Marco was almost startled when he had been treated like this, and then looked at Pretaku beside him suspiciously.

Pretakuba looked at him and said meaningfully: "My lord, this is not our instruction, but the cheers of the people from the heart!" Since the outbreak of the war, we have suffered a crushing defeat, the Dionian army is ravaging our land in Sicily, the Dionian warships are attacking our merchant ships sailing to the west of Sicily from time to time to trade, the people of the Sicilian colonies are displaced, and the trade is rapidly withering...... They are now deeply aware that Carthage needs a hero to defeat the enemy and restore Carthage's prosperity! ”

"I see, I'll let them see it!" Marco looked solemn, raised his right hand, and waved vigorously to the surrounding audience.

The cheers were even louder.

"Look, the king of Iberia has come, and he has made himself like a hero!" Ocleton looked at the trouble of being surrounded by the people and walking towards the Senate, and said sarcastically.

"Heroes?! That will have to wait until he defeats Dionia! Typanrako scoffed.

"He himself brought more than 20,000 troops, and here another 60,000 troops were prepared for him, and Sicily had 30,000 or 40,000 troops, a total of 11 or 20,000 strong troops, which is the most powerful army in the history of Carthage! Whoever is the commander of this army will probably win easily! Another elder said disdainfully.

The senators at the gate of the Senate whispered, and Hanno, who was standing at the forefront, looked calm, although he did not say a word, but his heart was also turbulent: he had spent more than ten years of efforts to eliminate the influence of the Magonides family on Carthage, even if he drove his direct family out of Carthage, he was always wary of Margo. Listen to the cheers of the whole city, it doesn't mean that the Magonides still have a lot of influence in Carthage! And the reason why the people of Carthage had such a strong voice was precisely because they were worried about the war in Sicily, if he had a capable general in his hands, how could he make the situation in the city like this?

Hanno looked at Margo approaching him, and Hanno was both annoyed and jealous, but his expression remained calm, because he could not give a bad impression to the people: he was the culprit who prevented Margo from leading the army.

"Welcome, Margot-sama!" With a smile on his face, Hanno praised loudly: "You are here, and there is hope for our war with Dionia!" That's why we've gathered enough citizen soldiers and prepared enough food for you, just to hear the news of your victory as soon as possible! ”

Margo listened to his words of praise and looked at his seemingly sincere smile, but felt a wave of nausea in his heart, and couldn't help but say: "Carthage is in danger, if it weren't for some people's obstruction, I should have come a long time ago!" ”

Hanno didn't hear it, still smiling, and made a gesture inviting him in.

Marco entered the Senate with his head held high.

Ocleton approached Hanno and was angry to say something.

Hanno stopped him with a look.

…………………………………………

In the meeting, Marco addressed the senators, in which he gave a solemn overview of the dangerous situation facing Carthage, thanked them for their trust in him, and finally made an impassioned promise that he would do everything in his power to reverse the current unfavorable situation, to defeat the Dionian army, to drive the Dionian forces out of Sicily, and to force Dionya not to invade Carthage's ally Rome again, and to force Dionya to open up its trade with Carthaginian merchants to a greater extent. forced it to reduce the size of its navy, which posed a threat to Carthage......

What Marco said was exactly what the patriarchs wanted, so everyone responded with warm applause.

At this time, Ocliton stood up while applauding, and said coldly: "Very exciting speech! But a few months ago, Monte Adeno said the same thing, but what about the result! ”

A jar of cold water was poured on Margo, who was in the midst of excitement, and he was even more angry that the other party actually compared himself with that incompetent person, and immediately refuted loudly: "That fool of Monteadeno is not capable of commanding this war in the first place, if it weren't for the insistence of some people, he would not have been able to serve as the commander-in-chief, and as a result, he regarded the war as a child's play, suffered a crushing defeat, and caused Carthage to suffer huge losses, should this accountability be held accountable to the end?!" ”

Hanno raised an eyebrow.

Ocliton laughed, "Monte Adno is an incompetent?!" It's funny that he fought in Numibia for many years, never suffered defeat, and won Carthage a great deal of land, no less than what you did in Iberia, which is why the senators unanimously elected him commander-in-chief! Even so, after suffering a defeat, he was severely punished. If there is anything wrong with this punishment imposed by the Senate, then I would like to ask Lord Hanno, more than ten years ago, Hilmico and you suffered a crushing defeat to Dionysius, which caused the death of about half of the citizens of Carthage, and suffered much greater losses than Monteadeno's defeat, but have you ever suffered a punishment like Monteadeno?! Is this fair?! ”

"You talk nonsense!!" The scars of the past were revealed, and Margo was so angry that he immediately scolded.

Hanno had an undetectable smile on his face.

Pretakuba immediately stood up and shouted, "Lord Ocriton, now that the great army has gathered and is about to fight the Ionians, it will decide the fate of our Carthage!" But you are saying these words at this time to disturb the morale of the army, I don't know what it means?! ”

"Don't scare me, Pretakubadan. I didn't have any other intentions, I just wanted to ask Master Margo, but before I finished asking, I didn't expect him to react so violently. Ocliton shrugged his shoulders, looked innocent, and continued: "What I just wanted to say is that everyone can say good things, but it is not easy for us to gather so many citizens to go out to fight in action!" And it is even more difficult to raise enough rations for this huge army! Our coffers, our taxes, the gold and silver we mined...... We can't afford to keep this war going on for long, so I want to ask, Margo, can you give us a specific deadline to fulfill the promise you just made? ”

Margo was stunned.

Ocriton's words were agreed by many senators, after all, the dispute between Marco and Hanno for more than a month before could be said to have delayed the fighter, and now he has a large army, if it is still delayed, the senators should be blind.

Even Esyaruba took the initiative to get up and said: "Lord Margo, Ocleton is right, the consumption of hundreds of thousands of troops is huge, and we really need a relatively definite deadline, so that the entire Carthage can grit its teeth and persist during this period, and do its best to provide the supply of the army. ”

Pretakuba winked at Margo.

Margo originally thought that if he could get the full support of Carthage, it would not be a bad thing to set a deadline, but he was a little hesitant when he saw Pretakuba's eyes.

"It seems that Lord Margo is not very confident that he can defeat the Dionians." Tepanrako said mockingly.

Margo glared at Typanrako, then swept his sharp gaze to Hanno, who was also looking at him, smiled disdainfully, and said seriously and loudly: "We all know that Dionya is a great power, and the war between us and Dioonia cannot end in a short time, and I know what you mean by saying this, but I am still willing to set a deadline, both to urge myself and to give hope to the people of Carthage...... 1 year! Within a year, I will do my best to drive the Dionian forces out of Sicily! ”

………………………………………

The main forces of Samoneh's coalition entered Beneventom and the next day received the news that "Lola was besieged by the enemy."

As soon as Segovani received the news, he immediately called for a military conference, in which he anxiously said: "We will go to battle at once, repel the Ionian coalition to the south, and then lead the army back to Llora."

Of course, Lesguk did not agree with this proposal, and he patiently persuaded him: "Great Leader of Segovani, the city of Lola is strong, and the defenders are not small, and the enemy cannot take it in a short time, so you don't need to be too anxious. You should know that the enemy outside Benevenum is outnumbered and well built, and if we attack head-on, our losses will be very large, and we will not necessarily succeed.

However, with such a large army of Dionya coming from afar, the supply of food becomes a major problem, as long as we send several troops to sneak into the mountains, bypass their camps, attack the passage between Abenirum and their camps, and cut off their food transports. The Dioonians will not have enough to eat, and they will be in a state of panic, and then it will be time for us to attack. Once we have defeated the main force of the Ionian coalition this time, we will be in a much better position for the rest of the day. ”

"I agree with Lesguk, we have few troops now, and we should indeed be cautious!" After all, the Dionians' forces did not threaten Pentney's territory, and he certainly did not want to risk it.

As for Contruk, he was a little hesitant, although Caracheni's territory was far away from the threat of Dionia's attack, but as an old man who has always taken a tough attitude to protect the interests of the Samonai race, it is against his nature to adopt a heavy strategy, but the Karacheni warriors are the least numerous among the four races, and there are many losses after a few battles, so he has to pay attention to this issue, so in the end he also agreed to Lesguk's suggestion.