Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece

Chapter 890: Seclians Return

Mago's military dominance had given him enough confidence to disregard some casualties, and his words also cheered up the generals.

He then said to his adjutant, “Dispatch someone to immediately notify Admikar in the southern camp to organise ten thousand soldiers and then rush towards the eastern camp as our backup.”

“Roger!”

Mago looked at the crowd and said in rough Celtic language, “Ruthin, you will lead your tribe as the vanguards.”

The Celtic chieftain Ruthin, whose appearance and attire were clearly different from the others, replied, “Oh!”

Ruthin, a Lusitanian, was from a fierce and warlike race that inhabited the northwestern regions of Iberia. They had caused so much trouble to Mago's expansion in the Iberian Peninsula, even threatening his rule in southern Iberia. Ultimately, Mago was forced to finally conclude a peace treaty with them. Currently, Mago successfully attracted several prominent tribes from this race by offering them massive benefits. They had formed an army of approximately eight thousand men to accompany him in the campaign in Sicily. Ruthin was the chieftain of one of these tribes, and Mago’s arrangement favoured them, especially since night battles depended more on individual strength.

About ten minutes later, their main army gradually left the south gate of the camp and marched along the rough earthen wall towards the chaotic eastern camp.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Once evening came, Leotychides ascended the eastern gate of the city. He put all of his attention on the Carthaginian camp, waiting until a commotion erupted in the opposite camp. Then, after breathing a sigh of relief, he promptly ordered the ten thousand heavy infantry, composed of soldiers from the Eight and Reserve Legion, who had been awaiting within the city, to rush towards the enemy camp, which was now in chaos.

At the same time, the meticulous Leotychides didn't forget to take advantage of how their night raid had taken away the enemy's attention to also dispatch soldiers from the Mountain Reconnaissance Unit. Their task was to lurk around the earthen wall in front of the various Carthaginian camps and report back in time on what they saw so that he could understand the enemy's response in full detail.

Because of the report they brought, Leotychides felt no excitement despite learning that the raiding forces had successfully joined up and crushed the enemy's resistance, leaving the area of that camp in complete disarray. His unease stemmed from discovering that the other Carthaginian camps hadn't rushed to rescue the besieged camp. Instead, they stationed their soldiers at the borders of their respective camps after gathering them.

Just as he expected, the raiding forces' progress in pursuing the defeated soldiers toward the nearby camps slowed as they tried to break them down.

Then, he suddenly received an emergency report: The main camp of Carthage had dispatched troops and were rushing along the earthen wall heading east.

Leotychides immediately realised that the Carthaginians wanted to cut off the raiding forces' escape route to surround and annihilate them.

Since the Theonian soldiers participating in the night raid were the main force under Leotychides, he had been standing atop the city wall and watching the war's progress just to prevent such accidents.

In the end, the soldiers standing atop the city wall immediately sounded the retreat.

Before they had set out, the raiding soldiers had received repeated instructions from their officers. Thus, after the salpinx was sounded, the raiding soldiers stopped their pursuit…

Before retreating, they did the last thing without hesitation – burn the camp.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Before Mago and his forces could arrive, they had received news of the Theonians retreating to the city, which was unexpected. In his thoughts, the Theonians would definitely take advantage of their victory to chase their soldiers after a successful night raid to expand the results of the battle, giving him time to surround them. Unexpectedly, the Theonians' calmness and decisiveness had let his plan fall through. With no other choice, the reinforcements that had come in a hurry could only go and put out the fire.

As the vanguard, the Lusitanians kept on pursuing the enemy's tail. But with the long-range attack of the prepared city defenders, they could only retreat resentfully after paying some casualties.

During this night raid, the Theonians incurred four hundred casualties yet inflicted nearly four thousand on the Carthaginian army, half of which was caused by the Carthaginian soldiers pushing and trampling each other as they fled in the darkness. Simultaneously, the Theonians had reduced one-third of the eastern camp to ashes. Thus, one could describe the Carthaginian army as having suffered heavy losses.

After returning to his tent, Mago had a hard time sleeping. He brooded over their defeat and became alarmed at the tenacity of the far-less numbered Theonians' will to fight and the adaptability of their tactics. It dawned on him that the sheer size of his army had immobilised him and dulled his responsiveness to the ever-changing battle situation.

Having learned his lesson the hard way, Mago began using this as a reason to forcefully dismiss most of the Carthaginian generals the next day. He then allowed some of the high-ranking officers who had followed him for years in the Iberian Peninsula to take over the Carthaginian army and began to reorganise and retrain them.

In the meantime, he held off on building the earthen wall and stepped up to reinforce the crude camp.

Of course, last night's great fire caused the Carthaginians to lose a substantial amount of supplies, causing Mago to send messengers to notify the Lord of Lilybaeum to transport a batch of supplies.

Although there was no shortage of supplies in Lilybaeum, there was a shortage of manpower. Thus, they could only temporarily recruit the port labourers.

But just as the caravan was about to arrive at the Carthaginian camp, an accident occurred: A port labourer had complained of the discomfort in his stomach to leave the caravan and attempted to escape. Along the way, a patrolling cavalry discovered him and pursued him until the labourer jumped off a cliff and fell into the sea.

But this was just a trivial matter for the Carthaginians, so no one mentioned it again after the transport team arrived at the camp.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

In the past two days, Miltiades' uneasiness slightly improved because his fleet played a significant role in the night raid. Not only did they win a big victory, but they also suffered minor casualties. Thus, he believes the Ministry of Military would reduce their dissatisfaction with him after receiving this good news.

After breakfast, he was ready to head to the port to command the fleet to sail out and patrol in the western waters of Sicily.

Despite the Carthaginian army having already landed in Sicily, they still needed more supplies to feed such a massive army, as relying on their allies in western Sicily wasn't enough. Since they still needed to keep transporting across the sea to the continent of Africa, the Theonian fleet had to cut off the route between Carthage so that, over time, the Carthaginians would face a shortage of supply. Hence, Miltiades dare not slack off anymore.

But before he could leave his courtyard, a guard suddenly pushed open the gate and rushed in, “Navarch, good news! Lord Seclian…is still alive! He…he has returned!”

Miltiades' heart trembled as he looked at the excited guard, causing him to instinctively ask, “Who did you say is still alive?!”

“Miltiades, with Hades' blessing, I am naturally still alive!” With this familiar voice, a familiar figure appeared at the gate.

“Ah…Lord Seclian!” Miltiades quickly saluted.

Seclian, wrapped tightly in a red cloak, appeared thin and exhausted. He then hurriedly said, “Hurry up and get me something to eat. I am starving.”

“Inform the kitchen to reheat the gruel, bake the bread and fry some fish…” Miltiades quickly told the guard.

“There's no need to heat it. Just bring all the bread and wheat gruel so I can fill my stomach first,” Seclian said impatiently. He then turned to look at those who had accompanied him here. “Brothers, hurry back to your mission. You will receive punishment if you delay any more. We will have a good time chatting once I have rested.”

The large group clustering outside the gate could only reluctantly leave to return to the port after hearing Seclian's persuasive words. Then, the news of Seclian returning alive quickly spread throughout the fleet, and every crew member was excited because it was a miracle that the commander and hero of the navy, whom they thought was dead, had returned!

While watching Seclian wolf down his breakfast, Miltiades choked on what he wanted to say and could only wait until Seclian burped and stopped eating, put his hands on the table and stared at the pot of gruel. After a moment, Seclian muttered, “Our brothers told me on the way here that…Fulalios died in battle, and the storm destroyed the entire fleet in Sicily and drowned many of our brothers…”

Miltiades watched as Seclian leaned forward as if he was about to fall on the table. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly heard a bang sound as Seclian slammed his right hand on the table, almost overturning the pots before he straightened his back again, “However, dozens of our warships were safe while the Carthaginian fleet was utterly destroyed. We had also taken the opportunity to occupy Selinus so that the naval battle could be said to be our win!”

Seclian's confident disdain returned to his face, and Miltiades certainly wasn't going to argue with him about whether or not it was right to fight the Carthaginian fleet on such a stormy day. Instead, he took the opportunity to ask the doubt in his mind, “My lord, where have you been? We've been searching for you all this time.”

“In Lilybaeum,” Seclian said calmly.

“The…the Carthaginians had caught you?!” Miltiades was surprised and doubted, ‘Why did the Carthaginians who came to ask to exchange prisoners never mention this?!’

“Of course not,” Seclian painfully recalled, “…after the storm, I woke up to find myself lying on the beach and surrounded by our unconscious men… I wanted to wake them when I saw the Carthaginians rushing to the beach. Not wanting to be captured by them, I decided to jump into the sea and swim…

But I was tired and hungry then and became even more exhausted after swimming for a while. Coincidentally, I saw several slow-moving Carthaginian ships searching for survivors of the shipwreck nearby… Without any choice, I dived into the water and, taking advantage of the dim night, grabbed the side of a large ship about to return while the Carthaginians weren't paying attention. Thus, I was taken into the port of Lilybaeum.

Due to the storm and shipwreck, the port was very chaotic, which allowed me to go down the dock silently. Later, with the help of our Greek compatriots in the port, I managed to conceal myself in Lilybaeum… Later, I recalled that the beach I was lying on might have been between Mazara and Lilybaeum…

But with the people of Lilybaeum heavily guarding the city due to concerns about our army's attack, it became challenging for me to flee. If it weren't for the Carthaginian army landing here, which required us to transport supplies, I'm afraid I would still be waiting for an opportunity to escape Lilybaeum. However…”