Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

In places with excellent natural conditions, settlements and cities will naturally emerge. People will choose suitable places to build their homes. Winchester in this time and space is such an example. It was established relatively early.

However, it is not a man-made wonder city like Rome with hundreds of thousands or even millions of people. It is just a city with more than 10,000 people.

In fact, it is not small. It is the capital city of the Kingdom of Wessex and the location of the king's court. It is relatively developed.

Orville has learned some necessary information through books, Vikings and local guides, including the general political structure and current political situation of Wessex.

Basically, Wessex at the end of the Seven Kingdoms era in the future was teleported through time and space and patched. The King of Wessex at this time is a character that Orville has some impression of.

The former King of Wessex, Æthelwulf, was a man of accomplishment and presence. He not only improved domestic affairs at home, but also expanded territory. He took advantage of the decline of the northern power Mercia to expand rapidly. During his reign, Wessex, which was originally a minor country, became the most powerful country in Britain.

The reason why Orwell said he had a sense of presence was that as a king of a small kingdom on the British Isles, he visited Rome and the court of the King of the Franks.

Æthelwulf had six children, five of whom were named with Athel, namely Æthelstein, Æthelwes, Æthelbald, Æthelbert, and Æthelred. "Athel" means prince or heir to the throne, and its main feature is dignity. You don't need to remember the names of these people, you just need to know this.

His sixth son was the most favored son, named Alfred, which means "advice of the elves". Elves are considered to be a kind of wise life.

The remote geographical location could not stop the long-term vision. King Aethelwulf took his youngest son to visit Rome and lived and studied in Rome for a year. He learned a lot of new technologies and concepts here. Then he did not return to Wessex from the Gaul province, but returned to his kingdom from the territory of the Frankish Kingdom and established a family relationship with the king of the Frankish Kingdom.

That year, Aethelwulf, who was already in his fifties, found the Frankish princess Judith, who was only twelve or thirteen years old at the time, as his second wife. This was a purely political marriage without any love, but it also allowed the two sides to reach an alliance and mutual assistance relationship.

In fact, Orwell did not agree with this kind of political marriage, because if there were common interests, they would cooperate even if they did not marry. If there was a conflict of interest, then in-laws and even brothers would sometimes turn against each other. This was just an insurance for outsiders to see and make themselves feel at ease. Especially if Aethelwulf worked harder, he could be Judith's great-grandfather.

Among Æthelwulf's children, there were five males, three of whom were slightly older and inherited the country, but they died early due to war or plague. In the end, the two younger sons inherited the kingdom, one of whom became the king and ruled the country, and the other became an assistant to the king.

The assistant was Alfred, who later became Alfred the Great, a hero loved by the British and British historians.

As for the current King of Wessex, it is Alfred's elder brother Æthelred. In fact, the two brothers have a harmonious relationship. They can be said to be model representatives of the early feudal period, and they are truly friendly and respectful to each other.

Æthelred's ability is not bad. He has some ideas about both martial arts and civil governance, but he was born in a bad era. He was seriously injured in the bloody battle with the Vikings and finally died.

Although his elder brother had a son, it was not possible to let the baby in the cradle govern the country in a troubled time, so this time it was Alfred, who was 22 years old and almost the same age as Orville, to inherit the throne.

The rest of the story is probably like that. Alfred, who has the template of the protagonist, is good at both domestic and foreign affairs. He pushed the Vikings outside the national border and unified England during the time of his son.

However, this time and space historical evolution process is expected to have some problems. What may cause Ethelred to have problems is not the Vikings but the Romans.

Orwell was not in a hurry to take Winchester quickly. The reason is very simple-he did not want to fight guerrilla warfare with the Germans in the forest swamps.

Ethelred led the main force of Wessex to the north to guard against the Vikings who were ready to move, so the rear was empty. Taking advantage of the opportunity, it was indeed easy to take Winchester, but Wessex's manpower was not lost. If Ethelred was not stupid, he would not fight the Roman army head-on, but would rely on the large undeveloped swamps, mountains and woodlands in England to fight guerrilla warfare with the Romans.

In fact, Alfred in another time and space did the same thing at the beginning. He took the mass line and fought guerrilla warfare with the Vikings, which annoyed these brave but unprofessional Viking warriors. In the end, they had to sign a contract with the other party, and Essex became the only Anglo-Saxon kingdom to survive.

At that time, not to mention driving away the Romans, Orville would at least feel very troublesome, and it would take a lot of time for this. It might be a good choice to let the other party's living forces gather together and then solve them together.

And to be honest, he was still a little weak. He was under the command of the Ninth Legion, which was ambushed and annihilated in Britain.

This world seems to be very particular about destiny - Jeanne d'Acre will eventually have a quarrel with Britain, Procopius will eventually write history, Aurelian will eventually fight the Gauls, Cleopatra will eventually turn against her brother, everything seems to have a similar trajectory.

Maybe it will be the same in the end. It's always good to be careful. He has always had this idea. Anyway, there is no rush. It's not a race. If you don't fall over now, you will win.

After doing these things, Orville looked at Jeanne d'Acre who was riding beside him.

She changed into a set of chain mail. Orville wanted to forge a silver-like plate armor for her for the reason of paying tribute to history, but the craftsmanship level was not up to the standard and he could only make plate armor reinforcement parts. After customizing a set of parts for her, Jeanne did not refuse, but accepted it with pleasure. It seemed that in her eyes, necessary protective equipment did not belong to the category of luxury goods.

"Did your god give you any advice or inspiration? I think now is the time to use it." Orville wanted to get some free plug-ins from the Lord of Hosts.

PS. The population of the city is a bit exaggerated. According to the most conservative estimate, there were only 1,000 people in London in the 9th century. Of course, I think this data is a bit too low. About 3,000 to 5,000 people is the normal level in my opinion (calculated and inferred based on the urbanization rate of 2% to 4% in the Heptarchy era of the United Kingdom). It is still not much. Winchester should be stronger than London at this time, but not much stronger.