Chapter 906
This was because Leotychides had once again received an urgent request for help from Minoa. Carthage's army had been attacking ferociously for days, and the siege weapons they had created had caused great casualties to Minoa's defenders. Minoa was almost at his breaking point. At the same time, he had also received news from Serinus. The news that he had led his army to leave Serinus Port could not be hidden from the Carthage's sentries who were patrolling the coast. The next day, Carthage's army launched an attack on Serinus City.
All of this made Leotychides eager to get rid of the Carthage army outside Gjera as soon as possible. So, after discussing with the people of Gjera and the reinforcements from Kamalina, he decided to launch a decisive battle against the Carthage army.
In the early morning, Leotychides led 8,000 soldiers from the Eighth Legion, 1,000 cavalrymen from the 4th Cavalry Legion, 5,000 soldiers from Gjera, and 3,000 reinforcements from Kamalina, a total of 17,000 soldiers out of Gjera City. After marching four miles to the west, they faced the Carthage barracks and got into formation.
The arrival of the huge military fleet at Gjera Port could not be hidden from the Carthage army, which was building a camp near the coast. So, for the past two days, Carthage's army did not attack the city. Instead, under Kisego's repeated persuasion, Hasdrubal summoned about 2,000 soldiers from Edgynome, leaving only a few hundred behind. In addition, he also issued an order to the Carthage army that was under his command, which had participated in the siege of Enna. So, he ordered 1,500 soldiers to trek through the mountains, traveling day and night.
Kisego's words moved Hasdrubal. "… According to the sentries' observation, there are no less than 200 military ships from Diónia. So, at least 10,000 Diónia soldiers have entered Gjera. In this way, the number of defenders in the city is about the same as our soldiers. Therefore, the people of Diónia will not only defend the city, but also want to defeat us. Because compared to the huge army led by Lord Margo, our numbers are small, and we are the closest to the territory of Diónia, so we are a great threat to them. As long as we can defeat the Dionysian Army, we can achieve the goal that Lord Margo promised in the Senate as soon as possible. We can drive the Diónia out of Sicily, and you, Hasdrubal, will be praised by the people of Carthage! … "
Therefore, when Hasdrubal learned that the Diónia army had left Gjera, he could not wait to assemble his troops in the camp.
While the Diónia Allied Army was getting into formation, Hasdrubal led his army out of the encampment. He came to the opposite side of the Diónia Allied Army and got into formation.
Hasdrubal's army consisted of 10,000 mixed Phoenician and Numibian soldiers, 4,000 Iberian soldiers, 2,500 Lusitanian soldiers, 600 Celtic soldiers, and more than 1,000 special soldiers, for a total of about 18500 soldiers.
As the battlefield was a flat grassland, they could see everything within a few miles. The Diónia Allied Army was the first to get into formation, so it gave Hasdrubal and Kisego a chance to observe.
The Dionian Allied Army was arrayed in a battle formation that was about three miles long. They were all heavy infantry, stacked one after another like a long iron wall.
Because the unique black helmets and black armor of the Legion of Dionysia were unusually conspicuous in the formation, they first attracted Hasdrubal's attention. He found that the Dionysian Army was mainly concentrated on the right side of the formation (the left wing of the Diónia Allied Army). Therefore, after a brief discussion with Kisego, he began to arrange the formation: 7,000 mixed Phoenician and Numibian troops were on the left wing, facing the Diónia Legion soldiers.
This army was specially formed by the Magonid Clan after they went to Iberia to develop. Due to various considerations, they did not recruit the people of Carthage at that time. Instead, they recruited many poor and refugees from the Phoenician allies in the Numibian region and the coast of North Africa. At first, there were 20000 people, and at its peak, there were 40,000 people. They were the main force of the Magonid Clan in Iberia to establish a foothold and expand their territory. For more than a decade, under the leadership of Kisego and Magonid, they had fought countless battles with the fierce indigenous people of Iberia. They were the most important force of the Magonid Clan. For this attack on Sicily, Kisego brought 20,000 people, and 10,000 soldiers to stay in southern Iberia.
In the middle, Hasdrubal was going to let the remaining 3,000 Phoenician and Numibian soldiers and 2,000 Iberian infantry guard.
The Iberian infantry was composed of the indigenous people living in southern Iberia. Although they were not as fierce as their distant relatives, the Lusitanians, they had a large population and were more united. They had once caused a lot of trouble for the Magonid Clan in the conquest of southern Iberia. It took about six or seven years to make most of the tribes surrender to Kisego.
Therefore, Kisego did not dare to enslave the southern Iberian races like Carthage had enslaved the Numibians. Instead, he listened to his nephew Hakkar's opinion: as long as they surrendered, they would not be deprived of their territory, and they would be allowed to live freely in the area under their jurisdiction. They would not be taxed, and they would not interfere with the internal affairs of the tribes. They would also trade daily necessities with these tribes at a lower price …
But these tribes also had obligations that they had to abide by: not to violate the laws of the colony (this law was not Carthage's law, but Hakkar's law based on the situation in southern Iberia). When the Magonid Clan launched a war, they needed to provide a source of soldiers. Of course, if they won, they would also receive generous rewards. In addition, wars were not allowed between the tribes. Once there was a conflict, it was handed over to the Magonid Clan to mediate and resolve it. This was tantamount to the Magonid Clan becoming the great leader of the tribes in southern Iberia. The interests of the tribes were not harmed, but instead received a lot of benefits. Naturally, the resistance against Kisego was greatly reduced.
At this point, Kisego's territory in southern Iberia not only remained generally stable, but also had a large number of free soldiers, greatly reducing the military costs of maintaining the territory's security, and also reducing the number of mercenaries (mainly referring to the Phoenician and Numibian troops). In this landing, Kisego brought 15,000 Iberian infantry.
The right wing was composed of 2,500 Lusitanian soldiers and 2,000 Libyan soldiers. The right wing had the least number of soldiers, but Hasdrubal pinned his hopes of victory on the right wing, because of the presence of the Lusitanian soldiers.
The Lusitanians were actually a branch of the Celts. They were tall and strong, fast and powerful, and good at using large shields and fakata daggers. Their use of weapons was similar to their relatives, the Iberian infantry, except that the Iberian infantry was more stable, while the Lusitanians were more violent and more suitable for attack. So Hasdrubal arranged them at the far right end, hoping to use them to open up the road to victory.
As for the 600 Celtic warriors, Hasdrubal left them at the back of the middle path. It wasn't because he had the habit of keeping a reserve force, but because he had vaguely noticed that there were quite a number of riders in the Dionian army.
Hasdrubal and his uncle Kisego had carefully studied the past battles of the Diónia and found that cavalry played a very important role. They even used it in the conquest of southern Iberia, using cavalry many times to defeat the enemy and turn the tide of the battle. After all, Carthage's cavalry was very rich. Carthage cavalry, Numibian cavalry, Mauritanian cavalry, and even the Lusitanians had a lot of cavalry. This time, the army led by Kisego had more than 7,000 cavalry.
But because Hasdrubal had to lead the army across the mountains, ambush the Sikaels, and then attack the rear of the Dionysian Army, the cavalry became a burden, so there was no cavalry in the army. So he had to leave the Celts behind to protect another unit, jointly defending against the Diónia cavalry's attacks on the flanks of the army.
Of course, the Celts were rebellious, and it was difficult for them to cooperate with other units in battle, which would only hinder the attack. This was also the reason why they were singled out. For this reason, Hasdrubal also let Kisego guard the rear of the middle road, and one of the tasks was to restrain this Celtic unit.
After these arrangements were completed, Hasdrubal ran to the right flank. He wanted to personally attack the enemy with the Lusitanians. The leader of a Carthage army was actually lined up with a group of indigenous people, and he was even at the front of the army. This was indeed unprecedented for the Carthage nobles, and even Kisego could not do such a thing. But because of this, Hasdrubal won the respect of the Iberians, Lusitanians, and even the Celts. Everyone was willing to listen to his command.
… …..
When Leotychides received the report from the scouts, and learned that the Carthage army had left the camp, he felt relieved. The battle today would definitely continue.
He began to make a more detailed formation. The 6,000 heavy infantry of the Eighth Legion lined up from the right flank to the center, and there were only eight horizontal rows. This way, the Eighth Legion occupied half of the army's length. The Gela heavy infantry connected with the Eighth Legion, and they increased the number of horizontal rows to 14. On the left of the Gela were the Camarina heavy infantry, which also had 14 horizontal rows.
The formation of the Diónia coalition army was like a chopper, with a thin wooden handle on the right and a thick blade on the left. Leotychides had no choice but to make this arrangement. The Legion of Dionysia and their allies on the south coast had fought together for a few months, and he had a deeper understanding of the Greek city-states' armies. Most of them were skilled in heavy infantry combat, and they were brave in battle. However, they were less disciplined, and could not fight for long. When they encountered a setback, they were more likely to collapse. Out of concern for them, he thickened their formation. This way, even if the soldiers in the front line, who were wearing thick Greek heavy infantry armor, wanted to retreat, they would be pushed by the soldiers in the back, and had no choice but to move forward. Otherwise, they would be more likely to die from the enemy's attacks and the trampling of their own comrades.
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