Please tell me who is not a slave. Some people are slaves of "****", some are slaves of "greed", some are slaves of "ambition", and all of them are slaves of "fear".

- Seneca (famous Stoic philosopher of ancient Roman times)

Hannibal's march south had not yet begun, and the senators of the Senate had once again received information that made their hearts flutter; Luquis of the House of Augustus led tens of thousands of troops to attack the province of Betica, Margo, the general of the House of Hannibal, was killed on the battlefield, and Theophanes, the governor of Betica, hurriedly withdrew from Betica with about 10,000 remnants of the army and withdrew to Sicily.

This information came too timely, and the elders of Carthage knew too well the affection between Hannibal and Marco; There has always been a place where there is Hannibal, there is a figure of Margo, and the two brothers are brothers who grew up together, and the feelings can be seen. Now that Margo has been killed by the Augustans, and the base of the Hannibals, Betica, has also been taken by the Augustus, will Hannibal be able to endure it?

The senators even thought that Hannibal, upon receiving this news, would immediately lead part of his army back to Sicily, and then launch a vengeful attack on Sardinia of the House of Augustus; The senators were thrilled by the thought of this, and they immediately ordered the guards to send this information to Hannibal, who was about to go south.

Hannibal, who was organizing a large army in the barracks to prepare for the south, saw this sudden arrival of the guard, and chuckled in his heart, as if he had some ominous premonition; When Hannibal picked up the parchment scroll brought by the guard and read it, he only lowered his right hand holding the parchment with his eyes blank. Sakaber and Kelimis and Giesken looked at Hannibal worriedly, not knowing what was happening.

It took ten minutes for Hannibal to recover; He began to grip the parchment roll tightly with his right hand, his nails digging into the flesh without realizing it. He ordered the three generals beside him with an expressionless face: "The plan for the army to go south remains unchanged, and you continue to organize the army to prepare for departure......

Poof~ Hannibal's order is not finished. A mouthful of blood spurted out of his mouth; Then Hannibal fell straight from his horse. The three generals who saw this scene hurriedly jumped off their horses, picked up Hannibal and sent him to the military tent; The army that was originally going to set off was also disbanded on the spot. When the messenger saw Hannibal's reaction, the guards fled in the eyes of the soldiers.

The moment Hannibal saw the contents of the parchment, it was like five thunderbolts; The death of Siodichris has deprived Hannibal of a younger brother and the future general of the family, while the death of Marco has caused Hannibal to lose his other brother, as well as the most trusted general and the pillar of the Hannibal family.

This moment. Hannibal was not thinking about the future of the Hannibals, nor what would happen to the Hannibals after losing Betica; His mind was full of Margo's shadow. He and Margo learned to ride war horses together since childhood, learned how to lead soldiers together since childhood, crawled in the military camp together since childhood, and ...... together since childhood

Hannibal knows that he has lost not only a general and a close relative, but also the only person in the world who understands himself, loves himself, and is willing to protect himself with his life; Margo's death hit Hannibal more than anything else. Even if it was the fall of Carthage. Hannibal also had the confidence to regain Carthage with his army and Marco and re-establish the Carthaginian kingdom.

But when Marco dies in battle, who should she fight with? At this moment, Hannibal was confused, and he didn't even know what the point of his silent efforts was. Is it for the family? No, the members of the Hannibal family have been killed and wounded. Is it for the Kingdom of Carthage? Are the patriarchs of the Kingdom of Carthage still worth paying for themselves?

The bad news of Margo's death on Hannibal is really indescribable in words, and it is also incomprehensible to ordinary people; After spitting out that mouthful of hot blood that had accumulated in his chest. Hannibal fell asleep. Yes, not fainted. It is to fall asleep peacefully; For almost twenty years since Hannibal came of age, Hannibal has never had a good night's sleep.

This night, Hannibal slept very well and comfortably; In the dream, Hannibal forgot about the turmoil of the Carthaginian kingdom and the growing expansion of the Roman Republic. I don't even remember who I am. Hannibal only knew that he was an older brother, and that he lived carefree in his hometown with his three younger brothers, in a mansion in Cordoba.

Unfortunately, dreams are still dreams after all. Reality is still reality after all; The moment Hannibal woke up from his dream, he was the invincible Carthaginian god of war again. Hannibal did not choose to change his plans, nor did he do anything drastic; It was only an orderly order that Sakar Bosan would continue to prepare for the south, and that the army would officially march south early tomorrow morning.

Looking at Hannibal, who was unwavering, the three generals of Sakab looked at each other, but they didn't know how to comfort Hannibal; After Hannibal fell, the trio carried Hannibal into a tent and immediately called in a military doctor. The military doctor said that Hannibal had only vomited a mouthful of stuffy blood in his chest before, and now he had fallen into a deep sleep because he was too tired, and that there was nothing wrong with him, and he would wake up.

Of course, the three generals did not believe that Hannibal vomited blood because of exhaustion, so they took the parchment in Hannibal's hand and looked at it; Seeing this, the three of them were completely shocked. It turned out that the Augustan family in Rome sent a large army to capture Betica, the nest of the Hannibal family, in one fell swoop, and Marco was also killed on the battlefield; Marco's relationship with Hannibal is well known.

Therefore, Hannibal's tepid behavior overwhelmed the three generals; In fact, Hannibal's heart was still grieving, but he had no choice. The war in North Africa has already reached this point, and if it is abandoned halfway at this time, it will not only be a return to the mountains and a trouble, but also the best opportunity to lead Carthage back to the hegemony of North Africa.

Therefore, Hannibal had no choice but to continue with the original plan; However, Hannibal himself had already decided in his heart. As soon as the war in North Africa ended, Hannibal would personally lead the elite army back to Sicily; If the Augustians wanted to launch an attack on Sicily, then it happened that Hannibal would directly fight the Augustusian family.

If the Augustans did not want to face Hannibal's tens of thousands of elite troops, Hannibal would have taken the initiative to lead an army to attack Sardinia; As for the naval side. Hannibal's naval power was no weaker than that of the Augustus. After the war in North Africa, Hannibal would directly take over all the naval forces controlled by the senators of the Senate; If they dare to refuse, it will be up to Hannibal's army to recognize them.

When Hannibal forcibly suppressed his inner turmoil and led an army of 30,000 to the south, the senators of the Senate also listened carefully to the information brought back by the guards; Although Hannibal's performance was to launch an attack on the southern front of the Numidian Kingdom as originally planned, the senators knew that Hannibal would definitely complete his revenge on the Augustus family first after the war. Let's talk about the rest.

The senators who were celebrating in the Senate did not know that Hannibal's first target was still them, of course, as long as they cooperated with Hannibal to hand over the entire naval fleet; Otherwise, before Hannibal went out to conquer the House of Augustus, Carthage would have been slaughtered.

Naturally, the news of Hannibal's army heading south could not be concealed from Zuguta, who was now in a dilemma and did not know how to deal with himself; Hannibal's information on the complete annihilation of the Numidian army on the Western Front and the capture of the province of Numidia was still sent to Turguta by the governor of Gaturia Bahano half a month ago.

In order to calm the army, Tulguta did not dare to announce the news to the outside world, but only told Ahmed, who could be absolutely trusted; At this point in the war, the defeat of the Kingdom of Numidia was irretrievable. The loss of the capital province wiped out the strategic advantage of the kingdom of Tripoli and the province of Baissasien, which Turguta occupied; Not to mention. There are still two places in the province of Baisassien that are still holding out.

Having learned of Hannibal's information, it was impossible for Turguta to continue the attack on the city of Tapsus; Because Tulguta really didn't dare to waste the limited strength in his hands to attack at a great cost, otherwise it would be pointless for Thuguta to capture Tapsus before Hannibal went south. Because the remnants of the Numidian army could not resist the attack of Hannibal's superior forces.

In order to obtain a larger army, Tuguta even had Gaia and light infantry forcibly recruit another 5,000 young men in Tripoli; So far, Tulguta's army has 11,000 elite Ahmed, 12,000 javelinmen under the command of Thuguta himself, 5,000 light infantry under the command of Niptasan and Egklos, 3,000 light infantry under the command of Gaia, and 10,000 young troops in Tripoli.

The light infantry was able to reach thirteen thousand. That was only possible when the 5,000 light infantry guarding Tripoli were transferred to the front line. As for the 10,000 young soldiers, they are overestimated by the recruits. It's pure cannon fodder; They were all farmers in the real sense of the word, who had just laid down their farming tools, and had not received any military training at all. Even the weapons they used were left behind by the Numidian soldiers who had died in battle.

The reason why Tulguta included them in his army was nothing more than a bluff; Otherwise, with only 36,000 troops under the command of Tulguta, which were not as good as the southbound army led by Hannibal himself in terms of quantity and quality, this war would not have to be fought. Of course. Tulguta also considered the possibility of suing for peace with the kingdom of Carthage, but Ahmet rejected this possibility outright.

In Ahmet's view, even the Senate of Carthage agreed to make peace; Hannibal, who was already in charge of the Carthaginian army, was unlikely to accept the peace negotiation, and he would certainly have exterminated the Numidian army. Zuguta thought about Hannibal's brilliant exploits and the tragic state of the army on the Western Front of Numidia. It also agreed with Ahmed.

You can't beat it, and you can't make a peace; Could it be that the Numidian army could only wait to die under the city of Tapsus? Once Hannibal arrived at Tapsus with tens of thousands of elite troops, whether the Numidian army was willing to fight or not; An unusually large decisive battle was inevitable. The 16,000 cavalry that the Numidian army still possessed could not be the match for the 25,000 cavalry under Hannibal, and the gap in infantry was even greater; Besides, the tens of thousands of defenders of Tapsus could not stand idly by.

In this way, the possibility of victory for the Numidian army is almost impossible; In this situation, where there was neither an advantage in troops nor a class of troops, Tulguta finally chose to withdraw his troops! After Thuguta informed Ahmad of this idea, Ahmet agreed to withdraw the Numidian army from Baisasian province and return to Numidia proper.

According to Zuguta's meaning, this withdrawal is actually a retreat from Baisasian to Tripoli, why did Ahmet directly say that he would retreat to Numidia proper? It turned out that Ahmet's consciousness was such that the province of Tripoli was, after all, a newly occupied province of the Numidian Kingdom, and the foundation of its rule could be said to be completely absent; Rather than holding on to such a place, it is better to withdraw directly to Numidia proper, at least in Numidia proper, where the army still has the advantage of the right time, place and people.

Ahmed's idea, however, was extremely inconsistent with Tulguta's mind; Because this war was provoked by Thuguta himself, and it was also a war that established the prestige of Tulguta himself. If you go back like this, not only will you lose the newly occupied Tripoli, but even the capital province will be occupied by Carthage, what do you make the nobles of Numidia think of King Zuguta? Therefore, in the end, Tulguta decided to withdraw his troops from Tripoli, and Ahmed reluctantly agreed. (To be continued.) )