"Of course not." Secrelian looked at the two gagged Carthage prisoners next to him with contempt: "These are all masterpieces of the greedy Carthage merchants!"

It turned out that Lilibi was originally built by Himilco, and later converted by Mago. Originally, Carthage was preparing to build a military defense system with it as the center to resist the attack of the Syracuse people. But unexpectedly, not long after, Syracuse was defeated by Dionys and lost hegemony. Carthage and Dionys then signed a peace agreement, and since then Sicily restored peace, and the original defense plan was miscarriage.

However, out of natural vigilance against the emerging Greek kingdom of Dionia, Lilibi's status as a military center in Sicily was still retained, and what was retained included sending troops to Lilibi, but the number of civilians was greatly reduced.

During this period, when the Margonid family in Carthage left Iberia, and Hanno was in power. Under his strong push, the Carthaginians began to advance inland and occupied the land of the Numibians on a large scale. The Carthaginian citizens were busy sharing the fruits of the war, and no one wanted to be drawn to Lilibi to defend the city, even if it was just a rotating. Therefore, Carthaginians gave the Lilibi sufficient logistical support and additional salary to enable them to fulfill their obligations with peace of mind. But even so, in the hearts of Carthaginian citizens, going to Lilibi to defend the city was still a chore.

Seven years ago, a member of the Hanno family was appointed as the defending general of Lilibi. He was unwilling to go there and even went to Hanno to plead with mercy. However, he did not succeed because the position of the defending general of Lilibi became a big problem. None of the Carthaginian nobles wanted to take office. As the ruler, Hanno, of course, had to be an example. He could only come to Lilibi with resentment. After a few days, Lampkuba from the port area came to visit. After the two had a secret talk, the defending general was completely resentful and he earnestly performed his duties.

Since the signing of the peace agreement with Dionia, the maritime trade of Lilibi has become more and more prosperous, which has also prompted the number of residents of Lilibi. However, because the threshold for settlement in the urban area is very high, many people from Carthage and Phoenician allies can only choose to live in the port area. Since Lilibi has opened up very little farmland outside the city, food cannot be self-sufficient, but it has a large demand, so they can only rely on the sea food trade to solve it, mainly from Carthage. Although the Carthaginians rely on the vast land of Numibia and have sufficient food every year, the price of food to Lilibi is not low and the competition is fierce.

Lampkuba is also a member of the Hanno family. He settled in the port area of ​​Liliba 10 years ago and was mainly engaged in food trade. He did not benefit much from the shopping mall competition for several years, so he racked his brains to find other ways to make money. As a result, he found that the military rations in the city were very sufficient, and there was a lot of surplus at the end of the year. It happened that the defending general who took office was also from the Hanno family. The two had a good relationship before, so he came to him to discuss cooperation matters secretly.

For Carthaginians who are heavy on business, it is not a shame to be able to use power to obtain money. The Lilibi defending general naturally agreed readily, but there is a problem: military rations from the city to the port must be checked through strict city gate checkpoints. This matter will be known to everyone. After all, private sale of military supplies violated Carthaginian laws. Moreover, the city lord of Lilibi happened to be a member of the Margonides. It is difficult to guarantee that he would not make a big fuss about this. At that time, the defending general and Lampkuba would inevitably be punished by the Senate, so they decided to adopt an unknown method after discussion - that is, dig tunnels.

In fact, it was very difficult for the Gentiles to enter and exit the city of Lilibi at that time. For various needs, several tunnels had appeared in the port area, quietly sent people to serve as officials, slaves to the rich, temporary laborers...

But the two of them did it more secretly: Lampkuba spent a lot of money to buy land near the wall of the southwest military camp, built tall walls and warehouses, and let his servants dig tunnels secretly; the defending generals asked his confidants and his servants to set up the baggage barracks in the military camp as a forbidden area on the grounds of training, and quietly dig tunnels. The two sides worked together and dug through them in less than half a year. In the process of starting to smuggle military rations into the port area, they were constantly improving this tunnel.

The defending generals used fake soldiers' list to inflate the number of soldiers and generously gave the civilians who were drawn, but were unwilling to come to Lilibi to serve for a long holiday... and other methods to convert a large amount of surplus military rations into their own. Lampkuba used these military rations that were not expensive to enrich his own grain warehouses and lowered the price of selling grain, making other grain merchants in the port unable to compete with him, making him eventually monopolized Lilibi's grain market and became the richest man here.

The defending generals made a lot of money, so they were naturally unwilling to leave again, and took the initiative to continue to hold the position many times. Some of the elders of Carthage knew that there might be something wrong with this, but many people were bribed by him. In addition to him, the candidates for the defending generals of Lilibi have always been difficult to give birth, so everyone turned a blind eye and closed their eyes.

Therefore, the defending general stayed in Lilibi for four or five years, until last year when relations with Dionia were tense and the war was shrouded in the darkness of the war, the Senate strictly ordered all cities in western Sicily to increase vigilance, rectify their arms, strengthen training, and prepare for combat.

The new city lord Emisere sent a patrol to completely block the tunnels that had existed for many years and were well-known to everyone. He also issued a notice: If someone was found digging the tunnels again, he would be sentenced to death for treason!

The defending general felt that the situation was not good, so he discussed with Lampkuba and asked his confidant to block the tunnel entrance on the other side of the barracks, and then bribed the elders with a large sum of money to transfer himself back to Carthage to avoid becoming a victim of the upcoming war.

However, Lampkuba still retains the authenticity and waits for the end of the war before continuing to use it...

"So that's the other end of the tunnel has been blocked?" Leotizides asked when he heard this.

Seclian pointed to the two prisoners and said, "According to their confession, the exit there was only blocking, and there were not many blockages. I have sent soldiers in to investigate..."

As he was talking, footsteps came from the tunnel, and several mountain scouts quickly appeared in front of them.

"Sir, if you walk more than 150 meters in the tunnel, you can see the blocked place. It is indeed as the prisoners said, using soil to block it. I think you can see the exit without digging for a long time."

The words of the mountain scouts excited Secretlian, and he smiled and said, "Mr. Prosous, you can bring your army here now and follow this tunnel to the city!"

At this time, the person who went there that day seemed calm: "Don't worry first, we have to make some arrangements to divert the attention of the Carthage defenders."

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"Sir, look! The Dionians are ready to attack the city!" A team official pointed at the city and shouted.

Without reminding him, Emiserre had noticed: Thousands of Daonian soldiers with black helmets and black armor appeared in the range of fire at the top of the city. They were lined up, and the soldiers in the front were carrying long ladders, which seemed to be preparing to ask for ant project...

He leaned out and wanted to see more carefully, he heard his subordinates shouting, "Sir, be careful!" He pulled him behind the dust and heard a "boom" sound. Several stone bullets were hitting the city wall not far from him. The splashing stone pieces injured several soldiers of the defenders.

Frightened Imisere immediately shouted: "Go and call Ragnaca, the Dionians are going to attack the city!"

When Ragnaca was forced to call, he felt a little angry because the Dionian soldiers at the tower gate attacked violently, and the gate was deformed by the mulberry. If it weren't for the large number of stones behind it, they might have rushed in. Moreover, the long-range attack of the Dionian light infantry was also very powerful, causing many casualties to the Carthage archers behind the tower gate. They also carried the crossbows to the aisle for the city gate for firing, posing a huge threat to the javeliners on the towers on both sides. The light infantry had changed several groups. Ragnaca is now in a very nervous manner and commands the soldiers to defend with all their strength, without any extra energy to take care of others.

So after seeing the enemy situation under the city, he angrily rebuked: "The enemy is so close to us, why don't you attack with bows and arrows?!"

Imiserre responded coldly: "You have all taken out the tower gate by you. Where are the archers here?!"

Ragnaka then remembered the measures he had done before. Seeing that the city lord was a little dissatisfied, he coughed twice, and his tone became softer: "It doesn't matter if there are no light infantry. The crossbows of the Dionians seem terrible, but they cannot destroy our thick and tall city walls. If they want to attack the city, they have to rely on those wooden ladders. When they come to the city, we can attack them with wood, stones, asphalt... and cause casualties to them, but--"

Ragnaca looked at the place where countless people gathered more than 100 meters away on the left - which was exactly where the city gate was. He reminded: "Be careful that the Dionians disperse the people and use mulberry to break through the city gate and rush in, so we must strengthen the defense there, and it is best to send someone to block the city gate."

Although Emiserre was a little worried, he thought about it and shook his head and refused: "You can't block the door, otherwise after Lord Mago led his army to arrive, he would not be able to quickly attack the Dionians."

"Then leave an army under the city. If the enemy breaks through the city gate, they will intercept it..." After Lagnaka arranged the defense measures here, he rushed towards the tower gate again.
Chapter completed!