Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

He selected a dozen of his soldiers who were smart, hardworking and simple, and classified the materials. He gave his soldiers a holiday for those suitable for local sales, and asked them to sell them in the city, and then gave them some rewards. As for those suitable for selling by sea, Orville packed them and sold them to the late-coming Roman merchants.

Orville found that he might have a talent for being a lackey, and when facing these people, he mainly used the method of bullying.

He had more than 600 soldiers under his command. Regardless of their combat effectiveness, the "captain of the auxiliary army" was considered a mid-to-high-level officer. In addition, he also claimed that he was the staff of the legion commander and a friend of the local king. In short, he would pull whatever he had. When the merchants inquired, it seemed that it was true, so they believed Orville's words and accepted the batch of goods at a price that gave benefits to the relatives.

After deducting the few costs, Orville's income was about 400,000 dinars, which was already a huge sum of money. After all, an ordinary soldier earns 225 dinars a year, and an officer like a centurion earns about 3,000 dinars a year. If you only count the income on paper, it is actually very much.

Of course, it is still far behind the children of nobles. For example, the famous Caesar was captured by pirates when he was young. At that time, his family was not rich among the prominent families. In the end, the ransom prepared for him was about 750,000 dinars.

Caesar loved reading, lived a luxurious lifestyle, was generous and sociable. When he was 30 years old, it was said that he owed 1,300 talents. We only need to know that this unit is often used to measure treasury income. In that era, one talent was about 15,000 dinars, which could hire 110,000 ordinary soldiers for a whole year.

Owing so much money is also a skill, which can show how rich the prominent family is.

After having cash, Orville was also very generous. He took this as an excuse to invite soldiers in the legion to eat in batches, calling it giving back to his brothers.

After a while, Orville's relationship with his colleagues in the legion improved a lot. After all, no one can get along with money. The Roman culture makes them more accustomed to assimilating losers and putting the past aside. Now they are comrades-in-arms, and Orville will lead others to bleed with them in the future.

Another reason is that they really don't see many ethnic characteristics of the Palphians in Orville. He doesn't pray to his gods every day like other people of the same race, and refuses to work one day a week. He has a strange and arrogant attitude towards the Romans. On the contrary, as an officer, he is quite approachable, often talking about Greek and Roman mythology, and is not opposed to Roman customs such as setting up statues of emperors. He is similar to all citizens.

After a long time, they have all forgotten that this is a foreigner without citizenship, or in their opinion, Orville will soon become a Roman citizen like themselves.

——

After a while, the former high priest Anna, the leader of the priest party, was giving a speech with all his heart.

"The Temple of the Eternal has been defiled by countless evil deeds. This sacred place is now filled with evil people with blood on their hands. Fellow citizens, is this what you want to see?"

There were also many civilians around him. They were all against the Zealots. It was not because they were unwilling to be enemies with the Romans, but because of the military discipline of the Zealots, which was like the Liangshan heroes. In the past six months, bloodshed, robbery and vicious incidents have occurred one after another. The order of the entire city is almost out of control. Most people can't stand this situation, but they dare not speak out.

Now in their view, the Zealots are probably not much better than the Romans.

Seeing the excitement, Anna began to hint intentionally or unintentionally: "Even the Romans have not trampled on any of our sacred customs, but only looked at the walls of the sanctuary respectfully from a distance. But our own people, the Parphi people who grew up under our customs, do whatever they want in the temple, and their hands are dripping with the blood of their people. In short, fellow countrymen, I tell you that the Romans may be the ones who truly support the law, and the real enemies of the law are inside the holy city."

There is no need for him to add fuel to the fire. Those who can listen to the speech here have long been dissatisfied with the Zealots.

"We must restore the sanctity of the temple and elect a real leader. We can't let those evil people continue!" The one who shouted this was John Levi. His eyes were red and his breathing was heavy, as if he really had an irreconcilable hatred with the Zealots.

With one singing and one responding, the emotions of the civilians were mobilized again. Seeing this opportunity, Anna immediately ordered to distribute weapons to everyone and arm the new team.

All of this was seen clearly by the Zealots, so when they were arming their troops, a large group of troops suddenly rushed out of the occupied temple and headed straight for Annas and others.

The two sides were on edge and soon became a mess. At first, they threw stones at each other, and soon turned to throwing javelins at each other, and later they simply started to fight hand-to-hand, attacking each other with swords and spears.

The Zealots did not expect the Priests to use force so quickly. This time they were caught off guard, and with the people's anger, they soon found themselves at a disadvantage after a short battle. They fought and retreated, and began to retreat towards the direction of the temple.

The Zealots did not defend the outer courtyard of the temple, but simply retreated to the inner courtyard of the temple and closed the door tightly. The Priests arrived later and surrounded the inner courtyard of the temple.

If they chose to break the door at this time and fight to the death with the Zealots inside, they might not lose, but the former high priest Anna really hesitated at this time.

He looked at the gate, his eyes wandering, and finally did not give the order to attack. He just shook his head and said helplessly: "These people are at the end of their rope. The food inside is not enough for them to eat for long. Soon they will be hungry and have to surrender. The sacred holy place cannot be disturbed by swords, so don't fight inside the temple, just send people to guard it outside."

As a noble, Anna is the leader of the high-level officials of Palphi. As a priest, Anna is the spiritual sustenance of the common people. Now it is Anna who leads people to trap the Zealots. Even if some people below feel that it will change if they delay, it is not good to say more. No one wants to bear the crime of breaking tradition.

Seeing this, John Levi nodded secretly, found a secluded place, handed a letter to his confidant and said: "Go to the desert country in the south, find the leader of the Idumaeans, and give him this letter."

The confidant was a little confused, but still nodded and did as he was told. John Levi watched the other party go away, and the corners of his mouth were also curled up with a smile.