Chapter 889: Night Raid

Unlike Rome, the Carthaginian army had wealthy experience in siege with their years of war with Syracuse. Moreover, they have sufficient technical capabilities to implement their tactics. Seeing that the effect of the ballistae wasn't bringing much result, Mago, after some thought, ordered his men to build a wall a hundred metres away from Selinus. Not only would it completely encircle the city, but its height must not be lower than Selinus' wall, allowing them to prevent the surprise attack of the Theonians and also could, in turn, suppress their long-range attack. Moreover, the wall would become advantageous to their subsequent tactics.

At Mago's command, nearly a hundred thousand soldiers and countless labourers transporting supplies to the military camp began taking action under the guidance of the engineers.

The Theonian defenders discovered the enemy's intention and made several surprise attacks. However, they all got repelled by the guarded Carthaginians.

Three days later, the base of an earthen wall surrounding the city of Selinus began taking shape.

While the Theonian soldiers were still feeling dismayed, Leotychides, the commander of the Sicilian battlefield of the Kingdom of Theonia, met with Navarch Miltiades at the residence of the Lord of Selinus.

Ever since Miltiades, the newly appointed navarch, discovered Leotychides' unauthorised absorption of the Sicilian fleet into his own army, violating the interests of the Theonian navy, the two sides have been at odds. As a result, Miltiades had never met Leotychides again after he moved back to the port. This time, he had only come to the city to discuss with him because he had no choice but to do so.

Because of Miltiades' fear of the storm, he made a grave military mistake when he stopped the warships patrolling Sicily's western waters, allowing the Carthaginian armies to land in Sicily easily. If Leotychides were to report to the Ministry of Military how, despite his repeated reminder to the navy not to cease the blockade of the western waters due to bad weather, the navarch remained stubborn, resulting in a significant shift in the war situation in Sicily... it would not only intensify King Davos and the Ministry of Military's animosity towards Miltiades but also likely cut off his future military career. Therefore, Miltiades approached the situation with a docile mindset.

But instead of mentioning the landing of the Carthaginian army upon seeing him, Leotychides bluntly said, "Miltiades, I am preparing to launch a night raid on the Carthaginian camp, and I need your navy's assistance."

Upon hearing those words, Miltiades thought quickly and hesitantly said, "A...night raid on the Carthaginian camp? You are planning to raid from the sea, right? The Carthaginians were well prepared and had deployed many sentries on the coast of Selinus...I also heard that their camp has over a hundred thousand men! So, how many soldiers do we need to invest in the raid to even possibly cause chaos in the Carthaginian camp?! Once we fail, there's a danger of the enemy wiping out our whole army!"

Noticing the anxiousness in Miltiades' hesitant words, Leotychides had to persuade his colleague, who was equivalent to his position, by spending some time patiently explaining, "I will not have the soldiers land on the nearby coast as that would indeed allow for the Carthaginians to discover them easily. Hence, I have chosen this place here."

Leotychides pointed to a rough sketch on the table depicting the surrounding terrain of the city of Selinus and the Carthaginian camp.

Miltiades hesitantly leaned closer to Leotychides, and upon closer inspection, he found that Leotychides' finger was pointing between Selinus and Thermae.

After assuming command of the fleet in Sicily, Miltiades helmed the flagship to repeatedly patrol the southern coast of Sicily to familiarise himself with the waters, which was a necessary skill for a Theonian navarch. Thus, at this moment, a rough picture of the location came to his mind: There was indeed a small beach that was easy to land on. However, he cautioned, "It is already difficult to traverse the winding road from Thermae to Selinus during the day, and I fear it would even be more difficult at night!"

"That's precisely why I chose to land here." Leotychides said confidently, "The complexity of the place, coupled with the fact that the Carthaginians, who have only recently landed in Sicily, are still unfamiliar with the coast leading to Thermae, is just the thing to stop the enemy from discovering our landing. I have inquired the fishermen in the port and found out that there will be a full moon tonight, allowing our landing soldiers to sneak into the mountains close to the night using the light of the moon and, in about two hours or so of marching will be able to close in on the Carthaginian camp."

After moving his finger towards the Carthaginian camps' icon, Leotychides continued, "From observing atop the city wall during time, and from the reports of the soldiers who have gone out to attack them, Mago and his Iberian army's camp should be to our north while the Carthaginian armies' camp is to our east and west, with the greater part of their soldiers should be Numidians. And with the Numidians also being their main force in constructing the earthen wall during these last few days, they are bound to be fatigued after their exhausting work during the day and will definitely fall deep asleep at night.

Furthermore, these days, the Carthaginian army has focused its entire defence on protecting the earthen wall they are constructing, so they must be negligent in defending their, resulting in our raid having a high probability of success... At that time, I'll also gather the ten thousand heavy infantry in the city and wait until the raiding force has caused chaos in the Carthaginian camp. Then we'll leave the city immediately, rush towards the earthen wall, attack the Carthaginian camp, and return to the city. If the situation is favourable to us, we can continue our attack-"

"What if the raid fails?" Miltiades suddenly interjected.

Leotychides already considered it and calmly said, "I will have them escape eastward into the mountains and eventually return through Minoa."

Miltiades remained silent. He knew that they had allies, the Sikeloi, in the mountains to the east and that there was a high probability of them escaping safely.

He carefully studied the rough sketch on the table, his eyes focusing on the Carthaginian camp located east of Selinus, which was to be the target of the night attack. It might be because the Carthaginians had a powerful military strength, but they had built their camp just a half kilometre away from Selinus. Miltiades didn't doubt that Leotychides could deduce the general layout of the Carthaginian camp, as they could even roughly see the camp while standing atop the city wall.

Then, Leotychides added, "I would also send a brigade of light-armoured soldiers from the Eighth Legion and a thousand soldiers from the Reserve Legion on this raid, so I hope the marines belonging to the fleet will also take part in the operation."

"No..." Miltiades instinctively wanted to decline. However, the moment he uttered the word, he quickly realised that it would benefit him if the marines participated in the night raid. If successful, it could help rectify the mistakes he had made. Thus, he promptly changed his words, "No problem. Our marines are best at landing operations, so I will have them all join this raid!"

Miltiades led the Fourth Fleet, comprising forty triremes, including thirty corvus warships and one thousand two hundred marines. Along with those who had survived the storm, he currently has approximately three thousand marines under his command. This increased the total number of soldiers involved in the raid to five thousand.

Leotychides felt relieved because that was one of the main reasons he called Miltiades.

With the addition of the Marines, Miltiades became much more proactive and spent a long time working with Leotychides to refine the plan.

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

Mago's adjutant woke him from his sleep and was surprised to hear about the Theonians' attack on the camp.

Suddenly, he could hear the faint sounds of fighting, prompting him to quickly leave the tent while urgently inquiring, "Which camp they have attacked?! How many enemies are there?!"

"It should be the middle of the eastern camp. However, we are currently unclear about the exact number of enemies..." replied the adjutant.

Mago walked outside the tent, where he could hear the sound of fighting and screams even clearer. And these constant cries of alarm from the Theonian's night raid had begun to rouse the soldiers in the other camps.

Despite the camp of nearly a hundred thousand troops stretching for more than five kilometres, Mago couldn't see anything when looking east due to the darkness, even with the light from the moon.

Mago listened carefully for a moment, and although the shouts and screams grew louder, he remained calm. After all, His conquest of southern Iberia had exposed him to numerous night raids. Thus, he immediately and decisively said to his adjutant, "Send out heralds to rush to the camps and inform the generals that they are to take control of the soldiers in their camps and prepare for defence and that they are not to mobilise their troops to rescue without my order! I would personally crucify anyone that dares to disobey!"

The reason Mago ordered so harshly was because those in the eastern camp were mainly armies raised by Carthage. With many of his generals being nobles of Carthage, some may ignore his presence as he had been away from Carthage for over a decade and acted without authorisation.

After heralds rushed away, the generals of the central camp received an urgent summon and quickly arrived at the command tent.

Mago ordered, "Immediately gather your soldiers. Besides Tarka, who will lead his troops to defend the camp, the rest will follow me to rescue the camp under attack."

Before Mago could finish his words, they suddenly heard a deafening roar from outside the tent, causing some of them to turn pale.

His adjutant rushed in and hurriedly reported, "My lord, the Theonians have deployed their troops from the city and executed a pincer attack on our eastern camp!"

Mago, however, remained calm and even smiled, "From the sound of it, the Theonians must have sent out quite a number of soldiers, which is great! We'll be able to kill them all in one go, allowing us to have a much easier time attacking Selinus!"