Why cry for part of your life, you don't see all your lives in tears.

- Seneca (famous Stoic philosopher of ancient Roman times)

The establishment of the Ten Rebel Groups means that the people of Tripoli have resisted the rule of the Numidians to the extreme; The total number of these ten rebel groups has reached more than 70,000, which means that half of the people in the city of Great Leptis are ready to resist the Numidian rule by violent means.

Moreover, there are very close ties between these ten rebel groups; Although we all know that each other is large, we also understand our own shortcomings and shortcomings. Therefore, these ten organizations have been united to form a combat unit that has always been specialized; The total number of this force was only 6,000 men, but they were all well-armed and determined.

Each of them was full of hatred and hatred for the Numidians, and more importantly, most of them were young and vigorous young men; Among them, the most elite two thousand core combat power, they are all family dead soldiers and family guards secretly gathered by the nobles of the original Tripoli Kingdom in the city of Daleputis, and their combat effectiveness will definitely not be worse than the regular army in Numidia!

Of course, these rebels in the city of Great Leptis did not expect to be able to rebel against the rule of the tens of thousands of Numidian armies on their own; The moment they were waiting for was when the Carthaginian army attacked the Great Leptis. Do not think that the Carthaginian army's attack on the Great Leptis is a secret matter, and there will never be a secret among the nobles; Wine beauties are always the solution to everything.

To this end, the rebels have designated a well-developed plan for the insurrection; When the Carthaginian army attacked the Great Leptis, the rebels would gather the most elite 6,000 fighting troops to attack the city gates, so that the Carthaginian army could attack. Before launching the siege of the city gates, other members of the rebel group would also launch various forms of attacks throughout the city of Velektis to distract the Numidian army.

Such a plan was not a good plan for an uprising, and it could even be said to be flawed; But what kind of perfect plan can these people, who have not been trained in war and intrigue, come up with? The Numidian army paid too much attention to the land outside the city, and completely ignored the situation inside the city; But it gave this plan enough room to develop.

The undercurrents in the city of Leptis did not affect the preparations of the Numidian army at all, and there were no accidents to stop the advance of Hannibal's army. As the days passed, Hannibal was getting closer and closer to the Great Leptis; It wasn't until Hannibal and Vermyna appeared outside the city of Leptis on horseback.

Look at the Great Leptis, who had been suddenly reinforced. Hannibal smiled and said to Vermina: "General Vermina, a few months ago you led thousands of troops in this city to assist the king of Tripoli in defending against the attack of the Numidian army; Now, the Numidian army is trapped in the city, and you are the attacker. Such a feeling. What do you think? ”

Vimyna also replied with a smile: "I chose to take the initiative at that time, because I knew that even if I lost, it would not matter; After all, the Kingdom of Tripoli is just our backyard, and we have a more powerful homeland and the presence of General Hannibal. However, this time Tuguta had no choice, and he had no choice but to die in defeat. There is no other way. ”

Vermyna's answer was met with Hannibal's laughter; Immediately, Hannibal ordered Kelimis and Gisken to surround the other three gates of Legtis, with 20,000 shielded cavalry, in case the Numidian army might take the initiative. The front gate was defended by Hannibal himself, while the rest of the infantry was responsible for building ladders and siege towers in preparation for tomorrow's siege!

The methodical preparations of the Carthaginian army were watched by the Tulgura and Ahmet on the city walls, and the two were certainly not willing to sit back and wait for the Carthaginians to attack; However, it also takes courage to take the initiative. After all, Carthage's army has 25,000 elite cavalry, and there is not enough room for display, and the javelin cavalry will be sent to death when they go out.

Tulguta and Ahmed were not reckless and took the initiative to attack, and. Thuguta also learned a lot of things he could put to good use at the moment when he attacked Tapsus; For example, Tulguta had at least 5,000 iron arrows on each wall, in order to emulate Vimyna's iron arrow attacks and inflict massive casualties on Carthage's besieging forces.

Of course, Tulguta also drew inferences from the use of an even more exaggerated weapon, which is the super javelin made of pure iron! Tsuguta specially ordered the craftsmen to build a thousand javelins made of pure iron, each weighing fifty pounds, and to use the best strongmen in the army; The purpose was to deliver a surprise blow to the Carthaginian army while defending the city.

If it weren't for the fact that he was really in this predicament with no way back, it would be impossible for Zuguta to build these pure iron equipment of little significance in such a wasteful way; However, there is no way. In order to survive, you can do anything wasteful, as long as you can survive. But does this really work? Will Victoria, who uses this method, not know how to deal with these weapons?

At this time, Vimini was discussing with Hannibal how to launch tomorrow's attack; Because Vimyna also knows. When he led his army to attack Tapsus, he had suffered heavy casualties, and he must have learned a lot of good ways to defend the city, so how to reduce the effectiveness of these possible defensive weapons became a major problem for Vermyna.

However, after Vimila voiced his doubts, Hannibal calmly let Vimila relax; Although Hannibal himself did not like siege warfare and fortification warfare. But the laws of war do not change with the change of location. No matter how good a defensive weapon is, it needs a good warrior to use; In other words, it is never the weapon itself that determines the power of the weapon, but the human beings themselves.

Tulguta could emulate Vermina's defensive approach and even make some improvements and amplifications; However, this does not mean that they can grasp the essence of the application of these weapons. In addition, the 17,000 infantry in the current Carthaginian army suitable for siege warfare are all elite who have survived the previous fierce battles, and their combat effectiveness is trustworthy.

More crucially, Hannibal did not use a large number of ladders, but an even larger number of siege ladders; This is not to say that Hannibal knew about Tulguta's defenses, but that Hannibal simply liked to use large weapons and equipment. However, Vimyna's reminder is still valid; Hannibal instructed the craftsmen to build five particularly large siege ladders, also of higher heights!

This day and night. Both sides are in full swing preparing for the upcoming battle; Both Tulguta and Ahmed spent the night patrolling the walls and the barracks inside the city. In order to prevent Hannibal from attacking the city at night, the defenders on the city walls were also on guard all night under the strict orders of Tulguta; On the contrary, the Carthaginian army slept soundly at Hannibal's behest.

The next morning, when the morning light had just appeared from the sky. In the Carthaginian barracks, a continuous sound of trumpets sounded; The defenders on the walls of the Great Leptis hurriedly gathered and prepared for battle, and the reserve troops in the city were also ready to march to the city walls under their respective generals. Unfortunately, this trumpet was nothing more than a breakfast horn for the Carthaginian army.

The Numidian defenders, who had been in a false alarm, did not return to rest, but stood guard on the city walls; By the time the Carthaginian army outside the city had eaten and drunk enough to rest, it was already nine o'clock in the morning. At this time, a flurry of trumpets sounded in the Carthaginian barracks, but this time it was a real trumpet for offensive operations.

Unlike the previous offensive methods of the Numidian army, Hannibal's Carthaginian army did not prepare a large number of ladders, and a limited number of ladders were not carried to the front; At this moment, in addition to the twelve normal siege towers, only five siege towers of unusually large scale were pushed to the front of the Carthaginian army.

These five siege towers are not only twice as tall as ordinary siege towers, but also nearly twice as large as ordinary siege towers; Hannibal's army sent thousands of people to push this behemoth, and the entire giant siege tower was built overnight, and the overall quality did not look very solid, could Hannibal still expect such a thing to attack?

It wasn't just the defenders on the city walls, but also the generals behind Hannibal; These five siege towers. It is not so much a siege tower as it is a mountain of five logs, and its slow action determines that it is impossible for it to play a role in siege warfare. As the horns of the camp continued to sound, 3,000 elite Iberian infantry pushed the twelve siege towers slowly towards the Great Leptis.

At the same time, five giant siege towers with 5,000 people pushing and dragging were also slowly marching towards the city wall; When the siege tower entered about a hundred meters from the wall, the Numidian archers on the wall began to rain round after round of arrows. Although Carthaginian soldiers were constantly killed and wounded, the siege towers were still approaching the walls little by little.

By the time the siege tower approached less than thirty meters from the wall, the archers on the wall had already fired nearly twenty rounds of arrows; Even with the cover of the siege towers, the 3,000 Carthaginian infantry was already less than 1,800 men. At this time, the five giant siege towers had also approached about a hundred meters from the city wall; The 5,000 infantry also dropped the huge siege towers under a rain of arrows from the defenders, and all of them retreated.

Just as the defenders on the walls mocked the Carthaginian infantry for their vulnerability. A full five hundred Carthaginian archers rushed to the huge siege tower that stood at a standstill under Hannibal's orders. Soon, the five hundred archers climbed each of these massive siege towers; Because the huge siege towers were much higher than the city walls, the five hundred archers immediately took advantage of this height advantage and began to shoot at the defenders on the city walls.

The Super Javelinmen and Iron Arrow Attackers, who had already been ready, were caught off guard, and two or three hundred of them fell to the ground with arrows; The defenders on the city walls immediately changed gears. Ahmet, on the other hand, calmly ordered the defenders on the walls to disperse and cover each other with shields.

The siege tower troops, which had advanced to less than thirty meters from the wall, took the opportunity to speed up their march towards the wall, and Ahmet, who saw that the Carthaginian army was not a tentative attack, hastened to gather reinforcements from Gaia and Niptasan; The 5,000 light infantry under Gaia and the 10,000 young men under Niptasan were immediately dispatched, and Ahmed's 25,000 defenders were gathered at once!

Before the Carthaginian army could approach the wall, Jugurdah took the opportunity of Ahmet's army to go up the wall, and with his 4,000 cavalry, he also abandoned his horses and pretended to be infantry and mixed with the wall; Walking up the city wall, Juguda saw the Turquo Pagoda behind the city wall at a glance. And there are only a few dozen guards around Zuguta. Jugurdah knew immediately that his chance had come!

So, Zhu Guda hurriedly took his hundreds of guards and some cavalry soldiers around him, and moved quickly towards Zuguta quietly; But Tulguta saw the arrival of Jugurdah! At this moment, Tuguta understood Zhu Guda's ill intentions without asking, he quickly pulled out the short sword at his waist, pointed at Zhu Guda and said angrily:

"Jugudah! You despicable villain, do you want to take advantage of the opportunity to plot against you? ”

Zuguta's angry shouting in this life not only let Jugurdah know that he was exposed, but also made the nearby Numidian soldiers hurry towards Jugurdah's encirclement; Originally, he just wanted to take advantage of the chaos to hold Tulguta hostage, so he had to order his soldiers to speed up and kill Tulguta. In an instant, the 4,000 Juguda soldiers on the city wall were in a scuffle with the Numidian soldiers.

Ahmed sensed the confusion behind him, and when he heard the voice, he knew that Jugurdah was trying to do wrong; Before Ahmad had time to think, he ordered half of his men to immediately turn back and encircle the Jugurdah army. In the scuffle, Jugurdah tried to get close to Tulguta, but was stopped by the fierce Numidian soldiers; Seeing the soldiers under his command die one after another, the grief-stricken Juguda threw a short gun in his hand at Zuguta, who was less than fifty meters away from him, with red eyes. (To be continued.) )