When the sun rose again in the east, shining on the Dakhlacules Pillars and the strait beneath them, there were no more ships on the sea, only the wreckage and corpses of the warships that had poured into the Mediterranean under the impetus of the tide. Several galleys were heading on the northern shore of the Mediterranean, and Hasdruba sighed secretly when he saw the wreckage and corpses of the warships on the sea in the distance.

After determining that he could not inform the guards of Hera's Pillar before the Chuni fleet, the Romans did not detain him again. Day and night, Hasdruba arrived in New Carthage in only three days, and arrived in the strait with Hamilcar Baca early this morning. Hamilcar thought that the Strait Fleet would be able to intercept a few ships of the Chuni, but unfortunately only harvested the wreckage and corpses on the surface of the sea.

The lightning crest of the Baka family fluttered across the Mediterranean, and as soon as the flag came into the sight of the hilltop guards, a whistle sounded in the strait, and soon the three-oared war boat came out and escorted the galley into the harbor.

"Father, the Chuni have passed through the strait." As soon as Hannibal saw his father, he confessed his failure. The young man who grew up in the barracks had broad shoulders and a straight spine, and his dark face and powerful jaw were intimidating.

"Father......" Hannibal's brother Hasdruba also shouted, but was stopped by Hamilka.

"Thunder weapons don't do anything?" Hamilka cared about the Chuni fleet, but also about the Chuni weapons.

"There are more of these weapons on the battleship Chuni." New Carthage sent two gunboats, while the Chuni had dozens of such weapons on board. "There is a battleship that has been sunk by the Chuni."

"What?!" Hamilka looked at his son in surprise, and Hasdruba looked at Hannibal in surprise. The two Chuni warships that sank on Trik Island had a total of twelve thunder weapons, four of which were given to the Egyptians in exchange for the secret of gunpowder, and two of the remaining eight were mounted on the warship, but the warship was sunk by the Chuni and one was lost.

"If it weren't for the fact that the Chuni ship was too hard, we would have ......," his brother Hasdruba defended. There is one reason why the Chuni warship is too strong, and another reason is that its own warship does not dare to go deep into the sea.

It's not that you don't have enough guts, it's that you don't have enough food and fresh water. The original plan was to intercept in the strait, but I didn't expect to go deep into the sea. The Kchuni fleet took advantage of the darkness to cross the strait, and its own side had to chase into the deep sea. Each oarsman needed a lot of fresh water (7.6 liters/person/day) for the battle, but due to the hurry, the warboat did not carry much fresh water on it, and by dawn the pursuit was no longer able to pursue, and had to return to the port.

The younger brother shirked his responsibilities as if explaining the difficulty of the battle, and Hannibal remained silent. Hamilcar looked at his son-in-law, "How long will it take for them to get back here?" ”

"I ......" Hasdruba was the one who knew Chuni best of all because he had accompanied the Chuni fleet to Egypt. I do not know. I remember that the Chuni were blazing a route, they knew how to get into our seas, but they didn't know how to get back. ”

The Chuni appeared on the sea west of the pillars of Hera, but they said they were from the east. They had been on the sea for two years when they came, and when they reached our sea, they were looking for a way back, all that Hasdruba had known before. Just when everyone thought that the Cuni were going to let go of this worry because they couldn't find a way back, Hasdrupa said again.

"Chuni had two kinds of warships, the one we had seen, sunk in the harbor of Festos in Crete, and the one that fought with us, huge, sturdy, with countless thunderbolt weapons. The former can sail on any ocean, regardless of the direction of the wind, unlike the latter, which must have the right wind direction to sail.

The Chuni people will rush out of the stone pillar, presumably finding the right wind direction, and according to the former's voyage, it will take them at least two years to return to the Chuni, and then ......"

It will take two years to return to Chuni, and two years to return to our sea from Chuni, and there may be one to two years of preparation time in between, adding up to a maximum of six years. "We have changed the ramming angles, but we still can't sink the Chuni ships, and if they come again, we can't keep them out of the strait. ”

"There are Roman emissaries on the ship, and they may know the secrets of the Thunder Weapon, and they must go to war with the Romans at once." Hannibal voiced his concerns. The decaying Carthaginian Senate was powerless to fight Rome, and the Baca family took on this task and opened up the Iberian Peninsula precisely to attack Rome. The visit of the Chuni people has both advantages and disadvantages. The downside is that the Chuni fleet will definitely come back for revenge, which is something that no one wants to see.

"War with the Romans must begin at once, before the Chuni return." Hasdruba looked at his father-in-law and suggested the same. "With the power of the thunder weapon, the Roman army is bound to be defeated."

"But the tribes didn't really submit." Hamilcar pondered and said slowly, "Ptolemy told me that the Chuni might soon be doomed. ”

"Plamy ......" Hasdruba was about to warn his father-in-law that Ptolemy's words were not credible, but Hamilcar interrupted him: "Pomikar has gone to Chinny in the East last year. Among all the astonished, he added, "Selinus has also gone." ”

Pomikar was Hamilcar's eldest son-in-law, and his role in the Baka family was more of an assistant than a battle, assisting Hamilcar, assisting Hasdrupal, and assisting Hannibal. His other capacity was that of a judge, and he had a seat in the Carthaginian Senate.

Last year, the Baca family wanted to transplant the monarchy in the Iberian Peninsula to Carthage, but Pomikar objected. Hasdruba and Hannibal thought that Hamilcar had driven Pomikar back to the Carthaginian Senate, but he went to the far east.

Silenus . Caleacte, a scholar of Greek descent from Galacte, Sicily, was a man of great knowledge. Hamilcar put him and the famous Spartan scholar Sosylusof . Sparta), invited to the territory of the Illyrian Baca family, to educate several of his sons.

"They will arrive in Qinni this year at the latest, maybe Chuni is gone, maybe not." Hamilcar wanted to smile with relief, but he couldn't for some reason. He felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't tell what was wrong. It wasn't until he slept at night that he realized why.

Far East, outside the known world, was the land of barbarians, where there was nothing worth seeing except silk. However, this is no longer the case, and the Far East is increasingly influencing everything in the known world.

For revenge, he was to send envoys to the East to learn about the actions of the Chuni; Ptolemy of Egypt also sent envoys to the East, and with his help, the Cheni were said to have defeated the Chuni, so that the Chuni fleet, which had occupied the frankincense region, had to withdraw from the Red Sea.

The fate of Carthage turned out to be decided by the far east, and Hamilcar did not like this feeling. After all, he lived in a time not hundreds of years later, when the fate of the known world was entirely decided by the Romans; Nor is it more than a thousand years from now, the fate of the whole world is decided by Westminster or some Oval Office on the North American continent.

This feeling was suffocating, making people worry day and night, and Hamilcar, who could not sleep, simply got up and looked at the distant east on the map in amazement. Pomilka and Selinus, it's time to get to Chinni.

*

The Green Ocean fleet, which had passed through the stone pillars of Hera late at night, returned to Chu as fast as possible, and before they reached the port of Zhufang, the Carthaginian envoys who had intercepted the fleet twice in the strait had already arrived at Qin first.

The hot summer had long passed, and in September, when autumn was in full bloom, Pomilka and Selinus and their entourage came to Humdan, the mouth of the Sogdian merchants. This grand city was the capital of the Qinni, but strangely enough, the royal palace to the south of the city was erected with statues of the Greeks.

"Where do you come from?" In the Prime Minister's Mansion, a young man dressed in black asked with a smile, standard Greek.

Pomilka had brought a fluent man from Bactria on this trip, but he did not expect that the young man who met him could speak Greek.

"We ......" Bomikar, whose clothes resembled those of the Egyptians, interrupted him when one of the officials said something, and the Sogdian governor bowed and said, "Standing before you is the prince of the kingdom of Qin." ”

"Your Royal Highness, Honorable Prince, we are the envoys of Carthage, Pomilka and Selinus," Pomilka pointed to himself and Selinus. “…… He passed through Egypt, Seleucus, Parthia, and Bactria to Qinni. ”

On the way, Pomilcar heard that it was necessary to prostrate to meet the kings of the East, and neither he nor Selinus were willing to prostrate to any king, even if the purpose of the trip was not achieved. Now that the two of them are meeting the prince of Qin Niguo, no one asks them to prostrate, which is really a big surprise for the two.

"Carthage?!" Fusu heard the excitement in the envoy's words, and he was surprised by the remoteness of Carthage. It was a country west of the Mediterranean Sea, near the Dakhlacles Columns. It's still a seafaring country. "The ocean of Great Qin is not connected to our sea, why are you here?"

"We are ...... for friendship" Pomilka said the excuse he had come up with, but Selinus interrupted him, and he said bluntly: "Chuni is an enemy of Carthage, I heard that Chuni is also an enemy of Chenny?" ”

The envoy was so direct, Fusu couldn't help but look at the two of them again. "Yes." He said. "So what can you do?"

"We ......," Celinus interrupted Pomilka for the second time. Your Royal Highness, Dear Prince, before answering this question, can you tell us the details of the war between Qinni and Chuni? Only by understanding this can we provide help or advice to the best of our ability. ”