Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

Hearing Orville's question, Belisarius was also a little troubled. After thinking about the words, he chose to tell Orville the truth.

"We lacked communication with the locals before, especially we didn't determine the exact border between the two sides. There were many small-scale conflicts here and there. The brigades stationed on the border have suffered dozens of casualties. I think we should find a solution.

I don't think it's a solution to drag it on like this. The conflict between us and the locals is escalating, and the situation should be curbed in time."

The borders in ancient times were often very vague, but the situation between the Romans and the local Celts was more serious than this. It was obvious that the locals had a considerable degree of hostility towards the Romans, and the short-term relationship between the two sides was not pleasant.

Orville sighed slightly after hearing this: "I know. I will solve this problem later. I will go there in person and talk to the leaders about these issues. By the way, has Cu Chulainn returned?"

"He has returned to his hometown with his warriors and should be sailing on the ship now. According to your instructions, we prepared a sumptuous farewell banquet and gifts for him. He felt very satisfied when he returned. Things should not be beyond our control. According to Cu Chulainn, his patriarch, King Comfort of Ulster, has thousands of warriors under his command. He is a pragmatic person and his words should not be too much. Basically, we can take them seriously.

These people are enough to entangle Comfort and Ivar's forces in Ireland. We only need to provide weapons and a certain amount of money. These barbarians are different from the troublesome Greeks and are easy to satisfy."

Orville divided his tasks into two directions - internally, to govern the British province well, and externally, to handle relations with the Celts and Vikings well.

The Celts are relatively easy to satisfy. According to the plan, the biggest victory is that the two sides do not interfere with each other. Orwell is not very interested in their land and population. It is not worth the loss to continue fighting.

As for the Vikings, Orwell wants to get rid of them in one go, but this is not realistic in ancient times. These pirates are a bit similar to the nomadic peoples of later generations. They are just as difficult to deal with and there is no way to cure them.

As long as it is along the coast and along the river, there is a risk of being attacked. The local guards cannot catch up, and they may not be able to beat them if they catch up. Even if they win with great effort, it is just a superficial injury for the Vikings. They will recover in a few years. If they do not threaten their homeland and base, they can continue to harass the coastline.

With the very sorry Atlantic Navy of the Romans, it is still unknown whether they can sail to Norway and Denmark, not to mention further occupying land or severely injuring a large number of local Nordic people. This is an unrealistic thing and it is completely not worth the loss.

Therefore, this matter must be considered in the long run. Orville is ready to gradually remove their various nearby strongholds, increase the cost and difficulty of their looting, and let them retreat.

Ivar has a large number of strongholds in Ireland, Scotland and other places, which are transit stations for Viking trade and looting activities. Orville does not intend to go to these Viking strongholds himself under the hostility of the locals. He will leave this task to the locals.

He offered this condition to King Comfort, the main leader of Ireland: the Romans will provide the Irish with weapons, food and money to help the locals deal with the invasion of the Vikings. The locals will try their best to deal with the Vikings. When necessary, the Romans will also send troops and fleets to fight against the invasion of the Vikings.

Once the Vikings are driven out of the Celtic land, the Celts can restore their ownership of these lands. The Romans will not interfere too much with their lands, and only require the locals to open up trade.

This was a very good deal for Conforchu. He was not an idiot. He could see that there was a huge gap between the Romans in the late classical era and the Celts in the tribal chiefdom era. Trade would undoubtedly cause them to lose a lot of things, but they could also gain a lot of things. In the long run, the benefits outweighed the disadvantages.

Even if the locals refused to contact the Romans, their fleets and legions would sooner or later come to the land of Ireland. Instead of this, it would be better to let both sides be more decent and take what they need. The trend of the times cannot be stopped.

The Vikings were indeed brave and good at fighting. At the same time, some of their technologies surprised the Romans. The shipbuilders in Caen were dismantling and studying the Viking longships. Previously, people around the Mediterranean used the hull-first shipbuilding method of mortise and tenon shipboards, that is, first assembling the hull and then sticking the ribs to make the ship.

The Vikings used a new technology, which can be called the frame-first shipbuilding method. The keel was made first and then the hull was attached. This greatly simplified the production difficulty while the strength was not much different. At the same time, compared with the traditional shipbuilding method of the Romans, which used more wooden nails, the Vikings' new shipbuilding method using iron nails was undoubtedly more advanced.

At the same time, as far as Orville knew, the Vikings had independently developed blast furnace ironmaking technology through their own research. This was something they had only come up with around the 12th century in history. In various senses, they were almost the same as the real Vikings in later history, and even better in some ways, because the number of their talents was still high, and the proportion was far greater than that of the Romans.

But even so, the Vikings had both bravery and some advanced technology, but they still had a fatal flaw - they were too small. The combined population of the Nordic countries was good enough at one or two million.

Once they were dragged into a security war and a war of attrition by the Irish and Scots, they would not be able to bear it. In addition, the Romans persevered in competing with them in terms of national strength and size. Orville felt that these Vikings would definitely not be able to withstand it.

After confirming the Celtic matter, Orville continued to ask Belisarius: "Is Rollo ready?"

"He has 20 longships now, and we gave him three heavy galleys, which are probably usable. We have prepared weapons and food for them, and they can act at any time, just waiting for your nod."

"Then, let them prepare for action."

"Yes, as you wish, I will inform him now." Belisarius nodded respectfully and left the tent.

Orville watched the other party leave, then sat back in his seat and began to write a letter. After finishing, Orville handed the letter to his adjutant and asked him to send it out.

"Prepare the horses and guards for me, we are going to the north."