Friendship is medicine; We are all each other's doctors.

- Petronius (Roman writer)

Since little Hanno has already said this, Oscar also followed little Hanno's words and continued to ask: "Your Excellency Old Hanno is the founder of the Carthage Kingdom, and your family has a large number of consuls in the history of the Carthage Kingdom, and your father's father is also an archon; Isn't a family as illustrious as your family the top family of the Kingdom of Carthage? ”

Hearing Oscar say this, little Hanno just shook his head helplessly, and said astringently: "How can our Hanno family have such a scenery on the surface; When the Kingdom of Carthage was first established, our family was indeed the top family of the Upper Carthaginian Kingdom. But with the passage of time, the glory of our family has long been less than it used to be.

Not to mention the emerging Hannibal family, even in the Carthaginian land, the most powerful senators in the Senate, their families have also become the supremacy of our family. Although my father was also consul of Carthage, it was only the result of a compromise between the Senate and Hannibal, and it did not mean much.

Even so, our family did not really play the role of this consul; Because my father had died in Sicily not long ago, and the new consul was Hannibal. With the relationship between Hannibal's family and our family, coupled with Hannibal's own domineering, how can our family's situation be good? ”

Little Hanno said this, and his emotions obviously began to become a little excited; Especially when it comes to Hannibal, his tone is even more hideous. Oscar pretended not to hear the resentment in Little Hanno's tone, but instead hypocritically apologized: "Your Excellency Little Hanno, we of the Augustan family are deeply sorry for the death of your father in battle......

Before Oscar finished speaking, little Hanno hurriedly stood up and said: "How can this be blamed on His Excellency Oscar and the Augustus family, if it weren't for Hannibal's personal vendetta deliberately putting my father in a siege, how could my father die on the battlefield?!" All this is just a Hannibal conspiracy, and it has nothing to do with your family! ”

Looking at the sincere little Hanno, Oscar suddenly felt that he was really too evil; How did you meet such a naïve person? It seems that the Hanno family has been declining to the end, and it is not without reason, but there is no successor to his family! However, Oscar will not give up the use of little Hanno, after all, the interests of the family are still paramount.

Therefore, Oscar didn't care about little Hanno's paranoia, but smiled and said goodbye: "Your Excellency Little Hanno, your family is unwilling to care about this matter, it is that Your Excellency Little Hanno is broad-minded, but our Augustus family can't be indifferent to this. After all, your family is also an ally of our family, and our Augustus family will not treat our allies badly.

Especially an ally of noble status like your family is the most important ally of our Augustan family; Therefore, I have specially prepared a gift for Your Excellency this time, and this gift can be regarded as the greatest alliance sincerity of our Augustus family to the Hanno family, I hope Your Excellency must not refuse! ”

Without waiting for little Hanno to say anything more, Oscar took out a small wooden box from his bosom and put it in little Hanno's hand; Little Hanno was about to refuse, but out of curiosity, he still opened the box in his hand. When the box was opened, little Hanno was completely stunned; What is in the box is the Carthage Kingdom heirloom ring that Oscar played with before!

As soon as little Hanno opened the box, all his attention was attracted to this quaint ring, and he even completely forgot about the existence of Oscar. I saw little Hanno carefully put the box on his left hand, and then gently took out the ring with his right hand; After carefully examining the ring for a long time, little Hanno went directly to the middle finger of his left hand.

It wasn't until he put the ring on his finger that little Hanno woke up to the fact that this was not his family's mansion, but the Augustus' parlor; Little Hanno, who was full of embarrassment, immediately prepared to take off the ring, but Oscar grabbed Little Hanno's right hand and wanted to take off the ring, and said with a smile:

"Little Hanno, I only got this ring by chance; In my opinion, this ring should have belonged to your family in the first place. Now, your Excellency is the head of your family, and the most qualified person in the kingdom of Carthage today; I am just a thing to its rightful owner, so why should Your Excellency take it down? ”

Oscar seemed to be reassuring, and little Hanno's face was red; After all, it was a gaffe in front of Oscar, and little Hanno still felt quite uncomfortable in his heart. However, out of a strong desire to possess the ring, little Hanno still placed the ring on his hand; Then, little Hanno said sincerely to Oscar:

"Your Excellency, this gift is too precious for me personally, and for the Hanno family. If my ancestors had owned this ring, then the Kingdom of Carthage would have been the real Kingdom of Carthage, not the nondescript it is now; Therefore, this ring is too precious for our family!

Since this ring is a gift from you, I might as well tell you directly; As long as our Hanno family has this ring, even if our family's current power has been greatly suppressed, I am confident that within ten years, our Hanno family will return to the top families of the Carthage Kingdom!

At that time, your family will become the most important and intimate ally of our Hanno family, and indeed of the Kingdom of Carthage; We will definitely repay your family for this kindness! ”

Little Hanno's words are sincere, but in Oscar's ears, it is inevitable to be disappointed; This little Hanno's courage is still not enough, after getting this ring, his ambition is only to return the Hanno family to the top families of the Carthage Kingdom within ten years, which is really disappointing to Oscar.

In this regard, Oscar was reluctant to say his thoughts directly, but knocked on the side and said: "Your Excellency Little Hanno, as far as I know, this ring is the most important heirloom ring of the Carthaginian Kingdom in history; Why didn't your family go straight to the king's position after getting this ring?

You see, in recent decades, the kingdom of Carthage has been declining; Now even the Kingdom of Numidia, which was once attached to the Kingdom of Carthage, dares to challenge the North African hegemony of the Kingdom of Carthage. In such a situation, the Kingdom of Carthage needed a king who could turn the tide and lead the people of Carthage to strength; Why didn't Little Hanno come forward? ”

Oscar's words seemed to have a special magical power, and little Hanno's eyes lit up with a raging fire of ambition, as if the king of the Kingdom of Carthage was really beckoning to him! Unfortunately, this state only lasted less than a minute, and little Hanno was like a deflated ball, lamenting:

"Well, why wouldn't I want to lead the House of Hanno and the Kingdom of Carthage back to strength? It's just that, with the strength of our Hanno family, even if we obtain this heirloom ring, we can't have the strength to win the throne; After all, neither the major families of the Senate nor Hannibal would allow the Kingdom of Carthage to have a king.

If we Hanno offend both forces, we may not even be able to survive in the Kingdom of Carthage; When the time comes, this ring may become a scourge to bury our Hanno family. ”

Little Hanno could still have such an awareness at such a time, which surprised Oscar; However, this hesitation was nothing, and Oscar had already figured out how to induce little Hanno to challenge for the throne of Carthage step by step. So, Oscar suggested according to his own line of thought:

"Your Excellency Little Hanno is still too cautious, isn't Your Excellency's envoy this time to negotiate with our Augustus family to deal with Hannibal together? As long as we successfully remove Hannibal, won't there be one less obstacle between Your Excellency and the Carthaginian throne? The rest of the Senate family, can't Your Excellency's family deal with it? ”

"Hannibal is not so easy to eradicate, even if we can eradicate Hannibal, the strength of those families in the Senate should not be underestimated! After all, our Hanno family is not the Hanno family that controlled a large number of elite troops back then, and we can't deal with all the families in the Senate at the same time; And if we show our covetousness for the throne, we will be enemies of all the Senate families! ”

"Then why don't you follow the example of your ancestors? As long as you operate with the full strength of your family, it should not be difficult for you to become the governor of the province of Baisasion; As long as the Hanno family can return to Baisasian, plus the assistance of this ring. In five years' time, won't your family be able to build a strong army? ”

Having said this, little Hanno was still hesitant about Oscar's suggestion to encourage him to become king, especially after Oscar proposed to let little Hanno follow the ancestors, little Hanno shook his head helplessly and explained: "It is naturally not difficult for the Hanno family to return to Baisahian, but it is not very meaningful after going back."

The current Baisassian is not the Baisassian of the past; We Hanno don't have an army of our own. Even if we could secretly raise an army, we would lack enough food, grass, salaries, weapons and equipment; We can't even get enough officers, so how can we talk about recasting the glory of our ancestors? ”

"What if all the food, grass, salaries, weapons and equipment, including enough officers, can be provided to your Excellency? Can you ensure that the House of Hanno will take root in Baisassine and take the throne of Carthage? After listening to little Hanno's concerns, Oscar stared into little Hanno's eyes and asked. (To be continued.) )