Novels online

Chapter 985

Of course, the people of Saint Iberia did not let down their guard. When the infantry of the Dionysian fleet climbed up the river bank and appeared in this relatively flat and hilly area, they were discovered by the sentries of Saint Iberia who were on guard duty. They immediately informed the city of this terrible news.

The people of Saint Iberia panicked and ran into the city to hide. However, the Manno River was only more than 10 miles away from the city of Saint Iberia. As a metal-processing center, there were smelting fields everywhere outside the city. Some of them were even built directly under the mountains a few miles away. When the infantry of the Dionysian fleet arrived outside the city, there were still many people and slaves working in the smelting plants and mines who did not manage to escape into the city in time. A small part of the fleet's infantry was sent to capture them, while most of the soldiers bypassed the city of Saint Iberia and went straight to the port of the Temo River.

The port was not connected to the city of Saint Iberia. Although the lower reaches of the Temo River were different from the Manno River, there were some relatively flat land on both sides of the river that could be developed into a port. However, there was a height difference of tens of meters between the lower reaches of the Temo River and the city of Saint Iberia. Therefore, the people of Saint Iberia only built a wide, flat stone road to the port to facilitate the transportation of goods.

The infantry of the third fleet followed the road and approached the port.

Since the port was so important, of course, it was also protected by walls. Although the focus of its defense was at the mouth of the river to prevent the invasion of the fleet from the sea, there were also walls on the side near the city, but there were no sentry towers or trenches. Moreover, the Diónia army came too quickly, and the panicked people of Saint Iberia were busy fleeing into the city. As a result, there were not many people defending the port. However, the defenders still climbed onto the city wall and put up a tenacious resistance.

The infantry of the fleet brought more than a dozen scaling ladders brought from the warships and set them on the wall of the port.

After more than ten minutes of fighting, about 100 sailors from the five cargo ships that entered the port earlier suddenly gathered, took out the weapons hidden on the cargo ships, and began to attack the defenders in the port.

The Saint Iberians were caught off guard. Under the pincer attack from both inside and outside, the Dionysian Army quickly broke into the port and successfully occupied the breakwater and tower at the mouth of the river. They then raised the wooden lock that blocked the river. The 160 warships of the Dionysian fleet that were already parked nearby (after the naval battle, the 3rd Dionysian Fleet was replenished with some new warships, so the number of warships did not decrease but increased) smoothly squeezed into the port.

After discovering the enemy's presence, the Saint Iberians immediately sent messengers to the south on horseback to ask for help.

The nearest Phoenician town to Saint Iberia was Tharros. It was located in the middle of the west coast of Sardinia. It not only had an excellent port, but also had a fertile riverside plain. It was about 70 miles away from the city of Saint Iberia. Although there were mountains in the middle, the road near the sea was relatively flat.

In the past, because of the large metal output of Saint Iberia, the capacity of its river port was small, which often led to a backlog of goods. Later, under the coordination of the Carthage Judges who were stationed in Sardinia and supervised the Phoenician city-states, part of the precious metal goods were transferred south to Tharros, and then transported to Carthage through its port. For this reason, the people of Tharros had also painstakingly built a wide and flat road connecting Saint Iberia and built two wooden bridges over the Manliu River.

It was precisely because of the alliance with Saint Iberia, coupled with its own good conditions, that after decades of rapid development, Tharros had become one of the top Phoenician towns on the island of Sardinia. It was not inferior to Caralis. Caralis was the southernmost Phoenician town on the island of Sardinia. It also had an excellent port and fertile riverside plain. In addition, because it was closest to Carthage across the sea, it had more frequent trade with Carthage. Therefore, since the Dionysian fleet attacked Sardinia, the Phoenician Coalition Army, which was temporarily formed by the Phoenician towns on the island, was stationed in the city of Tharros. Previously, the new fleet of Carthage was also stationed in the port of Tharros. Its main purpose was to protect the safety of Saint Iberia.

Hearing that the Diónia was actually attacking Saint Iberia, the coalition army, composed of 10,000 citizen soldiers from various Phoenician towns on the island, immediately marched north on the flat road, rushing to the rescue.

On the way forward, they once again met the messenger of Saint Iberia and received the latest news: the Diónia had occupied the river port and were also wantonly destroying the smelting field outside the city.

The commander of the coalition army was a young noble from Carthage. He was originally a Judge from Carthage. When he heard the news, he was both worried and excited. He was worried that if Saint Iberia's metal production was significantly reduced due to the Diónia's attack and destruction, as the commander of the Phoenician coalition army, he would inevitably be reprimanded by the Carthage Senate. He might even lose his lucrative job as a Sardinian Judge and be ordered to return to Carthage. He was excited because he learned from the letter that the Dionysian Army was only about three to four thousand people. If they could arrive in time, it should be easy to defeat them. Coupled with the previous victory, his outstanding performance would definitely attract the attention of the people of Carthage and the Senate, laying the foundation for him to enter the Senate in the future.

Therefore, he did not hesitate to give the order: let the whole army advance faster.

In the afternoon, the Phoenician coalition army finally arrived at Saint Iberia. The infantry of the Dionysian fleet who received the news hurriedly gathered and began to retreat towards the Temo River.

The Phoenician coalition army pursued them closely.

On the river bank, the infantry of the Dionysian fleet stopped retreating and began to form a formation.

The Phoenician coalition army also stopped pursuing and also spread out 300 meters away, preparing to completely defeat the Dionysian Army through a frontal battle.

When the Phoenician soldiers were taking the opportunity to form a formation and let their bodies, which were very tired after a few hours of rapid marching, get a little rest, suddenly there was a commotion at the front of the formation.

"Look! The heavy infantry of Diónia! Where did they come from?! "

"We've been tricked! There are more than a few thousand people in the Dionysian Army. They hid the heavy infantry in the river port! "

"Oh my god, these heavy infantry keep coming out. How many people do they have?!"

…

The young commander of the Phoenician coalition army kept his eyes on the enemy in front of him while his soldiers were in formation. He was mainly worried that the Dionysian Army, which was smaller in number and all in light armor, would suddenly escape (he regarded the infantry of the Dionysian fleet as light armor). However, he suddenly saw that the Dionysian Army, which had just formed a formation, began to move to the right, giving way to the road leading from Saint Iberia to the river port. Then, neatly arranged groups of soldiers of the Legion of Dionysia wearing black armor and holding long spears and shields appeared in front of him. They quickly followed the troops in front of them and moved to the right.

The soldiers of the Legion of Dionysia continued to appear. The length of the Diónia army, which was originally very short, quickly approached the length of the Phoenician army.

At this time, how could the commander of the Phoenician coalition army not know that this was a conspiracy of the Diónia? This sudden change not only made the soldiers panic, but he was also panicking. However, at this moment, he blamed the people of Saint Iberia for not investigating carefully, giving him the wrong information, and causing him to be unprepared … These were all meaningless. He also did not have time to think about where the regular Diónia army in front of him came from. According to the information he received, the king of Diónia had led all the Dionysian Army to fight against the Carthage army led by Margo in Sicily.

At this moment, the first idea that came to his mind was to retreat, but he immediately dispelled this idea, because if the coalition army retreated, the people of Diónia would definitely take advantage of the situation to attack Saint Iberia. As the metal smelting center of Sardinia, the city's planning and construction were all to facilitate the collection, transportation, trade, and smelting of ores … It was not a fortress town. In fact, its defensive capabilities were not even comparable to that of an ordinary town. It was completely impossible to resist the attack of so many soldiers of the Dionysian Army. Once Saint Iberia was captured, he would definitely feel the wrath of the Senate of Carthage.

Moreover, the soldiers were already very tired after a few hours of rapid marching. It was a big taboo to retreat in front of the battle. Once the people of Diónia launched an attack, it was very likely that it would lead to the defeat of the entire army.

The only way he could think of now was to quickly launch an attack while the people of Diónia had not yet gotten into formation. There might still be many soldiers under the river, unable to enter the battlefield. Perhaps there would still be a chance of victory.

Therefore, he bit the bullet and gave the order to attack.

Half an hour later, the hope of the Carthage general was shattered. The physically exhausted Phoenician coalition army was defeated by the Ninth Legion and the infantry of the fleet. Some of the defeated Phoenician soldiers fled to Saint Iberia, while more wanted to escape to Sarros. However, when they fled to the bank of the Manno River, they found that the two wooden bridges had been occupied by the Diónia soldiers.

It turned out that just after the Phoenician coalition army crossed the Manno River, the warships of the Third Fleet once again entered the mouth of the Manno River, allowing two companies of soldiers of the Legion of Dionysia to climb ashore and occupy the only two wooden bridges on the Manno River.

Their way back was blocked, and their pursuers arrived soon after. Many of the defeated Phoenician soldiers surrendered in despair, and some of them turned back and fled to Saint Iberia.

When the people of Saint Iberia learned that the Phoenician coalition army had suffered a crushing defeat, they were very panicked. They thought that after the victory, the people of Diónia would immediately attack their town. However, as time passed, only the defeated Phoenician soldiers continued to flee, and there was still no sign of the Dionysian Army. They were all surprised.