Unmucchiodimaterialidacostruzionenonpuòesserechiamatounacasa, nonpuòesserechiamatocomeunesercitomobcome (a bunch of building materials can't be called a house, just as a mob can't be called an army)

- Socrates (one of the three great philosophers of ancient Greece)

The generals had no doubt about Oscar's judgment, and Hannibal's legion was the true pillar of Lower Sicily; As long as Hannibal's legion existed for one day, the brief fall of Lilipol would not affect the overall situation at all. Therefore, the priority of the Augustus family was to find a way to solve the Hannibal legion; Otherwise, even if Liliba is captured, it will not help at all.

Because Lili, who was only garrisoned by the Wolf Legion, was an object that Hannibal could easily deal with at any time. Now the total number of the Wolf Legion and the Guards together is less than 4,000, while Hannibal's elite army has a full 5,000 troops; In addition, the elite level of the soldiers is far inferior to the legion of Hannibal, who fought a hundred lions. If the Augustus family alone relied on this battle, there would be no chance of victory!

The sad faces of the generals present naturally fell in the eyes of Oscar, and Oscar had to change the topic in order not to affect morale: "Anyway, we still achieved a big victory today; There must be a way to deal with Hannibal, and there is no hurry to do so. Baylis, please report to me and the other generals what we have achieved today and the specific losses we have suffered. ”

Bayliss took out several parchment scrolls full of data and handed them to Oscar and the generals one by one, and reported himself: "Today, because we joined the battle in the middle of the battle, the losses are not very large; The two Spartan heavy infantry centurions of the Guards Regiment lost 40 men in battle, and the remaining 200 men were also wounded to varying degrees and were unable to participate in the battle for a short time. At present, the combatant personnel of the Guards Regiment is 760 people.

The 300 cavalry brigades attached to the Wolf Legion were all killed, and the other brigades except for the ninth and tenth brigades that remained on the coast, the remaining eight brigades only suffered minor damage. The Wolf Legion lost a total of 548 killed, and 290 were seriously wounded and unable to participate in the battle for a short time; Minor injuries have been treated and will recover soon. The current combatable personnel of the Wolf Legion is 2,822.

The casualties of the rebels were relatively heavy, and the exact number of casualties was difficult to count; It's just a few statistics that are useful for now. The total number of rebels who occupied Liliba was about 5,000, and later released the gladiators and slaves of the whole of Lilipar, and the number increased by about 2,000; However, in the course of the battle, the casualties of ordinary slaves were very large, and they were basically lost.

Even the gladiators suffered heavy casualties, with it estimated that more than 3,000 gladiators were killed in battle. Now, there are 357 gladiators who are seriously injured and unable to fight, 540 who are slightly injured and can barely participate in the battle, and only 1,230 gladiators who are intact. In total, the current combatant army of the gladiators was 1,770 men; However, they are only individual combat effectiveness, and they don't know any battle formations at all. In a large-scale decisive battle, the combat effectiveness is very weak.

As for the Carthaginian army, we killed Hanno, the consul of Carthage, and Theagos, the governor of Lower Sicilia, in a melee; The Carthaginian army, totaling 5,000, lost more than 2,000 killed, and of the remaining less than 3,000 people, we captured 2,840 prisoners. Among them, 320 prisoners who were seriously wounded were stabbed by us, because we simply did not have the extra medicine to treat them. Other captives were being held in the original Carthaginian barracks, and were in dire need of orders from the leaders. ”

Except for Oscar, who was not very satisfied with the killing of the prisoner, the others were still satisfactory; However, it is inconvenient for Oscar to say anything about this. After all, in an era when doctors and medicines were seriously insufficient, it was basically impossible to guarantee the lives of seriously wounded prisoners on the battlefield; Either way, it's best to get rid of them once and for all.

Even so, the remaining captives were as high as 2,520; A significant number of them were elite Iberian infantry. It is impossible to kill all of these captives, otherwise it is impossible for any army to surrender to the forces of the House of Augustus on the battlefield in the future. But keeping them here requires not only a military presence to guard them; It will also bring security risks to the next operations. Therefore, they must be dealt with reasonably and properly.

Oscar thought for a while, and then ordered Baylis: "You immediately send a herald to the landing site to inform Skory, and ask him to send the tenth brigade to bring all the supplies needed by the wolf legion to Lilili; Then all the prisoners and seriously wounded were transported to the landing site with the 10th Brigade. Earlier, Gatsi's fleet had just set off, and Anne was ordered to send clippers to chase back Gatsi's fleet.

The 10th Brigade was then used to escort the prisoners and the seriously wounded back to Sardinia. Now that we have succeeded in capturing Lilibal, the landing site will not be threatened from land until Lilibal has fallen; Therefore, there is no need to put two brigades stationed at all, one brigade is enough. In this way, we will be able to solve the problem of prisoners once and for all, and we will be able to send the seriously wounded back to Sardinia for treatment. “

The generals agreed to Oscar's approach, and Bayliss immediately went out to send heralds. Just as Bayliss was going out, another hurried sound of horses' hooves came from outside the courtyard; Everyone was overwhelmed by the sound of horses' hoofs, and they couldn't help but think: Could it be that Hannibal is coming? Rushing into the conference room was still the intelligence officer of the tragic dead man, and a man in a red power suit handed a parchment roll to Oscar; Then he stepped back.

Oscar knew that if it weren't for the 100,000 urgent intelligence, the tragic dead would never have appeared in front of people; They will only quietly give information to Oscar when Oscar is alone. This morning was because of the life-and-death struggle of Lilibal, so what about now? Since it was the Tragic Dead coming, it must not be Hannibal's legion, otherwise the scouts of the wolf legion would have returned to report a long time ago.

What is it that is urgent? The puzzled Oscar directly opened the parchment roll in front of the generals. Oscar really felt that he would not be able to watch the parchment scroll sent by the tragic dead man in the future, and there was no good news in it! The news this time is:

When Hannibal returned to Carthage from Spain five years ago to participate in the Second Punic War, he left his henchman Mahabal and younger brother Theophanes in the Spanish province of Betica. A month ago, General Mahalpa, who learned that Hannibal was restrained by the Carthaginian Senate, handed over the governorship to Theophanes, and personally led an elite army of 10,000 to Sicily! Among them were 5,000 elite Spanish infantry, 3,000 Gallic barbarian mercenaries, and 2,000 Gallic barbarian mercenary cavalry; They were all the elite divisions that Hannibal used to conquer Iberia. Moreover, it had already landed in Sicily three days earlier; Rendezvous with Hannibal's legions.

Oscar's face turned green after watching the parchment, and the 5,000 elite Hannibal legions had already given the Roman Republic a headache; And now add to that the 10,000 lions! Moreover, he is also a lion of a hundred battles loyal to Hannibal; Oscar feels that there is really no way to fight this battle, and he is not an opponent at all! Alas, Oscar sighed helplessly; He then handed the parchment scroll to Licinius, who was closest to him.

After the tea, everyone read the contents of the parchment; Even Baylis, who came back from giving the order, had already finished reading it. Duredom became the only atmosphere in the conference room, and no one could think of a way to break the deadlock, and no one was willing to open their mouths to break the silence at this time. Suddenly, there was another hurried sound of horses' hooves; What did it bring to everyone this time?

This time it was actually the heralds of the Ninth Brigade who rushed into the conference room, and there was no parchment scroll, and nothing else was written; The herald ran in and reported directly to Oscar:

"Your Excellency, General Scorry reports urgently: the Senate has learned that Carthage has sent a large number of troops from Spain to Hannibal's legions, so it has drawn the bull legion of the Julius family, the horse legion of the Brutus family, the eagle legion and the second legion of the Maxentius family, and the boar legion and the fourth legion of the Scipio family themselves in Upper Sicilya, a total of six legions against the Hannibal legion; In case Hannibal occupied Sicily and attacked Rome proper.

The six legions had now been deployed in Upper Sicily, and after the Senate informed the Greek city-states of the 10,000-strong increase in Hannibal's legions, the Greek city-states were willing to send 6,000 Dionicsios legions from the province of Greater Sicily to join forces with the Republic against Hannibal's legions. The Senate ordered the House of Augustus to transport the Legion of Wolves to Sicily as quickly as possible to participate in the joint attack of the coalition forces on Hannibal's Legion on September 18! ”

After the relay of the military news, the herald went to rest under the orders of Licinius. This time it was a turnaround, and the eight legions jointly attacked Hannibal's legion; Among them were not only the five most elite legions of the Roman Republic, but also the elite army of the Greek city-states, the legion of Dionysios. In terms of strength alone, the total strength of the coalition side has exceeded 35,000 people; And Hannibal's army numbered only 15,000. With a gap of 20,000 troops, you can do your best to fight!

At this moment, the atmosphere in the conference room began to be warm again; Everyone thought that Hannibal's army was doomed this time. Even Oscar felt that even if he couldn't wipe out Hannibal's legions in one battle; At the very least, it can inflict heavy damage on Hannibal's legions. So, Oscar went on to order:

"The previous order remains the same, that both the prisoners and the seriously wounded must be sent away by the end of tomorrow; And each of you will go back to your own army and prepare for battle. From tomorrow, the Guards Regiment will be stationed in Liliba and will be responsible for the defense of the city; Bellis, officially promoted to the commander of the Wolf Legion, and Etis served as the lieutenant general of the Legion. Narsi would replace Thales as the temporary commander of the rebel army, and Agrippa as the lieutenant general of the rebel army.

In addition, a herald was sent to Upper Sicilia in secret; Tell the commander-in-chief of this operation that our wolf legion has occupied Liliba and is ready to cooperate with the coalition forces at any time. You all go back to the barracks to-night and get ready, and you go to the barracks to see the Guards, Licinus; Now that a war could break out at any time, you must not let up in any way! ”