At the head of the city, the Hebernian defenders watched in horror as their men were easily defeated by the Lijim army outside the city, and fled in all directions, but did not dare to go out of the city to meet them, but closed the gates of the city.

An hour later, more than 5,000 Lijim soldiers surrounded the city of Hibernian.

………………………………

By this time, Davers had already led a large army into the territory of Ciliting. During the march, he had been thinking about what kind of military action he should take to completely crush Syracuse and end the war, so he was quiet along the way.

Beside him, Henipolis looked in high spirits. Last night in the Great Tent, Davers finally affirmed his idea, and seriously conceived several proposals for him to defend his interests, so that he woke up early this morning, and no longer had to think about the city of Laos, and felt unusually light.

He excitedly talked to Tolmide for a while, and then pulled Martius to chat, wanting to learn more about the process of yesterday's battle, and seemed very active.

Dionia's army arrived outside the city of Cilitin unhindered.

This was originally expected by Davers, who led his escort around the city to reconnoitre: the wall of Xiliting was about seven meters high, and the circumference of the city wall was more than a mile, and it did not have a moat, but a moat in front of the city, and three gates in the west, south, and north, and the port was surrounded by the city wall, and it was one with the city. It is not a big city compared to Turriy and Crotone, but it is much larger than the towns of Trina and Hibernian.

Based on the results of last night's interrogation of the captives, Davers had a general idea of the strength of Syracuse in the city of Siliting: there were 4,000 garrisons in the city, in addition to more than 20,000 civilians and slaves from Syracuse and its allies, who were mainly responsible for the transportation of grain and baggage.

There was also a special group of mathematicians, skilled architectural engineers, machine builders, carpenters, and shipwrights whom Dionysius had sought in Sicily...... and so on nearly a thousand people, the reason why Dionysius was able to break through the city of Crotone was precisely because of the ballistas, siege towers, and bows they made...... All kinds of siege equipment and facilities, this is also the group of people that Davers covets the most.

In addition, there were Crotone and Siritinne soldiers who had been captured at the Battle of the Ramato, and Dionysius had sold some of his captives to the slave traders, as well as three or four thousand men.

Coupled with the fact that the defeated troops of Syracuse have now returned to Siriting, the number of people in the city is probably as high as more than 60,000. If it weren't for the fact that Dionysius had already killed, sold, and looted the people of Cilitin, there would be no room for so many people in Cilitine City.

Davers looked at the dense array of Syracuse soldiers at the top of the city, imagining whether the newly defeated Syracuse soldiers would remain calm when he gave the order to siege the city.

Of course, Davers would not rashly attack a town with more than 30,000 soldiers and possibly 20,000 reservists, he had other plans.

At the head of the city, Dionysius looked at the team of men and horses galloping quickly a hundred meters away from the city with a complicated expression, and a gloomy voice squeezed out from between his teeth: "I heard that Davers of Dionya likes to go to the front to observe the enemy situation before every major battle, so he must be among them!" ”

"Do you want to fire a ballista at them, hoping that Apollo will be able to make the stone bullet fall right on his head?" Phoebidas said sarcastically, his hands, arms and waist were wrapped in bandages, like a mummy, he was wounded in yesterday's battle, he escaped by luck, and after treatment he slept until noon today, and when he heard that the Dionian army was coming, he still managed to go up to the city.

Dionysius didn't speak, Phoebidas guessed right, he really had such thoughts in his heart.

"I really didn't expect that such a powerful army of ours would be defeated by this young man in our mouth?!" Phoebidas's exclamation was full of doubt, he had not had time to explore the details of the battle since he fled back to the city yesterday, so he had not yet figured out how the Syracuse army had failed.

"It is precisely because your battle deployment was completely seen through by the Dionians, and they made targeted arrangements, that we will fail......" Dionysius closed his eyes with a painful expression: the temporary change of formation on the left flank of Dionia, the lanxyl of spears hidden behind the cavalry, the attack on the right flank of the Dionian reserve......

He didn't want to recall yesterday's nightmarish battle scene, and he put the main responsibility for the defeat on the Spartans with some resentment, but he didn't want to admit the fact that the quality of the Syracuse soldiers was not as good as that of Dionia, and even though the left, center, and right forces were more than the other side, they failed to put enough pressure on the other side to dare to boldly draw troops and carry out their plans.

Now it was Phoebe Das's turn to say nothing, and although he hadn't figured out the reason for the defeat yet, it was a fact that his tactics didn't work.

"It's just a defeat, we were defeated by the Carthaginians in the battle a few years ago, we were also surrounded by a large army, and even the people rioted, and the situation was even more critical than today. But under my command, with the help of Spartan allies, Carthage was finally defeated, and I heard that the Carthaginian general Shimilko also committed suicide! At this point, Dionysius looked around at his demoralized men, and he realized that he could no longer wallow in defeat and that he had to cheer up, otherwise the next battle would be even harder. At the same time, he could no longer be harsh on Phoebeidas, because in such an extremely unfavorable situation for Syracuse, Syracuse would rely more on Sparta: "Don't look at the Ionians today who are proud of their victory, but with the blessing of Apollo, we Syracuse will let these Ionians, who were only free people a few years ago, know that the final victory will only belong to Syracuse!" ”

"Lord Dionysius is right, in the past few years in the face of Carthage, which time have we not lost first and then won, and finally become the master of Sicily, is Dionia stronger than Carthage!" Damocles immediately responded loudly.

"The Dioonians have nothing to fear, we have to re-boost the morale of the soldiers and wait for the opportunity to give the enemy a counterattack!" Fasipesas also spoke loudly.

The generals and ministers were encouraged, and their faces began to glow, and even the frustration in Phoebeidas's heart dissipated a lot, and only the intelligence leader Androstinius on the outskirts of the crowd wondered: since Dionysius was not afraid of Dionia, why did he quietly send an emissary? ……

……………………………

After circling the city for a week, Davers returned to the army and gave the order to build a camp a mile from the city.

His plan was to take advantage of the enemy's new defeat and low morale, set up camp so close to the city, and then quickly advance to the flanks and under the city, so as to achieve the goal of finally besieging the city completely.

As soon as the order was given, half of the 50,000 troops began to dig trenches and build earthen walls. The other half were heavily armed and wary of the Syracuses' sneak attack out of the city, and only Sipros led a rapid westward march of more than a thousand Trina soldiers, who were eager to reclaim their homeland, Trina.

Just as Davers was urging the whole army to speed up the construction of the camp, Tolmid came to report: The messenger of Syracuse asks for an audience!

"Oh, it's you again!" Seeing the Syracuse envoy, Davos smiled meaningfully: "This time Dionysius sent you, is it to prepare to surrender to me?" ”

"Lord Davos, we in Syracuse are the overlords of Sicily, not only have 70,000 citizen soldiers, 500,000 people, but also more than a dozen large states are our allies, ready to obey our call." Damocles said proudly: "Even if we lose the naval battle, lose the battle, and lose a lot of ships and soldiers, but this failure is nothing, we in Syracuse can organize an army no less than the current number of troops to come to Great Greece at any time, can Dionia do it?!" ”

"Since Syracuse is so powerful, you should go to the port of Siriting to welcome the arrival of your new army, and what are you doing here!" Clerk Henipolis sneered.

Damocles ignored him, but looked at Davers and said with a solemn expression: "Because if the war between Syracuse and Dionya continues, no matter who wins or loses in the end, he will weaken the power of our Greeks in the Western Mediterranean, and will make people like the Carthaginians, Mesapis, and Samoneans ...... These natives who hate us Greeks have benefited, and I don't think either Lord Dionysius nor Master Davos would want to see that happen. Therefore, Master Dionysius sent me to ask a word to Lord Davers on his behalf, and he proposed, 'An armistice between the two sides, ask Lord Davers if you agree?' ’”

"What a ridiculous joke! Who led the army to invade Great Greece before, burning, killing and looting, and doing all kinds of evil! How did your tyrant not consider that such a ferocious invasion and killing would greatly weaken the power of the Greeks on the Italian peninsula and benefit the natives of the vicinity! Oh, now that I have lost the battle, I have remembered again that I want peace and that I want to protect the interests of the Greeks - ho! Holiberis scoffed, "I just want to know if Dionysius knows the meaning of the word 'shameless'!" ”

Damocles avoided answering, but said confidently: "It was not Syracuse that first provoked the war, but the Southern Italian Alliance, if it weren't for your attack on Lockry, we wouldn't have accepted the invitation of our allies to come to Great Greece—"

Henipolis laughed angrily, and said angrily, "I know what I now—"

At this moment, Davos raised his hand and waved, and Henipolis did not speak, but glared at the Carthaginian messenger with hatred.