Children are afraid of the dark, and there are understandable circumstances; The real tragedy of life is that adults are afraid of the light. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

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

Of course, the fact that the army is going out on an expedition is not something that can be talked about, and there are still a lot of things that need to be prepared; Before the Augustan family officially set out for Sicily, it also took ten days of preparation before the official expedition, which does not include all aspects of the preparations that the Augustan family had already begun.

Prince Adheba's personal expedition was not just talk, in fact, preparations for war in Mauritania had already begun; The Combined Corps led by Spartak will not be mentioned for the time being, because they have always been stationed in the border area, which is itself in combat readiness and does not need to mobilize anything at all.

Although the Salah corps led by General Salah was not stationed in the border area, it did not need to make much preparations for war; As one of the two pillars of the former Numidian Kingdom, the Salah Legion could not be underestimated in terms of its own combat effectiveness and mobilization speed.

After ensuring that the Combined Legion and the Salah Legion were ready to fight, Prince Adheba had an elite army of 35,000 ready to fight; Coupled with the Mauritanian Legion in the Mauritania region, this is also 3,000 elite Numidian javelin cavalry, and the combat effectiveness is still very good.

And once Prince Adheba personally goes out to fight, he will also have an elite personal guard force of more than 1,000 people by his side, which is also a combat power that cannot be ignored; If calculated in this way, Prince Adheba's army at any time is already as high as 40,000! However, it is impossible for all of these armies to be dispatched; Because this is already the entire army of the Mauritanian region!

From the geographical point of view, Mauritania is separated from the province of Betica on the Iberian Peninsula to the north by the western Mediterranean, and to the west by the vast Atlantic Ocean; To the east it is connected to the kingdom of New Numidia of which Ahmet was king, and to the south by the kingdom of Gaturia of which Bahano was king.

Although the province of Betica on the Iberian Peninsula to the north was already the territory of the Augustusian family, the threat from the north was not completely eliminated; After all, the main power on the Iberian Peninsula is the Kingdom of Spain, and its Iberian province is also connected to the province of Betica, which is also located north of Mauritania!

In this regard, Nepos made a guarantee to Prince Adheba; You know, the Augustus family has deployed two standard legions in Betica Province, which is an elite army of 20,000 people. And the Iberian province of the Kingdom of Spain, in addition to the 4,000 provincial garrisons, there are only 10,000 troops of the Duke of Dinoir who can support at any time, so there is no need to be afraid at all!

With the assurance of the House of Augustus, Prince Adheba and the Governor of Gisgo could not worry about the threat from the north; However, the forces in the other two directions are not something that the Augustus family can interfere with, and this must be solved by Prince Adheba himself.

If Prince Adheba wanted to reunite the Numidian kingdom, he first had to take the new Numidian kingdom to the east and the Gaturia kingdom to the south; Otherwise, wouldn't the so-called reunification of the Numidian kingdom be an empty phrase?

However, there is one point that cannot be overlooked, that is, once the war breaks out, Prince Adheba's army may have to face the dilemma of fighting on two fronts; Because no matter who Prince Adheba starts war against, he will expose his own ambitions, and naturally it will attract the hostility of third parties, and the third parties will definitely join the war.

Although the so-called Kingdom of Gaturia was not in the eyes of Prince Adheba, if it were not for the mountains in the middle as a barrier, Prince Adheba was even confident that he could pacify the Kingdom of Gaturia within a month and make it a province of the Kingdom of Numidia within a month if it were not for the mountains in the middle as a barrier.

However, the existence of the mountain barrier made it impossible for Prince Adheba to send an army to attack the Kingdom of Gaturia directly; Otherwise, the time it takes to climb the mountains alone will be enough to delay the entire course of the war. More critically, the terrain of the mountains is too complex and steep, and the price to pay for the passage of a large army is too great; Moreover, even if it passes, it won't be able to carry too much grain and grass supplies!

This is the most deadly! The entire continent of North Africa, except for the two native provinces of the Kingdom of Carthage, is not a desert in the Kingdom of Cyrenaica and the region of Numidia and the region of Mauritania; The rest of the place is a desert area covered with yellow sand. Even the large number of oases scattered in these areas does not change the harsh desert climate.

In such an extreme climate, even the Numidian people, who are accustomed to this climate, have to live cautiously, let alone march to war. If they could not carry enough food and forage, the army that crossed the mountains to conquer the Kingdom of Gaturia could be wiped out in the desert at any time; This is the result that Prince Adheba cannot accept!

Therefore, it is impossible for Prince Adheba to really cross the mountains and send an army to the kingdom of Gaturia; Then, there is only one option left, that is, to attack the New Numidian Kingdom of Ahmet first, and after taking the New Numidian Kingdom, then march south from the Numidian Province to attack Gaturia!

This choice, in the final analysis, is also Adheba's only choice, but it is not the choice that Adheba wants; Although Ahmet was already a defeated general under Hannibal, his ability and status among the Numidian nation should not be underestimated!

If Hannibal and Vimyna were the war twins of the Carthaginian kingdom, then Ahmet and Salah were the war twins of the Numidian nation; Among them, Ahmet's place in the hearts of the Numidian people is as high as Hannibal in the hearts of the Carthaginian people.

In addition, Ahmed was a famous general, and even Hannibal was unwilling to face such an enemy; As the former prince of the Numidian Kingdom and one of the main heirs to the throne, Adheba certainly knows this.

In fact, Adheba himself admired General Ahmed, and when he was competing for the throne, Adheba also tried to win Ahmet into his camp several times. It's a pity that King Xiang has intentions, but the goddess has no intentions; Ahmet eventually took his legion and threw himself into the arms of Turguta.

Even so, Adheba had no grudges against Ahmet; Because Adheba knew that a person like Ahmed, who values the nation and the kingdom, who he supports is not out of selfishness, but more from the perspective of the overall situation. Therefore, Adheba understands Ahmed and has always admired Ahmed.

It may be a blessing to be able to go head-to-head with someone you admire; But this is just the imagination of ordinary people, and if anyone really wants such a thing to happen, then he must have something wrong with his brain. For Adheba, the battle that can be easily won is the most perfect battle; Fighting Ahmet's army to the death in a head-on battle was a matter of desperation.

Moreover, while Prince Adheba led his army to Ahmed, he must also leave enough troops to defend the rear base of Mauritania; Otherwise, what if Bahano of Gaturia had learned of his invasion of Numidia and had taken the opportunity to send a small force across the mountains to attack Mauritania? That's a dead end!

In order to avoid such a thing from happening, Prince Adheba decided to leave the Mauritanian legion led by General Aleamas to garrison Mauritania to ensure absolute security in the entire Mauritanian region! But how could General Alaiamas's Mauritanian legion, with only 3,000 Numidian javelinmen, be able to defend Tangier while maneuvering?

Prince Adheba's solution to this problem is very simple, that is, to expand the army! With the explicit support of the House of Augustus, Prince Adheba officially decided to expand his army by another 7,000, expanding Alaiamas's legion to 10,000; In addition to the original 3,000 javelin cavalry, the remaining 7,000 recruits were the infantry composed of archers and Numidian infantry.

The weapons and equipment of these 7,000 recruits were naturally provided by the Augustus family, and their task was also very simple, that is, to defend Tangier, where the governor of Gisgow himself was seated; General Aleamas was in charge of personally leading 3,000 elite javelin cavalry to patrol the outskirts of the mountains in case of a surprise attack by a small force of Gaturia.

After arranging the troops left behind, Prince Adheba officially decided to personally lead the army to the battle! Prince Adheba took his personal guards and the army led by Salah to the border area where the United Legion was located, and the Combined Legion immediately began to prepare for war after receiving Prince Adheba's order!

However, the war in Mauritania does not seem to have hidden Ahmet of the New Numidian Kingdom; It was also a very "coincidence" that when Prince Adheba led the army, he personally led the most elite and only army under his command, and the more than 10,000 elite divisions that survived the last war with Hannibal began to move rapidly towards the border areas!

After the last war, Ahmet reluctantly accepted Hannibal's persuasion to surrender, and also accepted Hannibal's voluntary release of prisoners; In addition, Ahmad later recruited and replenished some soldiers and horses, and his legion once again had 15,000 men. This time, Ahmet is leading this 15,000-strong army in the direction of the border!

The army led by Prince Adheba himself, after receiving information about Ahmet's army, also accelerated its march; But both sides still reached the border area in almost no time. Looking at the Ahmed army, which was still imposing and neatly arranged, Prince Adheba also sighed helplessly; Unexpectedly, it was inevitable to fight in the end! (To be continued.) )