and their resentment was very strong. Therefore, these spies quietly told their compatriots about the situation of the war and the news that Diónia was willing to support Numibia to rise up against Carthage and gain independence. Naturally, this caused a huge reaction.
Some rumors even spread to other armies, such as that the Carthage Navy had suffered a crushing defeat, that the western sea of Sicily had been completely blocked by the Diónia Navy... That the Diónia Navy had repeatedly attacked the coast of Africana, burning the cities of Hadrumentum and Ogilgili...
This seriously affected the morale of the Carthage and Phoenician soldiers. Many soldiers even gathered and asked their team officers if the news was true.
Margo was shocked when he received the news. He had no choice but to stop the next step of the attack on Serinus City and focus on reorganizing the army and boosting their morale. Otherwise, the army would be in danger of collapsing.
… …
In the early morning, a Carthage fleet of 30 cargo ships set off from Gaddis to Carthage. Each ship was loaded with silver bricks.
The war had progressed so far. Corsica had fallen, Sardinia had fallen into war, Sicily had been blockaded, and Carthage port trade was depressed. The precious metals of the Iberian Peninsula had become the main source of income for the Carthage treasury. For this reason, the Carthage mine owners in Iberia had increased the number of mining slaves and expanded the mining of the silver mines. After these silver bricks were transported to Carthage, they would be melted into silver coins, mainly to pay for the construction of warships and to pay the mercenaries.
Due to the recent strength of the Dionysian fleet, the fleet was very careful and had been sailing eastward along the coast of Afrika. Once they found the enemy, they could immediately enter the port of the nearby city-state to hide. This method was quite effective, so since the beginning of the war, the precious metal cargo ships from Iberia had never been hijacked by the Dionysian fleet.
After spending the night in the coastal towns and ports for two consecutive days, the fleet entered the core waters controlled by Carthage in the early morning of the third day. Only then did the fleet begin to gradually move away from the coast. Because Carthage was located on a peninsula protruding to the north, the Dionysian fleet had not dared to break into this sea so far.
In the morning, the fleet had arrived near the sea near Carthage. At this time, the crew saw a fleet of countless black warships in the north, rushing towards them.
"That's the fleet of Diónia!! ??? " The crew shouted in panic and desperately drove the cargo ship toward the port of Carthage. However, the cargo ship was overloaded, the wind was not favorable, and there were not many oarsmen. As a result, the Diónia warships cut off the route to the port before they could.
"General, our warships have successfully intercepted the fleet of Carthage!" The lookout on the flagship shouted excitedly.
Midolades was not too happy. He had planned this operation for a long time. In order to intercept the Carthage fleet from Iberia, he sent a number of fast ships to Sarros in Sardinia as a station. Every day, the task was to disguise as a Phoenician cargo ship and sneak into the southern sea to monitor the route from Iberia to Carthage. The fleet was discovered the day after it left Gaddis and had been under the surveillance of Diónia fast food ever since. Midolades was able to intercept it in front of the port of Carthage in time according to the intelligence sent back one after another.
The first step had been successful, but the key was to see the subsequent development! Midolades said in a deep voice, "Continue to observe closely!"
"Yes!"
The Diónia warships intercepted the Carthage fleet, but they did not annihilate it in one go. Instead, they played a game of cat and mouse. They did not use the bronze ram at the bow of the ship, but used the hull of the ship to clamp the oars of the cargo ship. The crew on the deck even specially prepared rope hooks in an attempt to seize the cargo ship when the two ships approached each other.
It seemed that they were ready to capture the cargo ship and bring it back to the base. After all, 20 ships of silver bricks was a huge fortune, but it took a long time. As the location of the incident was not far from the port, not only did the sentries on the breakwater of the port of Carthage see it clearly, but even the other Carthage and Phoenician cargo ships that entered the port saw this terrible scene and scrambled to hide in the port. Therefore, when the sentries quickly reported the situation to the port officials, and the port officials immediately reported it to the Senate of Carthage, the news of the "Dionysian fleet attack" had quickly spread in the port and the city.
Some time ago, the people of Carthage were clearly afraid of the Diónia fleet when they burned the Phoenician allies in Afrika several times. Now that these terrifying enemies had actually attacked Carthage, the people were even more terrified. For a moment, the rumor that "the Diónia are going to attack Carthage" spread like wildfire.
When the elders of Carthage received the news from the port, they were greatly shocked. They did not expect the Dionysian fleet to be so bold as to come to Carthage port and cause trouble. This was something that had never happened since the founding of Carthage!
In addition, they immediately received the news that "there was a riot in the city". At this time, whether it was Hanno, Pretacuba, or Esyaruba, no one had any differences of opinion. They quickly reached a consensus: order Morbar to lead the Carthage fleet to attack immediately, repel the rampant Dionysian fleet, protect the wealth of Carthage, and give the people confidence!
Ever since the Senate ordered the Carthage fleet to strengthen the defense of the Afrika coast of the city and its allies, the Navy Commander Morbar had no choice but to not lead the fleet to the western waters of Sicily. Instead, he stayed at the Carthage military port and sent many fast ships to patrol the east and west coasts with Carthage as the center (because Ogilgili City had been burned, the patrol area was further expanded). Once he discovered the enemy, he would lead the fleet to attack. Then, he would be able to arrive in time and even defeat the Dionysian fleet that had sent the infantry of the fleet ashore to loot …
Morbar's plan was good, but ever since the two attacks, the Dionysian fleet had not appeared on the coast of Afrika again. Today, when he received the news that the Dionysian fleet had attacked the fleet from Iberia in front of Carthage port, he was not as angry as his subordinates. Instead, he fell into deep thought. This was because ever since he became the Navy Commander, he had been avoiding direct battles with the enemy because the Diónia Navy had a greater advantage. Now that the Dionysian fleet had come directly to his door, it was obvious that they wanted to force the Carthage fleet to fight them.
Many of his subordinates asked him to fight, saying, "The number of warships of the Dionysian fleet in front of the port is less than our Carthage fleet. Moreover, we are fighting in front of our own territory. It is entirely possible for us to completely defeat them, and thus reverse some of our decline …"
But Morbar still had some concerns, so he did not make a decision.
But what he did not expect was that the attack of the Dionysian fleet had already caused a huge uproar among the people of Carthage. More than a hundred elders, led by Hanno, Pretacuba, and Esyaruba, personally came to the military port to hand over the resolution passed by the Senate to him.
Naturally, Morbar could no longer decline, but he already had a battle plan in advance. After giving out military orders, he quickly led more than a hundred warships that had already slid into the military port from the dry dock and were ready to go. They sailed out of the port one after another.
And the elders also boarded the walls of the breakwater, ready to watch this naval battle that was of utmost importance to Carthage.
As soon as the first Carthage warship sailed out of the port, the Diónia clippers that were ordered to monitor the port immediately signaled with flag signals. The warships of the first squadron of the Third Fleet of Diónia, which was responsible for intercepting the Iberian fleet, no longer played around with the enemy. Instead, they began to attack ruthlessly. As a result, the hulls of the cargo ships were quickly smashed, and the shining silver bricks sank into the sea along with the broken cargo ships. The elders who were watching from the city walls were all pained. It also made the captains and crew members on the deck of the Carthage warships that sailed out of the port and were getting into formation furious. Therefore, some of the warships could not wait to get into formation and charged straight at the Dionysian fleet, wanting to save their compatriots who were trapped in a tight encirclement.
Seeing this, Morbar, who was the last to leave the port, coughed in anger. Ever since he took office, he had been paying close attention to the training and discipline of the newly formed fleet, hoping to be able to compete with the Diónia. But obviously, the time was too short, and the results were not ideal. Under such circumstances, he had no choice but to use another battle plan that he had prepared in advance. "Inform Baricos and the rest to attack together with us now!"
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