Will the Carthaginians agree? You firmly rejected their request to redeem the captured Carthaginian Holy Corps soldiers in their tone! Mukru only dared to say this doubt in his heart, and did not say it out loud.

"We still have to attack Selinus as soon as possible!" Leothiedes whispered. Whether from the strategic perspective of attacking western Sicily or from the perspective of facilitating food and supplies transportation...even from the perspective of having a safer place to imprison so many prisoners, capturing Selinus is an urgent task.

Mukru hurriedly reminded: "Legislature Commander, the soldiers were busy all night last night and were quite exhausted. Today, they no longer had the energy to attack the city. And yesterday the Carthaginians transported thousands of soldiers into Selinus, and their defenses were strengthened. And-"

"And we have lost the Sicilian fleet and cannot block the port anymore. The Carthaginians can provide reinforcements from the sea at any time!" Leothizides took over the conversation and said with a serious expression. This is the problem he was most worried about: the disappearance of the Dionian army's advantage in Sicilian will add a lot of difficulties to the land attack, because the more the army attacks westward, the closer it gets to Carthage, and the stronger the opponent's reinforcements from the sea will be. The Dionian army, who lost the fleet, has no way to stop them. They can only hope that after the news of "the destruction of the Sicilian fleet" is transmitted back to Turiyi, His Majesty can send the Third Fleet or the Fourth Fleet to regain Sicilian's maritime advantage.

Just as Leothides was frowning, the guards came in and reported: "Captain of the company Theocasis patrolling the seaside asked for a meeting, saying that there was an emergency military report."

……………………………………………

"You mean that there are 42 of our three-layer oar warships in the port of Selinus?!" Even though Leotizides always looked indifferent, he was very moved when he heard the news.

"Yes, Commander." Diocasis also said with excitement: "When the storm came, the second squadron of the First Fleet was attacking the Carthage fleet outside the port of Selinlus. The squadron leader Stefacas urgently led the surrounding warships into the port of Selinnus and successfully landed, occupying the southwest corner of the port. They were originally planning to send a clutch to inform us last night after the storm subsided, but the wreckage of the ship caused by the storm blocked the port, causing the night ship to become dangerous, so it was not until this morning that he took the risk of opening a passage from the port and sending the clutch to report the message."

In fact, the harbor of Selinus is like other Greek city-state harbors. It has a water gate with a barrier and an entrance, which can be blocked with iron chains, and towers are also built on the breakwater to attack enemy ships. However, when the Carthage fleet entered the port yesterday, the water gate was blocked by panic, which made the Selinus people unable to close the port. In addition, the storm was coming, and the port personnel only wanted to go home and hide quickly, resulting in the port defense being relaxed, allowing the Dionian warships to easily break into the port and get ashore smoothly.

Leotizides quickly calmed down his emotional fluctuations and asked calmly: "How many people do they have now? Can they resist the enemy's attack?"

"According to the messenger, the squadron leader Stefakas, was very confident about this, because 30 of the 42 warships entering the port were crow warships, so they had about 1,200 fully armed fleet infantry, and nearly 7,000 sailors. They sank many Carthage ships. After they got ashore, they robbed Carthage's grain transport fleet, and even took off many of the armor and weapons of the drowned Carthage soldiers, thus obtaining more than 400 sets of heavy infantry equipment and more than 30 bows and arrows. They also asked some sailors to sharpen one of the wooden oars and use them as extended wooden guns. Their warships also controlled the sea surface in the port... From the messenger said that when he left the port, the Carthaginians did not attack them..."

"After several sieges, the number of the Selinus defenders was probably less than 2,000. Even with reinforcements this time, it would not exceed 5,000. If the Carthaginians attacked with all their might, it would cause great trouble to the navy in the port. But it seems that the Carthaginian defenders were not brave enough to be brave and worried that we would take advantage of the situation to attack the city and not take action immediately..." After listening to the story of Theocassis, Leotizides analyzed and said, he had realized that this was an excellent opportunity, and asked Mukru in a slightly excited tone: "What time is now?"

“About 8 a.m..”

"Mukru, immediately inform the Eighth Legion and the Reserve soldiers to go into the tent to rest. I only give them four hours of sleep recovery time. I must wake up at noon, and after lunch, start siege immediately!" Leotizides gave the order decisively.

"Yes, Legion Commander, I'll go and convey it immediately."

"Diocasis, go and call the messenger in. I will ask for the details again." Leotizides said. Out of caution, he must first confirm the authenticity of the news himself, and secondly, he wants to further understand the more detailed situation of the enemy and us in the city.

At noon, Leotizides led his army to attack the city.

The contact had been made, and the remnants of the Sicilian fleet at the port responded immediately and launched an attack from the port to the city.

The Carthage defenders faced two attacks and were in a difficult situation.

After fighting until the afternoon, Millefio led a few cavalry to escape from the south gate, and the defenders of Selinus opened the door and surrendered.

……………………………………………

The southwestern Latinum region in March is a rainy season. The mist and drizzle in the morning are the most annoying weather for the sentries on the front of the city. They cannot sleep more by the wall, and the a little wet and cold temperature makes the sentries who have just eaten breakfast quickly feel hungry again. The serious character and strict military laws of the Romans made them dare not leave their posts easily. They could only patrol the city of Antium slowly while praying that time would pass quickly and let the next group of comrades take turns.

"Let me hear what this sounds?" a sentry suddenly asked nervously.

Another sentry immediately listened.

"Crash! Crash! Crash!..." The slight and continuous sound is different from the tide sound at the beach, and it has a metal texture.

The sentinel's face changed: there were troops outside the city, and there were a lot of them.

Is it an enemy?! The sentry looked up and saw that the drizzle outside the empty city was drizzling and there was no sign of a person.

Antium's garrison was Paulus Valerius Portitus. Not long ago, he was a military officer on duty in Rome, but after Camillus was appointed as the dictator, the six military officers of Rome naturally stepped down. Because Paulus had always been cautious and steady in his work, the Senate appointed him as the garrison of the newly occupied town Antium, hoping that he could firmly defend the southwestern border and coast of Rome and Latin allies to ensure the complete conquest of the Helniki people.

The Sentinel's report quickly attracted his attention, and he immediately sent a team of detective cavalry out of the city to investigate.

Soon, the team of scouts fled back in a panic, because they were attacked by many black helmets and black armored cavalry not long after they left the city, and they were almost wiped out.

It was the Dionian! Paulus became nervous: Are they going to attack Antium?!

He immediately summoned the city's internal team and began to set up defenses to defend against the attack of the Dionians.

The Roman soldiers stood all over the city and looked nervously outside the city.

This station took more than an hour. The mist dissipated, the drizzle stopped, and the sky was bright, but no Dionia's army appeared outside the city, and even the previous "shush, shush" sound disappeared.

Paulus was puzzled and decided to send a scout again to find out the enemy's movements.

As a result, the scouts sent were intercepted again. According to the scouts who fled back, there were cavalry from Dionia in all directions one mile away from Antium City, and they could not break through their interception and find out the movements of the Dionian troops.

Paulus was both confused and nervous. He did not dare to send troops out of the city before he understood the movements of the Dionian army. After all, the Roman army was still attacking the Hilniki in the east, and the Latinum area was empty. His mission was to defend Antium, and together with the defenders of Villitre and Satnikum, he blocked the attack of the enemy in the south.

When Paulus was still in control, the Satneycomb defenders in the north encountered the same situation, and they also adopted the same response method. In order to ensure the security of the territory and the Latin allies, the Roman Senate sent cautious and steadfast generals to these two newly occupied towns, which did not dare to send troops as soon as possible and launch a tentative attack, so that it might be possible to explore the movements of the Dionian army.

In fact, a large army of nearly 20,000 people, composed of the First Legion, Third Legion, First Cavalry Legion and some Second Cavalry Legion, was arranged with the Eighth Route Column, and the Cavalry Legion guarded the two wings of the marching column, without a baggage team following. He set out from the barracks of Setia in the early morning and marched northward. In the morning, he had reached the border between Latinum and Wolsey.

Amintas asked the two cavalry legions to block the outing passage between Antium and Sartneycomb and rob and kill the scouts to ensure that their main force passes quickly and secretly from the middle of Antium and Sartneycomb, and then continue to advance towards the northwest.
Chapter completed!