This is because Hannibal lecter was the first person in the world to use the "indirect route strategy" during the whole war. The central idea of the indirect route is to "defeat the enemy without fighting" and "attack his heart first", and the most important thing is mobility and suddenness. Before Hannibal entered Italy, Old Scipio once intercepted him in a river near Marseille, but Hannibal suddenly crossed the upper reaches of a very difficult river and entered the Apennine Peninsula from the Alps. This is the first time Hannibal used indirect route. After that, every victory in Italy was to induce the Roman army to take the initiative to attack Hannibal, so that Hannibal's troops chose a very favorable time and place to fight every time. Moreover, Hannibal firmly grasped the psychology of Roman generals and government Senate in the Italian war, and disintegrated Italy's allies in will (at that time, Rome did not completely occupy Italy, and most Italian city-states were only attached to Rome), which made the Romans lose patience and confidence in the war. But in the end, Scipio Africanus, an outstanding Roman general, also mastered this principle. In the process of attacking Carthage, he repeatedly forced the Carthaginian Senate to lose its fighting spirit and prompted Hannibal to make the wrong move to March on Zama. Although Hannibal did not agree to a decisive battle in Zama and Scipio, the Senate of Carthage was terrified, ignored Hannibal's correct thinking, urged him to March, and eventually failed.
Judging from Hannibal's entire combat process, his indirect strategy has the following points:
1. mobile, the enemy can't understand his intentions, so the cooperation is unfavorable and the heart is shaken.
2. Suddenly, the enemy was flustered and acted hastily, thus successfully entering the favorable terrain for Hannibal.
Attacking the enemy will save you. Hannibal had the opportunity to attack the city in Rome, but he only focused on attacking the materials and strategic supply bases, with the aim of attacking the enemy's materials, and more importantly, destroying the enemy's deployment and making the enemy rush to rescue.
4. A variety of means in parallel. As today, diplomacy and economy are the same factors that determine the success or failure of wartime. So Hannibal entered Apennine at first, with the aim of dividing the allies in Rome. Through the victory, the Italian allies felt distrust of the power of Rome and fell into Hannibal's camp. Economically, establish a supply base and consume Rome with Roman materials (although it didn't succeed in the end, it means yes).
These means are important factors for Hannibal to win beyond tactics, and Scipio Africanus is free to use these principles to defeat Hannibal. Therefore, Westerners respectfully call Hannibal the "father of strategy"