The people of the whole city of Tonnis gathered and collectively proposed to the council that the entire city-state be completely incorporated into the kingdom of Dionia, and that the citizens of Tonnis become citizens of Dionia.

The council soon decided to urgently convene a citizens' assembly to vote on whether or not to join Dionia.

The result of the vote: the resolution was adopted by more than 90% of the citizens.

Tounis immediately sent an emissary to Syracuse to express to Cipros the strong will of the people of Taunis.

Sipros certainly welcomed it, but he said that the matter was so important that he needed to ask King Davers for advice and report it to the Senate.

This was soon learned of by the people of Leotine, who followed suit and sent messengers to Cypros not long after.

In the meantime, Davers's directive "about Leotizides leading his troops to the north coast" and the subsequent arrival of the Third Fleet left Leotizides and Zantiparis without worrying about having nothing to do.

The four of Sipros, Leotizides, Zantiparis, and Midorades soon convened a military council.

"Your Majesty has sent a letter asking us to launch a military operation on the north coast as soon as possible." As the presiding officer of this military meeting, Sipros showed modesty: "I hope that a plan can be discussed at this meeting and presented to Your Majesty." Of course, this plan is up to you, although your expedition will increase the consumption of military rations, and will also make the towns lack labor for winter sowing, but I will do my best to ensure the supply of food and supplies for the army. ”

As soon as Sipros finished speaking, Leotizides said: "Your Majesty has asked us in his order to choose a foothold on the north coast, so that the Third Fleet can easily patrol the waters of western Sicily, and my plan is to seize it. ”

Leotizides said, pointing somewhere on the map.

Palermos! Zantiparis was shocked, and hurriedly said, "Isn't it too dangerous?" Palermos is a large city-state, not far from the Carthaginian army, and if we can't take it in a short time, and the Carthaginian army will soon come to our aid, we will be in trouble! ”

"Neither the Seeudium, nor the Solus, nor the ruins of Himera have a port large enough to accommodate the Third Fleet, and it will have to be rebuilt with manpower and time, and only Palermos has the conditions to allow the Third Fleet to reluctantly settle in." Leotizides said this to Midorades, and then he turned to Zantiparis and said: "You have not been in Sicily for a long time, and you do not know much about the topography of Palermos, which is surrounded by high mountains, and there are only three roads on land to connect it to the outside, a relatively long narrow mountain road to the south to Erux, a rugged seaside path to Erux, and a seaside road to the east to Solus. As long as we block the mountain passes and seaside paths to the south, we can easily block Carthaginian reinforcements. As for Solus, if he sends troops to the rescue, we can just annihilate him, and then take Solus along with him. ”

"I've heard you say that there were some native warriors in the Carthaginian army who were able to climb mountains." Zantiparis reminded.

"Yes, these natives came from Iberia, and they had climbed over the mountains during the Carthaginian attack on Seedium, attacking the rear of the Seedium defenders, leading to the fall of this friendly city-state. But as long as we raise our vigilance, a sudden attack by the Carthaginians will not be possible, and the mountains around Palermos are more than five or six hundred meters high, which is not so easy to climb, and even if the Iberian natives were able to come, they are believed to be exhausted, and we can just wait for them to be defeated. Leotizides said confidently.

"Prosous, you convinced me." Zantiparis said seriously, the reason why he asked questions again and again just now was just out of caution and wanted to remind Leotizides to pay attention to these questions, although they were also mercenary generals on expeditions to Persia, he was very different from Amintas, he had a gentle personality and put his position very right, he did not refuse to obey the orders of the young commander because Leotizides was less senior than himself, on the contrary, in the battle against Syracuse, he had been trying his best to carry out the orders given by Leotizides, Seriously assisting him in battle, as a veteran who has retired from the army at home, he can get his wish and be promoted to the captain of the Ionian Legion, he is already very satisfied.

"I also agree with Lord Prosous's plan." Midorades nodded and said, of course he couldn't ask for the port of Palermos to dock the Third Fleet. He looked at Leotizides, and then at Zantiparis, and was a little curious, he had not worked with Leotizides before, but he had heard something about the young commander, and when he saw it today, he was as rumored, he ignored his dignity, liked to go his own way, and acted arbitrarily, fortunately he was a navy.

"You're going to attack Palermos, I'm in favor of it! But don't take the soldiers with you, and don't forget that there are still enemies on the island of Ortigia, and the main city of Syracuse has just been captured and is not yet stable, and there are thousands of captives in the city...... "Sipros reminded.

"I'll take the Seventh and Eighth Legions to the north coast." Leotizides said simply.

Just two legions?! You've taken all the regular troops of Sicily with you! …… Sipros was guilty in his heart, but fortunately he knew Leotizides and had already prepared: "Can you keep the wounded soldiers of the two legions?" On the one hand, it will be beneficial for them to recover from their wounds, and on the other hand, I would like them to temporarily serve as officers in charge of training and commanding the citizens of the port area of Syracuse, as well as the citizens of Taunis and Leotini, who will soon join the kingdom.

Also, can you lend me the thousands of sets of Greek heavy infantry armor and weapons you have obtained in the previous battles to arm the citizens of these port districts, stabilize the city, and defend against the enemies of Ortigia? ”

Leotizides thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.

At this time, Midorades said: "Sir Sipros, I have a suggestion regarding the captives in the city of Syracuse...... The Ninth Legion has occupied the city of Salos on the island of Sardinia, and His Majesty hopes that we will be able to control the production and trade of precious metals on the island of Sardinia as soon as possible, which will require a lot of manpower, can we transport all the captives in the city of Syracuse to Saros, and the Ninth Legion can transport the captives of Saros to Syracuse, and become the labor you need to rebuild Syracuse......"

Sipros' eyes lit up: "It's a great idea!" But first we have to get the consent of His Majesty and the Senate. ”

The people of Syracuse never imagined that decades ago they had captured more than 6,000 Athenian soldiers to work in the quarries, and none of them survived, and now they have become slaves of Dionya and will go to Sardinia to work as mining laborers, and their fate is cruel!

………………………………………

The news that the Carthaginian army had resumed its siege of the city of Selinus reached Minoa and caught the attention of Davers, who, despite Tormide's dissuasion, decided to visit Selinus himself, accompanied by Alexis and Amintas.

Escorted by 40 ships, Davers arrived at the port of Selinus.

Calcides, the former captain of the First Brigade of the Eighth Army and now the temporary military commander of Selinus, received the news and hurried to the dock to meet him.

"Your Majesty, Calsides, the interim commander of Selinus, salutes you!"

"Good work, Calcidis! Although it is the first time that you and I have met today, I have been worried about you since I read Prosus's battle report! I'm worried that you will be able to hold such an important city of Selinus with only three or four thousand irregular soldiers. But you held on, amazing! Davers did not hesitate to praise him.

Calsides was a little embarrassed, and he hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, in fact, after Commander Prosous led the army away, the city of Selinus was not attacked by the Carthaginian army again. In addition, the Sicilian fleet also helped us a lot. ”

"The Sicilian fleet should do something, and this is also their forward base." Davers said casually, looked around, saw the busy laborers on the dock trestle, and asked, "Are they slaves?" Or the Selinus? ”

"Your Majesty, after we captured the city of Selinus, we gave freedom to the slaves of the city-state here, and many slaves and freedmen who voluntarily applied to become citizens of Dionya were left behind by us to work as laborers in the port, and some of them were people who escaped after the fall of Minoa and Agrigento, who did not want to take refuge in Katanay, but were willing to come to Selinus to help defend against the Carthaginians. The real Selinus had long since been escorted to Catanay, Naxos...... Become a slave of the kingdom, and now there are no more Selinus people in the whole city of Selinus......"

"Selinus is on the front lines of the war, and it is very important to maintain the stability and security of order in the city, and I am glad that you have done this." Davers said approvingly.

Calcides led Davers and his party out of the harbor and into the city. Then, to their amazement, they saw that the city was dusty, and some Dionian soldiers were demolishing dwellings near the city walls.

"What is this doing?" Amintas immediately asked.

"The city is inhabited only by nearly 4,000 of our soldiers, and most of the dwellings are vacant, and we are going to dig trenches and set traps on the land where the dwellings are demolished, and at the same time use the stones and bricks we have obtained to build another inner wall, so that even if the Carthaginians break through our outer walls, they will not be able to take the city of Selinus." Calcides said firmly.