Pomirka was stunned and asked, "Will we not capture the city of Selinus first?"

Ma Ge's face turned slightly red, and he said seriously: "After this period of siege, I believe you also know that Selinus not only has strong city defense, but also the main force of Dionia is also in Selinus. They have good morale. Even if our number of soldiers is far better than them, it will take more time to capture this city, and time is very important to me!"

Pomirka then remembered the promise Mago made in the Senate. He no longer hesitated and immediately expressed his willingness to go to war.

Ma Ge showed a few smiles and said generously: "You led 10,000 Carthage militias, 15,000 civilians composed of Phoenician Allies, 25,000 Numibian soldiers, a total of 50,000. This is 10,000 more than when Monteadno attacked Minoa! I hope you will lead your army to Minoa tomorrow, and don't make Monteadno's original mistakes, and attack Minoa as soon as possible!"

Pomirka was not excited about being about to lead such a huge army, but instead asked with concern: "Mr. Mago, according to this arrangement, there are not many soldiers left by you. If the Dionians in the city go out of the city to attack again-"

Although Pomirka did not continue, he had expressed his concerns. In his opinion, if he followed Ma Ge's proposal and led his army to leave, Ma Ge would be left with less than 20,000 troops brought from Iberia. This army of multiple races seemed to be very combat-effective, but not easy to manage, and lacked loyalty. There were nearly 10,000 civilians formed by western Sicily allies. These Sicily people lacked training and were more suitable.

He served as a choreographer, building camps and other chores, rather than fighting; the remaining nearly 10,000 Numibian soldiers were the soldiers from the camp that had been attacked by night before. Obviously, the attack of Dionia scared these dark-skinned Numibians. In order not to let their panic affect the morale of other troops, Ma Ge specially divided them out. He has been busy with training these days and even planned to send them to Lilibi to replace the defenders there.

But Ma Ge was not worried about this, and he said confidently: "If the Dionians act like you said, that's exactly what I hope."

Pomirka no longer persuaded him, and he accepted the order. In fact, even if he did not accept it, Ma Ge would force him to accept it, because he had forced many Carthage generals to be replaced by the Iberian army officers he trusted, which not only made the soldiers of the army formed by Carthage very uneasy, but after the news reached Carthage, it also caused criticism from the Senate. The Hannover faction even criticized him for his approach, claiming that he did this to turn the entire army into a private army of the Margonid family to facilitate his dictatorship.

Mago asked the neutral elder Pomirka to temporarily take over Carthage's army, both to appease the soldiers and to reassure the elders.

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On the second day, Pomirka led his army out of the camp and marched east along the coast.

Marco did not hide this military operation, so the large-scale mobilization of the Carthaginians in the barracks was clearly seen by Leotizides on the city. He was a little anxious because he could guess why the Carthaginian army left. He had considered: he took this opportunity to lead the entire army out of the city to attack the Carthaginian army, but the previous night attack had sounded the alarm for the Carthaginians. Since they still dared to do so, they were obviously prepared.

Leotitzides held the only main force of the Kingdom of Dionia on Sicily. With the enemy being too small and too few, he could only take action with great chances of victory, so he is anxiously looking forward to the arrival of the Katanai fleet.

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Hasdruba allowed the soldiers to loot and slaughter the entire city of Agrigento, on the one hand, to commemorate his father, Himirko (Simirko also led his army to occupy the city of Agrigento), so that his soldiers could be released and gained something after experiencing arduous mountain marches and hard battles; on the other hand, to obtain enough food.

His purpose was achieved. Agrigento's territory was either mountainous or hilly. Although it was not well-known for agriculture, it was a famous animal husbandry city on Sicily. Therefore, Hasdruba obtained a large amount of livestock, which was enough to maintain the consumption of 20,000 troops for half a month.

So after a day off, just as Pomirka marched towards Minoa, Hasdruba left 1,000 soldiers to station in the city of Agrigento, leading 16,000 soldiers to march east along the coast with the goal of Jera.

The army had to pass through the city of Econom on its way forward. Why did Leottizides not transport reinforcements to this city before, and Hasdruba did not target this city? Because this is a small Greek city, its scale is only larger than Germet, and the low walls can only be used to block wild beasts and cannot stop the enemy's attack at all. Therefore, Leottizides did not have hope for it, and Hasdruba did not regard it as an obstacle. (Note: In history, a hundred years later, the tyrant of Agrigento built a new city in Cape Econom. In the first Punic War decades later, the largest naval battle in ancient Western history occurred near the cape of this city. Carthage and Rome invested a total of 680 warships, carrying about 290,000 crew members and soldiers, and Rome won.)

Sure enough, when Hasdruba led his army to arrive, the residents of Econom had fled, leaving only an empty city. The Carthaginian army successfully entered.

After one night of rest, continue to march eastward on the second day and enter Jera territory at noon.

The city of Jera has a long history, only four or five years later than the establishment of Syracuse. It was established by colonists from Rhode Island and Crete, and was named after the city of Jera River in the territory.

As the Gera River washed away a large amount of soil from the mountains, forming a fertile river plain in the Gera territory. After decades of successful transformation of the river swamps, Gera became prosperous. At this time, the city of Agrigento had just been established, and the city of Syracuse was still limited to Ortigia. Therefore, the tyrant of Gera, Hippocrates, who had sufficient soldiers and food, and his successor Diron launched a war of conquest eastward. Finally, they received from Messia and other Greek colonial cities in eastern Sicily, expressed their surrender to Gera.

He took a fancy to the geographical location of Syracuse and moved there, and let his brother Xilon take over Jera and moved half of the population of his birthplace Jera to Syracuse, thus creating the beginning of the prosperity of Syracuse. After Dyracuse's death, Xilon moved to Syracuse again... After this, Jera's tyrants gave up their original cities and regarded Syracuse as their ruling center. Jera also began to decline from the most powerful Greek city-state in Sicily. But at this point, Jera also established a very close relationship with Syracuse.

The first conflict between Jera and Syracuse was more than 20 years ago. On the way to attack Syracuse, Carthage's commander Himirco led a large army to occupy Agrigento, and then surrounded Jera Dionysius. However, before the reinforcements arrived, Jera was also occupied. The deepening of the conflict was that after the Jera people returned to their homes, Syracuse had become the overlord of the Greek city-state in Sicily. Dionysius exploited and oppressed the people of the allies, of course, including Jera. The people of Jera were very dissatisfied with him, but feared his powerful force and could only obey.

It was not until Dionia defeated Syracuse that although the Geras were grateful to the Dionians, they were also wary of outsiders entering Sicily. Dionia had been friendly with the city-states around Sicily for 10 years that the Geras finally let go of their guard. In this war between Dionia and Carthage, Gera also actively provided material assistance and sent troops to participate in the war.

Now that the Carthaginian army is forced to the city, this not only makes the Jera people nervous, but also shocks Syracuse and Katanai. After all, compared with the series of battles that took place in the west before, Jera is very close to them and can attract the attention of the people.

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"Sir, Carcidis is here." Mukru reported to Leotizides.

"Please come in."

A middle-aged team official wearing a purple crown helmet strode into the hall of the city lord's mansion.

His name is Carsidis, and he was born in Katanai. After Dionysius defeated Katanai, he became a refugee. He once fled to his settlement in the mountains for a while, and later quietly returned to the port of Katanai to make a living by selling his labor. He was not afraid of violence, helped the weak and was fair in his work. Therefore, the refugees at Katanai Port have a high prestige among the free people. During the Southern Italian War, Antrapolis lurked in Katanai Port and received his strong help. In the subsequent riots in Katanai, the free people he led were also one of the main forces. After Katanai was successfully revived, he also led the troops to assist the First Legion in chasing Masias's defeated troops.

However, after the war ended and Katanai was incorporated into the Kingdom of Dionia, the hero in the minds of the Katanai refused to become a kingdom official or a member of the city council. Instead, he voluntarily became a civil guardian, and was elected by the Katanai every year for his outstanding performance and participated in the Kingdom civil guardian meeting. At the same time, he was also the captain of the First Brigade of the Eighth Legion and was deeply trusted by Leotizides.
Chapter completed!