The life of a foolish person is dull and restless, but he pins all his hopes on the afterlife.

- Seneca (famous Stoic philosopher of ancient Roman times)

After these words of Kelymis, the basic tone of the hall on what to do with the defeated kingdom of Numidia had been set; However, how to conduct the next war still needs to be discussed. Without hesitation, Hannibal informed the generals of his agreement with Jugurdah, but they disagreed.

Both Vimina and Mahabal believed that Hannibal's approach was correct, and that Mahabal simply trusted Hannibal's every decision, whether it was right or wrong; And Vimyna, on the other hand, saw Hannibal's good intentions. Although Vimini himself would not have been involved in the struggle between Hannibal and the Senate, he was unconditionally supportive of what was beneficial to Carthage.

Moreover, it would be beneficial to the Kingdom of Carthage to use the adventures of Jugurdah to send the Kingdom of the Sahara out again; As Jugurdah considered, the remote geographical location and barren desert terrain of the Sahara made it impossible for the Carthaginian kingdom to send an expedition to the Sahara at a cost.

Therefore, the best way to deal with the Saharan kingdom is to let it continue; As for whether the Saharan kingdom will become the next Numidian kingdom, it is simply a joke. The total population of the Saharan Kingdom is less than one-third of that of any province of the Kingdom of Carthage, so why should Jugurudah use the Kingdom of the Sahara against the Kingdom of Carthage?

If it weren't for the fact that the strength of the Sahara Kingdom was too weak, Jugurdah would not have taken the initiative to lead the Sahara Kingdom and his own legions into the Kingdom of Numidia before; Coupled with Juguda's defection this time, even if the Numidian Kingdom is divided, the divided Numidian countries will not let go of their hatred for the Saharan Kingdom.

At that time, Jugurudah and the Saharan kingdom will not face peace and prosperity, but continuous attacks and wars; However, with the personal ability of Jugurdah and the strong fighting power of Jugurdah's legions, it is impossible for the Numidian nation, which has lost all its elite strength, to really destroy the Saharan Kingdom.

In this way, the whole of North Africa would turn into the chaotic North Africa that the Carthaginian kingdom wanted; The kingdom of Carthage, which is beyond the kingdoms, will be the only overlord unbeatable! The disapproval of Himika and others is not that they can't think of it; Rather, they felt that Jugurdah might not really take the risk. It's more likely that it's just a chance to get out of trouble!

Regardless of the opinions of the generals, this matter is a foregone conclusion after all, and it is impossible to change it; As a result, the topic had to shift to the next counter-offensive of Tsuguta. Plans for a counter-attack on Tsuguta. The generals agreed that Hannibal should lead the army to the Great Leptis and complete the final blow against the armies of Zuguta and Numidia.

This time, Hannibal was still the commander of the army, and Vimini was Hannibal's lieutenant; The Himika brothers still led 7,000 Iberian infantry, while Mahabal served as the commander of the 10,000 defenders of the original Tapsus. The armoured war elephant troops, which had been hidden by Victoria, were also classified as Hannibal's direct troops.

Hannibal had also intended to leave part of his army to defend Baisasian. But none of the generals were willing to serve as the remaining generals; Vimini also stated that the Numidian army had withdrawn and that Baisassion did not need to leave an army. Therefore, Hannibal finally decided to join Vimini in personally leading the entire army to march to the Great Leptis!

Six days after Jugurdah had left Qusayr with his army, the great army of the Kingdom of Carthage had also begun its march on the Great Leptis; Hannibal himself led the 20,000 cavalry of Kellymis and Gisken and the 5,000 cavalry of the Order, while Vermyna led 17,000 infantry and 5,000 infantry of the Order, and the army could reach the Great Leptis in just a month!

While Hannibal was on the march with his army, Tulguta had completed the reinforcement of the walls in the city of Velletis; The dilapidated city of Velekletis has been temporarily fortified into a typical fortress city. Although this reinforcement could not necessarily reach the attack of Carthage's strong forces, it at least seemed quite powerful.

However, the arrival of good news also means that other bad news is also possible; If the news of the completion of the fortification of the walls gave Tsuguta and Ahmet confidence, the daily advance of Hannibal's army made them restless. Of course. Blessings and disasters are not singular; Tulguta has more bad news to come up with.

Previously, in order to strengthen the defense of the Great Leptis, Tulguta had sent his own envoys to the Libyan province east of Tripoli to ask for help; In the name of the Numidian king, Zuguta also asked the Libyan governor Mutinis to send the original 5,000 elite garrisons of the Libyan province and 10,000 young men to the Great Leptis.

Unfortunately, this order was not approved by Mutinis; The governor of the East, who had been fighting for the throne between Zuguta and Adheba, not only refused Zuguta's order, but also officially announced to Zuguta's envoy that the Libyan province would be separated from the rule of the Kingdom of Numidia and establish a new Libyan kingdom, and he himself would be the first king of the Kingdom of Libya!

When the news was brought back by the messenger, Zuguta was furious and not only drew his sword and slashed the trembling messenger, but also smashed everything in his room to pieces. Ahmet, who had always been calm, was also furious at Mutinis's betrayal. He even asked Zuguta on the spot to send troops to Libya and hang Mutinis before Hannibal arrived!

Such impulsive words, of course, were only uttered by Ahmed when he was momentarily confused; But. This incident also proves a thing from the side. That is, with the collapse of the entire war, the current Numidian Kingdom is no longer the Numidian Kingdom of a few months ago; It's not just Mutinis who has distractions.

At this point, Zuguta was a little glad that he had stubbornly not returned to Gaturia; The great kingdom of Numidia, the province of Mauritania was in the hands of Adheba, the province of Numidia was occupied by the Carthaginians, and the province of Libya was **. How good can the rest of the Gaturian province be?

You must know that Bachano, the governor of the province of Gaturia, was a close friend of the former governor of Libya, Mutinis; Back then, the two stood behind Tulguta together to support Thuguta, who knows if they are standing together again now**? Without the support of the Libyan provinces, Tulguta could only rely on Tripoli against Carthage and Hannibal.

In order to make up for the lack of troops, Tulguta once again forcibly recruited 15,000 young men in Tripoli and strengthened them all to Niptasan; Of the cavalry under his direct command, four thousand javelins were once again reinforced to Egclus. Only the last four thousand elite longshield cavalry remained his direct force.

After the bad news came one after another, the good news came again; That is, Juguda withdrew with his four thousand cavalry outside the city of Great Leptis, wanting to enter the Great Leptis. Truth be told, Thuguta didn't know that this news was good news. Still bad news; It's not that Tsuguta saw Juguda's fake intention to enter the city, but there are other reasons.

Although the 4,000 elite cavalry under the command of Juguda could greatly increase the strength of the Great Leptis's defense, Zuguta did not like Jugurdah very much; Otherwise, Tulguta would not have pitted Jugurdah when he retreated, and retreated alone without informing Juguda. However, now that he is outside the city. You can't refuse what you should accept!

At this time, neither Zunguta nor Ahmet expected Jugurdah to surrender to Hannibal. For in their opinion, the Jugurdak army was also part of the invasion of the Carthaginian kingdom, and killed and wounded two thousand Carthaginian soldiers; Even if Hannibal was willing to accept Jugurdah's surrender, Hannibal's Carthaginian soldiers would not accept it.

As to why Jugurdah was able to break away from the land of Carthage, that is a matter of reason; After all, the Jugurdah Legion was composed of 4,000 cavalry, and as long as their scouts discovered Hannibal's main army in advance, the cavalry would have no problem with the cavalry trying to escape. That's it. Jugurdah and his legions managed to infiltrate the city of Great Leptis.

After entering the city, Tulguta and Ahmet only inadvertently asked about how Juguda had escaped the Carthaginian army; Juguda made up some excuses to settle these things. Eventually, Zuguta appointed Juguda and Egkolos as the defenders' mobile force; Nominally, it is still dominated by Jugurdah, but in fact it is dominated by Egclos.

After arranging everything, Zunguta visited the soldiers in the city of Celestia every day, encouraging the generals and colonels, so as to improve the declining morale of the Numidian army; And Hannibal is also leading the army step by step towards the Great Leptis. The battle between the two sides will soon come, but another force that has been ignored is slowly starting to rise.

Since the army led by Thuguta to attack the Kingdom of Tripoli, the entire population of Tripoli has been conscripted three times; The first was a conscription by the king of Tripoli to defend his homeland, and the second was a forced conscription by the army of the Thuguta. And just now, in order to expand its strength, Zuguta carried out a third forced conscription.

That is to say, the small Tripoli district, out of a total population of less than 300,000, has been conscripted nearly 50,000 young people; That's more than half of its population. In other words. In the current Tripoli area, there are people who have been arrested and sent to the army; There is even the absurd thing that all the old fathers and young sons were forcibly arrested and confiscated into the army.

Moreover, it is conceivable how many murders and wealth happened in the process of forced conscription; After suffering heavy casualties one after another, these Numidian soldiers vented their fears to the common people of these foreign lands, which was a matter of course for their generals.

The peaceful and peaceful region of Tripoli was thus ravaged by the tens of thousands of Numidian troops; Once the seeds of hatred are planted, someone always needs to take revenge. The people of Tripoli were united and united, and countless vengeances, large and small, sprung up under the noses of the Zuguta and Numidian armies.

It would be unrealistic for these organizations, large and small, to contend head-on with the Numidian army. Not only because they lack sufficient weapons and equipment, but also because they are simply too small. The smallest revenge group is just a few neighbors from the left and right, and even the largest revenge group will not have more than five hundred people.

However, the strategy of clearing the wilderness implemented by Tulguta gave these organizations the opportunity to grow and develop; In the Tripoli region, which has a total population of less than 250,000, more than 150,000 people have been concentrated in the city of Great Leptis, and the piles of grain, grass and various materials are like mountains. Of course, some of these grain and grass materials were transported by Numidia itself.

Perhaps, in the opinion of Tsuguta and Ahmet, the concentration of a large number of people and materials in the city of Great Leptis could prepare for the future defense of the city at any time; However, it also provides an opportunity for these vengeance groups to grow and grow. In just one month, these groups have formed 10 larger rebel groups through their union and merger, as well as the recruitment of new members.

These ten rebel groups were not only organized by civilians, at least more than half of them were controlled by wealthy merchants and magnates in the city of Great Leptis; This also means that these organizations can obtain relatively rudimentary but meaningful weapons and equipment through various channels! Moreover, these organizations are not only men, but also a large number of elderly people and women; They are truly soldiers for all! (To be continued.) )