We are afraid to face grief, the impermanence of fate always seems unfair, and what we fear is what will be lost.

- Boethius (a rare encyclopedic thinker in Europe)

Perhaps because Hannibal's achievements were too dazzling, everyone thought that once Hannibal returned to Carthage, he would be able to successfully repel the army of the Kingdom of Numidia; So much so that on the first day of Hannibal's return, the anti-Hannibal elites of Carthage could prepare a way to fight Hannibal after the war.

Although the people who participated in this conclave were extremely repulsive to Hannibal, this does not mean that they were blindly hating Hannibal; After all, they are all the most elite people in the upper class of Carthage, and their strategic choices and judgment of the situation are also the most accurate and sharp people in the entire Carthaginian kingdom, but they only have the interests of their own family in their eyes.

Compared with other participants, Hanno Jr. is not enough to participate in it in terms of qualifications and ability; It's just that Hanno Jr.'s anti-Hannibal sentiment is also well known, and the strength of the Hanno family should not be underestimated, so the other participants decided to include Little Hannold.

In fact, when little Hanno saw these people in front of him, he was also very surprised; You must know that these dozen or so people are all magnates of the Carthage Kingdom with the same status as his father Hanno, and being recognized by them basically means that little Hanno is recognized and accepted by the top society of the Carthage Kingdom. In this regard, little Hanno is naturally active.

Before Hannibal had achieved a clear advantage on the battlefield, this covert anti-Hannibal group did not take any direct measures, but only developed some predetermined plans just in case; Only when Hannibal has absolute superiority on the battlefield will these predetermined plans be truly implemented, otherwise everyone will still work together for the survival of the Carthaginian kingdom.

In fact, these scheming Carthaginian politicians also know it; As long as Hannibal won the war, then the entire army of the Kingdom of Carthage would become the army of Hannibal alone, not the army of the Kingdom of Carthage, under the unprecedented victory. The generals of those armies, with the exception of Vimina, were almost impossible to obey the orders of the Senate.

Therefore, in the predetermined plan formulated by these people, they did not think at all to achieve the goal of controlling Hannibal through the strength of the Carthaginian army; Since the army was unreliable, the Carthaginian soil had no more power to control Hannibal. And the only force that can counterbalance Hannibal is the only external power outside the Kingdom of Carthage.

What were the external forces of the Kingdom of Carthage? On the African continent, apart from the Kingdom of Numidia, which lived next to the Kingdom of Carthage, only the Kingdom of Egypt remained further east. Although the Kingdom of Egypt was also a powerful eastern kingdom, it had little to do with the Kingdom of Carthage; In the process of dealing with Hannibal, naturally there is no value.

Overseas, on the Iberian Peninsula, Hannibal's family of Hannibal had extremely deep contradictions with the Kingdom of Spain; However, the Kingdom of Spain has been feared by two generations of the Hannibal family, and they simply do not have the courage and strength to fight against Hannibal, and it is obviously impossible for them to become a tool to counterbalance Hannibal.

What remained was the Greek city-states of Sicily and the Roman power of Sardinia; In fact, the ancient city-state of Syracis in Sicily was simply a puppet deliberately left behind by Hannibal. Hannibal wanted to settle the city-state of Syractica by using his thousands of cavalry on the island of Sicily to turn the city-state of Syracuse into Hannibal's domain.

In the end, the only ones who could compete with Hannibal were the Roman Augustans of Sardinia; Although the Romans had been defeated by Hannibal several times, they were able to get up again each time to fight back, which in itself speaks to the strength of the Romans. In particular, the Augustan family on Sardinia has an extremely large army, which is the best potential helper for this group of people!

Since the Augustan family in Sardinia had the courage and strength to fight against Hannibal at the same time, it was natural that the members of this group of anti-Hannibal organizations would not waste such good resources; Thus, before Hannibal began to launch a full-scale counterattack against the kingdom of Numidia, the anti-Hannibal group began to secretly contact the Augustus family.

For the olive branch from within the kingdom of Carthage, Oscar will not be wasted; In this way, the two sides hit it off, and immediately launched a series of secret cooperation back and forth. The anti-Hannibal organization of the Carthaginian kingdom constantly passed on Hannibal's information in the Carthaginian territory to the Augustan family; And the Augustus family began to actively prepare for war.

However, there are always some unexpected surprises when things turn out; Although the Augustans succeeded in taking the Balearic Islands and the provinces of Betica, which belonged to the House of Hannibal, and killed Hannibal's two younger brothers, they were helplessly caught up in the struggle within the Roman Republic.

And just when the Augustus family was caught up in the internal struggle of the Roman Republic, Hannibal's swift counterattack officially kicked off; After taking control of all the forces of Carthage, Hannibal completed the counterattack against the army of the Kingdom of Numidia with lightning speed, and successfully captured the capital and capital provinces of the Kingdom of Numidia.

Even the invading army led by Zuguta, the king of the kingdom of Numidia on the southern front, was forced to flee in a hurry by Hannibal's might; Such a speed of attack not only shocked the Kingdom of Numidia, but also the anti-Hannibal organization and the House of Augustus of the Kingdom of Carthage, and made everyone frightened!

However, at this time, the House of Augustus could not withdraw from the attack on Hannibal's Sicilian power; After all, Marius is not a good stubble. If Marius's worries cannot be completely eliminated, the Augustan family may face a sneak attack from behind Marius's forces while sending troops to Sicily; It was also a risk that the Augustans could not accept.

For the House of Augustus, once it was really impossible to launch an offensive against Sicily before Hannibal settled the war in North Africa; All that was lost was a golden opportunity to destroy Hannibal and his army. Therefore, it is impossible for the Augustan family to risk the family inheritance being attacked for the sake of such an opportunity.

Compared with the careful comparison of the Augustan family, the anti-Hannibal organization of the Carthaginian kingdom was more simple; If the Augustans were unable to act as a constraining factor from Hannibal and succeed in attracting Hannibal's attention abroad, their interests would suffer greatly, and they themselves could even be uprooted by the victorious Hannibal.

In order to protect their own interests, but also for the sake of their own lives; This anti-Hannibal organization in the Kingdom of Carthage decided to take the initiative and sent a staunch anti-Hannibal to Sardinia, where the House of Augustus was located, to persuade the House of Augustus to send an army to Sicily in order to attract Hannibal's attention.

Among the anti-Hannibal groups, the only one who is most famous and well-known is Hanno the Younger; How could the other cunning old foxes attack Hannibal in public? After careful consultations, the anti-Hannibal groups unanimously decided to send Hanno Jr. as an envoy to the Augustan family, and did everything possible to get the Augustan family to send troops to Sicily before Hannibal completed the war in North Africa!

The so-called exhaustion of all means is naturally to let little Hanno make some strong guarantees to the Augustan family in exchange for the Augustan family's troops; In fact, the final reserve price in the hearts of the anti-Hannibal organization is to cede all the territory of the Carthaginian Kingdom to the Augustan family, and help the Augustan family to contain the army of Carthage as much as possible.

In fact, for the members of the anti-Hannibal group, the territory outside the Kingdom of Carthage itself had no practical meaning at all; The province of Betica on the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean have always been the sphere of influence of the Hannibal family, and have nothing to do with the Carthaginian kingdom itself.

Moreover, now that these two provinces have been occupied by the armies of House Augustus, there is no point in talking about anything else; Other than that, it's Sicily. Two-thirds of Sicily's territory was now under the control of Hannibal's army, and the remaining third was controlled by the ancient city-state of Syrac; All of them have nothing to do with the Carthage land, and belong to interests that can be dissipated.

More importantly, everything was based on a common premise, that is, the Augustans could defeat Hannibal and his army; In this way, the House of Augustus could take the throne of all of Sicily as victors. Then the question arises, can the Augustians defeat Hannibal and his army?

On such a question, all the members of the anti-Hannibal group did not think that the Augustan family could be the final victors; After all, Hannibal's reputation was not boasted, but was actually poured with the blood of the Romans. In the past, Hannibal won more with less several times, and the superior Roman army that fought was repeatedly wiped out; At this time, how could the House of Augustus change all this?

For the anti-Hannibal group, their goal was to get the Augustus family to attract Hannibal's attention; Let Hannibal leave Carthage as soon as the war in North Africa was over. As soon as Hannibal left Carthage, there were countless ways for the anti-Hannibal group to quickly take control of the Carthage army after Hannibal left.

As long as the anti-Hannibal group controlled the army of Carthage in time, even if Hannibal could defeat the army of the Augustan family in Sicily, it would be impossible to do whatever he wanted to the entire upper class of the Carthaginian kingdom as he did now. In other words, from the very beginning, the Augustus family was the cannon fodder that the anti-Hannibal organization tried to co-opt! (To be continued.) )