In the face of adversity, pretend to be prosperous; In Hongtongji, Yun Yi is tolerant and affectionate.

- Tito Livy (famous historian of ancient Rome)

Oscar thought for a long time outside the conference room alone, but in the end it was fruitless; In desperation, Oscar had to slowly walk towards the conference room. Although Oscar did not react in extreme shock when he saw the information, this does not mean that Oscar was not shocked by it; Oscar's serious expression also speaks for itself.

When Oscar, who was expressionless, pushed the door back and walked into the conference room, all the generals present turned their eyes to Oscar; Facing the inquiring eyes of the generals, Oscar just silently walked back to his main seat. After silently muttering, Oscar raised his head, looked at all the generals, and said in a condensed voice:

"Generals, I have just received the latest information from North Africa, and this information is also the most urgent matter represented by the Cloud Piercing Arrow before; The content of the information was this: Hannibal had officially ended the war against the kingdom of Numidia and had won an unprecedented victory, and soon he would return to Sicily with an army of 24,000 men, including more than 15,000 elite divisions. ”

Oscar's words were very peaceful and very quiet; But listening to the ears of the generals, it was tantamount to a thunderclap on the ground, and the startled generals were dumbfounded! You know, that's a whole army of 24,000; With this army, Hannibal's army in Sicily would completely surpass the army available to the Augustan family, and this did not shock all the generals present!

Looking at the seven generals such as Luquis, Mary, Quintus, Vepsani, Licinius, Antio, Luculus, and other generals with different expressions, Oscar also sighed in his heart; It seems that this kind of information is a blessing or a curse for the Augustan family, and it is really not certain!

In fact, long before Oscar returned to the conference room, he thought about whether to inform the generals of his family of this unexpected information; If you tell it, then the generals of the family will definitely be extremely shocked, and there will even be generals who are afraid, which is really harmful to the Augustus family.

However, if the generals of the family were not informed of this unforeseeable information, the impact could be even more severe; Once the generals of the House of Augustus go into battle with false intelligence about the enemy, it will surely be a disaster.

Even more deadly, the army of House Augustus could not fight Hannibal's army as soon as it landed in Sicily; The two sides will definitely have to go through a period of confrontation and tentative attack before the decisive battle. Such a time difference is enough for the soldiers of the Augustus family to understand the strength of Hannibal's army, and they will not be able to hide it when the time comes.

After careful consideration, Oscar decided to tell the generals of the family about the situation; In Oscar's opinion, it is better to inform the generals of this matter as soon as possible than to be affected by this incident at the moment of the decisive battle. Even if some of the generals will lose confidence in this battle, Oscar believes that the Augustus family will definitely have generals who are not afraid of strong enemies and swear to fight to the death!

It is true that although most of the generals were shocked with unusually shocked expressions, there were still seven generals who remained silent; Oscar believes that these seven people will dare to fight Hannibal's superior army head-on with an inferior army on the battlefield! Also, apart from these seven generals, the other generals were only shocked; That doesn't mean they're afraid to fight.

Oscar took in the performances of all the generals, but did not comment on it; After all the generals digested this sudden information, Oscar withdrew his gaze, then relaxed his body and leaned on the chair, and said lightly:

"Among the 24,000 troops of Hannibal's return army this time, there were 6,000 Punic infantry, 6,000 Libyan spearmen, and 2,000 Holy Order infantry, and about 1,000 elite infantry among the remaining 10,000 newly recruited Iberian infantry. As you may know, the Carthaginian Punic infantry and the Libyan spearmen were even more powerful.

Hannibal's return army was too strong; Twenty-four thousand troops alone, under the command of Hannibal, were enough to make our family difficult to deal with. 24,000 troops, plus an army of 32,000 in Sicily, would be 56,000 troops; And we, the House of Augustus, have less than 40,000 troops at our disposal.

With an army of 40,000 against Hannibal's army of 56,000, the army of our Augustus family not only could not occupy a qualitative advantage, but even was at an absolute disadvantage in quantity. In contrast, our only advantage may be that we have a large number of combat equipment and sophisticated weaponry; But with these alone, it was very difficult to win the war.

In fact, even I did not dare to win this expedition to Sicily; So, I'm going to tell you all about it, and I want to hear your opinions. In such a situation, we continued our march to Sicily and fought a decisive battle with Hannibal's superior army; Or cancel the decisive battle plan and prepare to defend the family's various territories with all your might. ”

This time, Oscar did not name who would stand up first to express his opinion, but sat quietly in his place, waiting for the generals sitting on the left and right sides to stand up and say their opinions. Luquis, who had always been the first to speak in family meetings in the past, did not stand up to speak this time, but also sat quietly in his seat.

The already silent conference room is even more dull in such an atmosphere; Luquis did not speak, and Vipsani, as the governor of Sardinia, naturally did not say anything about it, and Marie did not say a word about it because of the change of her status.

As time went by, the night outside the window became thicker and thicker, and Oscar was not in a hurry to see that no one in the conference room was willing to stand up and speak first, and still sat in his seat by himself. Finally, the commander of the Guards Cavalry Legion, Licinius, couldn't help but stand up and said firmly to Oscar:

"Your Excellency, I Licinius am a rough man, and I know nothing but marching and fighting; As far as I am concerned, everything I have now is given to me by my family and His Excellency the Leader, as long as His Excellency the Leader gives an order, I, Licinius and the Guards Cavalry Legion, will not hesitate in the slightest even if it is a sea of swords and fires! ”

Licini's first statement made Oscar's face show a smile, but Oscar did not praise Licini, but said with a slight joke: "General Licinius, I am asking you to say whether to fight or not, what is the use of you just showing me loyalty?" Don't slip your head and tell me your opinion! ”

Oscar's favor for Licinius and Antio, two fierce generals, is well known throughout the Augustan family; It is not unusual for Licinius to stand up and show his loyalty to Oscar on such an occasion, but it is still relatively rare for Oscar to make such a joke about Licini.

After all, a battlefield warrior like Licini is still more than a step behind in decision-making, so how can his opinion really have reference value? In the eyes of the other generals, this was also a rare embarrassment for Oscar Licini; So, everyone turned their attention to Licinius to see what this Licinius had to say.

To the disappointment of the generals, Licini did not show embarrassment under Oscar's inquiry, but fell into a deep thought; Without waiting for everyone to wait a long time, Licinius organized his language and said to Oscar again:

"Your Excellency, I think this war will still be fought! It seems to me that no matter how many troops Hannibal has under his command, it will not change the fact that we are fighting to the death with Hannibal. If we can't avoid war at all, why not fight to the death? Is it only Hannibal who is allowed to win more with less, and not to be allowed to defeat the strong with the weak? ”

Licinius's words not only surprised all the generals present, but also surprised Oscar; Oscar really didn't expect that this always vulgar man could say such a reasonable thing. Especially on such occasions, the significance of Licinius's words is even more extraordinary.

Oscar couldn't help but praise Licini: "Licini, you are really impressive; It's only been a few days, and you can actually say such a thing from head to head, it seems that you, the commander of the corps, are still very qualified, not bad, not bad! ”

In addition to Oscar, the other generals also couldn't help but look at Licinius, they didn't expect Licinius to say such a thing! On the other hand, Licini, hearing Oscar praise him so much, and seeing everyone looking at him in surprise, he himself scratched his head embarrassedly, and then sat back in his seat with a smile.

After Licinius's words, the atmosphere of the scene immediately became lively; The Commander of the Samonai Legion, Antio, also stood up and said, "Your Excellency, I also agree with the fight against this war!" No matter how many Hannibal's army is, and no matter how strong his army is, Samonai's army and I will fight to the death! ”

Before Antio's words could be heard, Cassillo, the commander of the Seventh Legion, immediately stood up and said: "Your Excellency, I also agree with General Licinius and General Antio; We should fight this war! As long as the leader gives an order, our Seventh Legion will not take a step back even if we are the last to fight! ”

The speeches of Licinius, Antio, and Cassio completely shook the atmosphere in the conference room, and the representative of the Guards Infantry Legion, Luculus, the commander of the Sixth Legion, Commander Gumos, as well as the commanders of the Navy, and the adjutant generals of each legion also stood up and expressed their opinions on a decisive battle! (To be continued.) )