Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

In this era when political marriages have become a routine, it is commendable that Vespa listens to his children, but Orville has no intention of asking Vespa to revoke his decision.

He knows that Tia has sacrificed far more than he has, but Tia has shown no concern for the potential consequences and has expressed her feelings generously. Vespa has also overcome difficulties and acquiesced or even expressed support. If he continues to hesitate, it would be too unmanly.

So he put aside the questions in his mind for the time being, and said to Tiya, "Of course I have no objection either. Let's go according to my father's arrangement. I will handle things in the next few days. Can I invite relatives and friends to be witnesses?"

Tiya let out a long sigh, and then hurriedly said, "Of course no problem, I will do the same. Many people from the family will come at that time. That's it, I'll go to bed first, Diana (Moon Goddess Artemis) and Hypnos (God of Sleep) bless you with a good dream."

After saying that, without waiting for Orwell's reply, she disappeared in front of Orwell and entered her room. Orwell was not interested in embarrassing others, so he just smiled and shrugged, and then returned to the documents piled up in his room.

………………

In Orwell's plan, the regular army of one and a half legions of seven or eight thousand people is not enough, because most of them are pinned in Britain, so he wants to expand the army. Now he needs a suitable reason, which is not difficult to do.

Originally, these soldiers he recruited at his own expense were nominally used to deal with the Gallic rebels. The Senate was happy to see that the suckers took the initiative to spend money to fill the military expenses, and these troops did not stay in the homeland, so they did not pose much threat to them, so the elders approved Orville's request without much effort.

After the Gallic War, Orville did not return to his homeland but continued to march into Britain. The army followed him to fight. Now he wanted to expand the army. The reason he gave to the Senate was that the troops were seriously insufficient and more soldiers were needed to maintain the British province at this stage.

Vespa approved Orville's request, but the army and power were not handed over to Orville himself, but to the position of Governor of Britain.

After returning to Rome to report the situation, Vespa put a stamp on their achievements so far, allowing Orville to carry out various reforms and experiments in Britain, and temporarily handed over the military and political power to the Governor of Britain.

Generally speaking, ordinary provinces do not have garrisons. Even if they are stationed for the purpose of maintaining stability, there is a division of power between the governor and the legion commander, but there are several exceptions - the Syrian province where the main force of the Eastern Legion is located, the Germanic province where the Germanic Legion is located, and the Mercian province where the main force of the Danube Legion is located. Because of external pressure, the governor of these border areas must have military and political power, so the governor is also the commander of the army.

Now the British province also has this power, allowing the governor to hold military and political power, and at the same time allowing Orwell to recruit a second legion in the mainland to suppress the local area and keep an eye on the Franks on the other side. If Britain is an important province, this matter may cause great controversy, because it is equivalent to adding a powerful potential warlord. However, the British province is just an inconspicuous place, and this policy is at best "for convenience".

Two legions cannot accomplish anything big. While giving the British governor great power, Vespa announced that the British province would not be taxed to the central government for the time being, that is, to let the local finances take care of themselves.

Orville asked Ptolemy to work hard to compile statistics for Britain. Vespa also had a general understanding of these contents. In his opinion, there was not much money to be made from these people, and it would be good if they could not make a loss. After Orville told him, he simply chose to give up power for a few years and let Orville do it himself. In short, he just didn't want to lose the province in the end. The province would take care of its own finances. Orville could use his family property to make up for the small amount of money, and he could keep the large amount of money himself or continue to build the province. He would not interfere much.

Such a casual policy was not only agreed by Vespa, but also there was not much resistance from the Senate. Orville felt very strange at first, but after listening to Vespa's analysis once, he could roughly understand it.

In their eyes, the Mediterranean world is the most important place, which means that Narbonne Gaul in the south of Gaul is the most important Gaul land, while Aquitania and Lugden Gaul in the north are not so important. The situation in this world is slightly better, but they do not pay enough attention to the land in the north. There are a total of fifty senators in Gaul, thirty-five of which belong to Narbonne Gaul, and the remaining fifteen seats are allocated by the other three provinces, which can be said to be completely unequal.

So when the Gauls revolted, only the residents of Narbonne Gaul almost did not participate in it, because the locals had been basically assimilated and accepted by the Romans. Compared with the Gauls, they identified themselves more as Roman provincial residents.

Under this premise, the Senate did not care so much about the other provinces of Gaul. It was a merit and honor for Orwell to take Britain and establish a province, but the actual value was not great in their eyes. Apart from those export commodities that could be replaced, another major role of Britain was to ensure the stability of northern Gaul. They did not even care much about the northern Gaul province, otherwise the local people would not have been so angry and revolted. How could they care about what happened in Britain now?

At the same time, there is another problem. Britain's population and resources are relatively weak. The senators are looking at this province with the traditional Roman political governance structure. To put it bluntly, the Roman bureaucracy is quite inefficient. In their eyes, this island with a population of more than one million people can't collect much money.

So, the British province has become something dispensable in the eyes of the Senate. Of course, it is best to have it, but it doesn't affect them if it doesn't. After all, northern Gaul and Britain are both imperial provinces. They don't have much industry there at all. It's up to the emperor to deal with it as he wishes, as long as they don't have to pay.

Orwell is of course happy to see the senators have such a casual attitude. He seized the opportunity to start recruiting soldiers in his homeland again. This time he has more or less become famous. Many landless poor people and second sons of self-cultivating farmers who have unstable lives choose to participate in Orwell's recruitment activities because they know that Orwell is quite generous and never stingy with bounties or retirement benefits.

Two or three thousand people are certainly not a small number, but that is the case in Italy, which has a population of millions. Orville personally presided over the conscription as before, and recruited these soldiers with guaranteed quality and quantity in just a few days.