Man should not be afraid of death, he should be afraid of never really living.

- Chius Domitius Aurelianus (Emperor of the Roman Empire)

Oscar conceived all the details of the expedition in his mind, and then Oscar prepared to officially start the family meeting of the Augustan family again, and negotiate with all the family members about the important event that would determine the future life and death of the Augustan family.

This time, instead of ordering the main members of the family to attend the meeting, Oscar summoned all the family members; In addition to the commanders of each legion, it also includes the lieutenant generals of each legion and the commanders of the navy. In short, Oscar gathered all the members of the Augustan family in Sardinia.

The time of the meeting was chosen as always, after nightfall, after the generals came to the Doge's Palace one after another, Oscar also prepared to go to the conference room with Mary to officially start tonight's family meeting.

It's a pity that when Oscar just walked out of the study door, an unusually sharp cloud-piercing arrow sounded in the distant sky! To be able to use the Cloud Piercing Arrow to deliver a message on Sardinia, except for the direct attack on Sardinia, only the Tragic Dead would use such extreme means.

And although the Tragic Dead has the right to use the Cloud Piercing Arrow, it is impossible to use the Cloud Piercing Arrow at will; Unless something very big happened, it would be impossible for a cautious tragic dead man to use such sharp means to convey information!

It was not only Oscar and Mary who were shocked by this cloud-piercing arrow, but even the generals who had already entered the conference room hurriedly came in the direction of Oscar; As for the generals, they did not know about the existence of the Tragic Dead, and they would only think that Sardinia was under attack, and they would use the most urgent cloud-piercing arrows.

Just after the generals felt in front of Oscar in confusion, before Luquis, who was in the lead, could ask, Oscar stretched out his right hand to stop Luquis, and then said to the generals: "This cloud-piercing arrow is not a signal for help from the attack on Sardinia, but another emergency situation. ”

After speaking, Oscar stopped talking, but continued to look in the direction of the port where the cloud-piercing arrow sounded. With Oscar's explanation, the panic in the hearts of the generals finally calmed down; The commanders of the Navy, in particular, breathed a sigh of relief.

You know, the security of Sardinia's open sea is the responsibility of the naval fleet of the House of Augustus; Whether it is Namus, who has already served as the commander of the Augustan family's navy, or the other six commanders, if Sardinia is really attacked by the enemy, then these admirals will be responsible for it!

However, even with Oscar's explanation, the generals' hearts are still up and down; After all, something like the Cloud Piercing Arrow is not something that anyone can use lightly. Whoever used the Cloud Piercing Arrow this time must have represented something very important to the House of Augustus; And most of the time it's not going to be a good thing!

While Oscar and the generals were waiting quietly, a war horse galloping from the port in the direction of Calaris, and an intelligence officer who sang the song of death was also desperately whipping the war horse in the direction of Calaris!

For two hours, Oscar and the generals did nothing else, just quietly waited for the arrival of the information; The only change may be that the place of waiting has been shifted from Oscar's study to the conference room in the Doge's Palace.

The anxious waiting, the unknown risks, kept all the generals in the conference room quiet enough; The silent conference room made everyone feel depressed, but no one dared to make the slightest sound.

Suddenly, the sound of horses' hooves came from afar; As the sound of horses' hooves became clearer and clearer, the attention of all the generals in the conference room was also focused on the sudden sound of horses' hooves. After two hours of galloping, the mournful dead soldier on the war horse finally arrived at the governor's palace before the war horse died of exhaustion.

After arriving at the Governor's Palace, the tragic warrior jumped off his horse and rushed towards the Governor's Palace; The guards, who had already received Oscar's orders, did not stop the tragic man, but instead opened the door for him, and a guard led him the way, allowing him to reach the conference room as quickly as possible.

After hearing the sound of the galloping horse and stopping, Oscar immediately got up and began to walk towards the outside of the conference room; The generals in the conference room stayed quietly in place under Luquis's instructions.

In fact, Lucis already knew that the House of Augustus had a very secretive intelligence group; Luquis didn't know much about this organization, nor did he have any curiosity. Otherwise, with Luquis's friendship with the previous family leader, and Luquis's position in the Augustan family; He can know everything.

Even so, Lucquis had a vague understanding of the tragic dead; Therefore, Luquis knew that the Cloud Piercing Arrow this time must have been used by this mysterious organization, and it must have brought vital information to the Augustus family. Considering the peculiarity of this mysterious organization, Lucis decisively stopped the generals who wanted to follow Oscar out.

Whether it is Genzheng Miaohong, who was born in the Augustan family, or the general who later joined the Augustan family, they all know Luquis's status in the Augustan family; also understands that Luquis's position in Oscar's heart will not be replaced by anyone. So, at Luquis's motion, everyone sat back in their seats.

Oscar, who came to the outside of the conference room, did not stop at the door of the conference room, but went straight in the direction of the gate of the Doge's Palace; Before Oscar could go far, the tragic dead man who followed the guards appeared in front of Oscar's eyes. Looking at this dusty and tired tragic dead man, Oscar was once again moved by the sad dead man.

Oscar, who quickened his pace, soon came to the front of the tragic dead man, and as soon as the tragic dead man wanted to kneel down in front of Oscar, Oscar quickly grabbed the tragic dead man's arm, helped him up, and said: "Two hours from the port to the governor's palace, you have worked hard!" ”

To be able to hear the approval of oneself by the leader whom he worships as a god is too precious for a tragic dead man; The agitated tragic man forcibly suppressed the emotion in his heart, and stood up and reported to Oscar: "Your Excellency, this is the latest information from North Africa; It is also the most urgent information from the organization! ”

As he spoke, the tragic man took out a sealed parchment from his bosom and handed it to Oscar; Oscar did not open the parchment immediately after getting the parchment, but patted the sad man on the shoulder encouragingly, signaling that he could go down and rest first.

After the tragic dead man and the guard had gone away, Oscar slowly opened the parchment in his hand and browsed it with the help of the firelight beside him; After reading the contents of this parchment scroll at a glance, Oscar's face did not change significantly, but his pupils contracted significantly.

The current Oscar is no longer the Oscar who just came to this world; After such a long time of training and grinding, Oscar has slowly cultivated his own temperament of pampering and not being shocked. After seeing this meaningful parchment roll, Oscar casually put the parchment roll into the brazier beside him, and watched the parchment roll be engulfed in flames little by little.

After the parchment was completely burned, Oscar did not immediately return to the conference room, but thought about the impact of this information on the decisive battle between the Augustus family and the Hannibal family.

Oscar originally thought that Hannibal would only bring about 10,000 troops back to Sicily, after all, the Carthage War was originally scheduled to require a large number of troops to garrison; But he did not expect that the army of the Kingdom of Carthage would achieve an unprecedented victory under the command of Hannibal, and once again carry out a large-scale expansion.

Even without this expansion, Hannibal's victory in North Africa would have been unparalleled; The tens of thousands of troops of the Kingdom of Numidia were defeated within themselves, the Tuguta army was defeated and died, the newly unified Kingdom of Numidia was once again torn apart, and the whole of North Africa returned to the rule of the Kingdom of Carthage in an instant.

With such a great victory at little self-inflicted damage, the number of elite divisions at Hannibal's disposal was even greater; In addition, the Carthaginian kingdom has carried out a considerable number of army expansions, and the entire Carthage territory now has an army of nearly 100,000 people! Although there are a considerable number of recruits among them, there are also many elite divisions, and their combat effectiveness is quite strong!

What's even more helpless is that after Hannibal's adjustment and deployment, Hannibal himself will personally lead 24,000 troops back to Sicily! Among the 24,000 troops were 6,000 Punic infantry, 6,000 Libyan spearmen, and 2,000 Holy Order infantry, and about 1,000 elite infantry among the remaining 10,000 newly recruited Iberian infantry.

Hannibal's return army was too strong; Just 24,000 troops, under the command of Hannibal, were enough to make the Augustus family difficult to deal with. If the army of 24,000 is worth 32,000 in Sicily, it is a whole 56,000 army; The Augustus family only has less than 40,000 troops!

From the very beginning, Oscar was ready to use superior forces against Hannibal and his army in the future decisive battle against Hannibal; I didn't expect that the situation would have such a reversal now, and the side with the advantage of troops turned out to be Hannibal, so will the next decisive battle still be fought? Do the Augustans stand a chance to win? (To be continued.) )