cpa300_4(); The good or bad of a sane person depends not on his own feelings, but on his actions

- Marcus Aurelius (the only philosopher-emperor in Western history)

According to the information of the tragic dead, the governor of Carthage in the Balearic Islands was none other than the third elder of the Hannibal family, Siduckles, that is, the third brother of Hannibal himself; However, this third child does not have the talent of Hannibal's commander and the ability of Margo's general, he is just a mediocre person. In addition, there is only one provincial guard regiment on the Balearic Islands, with a total strength of no more than three thousand, and all of them are light infantry; Lucquis agreed to Oscar's personal expedition.

Although the defenders of the Balearic Islands are not very strong, they should not be underestimated; If the Expeditionary Legion can't quickly deal with the 3,000 defenders, or if Sidisichris escapes, then the Expeditionary Legion will be in trouble. The Balearic Islands are best known for their formidable Balearic Slingers, which are the only class of Slingers that can rival the Rhodes Slingers; If Siodicris fled to the forests of the Balearic Islands with a group of slingers and the Augustus family to fight guerrilla warfare, it would be more than worth the loss.

Of course, there are disadvantages and advantages to everything, once the Augustan family successfully occupies the Balearic Islands; Then the combat effectiveness of the auxiliary legions of the Augustus family will increase by leaps and bounds. By that time, the auxiliary legions of House Augustus would be three thousand; Specifically, it consisted of 1,000 Numidian javelinmen, 1,000 light infantry, 500 Cretan archers, and 500 Balearic slingers. Except for the 1,000 light infantry, which is just an ordinary class, the other three arms are all elite troops in their respective ranks.

The Balearic slingers are the first class of slingers along with the Rhodes slingers, and the Cretan archers are the world's top three archers along with the forest hunters of the Gallic barbarians and the chosen archers of the Kingdom of Egypt; In terms of long-range striking capabilities, these two are definitely the best of their peers, and the average archer is a big difference in range when it meets a Cretan archer, and the same is true for an ordinary slinger when it meets a Balearic slinger, not to mention combat effectiveness.

As for the Numidian javelinmen, it is needless to say that the thousands of Numidian javelins hired by Hannibal have long been famous throughout the Mediterranean; At the very least, the Roman army was bullied by these Numidian javelin cavalry. Therefore, it is completely conceivable how strong the legions of the Augustan family will have in the future after they are officially mixed and successfully formed into combat effectiveness; Of course, these regiments must go to the battlefield to experience more battles after the training run-in is over. Otherwise, it's still an empty shelf.

After the decision on the war was officially implemented, all preparations for war were also carried out in an orderly manner. After Oscar handed over all the logistics to Luquis, by the way, he also handed over all other affairs on Sardinia to Luquis and Vipsani, and Oscar himself went to the barracks of the Samonai Legion with great interest to organize the Samonai Legion to prepare for the expedition; Because the Samonai Legion did not have an auxiliary legion, its legion lieutenant Antio also assisted Oscar in commanding the legion in the legion.

Although this Antio was not a general from the Augustan family. But he can be regarded as a fierce general from the grassroots; He used to be a famous gladiator in the city of Lilibal, and he was defeated by Spartak when Spartak entered Lilibal. But Spartak did not end his life, and he followed Spartak after the gladiatorial fight; When Spartak revolted, he was also a fierce general who charged for Spartak. In the capture of Lilipa, he alone killed dozens of Carthaginian infantry; In the end, he suffered 23 wounds, but he still survived tenaciously.

Among all the Augustan generals. If you simply compare your combat skills, Antio is estimated to not even rank in the top five; But if you compare the number of kills with his own hands on the battlefield and the degree of madness, if he is second, no one is first, and even Licinius is ashamed of his madness on the battlefield. This is a madman who kills the enemy to the point of excitement, and will directly rip off his armor and continue to kill the enemy; But his exploits were real, and with his prestige second only to Spartak in the hearts of gladiators, he became the undisputed lieutenant general of the Samonai Legion.

To be honest, Oscar prefers a brave general like Antio, so Oscar is not bad to Antio; The sturdy black horse that Antio was riding now was chosen by Oscar himself from among the horses sent by Adheba. Antio is also a true man with a straightforward personality. Oscar's love for him can naturally be seen, and what he repays to Oscar is his loyalty to Oscar himself and his dedication to the Augustus family.

You must know that Spartak, the commander of the Samonai Legion, has gone to Mauritania to serve as the commander of the Combined Legion, whether it is Luquis, who used to temporarily serve as the Samonai Legion, or Oscar, who is now temporarily serving as the Samonai Legion; It is impossible to really manage the Samonai Legion, which also means that Antio, the deputy general of the legion, is the de facto commander of the Samonai Legion. If he is not loyal enough to Oscar, Oscar does not trust him enough; How could Oscar have kept him as the lieutenant general of the legion.

While Oscar and Antio were in the barracks leading the Samonai legion in full gear, the two messengers that had been arranged before Oscar came to the barracks also set off by boat in the harbor; The first envoy was destined for Spain, in order to persuade King Charles VII of Spain to join forces to attack the province of Betica in Carthage on behalf of the House of Augustus.

The highest price that Oscar brought to the envoy was that the Augustus family only had to borrow the Spanish port of Iberia to land and then launch an attack on Betica; After the deed is done. The province of Betica was divided into two, with the eastern territory belonging to Spain and the western territory, including the capital Córdoba, belonging to the Augustan family. This was already an excellent condition, and the Kingdom of Spain only needed to provide a port for the use of the House of Augustus to obtain half of the province's territory.

But in order to prevent the Kingdom of Spain from being reluctant to offend the Kingdom of Carthage. Oscar also gave the messenger a price of 200,000 gold coins; If Spain is not willing to join forces, the Augustus family will use the 200,000 gold coins to buy the right to use the Iberian port for a day and the toll of the Iberian province! The destination of the second emissary was the family of Maxentius, native to Rome; The previous alliance agreement between Oscar and the Maxentius family has been invalidated by the tacit agreement between the two sides with the formation of a new pattern, and now a new alliance needs to be drafted.

This time, Oscar's price was that the Augustan family would exchange 10,000 barrels of wine and other supplies worth 200,000 gold coins (such as grain, iron ore, copper mines, etc., which were scarce in the Latin provinces) for the annual immigration of 50,000 people from Rome itself; If the Maxentius family had any other requests, Oscar also asked the messenger not to refuse in a hurry, and brought them all back for Oscar to think for himself. After all, Oscar is now the son-in-law of the Maxentius family. Prisca's presence is also the bond that binds the two families together.

As truckloads of grain and grass were transported from Calaris to the port, Oscar, along with Mary and Licinius, led three legions from the barracks outside Calaris to the port; Since the two permanent barracks on Sardinia could only accommodate 50,000 men, the three unmixed legions were always stationed outside Calaris. And all the mixed armies were concentrated in the barracks near the port to carry out the mixed formation.

Of the three legions that went out this time, except for the Samonai legion, which had a total strength of 8,000 men, the two Guards legions were both 5,000 legions; The total strength of the expeditionary army was only 18,000 men, but the pressure of transportation was greater than that of 30,000 infantry! That's where the cavalry comes in. The 5,000 cavalry of the Guards Cavalry Regiment was outstanding; Especially the 2,000 ironclad cavalry, the Battle of Tulbo, which broke out on the Greek peninsula not long ago, the Romans once again proved the strength of their opponents with blood.

However, the five thousand cavalry were destined to be transported to death; The 8,000-strong Samonai Legion and the 5,000-strong Guards Infantry Legion needed less than thirty transports to carry them, and the remaining 5,000 cavalry needed a full twenty transports to barely make do with them. If it weren't for the soldiers of the two legions, it would have been very crowded, and a few transport ships would have been spared. The expeditionary army had no transport ships to carry grain and forage; This embarrassment will be exacerbated in the future as the size of the Augustan cavalry increases.

Oscar naturally understands this truth, so Oscar secretly made up his mind at this time; When the situation stabilizes in the future, the Augustus family must do their best to build a large fleet! This fleet must not only have more warships than any other enemy, but also a sufficient number of transports to transport large quantities of military supplies; In this way, the armies of the House of Augustus could achieve rapid mobile transfers throughout the Mediterranean coast.

No matter what the future holds, the current thing is still the most important; After Oscar and the generals led the army to the port, the whole port was busy loading grain and grass supplies. In the past six months, the effect of the expansion project in Sardinia is still obvious, the previous small port with few berths has become a new port with a large scale and ten berths; The loading and unloading work that took four or five hours to complete half a year ago can now be completed in just two hours, which is half the efficiency!

After Oscar and the generals arranged for their troops, led by their respective centurions and captains, to prepare to board the ship in order. He went directly aboard a three-column battleship that had already been prepared; This triremes battleship is not the flagship Shi Xiu personally commanded by Shi Xiu. Because the size of the fleet this time is unusually large, Shi Xiu will lead the battle fleet to escort the transport fleet on the periphery of the transport fleet; The task of internal escort was entrusted to the ten twin warships of the transport fleet itself.

As for the triremittal battleship, it was specially arranged by Shi Xiu to serve as Oscar's seat ship; After all, there will always be some possible disasters in the process of sea navigation, and many natural disasters at sea are simply not something that human beings can resist. However, the hull construction and all aspects of the triremes were always much better than those of the duplexes and transports; In order to avoid accidents and ensure the safety of Oscar and the generals, Shi Xiu specially prepared this three-column battleship for the generals of the expeditionary army.

After Oscar boarded the battleship with the generals, the loading of grain and grass supplies was soon over; Next to board were the Guards Infantry Regiment and the Samonai Regiment, and finally the Guards Cavalry Regiment, which was the most difficult to board. The boarding of the three legions lasted almost three hours to complete, of which the cavalry occupied at least two hours; After all the personnel and supplies were boarded, the Augustus family's large expeditionary fleet slowly sailed in the direction of the Balearic Islands.

Sardinia is not very close to the Balearic Islands. But it is not far, it is about the distance from Sardinia to Rome proper; In other words, the soldiers of the expeditionary corps had to wander in the sea for about 12 to 15 days. Due to the limited transport capacity and the limited shelf life of food and fruits, the fresh fruit and fresh water on each transport ship were only enough for 20 days for the personnel on board; In order to avoid accidents during the voyage. The unused space on each battleship was also filled with fresh water just in case.

The sea surface of the Mediterranean Sea is still so calm, but Oscar, who has seen ocean storms, always feels that there is a monster hidden under the calm sea; This may be the aftermath of those who have lived through storms at sea. (To be continued.) )