At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 598: Rome cedes territory in exchange for peace
After the Carthaginians won the naval battle, they lowered small boats to rescue the Roman naval soldiers who fell into the water. Because so many warships were sunk, a large number of Roman naval soldiers fell into the water.

Fortunately, these warships were very small, and the Roman soldiers could temporarily float by simply holding on to a few pieces of driftwood or having good swimming skills. Then they were obediently salvaged by the Carthaginian naval soldiers.

The Carthaginian commander, Sorel Barca, did not want to drown the Roman navy because of his hatred for the Romans. These captives were the best bargaining chips for the Carthaginians.

The Second Punic War was an extremely heavy blow to the Carthaginians. Not only did Carthage lose its maritime hegemony over the Mediterranean, all of its overseas colonies were occupied by Rome, and most of its territory in Yanzhou was divided up by the Romans. It was required to pay 1000 talents of gold as compensation (roughly equivalent to 100 billion coins of the Han Dynasty), and this war reparations has not yet been repaid. In addition, the upper-class senatorial families of Carthage sent hostages to Rome, and these prisoners of war were the best bargaining chips to exchange for their children and nephews.

After destroying the main Roman warship, the Carthaginian commander Sorel Barca reported the news of the naval victory back to Carthage.

At the same time, he ordered the mainland to transport the army, preparing to take advantage of the victory to land in Sicily and retake the islands in the Mediterranean.

He himself commanded a fleet of warships from Sicily to the port city of Lilibe.

The Romans in Lilibe, whose defeated Roman navy had already known the failure of their naval battle, had almost completely wiped out the main Roman warships by the Carthaginians.

But the Romans in Lilibe did not sit idly by and wait for the Carthaginians to come and kill them.

This was still the era of the Roman Republic, and the Romans were still full of martial spirit. Under the leadership of the city lord, Roman citizens summoned citizens from all over the city to form a legion, preparing to fight a defensive war against the Carthaginians.

The Carthaginians' main battleships formed an arc and aimed their artillery at the city of Lilibe.

Xiong Ju looked at the harbor city under the muzzle of the cannon and said hesitantly: "I remember that this city belonged to you Carthaginians decades ago. With such an artillery attack, I am afraid that you Romans will not die many, but you Carthaginians will suffer heavy casualties."

The Romans in the Republican Era still belonged to a continental civilization. The Romans were good at land battles but not naval battles. Even their technology in building ships was not as good as that of the Carthaginians. It was only after Rome captured a damaged Carthaginian warship that their shipbuilding technology improved rapidly.

After that, the Roman navy developed rapidly in the naval war with Carthage, but after defeating the Carthaginians, the Roman navy development stagnated again, because their targets were mainly the countries along the northern Mediterranean coast. The Roman army had a stronger advantage than the navy of these countries. If the enemy could be defeated by the army, there was no need to spend a lot of money to cultivate the navy. Even in the slave era, it was very expensive to maintain a navy.

The Carthaginians were a true maritime civilization. Apart from their capital in Yanzhou, the rest of their overseas territories were all on the islands in the Mediterranean. When the Carthaginians were at their most powerful, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica were all overseas territories of the Carthaginians.

These territories were lost in the Second Punic War several decades ago, only about 20 to 30 years ago, so Xiong Ju said that artillery might kill more Carthaginians.

Sorel Barca's eyes were red and he said with hatred: "General, you should fight hard. Even if you destroy this city, you will not hurt a single Carthaginian by mistake."

Xiong Ju underestimated the Romans of this era. In terms of brutality, Rome was even one level higher than the Qin Dynasty. When the Qin Dynasty conquered a place, it would relocate the local people to other places, but these people would not become slaves. Instead, they became self-cultivating farmers and became part of the Qin Dynasty's war machine.

After Rome occupied Sicily, some of the young and strong were killed, and the remaining tens of thousands of Carthaginians, the elderly, the weak, the women and the children on the island were all reduced to slaves. They were sold to various Mediterranean countries by the Romans decades ago. At present, it is impossible for Carthaginians to be on Sicily, and even if there are, they are extremely rare slaves.

But even though Sorel Baca wanted to destroy the city of Lilibe, Xiong Ju ordered the artillerymen to focus their bombing on the enemy's military camps, city hall, arsenal and other military and command facilities.

Firstly, the Han army had strict military discipline, and the education Xiong Ju received did not support him in massacring civilians.

Second, the court fought this war to maintain the situation in Daqinzhou, not to create hatred in this foreign region. If the city was really destroyed, it would only deepen the hatred between the Han and Romans. If this war was fought for the Han, the hatred would be hatred, but fighting for the Carthaginians would only create hatred for themselves, which Xiong Ju was unwilling to do.

"Boom, boom, boom!" After receiving the attack order, the warehouses near the port of Lilibe, the military camps near the city, and the most eye-catching and tall city hall were bombarded by hundreds of artillery shells.

The Carthaginians' iron cannons and the Han people's steel cannons mercilessly bombarded the city's command and military institutions.

Although the Romans were able to build this sturdy building, the enemies they initially designed it to deal with were nothing more than crossbows. Facing artillery, the Romans' defense facilities were not as good as paper, but they were not much worse. The city walls were bombed down one after another, and the doomsday scene was filled with smoke and fire everywhere.

People of this era had not yet learned how to defend against artillery, nor had they learned how to reduce their losses under artillery fire, and the Romans were blown everywhere.

The Roman citizen army suffered heavy casualties in the bombing and could only flee to an area far away from the city of Lilibe to regroup.

But after the bombing was completed, the Carthaginian army began to land in Sicily. Faced with several times the troop advantage and firepower advantage, the Roman citizen army was completely annihilated after only half a day of resistance, and the city of Lilibe was captured by the Carthaginians.

Sorel Barca stood in the municipal square of Liliber and shouted excitedly in front of tens of thousands of Carthaginian soldiers: "Retaking Liliber is just the beginning. There are still Sardinia and Corsica to come. The fact that we can stand here today shows that we Carthaginians have the strength to take back everything that belongs to us."

"Sorrel"

"Sorrel"

"Sorrel"

Tens of thousands of Carthaginian soldiers shouted the name of their commander. This victory greatly boosted the Carthaginians' confidence. After more than 30 years, Carthage finally had a general who could lead them to defeat Rome. At this time, Sorel Barca's prestige was unprecedentedly high.

At the same time, the Carthaginians were more excited than ever. They used all the merchant ships in the country to transport soldiers, captured the cities in Sicily one by one, and wiped out the Roman legions on the island. At the same time, relying on their naval advantage, they surrounded Sardinia and Sica, hoping to regain all their territories in the Mediterranean.

For the Romans, the defeat in the Battle of Sicily was a bolt from the blue. The main force of the Roman navy was severely damaged in one battle. Even if they wanted to support Sicily later, they could not do so. The twelve battleships of Carthage were unmatched giants in the Mediterranean, and the artillery gave these giants their own weapons.

These battleships blocked the Roman waterway, and when they discovered Roman warships, they bombarded them with artillery. After a few shots, a pile of sawdust would be left on the sea.

Even the 12 battleships commanded by Sorel Barca came directly to the outside of Rome, trying to replicate the military action in which his grandfather Hannibal led his troops to the heart of Rome.

But after the Romans learned of their defeat in Sicily, they built a battery outside the city of Rome and deployed all the remaining hundreds of cannons on the battery.

After a day of fierce artillery battles, the Roman artillery was badly damaged, but the two Carthaginian battleships were severely damaged by the Roman artillery. This made Sorel Barca realize that with these artillery, it would be difficult for him to attack the Roman homeland, so he set his target of attack on Sardinia. The news of the Roman navy's defeat shocked the entire Mediterranean, and even caused many kings to gloat over the misfortune.

After defeating the Seleucid Empire, the Romans actually became the overlord of the Mediterranean, and then they acted arrogantly towards other small countries. There were really few countries that were not bullied by Rome. Now the Romans were badly beaten by the coalition forces of Carthage and the Han Dynasty, and they were about to lose their territory in the Mediterranean. These small countries were more likely to gloat over their misfortune.

Faced with the defeat on the battlefield, the Romans assembled their legions in the Spanish province, hoping to force the Carthaginians to retreat by attacking Carthage's homeland.

On the other hand, he sent Apatius to Alexandria to ask Zhang Pijiang, the Han Dynasty's Minister of Foreign Affairs, for a ceasefire.

But after arriving at the Consulate General of Daqinzhou, Apatius saw a person he didn't want to see, he was the younger brother of the Carthaginian naval commander, Michaul Barca.

This made him look extremely ugly, because he understood that the Han people only wanted to maintain the situation in the Mediterranean and had no intention of defeating the Romans.

But the Carthaginians were different. The two sides could be said to be mortal enemies. The Carthaginians wanted to completely destroy the Roman Empire, sprinkle salt on the Roman territory, and make it barren. With him around, the negotiations would be very difficult.

"Mr. General, this war has caused hundreds of thousands of casualties. Sicily, Sardinia, and Sica are also shrouded in flames of war. Now only you have the ability to end this tragic moment." Apatius said sincerely.

Just as Apatius thought, the Han Dynasty had no intention of destroying Rome. This war was mainly to teach the Romans a lesson for wanting to change the status quo in the Mediterranean. Now most of the Roman navy had been destroyed, and even one consul was dead. The Han Dynasty had achieved its goal of teaching the Romans a lesson and deterring the entire Mediterranean, so there was no point in stopping the war now.

However, the Carthaginians are the main force in this battle, so Zhang Pijiang looked at Michal Baca, and asked him to tell him what conditions he has now.

Michal Baca was extremely excited. After thirty years of twists and turns, it was finally the turn of the Carthaginians to demand war reparations from the Romans.

"If Rome wants to cease fire, it must agree to these conditions. The war reparations for the First and Second Punic Wars will stop."

"I agree to this, Rome."

Zhang Pijiang was extremely shocked when he heard this. The Second Punic War happened about 30 years ago, and the war reparations have not been paid yet. Was the war in Daqinzhou fought like this?
"Second, our senator's nephews and nephews, you, Rome, need to be released unconditionally."

"Yes, but you Carthage must release the captured Roman soldiers unconditionally."

Michał Baca said, "You Romans are dreaming. Now you are the losers. If you want to redeem these soldiers, you can pay back all the compensation we Carthaginians paid, and we will return these soldiers to you. Otherwise, we will treat them as slaves to repay the debt. You Romans love to be slave traders."

Apatius countered: "You really think we Romans are afraid of you. If it weren't for the help of the Han people, now would be the time for your Carthage to be destroyed."

Michał Baka said proudly: "Why would the Han army stand on the side of Carthage? As the ancient Han sages said, "The righteous will have many supporters, while the unrighteous will have few. You Romans are too domineering. No one wants to be friends with you anymore."

Apatius said, "I still have five Roman legions in the Iberian Peninsula, and the number of legions is expanding rapidly. It can increase to 10 legions in a month at most. Rome is also gathering legions. Now there are legions, and this number can double in a month. If we continue to fight, Carthage may not be safe. I admit that I cannot beat you in a naval battle, but in a land battle, you Carthage can resist the hundreds of thousands of Roman troops."

When Michaul Barca heard Apatius's threat, his expression was gloomy. Before the Second Punic War, the population of Rome was only twice that of Carthage, and it had not yet shown an overwhelming advantage. But now the population of Rome is 10 times that of Carthage. Although he knew that the 40 legions mentioned by Apatius were just a threat to the Romans, he had to take it seriously. With the experience of the Second Punic War, if the Romans were really pushed hard, they could really come up with 40 legions.

Michał Baca thought for a moment and said, "Each eldest son of a Carthaginian senator can be exchanged for ten soldiers, and the remaining 1000 Roman soldiers can be exchanged for one talent of gold."

Apatius nodded and said, "Okay."

Michał Baca continued: “Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica will return to us Carthage.”

Apatius said: "The people on these three islands are all Romans, and now they belong to my Roman territory."

This ignited Michał Baca's anger. He sneered, "There are Romans on the islands now, but if you use your Roman methods once, I guarantee that in three years, there will not be a single Roman on these three islands."

Apatius said: "You Carthaginians dare to take my Roman citizens as slaves, then we will continue this war. The Strait of Sicily is not far away, and my Roman legions have a way to get there."

At this time, Zhang Pijiang said: "Sicily can be returned to Rome, but Sardinia and Xijia Island must be returned to the Carthaginians."

The Han Dynasty wanted to maintain order in the Mediterranean, not help the Carthaginians dominate the Mediterranean. Keeping Sicily could also restrict the Carthaginians.

Apatius understood that Rome's naval advantage had been completely lost, and that you were lucky enough to be able to keep the largest island, Sicily, so he did not dare to make any more conditions.

Michaul Baka didn't even dare to make any demands. If it weren't for the support of the Han army in this war, the Carthaginians might really lose their country.

The main treaties have been agreed upon, and the rest is unimportant.

March 39, the 3th year of the Han Dynasty.

The Third Punic War, which lasted for more than a month, ended with a complete victory for the coalition forces of Carthage and Han.

In this battle, the Roman navy suffered heavy losses, and Sardinia and Corsica were ceded to the Carthaginians. This could be said to be Rome's worst defeat in 30 years.

The Carthaginians used this war to reverse the country's situation and re-established their status as the overlord of the Mediterranean Sea.

Of course, the Mediterranean countries have a clearer understanding of the Han Dynasty's strength. They know that the Han Dynasty is now the overlord of the Mediterranean, and they would rather offend no other country than the Han Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)