Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 999: It Never Rains But It Pours

Mago had originally hoped to rely on sheer numbers to offset their disadvantage and crush the enemy, but as casualties neared two thousand, he stopped sending troops into the tunnel.

Amyntas hurriedly ordered the three tunnels blocked off. The First Legion and the reserve soldiers had suffered nearly five hundred casualties of their own. Fortunately, the Daionian soldiers emerged victorious in every skirmish, allowing them to pull their wounded back for treatment.

...

Mago sat in his command tent with a dark expression, seething at himself.

The Carthaginians prospered through the precious metals trade, and many of their citizens worked in mining. The Magonid family was no exception. Ever since they relocated to Southern Iberia, Mago's troops occasionally moonlighted as miners between campaigns. As a result, his army excelled at excavating tunnels. The only reason they hadn't employed this tactic against Palagonia was that the small town sat at the foot of a mountain, where the bedrock was too dense and hard to dig. Selinus, however, was a different story.

During the previous siege of Selinunte, Mago had built earthen walls specifically to cover a tunnel assault. Before he could carry it out, however, Hasdrubal successfully raided their rear along the Southern Coast. The strategic situation shifted, and Mago ran out of time to implement the plan. This time, he had meticulously prepared. With ample time, his men had successfully dug right beneath Selinunte's walls before the Theonians even noticed. At that juncture, he faced two choices: he could dig horizontally to hollow out the wall's foundation, then remove the wooden support beams to collapse the structure and create a breach; or he could continue digging straight into the city, wait for nightfall, and send his troops through the tunnel to ambush the Theonians and seize the entire city from within.

Mago chose the latter, believing it to be the swiftest and most effective way to wipe out the defenders of Selinus. He never expected the Theonians to discover the plot and bring about this disastrous outcome. Moving forward, the enemy would undoubtedly be on high alert; trying to launch another tunnel ambush would be nearly impossible.

While Mago stewed in regret, a messenger from Hasdrubal stepped into the command tent and delivered yet another crushing blow: Hasdrubal had attempted a sneak attack against the Daionian Army marching on Palermos, only to walk straight into an ambush. His entire force of four thousand Lusitanian Warriors had been wiped out.

Mago roared Hasdrubal's name inside the tent, unleashing a torrent of vicious curses. He called the man a fool, entirely unworthy of being a son of the Magonid family. He seemed oblivious to the fact that he had just failed a sneak attack of his own, but his furious outburst terrified the messenger into trembling silence.

Mago weighed his options for a long moment before deciding to transport reinforcements to Palermos by sea. Sailing during the day was out of the question—they would be spotted instantly. It had to be done under the cover of darkness, even if a nighttime voyage carried considerable risks.

The failure of the tunnel assault hadn't dulled Mago's innate drive. He immediately ordered his officers to gather the three thousand men of Palermos currently serving in his army, supplementing them with another one thousand People of Solus. These four thousand soldiers were to march for Lilybaeum at once. He also dispatched orders to Imisere: find a way to requisition enough cargo ships from the port to transport the men to Palermos that very night.

Over the past two days, these soldiers had heard that their homeland was under attack and had been clamoring to return. Mago's orders granted their exact wish. Driven by urgency, the men pushed through the darkness, marching at a grueling pace until they reached Lilybaeum deep in the night.

However, the sentries on the walls of the City of Lilybaeum refused to let them enter. The Sicilian Fleet patrolled the western waters daily, frequently sending naval infantry ashore to raid and harass. These relentless attacks had left the Carthaginian and Phoenician City-States as jittery as startled birds. Naturally, the sudden arrival of thousands of armed men demanding entry into a critical military stronghold in the dead of night required the utmost caution. They would not be allowed through the gates until the city lord, Imisere, arrived at the wall in person to strictly verify their identities.

By the time Imisere verified their identities and learned the purpose of their arrival, nearly an hour had been wasted. He hastily dispatched men to check the harbor, but they were already too late.

Ever since the Daonian Fleet seized control of the western waters, the number of vessels arriving at Lilybaeum had steadily dwindled, and by now they had essentially vanished. Unwilling to let their ships sit unprofitably in a blockaded harbor, many local shipowners had seized whatever chances they could to flee to Carthage. As a result, barely any vessels remained in the port—nowhere near the hundred large cargo ships required to transport a force of four thousand men at once. Their only option lay with the supply fleet that arrived under the cover of night to deliver provisions to the Carthaginian army.

Previously, Morbal had employed a brilliant campaign of misdirection to successfully deliver a massive shipment of rations and supplies to Sicily. Yet, he knew full well that a hundred-thousand-strong army's consumption was staggering, and a single resupply operation would never be enough. Knowing the Daonian Fleet would learn from their mistake and make it impossible to repeat the same trick, Morbal devised a new strategy.

At his suggestion, the Carthaginian Senate passed a new resolution: recruit veteran shipowners from Carthage and the neighboring Phoenician City-States—men who traded with Sicily year-round, knew its waters intimately, and possessed extensive sailing experience—to form three small convoys of several dozen cargo ships each. Operating in rotating shifts, they loaded grain and supplies during the day, set sail at dusk, and arrived in the dead of night at Lilybaeum, Mazara, or Eryx. Their final destination was chosen right as they departed to keep their routes unpredictable and prevent the Theonians from lying in ambush. Once they unloaded their cargo, the ships had to depart immediately to avoid running into the patrolling warships of the Daonian Fleet at dawn.

Because of this arrangement, the dockworkers in these port cities rested during the day and remained on standby throughout the night, keeping the lighthouse fires burning exceptionally bright. Of course, if the weather turned foul at night, the small convoys would suspend their supply runs.

So far, the Carthaginian Convoy had successfully completed several runs. Though each delivery carried a limited amount of supplies, the steady, uninterrupted stream of resources made up for it.

As luck would have it, the convoy's destination that night was Lilybaeum. Unluckily, by the time Imisere's men rushed to the harbor, the ships had already departed.

With a sigh, Imisere decided to send messengers to Mazara and Eryx at first light. Whichever port the Carthaginian Convoy arrived at the following night, the local authorities were to order the ships to assist in transporting the soldiers.

Furthermore, he would request that both cities send any idle cargo vessels to Lilybaeum. By pooling their ships, they could assemble enough vessels to ferry all four thousand men to Palermos in a single trip.

Having made these decisions and arranged for the soldiers to be housed in the barracks, Imisere finally returned to sleep with some peace of mind.

...

Not long after Mago had dispatched the reinforcements, another messenger arrived from Lilybaeum. He carried direct orders from the Senate: because the Daonian Fleet had launched several raids against the Phoenician Allied States in Africa, the Carthaginian Senate had decided to recall the fleet to fully defend the homeland's coastlines. In addition, they wanted Mago to accelerate his siege and capture Selinunte as quickly as possible.

Mago's fury reignited as he read the decree. While it was true that the Carthaginian Fleet hadn't secured any further victories since Morbal's initial triumph at sea, and the Daonian Fleet continued its patrols of the western waters unabated, the Carthaginian Fleet's elusive presence in those waters had prevented the Daonian Fleet from launching any rash, large-scale amphibious assaults against his rear. That constant threat had significantly reduced enemy harassment, allowing Mago to focus entirely on constructing his camp's inner and outer walls, raising the earthen siege ramps, and throwing his full strength into the assault on Selinunte. Now that the fleet was being recalled to Carthage, the Daonian Fleet could raid his army's rear with utter impunity, forcing him to divert his attention. Worse yet, the Daionian defenders were heavily entrenched. If the Carthaginian army forced a frontal assault, their casualties would be catastrophic even if they finally managed to take Selinunte. How could he then engage the main Daionian Army in the decisive battle he intended?

Mago deeply suspected that this Senate decree had been pushed through at the instigation of the Hanno faction. Cursing Hanno in his heart, he resolved to ignore the order and proceed with his siege exactly as originally planned.

The following day, the Carthaginian soldiers resumed their construction of the earthen siege ramps. They had already begun ramming earth into the massive wooden frameworks.

Standing atop the Inner Wall, the Balearic slingers unleashed a constant barrage of lead bullets, suppressing the ranged attacks from Selinunte's defenders so the construction of the earthen siege ramps could proceed in an orderly manner.

Inside the city, Amyntas ordered the light infantry on the walls and the ballista units moved inside the city to focus all their firepower on the busy Carthaginian laborers outside, aiming to disrupt and delay the enemy's construction of the earthen siege ramps. At the same time, he scattered members of the Mountain Scout Squad across the trenches inside the city, ordering them to listen closely for any subterranean activity to prevent the enemy from digging another tunnel. Finally, he detached a portion of his soldiers to assist the Engineering Brigade in building wooden walls.

...

That night, the Carthaginian Convoy and the cargo ships from Mazara and Eryx arrived at Lilybaeum as scheduled. After loading the four thousand reinforcements, the fleet of over a hundred vessels quietly sailed north, eventually slipping smoothly into the port of Palermos.

As the excited soldiers leaped off the ships and crowded onto the docks, eager to hurry home and enjoy the warmth of their wives and children, they found themselves greeted by the terrifying sight of countless soldiers clad in Black Helmets and Black Armor entirely surrounding them.

The hearts of the reinforcements instantly plummeted: 'Had the Theonians already captured Palermos?!'

The truth was that Palermos had surrendered to the Daionian Army.

The reason Leotychides had seemed so confident when discussing the assault on Palermo with Midorades was simple. His forces included the hundreds of engineers that Davos had previously left behind to assist him in besieging Syracuse. When they boarded the ships to leave Syracuse, those engineers had dismantled the siege weapons used during that campaign as much as possible, loading the components onto the cargo vessels to transport with them.