Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

As expected, Egypt also played a very important role in Vespa's heart, and Orville was asked about Egypt on the first day he returned to Rome.

He didn't want to hide it from the beginning, so he spent some time telling the truth about the situation. After listening, Vesper was silent for a long time, and waited for three minutes before slowly opening his mouth and continuing to question Orville.

"So, Cleopatra revealed this information when she was exchanging letters with you, and then you speculated that civil strife would break out in Egypt sooner or later, is that right?"

"Half of it is speculation based on the actual situation, and the other half is something I knew in advance based on 'prophecy.' In short, I am sure of this matter and can basically confirm it."

In fact, even if Orville didn't report to Vespa, Vespa would still know the general situation. The governor of Egypt he sent was not useless. There was such a big royal struggle and it was impossible for him not to know about such a wide-ranging matter. It had already been written down. The report was presented to Vespa and the Empire Central Committee, but he did not know many of the details. Orville could add a lot of secret information.

Vespa continued to ask: "So, let's talk about things from an objective perspective. How likely is it that we take the opportunity to annex Egypt?"

"I think it's about 90%. As long as there are no major changes, the Egyptian governor's army will be enough to conquer Egypt. At worst, we will transfer another legion stationed in Parfi. After all, half of Egypt has been controlled by us for a long time. ”

From Orwell's perspective, Egypt cannot be called a complete independent country in any case, because the country's judicial, administrative, and military powers have been partially controlled by the Romans. Rather than saying that it is a complete country, It is better to say that this is a Roman province similar to Parphi. Like Parphi, there is a local royal family that serves as a communication bridge between the locals and the Romans.

Under such circumstances, if the Romans really wanted to abolish the Ptolemaic royal family and then completely annex Egypt, it should not be difficult to say, and it is probably not difficult to actually do it.

After all, there is the example of Caesar. He used a few thousand men to torment tens of thousands of Egyptians without any skills. These were thousands of people who came from the expedition. Now there are nearly 20,000 Roman troops in Alexandria, the capital of Egypt, waiting for work. Even the governor of Egypt The actual level is definitely not as good as Caesar's, but in this case the Romans can easily wipe out the entire political core of Egypt, and then push Egypt's relatively weak and depleted army.

But whether this is worth it is something worth pondering.

After thinking about it, Orville decided to tell Vespa the truth: "Although I am suspected of seeking personal gain for my friends, I still want to make a suggestion. Although we can annex Egypt now, it is better to let this matter go. I'm afraid it's completely Annexing Egypt would be harmful to us now."

Vespa asked curiously: "If we completely control Egypt's wheat, we will definitely no longer be constrained by food problems. At the same time, Egypt is rich in products and the profits from tariffs are huge. If we don't share this wealth with the Egyptian royal family, how much money can we make?" We will have a lot more money. It seems that we will not pay a lot of costs to control Egypt. I have asked the secretary to do the calculation. Overall, our benefits will be much greater. Can you tell me the reason for your thinking? ?”

"Egypt can now provide us with 50,000 to 80,000 troops. They have helped us relieve a lot of pressure on the Eastern Province. If we conquer Egypt, we will not only have to invest one or two more corps in Egypt to maintain Public security, and will lose at least half of the Egyptian soldiers.

We now do not have the energy or ability to govern Egypt as well as our own country. In the end, we still have to rely on the organization and strength of the local people to rule Egypt. It is not a good choice to destroy the local organizations in Egypt.

This is a very practical reason. In addition, I would like to remind you that it is not a good choice to let excess Egyptian wheat flow into the country. Our country is not suitable for the development of agriculture. In the end, the already weak agricultural foundation may It would be defeated by the Egyptians. At that time, Rome itself would probably only have olive groves and vineyards. It would be unwise to place its food security on a province hundreds or thousands of kilometers away. There are real uncertainties in the future. There are too many. No country can stay as high as the sun forever. "

Vespa thought carefully for about half a minute, and then put a smile on his face: "I actually didn't want to annex Egypt. These are all problems you mentioned. In addition, there is another troublesome thing - Toler The secret royal family can be traced back to Ptolemy, Alexander's veteran general. It is said that he was the illegitimate son of Alexander's father and the last orthodox bloodline of the successor dynasty.

Those people could not wait to worship Alexander as Heracles (Hercules) and Apollo (Sun God), and they also respected his successors as gods. The Greeks have been restless recently. If I touch the symbol of their spiritual support again, they may really rebel immediately. The country has had too many wars in the past few years, and I don’t want to be involved in that group of people again. ! "

When it came to Greece, Vespa's tone couldn't help but become serious. He was obviously a little angry. It was rare for him to be so angry.

The main culprit in this matter was to some extent Emperor Nero - he was passionate about art, a spiritual Greek in this respect, and it was obvious that he was out of shape from the middle to late period of his reign.

He asked the 70-year-old senators in the Senate to participate in the sports meeting with their upper bodies naked, dressed himself up like an actor to go on tour, and forced his subordinates to listen to his concerts. Vespa himself was also hated and bullied because he fell asleep at the concert.

When Nero performed in Greece, he generously granted the Greek city-states the privilege of autonomy. They did not need to pay taxes and had the power of self-determination in all matters. This was implemented in the middle and late period of Nero's rule, and it has been almost ten years now.

Vespa was not very interested in literature and art, nor was he a spiritual Greek, and he was quite greedy for money. Naturally, he could not stand the existence of such privileges, so after his rule was stable, he immediately began to announce the revocation of the local autonomy privileges. This move aroused fierce resistance from the locals. The locals had some detachment and resistance, and now this emotion is getting more and more intense, and there is a tendency to get out of control.

Not satisfied with just cursing, Vespa continued indignantly, "They say that glory belongs to Greece and greatness belongs to Rome, but these people only have the glory of poor scholars. They are not as good at fighting as the Romans, not as good at business as the Carthaginians, not as good at ruling as the Persians, and not as brave as the Germans. They just write a bunch of filthy stories to brag about themselves! If a real fight breaks out, they can't even beat the lowest Dacian barbarians, and they still ask us for help!"