A person who covets fame likes to attribute to his own merits the praise that others have made to him; Those who are greedy for pleasure like to take their feelings as their own good deeds; A truly rational person should regard his actions as his own true goodness.

- Marcus Aurelius (the only philosopher-emperor in Western history)

Although Jugurdah himself is now the Saharan governor of the Numidian kingdom, he is also a military commander under the command of Tulguta; However, Tulguta was unable to trust and rely on him as much as he did for Ahmed. It is also human nature, after all, Jugurdah was once the king of the Sahara Kingdom; How can a general who has been a king himself be trusted by another king?

Moreover, Jugurdah is still not a true general, and his prestige in the Sahara is still as unparalleled as ever; This is why after Jugurdah took the initiative to incorporate the Sahara Kingdom into the Kingdom of Numidia, Zuguta could only continue to make Juguda the governor of the Sahara Province.

If Tulguta really treats Juguda as an ordinary general, he and his legions are transferred anywhere at will; Then the Sahara province would probably be free from the rule of the Kingdom of Numidia as soon as Jugurdah stepped down as governor of the Sahara. Such a thing would not be tolerated by any king, but Zuguta tolerated it; Because until the war against Carthage is not over, whether it is Adheba in Mauritania, or Juguda in the Sahara, Zuguta will tolerate their existence.

However, there are limits to such tolerance; When the Carthaginian War was over and Tulguta was free, it would be a good time to settle Adheba and Jugudah. Even if Tulguta thought so in his heart, Tulguta could not deny Djuguda's abilities because of this; In Zuguta's opinion, among the current generals of the Numidian Kingdom, there are only three people who can really be called famous generals: Ahmet under his command, Salah under Adheba, and Juguda in the Sahara.

Juguda was absolutely outstanding as a general, but it was impossible for Tulguta to really use him; Then the best way to do that is to hold him high. but did not give him any real power. Even so, Juguda's own legions were a military force to be reckoned with; In order to prevent this army from being rendered useless on the battlefield, and not to waste Jugyudah's abilities, Tulguta decided to have Juguda and his army serve as a side division to monitor the besieging Qusayr defenders.

So. Jugurdah and his elite legions can also play a huge role in this war; The Numidian army did not need to worry about what the Jugurdah army had in mind while fighting, it was a good way to get the best of both worlds. So, having figured it out, Tulguta coughed, and after focusing the attention of the generals, he commanded:

"The analysis of General Gaia and others is very reasonable. But whatever the purpose of Vimyna's detachment at Qusel, we cannot allow a Carthaginian army to threaten us at any time on our flanks. So, my idea was to send General Djugurda as the commander of the partial division to monitor and surround the defenders of Qusayr; The legion under his command acts as this partial division, I wonder what General Zhuguda wants? ”

"Thank you for the trust of His Majesty the King, I will definitely lead my army to keep an eye on the Qusel defenders, and not give them any chance to leave the city!" Tulguta's inquiry was answered unequivocally by Jugurda; Whether or not Juguda was genuinely obedient to orders, but his gesture pleased Tulguta, that was enough, and nothing else mattered.

After solving the problem of Qusel's defenders, the next step is to negotiate a plan of attack on Tapsus; After all, the Qusayr garrison was only a partial division sent out by Vimyna. The generals were not well-known Carthaginian generals, and the attack of Tapsus was the central battle of the war. The defender of Tapsus was Vermina himself, and his current strength was about 20,000; At least more than 15,000 of them were recruits, and the most elite ones were about 5,000.

The 52,000 troops of Numidia, excluding the more than 5,000 troops of the Juguda army against Qusel, still had more than 46,000 troops; Because the battle against Tapsus was a pure siege battle, the 12,000 javelins under the command of Thuguta himself and the 5,000 shield cavalry under Ahmed were useless, and the remaining 8,500 infantry under Ahmet's command and the 21,000 infantry of the three recruit regiments were the only ones that Tulguta could really put into the battlefield.

If you look at it this way, the difference between the total strength of the offensive and defensive sides is about 10,000; However, with Vimina's command and the strength of the defenders, they relied on the advantages of the city walls. The difference of 10,000 men was not enough for the Numidian army to easily capture Tapsus. Of course, the superiority of the Numidian army in cavalry could also be completely overrun by the siege of Tapsus; As long as Tapsus can't get support from the rear, then the fall will be a matter of time.

In response to this situation, Ahmed put forward his own opinion: "Your Majesty. After all, our army is the attacking side, and Tapsus, who is attacking the defense of Vimyna without at least twice the superiority of forces, is afraid that even if it pays heavy casualties, it will not be able to achieve our set goal; More importantly, if we can't complete the war against Carthage in a short time, Hannibal will return.

So, my suggestion is to launch a tentative assault on Tapsus first; If the defenders are not strong in defense. Then we'll attack Tapsus with maximum attack. If the defenders are very strong, then we will abandon the attack on Tapsus for the time being; Twelve thousand javelinmen were left to encircle Tapsus, and the rest of the army continued to attack the rest of Baisa Sien.

In the meantime, we can send heralds to the province of Numidia and order the 35,000-strong army in charge of the Carthaginian army to attack from the west of Carthage; Judging from the current situation, two of the three newly formed legions of Carthage have been gathered in Tapsus, and with the thousands of elites under Vimyna's command, it is absolutely impossible for them to defend the western side of the garrison with more than 20,000 troops!

Moreover, Carthage's less than 20,000 defenders in Africa were all new recruits, and it was impossible to stop the kingdom's 35,000-strong army; After all, we have only 20,000 recruits in our 35,000-strong army, and the rest is either 5,000 elite standing troops or 10,000 javelin cavalry with good combat effectiveness, and our attack will be beyond the resistance of the Carthaginians.

As long as we can occupy the provinces of Afrika and Baisasion in Carthage before Hannibal returns to Carthage; With only the two cities of Tapsus and Carthage, victory will be in our pocket. And all we need to do is take some time. When our army and General Jubal's army meet on the territory of Carthage, Carthage will be finished. ”

Ahmed's words describe a near-perfect future for Tulguta and the generals in the tents; What makes it even more difficult for everyone to calm down is that this near-perfect future is not very empty, but very easy to achieve. As long as General Jubal on the Western Front could lead an army of 35,000 to defeat the Carthaginian defenders of Africa; Then victory will be just around the corner.

If such a strategy is really adopted. The impending siege of Tapsus is irrelevant; The Numidian army led by Thuguta himself only needed to keep Vimina and his defenders firmly in the city of Tapsus, and the isolated African-rich would change from the capital province of the Kingdom of Carthage to the seventh province of Numidia under the iron heel of Numidia!

Needless to say, Tulguta, who did not know that Hannibal had already returned, easily adopted Ahmet's strategy; For in the eyes of Tsuguta and his generals, even if Hannibal had rushed back before the strategy of the Numidian army was completed, how could Hannibal, who simply did not have enough troops in his hands, change the situation that had already formed?

Do not think that Zuguta did not investigate the situation of Hannibal and his legions before the outbreak of war; Although Hannibal has a reputation. However, the army under his command is probably only about 10,000 after several major wars, which is not a top-secret information. Even if Hannibal had returned to Carthage in time, he would not have been able to bring all his troops back to Carthage.

Because the Roman army that was eyeing Sardinia and the still ill-intentioned Great Sicily would at least have to contain the main forces under Hannibal's command, and it was absolutely impossible for Hannibal to bring back more than 5,000 troops to Carthage! How could an elite army of less than 5,000 change the disparity in strength between the two sides? The absolute superiority in strength made the Numidians choose to ignore Hannibal's threat directly.

Unfortunately, this is not the case; Hannibal had already returned to Carthage, bringing back far less than five thousand troops, but a pitiful two thousand Iberian infantry. However, the presence of the Legion of the Holy Order was the greatest mistake of the Numidians; This extremely powerful and massive army will burst into unparalleled combat effectiveness under Hannibal's command!

Just when Tsuguta and the others were discussing the next strategy. Vimina was also in the Doge's palace of Thapsus, contemplating the next plan of action; With the return of Bohemiako, Hannibal's general Mahabar also arrived with 2,000 elite Iberian infantry. Later, Abydos and his 5,000 Carthaginian elites also rushed to Tapsus; At this time, the number of troops in Victoria's hands has reached 26,000, of which the elite force has reached 11,000!

While bringing back 7,000 elite reinforcements, Himicio also conveyed Hannibal's orders to Vermyna; Unlike Himicius's disbelief, Vimini accepted Hannibal's orders undeniably, and personally sent heralds back to Carthage to convey her intentions to Hannibal. The content of Vimina's message was: the materials in the city of Tapsus could be used by the army and civilians for half a year; Within six months, it was impossible for the large army of the southern front of Numidia to capture Tapsus, and six months later. People are dead and the city is destroyed!

In fact, Vimini also knew what Hannibal's strategy was, which was nothing more than using the defenders of Tapsus to drag the elite army of Numidia to the death; Then Hannibal completely solved the Numidian army on the Western Front and then took advantage of the situation to capture the capital province of Numidia, Hannibal wanted not to resist the attack of the Numidian army at all, what he really wanted was to completely solve the Numidian kingdom once and for all!

Hannibal is the only one who can come up with such a crazy plan at an absolute disadvantage; But. Viminina, however, was a strong supporter of Hannibal's plan. Because the geographical location between the kingdom of Numidia and Carthage has determined that it is impossible for the two to coexist peacefully, and the strength of one side will inevitably compress the living space of the other; For the sake of Carthage's strength, Vimini could give everything.

Now that it had been decided to hold out in Baisasian until Hannibal's reinforcements arrived, the original plan had to be changed; And the 7,000 new reinforcements also gave Victoria Milton the confidence to change his plan. Originally, Vimini sent Himika with 4,000 elite garrisons in Qusayr to disperse the forces of the Numidian army; But with the arrival of reinforcements, Vimina no longer needs Qusel to disperse the enemy's forces, and Vimina has decided to further expand Quselle's role!

First of all. Vimini ordered Himicio to lead five thousand Iberian infantry in the Recruit Corps to go to Qusayr to reinforce his brother Himica before the Numidian army did not attack; In this way, Qusel's defenders were a combination of 4,000 elite and 5,000 recruits, and the total strength reached 9,000. And Vimy's order to them is: defend Qusel to the death, and take the initiative to attack if there is an opportunity! (To be continued.) )