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

After these deployments were completed, the Carthaginian kingdom's native defense system was basically established; In the province of Africa, where the capital was located, Vimina personally led an elite army of 29,000 to garrison the western frontier, while Carthage left 10,000 infantry to garrison.

In the province of Baissasien in Little Hanno, the 20,000 cavalry of the Himika and Gisken regiments were also stationed in the western frontier, while the 9,000 infantry of Abydos remained in the city of Tapsus as the garrison of the provincial capital.

To the south of the Carthaginian kingdom proper, the province of Tripoli, already part of the Libyan kingdom, was garrisoned by fifteen thousand troops of the allies of the Carthaginian kingdom; Among them were the 5,000 cavalry corps under the command of General Chilasberg and the 10,000 infantry corps under the command of General Podshim.

These two legions of the Kingdom of Libya were also stationed in the western border area of the province of Tripoli to prevent a possible attack by the Jugurdah forces; At this point, the entire North African continent was completely divided by a longitudinal line.

On the longitudinal line, which stretched from the northernmost part of the province of Africa to the province of Baisassien, and finally to the southernmost part of the province of Tripoli, there were 49,000 troops of the Kingdom of Carthage and 15,000 troops of the Kingdom of Libya.

To the east of the dividing line are the kingdoms of Carthage and Libya; In the west, there was the Numidian kingdom of Adheba and the Saharan kingdom of Juguda, and the four forces were completely divided.

In fact, after the Tahiti had built the military defense line of Baisasian province, they began to expand the size of the Hanno family's private army; The private army of the Hanno family, which had only 3,000 people earlier, was no longer enough to adapt to the current situation.

In order to better expand its own strength, Tahiti must continue to expand the size of this private army to a point where it can adapt to the current situation and play a vital role.

Now, the Hanno family has its own ability to build weapons and equipment with the support of the Augustan family; Although the production was not very high, it was enough to expand the size of the Hanno family's private army to 5,000.

Coupled with the fact that this private army is commanded by the capable centurions and captains of the Augustan family, its combat effectiveness is already good; However, an army that has not experienced actual combat will not be able to become an elite after all.

So Tahiti began to test the captains of the province of Baisasion with this private army; Of course, Tahiti would not tell them the true size of the private army, and these so-called temptations were only indescribable points.

At a military conference chaired by Tahiti, Tahiti deliberately left four legion commanders behind after the meeting; After everyone else had left, Tahiti vaguely suggested that some of the Hanno family's guards needed to go to the legion for special training, and asked the four generals if it was inconvenient.

From beginning to end, Tahiti did not say the exact size of the guards, nor did he name which legion he was going to; But the four generals all understood what Tahiti meant, and they also understood why Tahiti left them alone to talk about it.

In fact, Tahiti's temptation is obvious and reasonable; Before Hannibal was defeated and killed, almost all of these generals here were staunch followers of Hannibal, and it was impossible for them to betray Hannibal and join others.

It's a pity that now Hannibal has become a historical term; When the surrender of Hannibal's brother Theophanes to the House of Augustus was made public, even Hannibal himself was questioned.

In such a situation, it would be a joke to say anything about following Hannibal; These generals were not fools, and they naturally understood that their own position determined that they could not avoid the political struggle.

The temptation of Tahiti is nothing more than a matter of course; Those who are willing to follow the Hanno family and Tahiti from now on will naturally agree to the so-called guards of the Hanno family to come to their own legion for training, and those who are unwilling will directly refuse.

Now that these three legions are under the command of the Hanno family, the legions that are willing to follow the Hanno family can naturally enjoy the special care of the Hanno family and become a family with the Hanno family; If you don't want to, you can only be ruthlessly excluded and suppressed.

As it turned out, Carthage's generals were not all heroes like Hannibal; The nature of human beings is to seek good fortune and avoid evil. Therefore, these four legion commanders, without exception, all chose to generously help the Hanno family.

Since the four generals are so knowledgeable, Tahiti will naturally not be stingy; So, after the four generals agreed, Tahiti officially handed over all 5,000 private troops to the four generals and paid them for help.

The remuneration here is only a nominal reward; In fact, it was simply a reward for the generals who chose to follow the Hanno family. What's more, these payments were not given by Tahiti or the Augustans, they were all from the Hannos.

Although little Hanno is dedicated to being his own shopkeeper, he is not a fool; How can you talk about such a thing as buying people's hearts, and appropriate payment is naturally necessary, otherwise who wants to follow the Hanno family to do it with all their hearts?

Therefore, the gold and silver treasures and the good horses that Tahiti gave to the four generals this time were all taken out by little Hanno from the Hanno family; The only thing that wasn't the Hanno family might have been the four sets of fine armor and four sharp daggers that Tahiti had brought out himself.

These four sets of armor daggers are all specially created by the Augustus family for their own family's generals, and they can only be used by generals at the level of deputy generals of the legion, and even the captains are not qualified to use them.

The reason why Tahiti took out these four sets of armor and short swords naturally had his own deep meaning; After giving these gifts, Tahiti also told the four generals meaningfully that the gold, silver, jewelry, and BMW horses were all gifts from the Hanno family prepared by His Excellency Hanno Jr., and the four sets of armor and short swords were gifts prepared by Tahiti himself for the four generals.

After leaving this meaningful explanation, Tahiti left the room and went on to attend to other business; Immediately, the four generals also hurried back to their respective regiments with their gifts.

When the Kingdom of Carthage and the Kingdom of Libya were in full swing, Adheba and Juguda also received information about the decisive battle of Zama; Unfortunately, they had missed the best opportunity to attack the kingdom of Carthage.

In fact, when Adheba and Jugurda received the information, the alliance between the Kingdom of Carthage and the Kingdom of Libya had been concluded, and the entire defense system across the western border of the three provinces from north to south had been constructed, and they had no way to attack directly.

You know, the army available to Adheba is only 50,000, and the army under Juguda is only 25,000; Comparatively speaking, the armament and combat effectiveness of the army under the command of Juguda were far inferior to the army under Adheba.

Even with the army under Adheba, it was not easy to attack the well-defended Carthaginian lands; Whether it is the province of Africa or the province of Baisasion, there are more than 20,000 Carthaginian elites to defend.

Especially in the border areas of the province of Africa, where nearly 30,000 elite Carthaginian troops were at the mercy of Viminina, the famous 'Iron General', Adheba wanted to attack Carthage's territory, which was not an easy task.

Unless Adheba exerted all his might to attack the Carthaginian lands, victory would be possible; Otherwise, with some of the strength under Adheba, it would not be enough to defeat the powerful garrison of the Carthaginian kingdom in the border area.

There is a dilemma for Adheba; If he did not attack the Carthaginian kingdom with all his might, then he would not be able to defeat the large army in the border areas of the Carthaginian kingdom, which meant that the outbreak of war was just a futile effort.

If he really attacked the Carthaginian kingdom with all his might, then he might not be able to quickly defeat the border defenders of the Carthaginian kingdom; Once the war dragged on, the empty Numidian kingdom in the rear would face the risk of being attacked by Jugurdah and the army of another province of the Carthaginian kingdom, which was also an unacceptable result for Adheba.

I have to admit that the reason why Adheba is facing such a dilemma is caused by the Augustus family; If it weren't for the Augustus family deliberately blocking the news of the decisive battle of Zama, how could Adheba have only gotten the information at this time?

In order to prevent Adheba from learning the information too early, Oscar launched a surprise attack on the unprepared Carthaginian kingdom; Oscar ordered the House of Augustus to do everything in their power to block all information to prevent Adheba from annexing the Kingdom of Carthage.

It is clear that Oscar's strategy has succeeded, and it is impossible for the Adheba forces and the Jugurdah forces to take the initiative to start a war against the Carthaginian kingdom; After all, the kingdom of Carthage, which is ready for war, is not ordinarily strong!

Since it is impossible to wage war against the Kingdom of Carthage, Adheba and Jugurdah are left with only one way to attack each other; Therefore, after discovering that the Kingdom of Carthage and the Kingdom of Libya had built a strong western defensive line, Adheba and Juguda began to gather their generals to discuss the matter of attacking each other.

For Adheba's forces, the southern conquest of the Saharan kingdom of Jugurdah was much simpler than dealing with the Carthaginian kingdom, which was in full swing; The Zhuguda forces also believed that the northern expedition to the Numidian kingdom of Adheba was also more realistic. (To be continued.) )