Ocreton subconsciously looked at Henipolis, and Henipolis was also looking at him with bright eyes. Although Davers' readily agreed to the negotiation made him happy, it also made him realize that this armistice negotiation might not be so easy...

……………………………………………

The negotiation venue was arranged in a vacant military tent not far from the camp tent, with only four people in the tent - Henipolis, Ocreton and a scribe each with them. Such a simple configuration will determine the direction of this war that concerns the future situation in the Western Mediterranean.

After both sides sat down, Heniporis supported the table with both hands, leaned forward slightly, and said bluntly: "Mr. Ocredon, since you Carthage want to truce the war and negotiate peace, you must have already formulated conditions."

"...Yes," Ocreton looked at Henipolis, who was a little imposing, and hesitated for a momentum, and said softly: "Before I left, the Senate had reached a preliminary intention... The two sides stopped the war and resumed the sphere of influence defined when the peace agreement was signed. Carthage is willing to make certain compensation for the losses caused to Dionia by this war. The specific amount will be decided by the two sides after discussion-"

Before Heniporis could finish his words, he stood up and walked out.

Ocreton was stunned: "Mr. Henipolis, what do you mean?"

Henipolis turned around and said sarcastically: "Ocreton, you are not here to negotiate, you are here to tell jokes. You must understand that this war was not initiated by us, Dionya, but you are the ones who hope to end this war now! But you are in negotiations with this attitude, as if it is not us, Dionya, who have the advantage of the entire situation, but you Carthage! Since this is the case, there is no need to negotiate anymore. Go home and continue to wait for the outcome of the war. Maybe you will wait for our Dionya messenger to go to Carthage and request a truce!"

After all, Ocreton had been fighting with Pretakuba all year round in the Carthage Senate, and his face was thick enough. He said slowly with a calm expression: "Negotiation is like a purchase and sale of goods. You give a price, I give a price, both sides bargain, and finally reach a reasonable price and complete the transaction... Now is our Carthage's initial price for the truce. Since you are not satisfied, then I want to hear what the initial price of Dionia is?"

Henipolis looked at him and smiled slightly. The previous dissatisfaction disappeared without a trace. He sat back on his original position, straightened his chest, stretched out his right hand, and said loudly: "The conditions for the armistice of Dionyya were formulated by His Majesty Davers himself! Article 1, the Carthaginian army in Sicily surrendered to us Dionyya!—"

Ocreton stared at the finger that extended out of the other party, feeling awe-inspiring in his heart: King Dionys was kind to him before, and he thought this negotiation would be easier, but he was confused by Davers' kindness! This article alone would be difficult for him to agree, because it was a 100,000 army! Most of the young and middle-aged citizens of Carthage and the citizens of the Phoenician city-state were concentrated in it. Once Dionys surrendered to Dionys, if Dionys detained him for a long time and did not allow these militants to return to Carthage, then Carthage would hardly have enough troops to ensure the safety of the city... Neither the Carthage Senate nor the people would agree to this. Even if the Senate agreed, the Mago who claimed to be noble in blood and rebellious would definitely refuse to implement it!"

Ocreton complained, his face remained calm, and asked, "Is there a second?"

"Of course there is." Henipolis looked at him and stretched out his second finger: "Second, Corsica and Sardinia are handed over to Dionia-"

Ocreton's heart was beating wildly: Corsica and Sardinia are one of the important sources of Carthage's treasury income. If taken away by Dionia, Carthage's national strength will undoubtedly be significantly weakened!

Ocreton couldn't keep his calm anymore, he snorted and said in a stressful tone: "Is there any more?"

"Don't be anxious, of course." Heniporis's mouth curled slightly and stretched out his third finger: "Carthage exits Sicily, and this island will be completely ruled by Dionyha!"

Ocreton's eyelids twitched: If taking Corsica away and Sardinia weakened Carthage's national strength, then giving Dionia complete control of Sicily directly threatened Carthage's security, especially in the current situation of the powerful Dionian navy...

"Is Dionia really ready to truce with us Carthage and restore peace?!" Ocreton finally couldn't help but question.

"Of course we have the intention to truce the war, but we had begged you not to provoke a war, but you saw that Dionia was going to war with Rome and the Samonets, and thought there was a advantage to take, so you tore up the agreement and brazenly provoke a war. If your conspiracy succeeds, you will lose a lot of battles in the war today. We Dionia asked for a truce, and we proposed the same conditions as you just proposed. I think you will never agree!

But if you fail, you will be punished! Our army has occupied Corsica! It has occupied most of Sardinia! It has occupied most of Sicily land!... These achievements have been exchanged for our citizens of Dionia with their blood and lives. The people will never allow us to abandon it. You better understand this!" Henipolis warned righteously.

"Corsica, Sardinia, western Sicily... These are the lands that we Carthage and Phoenicians have worked hard for hundreds of years. If you forcefully take them away from us, it does not mean that they belong to you! Dionia claims to be a civilized Greek kingdom and is famous for "keeping promises". He should understand the truth!" Ocredon retorted righteously.

Heniporis sneered: "When you Carthage tore up the agreement and provoke a war, we can only use long shields and spears to reason with you!"

"You may lose it under the threat of force in the future... It is better for us Carthage to redeem the land you occupy with more compensation. I hope you can consider it!" Ocredon's tone softened slightly.

"Carthage needs to pay huge compensation for Dionia's losses in this war. This is our fourth condition." Henipolis spoke coldly and stretched out his fourth finger.

"You!..." Ocreton finally couldn't help but stand up and shouted: "Dionia is so greedy, it seems that he has no intention of truce with us Carthage!"

"His Majesty Davers does intend to negotiate, otherwise they would not have proposed these detailed conditions." Henipolis said seriously: "He also instructed me that except for the amount of compensation, no other conditions must be changed! Of course, I think Lord Ocreton cannot decide on such an important matter, but I hope that the Carthage Senate can determine this matter as soon as possible, otherwise as time delays, our conditions will be more than these."

Ocreton was shocked. But as Henipolis said, he could not decide any of the peace terms proposed by Dionia, so he could only take them back and hand them over to the Senate for negotiation.

When he left Minoa on a boat and returned to Carthage, he passed through the Selinus waters. Ocreton, who was in a heavy mood, suddenly felt aroused in his heart and ordered the passenger ship to change its course and dock on the beach near the city of Selinus.

When Ocreton arrived at the Carthage camp, he caught up with Marco to lead the army to siege the city. So, under the leadership of the guards, he climbed the inner wall of the camp and witnessed the tragic siege with his own eyes.

The Carthage army launched an attack on the city of Selinus from east, west and north at the same time. Nearly 20,000 people were invested in the north wall facing Ocreton alone. Countless light infantrymen waited to the tall earth mountain, suppressed the defenders on the city with arrows and javelins, and Baleali throwing stone soldiers stood on the inner wall and threw lead balls at the city of Selinus.

The troops responsible for the main attack were divided into three parts: part of them were Numibian soldiers. Under the leadership of the Iberian army officers, they carried sacks full of soil and rushed to the front to fill the trenches under the city; the second wave of attack was Phoenician infantry, who carried cloud ladders, pushed siege cars, siege towers and other large siege equipment, rushed to the city like a tide, and launched a strong attack; the third wave of troops was the Philip infantry that Mago trusted, who were resting their energy behind the inner wall. When the siege battle became white-hot, both sides consumed a lot of physical and energy, and sent them to make the final attack.

There is another huge team of tens of thousands of people on the battlefield. Their task is to take advantage of the time when the Deonian soldiers are busy dealing with the siege, and seize the time to build the earth walls that extend outward from the inner walls of the camp on both sides of the earthen hills, and finally achieve the purpose of connecting with the Selinus walls.

In addition, of course, there are also barbarians in siege. However, because they are worried about being attacked by the belly bow on the top of the city, Carthage's barbarian troops retreated to the inner wall. Their main targets were those newly built wooden towers on the wall. However, due to the inner wall, the hit rate was obviously not high, and they were threatened by the Dionys barbarians. They were also separated by the city walls, and the stone bullets fired by Dionys barbarians in the city can always fall around the Carthage's barbarians. They obviously targeted Carthage's barbarians, and the number was greater than Carthage (at the request of Amintas, all the barbarians in General Davers were transferred to Selinus).
Chapter completed!