Making friends with powerful people is unreliable.

- Fedrus (Roman allegorist)

The day after Oscar's secret conversation with Hanno the Younger, the rest of the Carthaginian mission arrived in the city of Callaris; Of course, the place where they live is with little Hanno, but the treatment they enjoy is not half a star. Fortunately, these people have long been accustomed to such differential treatment along the way, and they didn't say much.

On the day of the arrival of all the members of the mission, Oscar did not rush to meet them, but consulted with Mary in the mansion about the General Staff. Since the last official decision to form the General Staff, Oscar has long wanted to formally organize this significant department; It's just that there is not enough time and talent in hand, so this major event has been postponed.

At present, this situation has been significantly improved, especially the dilemma of lack of talents, with the arrival of the graduation season of the Augustan Military Academy and the Augustan Family Academy, the Augustan family will soon have a considerable number of talents available; At that time, Oscar will be able to drastically reform all aspects of the system within the family.

Although the previous New Deal reforms established unprecedented new institutions in many respects, the administrative mechanisms within the Augustan family were still the usual methods of the Roman Republic; Whether it is the appointment of officials, or the issuance and execution of orders, there is no strict new system to regulate them, and these will take time to implement.

However, it is not possible to complete all these things overnight, and there must be sufficient time and a stable environment to implement them; On the eve of the decisive battle with Hannibal, it is impossible to really implement these things, and can only be discussed by Oscar and Mary first, as for the specific implementation, it is still early!

Of course, Oscar's purpose in deliberately not meeting with the Carthaginian mission was not only to discuss these matters with Mary, but more importantly, to deliberately suppress the members of the Carthaginian mission. After all, now that the initiative is in the hands of the Augustan family, Oscar is naturally qualified to use this to deliberately exert pressure on the Carthaginian mission.

In fact, on the day the Carthaginian mission arrived in Calarys, they asked Hanno the Younger to present an interview with the Augustan officials; But little Hanno only hypocritically agreed, and in fact did not communicate with the officials of the House of Augustus at all.

In other words, before the negotiations began, the top head of the mission of the Kingdom of Carthage was already on the side of the Augustan family, working for the interests of the Augustan family. Naturally, the reactions of these members of the mission could not be concealed from Oscar, so Oscar also knew everything about Little Hanno's actions.

Whether Hanno the Younger was genuinely willing to side with the Augustus, or whether he deliberately showed such a gesture; In short, Hanno Jr.'s performance still made Oscar very satisfied, at least his attitude was still good.

After drying the group of members of the Carthaginian mission for a day, early the next morning Oscar ordered all the main members of the Carthaginian mission to be invited to the Doge's palace to formally meet them; As for the number of people to meet, Oscar allowed the Carthaginian mission to come with no more than five people.

Strictly controlling the number of missions in the Kingdom of Carthage, this is not to say that Oscar has any other purpose, but Oscar has long been familiar with the specific configuration of this mission; Except for the nominal supreme leader, Hanno Jr., there are only four people left who can be in charge, and they are the representatives of the other four main families of the anti-Hannibal organization.

In fact, Oscar had already consulted with Mary, Luquis, and others about this matter before the Carthaginian mission arrived; The conditions that the Augustians were going to put forward had already been drawn up. In other words, the Augustan family has long been ready for everything, and only owes the east wind.

However, the posture that should be done in the negotiation must be made, and not letting go of every opportunity to fight for the greater interests of his family is what a mature family leader should do.

Today's meeting is not a private meeting like the night before, but a very formal meeting between the House of Augustus and the mission of the Kingdom of Carthage; Therefore, the Augustan family is not the only Oscar. Except for Mary, who was inconvenient to come out, Vipsani, Luquis, and Quintus all arrived in the parlor early on Oscar's orders.

Before the members of the mission arrived, Oscar sat quietly on the main seat and thought about his own affairs, and the other three naturally did not dare to disturb Oscar, and sat in their positions respectfully. It wasn't until the guards came in to report that the Carthaginian mission had arrived that Oscar came back to his senses.

Oscar learned that the five main members of the Carthaginian mission had arrived, so naturally he asked the guards to bring them in; This time, Oscar was not as enthusiastic as he was for little Hanno last time, but quietly continued to sit on the main seat. Oscar is like this, and the remaining three Luquis and the other three naturally continue to remain silent.

As soon as the five members of the delegation led by Hanno the Younger entered the meeting room, they immediately bowed down to Oscar, who was still sitting on the throne, and performed a standard Carthaginian aristocratic etiquette; Oscar just nodded faintly, and motioned for little Hanno to take the remaining four people to sit down in the empty seat on his right.

Although the House of Augustus was nominally only a family of the Roman Republic, it was significantly stronger than the current Kingdom of Carthage; As the leader of the Augustan family, Oscar's status naturally far exceeds that of anyone in the mission of the Kingdom of Carthage. Therefore, in the face of Oscar's seemingly arrogant attitude, the other four members of the mission did not dare to have any dissatisfaction.

After the five members of the Carthaginian mission were seated, Oscar asked straight to the point: "Your country has sent you to secretly send us to our family of Augustus this time, and the purpose is nothing more than to deal with Hannibal; Our interests are aligned in this regard. But we want to know, what price can you pay for this? ”

Since Oscar succeeded to the position of leader of the Augustan family, he has also gained considerable fame in the Western Mediterranean; Whether it is to take Sardinia or to get out of Hannibal's attack, it can be regarded as the best promotional material for Oscar himself. In addition, the Augustan family recently won two overseas provinces of the Carthaginian kingdom in one fell swoop, and its fame has increased greatly.

It's just that how could such a legendary person who is rumored to be so legendary in the outside world say such reckless words during negotiations? Isn't it embarrassing that there is no negotiation that goes straight to the subject at the beginning of the negotiation without even the most basic greetings?

Before the other four members of the mission could react, little Hanno stood up and said, "Your Excellency Oscar Leader is indeed wise, and the purpose of my visit is to negotiate with your family to deal with Hannibal together. At this time, Hannibal is already one step away from victory on the battlefield in North Africa, and I wonder if your family can send troops to Sicily as soon as possible? ”

With little Hanno writing this novel, the other four members of the mission didn't care about what happened before, but directly focused on Oscar again, wanting to get Oscar's affirmative answer. It's just that this time it was not Oscar who answered Little Hanno, but Luquis, who sat at the top of the left side of Oscar.

I saw Luquis stand up and answer to little Hanno and the other five: "Our Augustus family has already launched two wars recently, and if we start a third war immediately, with the strength of our Augustus family, we dare not guarantee that we will win; What's more, our enemy is still Hannibal, who has the name of the god of war, and we really don't dare to act rashly. ”

Little Hanno didn't know Luquis, but since Luques could appear here and say such a thing, his identity must not be simple; So, little Hanno hurriedly asked, "Who is this general?" "House Augustus, Luquis." "It turned out to be the famous General Luquis, and his momentum is really extraordinary!"

When little Hanno heard Luquis's self-report, he immediately complimented Luquis; The other four members of the mission also glanced at Luquis in surprise. With the vigorous development of the Augustus family in the past two years, in addition to Oscar, the leader of the family, the names of generals such as Luquis and Licinius are also well-known to the world.

However, compliments are compliments, and what needs to be said still needs to be said; Little Hanno didn't care about Luquis's words just now, but continued to say to Oscar: "Your Excellency Oscar, please rest assured, as long as the Augustus family can send troops to Sicily as soon as possible, the organization behind us will do everything possible to prevent Hannibal from carrying too many troops to Sicily to ensure your family's superiority in forces." ”

Listening to little Hanno's words, Oscar shook his head directly and said: "It is impossible for the organization behind you to do this, we all understand that Hannibal at this time has no one to stop in Carthage's land; He could take as many troops to Sicily as he wanted, and no one could stop Hannibal. ”

"His Excellency Oscar is right, there is indeed no one in the present Carthage land who can stop Hannibal; However, as the war in North Africa was at peace, Hannibal could not take too many troops with him even if he returned to Sicily, and he had to leave enough troops behind to ensure the safety of Carthage's land.

In this way, Hannibal would not actually be able to bring too many troops to Sicily; With the exception of this part of the army that Hannibal took with us, we can guarantee that the remaining army remaining in Carthage will not support Hannibal in any way. That is, Hannibal's army will only die one less and there will be absolutely no reinforcements! ”

In the face of Oscar's aggressiveness, one of the oldest members of the mission behind Little Hanno also spoke bluntly. Although his words are very straightforward, they are also realistic; The four members of the mission, including little Hanno, nodded in agreement. (To be continued.) )