Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

After nearly a month of adjustment and adaptation, the situation in Lugden Gaul Province has basically returned to normal. Various problems have been temporarily suppressed, the military control in many areas has been gradually lifted, and production and life have gradually returned to normal.

At this time, Orville should think about the most important military issues. The first step is to count the various strategic materials in his hands.

Let's start with the most important precious metals. Gaul has gold and silver mines, and they are relatively well developed, but most of them need to be transported to Rome. The governor can only use a small part of the share to subsidize the finances.

After comprehensive calculation, it is probably enough to cover the maintenance costs of various post stations, banks (temples), mines, and public facilities in the province, almost not more or less, just right.

The accountants are really good at calculating, and Orville sighs.

The next step is to count the metallurgical capacity.

Including the blacksmiths that can be requisitioned from Gaul and hundreds of blacksmiths accompanying the army, he can gather about 400 blacksmiths, with varying qualities. The blacksmiths accompanying the army can basically forge all the necessary equipment, and the requisitioned ones depend on their own abilities, and there are all kinds of people.

Basic ores such as copper and iron are produced in Gaul by mines, some of which are state-owned industries, which are almost enough to meet the demand, and no extra money is needed except for operation and maintenance costs.

Gaul has not yet introduced the advanced iron-making blast furnaces in Rome in large quantities. Many places still use the traditional and relatively backward block iron-making technology, and the iron production is small, at least in Orville's opinion, it is not enough to meet the demand.

Therefore, it is necessary to build iron-making factories in Gaul to improve the level of metallurgical industry as much as possible within the limit.

In addition to iron, there is another important military resource, namely war horses. Orwell made a summary of the number of war horses seized and confiscated, but it was still not satisfactory. There were only three to five hundred horses left in Orwell's hands, which was only enough for him to play with and equip a cavalry unit of reconnaissance and auxiliary nature.

He wanted to apply the armored cavalry to actual combat, which required taller and stronger war horses. After screening, it was estimated that only a small half of the qualified war horses were barely enough for his experiment.

Gaul has been a horse-producing place since ancient times, at least better than Italy, and produced some cavalry units of decent quality. Orwell and the local nobles reached a reconciliation and cooperation on the surface, but it would take some diplomatic efforts to get these people to work, and they had to coerce and induce.

If we only look at Britain, there is basically no cavalry there, and these cavalry forces are enough to crush, but it is hard to say what will happen to the Franks, so it is best to be careful. He took the top cavalry units of the Franks as his imaginary enemy.

In addition, food, high-quality wood and arrows are also strategic materials. Generally speaking, Gaul has no shortage of the former two. Anyway, it is more than enough to supply a troop of 20,000 to 30,000 people.

The latter is a little troublesome, because Orwell lacks high-quality crossbow craftsmen, and in addition to crossbows, spears, long and short iron swords, armor, javelins, etc. are not abundant. These need to be made by blacksmiths, and it is unrealistic to finish them at the same time, so it is necessary to prioritize them.

The first thing Orwell asked to make was a spear. On the one hand, this weapon is simple to make and has a good effect. It is suitable for auxiliary troops and Gaul locals. On the other hand, after Orwell's investigation and inquiry of Rollo, Britain is also more suitable for the use of spears.

When Rollo was looting, he also looted the small kingdoms in Britain and had a certain understanding of the military situation there. Generally speaking, it is not much different from the Seven Kingdoms of England in later generations. Soldiers are divided into three types.

The nobles' private soldiers were elite sword-and-shield infantry and cavalry, the elite conscripts used spears and a few long swords and axes, and the lowest-level peasant soldiers had all kinds of weapons.

They had always been miserable with the Vikings. It was difficult for the larger feudal states to deal with such small, flexible and highly organized troops. They could not catch up with them, and they might not win them.

After decades of love and hate, the Vikings made these Anglo-Saxons change their combat mode. They followed the Vikings and made some minor military reforms.

Their backbone, that is, those elite sword-and-shield infantry, began to imitate the Vikings' practices, organizing shield walls and playing macho melee with the Vikings. In this way, their elite troops were actually evenly matched when fighting with the Vikings. Who won or lost depended on the situation. Due to their physique and combat morale, the Vikings won a little more times.

This kind of short-handed sword and shield infantry actually has no advantage when facing the phalanx spearmen head-on. The Vikings were able to defeat the conscripted spearmen mainly because of their mobility and organization.

In the era of cold weapons, spearmen are always the most cost-effective troops. They are simple to train, low-cost, and easy to produce results. They are good for both cavalry and infantry. The only disadvantage is that they are afraid of long-range projection and flanking. These problems can be overcome through command and coordination of arms. As far as Orwell knows, the conscripted spearmen in Britain have not yet begun to "roll inward".

In fact, as long as a weapon of about two meters is enough to restrain the cavalry. As for why the length of the spearmen in later generations is so outrageous, and it is often four or five meters, it is mainly because the infantry rolled it up themselves.

An inch longer, an inch stronger. On one side, they used a two-meter spear, while on the other side, they wanted to use a three-meter spear to gain an advantage in attack distance. Then, when the other side saw that they were at a disadvantage, they turned around and used a three-and-a-half-meter spear. After rolling back and forth, the mainstream spears in the battle formation became exaggerated models of four or five meters or even longer.

The Romans used sword and shield legion infantry, and did not take the lead in rolling up the spears. The intensity of the British war was relatively small, so there was no need to roll up the length of the spears. If the historical process was followed, Europe would only roll up the length of the spears crazily after a few hundred years. Orwell slightly accelerated the process and made longer spears for his soldiers, so that when they fought hand-to-hand with the enemies on the British Isles, they would find that they could have the upper hand in the face-to-face close combat.

Vespa did not provide himself with much real material and military support, but Orwell did have the strong national strength of the Roman Empire, and his productivity and technology levels were relatively superior to those of the surrounding countries.

In order to maintain this huge and vast empire, the empire's legion infantry had to deal with enemies from all over the world with completely different customs and combat modes. The Romans chose to remain unchanged in the face of ever-changing situations. The legion infantry, which was widely used and had no obvious shortcomings, was a one-trick pony that could be used everywhere. However, Orville's idea was somewhat different from the mainstream of Rome.