Leisure is not the enrichment of the soul, but the rest of the soul.

- Marcus Tulius Cicero (Roman statesman, orator, orator, jurist, and philosopher)

It's a pity that the four admirals from the navy are also powerless about this; You know, naval warfare in this era was a war of numbers and ships. The command ability of the fleet commander and the adaptability of the captains are also important, but the key is that the other team's fleet commander and fleet are no worse than their own; In a way, the admirals of the opposing side were even better than those of the Augustus.

Pallas was a rare and excellent admiral in the Greek navy, and Theopopides was also one of the few excellent generals in the Carthaginian navy who was proficient in naval warfare; On the other hand, the House of Augustus. Gatsiy had previously only been the commander of the Richard family's private transport fleet and had not experienced large-scale naval battles at all; Anne and Mary were only pirates who had commanded several warships, and had no experience in commanding large fleets.

The only one who has both experience in commanding large fleets and has experienced several large-scale naval battles is Shi Xiu; But she was familiar with the naval combat mode of the Egyptians, and she did not understand the naval combat mode of the Carthaginians and Greeks. Moreover, she was nothing more than a powerful pirate back then; The tactics used were not at all the tactics used in regular naval warfare, they were just the usual tactics of pirates.

So, in terms of naval commanders, the Augustus family was no match for Hannibal's alliance with Greece; Although the Greek infantry was not very strong, its navy was relatively strong. Not to mention Carthage, do you think Carthage's century-old hegemony in the Mediterranean was for nothing? Even though the current supremacy has been replaced by the Romans, Carthage's naval power should not be underestimated, a legacy of a naval supremacy that has spanned the Mediterranean for hundreds of years.

As for the comparison in the number of warships, the Augustus family is even less dominant; The Augustan navy had a total of eight trilinear ships, twenty-eight twin ships, and forty-four transports, and the admirals Luquis did not know that Oscar had secured reinforcements from six more trilinear ships and fourteen double ships in Rome. In addition to the Pallas fleet on the Greek side, Hannibal's fleet consisted of four triremes, twelve duplexes, and twenty-eight transports.

With the naval command of Pallas and Theopides, and the wisdom of Hannibal, the fleet of Hannibal and the fleet of Pallas could certainly cooperate sincerely; When the time comes. The House of Augustus was faced with an extremely large fleet. With such good commanders as Pallas and Theopides, two five-columns, eight three-columns, twenty-two double-columns, and forty-eight transports, the Augustan fleet was definitely no match for Hannibal's fleet.

But. It's not that there is no solution at all; Shi Xiu made it clear that if His Excellency Oscar could come up with enough of the devil's fire that was used against Blackbeard's pirate fleet last time, then Hannibal's fleet would be wiped out by the blow of the Augustus family fleet. This was recognized by Anne and Mary, and even Gatsi.

Since the last naval battle, the Roman fire used by Oscar has been passed on to the crew of the transport ship; Even Luquis and other generals had heard a little about the Roman fire, which the crew called the so-called devil's fire. But. For neither Luquis nor any other general had witnessed the power of this Roman fire; And they don't understand naval warfare either, so naturally they don't have a say in it.

Since Shi Xiu proposed this method, the admirals present all agreed with this method and were full of confidence in this method, there was no need for Luquis and other generals who did not understand naval warfare to put forward other opinions. However, Oscar, the secret weapon of the so-called fire of Rome, did not tell anyone how to make it, nor did he tell anyone where the fire of Rome existed; There is nothing the generals can do!

Unable to think of any other way, Lucis had to order the three fleets of the navy to be merged into a single fleet, with Shi Xiu as commander and Gatsi and Anne as deputy commanders; Lower the patrol vessels on the west and north sides of Sardinia. Be vigilant and prepare for a possible attack by Hannibal's fleet. The others can only wait for Oscar to return before making a decision, and now it will not be more than ten days before Oscar returns to Sardinia; Because Oscar had promised to return to Sardinia before November arrived.

Now, let's go back to the night of the decisive battle of Lilibal; After annihilating 200 Spartan hoplites, Hannibal led his army to Liliba in Lower Sicilya. After it became clear that Oscar had led the remnants of the defeated army to flee, Hannibal did not continue to let the soldiers pursue; After all, the enemy's 40,000-strong army has been completely wiped out, so why care about this small rout?

Moreover, it was already night at this time; The soldiers were no longer able to fight after a hard day's fighting, and because of the weather, Hannibal did not want to embarrass his soldiers, so he ordered them to rest in the city of Lilibal. Of course. It is undeniable that Hannibal still has a thought in his heart; That is, the 40,000 combined forces of Rome and Greece have been wiped out, and the whole of Sicily is already in their own pockets, where can this rout flee to?

After a night's rest, early the next morning Hannibal ordered the Husdduba to march on Messina in Upper Sicilia with a cavalry force and two thousand infantry in carriages; and ordered the Huskiddhuba to leave the infantry in Messina after the capture of Messina was completed. Continue to lead the cavalry on Syracuse in Great Sicily. But you can't attack Syracuse, it's enough to keep your guard outside the ancient city of Syracuse.

Hannibal himself led the main force directly from Liliba to Syracuse; As for the defeated army that escaped last night, Hannibal handed it over to his younger brother Margo, who led 1,500 elite mercenaries to continue the pursuit. After arranging all this, Hannibal left Mahabar to garrison Lilibal and set out for Syracuse with his army.

By the time Hannibal's main force joined up with the Huskiduba cavalry outside the ancient city of Syrac, Oscar's fleet had reached Sardinia; Meanwhile. The entire province of Upper Sicilia had also been reduced to a Carthaginian province. Hannibal, who had always advocated attack, did not directly attack Syracuse this time, but only led his army to camp outside the ancient city of Syracuse; And sincerely invite the frightened Greeks to come out and negotiate.

In the course of the negotiations, Hannibal not only did not blame the Greeks for treachery and united with the Romans to attack him, but also did not make other demands; It was simply a desire to continue the previous alliance with the Greek city-states. Moreover, Hannibal also made it clear; He was convinced that the Greek city-states and Carthage would be the staunchest allies, and that the previous actions of Dionysios' legions should have been nothing more than the expansion of their personal ambitions.

It is rare that Hannibal has changed his sex, and is unwilling to care about the treachery of the Greek city-states; He even blamed all the mistakes on Dionicios, who had already died. Naturally, the emissaries of the Greek city-states went down the slope. While denouncing Dionysios for his audacity, the envoy constantly reaffirmed the deep friendship between Greece and Carthage; He also promised that as long as Hannibal did not care about this personal act of Dionysios, the Greek city-state would unconditionally provide a new legion and a powerful fleet for his Excellency Hannibal to command.

Hannibal ostensibly did not care about the mistakes of the Greeks. However, the Greek envoy agreed to the conditions put forward by the Greek envoy, and declared that these Greek troops would be handed over to his own unified command; At this time, the envoy also understood that the so-called non-blame was nothing more than Hannibal's desire to use the Greek city-states. But it has come to this, who told the Romans not to fight? The Greek envoy had no choice but to agree to all of Hannibal's demands.

When things got to this point, the Greek envoys thought that everything was over; But this is not the case. Hannibal himself didn't believe much in the promise of the Greek city-states; So another request was made to the Greek envoy that was not too excessive in Hannibal's opinion; That is, after the arrival of new legions and fleets in the Greek city-states. And the command was handed over to Hannibal, who immediately withdrew the garrison outside the ancient city of Syract. Otherwise, Hush Duba would have led his cavalry troops to be stationed outside the ancient city of Syrac; Until the arrival of new legions and fleets in the Greek city-states.

People are under the eaves and have to bow their heads; For Hannibal's terms, the Greek emissaries once again chose to accept. After the negotiations, Margo, who was in charge of continuing the pursuit of the rout, led his army to the outside of the ancient city of Syra; He reported to Hannibal that the defeated army had left Sicily by boat, and asked his brother why he had let the treacherous Greeks go instead of teaching them a lesson.

Hannibal didn't really care about the news Marco had brought back; For Hannibal had already killed the three remaining Roman generals in such battles: Scipio the Elder, Nucias, and Sevelia, as well as six battle-hardened Roman legions. Therefore, the escape of one or two small fish and shrimp does not affect the overall situation; Just wait until you get the fleet of the Greeks. You can land on Rome yourself and wipe out the Romans once and for all!

However, another question from Marco also speaks to the generals' hearts; The generals, including Hush Duba, did not understand why Hannibal would spare the treacherous Greeks, but the generals worshipped Hannibal abnormally and did not choose to refute Hannibal's orders, let alone express their doubts casually. Only Margo, who is Hannibal's own brother, can ask the doubts in his heart, because he is not only Hannibal's subordinate, but also Hannibal's relative.

In the face of Margo's doubts and the generals' incomprehension, Hannibal did not blame them for not seeing through his intentions; Just gathered all the generals into their military tents and explained them carefully. It turned out that Hannibal did not really spare the Greeks. It's just that now Carthage's naval power is far from being comparable to that of the Romans; And it's extremely fragmented. Even with Hannibal's prestige, he could command only a small part of the entire Carthaginian navy.

The real Carthaginian naval force was still firmly controlled by the Carthaginian Senate, and they would not easily participate in the war between Hannibal and Rome; Yes, the war between Hannibal and Rome. For the Romans. The battle against Hannibal was a matter for all of the people in the entire Roman Republic; But for the Carthaginian Senate, this war had nothing to do with them, and they actually chose to watch from the sidelines.

Therefore, if you are not afraid of god-like opponents, you are afraid of pig-like teammates! Of course, our Excellency Hannibal also knew that he would not have the support of the Senate; But if you want to attack Rome itself, a navy is also indispensable. Forced to helpless. Hannibal had no choice but to make a false deal with the Greeks in order to deceive the Greeks' naval fleet to carry out his battle plan; Otherwise, with the personality of Hannibal and the treacherous virtues of the Greeks, the province of Greater Sicily would have been bled and became another province of Carthage.

After listening to Hannibal's explanation, the generals, who did not understand Hannibal, bowed their heads in shame; It turns out that everyone misunderstood Hannibal, and he was the one who really thought about the future of Carthage. At this moment, there is only Hannibal in everyone's hearts, and not Carthage; The pedantic senators of Carthage have become the object of everyone's gnashing of teeth! (To be continued.) )