After listening to Pretakuba, he remained silent for a while. As the elder of the Senate and the newly re-elected Sophie, of course he couldn't open his eyes to talk nonsense and make others laugh.
He hadn't figured out what to say yet, but El Accra continued to speak loudly: "As Lord Ace Yaruba said, nearly 1/3 of our treasury revenue comes from Sardinia and Cole. Signa, now during the war, money is urgently needed everywhere, as Lord Sophie-Pretakuba of Carthage, you should think more fully about the huge event that we in Carthage are involved in. In the war, we must first consider how to maintain the source of our treasury income, so that we can build more warships and buy more food to continue the war, rather than patronizing to meet the requirements of Lord Margo!"
El Accra's words were straightforward enough, and Pretakuba's face changed a little.
At this time, Sifakba, another new senator of the Margonid faction, said angrily: "Don't you understand? The key to this war lies in Sicily! It is when Lord Margo led his army and Dionia. The eastern part of the fierce battle! The consumption of this war is indeed huge, so we must concentrate all our strength and fully support the army in Sicily. to support other battlefields.
Otherwise, even if we keep Sardinia, the Sicilian army will be frustrated because the rations transportation line is not guaranteed, which will change the originally dominant battle situation and prevent the battle in Sicily from ending as soon as possible. "
Compared with El Accra, Sifakba's words were even more extreme, and immediately aroused the resentment of some elders in the venue. One of the neutral elders even said yin and yang strangely: "It took Mr. Margo to lead an army of 100,000 people for half a month. Time can’t take down a small town in Dionia, so it will take several months, or even more than half a year, to attack the cities of Katanai and Naxos, which are more populated and more fortified. With such offensive capabilities, do you still want to end the Sicilian War as soon as possible?!"
"Yeah, yeah, the reason why we want to keep Sardinia first is to consider that the war in Sicily will continue to be prolonged, first to provide gold and silver protection for the Sicilian army!" Another elder was half serious and half joking. said.
""Is it because Lord Margo is worried that he will not be able to drive the Dionians out of Sicily within a year! I'm afraid you want to help Lord Marco to fulfill the promise he made in the Senate as soon as possible, so regardless of the overall situation, you keep trying to help him. "Another elder said in dissatisfaction.
Sifakba was so angry that he argued loudly with them, but Pretakuba found that more and more elders expressed dissatisfaction, not only Hannoites, but also many neutral elders, and the whole venue became noisy .
It was only at this time that Pretakuba realized that he had made a mistake: Sardinia and Corsica had been the possessions of Carthage for a hundred years, and the various nobles of Carthage had close interests with Sardinia For example, El Accra, who fully supported the reinforcements in Sardinia just now, his family owns a silver mine in the mountains outside Saros, Sardinia. Three days ago, his family shipped silver bars from Sardinia. The cargo ship returning to Carthage was captured by the Dionysian warship...
He has always emphasized giving priority to the war in Sicily, but inadvertently pushed the Margonides to the opposite of the other senators, making almost all the neutrals who had been more supportive of them since the beginning of the war, even themselves. There also seemed to be some differences in the camp. For example, several Margonidite elders such as Santipur had been silent since the beginning of the debate.
Pretakuba suddenly realized that Oklahoma City raised this topic at the very beginning of today's meeting, I am afraid it was premeditated! During this period of time, the Margonides not only gained a lot of prestige among the Carthaginian people, but also had a lot of support in the senate, and many proposals were passed... Under the circumstance that everything went smoothly, even he himself had some Fluttering, completely forgetting that person's terrible.
And just when Pretakuba came to his senses and was anxiously trying to solve the predicament, Hanno, who was sitting in front of the venue and had been quiet all this time, stood up.
The entire venue soon quieted down.
"Should the newly built fleet go to support Sardinia or Sicily first?" Hanno looked around the venue and said slowly, "Whether it is the short-term effect it produces, or the long-term interests of Carthage, reinforcements to Sardinia are very important. Nia should be the first choice. The difficulty encountered by Sardinia is because the entire sea area is controlled by the Dionians, so the defense is so passive. We only need to send the navy to repel the Dionians. order would be restored in Sardinia, and the Carthage-Sardinian trade route would be restored.
However, the main problem of the war in Sicily is not just the loss of maritime superiority. The important thing is that our army has been blocked from attacking on land for a long time. Even if a fleet is dispatched, they will not be able to go ashore to fight, and the problem will not be solved immediately, you said. Is it right? "
"Yes, Hanno-sama is so right!"
"It's still Lord Hanno who sees it thoroughly!"
"No more arguing, we choose to support the new fleet to Sardinia!"
…
There was a sudden uproar in the venue.
Pretakuba said anxiously and loudly: "Master Hanno, you are wrong to say that! The key to our war with Dionia is Sicily. As long as Sicily wins, other problems will be solved, so support Sicily. —”
"Pretakuba!" Hanno shouted, like a lion sleeping soundly on the prairie suddenly showing his power, the whole venue became silent, and he looked directly at the head of the Magnid family in the Senate , said with a stern face: "In order to let Carthage win this war, I did my best to cooperate with you during this time, but your performance disappointed me a little, for the interests of your Margonid family, even at the expense of ignoring The interests of the whole of Carthage are clearly reflected in the issue of 'sending a new fleet to support Sicily'.
And the so-called rectification of our Carthaginian army last time by Marco also reflects this. Why can't such a huge army take a village in Dionia for a long time? Isn't it because Margo replaced all the Carthaginian generals in the army and replaced them with the Numibians who followed him in Iberia as generals, and this happened! Can these Numibians be loyal to Carthage! Can they order their fellow men to risk their lives and fight the Dionians to the death!
Marco led the army to attack smoothly from the beginning until now it has reached a deadlock and replaced the generals of the Carthaginian army without authorization. Isn't that the main reason for this situation? ! So what puzzles me is that the war has just begun, why did Lord Margo in such a hurry to replace the Carthaginian general who was loyal to Carthage, and insisted on replacing him with him, but he had nothing to do with Carthage. Emotional Numibians to command an army also made up of Numibians? ! "
Under Hanno's repeated questioning, Pretakuba was speechless for a while, but he was sweating profusely.
Sifakba hurriedly retorted: "That's because the generals of Carthage were ineffective in fighting. Only by replacing them can the army's combat effectiveness be improved! That's why our army was able to successfully conquer the Greek city-states on the south coast."
As soon as these words came out, there was a great uproar in the venue.
The elders stood up and retorted: "After the Carthaginian generals were replaced, why couldn't a 100,000-strong army conquer a small village of Dionia?! This is also called improving combat effectiveness!"
"I propose that the Carthaginian army formed by spending a lot of revenue from the treasury must be led by Carthaginian citizens, otherwise how can the security of the city-state be guaranteed!"
"Now Lord Margot leads an army that is mostly composed of foreigners as team officers and composed of foreigners. Is this still a Carthaginian army! The former Carthaginian generals who have been replaced must be reinstated. Otherwise we will no longer provide any support to this army!"
…
Facing the turbulent elders, Pretakuba's face changed completely.
Staring at this scene as well, and especially looking at the dignified neutralist leader Ace Yaruba, Hanno sneered in his heart: He died for so long, just for today. Before Marco replaced the Carthaginian generals, he made a big mistake, because most of these generals were Carthaginian nobles, but he did not let the elders who were close to him impeach them. The Gonids really made mistakes in the use of the new fleet, and he attacked decisively, forcing the neutral senators to see the true face of the Margonides. As their support for it weakened, the Senate's The dominance is bound to return to his hands again.
Thinking of this, Hanno said loudly again: "My lords, please listen to me."
The hustle and bustle of the venue soon returned to quiet, but Preta Kuba was shocked.
"The meeting has been discussed so far, and the result has been relatively clear. The new fleet will first reinforce Sardinia, and look for opportunities to retake Alenia, not only to ensure the income of the national treasury, so that we can continue to fight with Dionia, and at the same time. It is also our obligation to fulfill the allies of all the Phoenician city-states in the Western Mediterranean. Now not only all the Phoenicians are paying attention to this war, but don’t forget that people from the mother state are also listening to the news in Hadrummentum. (referring to the remnant fleet sent from the Eastern Phoenicia region), if we don’t do this, we will lose our prestige, and can we order other Phoenician allies in the future?!”
Hanno's careful consideration in politics caused many elders to nod involuntarily.