Happiness is like that, it often comes to us when we are too busy with a definite purpose to think about anything else. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

- Socrates (famous ancient Greek thinker, philosopher, and educator)

Although the Senate of the Kingdom of Carthage had a secret connection with the House of Augustus, and had signed a secret agreement between them; However, these were all based on the existence of Hannibal, and now that Hannibal has become a historical term, will the Augustians still abide by these secret agreements?

In fact, the Carthaginian Senate never thought that the House of Augustus would defeat Hannibal so cleanly and annihilate all of Hannibal's army; Even Hannibal himself was killed in the war, while the Augustus family remained untouched, but paid a price that did not break their bones.

In the original vision of the Carthaginian Senate, the greatest value that the House of Augustus could play was to attract the attention of Hannibal and his army; As for the war between the House of Augustus and Hannibal, it would be nice for the House of Augustus to be able to lose both sides with Hannibal.

Who would have thought that Hannibal, who was considered invincible by everyone, would be defeated and killed, and the Augustus family could actually win the battle against Hannibal; In this way, the wishful thinking of the Carthaginian Senate was completely frustrated.

Even more worrying is the loss of Hannibal and his army, and the loss of all of its overseas territories and its most elite army; Now, the Kingdom of Carthage was left with only two provinces and the armies stationed there.

After the Augustan family acquired the whole of Sicily, its strength increased unprecedentedly, and its position as the overlord of the western Mediterranean was officially determined; How should the Kingdom of Carthage deal with the powerful House of Augustus?

It is known to the world that there was an alliance between the House of Augustus and the Numidian kingdom of Adheba; Once Adheba's Numidian kingdom had completely defeated Juguda's Saharan kingdom and completed the unification of the western part of North Africa, would Adheba's Numidian kingdom have the full support of the Augustan family, would the Carthaginian kingdom be able to reach such a union?

The existence of the Kingdom of Libya seemed to the Kingdom of Carthage to be nothing more than a means of sharing the pressure on its own front and shrinking its own army; The upper echelons of the Carthaginian kingdom never really regarded the Libyan kingdom as a trustworthy ally.

In fact, the Kingdom of Libya does not possess such strength; This is because the Kingdom of Libya was only a province of the former Numidian Kingdom, and it was only under Hannibal's policy of dividing the Numidian Kingdom that it became an independent kingdom.

Therefore, the entire kingdom of Libya has no foundation to speak of, and it has no foundation of strength; If it weren't for its geographical location, far enough away from the mainstream North African powers, the Kingdom of Libya would have become a Libyan province of a country long ago.

Even so, the existence of the Kingdom of Libya is better than nothing; At the very least, this Libyan kingdom can also toss out 20,000 troops to help the Carthaginian kingdom build a defensive line, right? Could it be that the Kingdom of Carthage could still conjure up an army of 20,000 out of thin air?

Of course, with the full assistance of the Kingdom of Libya, the Kingdom of Carthage had a strategic advantage over the Kingdom of Numidia; In terms of the military power in the border areas, the Kingdom of Carthage is not inferior at all.

This situation was only maintained until the army of Quintus landed in the province of Numidia, and when the senators of the Kingdom of Carthage learned from the information transmitted by the spies sent to the Kingdom of Numidian that the armies of the two legions of the Augustan family had landed in the province of Numidia, the entire Senate of the Kingdom of Carthage was shocked!

Hannibal's strength is obvious to all, and the Augustus family was able to defeat Hannibal and his army in a head-to-head decisive battle with the quality of their army; From this, it can be seen that the fighting power of the army of the House of Augustus was very terrifying, and it was superior to that of Hannibal's army.

Now, the Augustus family has suddenly sent two legions of troops to land in the Kingdom of Numidia, does it mean that the Augustians have decided to help their ally the Kingdom of Numidia attack the Kingdom of Carthage?

The frightened Carthaginian senators immediately began a new round of countermeasures, and even Hanno the younger, who was far away in Baissasien, was quickly summoned to the city of Carthage to participate in an emergency meeting of the Senate to discuss how to deal with the intervention of the Augustan family.

Ever since Hanno Jr. had accomplished his mission to the House of Augustus, his performance had become more and more convincing; Whether it was taking the initiative to ask Ying to sit in Baisasion, or to make plans to deal with the kingdom of Numidia, little Hanno's resourcefulness and bravery were so commendable that now that something urgent had happened, the Senate's first thought was to summon little Hanno.

In fact, as early as the day when the army of Quintus landed in the province of Numidia, the diplomatic mission led by Nepos himself had already arrived off the coast of Carthage; However, due to the resistance of Tahiti, Nepos did not land at the port of Carthage.

And the reason why Tahiti did not let Nepos immediately land on the Carthaginian kingdom was also due to his arrangement and plan; In Tahiti's view, the armistice between the House of Augustus and the Kingdom of Carthage could be signed in a different form.

Tahiti personally reported his plan to Oscar, and Oscar agreed to Tahiti's plan, which led to Nepos' stagnation; Otherwise, with only Tahiti's status and status, how could he stop Nepos, the foreign minister!

The plan proposed by Tahiti was as follows: he thought that instead of letting the House of Augustus take the initiative to propose an armistice, it would be better for the Kingdom of Carthage to take the initiative to propose an armistice; In this way, the initiative of negotiation is in the hands of the Augustus family, and the Augustus family can also take this opportunity to codify more family interests and better complete the support plan for little Hanno.

The question of the initiative in the negotiations was not enough to impress Oscar, after all, with the current comparison of the status of the House of Augustus and the Kingdom of Carthage, the fact that this initiative or not could not affect the initiative of the House of Augustus at all; From the moment the Augustus family defeated Hannibal and won the decisive battle of Zama, the initiative in the negotiations was already with the Augustan family.

And the promotion of Hanno Jr.'s support plan is the key to the Oscars; Tahiti believed that the Kingdom of Carthage would inevitably turn to Hanno the Younger for help in matters of peace with the House of Augustus, and that he himself could give Hanno more help in this regard.

In this way, Hanno the Younger could take this opportunity to establish a higher prestige in the Kingdom of Carthage and have a stronger appeal in the hearts of the Carthaginian people; And Tahiti himself can also take advantage of this opportunity to stabilize his position in Little Hanno's heart, and take more of the real power of Little Hanno's forces in his hands, so as to complete the complete hollowing out of Little Hanno's forces!

In Oscar's view, it is worthwhile to help little Hanno in this way; After all, the real beneficiaries were the House of Augustus, and little Hanno was just a puppet held high.

In view of this, Tahiti's plan was supported by Oscar, and while Nepos stopped his steps, Tahiti also actively advised Hanno the Younger on how to win the support of the Senate and the peace of the House of Augustus.

Hanno the Younger, accompanied by Tahiti, returned to the city of Carthage and attended an emergency meeting of the Carthaginian Senate; At this emergency meeting, little Hanno once again stood up bravely and took the initiative to undertake the difficult task of peace talks with the Augustan family.

At the same time, Hanno Jr. also negotiated with the senators of the Senate on the minimum acceptable bottom line of the peace talks; In the end, it was concluded that as long as the House of Augustus was willing to conclude a peace agreement with the Kingdom of Carthage, and promised not to unite with the Kingdom of Numidia, or to help the Kingdom of Numidia invade the Kingdom of Carthage, the Kingdom of Carthage was willing to pay three prices!

First, the Kingdom of Carthage was willing to recognize the sovereignty of the House of Augustus over all the overseas territories of the Kingdom of Carthage, and called on the overseas Carthaginians to accept the rule of the House of Augustus; The navy of the Kingdom of Carthage is also willing to accept the surveillance of the House of Augustus!

Second, the Kingdom of Carthage was willing to compensate the Augustan family for the losses caused by the war, and the bottom line was five million gold coins, and the payment method was a one-time payment of three million gold coins, and two hundred thousand gold coins per year for the next ten years.

Thirdly, the Kingdom of Carthage was willing to engage in full-scale trade with the House of Augustus, and all that the Kingdom of Carthage had, the merchants of the House of Augustus could trade freely; In addition, the Carthaginian kingdom was also willing to provide grain and grass worth 300,000 gold coins to the Augustan family every year for five consecutive years, in exchange for the equal trade rights of the Augustan family.

The first two little costs mean that the Carthaginian kingdom is willing to completely give up the struggle for sea power in the western Mediterranean for the sake of peace with the Augustan family; And the payment of various reparations also proves that the Carthaginian kingdom is willing to admit its defeat.

As for the last clause, it was proposed by Hanno the Younger himself, and it was also Tahiti's suggestion to Hanno the Younger; Because Tahiti knew that the Augustan family lacked sufficient food and grass, and the Carthaginian kingdom did not lack these, he took the opportunity to make this suggestion to Hanno the Younger, and Hanno the Younger, out of absolute trust in Tahiti, proposed it at the meeting and was approved.

When little Hanno boarded Nepos' warship with a peace agreement centered on these three costs, Nepos was also shocked; He didn't expect that after only a few more days in the fleet, Oscar's deployment within the Kingdom of Carthage would be able to obtain such favorable conditions for the Augustus family!

So, the two sides signed this peace agreement so willingly; As for the weapons and equipment brought by Nepos, they were exchanged for 50,000 war horses by little Hanno's wealth, and with such arrogance, Nepos, who was moved, was about to cry! (To be continued.) )