When the body is still strong, it is already stumbling on the road of life, which is a shame for the soul.

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

After this sneak attack, in order to restore morale and reorganize the army, Tulguta directly ordered the army to camp here; All the light infantry were led by their respective generals and stationed in the center of the barracks, while the Ahmed and Jugudaq legions guarded the front and rear gates, and the javelin cavalry under the three legions were specially arranged by Tulguta to patrol the area around the barracks in turn to prevent enemy attacks. After dealing with these affairs, Tulguta began to patrol the camp with his generals to calm the morale; The matter of counting the casualties was left to Ahmed.

When Tulguta toured the entire barracks, he really felt the consequences of this sneak attack; The light infantry were in constant fear in their tents, the javelinmen were apprehensive to pacify their horses, and even the most elite of the Ahmed and Juguda legions suffered heavy casualties. In fact, what made Thuguta's heart unbearable the most was not the sneak attack of the enemy army, but the fact that it was not the enemy army that caused the casualties of the army at all, but the war elephant army that he had always admired the most!

Because the Numidian kingdom did not have a good way to train war elephants, it was difficult to train qualified war elephants even if they had enough elephant resources; And Zuguta himself is very fond of the war elephant, which can be called the "terminator" of the infantry. So, after learning that General Jugurdah was willing to send troops to assist him; In high spirits, Tulguta asked General Djugurda to bring with him a large number of war elephant troops. The result? It's like lifting a stone to shoot yourself in the foot, and it is this war elephant that led to this fiasco!

However, Tulguta did not hate war elephants because of this; On the contrary, he was distressed by the 100 slain war elephants. For Tulguta, the Numidian kingdom was not short of population, and even if all the nearly 30,000 light infantry were killed in battle, it would not be difficult to recruit; But how easy is it to retrain a hundred war elephants? Of course, it was not Thuguta who was most distressed by this, but Juguda, who was pacifying the army; You must know that these 100 war elephants are the trump card troops that Zhuguda has accumulated bit by bit, and this battle alone was wiped out, and he was still killed by his own people at a heavy price, you say that Zhuguda is not annoyed!

As Ahmad counted the casualties, the generals, including Djugudah, gathered in the tent of Tulguta; Looking at Ahmed's iron face. Everyone seems to have expected that the specific casualties may be more heavy than everyone thought. Ahmad looked around the tent, glared fiercely at the three generals of Niptasan, and then said to the Turguta on the main general's seat:

"Your Majesty, according to the hill we have pursued into the enemy's ambush, the enemy who has attacked us this time must be 3,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry; Judging by the scale and armament. It should be General Vermina, the famous general of the Kingdom of Carthage, and his legions. Because of the chaotic situation at that time, we did not catch up with these 3,000 infantry; The 2,000 cavalry that attacked us left nearly 1,000 corpses, which means that the Carthaginian army that attacked our army this time lost only 1,000 cavalry, and our losses were extremely heavy.

The surprise attack of a hundred mad war elephants and enemy cavalry caused the loss of a thousand javelinmen to the legion of General Juguda, and the loss of more than two thousand desert infantry and nearly five hundred Numidian infantry to my legion; The heaviest losses were still suffered by the three corps of recruits. Of the twenty-one thousand light infantry of the three recruit regiments, there were already less than fifteen thousand. The 9,000 desert infantry also lost more than 4,000; Even the javelin cavalry of 15,000 was also wiped out by the war elephants, and the rest of the cavalry was also frightened by the war horses and had no combat effectiveness for a short time.

The 45,000 army of three full legions was still about 20,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry, and the number of casualties reached a staggering 13,000; Combined with the casualties of General Zhuguda and my command, the casualties of our army this time are as high as 17,000! To put it bluntly, the three new legions are now completely ineffective; Unless we can successfully take the Great Leptis, these three legions will be completely crippled. ”

Ahmet's casualty figures are simply incredible, and the 5,000 enemy attack with 1,000 casualties inflicted 17,000 casualties on the Numidian army; The casualties were worse than even Hannibal's greatest record. Even if the main reason for this is to blame the mad war elephant herd, it is incredible! Tulguta lost his voice and asked, "General Ahmet, how could we have suffered such heavy casualties?" How could three legions of recruits lose more than 13,000 troops? ”

Tulguta's question made Ahmet angry and said, "Your Majesty, I think the reason why the three recruit legions have suffered such heavy casualties. It's not because of the enemy's sneak attack and the madness of the war elephants, but because their regimental commander should be damned! If it weren't for the negligence of their corps commanders in peacetime and their lack of management in wartime; How could the soldiers of these three legions be crowded together? And how could it have suffered such a terrible blow? The sin of this battle lies with these three legion commanders! ”

Ahmed's words were like setting fire to Gaia's ass, and Gaia immediately jumped out and said, "Ahmed, you are talking nonsense! Why are the three of us negligent in training? How is there a lack of management? Since His Majesty appointed the three of us as commanders, have we not been diligently training our men in the barracks? Ever since we led our army into battle, have we not been careful to take the army with us? Obviously, your cavalry did not detect the sneak attack of the enemy to cause this result, and you still dare to frame us! ”

Gaia's brazenness was speechless, and Ahmet laughed angrily, "My cavalry didn't find the enemy sneaking up on the troops? Am I framing you? Your Majesty, I am certainly not as good as these three traitors when it comes to iron teeth and bronze teeth. But I also have evidence for saying this; You can personally go to the recruits and ask them if these three bearded men are not singing every night in the barracks, and they are not idle! Even in the course of the march, how could they ever be with their own soldiers! ”

Speaking of which. Ahmed, a Numidian veteran and a famous general, fell to his knees and shouted: "Your Majesty! These three people really don't have the talent to unify the army and command the battle array! Put into their hands three legions of recruits, forty-five thousand of my Numidian men, and sooner or later they will consume all the Numidian warriors of these three legions! I beseech you, Your Majesty, Ahmet, that you will remove them from the position of Captain and put them to death as an example. ”

Ahmed's sudden fall to the ground not only made the faces of the generals present extremely ugly. Even Tulguta immediately stood up and supported Ahmed; But how could Ahmed, who has a stubborn personality, be pulled up so easily? Tulguta looked at Ahmet, who was kneeling on the ground and refused to get up, and scolded angrily at the three generals of Niptasan: "You three wastes, relying on my trust, dare to do evil in the army; Come. Drag these three pieces of waste out for me and give me fifty lashes! ”

Following Tulguta's orders, dozens of guards walked in and dragged the three Niptasans, who were limp to the ground, out and whipped them; Ahmed barely stood up. Looking at Ahmet, whose face was still stubborn, Zuguta sighed and said, "General Ahmet, I also know that the abilities of the three Gaia are not enough to hold the position of legion commander; But I don't have a more suitable person to be the commander of the legion now. What's more, changing generals in the battle is also a taboo, so it's better to look at it like this.

I will at once draw out the five thousand desert infantry of the three recruit regiments and put them under the command of your Ahmet regiment, and I will also draw out the twelve thousand javelin cavalry and put them under my own command; The remaining 21,000 light infantry were divided into three new legions, each of which was 7,000 men under the command of the three of them, do you think it was okay? ”

As a king, Tulguta was able to do so much to Ahmet, which was rare among kings. Ahmed was not a man who did not know what to do, so he had to agree to Tulguta's arrangement; At this time, on the school field outside the big tent, Gaia and the other three legion commanders were being whipped with fifty lashes, and their terrible screams resounded in the sky. The Numidian army here was dealing with the aftermath, while the Vimina army was rushing back to Carthage on a rapid march.

Before leaving, Vimini took advantage of the chaos to leave a spy in the Numidian army, in order to keep track of the movements of the Numidian army at any time; Unfortunately, the spy quickly revealed his identity during the reorganization of the army that Ahmad was personally in charge of. Thankfully, the agent managed to escape from the Numidian barracks with a horse before his identity was revealed; The spies rode all the way north, and finally caught up with Vimina as he returned to Carthage.

Victoria was not surprised that the spy was discovered; However, he was able to escape, which made Victoria Secreta look at him. As for the two pieces of information he brought back, they were even more precious; The first piece of information was the number of casualties of the Numidian army in this sneak attack. Vermína herself did not expect that such a small sneak attack could cause 17,000 casualties among the Numidian army and tens of thousands of troops, including more than 10,000 cavalry, to lose their combat effectiveness.

The fact that the commanders of the three Numidian recruit legions were whipped fifty lashes in public made Viminia see that the internal strife in the Numidian army was fierce; The Kingdom of Carthage had attached great importance to the intelligence within the Numidian Kingdom before, and the contradictions between several henchmen under the command of Tulguta and the famous Numidian general Ahmet were well known. After this battle, since the three of Tulguta's henchmen will be dragged out to whip them, it means that this must be Ahmed's request.

However, these three men are still the confidant generals of Tulguta; Regardless of their abilities, Tulguta was extremely satisfied with their loyalty. Therefore, even if these three men were whipped up, they would not be deprived of their military power; In this way, there will be no doubt that Numidia will be at war within. Ahmet, a famous Numidian general, would always look down on these legionnaires who relied on their whiskers to beat their horses. And those who have just been punished will also resent Ahmet from the bottom of their hearts.

Now that the kingdom of Tripoli is falling, it is only a matter of time, and how can the five thousand recruits in the city of Daleptis not even have weapons and equipment to withstand the attack of the Numidian army; As soon as the Great Leptis fell, the kingdom of Tripoli was officially reduced to a new province of the Numidian kingdom. The next major war will be the real Numidian-Carthaginian war, and I hope the senators of the Senate can order General Hannibal to come back in time.

At this time, how could the Kingdom of Carthage, with only 35,000 recruits at home and 4,000 troops under its command, resist the Numidian army that swept in with a great victory? Whether it was the 35,000 armies that the Numidian kingdom had assembled west of Carthage. or the 60,000 army of generals who are about to go north, which Carthage can easily deal with; Moreover, the Numidian army was not all Gaia and Niptasan, and famous generals such as Generals Ahmed and Juguda were also excellent generals.

Vimilio was not an arrogant man, and he knew that his talents were extremely limited; Although he himself has the reputation of a famous Carthaginian general, it is also useless to resist the attack of nearly 100,000 troops in two directions of the Numidian Kingdom with an army of less than 40,000. The only way to do this was to recall General Hannibal and his elite legions back to Carthage; At that time, the Vimini commander will lead the division to stand alone in the army. Hannibal personally led the main army against the Numidian army is the real solution to Carthage's dilemma! (To be continued.) )