The energy allocated to each item should be commensurate with its value and proportionate.

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

The old man's straightforwardness was beyond Hannibal's imagination, and Hannibal just asked suspiciously, "Why didn't your Holy Order give the legion to the Senate before?" but when I come, you will deliver the legions to me; Why is that? ”

"General Hannibal, don't think too much about it, our Holy Order is just an organization that respects nature and loves tranquility; The reason why the Holy Order Legion was formed back then was also to save Carthage in the future when Carthage was in danger. But the people of the Senate were politicians with dark hearts; We can't hand over the legions that our Holy Order organization has worked so hard to assemble to them. General Hannibal is different, you are a real patriot; Therefore, the command of the Holy Order Legion is for you. The old man replied very indifferently.

However, this answer made Hannibal feel sincerely ashamed; Originally, Hannibal thought that this Holy Order organization was a cancer of Carthage, and wanted to take advantage of Carthage's crisis. Unexpectedly, this organization, which was desperately slandered by the Senate, turned out to be a group of people who really did their best for the future of Carthage; In fact, Hannibal already knew that the words of the Senate could not be trusted when he saw the village. For if the Order had been truly mercenary, it would have been impossible for these Carthaginians to live in peace and contentment.

Next, Hannibal talked to the old man about the present situation in Carthage; Overall, the conversation with the old man not only made Hannibal understand the good intentions of the Order, but also understood more of the innocence of the Senate. In many ways, the old man's experience and experience provided Hannibal with very useful references; In short, this trip not only allowed Hannibal to gain the legions of the Holy Order, but also allowed Hannibal to benefit a lot from the old man.

After the old man had finished his hearty conversation, Hannibal returned to Carthage with his personal cavalry; Hannibal was accompanied by the Legion of the Holy Order under General Sakarper. The size of the entire Legion of the Holy Order is not very large, only no more than 10,000 people; Among them, 5,000 Regimental cavalry and 5,000 Regimental infantry. However, the combat effectiveness of this regiment is not bad; Only from the point of view of training and morale and equipment. Hannibal admits that his legions are not as elite as this legion!

At the same time that Hannibal received the Legion of the Templars, the information of the Dead Sorrow about Hannibal's departure from Sicily and his return to Carthage was also sent to Oscar; Along with this information, there has been a series of recent wars on the land of North Africa. The successive victories of the Numidian army were expected, but it was the sneak attack of the "Iron General" Vermina that made Oscar feel a little unbelievable; But. This can be regarded as providing the Augustus family with a way to deal with war elephants.

Originally, Oscar and the Augustan family had been waiting for a war to break out between Numidia and Carthage, and then Carthage recalled Hannibal to its homeland in a desperate situation; Now that everything has come true, Oscar certainly won't miss this great opportunity. However, at this time, the regimental re-organization of the House of Augustus had not yet been completed; The various legions are in a state of breaking up, and how can Oscar seize this opportunity. What about the westward expansion of the House of Augustus?

One man is short and ten is long, and while Oscar is thinking hard about how to do it, he asks the guards to summon Mary, Luquis, and Quintus to the Doge's Palace. The other generals were speeding up and were busy with the Legion's mixed affairs, and Oscar didn't want to bother them; Of course, it cannot be denied that the Augustan family can be the only generals who can take charge of Mary, Luquis, and Quintus. The rest of the generals were promoted quickly and incompetently as a corps commander; Not to mention the decision-making of this kind of family plan.

After the three of them arrived in the conference room, Oscar took out all the information he had just received for the three of them to browse; And he continued to sit on the main seat, supporting his head with his left hand to figure out a way. After reading the information, the three of them all fell into their own contemplation, and after a while, Lucis took the lead and said to Oscar:

"Leader, we must not waste such a good opportunity, and we must now hurry up to implement the plan for westward expansion; Take advantage of the good time when Carthage and Hannibal are too busy to take care of themselves. We should immediately send our troops to launch an attack on the Balearic Islands. At the same time, we should also immediately send emissaries to Spain to try to persuade the King of Spain to agree to an alliance with us; So that after the capture of the Balearic Islands, we can land in Spanish ports and launch an attack on Betica! ”

"Your Excellency, I have a new idea; I think we should abandon our planned westward expansion for the time being, and start a war against Sicily, taking advantage of the fact that there are now fewer than 10,000 defenders on Sicily. In this way, we can occupy the main overseas territory of Carthage in one fell swoop; Then we slowly expanded westward, and we had enough time to implement the family's other plans. Based on the information that Oscar came up with, Quintus proposed a new direction.

"No! This is absolutely unacceptable! However, when the idea was spoken, it was opposed by both Mary and Luquis; After Lucis and Mary looked at each other and nodded, Mary spoke, "Although there are less than 10,000 defenders left in Sicily. But the combined fleet of Hannibal's fleet and the Greek fleet still cruised off the coast of Sicily; Even if the commander of the Greek fleet, Pallas, was not willing to help Hannibal attack our fleet sincerely, he would never let our fleet land in Sicily.

Since the Greeks have once again chosen to return to Hannibal's camp, they are at most dragging Hannibal back, and do not want Hannibal to continue to expand; But they will not allow us to return to Sicily. Because they also knew that they would no longer be trusted by either Rome or Carthage. They would rather maintain the status quo than accept the return of Rome; As long as we do launch a landing operation, Pallas will definitely work with Theopides to attack our fleet.

With the strength of our current fleet, there is no way for us to guarantee that we will win a naval battle; If our fleet loses, then we will lose the last of our capital. Not only will all the troops sent out be killed, but when Hannibal has settled the war with Numidia, he will be able to launch a landing operation against us; We will completely lose even the strength to block the landing of Hannibal's army on Sardinia. Even Rome itself will face the threat of Hannibal's landing!

Even if we were lucky enough to defeat the combined Carthaginian-Greek fleet, we could not guarantee that Hannibal's reinforcements would not return to Sicily before we had captured Sicily; We cannot pin all our hopes on the possibility of the Numidian army fighting Hannibal to the death. Because Carthage was so close to Sicily, it took only a few days for Hannibal to return to Sicily with his army; In short, the risk of attacking Sicily is too high. We can't afford to take that risk! ”

Mary's analysis made Quintus, who had made this suggestion rashly pale, and Oscar himself was taken aback by the terrible consequences that Mary depicted; Of course, Oscar wouldn't tell the trio that he had such thoughts. Since there must be no risk in attacking Sicily, the crux of the matter is back to the beginning; How exactly can we seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to launch an attack on the Carthaginian overseas territories? to cut off the wings of the Kingdom of Carthage and destroy Hannibal's lair.

After thinking about it to no avail, the four finally came up with a way to strengthen the outside and make the interior weak, that is, to send the unmixed Guards Cavalry Legion, the Guards Infantry Corps and the Samonai Legion to the Western Mediterranean to attack the Balearic Islands; Although the defense of the whole of Sardinia will drop several notches in an instant after sending out these three legions that still retain full combat effectiveness, it is better than giving up this opportunity and risking an attack on Sicily.

If you think about it from a different angle, wouldn't Hannibal risk coming back? Hannibal returned to Carthage with only an army of 9,000 men and a fleet on the vast island of Sicily. These nine thousand troops were not only to defend all of Sicily; Or be on guard against the Romans' counterattack and the Greeks' stabbing in the back at any time. This in itself is also risky, and much more risky than Oscar needs to take; At least Oscar still has 70,000 troops in Sardinia, isn't there (seven main battle legions and auxiliary legions)?

As long as the commanders of the Augustus family hurry up and complete the basic run-in training of the mixed legions, the combat effectiveness of the seven main battle legions and auxiliary legions can be restored soon; What's more, the 100,000-strong army of the Numidians was not something that could be easily dealt with. Although the Numidian army was inferior to Carthage in terms of weaponry, it was superior in number and elite legions; With the strength of Hannibal and Vermyna, it is not certain who will die in the end.

Of course, this is purely self-consoling; Even though the Numidian army was more numerous and more elite than the Carthaginian army. Moreover, there were such excellent generals as Ahmad and Jugurdah in the Numidian army, and King Zuguta himself was not a man of inactivity; However, Oscar still felt that the war between Numidia and Carthage would end in a resounding victory for Hannibal. This was Oscar's instinct. There is absolutely no basis for this; But Oscar was convinced.

After deciding that the legions for the expedition to the Balearic Islands were the two Guards Legions and the Samonai Legion, Oscar was about to begin preparations for war; In terms of the fleet, Oscar decided to use Shixiu's fleet and the Gatsi fleet as transport and escort fleets, while Anne's fleet was responsible for guarding the waters of Sardinia.

Originally, the twenty-four transports of the Gatsi fleet plus the twenty transports of the Anne fleet were not enough to transport the three legions, but in the first half of this year, all the ten transports built in Sardinia were strengthened to the Gatsi fleet; The current Ghatsi fleet is fully capable of transporting troops of three legions.

The war of conquest of the Balearic was not just a matter of legions, Oscar also needed to bring the Balearic into the Augustan family after the capture of the Balearics; To do this, Oscar not only needed to prepare enough basic officials to implement the New Deal, but also a large number of immigrants to change the demographic composition of the Balearics. Because of the formation of the new pattern of Rome, Oscar's previous covenant with Decius no longer has any meaning; Therefore, if Oscar wants to emigrate, he must negotiate a new covenant with Decius.

As for the problem of grassroots officials, it is easier to solve; Although the new batch of students of the Augustus Family Academy has only just started their studies for half a year. But the first batch of 1,000 students still has a lot of idleness. According to the Augustan family's standard official establishment plan, each county required forty officials of all ranks; The capital needs fifty officials of all ranks, and the total number of officials in the whole province of Sardinia is only three hundred and seventy, and there are more than 600 first-class students who continue their studies at the academy.

Besides. the arrangement and transportation of grain, grass, materials and other matters required by the three corps for the expedition; Spare weapons and the preparation of arrows, etc., have countless complicated matters to deal with. After Oscar ordered Quintus to continue to be in charge of the re-organization of the legion, he sent Mary to the barracks to prepare for the battle, and Licinius sent someone to inform him; In order to hone his abilities, Oscar decided to personally serve as the temporary commander of the Samonai Legion and the commander of the expeditionary army, while Luquis was in charge of sitting in Sardinia and handling various logistics matters! (To be continued.) )