To praise others is to praise yourself, because what you praise others is either better or inferior to you. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info And if he is inferior to you and is praised, then you are even more worthy of praise; If he is better than you and is not praised, then you are even less worthy of praise.

- Gaius Pliny Cecilius Secondulu (Roman Patriarch and Writer)

After successfully taking this first city, Oscar did not choose to leave a garrison in the city, nor did he choose to take the captives with him; After all, this city used to belong to the Roman Republic, and after Oscar led the army to occupy it, it can be regarded as reintegrating this place into the embrace of the Roman Republic, so naturally there will be no harsh approach.

Of course, this is also related to Oscar's thoughts; Throughout, Oscar was not a pure Roman, much less a true member of the House of Augustus. In his heart, he lacks a sense of belonging to any force of this era; This also means that Oscar will not have a subjective bias against people of any force.

Coupled with the fact that he has received more than 20 years of human rights ideological education in another world, Oscar still loves ordinary people in his heart; How could it be difficult for the people of this city? After collecting all the prisoners' weapons, Oscar decisively ordered his soldiers to release all the prisoners on the spot.

However, for the gold, silver, treasures, grain and grass materials in the city lord's mansion, Oscar still did not hesitate to incorporate all of them into the logistics of his army; In addition, the nobles and wealthy merchants in the city also united to visit Oscar himself, and presented Oscar with a large gift worth 50,000 gold coins, nominally to comfort the army that came from afar.

Oscar accepted this gift without hesitation; Although the 50,000 gold coins are nothing to the Augustus family, with the attitude that mosquito legs are small and meaty, Oscar still accepted this so-called consolation gift.

After briefly dealing with the rich and noble merchants in the city, and promising them that a large Roman army was coming, Oscar left the city and went to the barracks where the army was. For Oscar, the newly occupied city was far less comfortable than his own barracks outside the city; What's more, time is pressing, and Oscar doesn't have time to delay here.

Although it was still noon, Oscar was already preparing for tomorrow's march; It would be too much of a day to waste a whole day just to take such a small city, and Oscar was already considering whether to continue to divide his forces to attack the next cities in order to speed up the attack.

When Oscar told Mary about his idea, this time Mary was adamantly opposed to Oscar's adventurous idea; In Mary's opinion, from the beginning of the capture of this first city, it would not be long before the Huskid Douba stationed in Messina would receive news of the enemy's attack. With the 4,000 elite cavalry under the command of Husky Duba, once the army under the command of Oscar is divided, it is likely to be broken by it one by one!

Oscar thought carefully about Mary's words and felt that what Mary said still made sense; With the infantry under his command, he fought with 4,000 elite cavalry in the field, unless he had more than twice the strength and a large number of hoplites as the main force to ensure that he was undefeated. Once the troops are divided, it is really very likely that they will be broken by the Hus Duba one by one.

In view of this, Oscar wisely vetoed the impatient plan in his heart; However, if he still attacks slowly like this, Oscar really can't stand this speed. Take the city, it will only take twenty minutes; It's definitely a quick fix.

However, if you delay a day and a night in the vicinity of the city, then it is still too much time waste; However, those wounded can't afford to take care of them. In order to better care for the twenty-seven wounded, and to speed up the march; Oscar decided to leave a team of centurians stationed in the small city.

In addition to the twenty-seven wounded soldiers, there were seventy-three intact soldiers of this Samonai regiment; Their mission is to garrison the city to recuperate. After arranging the left-behind hundred-man team, Oscar did not delay any longer, but led the large army to continue to march forward in the afternoon of the same day.

Oscar's advance of the army was relatively severe; Along the way, except for the need to suspend the march and camp every night, there will be no stop to rest during the day. Even for lunch every day, Oscar asked the soldiers to prepare dry food in the early morning; Take it out at noon, rest for a short time to eat and drink, and then continue the march again.

On the eighth day of departure, Oscar led his army again to the vicinity of the second city; This time, the defenders on the city wall were already prepared, and they were patrolling the city wall, as if waiting for the arrival of Oscar's army.

In fact, when Oscar's army attacked the first city, the defenders of that city immediately sent cavalry for help from the back door to Messina; Although this did not mean anything practical to the city, it was enough for all the cities along the route from that city to Messina to receive the information in advance.

Now that there are lessons ahead, these cities in the middle will of course strengthen their vigilance; The veterans Hannibal sent to lead the militia in various cities did not want their heads to be lost. Therefore, this is the scene that Oscar saw when he led his army to the second city.

However, no matter how much these defenders were on guard, it was impossible to change the two most basic facts: first, the defenders of each city had only about 1,000 militia troops, and there was no way to temporarily increase more troops; Second, the combat effectiveness of these militia units is extremely poor, even the weapons and equipment are not fully equipped, and there are even people standing on the city wall with agricultural tools.

In the face of such a defender, Oscar did not choose what strategy to use, but took the simplest direct attack! The five brigades of the Samonai Legion, all of which were involved in the assault on this second city; When nearly 5,000 troops rushed towards the city frantically carrying ladders and shouting slogans, the defenders above were also frightened by the fierce enemy forces outside the city.

What is even more tragic is that out of fear of the army of the Augustus family outside the city, the militia on the city walls directly broke out against the old Hannibal soldiers; Dozens of Hannibal veterans were caught off guard and were easily dealt with. Immediately, the defenders on the city wall raised white flags, opened the gates and surrendered.

At this time, the soldiers of the Samonai Legion were still about fifty meters away from the city wall! Looking at the white flag on the city wall and the gate that opened suddenly, Oscar decisively ordered the soldiers of the Samonai Legion to abandon the siege and enter the city directly through the main gate. However, in order to avoid an ambush, Oscar still asked all the defenders who surrendered to surrender their weapons first.

After officially taking control of the city, Oscar also implemented the same policy towards the city as the previous city; I put everything that should have been put away, and I didn't care about anything with anyone. After that, Oscar also left a fully equipped hundred-man team to stay in the city, and continued to lead the army forward.

From the first city to the sixth city, Oscar led the army to take these six cities in seventeen days; Three of these cities surrendered voluntarily, while the other three were stormed. However, of the three cities that were stormed, the longest lasted only twenty minutes; Not much damage was inflicted on Oscar's army at all.

In seventeen days, six cities were taken, and less than fifty were killed and two hundred wounded; Such a result can be regarded as an excellent record no matter how you look at it. More crucially, so far, the cavalry units of the Huskidhuba have not been revealed, which means that the Augustus family is marching fast and firmly holds the initiative on the battlefield.

After taking this sixth city, Oscar's army himself was five days' journey from Messina; In the middle of this stretch, there is also a medium-sized military fortress. This military fortress was only two days away from Messina, and it was considered the southern barrier of Messina, and it was also considered a difficult bone to gnaw; After all, there are 5,000 garrisons inside!

The only thing to be thankful for is that the 5,000 garrisons in this military fortress are very average in combat, and they are all the same as those city defenders, just a group of farmers who have just put down their hoes. Although Hannibal left nearly 500 veterans here, it was still a drop in the bucket compared to the full 4,500 recruits.

After Oscar took the sixth city bloodlessly, he let his soldiers rest in the city for a day, and then led the army in the direction of this military fortress! After three days of marching, Oscar's army managed to reach the outside of the military fortress; Unfortunately, this military fortress was empty at this time!

It turned out that after receiving information from the first city, Huskiduba thought that the main army of the House of Augustus had landed in Sicily; Therefore, in order to protect the safety of Messina, he immediately transferred all the 5,000 infantry in this military fortress to Messina.

Actually, this can be regarded as Hannibal's arrangement; Hannibal had warned the Huskiduba before he returned home; As soon as the Roman army wanted to counterattack Upper Sicilya, the Huskid Douba was to immediately concentrate all his troops in Messina and then defend Messina. Huskiduba was a general who was loyal to Hannibal and worshiped Hannibal like a god; So, he gave the order without any thought.

Oscar, having successfully taken the empty military fortress, did not pause his march, but immediately marched in the direction of Messina! At this time, Oscar still had 3,600 hoplites and 2,000 light infantry, 1,500 guards, and 4,400 officers and soldiers of the Samonay Legion; The defenders of Messina, on the other hand, were 4,000 elite cavalry and 8,000 infantry. (To be continued.) )