Chapter 911
"Yes, sir!" Mukelu ordered his messengers to run around and yell at the retreating legions.
Leotychides, on the other hand, was already running towards the north gate with his guards. He needed to get back to the city first and make the best arrangements with the Gela soldiers. He needed to reinforce the retreating legions and prevent the enemy from attacking the city during the chaos.
The flagbearers among the guards held up the legion's flag, which fluttered in the wind. It pointed the way for the retreating soldiers of the Eighth Legion.
The enemy's defeat seemed to have injected a burst of energy into Hasdrubal's tired body. He followed the Lusitanian soldiers and chased after the fleeing enemies.
At this time, the Lusitanians' ability to run was fully displayed, while the heavy armor of the Greek heavy infantry made it easy for the enemy to catch up to them.
Hasdrubal led his soldiers in a killing spree, and in the end, they were all covered in blood.
By the time they reached the city and tried to take the opportunity to enter, javelins and arrows rained down from the top of the city walls, causing them to suffer many casualties.
Hasdrubal saw the black helmets and black armor on top of the city walls, and did not dare to continue attacking the fleeing soldiers. Instead, he turned around and chased after the fleeing soldiers in other directions.
It was not until dusk that Carthage's army returned to camp.
… …
In this battle, Diónia's 4th Cavalry Regiment lost half of its cavalry, while the Eighth Legion suffered about 1,300 casualties. Among them, more than half of the light armor and light infantry were lost. The Gela soldiers suffered more than 2,000 casualties, and the Camanlina army suffered the most casualties. Of the 3,000 soldiers who went out to battle, only about 300 managed to escape. The Allied Army suffered about 7,000 casualties. On the other hand, Carthage's army suffered more than 2,000 casualties, with the Balearic catapults suffering the most casualties, more than half of them.
Due to the retreat of the Diónia Allied Army, most of the injured soldiers did not manage to escape.
In the battle of Gela, the Camanlina and Gela's militia were severely damaged, making the troops that Leotychides could command even more difficult. More importantly, the news that Carthage's army had defeated the Dionysian Army, which had been winning all this time, was like a stone thrown into the seemingly peaceful political situation of Sicily, causing waves in some of the city-states.
After the battle of Gela, despite the Minoans' repeated requests for help, Leotychides continued to stay in Gela, resting and reorganizing his troops while defending against Carthage's attack. In a situation where the forces under his command were getting smaller and smaller, he was even more unwilling to break them up and station them in different city-states. This would only cause the Carthaginian army to destroy them one by one. Moreover, compared to Minoa, he felt that Gela's strategic position was more important.
Of course, he couldn't just sit back and do nothing about Minoa, so he sent messengers with Minoa's messengers to Paccinus to ask for help.
… …
On the fourth day after the battle of Gela, Cypross, the governor of Sicily in Catanai, received an urgent report from Shelophanes, the head of the kingdom's intelligence department in Sicily: there was a military mobilization in the city of Syracuse, and the motive was unknown.
As a precaution, Cypross immediately sent a messenger to inform the Seventh Legion, which had been ordered to go to Hena after arriving in Catanai, to quickly return and station at the new barracks near Leotini to prevent any accidents.
But an accident still happened. Paccinus promised to rescue Minoans and sent 3,000 reinforcements. Not long after they left the port by ship, they suddenly encountered the fleet of Syracuse.
In recent years, the eastern waters of Sicily had been the domain of the Second Fleet of Diónia. The Navy of Syracuse, which once dominated Sicily, had long since shrunk into a small fleet of only 30 three-tiered warships and a total of 50 warships. Usually, they only patrolled the waters near their own city-state, but suddenly appeared in the waters near Paccinus and launched an attack on the transport fleet.
As the Sicilian fleet of Diónia had been stationed in Serinus all this time, guarding the western waters and concerned about the battle in Serinus, they did not send any warships to escort them. Of course, the people of Paccinus did not make any requests to Catanai. After all, it was far from the battlefield, and the nearby waters had always been very safe. It had a close relationship with Diónia, and its neighbor, Syracuse, was also in harmony. They believed that the voyage from their city-state to Minoans should be safe. Therefore, the people of Paccinus only sent the only five three-tiered warships in their city-state to escort them as a symbolic gesture.
In the end, after being ambushed by the Syracuse fleet, although the warships of Paccinus resisted stubbornly, they were outnumbered. Other than four transport ships that managed to escape back to the port, the rest were all rammed and sunk.
At the same time, Syracuse sent out an army of 12,000 soldiers. It did not march north to attack Taunis, which was very close to it. Instead, it turned south and quickly rushed to Kamalina. It announced to the public that it was going to help the people of Kamalina defend against the invasion of Carthage's people.
After the people of Kamalina rejected the request of Syracuse's army to enter the city, the army of Syracuse immediately changed its attitude and surrounded Kamalina. They pretended to attack the city while sending messengers into the city, threatening the people of Kamalina that Syracuse had formed an alliance with Carthage. If they chose to submit to Syracuse, then they would be safe when Carthage's army arrived. If not, Syracuse would attack the city. After the city was breached, the people in the city would be dealt with by Carthage's people.
As Kamanlina had already sent out most of its citizen soldiers to aid Jela, there were only about 500 Kamanlina soldiers left in the city who could fight. They were weak and could only helplessly say that they needed time to think about it.
The messengers of Syracuse only gave them a day's time.
After the messengers returned, not only did Syracuse's army immediately block the road from Kamalina to Jela, but Syracuse's warships also blockaded the port.
At this time, the victorious Carthage army had already moved their camp to the east and strengthened the siege on Jela. Therefore, Leotychides was busy dealing with Carthage's attack on the city and was completely unaware of the changes in Kamalina.
After half a day, a Diónia merchant ship that ventured into the port brought news that Syracuse's fleet had attacked the transport fleet of Paccinus and had blockaded the ports of Paccinus and Kamalina.
When Leotychides heard this, he was shocked. Syracuse had finally joined the battle!
The addition of Syracuse had undoubtedly worsened Diónia's predicament in Sicily, especially on the south coast. Not only were the Diónia's allied forces at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, they were also in a dangerous situation of being attacked from two sides.
Even if Leotychides wanted to reinforce Kamalina, he could not do so for now. There was the threat of Carthage's army by land and the obstruction of Syracuse's fleet by sea. Without the escort of the fleet, the fleet might not even be able to enter Kamalina's port before it became food for the fish.
Leotychides sent out the Diónia's fast ship that was docked in Jela's port and immediately rushed to inform Secorian in Serinus.
A day later, the bewildered Kamalina people saw the black mass of Syracuse soldiers carrying ladders and pushing tall siege equipment towards the city walls. They were terrified. Afraid of the tragic fate that befell Agrigento, the Kamalina people finally chose to surrender.
More than ten years had passed. Due to the power of the Kingdom of Diónia and the long-term friendly relations with the Kamalina people, there were almost no citizens in Kamalina who were pro-Syracuse. This caused the people of Syracuse to temporarily be unable to support a government that was close to them. To prevent a rebellion, they demanded that the Kamalina people hand over many of their hostages. At the same time, 3,000 Syracuse soldiers were stationed in the city. To put it nicely, once Carthage's army arrived, they would be able to effectively stop them from destroying Kamalina.
In addition, the people of Syracuse also requested that the remaining 500 Kamalina soldiers be transferred to join the Syracuse army in battle.
The Kamalina people, who were now meat on someone else's chopping block, finally agreed to these conditions.
After the Syracuse army obtained the allegiance of Kamalina, they did not lead their army west to rendezvous with Carthage's army that was besieging Jela. Instead, they entered Kamalina and left 3,000 soldiers to guard the city. The rest of the soldiers took ships to the coast of Paccinus and disembarked. They immediately surrounded Paccinus and sent messengers into the city, requesting that it submit to Syracuse.
The messengers of Syracuse threatened that if Paccinus refused, not only would Syracuse immediately execute the more than 2,000 citizens of Paccinus (after Syracuse's fleet sank the Paccinus' military fleet, they did not leave. Instead, they rescued the Paccinus militia that had fallen into the water and captured them), they would then lead their army to attack the city of Paccinus. After the city was breached, all the citizens in the city would be sold to the people of Carthage as slaves.
Syracuse's threat frightened the citizens of Paccinus. Their city was surrounded by Syracuse's army, and the port was blocked by Syracuse's warships. The citizens on the city walls looked down at the thousands of their relatives who were tied to the ground with tears in their eyes. The panicked citizens of Paccinus held an emergency meeting and quickly came to an agreement. Paccinus, which had always been a vassal state of Syracuse before the people of Diónia entered Sicily, would once again submit to Syracuse.
In a few days, Syracuse had successively incorporated Paccinus and Kamalina into its alliance. In the blink of an eye, the entire southeastern corner of Sicily had once again become Syracuse's sphere of influence. The citizens, who had always dreamed of reliving the glory of Syracuse, were all overjoyed.
The chief general of Syracuse, Teagenis, who had proposed this plan and forcefully carried it out despite the opposition of his colleagues, was greatly praised by the people, and his reputation soared.
However, at the same time, there were also people who expressed dissatisfaction with Teagenis's actions. For example, General Hictas publicly questioned, "For the sake of obtaining two small city-states, Syracuse is taking a huge risk and angering the powerful Diónia. This is very dangerous! Teagenis, don't forget that Carthage is far away in Africa, and we, Syracuse, are right next to Diónia! "
Comments