Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

When Orville was halfway through his march, he received important news from the signalman.

It can only be said that he was bold because of his skills. He used the soldiers he did not have enough at hand to formulate a three-way attack plan.

The previous steady and cautious approach may have been just a trick. When the Gauls relaxed their vigilance, Aurelian's army began to maneuver quickly again.

His army set out from the two major cities of Bordeaux and Toulouse, and made a long-distance attack to capture the important cities of Poitiers and Limoges in Aquitania. Due to the suddenness of the incident, the Gauls were not prepared for the siege, and both cities were captured by the Romans in a short time.

After capturing the city, they held on for help. Aurelian personally led a special team and cooperated with the defenders in the city to defeat the Gaul army that tried to retake the city. Due to the heavy loss of manpower, the Gauls' defense plan in Aquitania failed and it was difficult to create a decent obstacle for the Romans.

It can be clearly seen that Aurelian's plan was not to simply occupy a few cities, but to use the offensive and defensive battles in the cities to destroy the enemy's manpower in large numbers and defeat the enemy's confidence. This plan was very successful. Almost 100,000 people were lost before and after, and the Gauls in Aquitania were no longer a force to be reckoned with.

He once again divided the army into three groups. He took three ordinary legions with two large cities as fulcrums to capture nearby villages and towns, and the other two elite legions besieged two cities along the Loire River - Tours and Orleans.

He wanted to take advantage of the Gauls being stunned and unable to react to quickly expand the results of the battle, so as to avoid facing the sticky tactics.

Aurelian's fierce performance made Orville a little weak. He suddenly feared that the army he had gathered would eventually be useless.

Even if the cavalry used horses to continuously change at the post station to increase the communication speed, there was still about half a month of information transmission time between the two places. This was unavoidable. He could only wait anxiously on the road, looking forward to the new situation in Gaul.

After seemingly making some progress, the battle there fell into a stalemate again. The Gauls were indeed very resilient and still held back Aurelian's legion. The other two legions that tried to get their hands on the Loire River also encountered some trouble. The two cities could not be conquered for a long time, and the Romans had no choice but to start traditional arts.

They built various walls and strongholds around the two cities of Tours and Orleans, and with the dense outpost network system, they had to drag the opponent for a while to compete with endurance.

As far as they knew, the number of supplies in these two cities was not large. After all, the incident happened suddenly. Due to the continuous defeats, the morale of the Gauls was very low, while the morale of the Romans was high, and the situation was very favorable for the Romans.

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Orville "chased" the front-line war report. After more than two months of twists and turns, he finally came to the Germanic Legion's garrison-the Rhine River.

Although this is one of the front lines heavily guarded by the empire, it is relatively peaceful because the relationship between the Romans and the Franks and other nations has eased in recent decades.

Even when the Gauls revolted, they consciously avoided this place, not because they were afraid of the half-crippled Germanic Legion, but because they were afraid of the Franks who were on guard against the Germanic Legion.

The Romans are now the enemies of the Gauls, but it does not mean that the Germans represented by the Franks are not. Before the Romans conquered Gaul, the Germans often harassed and invaded the Gauls' territory. Later, Caesar made a very foresighted judgment.

If Rome left the Germans alone, they would invade the Gauls' territory and eventually Germanize the entire Gaul. This trend was eventually curbed for hundreds of years because of his achievements in conquering Gaul.

After the collapse of the Roman Empire's rule in Gaul, the Germanic people represented by the Franks did conquer Gaul as he said, and established their own kingdom on this land, and Gaul was partially Germanized.

Because of this, it is difficult to say what kind of people France in later generations is composed of - the Franks (Germanic), Gauls (Celts), Romans (Latins) and even Greeks have had a profound impact on this land.

The Gauls in this time and space are particularly wary of the Germanic people represented by the Franks, not only because of the story in the Gallic War more than a hundred years ago, but more because at this moment, the Germanic people are invading their relatives.

At this time, there is not only Rome, but the Germanic people are also developing better than normal history. Now it has entered the early feudal period, and the more critical point is: Rome did not conquer the British Isles, which is a "no man's land" inhabited by weak Celts.

Therefore, the Germanic invasion of the British Isles came hundreds of years earlier. They had already driven the Gauls' relatives to a slightly remote and desolate place, and established many small Germanic kingdoms in the richest places, just like the Anglo-Saxon invasion that would happen in history.

The bloody example was right in front of them, so the Gauls did not doubt that the Franks would invade their land if they had the chance. Now, a very strange tacit understanding has been formed between the Germanic Legion and the Gauls because of this matter.

The Gauls no longer harassed the Germanic Legion, and the Germanic Legion would not turn around to deal with the Gauls, but concentrate on guarding against the real enemy they should deal with, the Franks who were eyeing them on the other side of the river.

Considering that many people in the Germanic Legion are of Gallic-Roman mixed blood, being caught in the middle is not a good choice for these people. They do not have to fight with their relatives, so they have always maintained this strange harmony.

Now with the arrival of the new legion, this harmony is about to be broken, because the order received by Tiya is to advance westward and attack the flank of the Gaul territory.

Therefore, it is obvious that the people here do not welcome Tiya and others to come with the army, but that is all. It is impossible for them to raise their weapons and fight against Tiya.

If they really lean towards Gaul in their hearts, they would have taken up arms and joined the rebels, just like those Gallic nobles with the surname "Julius".

Now they are still loyal to their duties, which means that they recognize or need their identity as Roman citizens more in their hearts. These four words still have a certain value in such marginal provinces, and not everyone can abandon them.

Besides, even in the relatively isolated German provinces, the news of Aurelian's successive victories on the front lines could reach their ears, so it would be more or less unwise to start a rebellion now.