Falsapaceèpiùpericolosodiguerra (False peace is more dangerous than war)

- Tacitus (Roman historian)

The sun was unusually bright on 16 September, which seemed to herald the end of the tragic fighting; Today's city of Lilibal has been busy since dawn. Last night Oscar's order was carried out in an orderly manner, and the prisoners and wounded were on their way to the coast; The 200 Spartan hoplites, who were not particularly badly wounded, insisted on staying, and Oscar agreed to their request.

Oscar, who had rested in the Governor's study last night, looked a little dark under his eyes, and Miss Mary, who had risen early, specially prepared hot eggs for Oscar's eyes. Looking at Oscar and Mary in the pavilion in the back garden, Licinius wisely chose to guard outside the garden. Even the maids and servants who were going to clean the back garden were stopped by Licinius outside the garden, just so as not to disturb the silence between the two.

Mary's tenderness made Oscar more and more obsessed, and he began to selectively forget his fiancée in the city of Rome; Immerse yourself in the tenderness that belongs to Mary. Mary's performance is indeed very good, at least in Oscar's opinion, she is very suitable to be her other half; As for the marriage contract and the future of the city of Rome, it is not the future. Just live the life you have now, Oscar has decided that she will not give up on Mary anyway; She is her own.

Soon, the silence between the two was broken; General Bayliss led a herald directly into the back garden, and Licinius followed with a solemn face. Oscar saw the faces of the three people who came in a hurry and understood, it must have been Hannibal who had made a move. Sure enough, after Mary's intellectual first step; Bayliss reported a piece of news that caught Oscar off guard.

According to the report of the reconnaissance cavalry: as soon as it was dawn this morning, Hannibal's regiment buried the pot for cooking; After breakfast, he began to abandon the barracks and came to the city of Liliba! An army of 15,000 marched towards Lilib, but the speed of the march was very fast, and it was not like preparing to attack Lilibal immediately. Hannibal's army was followed by a combined army of more than 30,000 Roman and Greek troops led by Cornelius, the family of Scipio, who were following Hannibal's army unhurriedly. Because of the speed of the march, Hannibal would reach the city of Lilibal to-morrow morning; But it's also possible that it will suddenly accelerate again, and the troops will be in the city tonight!

Oscar didn't dare to be careless when he heard the news, and hurried to the study with Bayliss to discuss countermeasures; Baylis was the first to suggest: "With the defense of Elibal and the number of our troops, we cannot even hold back the attack of Hannibal's army for three hours; As soon as Hannibal's army was the first to attack us, and Scipio the Elder's army did not attack in time.

Then, the Wolf Legion and the Guards are in danger of being wiped out in the city of Lili. Therefore, I propose that Your Excellency the Leader lead the Guards with the Legion of Wolves to garrison the Carthaginian barracks on the south bank of the Caldus River. This way we can have plenty of strategic space to wait for the support of the coalition forces, and launch an attack on Hannibal's corps with the coalition forces; lest we be broken by Hannibal's corps one by one. ”

Baylis's words won Licini's support, and Oscar agreed to Baylis's suggestion after some thought. Therefore, the Guards Regiment, which had already been stationed in Lilipa, immediately went to the South Bank barracks after packing up their supplies with the wounded Spartan heavy infantry under the orders of Licinius; Oscar took Mary and Bayliss to the barracks to start preparing for battle.

At this moment, what was Old Scipio, who led the coalition army slowly marching, thinking? The leader of the Scipio family, whom the Romans called the Conqueror, was also a master of the Roman Republic! In his mind, the naval battles of the First Punic War had already decided the hegemony of the Western Mediterranean, and unless Hannibal could slaughter the city of Rome, there was no chance of a reversal - the population of Rome was well manned. Maritime supremacy, in turn, severely limited Carthage's ties with its colonies.

So Scipio the Elder's strategic idea was simple, to slowly drain the last drop of Carthaginian blood. Although the overall pattern of the war was somewhat similar to that of the Second Peloponnesian War, this time there was no isthmus, and the land was completely cut off by the sea; And the side that relied more on money was on the side of Carthage, which was at a disadvantage in this respect, which finally made Scipio the elder see the possibility of completely destroying Hannibal's legions.

Although Hannibal became the consul of Carthage for a time after the Battle of Konnai, he mediated with Scipio the Conqueror in order to revive his homeland. Unfortunately, the painful memories he brought to Rome were too deep, and the elder Cato's iconic "Therefore, Carthage must be destroyed" finally made him and his city-state the greatest threat to the Romans.

At this time, Hannibal was well aware of the dynamics of the Roman legions, and knew that Rome was beginning to lean towards war. Hannibal's troops were only half the strength of the Roman army, and he did not intend to fight on the battlefield prepared by the Romans, especially since the northern part of Lower Sicilia was hilly and not suitable for Hannibal's cavalry to play to his advantage. Hannibal needed to find a place to his advantage, and for this he spent a lot of energy and time making a detailed investigation of the situation in the vicinity, and he also made careful preparations.

At the same time, he needs time to carry out some reforms in his army. At the Battle of the Trabia River, Hannibal used a typical phalanx of Greek hoplites, and it was his first official battle against the Roman phalanx of hundreds. He admired the high mobility and breakthrough ability of the small Roman phalanx, and came up with the idea of changing the formation. During the winter camp, he embarked on this matter, dividing his large phalanx into small phalanxes, absorbing the high mobility of the Roman centurians and further strengthening the combat capability of his troops.

On the morning of September 16, when everything was ready, Hannibal began his operation again. In order to avoid the attention of the Roman army, he set up a false light in the camp, quietly left the camp under the cover of night, and marched to the south. Although Scipio the Elder soon found that Hannibal had left his camp and marched south, he was puzzled by the fact that the south was becoming more and more distant from Upper Sicilia in Rome, and it should not be of great strategic importance.

They were inexplicable about Hannibal's actions, so they did not know how to act, and they did not have time to warn Lilibor in the south to strengthen their defenses, nor did they dare to speed up the pursuit, lest they fall for his tricks again. The only thing they did was to constantly report Hannibal's movements to the coalition command, which was not sure what Hannibal meant.

Hannibal, on the other hand, had a clear purpose, forced his march all the way, and before the Romans could understand it, he suddenly crossed the Galdus and captured the city of Lilibal, which Oscar had already abandoned in the morning, in the evening. Located on the south bank of the Caldus River, the city of Liliba was one of Carthage's most important grain storage stations. The loss of Liliba was equivalent to giving 15,000 soldiers of Hannibal's army the supplies and support of Carthage.

Although they could re-recruit more troops in Italy, it would take time, and the amount of the need would not be able to be solved quickly. Hannibal's move was a disrupting blow to the Romans, not only because of the loss of supplies, but also because of Lilibal's strategic location, which controlled large areas of the surrounding rich plains.

At this time, the harvest season is approaching, and the occupation of Lilibal is equivalent to having these inexhaustible harvest fruits. For Rome meant the prolongation of the war, the disgrace of prestige and the division of the alliance. Now there is only one way for the Allied Command and Scipio the Elder, and that is to fight a decisive battle with Hannibal to make up for this major mistake.

Moreover, old Scipio can't blame Oscar for this mistake; It's not just that the wolf legion in Oscar's hands alone is simply unable to hold the city of Lilibal, which has been destroyed by the war. What's more, the Wolf Legion in Oscar's hands is currently the most elite of the seven legions in Rome; Therefore, old Scipio needs the full strength of the wolf army to fight to the death in the next decisive battle. Therefore, he can't offend Oscar, let alone blame Oscar.

However, all this was in Hannibal's calculations, and even the place of the battle was carefully chosen by Hannibal. Whether it was the Battle of Trabia or the ambush at Lake Trasimeno, Hannibal had always fought on the battlefield he had chosen. This is one of the important principles of the art of war. Whether or not you can engage the enemy in the place you have chosen is equivalent to whether you can grasp the initiative in war and battle, and whether you can suppress the enemy's shortcomings and promote your own strengths. The famous general Hannibal knew this better than I did, so after taking Lilibal, he set up camp on the gentle bank of the Ophidus River.

When Hannibal led his legions to take Lilibal, Oscar, Bellis, Licinius and the Wolves and the Guards crossed the Galdus River to the Allied camp on the north bank. This was to prevent the coalition forces from being crushed by Hannibal one by one, and also to prevent the Wolf Legion from facing the full attack of Hannibal's legion alone.

In just one day, Hannibal easily captured the city of Lilibal with a little trickery; Solved its own strategic crisis. Exhausted the coalition forces that were far outnumbered by him, not only slapped old Scipio in the face, but also caused a gap within the coalition army. When Oscar led more than 5,000 people of the Wolf Legion and the Guard, as well as the Samonai Legion (the rebel army of gladiators), to the coalition camp, the other six legions of Rome were nothing; After all, everyone is fighting together this time, so naturally there will be no ugly incident of brothers in front of the Greek legion.

On the contrary, it was the Greek legion that sneered at Oscar's army, saying that the Wolf Legion might as well be renamed the Rabbit Legion, and that they would know to run away when they saw Hannibal's legion. The Wolf Legion, with its own proud history and glorious achievements, of course, could not tolerate this kind of taunt, and immediately fought with the soldiers of the Greek Legion. Although in the end everyone shook hands and made peace under the kind words of old Scipio; However, the mustard is deeply rooted in the hearts of both parties.

Even other legions that did not clash with the Greek legions treated the Greek legions differently. The Greeks were not Romans, they had not confronted Hannibal head-on; Nor can they understand the fear of Hannibal in the hearts of the Romans. If it was any Roman legion alone that encountered the fifteen-thousand-strong army of Hannibal's legion; They will all choose to run away without hesitation.

This has nothing to do with military honor, it's just that no one wants to die in vain; Gather strength and wait until you are strong enough to completely destroy Hannibal's legions. This is the thinking of the Romans and the Roman legions. So, invisibly, the Greek legions offended all the Roman legions present; This also laid the foundation for future Roman-Greek wars. On the other hand, the Oscar army, mocked by the Greek legions, was warmly received by the other Roman legions; This made Oscar's heart feel a little more comfortable.