After receiving the order from Hasdruba, the Iberian infantry carried rations and weapons and began to cross the mountains south. Hasdruba continued to attack the city of Serodharham to attract the attention of the defenders.

The Iberian infantry crossed mountains and ridges and circled a large circle. In the early morning of the third day, they appeared at the pass behind the city of Serodyham. The Cerodyham defensive camp at the pass was negligent and quickly fell under the rapid attack of the Iberian infantry. Then the Iberians quickly approached the east of the city of Serodyham.

The Cerrodhihams soon learned the news that "the enemy appeared in the rear" and were very panicked. Because after receiving the reminder from the Dionians, they only concentrated their men to strengthen the west wall for a limited time. For the east wall, they had only time to make a simple repair. The walls were not only short, and there were no defensive facilities outside the city. However, they were lucky enough to think that this direction would not be attacked by the Carthaginians for the time being. After all, this was already within the sphere of influence of the friendly city-state of Dionia and could receive reinforcements from the Dionians at any time. If the Carthaginians wanted to land here, they would take great risks. As for the Carthaginians who wanted to climb over the mountains, the towering mountains were not so easy to cross, and the Carthaginians were not good at this. But they did not expect that what they were most worried about happened.

At this time, Hasdruba's army also launched a strong attack on the walls of Cerrodhum in the west. The defenders of Cerrodhum immediately seemed to be insufficient. They felt the situation was critical and hurriedly organized all the citizens who could fight to defend the city. At the same time, they also sent people to the port to take a fast ship to Messina for help. In addition, they arranged for the people in the city to start retreating to the port.

In fact, on the sea near the city of Cerrodheum, Dionia's Clippers patrolled and observed the battle every day. When they saw Carthage's army appearing on the east side of Cerrodheum, they realized that the situation was not good and immediately returned to Messina. So when the messenger of Cerrodheum came to ask for help, the Chief Executive of Messina Amichris had organized a fleet to prepare to set out for rescue.

The Third Fleet was also traveling with it. After the Carthaginians divided the army into two parts and attacked eastward from the north and south coasts, Secrean had to divide the Sicilian fleet he was responsible for into two parts. The First Fleet was in Catania and the Third Fleet was in Messina. As the war progressed, most of the warships of the First Fleet later entered the military port of Gera. This was done in order to prevent the Carthaginian fleet from assisting the army on the two coasts, and to land around the rear of the friendly city-state of Dionia, and at the same time, they could also timely protect the fleet that transported baggage or refugees. This time the Third Fleet was dispatched for the purpose of the later.

When the fleet of Dionia arrived at the sea near the city of Serodyham, the defense of the east wall of Serodyham had been broken by the Iberian infantry, and the civilians had to give up the defense of the city wall, partly retreated to the guard city, and partly retreated to the port.

Fortunately, when Cerrodium was founded, although the port was included in the city, it had a wall to separate it. The original purpose was to prevent slaves and free people from entering and leaving the city at will and disrupting the order in the city. But now it has played a key role.

After receiving the instructions, all the captains and crew of the warships were immediately excited: the deck operator began to lift the suspension bridge resting on the deck to the foremast for placement; the helmsman adjusted the direction of the warship and began to arrange the formation; the sailors began to swallow rations and apply grease to the seat cushions; the infantry sitting in the aisle of the bottom warehouse began to wear armor... Everyone was ready to beat their hands, anxiously waiting for the arrival of this naval battle.

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This fleet from the west comes from Iberia, which is under the jurisdiction of the Iberian Governor Mago.

The terrain along the coast of Afilica is flat, but there are no tall and solid trees. A famous sailing race like Carthage has long used the Iberian Peninsula as an important resource base, not only because of the rich gold and silver mines there, but also because of the abundant timber resources there. Most of the marine wood in Carthage comes from Iberia.

After Mago became the governor of Iberia, he did not have the right to rule the fleet at first. In fact, he did not spend most of the time in conquering southern Iberia. However, Mago considered that when he wanted to use his army to fight in other places in the future, it would be a big trouble for the sea transport troops without the protection of the fleet. If he wanted to mobilize the Carthage fleet to Iberia, he would definitely be obstructed by the Senate headed by Hanno, so he decided to use the money he earned in Iberia and the trees in Iberia to build his own fleet.

A few years later, an Iberian fleet consisting of 120 three-layer oar warships, plus small and medium-sized warships, and a total of 180 warships. Its command was Admika of the Margonid family. Half of the sailors came from the Phoenician city-state, the rest came from Numibia and Mauritania, and none of them were Carthaginians. The fleet soon traverseed the Iberian coast and near the Pillar of Hercules.

After Hanno knew about it, he was very afraid of it, so this time, when the fleet escorted Hasdruba's army to Lilibi, Sicily, Hanno instructed Annobas, the commander of the Carthage fleet, to incorporate him.

This was strongly opposed by Admika, who said: "Mr. Mago only agreed to allow the army to be under the command of Monte Adno, and did not say that the fleet would also be under the command of the Carthage Navy."

Annobas retorted: "Since they are all Carthage's army, of course they must be unified in command, so that they will be beneficial to the battle! They will be beneficial to Carthage!"

Admika refused to obey, and the two sides almost clashed.

Finally, the lawsuit ended and the Senate had to send people to discuss with Mago again, and after a while, the cumbersome negotiations began. The two fleets, one docked in Carthage and the other docked in Lilibi, were in a stalemate, which is why Monteadno had never seen a Carthage fleet appear on the sea near the south coast of Sicily to protect its troops.
Chapter completed!