Turn your face into the sun, and there will be no shadows. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

- Plato (one of the greatest philosophers and thinkers of Western culture)

Prince Adheba is not the only one who can influence the situation on the North African continent; In addition to Prince Adheba, who is on the cusp of the storm, there is another ambitious person who is always concerned about the situation in North Africa, and that is Jugurdah of the Saharan Kingdom.

Since the last time Juguda led his army to war, the military strength of the Saharan Kingdom has been reduced to the bottom of its history; With the barren land and sparse population of the Sahara, it was enough to provide Jugurdah with an army of 6,000. Unfortunately, only a handful of 500 of these 6,000 troops were able to return to the Saharan Kingdom.

Five hundred soldiers who have experienced the battle of life and death, not too much, not too little; If these 500 people were to be used as an army, it would be simply pitiful. But if a brand new army is formed with these five hundred men as the core; Then its combat effectiveness is definitely not weak.

After leading these 500 people back to the Saharan Kingdom, Zhuguda was not only not scolded by the people of the country, but was warmly welcomed like a hero's triumph; The reason for this situation is that Zhu Guda's love for the people in the past played a decisive role.

If Juguda really was a king like Tulguta, who did not care about the life or death of the people, then he would not have been able to win the love of the people of the Sahara Kingdom; However, Jugudah is not an Turguta. Although he was also ambitious, he was interested in expanding outward; But he was also a king who was born, grew up in the Sahara, and loved the Sahara.

Fifteen years ago, when Juguda took over the crown from his father, who had died suddenly, he was only a fifteen-year-old child; At that time, the Saharan kingdom was as barren as it is now, and the people were living far worse than they are now.

The Sahara region is the largest desert in the North African continent and the largest sandy desert in the entire world. It is located south of the former Numidian Kingdom and west of the Kingdom of Tripoli, a region with very harsh climatic conditions and one of the most inhospitable places on the North African continent.

In the face of such a difficult climatic environment, the living conditions of the people of the Saharan Kingdom are extremely poor; With the exception of some oases and towns that are slightly better, people everywhere are unable to feed themselves, and Saharans often die of hunger.

Jugudah, a young man who had just ascended to the throne, took the initiative to start his transformation of the Sahara region in such a predicament that had not changed for hundreds of years; Although the changes in Zhuguda were gradual and slow, the effects of the changes were also real.

You know, the economic development of the Sahara region is extremely difficult, and the policies used by the Saharan royal family have hardly changed the traditional Sahara Desert. During the reign of the Saharan royal family, the royal authorities showed no interest in the economic development of this seemingly hopeless region.

Among the traditional products of the desert (such as hides and wool, surplus fruits, salt), only dates, especially those from the northern oases, have maintained their important position commercially. Salt, while still being refined and sent to developed regions to the north, is now competing with cheaper sea salt. All this has led to the hardship of the people of the Sahara region and the poverty and backwardness of the entire Saharan Kingdom.

There was a time when bits and pieces of minerals were discovered in the Sahara, and the people of the Sahara thought that the opportunity had come to change the fate of the Sahara region; So, they eagerly threw themselves into the mining wave. But the desert people get almost nothing out of mining, and perhaps it's counterproductive.

But history always moves forward, and the decline of nomadic life began with pacification policies, which were accelerated by changes in economic conditions and the introduction of formal settlement policies (because nomadic life was inconvenient to manage). The prevailing poor environmental conditions further encourage nomadic herders to move into oases and towns, resulting in overcrowding and poverty.

This situation lasted until Jugurdah came to power, and Jugurdah began to change everything in the Sahara kingdom in earnest; First of all, Jugurdah changed the commercial landscape and foreign trade of the Saharan Kingdom.

In the Sahara, foreign trade has traditionally been carried out by camel caravans, which is slow, arduous and dangerous; There are dangers of getting lost, overheating, suffocating sandstorms, starvation, thirst, and robbery. Despite all these dangers and difficulties, the Pan-Sahara trade along the caravan routes connecting the oases continued from very early times.

In order to completely change the status quo of the Saharan Kingdom's foreign trade, Juguda used the royal cavalry for the first time to escort the caravans; Whenever the Saharan kingdom's foreign caravans needed to trade, Jugurdah gathered them together and sent a sizable cavalry to escort them to trade.

With the royal family's strong cavalry as its back, the number and size of the Saharan Kingdom's foreign trade caravans grew rapidly; In addition, Juguda also deliberately lowered the trade tax levied by the royal family, which directly led to the rapid development of commerce in the entire Sahara Kingdom.

As commerce continues to grow, Jugurdah will be able to collect more taxes; He used these taxes to improve the lives of the poor people of the Saharan Kingdom, and called on those who had become rich first in the kingdom to help other people who were still on the subsistence line.

After nearly a decade of multifaceted efforts by Jugudah, the Saharan Kingdom was finally freed from the threat of hunger; Jugudah also officially became the first king in the history of the Saharan Kingdom to let every Saharan people have a full stomach!

Such a king would naturally have the unanimous support of the entire Saharan kingdom; How can the rich not support and love the jugura when they earn more wealth because of the jugura and the poor people can live because of the jugurada?

Even if Jugurdah later chose to lead the army to participate in the North African War, in the hearts of all the people of the Sahara Kingdom, it was also a clear proof that Juguda wanted to better lead the Saharan Kingdom to prosperity and strength; So, whether Jugurdah succeeds or fails, he is still the same King Jugurdah who is loved by the people of the Sahara Kingdom!

The tolerance and support of the Saharan people made Jugudah, who was originally decadent and self-reproachful, regain his confidence again; Juguda decided that he would continue to work hard for the future of the Saharan Kingdom and to live up to the trust of the Saharan people!

After regaining his confidence, Juguda did not immediately recruit troops; Instead, he did everything he could to make up the amount of taxes he needed to pay to Hannibal. After that, Juguda began a seven-day lecture in Neput, the capital of the Saharan Kingdom; In this speech, Juguda explained in detail the reasons and process of his defeat to all the Saharan people.

No matter how much responsibility Jugudah needs to bear in the process of failure, the Saharan people have graciously chosen to forgive Juguda and express their support for Juguda with their own cheers! After the seven-day speech, the announcement of Jugurdah's re-recruitment of the royal army was announced; This time, the people of the Sahara are still supporting King Jugurdah with their own actions!

In just three days, more than 20,000 young and strong people came to the Zhuguda military camp to sign up for the army; Among them, there are many elderly and young children. Such a result far exceeded the more than 5,000 soldiers that Zhu Guda wanted to recruit at the beginning; In order not to affect the smooth operation of the entire Saharan Kingdom, Jugurdah eventually left less than 10,000 young people.

This is less than 10,000 young people, plus the 500 veterans brought back by Zhuguda; Once again, Juguda's command has an army of 10,000 men! In order to quickly improve the combat effectiveness of this newly recruited corps, Zhu Guda decisively dispersed and dispatched 500 veterans to the new corps to serve as all grassroots and middle-level officers.

Regarding the distribution of the 10,000-strong army, Zhu Guda also divided the army under his command into 5,000 javelin cavalry and 5,000 javelin infantry under the condition of saving money as much as possible; There is no way, in the case of insufficient national strength, Juguda can only arm his army with this simplest weaponry.

After the official establishment of this army, Zhu Guda devoted all his efforts to the training of this army; All training matters, no matter how big or small, Juguda is hands-on, and he doesn't dare to be sloppy and careless.

In addition to devoting 120 percent of his efforts to this newly formed legion, Juguda also formed his own war elephant army again! Although in the previous war, a sneak attack by Vimina reimbursed all the 100 war elephants under Juguda's command; However, it was a special battle under special circumstances, and the combat effectiveness of the war elephants was still very strong.

And the hundred war elephants are not all the war elephants in the hands of Juguda; You know, the royal family of the Sahara Kingdom has two whole herds of elephants! These two elephant herds are the real inexhaustible resources of war elephants; The big herd had a hundred and seven elephants, and the smaller herd had forty-two elephants!

The existence of these two elephant herds, without affecting the reproduction and development of these two elephant families, Zhu Guda let his mahouts train a full forty adult war elephants again! It is no exaggeration to say that a war elephant force of this size; In the entire North African continent, it is the second largest war elephant unit after the war elephant troops under the command of Moffitt of the Kingdom of Cyrenaica.

With 10,000 new recruits and forty newly trained war elephants, Jugurdah quickly regained his military strength in the Sahara; At the same time, Juguda has not left behind the development of the situation on the entire North African continent, and he is always paying attention to the movements of all sides, ready to participate in the next war at any time!

It's just that after the thankless lesson of the last time, Zhu Guda's heart is much more cautious; This time, he will no longer blindly and easily join one side, but will get enough benefits on the premise of maintaining neutrality before making a real decision! (To be continued.) )