If you want peace, you have to prepare for war.

- Vegetius (Roman military writer)

Since delaying it will do more harm to the Augustan family, starting a war as soon as possible is the only option for the Augustusian family; Up to now, all the military power that the Augustans had at their disposal was all the legions and naval fleets in Sardinia. However, it was not possible for all the ships of the naval fleet to be used in the Augustan war against Sicily.

The Combined North African Army, led by Spartak himself, occupied the Chengguan Legion, which was composed of a large number of veterans drawn from the Augustus family; Thankfully, all of the legion's logistical supplies were provided by Prince Adheba, and there was no need for the Augustus family to provide any logistical supplies to the Chengguan legion.

However, the other Augustan overseas armies were not treated so well; The army stationed on the Balearic Islands was the Fourth Army led by Tetius. All the logistical supplies for the tens of thousands of soldiers of the entire Fourth Army need to be transported from Sardinia by transport ships on a monthly basis, and there is no room for the slightest delay and sloppiness.

In addition, the 3rd Army of Segudus and the 5th Army of Ronquina, which were stationed in the province of Betica in the Iberian Peninsula, also needed logistical supplies from Sardinia. Although some could be purchased from the neighboring kingdom of Spain through trade, the main logistical supplies needed to be transported from Sardinia.

The logistical supplies that needed to be delivered to the three legions each month alone required at least thirty transport ships to deliver them; At this time, the Augustus family had a total of only seventy transport ships.

How many troops can be transported at once with only forty transport ships? If you count the equipment brigade to which each legion belongs and the cavalry brigade in the auxiliary legion, I am afraid that it can only transport less than two legions at most! This is still the most ideal estimate, if you add the grain and grass that should be shipped at the same time as the army is transported; Then it would be nice to be able to transport one and a half legions at once.

However, the army that the Augustus family was able to go out to fight far exceeded this scale, and even reached several times this size! At this time, the army of the Augustan family still left in Sardinia mainly had seven legions, namely the Guards Cavalry Legion of Licinius, the Guards Infantry Legion of Mary, the Samonai Legion of Antio, the First Legion, the Second Legion, the Sixth Legion, and the Seventh Legion.

Of these seven legions, the commander of the Guards Infantry Regiment, Mary, has effectively stepped down; However, Oscar's most optimistic Luculus was not qualified for the job, so he had to let Mary continue to serve as the commander of the Guards Infantry Regiment. Of the remaining four regular legions, the most powerful were naturally the First Legion of Luquis and the Second Legion of Quintus.

In addition to the special two Guards Legions and the relatively single Samonai Legion, the first and second legions have the most veterans, and the centurions are also the most experienced, so their combat effectiveness is naturally the most brilliant. In fact, from the very beginning, the order of Oscar's seven legions was arranged according to the combat effectiveness of each legion.

Since the Augustans have successfully occupied the Balearic Islands and the province of Betica, it means that the relationship between the Augustians and the Hannibals is already endless; Therefore, the war in Sicily against Hannibal was the Armageddon that the Augustus family had to go all out!

Such a decisive battle was a great battle that affected the life and death of the Augustan family; If you win, you will go further, and if you lose, you will be defeated! From this point of view, the House of Augustus should indeed fight a decisive battle and concentrate their best strength against Hannibal in order to win this war.

However, such an all-and-nothing approach is also extremely risky; If all the armies of Sardinia were to be dispatched, Sardinia itself would be left with a great defensive void. Hannibal's war instincts were terrifying, as soon as he took the initiative to implement the tactics of clearing the walls in Sicily and led his army to attack Sardinia; Then the House of Augustus would be a tragedy.

In order to avoid such a thing, Sardinia still needs to leave enough troops to garrison; In Oscar's view, in order to guarantee the absolute security of Sardinia, it is necessary to leave at least two legions in Sardinia. The two garrison regiments, one in the barracks near the port and the other in the barracks outside the city of Calaris; The two echo each other in order to ensure the safety of Sardinia.

In this way, the Augustus family would have only five legions of troops that could be used for front-line combat; These five legions will certainly include the Guards Infantry and Guards Cavalry Legions, as well as the Samonai Legion, while the remaining two legions will need to be selected from the four regular legions.

The strength of each regular legion was about 10,000 men, the size of the two Guards legions was only 5,000, and the Samonai Legion was only 8,000 soldiers; The total strength of these five legions was only 38,000, which was still far from forming an absolute numerical superiority over Hannibal's army.

You must know that at this time there were not a few Hannibal troops in Sicily; In addition to the 4,000 elite shield cavalry left behind by Hannibal in Sicily, Theophanes, who had escaped from the province of Betica, also brought with him about 15,000 Marco's old mercenaries. These warriors from Spain and Gaul still had considerable combat effectiveness.

The cavalry under Huskidulba alone and the mercenaries under Theophanes alone had an army of nearly 20,000 men; The combat effectiveness of an army of 20,000 people under the command of the tactical genius Hannibal can be imagined! In addition, there are many militia units belonging to Hannibal's forces throughout Sicily, which is also a combat force that can play a certain role!

According to the information of the tragic dead, the total number of troops available to Hannibal in Sicily is about 32,000; Because the number of troops counted by the tragic dead includes not only about 6,000 Sicilian militia, but also the Greek legions of the ancient city-state of Syractic.

Oscar himself did not think that this Greek legion of six or seven thousand would join Hannibal's command, but there was no guarantee that Hannibal would take extraordinary measures to find a way to control this legion; Therefore, Oscar still acquiesced to this calculation of the tragic dead.

With the 38,000 elite army of the House of Augustus, against the 32,000 ragtag army of Sicily; Oscar was absolutely confident that he could defeat the so-called 32,000 army, even if their commander was the legendary Hannibal! However, the root of the problem is not this, but the fact that Hannibal's most elite force is not the 32,000 ragtag army.

Ever since Hannibal returned to Carthage with his henchman Mahabar, he has been commanding the Carthaginian army; Although the Carthage army was made up of improvisational recruits, after the entire war in North Africa, coupled with Hannibal's personal command, it was inevitable that it would grow into a very effective army on the battlefield.

When the decisive battle broke out, Hannibal's army would definitely not only be the 32,000 troops in Sicily, but also a large number of elite divisions that he brought back to Sicily from Carthage, and that would be the army that really belonged to Hannibal.

Even now, no one knows how many troops Hannibal would eventually bring back to Sicily, 10,000 troops? Or an army of 20,000? Or, more? Perhaps, Hannibal will not bring back too many troops in the end, after all, the naval transport capacity of the Carthaginian kingdom is still very limited; However, this was enough to offset the Augustusian family's superiority in terms of troops.

Based on this grim fact, Oscar could only do everything he could to increase the number of troops his family could send to Sicily as much as possible; And the first thing Oscar thought of was his family's guards! The Augustusian family's guards, who had been left behind to guard the Star of Casa, had already been re-formed in Sardinia after being severely damaged by Marius.

Due to the rush of time, the temporarily formed guard team was only 1,500 people, and its overall combat effectiveness was even worse than before. However, their commander is still the loyal and capable Nussis. Oscar believes that under the leadership of Nussis, even the newly formed guard team can exert good combat effectiveness.

But even with the addition of the 1,500 poor men, it was only a drop in the bucket; In a war of tens of thousands, how much of a role can a mere fifteen hundred people play? Of course, sometimes, after the battle has reached a white-hot state, the investment of 1,500 new troops can still turn the tide of the battle in an instant; It's just that there are too few such times.

In fact, if Oscar had made up his mind to fight an all-out war at this time, the Augustus family would definitely have more than 40,000 troops to squeeze out. With the introduction of the military merit system and the household registration system, the Augustan family's control of Sardinia has reached a new level; There are also many men of military age in Sardinia.

More importantly, the Augustan family's warehouse still contains a large number of old Roman weapons and equipment provided by the Maxentius family in the past; As long as Oscar gave an order, based on the population of Sardinia, it was still possible to temporarily form more than five recruit regiments.

It's just that if Oscar really does this, it will be too damaging to the future of the Augustus family. At this time, it is the sowing season after the autumn harvest in Sardinia; Once the Augustan family drew a large number of strong men to form a new army, then the entire agriculture and plantation industry in Sardinia would suffer a devastating blow, which was also unacceptable to the Augustan family.

What's even more helpless is how much of a role can these newly formed recruit corps play? All the soldiers of the recruit regiment were peasants who had just laid down their hoes, who did not understand war at all and could not fight; Add to that the fact that the Augustus family did not have enough qualified centurions to command them, and sending them into battle was nothing short of a massacre! (To be continued.) )