When I die, please make two holes in the top of my coffin, and put my palms upwards so that everyone can see... I took nothing with me. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

- Marc Aureli (last emperor of the Roman Empire in the era of the Five Wise Emperors)

Whether it's reorganizing the training army or not. or to ask for help from the general Vermina of Carthage, which did not need to be done by Hannibal himself; For the reorganization and training of the army, this task can be entrusted to the three generals such as Mahabal. As for asking General Vermina for help, it was something that could be solved by sending a herald.

Although while in North Africa, Vimina did not owe allegiance to Hannibal like other generals; However, Hannibal still trusted Vimy. This is not to say that Hannibal did not believe in his general, but rather in the general who was not loyal to him; It's just that General Vermina has abilities and insights that no one else has.

If there were any people in the Kingdom of Carthage who could make Hannibal respect, then General Verminia must have been one of them; Not to mention the ability of General Vermyna, even his personal qualities are extremely noble. For this, even if Hannibal is not proficient in human affairs, he still sees it in his eyes and remembers it in his heart.

How many people in this world can completely give up their personal honor for the sake of the country and the nation? In Hannibal's opinion, he could not have done it himself, but General Vermyna did. Vimini was the "Iron General" who stood up to save the Carthaginian Kingdom at a critical juncture, but all his glory was overshadowed by Hannibal's outright.

Hannibal asked himself if this kind of thing happened to him, and he would be dissatisfied; But Vermina did not, and he still led his army to fight for the kingdom of Carthage. How could someone who could possess such a high quality not be worthy of Hannibal's trust?

Hannibal didn't have much to worry about the solution of these two things, but the other thing was something that only Hannibal could solve; How to get the ancient city of Syrac to pull it into your own chariot is not an easy task.

Since the last decisive battle of Lilibal, the misplaced city-state of Syracuse has paid a heavy price for its choice; The safety of the entire city-state was left to Hannibal's thoughts, and in order to preserve the independence of his city-state, he also paid a very heavy price within the Greek city-state alliance.

The League of Greek City-States was just an alliance between many Greek city-states; Were the other Greek city-states really willing to send a fleet and a legion to help the ancient city-state of Syrac, far away in Sicily? Even the legion that was sent was just a patchwork legion, but it was an army of six or seven thousand men, wasn't it?

In fact, the price paid by the ancient city-state of Syrac, in exchange for the support of the Spartan city-state, the overlord of the Greek city-state alliance, was to submit to the Spartan city-state from now on; It was because of this exchange that the ancient city-state of Syra kept itself, but unfortunately became the first subordinate city-state within the Greek city-state alliance.

Of course, the mighty city-state of Sparta is not stupid, and they naturally will not blindly send a large army to reinforce the city-state of Syracuse for a few empty words of the ancient city-state of Syrac; Therefore, what they sent was nothing more than a ragtag army temporarily formed in the Greek region, and its main force, the Spartan army, had no intention of dispatching at all.

Regardless of what the others thought, the most vulnerable ancient city-state of Syracuse managed to keep itself safe from the left and right; With the hard lessons of the last time, will the city-state of Syracuse still mix the war between Hannibal and the Roman powers? As long as the archons of the ancient city-state of Syra are not in their brains, it is impossible for the city-state of Syra to get involved!

But did the city-state of Syra have its own options? According to Hannibal, the idea of the ancient city-state of Syracuse did not matter; It is important that the current situation in Sicily does not give the ancient city-state of Syracia any choice at all!

The whole of Sicily is evenly divided into three parts; Lower Sicilia in the south, Greater Sicily in the northeast, Upper Sicilia in the northwest. Of the three provinces, which are still in Hannibal's hands, is Lower Sicilya, which has been occupied by the House of Augustus; Between the two, an earth-shattering battle of life and death will soon break out.

Nothing else, for the time being, is only the build-up of troops; The Augustus family gathered an army of 40,000 in Upper Sicilya, and Hannibal himself gathered an army of 55,000 in Lower Sicilya, and the two sides combined were nearly 100,000 troops!

In the entire history of the world, how many decisive battles at the level of a 100,000-strong army have been there? From the very beginning, this decisive battle was destined to be a battle of life and death, a battle of earth-shattering; So the question is, can this war be avoided?

The answer to this question is certainly unquestionable, and certainly cannot be avoided! The hatred between the Augustan family and Hannibal is too great, in terms of national enmity, the Augustan family is one of the forces of the Roman Republic, and Hannibal is one of the forces of the Carthaginian kingdom, which in itself is an irreconcilable contradiction!

The history of the Kingdom of Carthage could not have been confined to the North African continent forever, as its history proves; If they want to become strong and restore the glory of the Carthaginian kingdom, they must expand outward, they must seize the sea power in the western Mediterranean, and take the three most important islands in the western Mediterranean - Sicily, Sardinia, and the Balearic Islands.

The Roman Republic is also a powerful country in a rapidly rising stage, even if the Roman families have actually torn the Roman Republic apart, but this does not affect the overall strategy of the Roman Republic; On the contrary, the power of the Roman Republic was further exploded.

From the perspective of geographical location, the direction in which the former Roman Republic could expand was nothing more than the barbarian regions in the north, the Greek peninsula in the east, and the western Mediterranean region in the south; Since the division of the Roman Republic, haven't the major families of the Roman Republic inherited this strategic direction and expanded outward?

From this point of view, the direction of the Augustan family's expansion was to expand to the south and the western Mediterranean; So far, the Augustians have taken control of Sardinia and the Balearic Islands in the western Mediterranean, and even in Sicily, the Augustians have just got their share of the pie.

Then the question arises, Hannibal is a careerist bent on restoring the former glory of the Carthaginian kingdom and leading the Carthaginian kingdom back to rise in the western Mediterranean; And the House of Augustus is also an ambitious family that wants to expand into the Western Mediterranean and expand their family's power to the entire Western Mediterranean.

Can the contradiction between the two be mitigated? Is it possible not to go to war? In fact, even the Kingdom of Carthage did not have Hannibal, and the Roman Republic did not have the House of Augustus; The war between the two sides will not stop, it's just that they have changed the protagonist of their own war, but the plot will not be affected, this is the war between the Augustus family and Hannibal!

If it is from the point of view of family hatred, then it is even more useless; Hannibal once killed Oscar's father and crippled the army of wolves of House Augustus. The House of Augustus also occupied two provinces belonging to the House of Hannibal and killed Oscar's own brother; Under such a national enemy and family hatred, there is no way to avoid such a decisive battle between Hannibal and the Augustus family!

Of course, these are all strategic reasons, and there are some practical reasons that cannot be ignored; After the war with the Kingdom of Numidia, the total strength of the Kingdom of Carthage had reached a terrifying number. If there is no war to unleash, then the Kingdom of Carthage has no choice but large-scale disarmament.

And the House of Augustus was in no way inferior to the madness of the Carthaginian kingdom in this respect; Think about it from another perspective, the former Roman Republic, during the period of the four major families, with the national strength of the entire republic, only formed an army of less than 30,000 people with five standing legions, what about the current Augustan family?

Since the last decisive battle of Lilibal, for various reasons, the existing army of the Augustus family has reached seven regular legions and four special legions, with a total strength of nearly 100,000 people. With the strength of a mere family, even if you add the newly occupied provinces, it is only the territory of four provinces; Its total population is not even two million, and it has an army of 100,000!

This kind of behavior is simply reckless military force! The only good thing is that the Augustus family did not have long been in this state of aggression, and there were wars against the Balearic Islands and the provinces of Betica; Otherwise, it will only take three years for the entire Augustan family to collapse completely.

So, from this point of view, Hannibal's forces and the Augustus family are like two chariots with full power; If you want to stop, you will be directly destroyed by the car or crashed by the opponent's chariot, only if you keep driving forward so bravely, and meet the brave on the narrow road, it is possible to be truly reborn!

This is like the German Empire and the British Empire before World War I, when the arms race between the two sides began long before the outbreak of the war; As the arms race deepens step by step, the relationship between the two sides has become irreconcilable at all. The events in Sarajevo were only a flashpoint, and even without them, war would have been a matter of time.

Compared with the industrial capacity of that era, the war of this era came more rapidly; The reason is also very simple, without strong logistical support capabilities, the war can only start and end as soon as possible.

And so it was, whether it was Hannibal's army of fifty-five thousand, or the army of Augustus of forty-thousand; These armies are gathered together, and the amount of grain and grass consumed every day can be called astronomical, whether it is the Augustan family or the Kingdom of Carthage, it is impossible to support this consumption for a long time, and all problems can only be solved through war as soon as possible! (To be continued.) )