Patience is the foundation of all ingenuity. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

- Plato (one of the greatest philosophers and thinkers of Western culture)

The changes in the situation in North Africa are naturally impossible to hide from the Oscars; Although the intelligence force of the Tragic Dead on the North African continent is not very strong, the Jinyi Guard led by Tahiti is thriving on the North African continent.

However, in a region that is in a state of war and is in chaos, it is always possible to develop intelligence forces with half the effort; Coupled with the fact that Tahiti's own ability is excellent, the rapid development of Jinyiwei on the North African continent is also a reasonable thing.

Since arriving in Mauritania with Spartak, Tahiti has changed from the head of the Mauritanian Jinyi Guard at the beginning to the head of the Jinyi Guard in the entire North African region; And Jinyiwei's intelligence network has also penetrated into various places on the North African continent.

Whether it is the provinces of the original Numidian Kingdom, or the three major provinces of the Carthaginian Kingdom, or the more remote Sahara Kingdom and the Cyrenaica Kingdom, the tentacles of the Jinyiwei can reach through. It is no exaggeration to say that there is no place on the entire North African continent that does not have the eyeliner of the brocade guard; In all places, there are more or less brocade guards.

Of course, Jinyiwei also has considerable shortcomings compared to the tragic dead soldiers; The biggest disadvantage is that the Jinyiwei does not have a strict internal organization like the Tragic Dead, nor can it operate completely independently like the Tragic Dead, and the Jinyiwei must rely on the strong support of the Augustus family to develop, while the Tragic Dead can develop independently.

This is also deliberately done by Oscar, an independent tragic dead man is enough for the Augustus family to have a headache, and another similar brocade guard, isn't that adding to the chaos? What if one day in the future, the Tragic Dead Warrior or the Brocade Guard, if they rebelled against the Augustan family? Didn't that completely disrupt everything the Augustus family had all of a sudden?

Therefore, Oscar limited the development of Jinyiwei from the beginning; The intelligence monster of Jinyiwei must be controlled in the hands of the leader of the Augustan family, the leader let it live, it can live, and if the leader lets it die, it must die! Such an intelligence organization is the intelligence organization that Oscar needs, and it is also the intelligence organization that the Augustus family needs.

With the stable and meticulous information provided by Jinyiwei, Oscar is also well aware of the situation in North Africa; Although there is always a lag period in the transmission of information, the overall situation will not be easily changed.

The current situation in North Africa is what Oscar and the Augustus family want to see, and the Kingdom of Carthage is completely contained; With or without the covert assistance of the Carthaginian Senate, Hannibal would not have been able to receive reinforcements from Carthage.

In fact, the situation in North Africa is developing even more smoothly than Oscar imagined; Originally, Oscar also planned that Adheba would pay a certain price before he could take the New Numidian kingdom of Ahmet, and then confront the army of Carthage.

Unexpectedly, Ahmet could give up everything, resolutely defected before the battle, and directly led the army to surrender to Adheba; Although this act is contrary to Ahmet's own oath, it is enough to prove that he is the true hero of the Numidian nation!

In this way, Adheba has a full 50,000 elite troops under his command, not counting his newly recruited 10,000 recruits; Such military strength was enough to contain all the armies of Carthage, including the army of Vermina!

Coupled with the Zhuguda forces that fish in troubled waters, the entire North African continent is really a mess now; Unless the decisive battle in Sicily is over, the various forces on the North African continent will not act rashly, and this result is the best result for the Augustan family!

After making it clear that Hannibal would not receive any reinforcements, Oscar began to prepare for a decisive battle against Hannibal's army; Previously, Hannibal coerced the ancient city-state of Syraca to join Hannibal's camp, and Oscar had already known about it when Hannibal led his army to leave Lilibal, but Oscar did not take any countermeasures against it.

In Oscar's view, in the last decisive battle of Lilipal, the Greek legions that were on the verge of rout had left a deep impression on themselves; Even at the most critical moment, Oscar would not choose the Greek army as his ally, otherwise, it may be his own army that will be killed alive in the end!

Everyone knows that in the last decisive battle of Lilibal; The strength of the Roman Combined Legion was far superior to that of Hannibal's army. Even if Hannibal won the war, it would not be possible to completely annihilate the superior army of Rome; However, the escape of the Greek legions disrupted all the deployments of the entire Roman legions, and the Roman legions were finally annihilated by Hannibal.

Such a painful lesson made Oscar really dare not believe in the combat effectiveness of the Greek army anymore; Perhaps, these were just Oscar's own prejudices against the Greek army, but they were enough to make Oscar reluctant to pull the old city of Syracuse into his chariot.

Of course, for the 3,000 elite Spartan hoplites in the ancient city-state of Syrac, Oscar still coveted; Although the Augustan family also had a thousand Spartan heavy infantry in the Guards Infantry Legion, the number was still too small to form a decisive force on the battlefield, and Oscar still needed more Spartan heavy infantry!

However, with all the signs that Lucas and Calis are on the island of Crete, it seems that the two have gradually moved away from the Augustan family and want to become independent; This also means that it is impossible for Oscar to obtain the Spartan heavy infantry through the intermediate channel of Crete, and the Spartan heavy infantry of the Augustan family is only the last 1,000 people.

Before the decisive battle with Hannibal was over, Oscar had to let things happen in Crete; After all, it was the territory of the Greek Navy. If the Augustan fleet sailed to that sea without permission, it would only lead to a war between the Augustians and the Greek city-states; For the Augustan family, the gains outweighed the losses.

Based on this premise, Oscar still had ambitions for the 3,000 Spartan hoplites in the city-state of Syract; If the time is right in the future, Oscar will still do everything possible to collect these 3,000 Spartan heavy infantry for his own use!

After the events concerning the city-state of Syrac, Hannibal's decision to choose the plain of Zama as the location of the decisive battle was soon learned by Oscar; Now that Hannibal has begun to choose a battlefield for the decisive battle, the Augustan family can't be left behind!

In addition to the entire First Legion being left behind to guard Messina and the port, Oscar, together with Luquis, Quintus and other generals, led the remaining five legions and began to march towards the Zama Plain!

From the marching arrangement, the army of the Augustus family had already laid out the formation of the decisive battle, and it was the Second Legion and the Seventh Legion led by Quintus himself at the forefront of the march; After these two legions were transferred to the cavalry brigade and the equipment brigade, each legion had 8,000 troops left, and the total strength was 16,000 soldiers.

After that, there was the Guards Infantry Regiment and the Guards Cavalry Regiment and the Samonai Legion led by Luquis himself; Although neither Guards Corps suffered any losses, the Symnay Regiment had only seven thousand combatants left. In addition to the soldiers of the Samonai Army who were killed in the battle, the remaining wounded were also left in the city of Messina to recuperate.

In other words, the total strength of the three legions led by Luquis was only 17,000; The battle cluster of these two main forces, with a total of 33,000 troops, is the absolute main force of the Augustan family in the decisive battle!

The remaining armies were improvised units under the command of Oscar himself; Among them, only 1,500 family guards led by Nusis were Oscar's personal guards who could be put into battle at any time, while the other 3,000 Numidian light cavalry and three brigades of equipment troops were not so easy to fight.

In order to speed up the march of the equipment troops, and also in order to keep the three equipment brigades from lagging behind the other main forces; Oscar had all three brigades of Numidian light cavalry help the soldiers of the equipment brigade to drag the ballistae and stone catapults. In other words, before arriving at the battlefield, the 3,000 cavalry under Oscar were all auxiliary troops of the equipment unit.

the 17,000 army led by Luquis, plus the 16,000 army led by Quintus, plus the mixed army of more than 7,000 led by Oscar himself; The real decisive strength of the Augustan family is as high as 40,000 people, compared to Hannibal's army of 55,000, only 15,000 soldiers are missing.

However, not all of Hannibal's 55,000 troops were strong and well-trained; The recruits recruited in Lower Sicilia alone and the soldiers of the Greek legions accounted for 12,000 of Hannibal's total strength, plus the 15,000 Spanish and Gallic mercenaries who returned from the defeat of Betica, the combat effectiveness of Hannibal's 27,000 troops was still very poor.

Of course, this cannot be done without the combat effectiveness of the army under Hannibal; After all, Hannibal's army also included 24,000 elite infantry led by him, and 4,000 elite shield cavalry led by Hasduba. The 28,000 army is the real main force of Hannibal, and it is also the key to the final result in the decisive battle!

Never underestimate Hannibal's ability, the last decisive battle of Lilibal; Hannibal used his absolutely inferior troops to teach a memorable lesson to the absolutely superior Roman army. Oscar and Quintus were both survivors of the last great war, and were the only two remaining among so many generals and commanders; They know deep down what the name Hannibal means!

As the army approached the Zama Plain little by little, Oscar's heart began to change from initial calm to gradually impatient; Hannibal's army, on the other hand, had already arrived at the Zama Plain in two days, and had set up three military camps at the southern end of the Zama Plain, resting and preparing for war! (To be continued.) )