Morality is eternal, and wealth changes its owner every day.

- Plutarch (Roman Empire biographer, ethicist)

Oscar was also worried that some generals would propose to postpone the decisive battle, so that even if the minority obeyed the majority in the end to promote the decisive battle, it would inevitably make some generals dissatisfied; Of course, the worst Oscar had before he said it was that the vast majority of the generals opposed the decisive battle, but fortunately, everyone did not disappoint Oscar.

In fact, Oscar is not only not disappointed now, but sees the hope of his family defeating the strong with the weak! Look at the imposing generals, look at the passion on their faces and the desire to fight in their eyes; Oscar knew that as long as these people were there, the Augustus family could not fail, and this was the faith!

With this unwavering faith, the armies of House Augustus will be an invincible army, and even if they suffer defeat on the battlefield, they will bounce back and fight until they win the final victory! However, the matter of war cannot be solved by faith alone; It still needs to be concretely prepared.

After a passionate shout, Oscar adjusted his mood again and signaled the generals who were still excited to calm down; After all the generals sat back in their positions, Oscar no longer controlled his smile this time, and said to the generals present with a smile on his face:

"Originally, I really thought that Hannibal had returned to Sicily with so many troops, and the future of our family Augustus was really worried; However, I saw you tonight, and your performance made me understand that even if Hannibal has more troops, it is not terrible, because we have you in the House of Augustus, and as long as we have you, we will definitely win the final victory!

Well, I don't want to say anything more about these mobilizations, and I'm sure you can do well without me saying it; Next, let's start talking about the specific situation of the expedition. After all, by the time this information was returned, Hannibal was already reorganizing his army and preparing to return to Sicily.

In terms of time, it took about a month for Hannibal's army to return to Sicily from Tripoli via Baisassion; Within this month, we had to go all out to Sicily before Hannibal. In this way, we can take Upper Sicilia ahead of schedule and lay the foundation for the next decisive battle!

Moreover, even after Hannibal had taken with him an army of 24,000, Carthage still had an army of 70,000; With the current situation in North Africa, the Kingdom of Numidia has been completely fragmented, and the new small kingdoms in North Africa do not have the strength to be enemies of the Kingdom of Carthage, and the role of these 70,000 troops is not as simple as defending the homeland.

If Hannibal needed reinforcements in Sicily, all it took was a letter of dispatch to send an order, and the Carthaginian generals who respected Hannibal as a god would surely immediately lead an army to support Hannibal; It was impossible for the Carthaginian Senate to take over the Carthaginian territory in a month, nor to remove Hannibal's influence in the Carthaginian army.

These are all external factors that we need to consider, and our own army must also be carefully considered, and Sardinia must still leave enough garrison troops, which legions will go out and which ones will stay, we will all discuss it tonight; If any of you have a suggestion, just say it. ”

Oscar gave a general description of the present situation of the House of Augustus, the situation of Carthage, and the situation of Hannibal, and then waited for the generals present to give their advice; This time, as soon as Oscar finished speaking, Luquis stood up and said:

"Leader, I am definitely going to Sicily this time, and we of the House of Augustus must do everything in our power to barely fight a decisive battle with Hannibal's superior army; Therefore, we should not have too many garrisons left in Sardinia, otherwise it will greatly affect our decisive battle, and the gains will outweigh the losses.

I suggest that of the family's seven legions in Sardinia, two of the most effective Guards and the Samonai legions, take part in the expedition, and that three of the remaining four regular legions go on the expedition and leave one legion to defend Sardinia. In order to compensate for the lack of troops in Sardinia, we can temporarily form two new army of 5,000 men by recruiting young men.

With the size of the population of Sardinia, our transfer of 10,000 young men will not greatly affect the operation of the whole island of Sardinia; Although the combat effectiveness of these 10,000 young people is very limited, they do not need to really go to the battlefield, they only need to cooperate with the remaining legions to defend Sardinia. If there is a real war, I believe that the young people will do their best to protect their homeland!

In this way, it will be enough for only one legion to remain in our native land; The seven legions we went on had an army of 48,000, and with the leader's family guard, we had an army of 50,000. More importantly, our army is far superior to Hannibal's motley army in terms of weaponry and training, and our combat effectiveness is actually stronger!

Hannibal's army was large in size, but it was not very effective in actual combat; The fifteen thousand mercenaries that Theophanes brought to Sicily were all defeated, not at all strong in combat, and even feared us who had defeated them. Those newly recruited Sicilian militia are even less worthy of one, and their combat effectiveness is at best our youthful level.

Even among the 24,000 troops led by Hannibal himself, there were only about 15,000 elite divisions, and the remaining 9,000 were only new soldiers; On the contrary, the army of our House Augustus is even more elite. Not to mention the two Guards Legions, the First Legion and the Samonai Legion both participated in the previous foreign wars and were completely not inferior to Hannibal's elite existence.

The other legions have also undergone at least a year or so of formal training, and although their combat effectiveness cannot be said to be comparable to the elite under Hannibal's command, it is definitely far superior to the other armies under Hannibal's command; That's our biggest strength. As long as we take advantage of this qualitative advantage, we may not be able to fight a decisive battle with the army under the command of Hannibal himself!

Of course, we also need to consider the Carthaginian army on the North African continent at the same time as the decisive battle; If the Carthaginian army comes to Hannibal's aid in time, it will not be good news for us in Augustus. In that case, even if we defeat Hannibal in the decisive battle, we will not be able to confront Hannibal's follow-up army after a crushing victory; That's what we need to solve! ”

Luquis's words make a lot of sense, but they overturn Oscar's original idea; Oscar had planned to leave two legions in Sardinia. However, Oscar also felt that Luquis was right; Rather than scattering the limited forces on Sardinia, it is better to bring as many troops as possible to Sicily, which can be regarded as an all-out effort.

In addition, Luquis's analysis of Hannibal's army is also very plausible; It is true that Hannibal's army was large in number but not of good quality. As long as you command your own side properly, you can still not fall behind in terms of the combat effectiveness of the army at all; In this way, the outcome of the decisive battle depends on the generals of both sides.

Before that, however, there was a problem to be solved, and that was how to make it impossible for the Carthage army to support Hannibal; The Carthaginian Senate alone was very untrustworthy in this regard. After all, the senators of the Carthaginian Senate were not very clever people, otherwise how could they be defeated by Hannibal, who was not politically savvy?

After Luquis finished speaking, Quintus, whose military status was second only to Luquis, stood up and continued to analyze Luquis's words: "If you want to completely contain the Carthaginian army in North Africa, the best way is to create trouble for the Carthage territory on the North African continent; And the only person who can really cause trouble for the Carthage land is the Adheba forces.

This time, Hannibal won an unprecedented victory in the North African battlefield, but he was not able to take the opportunity to completely solve the Numidian kingdom, but simply and rudely divided the Numidian kingdom into four small independent kingdoms. The natural benefit of this was that the Kingdom of Carthage became dominant on the North African continent, but it also laid the foundation for the rise of Adheba.

After independence, the major kingdoms almost did not have much military strength, after all, the Kingdom of Numidia under the rule of Zuguta was also considered to have invaded the Kingdom of Carthage with all its might; As a result, such a powerful army was wiped out in a battle, and the Kingdom of Numidia completely collapsed, and the strength of the newly established small kingdoms naturally could not be too strong.

Looking at it this way, the army under Adheba is still very strong, not to mention the 20,000 troops of the Combined Army commanded by General Spartak, even the Salah Army that is absolutely loyal to Adheba is also very strong; It was one of the two most powerful armies in the Kingdom of Numidia at one time, and fifteen thousand elites were definitely not to be said.

In addition, the Mauritania region itself still has a considerable number of provincial garrisons, and Adheba already has more than 40,000 elite divisions under his command; As long as Adheba could stand up at such a time, and immediately after Hannibal left, he would launch a war for the unification of those small kingdoms, and he would soon be able to reunite the kingdom of Numidia.

At that time, the army of the Carthage lands would face a kingdom of Numidia that would become strong again; Adheba, who was bold by nature, was not a self-righteous Zuguta, and General Spartak's command skills were even more extraordinary. The combination of these two people will definitely turn the whole of North Africa upside down, so that the native army of the Kingdom of Carthage will not dare to make any rash moves!

With the relationship between our Augustus family and Adheba, and Adheba's own ambitions, as long as we make a little contact, Adheba will definitely send troops in a big way; In this way, we can successfully contain all the Carthaginian troops on the North African continent, and prevent Hannibal from pouring his heart and soul into the war in Sicily! (To be continued.) )