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All the time that has passed is the time that has passed; The day we live now is a day between ourselves and death.

- Seneca (famous Stoic philosopher of ancient Roman times)

Since the retreat of Thuguta and Ahmet to Tripoli, the siege of Tapsus has been completely over; However, Vimina was worried that the evacuation of Tulguta was a decoy, so he insisted on not pursuing Tulguta, nor did he go out of the city to regain the lost territory, but continued to train his soldiers in the city of Tapsus.

However, before he left, Tulguta left behind a force that killed two birds with one stone, and that was Juguda's legion; Since the Jugurdah Legion had been sent to besiege Qusel, Tulguta had not given Juguda any other orders. Even with this great retreat, Tulguta did not inform Jugurdah of the news, in order to sacrifice Jugudah.

Why did Tulguta think this way? The reason is simple: although Jugurdah and the Sahara under his rule were nominally subordinate to the Kingdom of Numidia, everyone knew that this affiliation was very precarious. The reason why Zhuguda was incorporated into the Kingdom of Numidia was to temporarily avoid the edge of the Kingdom of Numidia and to rely on the Kingdom of Numidia to obtain more benefits.

Now that the Kingdom of Numidia has been completely defeated by the Kingdom of Carthage with an absolute superiority in troops, Tulguta does not need to think about it to know that Jugurdah will definitely break away from the Numidian army directly once he gets the opportunity; Either he would return to his Saharan province and re-establish the Saharan kingdom, or he would defect to the kingdom of Carthage for greater gain.

In this way, Jugurdah and his army not only did not help the Numidian army, but became a burden; But keeping him and his legions in Baisasian had two of the most immediate benefits.

First, after Hannibal's army arrived at Baissasien, its first task must have been to regain the lost territory and attack Jugurdah's corps; This would buy time for the Numidian army to reach the Great Leptis.

Second. Jugurdah also lost the opportunity to flee back to the Sahara and the possibility of demoralizing the Numidian army; As long as Jugurdah does not return to the Sahara, then the Sahara will become a province of the Numidian Kingdom in the true sense of the word, which is also a good way to expand the power of the Numidian Kingdom.

For these reasons, Tulguta and Ahmet agreed to keep Jugurdah and his legions in Baisa Sin; Tulguta and Ahmet returned to the Great Leptis with an army of 36,000 belonging to the Numidian kingdom and 10,000 young men recruited in Tripoli.

The city of Reptius the Great is not majestic. Not to mention sturdy; Therefore, after Tulguta and Ahmet led the army into the Great Leptis, they began to prepare for war in full swing. As for how to implement this preparation plan, Tulguta still needs to convene a military council to decide; Otherwise, how could the generals under his command willingly obey orders?

Although when the Numidian army was strong, Tulguta could decide everything about the army with one word; But the situation is very different now. In order to gain the absolute support of his generals, Tulguta had to show considerable sincerity, and listening to them was crucial. So, on the night of entering the Great Leptis, Tulguta convened a military council at the royal palace in Tripoli.

This military meeting was attended not only by General Ahmet and the three generals Gaia, Niptasan, and Egclus, but also by all the generals of the entire Numidian army, who were the captain and above; Although the final decision was made by Tulguta and the four generals, in order to show that he valued everyone, Tulguta invited all the generals to come.

The Tripoli Palace, which was originally quite spacious, became more crowded after gathering hundreds of generals, and even the seats required three people to sit at a table; However, Tulguta had not invited them all over to engage them in military discussions. Rather, they want to buy their hearts, reward their loyalty, and let them continue to be loyal to themselves.

After all the generals were seated, maids and servants began to bring all kinds of fine food and mellow wine to the tables in front of the generals in the whole kingdom banquet hall; Even in the center of the hall there are singers performing songs and dances. Looking at the generals who were eating with relish and looking at them with great energy, Zuguta said loudly to them:

"My generals, in recognition of your outstanding performance in this war; We won't get drunk at tonight's banquet! You can enjoy the food and wine here with confidence, and the singers and maids are also yours; But there's one thing I'd like to say earlier. Each person can only have a maximum of one singer or one maid, and you can't fight for snatching women! ”

Tulguta's words caused bursts of cheers from the generals below, and the cries of King Tulguta were involuntarily shouted by them; This moment. Zuguta suddenly felt that he had not failed, and he still had tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of generals, how could he fail? So, Zuguta also pressed his hand with a smile on his face. After the generals were quiet, they said:

"My generals, today you are well fed and drunk, and tonight you are happy, and tomorrow I will give you a day of vacation, so that you can rest well; From the day after tomorrow, we continue to work hard. Create new brilliance together! The future must belong to us together! Of course, I also know that if I'm here all the time, you won't be able to let go; I'll go first, you guys play slowly! ”

For the first time, everyone felt that His Majesty the King was like their own relatives, and they all involuntarily stood up to pay tribute to King Zuguta, and swore in unison: "Long live Your Majesty the Kingdom!" Swear allegiance to His Majesty! ”

After pacifying the generals at all levels, Zuguta left the palace banquet hall with a smile on his face, and came to the palace study, which was far away from the banquet hall; Soon, Ahmed also took the three with him. Looking at the four generals sitting in the study with a sad face, Zuguta said with a smile:

"My generals, why are you so sad? Even though we're at a disadvantage right now, we still have tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of generals, don't we? Connivance is our final defeat, and the Kingdom of Carthage cannot really destroy our Kingdom of Numidia; Victory and defeat are a common thing in soldiers, shouldn't we be more active in facing them? ”

The kingdom of Zuguta, which had always been more serious and gloomy, began to become cheerful since the withdrawal of the Great Leptis; This was something that no one expected. Still, Tulguta's performance was very good; At the very least, Ahmet felt that such a king would have a better chance of gaining the allegiance of his soldiers.

Thereupon. Ahmet also followed up on Zuguta's words and said, "Your Majesty is right, not to mention that we still have tens of thousands of troops to confront the Carthaginians; Even if we face the Carthaginian army alone, we should face it calmly. Otherwise, what qualifications do we have to compete with the Carthaginians for the supremacy of North Africa? ”

Gaia and the other three generals looked at each other and nodded their heads. He put away his sorrowful countenance, and sat precariously looking at Tulguta and Ahmed; Whether it is Ahmed's performance or the change of the three generals, Zuguta is very satisfied. The next step is to get down to business, and Zuguta also restrained his smile and said solemnly:

"According to our scout debriefing. Hannibal had already annihilated our army on the Western Front with a thousand in a month; In addition to an infantry legion of 15,000 men who occupied our province of Numidia, there were also 20,000 cavalry legions and a mixed cavalry corps of 10,000 men with extraordinary combat effectiveness.

At this time, Hannibal was marching towards Tapsus with a total of 30,000 troops of 30,000 troops, and it was expected that in another month or so, Hannibal would be able to completely settle all the affairs of Baisassion, and arrive at the city of Daleptis with the army. At that time, Hannibal's command will not only have an army of 30,000, but also about 15,000 troops of Tapsus and Qusser, for a total of 45,000 troops! ”

Of the four generals present, only General Ahmed had already known the information of Hannibal's army, while the other three generals had no knowledge of it; They had thought that the withdrawal of Thuguta and Ahmet was to rest their troops or that there was some kind of crisis in the country. For example, Adheba tossed something out of Mauritania.

Unexpectedly, Hannibal returned to Carthage ahead of schedule and led his army to complete the annihilation of the army on the western front of Numidia; What made the three generals even more unbelievable was that the capital province of Numidia and the capital city of Numidian were actually captured by Hannibal's army!

Is it any wonder that the kingdom of Zuguta was reluctant to withdraw to Numidia proper? This can't be withdrawn, even the capital and the capital province are occupied by Carthage, how can this go back? The three generals also understood in their hearts that this war for the hegemony of North Africa was over, and now it was just the death throes of the Numidian Kingdom; I hope we can end the war with dignity.

The drastic changes in the faces and expressions of the three generals naturally couldn't be hidden from Zuguta and Ahmed, and the two of them sighed helplessly in their hearts; At the beginning, the two of them were also shocked when they received the information, and their behavior was basically exactly the same as these three generals. But. After all, the past has passed, and how to continue to support it is the key.

After the three generals had fully digested the astonishing news, Ahmet said appropriately: "In fact, the fiasco of the army on the Western Front was not all Hannibal's bravery and skillful fighting, but more importantly, there was a struggle within our Numidian army; Fierce contradictions arose between the commander of the Western Front Army, Jubal, and the two generals, Abdeshim, and Gillen.

They never got together. There has even been a phenomenon of grabbing class power; Even the last expedition to the Carthaginian territory was fought openly and secretly, which led to them being defeated by Hannibal one by one, and finally the 35,000 Numidian army was completely destroyed. As long as we work together to fight Hannibal, victory is not to be said, and undefeated is still possible. ”

Ahmed's words barely encouraged the three generals' courage to fight again. But it's still a lot worse than before; Tsuguta also didn't want his three henchmen to be decadent like this, and knew that they were more sad for his good friends Abdhimhim and Gillen, after all, they were known as his five confidants, and the relationship could be seen.

Seeing them like this, Zuguta's heart was also uncomfortable, and after brewing some emotions, Zuguta also said with relief: "I also know the friendship between the three of you and the two of them, you were all my henchmen back then, and you were all excellent generals that I valued; But they died fighting for their country. Therefore, their death is not mournful, but glorious and glorious.

When we have ended the war with Carthage, we will return to Numidia together; When the time comes, I will personally hold a grand funeral for both of them to commemorate their great contribution to the kingdom of Numidia. I hope that you can work with me to end the war without defeat, and if we also fail in the end, how can we disobey their spirits in heaven? ”

Speaking of this, Tulguta himself let out a long sigh; Looking at Zuguta, who had been pretending to be calm, the three generals' hearts were also sour. After all, they have been following Tulguta since more than ten years ago, and not only Thuguta has a deep affection for them, but they also have an unwavering affection for Tulguta; So, the three of them immediately stood up and swore allegiance to Thuguta to death!

[It's about to be 515, I hope to continue to hit the 515 red envelope list, and the red envelope rain will be able to give back to readers and promotional works on May 15. A piece is also love, and it must be better! (To be continued.) )

PS: After the end of the Numidian War, "Empire" will enter a relatively stable period of plot development; The long-term description of the war battlefield must have made the book friends have aesthetic fatigue, and I hope that such a plot development period can play a role in regulating everyone's aesthetic fatigue. After the end of the plot development period, the depiction of the war will continue in the chasing wind; After all, the main theme of this book is war. Of course, in the next plot development period, the emotional scenes between the male protagonist and the female protagonists will also be staged one by one; I hope you can enjoy it, thank you!