"I thought about it!" Dido said without hesitation: "So I decided to go to Sicily and negotiate with the Dionians!"

"What?! Are you going to Sicily?!" Haka was really surprised this time.

"The person who is more suitable was you, but you are not in good health, and you cannot live without you at this time. So I can only go there! Although I am a woman, I am the only daughter of Mago, the patriarch of the Margonid family. I went to Sicily to negotiate personally, which can better show the sincerity of our Margonid family. And the decision I made during the negotiation should also be your consent, right?" Dido looked directly at her cousin with awe.

Haka did not respond directly and asked back: "What decision do you want to make?"

"I want this territory to join the Kingdom of Dionia and become their sub-state or... that free city. I think this way should be able to save my father and Hasdruba!"

Haka looked at Dido with a strong expression and suddenly envied her vitality and courage, which was exactly what his sick body lacked: "Okay, I will take care of everything here, you can go to Sicily with confidence, but you have to make the worst plan. The king of Dionia is not that easy to talk to!"

Although Haka had never met Davers, he had a deep understanding of the King of Dionys. Even some administrative systems implemented in the Iberian territory are absorbed and adapted from the Dionys political system. Because of this, as a Carthaginian nobleman, he did not object to Dido's ruthless behavior of seeking to surrender to the enemy country. On the contrary, he still had a hint of envy.

………………………………………

Ocreton, as an envoy of Carthage, came to Sicily again and started a new round of negotiations with Heniporis, the clerk of the Dionia court, at the residence of the lord of Lilibi.

After several negotiations and confronted with the aggressive Henipolis, Ocreton made a compromise and proposed to ced the new colonies in southern Iberia and to return the land of the East Numibians to allow them to be independent.

But Heniporis was not satisfied. He pointed out that what Dionia needed was the entire southern Iberia owned by Carthage, including coastal towns such as Gadise, Huelva, Megalopolis, and the gold and silver mines it controlled, which cannot be changed.

Ocreton argued with reason, Henepolis was determined not to let go, and Davers did not give Ocreton a chance to meet, and the negotiations were deadlocked.

When Ocreton sent back to Carthage the news that “the negotiations were not going well”, the Carthage Senate also received another bad news: Ruspina surrendered to the Dionia army.

It turned out that Alexis had hoped that Carthage's army would come to rescue Ruspina, so that he could defeat Carthage's new forces in the field, reduce the difficulty of soldiers siege the city in the future, and severely defeat the confidence of the Carthaginians.

However, after learning that the Numibians had joined the army of Dionys, the Carthage Senate was even more worried about the security of the basic city of Carthage. Even though the envoys of Ruspina repeatedly begged, the Carthage Senate was perfunctory while mobilizing reinforcements from the Phoenician allies to protect the city.

Alexis did not order a strong attack on Ruspina, but instead allowed the three legions to bombard Ruspina city for several days. Not only did it smash many houses in the city and panic all day long, but it also blasted several large gaps to the not-so-thick city wall. Ruspina had not many civilians, and had never waited for news of Carthage reinforcements. In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of Hadrumentuum, the terrified Ruspina people chose to surrender.

After Alexis led his army to Ruspina City. After completely controlling the city, he immediately notified the Third Legion stationed in Hadrumentum to remove the camp and join Ruspina.

Given that the Carthaginians could not stand, he simply prepared to continue to attack the thapsos to the east, thus completely turning this coastal land into the rear of the Dionian army.

The Carthage veterans headed by Hannor received a reply from Ocreton. At the same time, they learned through the scout that the Dionian army landed in Afilga were siegeing the city in the east, and they realized that whether for the safety of Carthage or for the successful signing of the armistice agreement, Carthage must concentrate all their efforts to repel the enemy in front of them.

So, after urgent consultation, the Senate appointed Samors as the military commander of Carthage, responsible for repelling the army of Dionys.

Samors led 10,000 Carthaginian militias to Atticus, which made the total force in Atticus reach 15,000, and made it difficult to see young and middle-aged citizens in the city of Carthaginia again. The Senate had to mobilize both the elderly and the underage men to defend the city.

Samors did not lead his troops to rescue Tepsos, who was besieged by the Dionysian army, but instead stepped up the construction of defense facilities in Atis, while waiting for reinforcements sent by the Phoenician Allied on the west coast.

Because the Dionian warships were patrolling the coastal areas of the Africa, for safety reasons, reinforcements from the Phoenician Allied did not dare to take a boat, so they could only march through land and marches in the mountains. The time to reach Carthage will naturally be extended.

…………………………………………

Dido is tall, graceful, pretty, and bright eyes. She is wearing a purple pleated dress. She is embroidered with flowers embroidered with gold wire. She is covered with a rare white fox fur coat. Her black hair is tied together and is decorated with exquisite hair made of pure gold... Her temperament is graceful but not elegant, and she exudes heroic spirit in her delicate skin. Although her skin is slightly dark, it is more shiny and flawless, and has a more alien style.

When she walked into the living room of the city lord's mansion in Lilibi, not only the guards looked at it, but even Davers was a little lost.

He subconsciously sat upright, coughed twice, and said, "You... are you an envoy from the Iberian colony of Carthage?"

"The noble King of Dionia." Dido opened her red lips lightly. Her voice was not as crisp as most girls, but thicker: "I am Dido, the only daughter of Carthage's military commander, Mago. I am not the messenger of Carthage, but the Margonid family represented."

Davers was not surprised. He had known the identity of the Iberian envoy in advance. He also knew through information that Mago's daughter was not a simple woman. Not only did she often participate in political affairs in southern Iberia, but she could even control Mago's decisions. So she met her out of curiosity. The sentence that Didot emphasized further confirmed some of his thoughts. He deliberately joked: "Do you Margonid family have no men?"

Dido heard Davers' sarcasm, and his eyes widened, but then he lowered his eyes and said in a powerful tone: "The officials of Iberia asked me to come here not because I am a woman, but because I can negotiate with you on their behalf!"

"Oh?" Davers said in surprise, "I don't understand why the officials in Iberia asked you to come? Don't you know that the Carthage Senate is ready to ced the entire southern Iberia area to Dionia?"

Dido had long expected the other party to ask this question. She took a breath and said in a stressful tone: "Great King of Dionys, although we are far away in Iberia, we also know that the negotiations between Dionys and Carthage are not going well and the war is still going on. What's more, Carthage cannot represent our southern Iberia. Even if negotiations are reached in the future, they agree to ced the southern Iberia to you Dionys. This resolution will not be recognized by all the people in southern Iberia! Because the southern Iberia region has decided to leave Turii and decide our own destiny!"

Dido said this last sentence loudly. When Davers heard it, he raised his eyebrows and his eyes became cold: "So even if we have reached a peace agreement with Carthage, you southern Iberia are not going to comply?! Don't you know that your actions will only give me a reason to send troops to southern Iberia. We have now captured tens of thousands of prisoners from southern Iberia, including your father and relatives! I don't mind turning all the men in southern Iberia into slaves and mining until they die!"

Although Davers was not loud, the majesty of the king was unseen, and the strong bloody smell came to him, which made Dido feel a little panicked. She hurriedly lowered her head and tried her best to calm herself down. After gasping for a while, she gritted her teeth and said, "Since... since Carthage has betrayed us, why should we obey Carthage's orders! If Dionya really wants to send troops to attack us, we would rather die all in battle than defend the dignity of the Margonid family, and at the same time make you Dionya pay a heavy price!"

"I want us Dionys to pay a heavy price?" Davers sneered and said disdainfully: "How many troops do you have in the Iberian territory? Can you still shock the Lusitans and Iberians around you? We Dionys can even see that the indigenous people of Iberia will destroy all of you who are alone and lonely!"

"Maybe we will perish, but what are the benefits for you Dionys?" At this moment, Dido also took his leave and reminded loudly: "It took us more than 10 years to conquer the Iberian indigenous people, cut down trees, level the land, and cultivate them every year to have a territory that can be settled for us today. If the already stable southern Iberia is reoccupied by those foolish and vicious indigenous peoples, I don't know how much gold and silver Dionys are willing to take out, how many citizens they sacrifice, and how much time it takes to re-emerge southern Iberia into the Kingdom of Dionys after experiencing the war with Carthage!

But now as long as Dionia accepts my negotiation requirements, the southern Iberia you want will immediately belong to Dionia! Then, you can do your best to deal with Carthage and make other requests to them to gain more benefits!"
Chapter completed!