Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

As mentioned above, the people on the island of Ireland are balancing each other and will not hinder the Romans, but the premise is that Belisarius will take action to maintain this balance.

Ivar himself took a considerable number of warriors and one of his younger brothers to the southern Egyptian province. Now he seems to be a favorite of Orwell and has a promising future. Compared with the Irish who are seemingly in harmony with His Majesty the Prince, Belisarius knows that Ivar holds the key to the future.

But mastering the future does not necessarily mean mastering the present. The Vikings are united around Ivar and his father Ragnar. Although his brothers are also strong men, they are not as good as Ivar after all. They are brave but lack sufficient philosophy.

After Ivar left, the forces left in Ireland were led by [White Shirt] Halfdan, and Ubbe was his deputy. They were able to maintain their power, but anyone with a discerning eye could see that Halfdan's wrist was not strong enough, which gave the Irish an opportunity.

Finn McCool is gradually gaining the upper hand in countless open and covert struggles. The only advantage of the Vikings is their strong fighting power, and the Romans will never allow a large-scale bloody conflict to break out between the two sides. The rules are a bit biased, and the Vikings are at a disadvantage.

They are completely inferior in numbers, and facing the conscious harassment of the other side, the Vikings are gradually unable to withstand it.

The Irish, who are getting better and better, are acting bolder and begin to confront the Vikings with force. Halfdan is not a very rational and strategic person. Faced with this unfavorable situation, his way of dealing with it is very stubborn - if you want to fight, then fight, and if you can rely on force to solve the problem, you will never waste your words.

The two parties that are tit-for-tat are exactly the headaches for Belisarius recently. Because of the strait between them, the Romans' intervention there is weak, but they can't let the two sides continue to make trouble. There must be a limit.

The Irish were definitely right. This was their land. The Vikings were just later invaders. But the Romans wanted the Vikings to be of great use, so they could only continue to play sides.

A fully armed and aggressive team came to the Vikings' colonial city of Dublin, and claimed that they would stay there to maintain the local "peace and order". The Vikings could not expand outward, and the Irish could not take back any more land.

For the Irish, who were now in an advantageous position, this was obviously not worth it, not to mention that this was originally their own land. Some people thought that they had recovered now and could take advantage of the situation to attack Dublin. If the Romans blocked them, they would go to war with the Romans. The Irish could contact the Franks and their compatriots on the European continent, win their assistance, and fight the Romans to the death with the manpower and resources of the coalition.

Of course, Finn MacCool himself was not so confused. The Welsh tribes had been killed as a warning to others, and everyone could see the bottom line of the Romans - not conspiring with the Franks was a normal protest, which was understandable. There was no lack of friction between nations, and the Romans were accustomed to it. Once it was discovered that the Franks interfered, it would be a crime of treason, which would lead to crazy revenge from the Romans.

Ireland was a small country with a weak population and poor people. It could not withstand a well-organized expedition by the Romans. Faced with the warnings issued by the Romans, Finn and others understood and silently gave up the harassment of Dublin.

After some letters from Ivar were sent back to Dublin, the Vikings organized another fleet for adventure, and Dublin's defense force was further empty. At this time, Finn did not have any more bad thoughts, but began to think about the future.

…………

"I doubt what good it would do to send our warriors to a place thousands of miles away. And to be frank, the Romans there are just like the northerners here, right? If we join them, wouldn't we have to torture and persecute other peoples like the northerners? This is not what we want."

An elder suggested this to Finn, and won a lot of approval.

The reasons why they agreed with the elder were different, but in Finn's opinion, they could all be summed up in one word - a short-sighted man can't understand the ambition of a swan.

Finn slowly asked someone to present a map, and the grand world scroll slowly unfolded in front of everyone: "This is something I spent a lot of effort to get, you should take a closer look."

His hand stayed on the small island of Ireland, which was in the northwest corner of the map. It looked very inconspicuous, like a hideous little insect painted in bright green.

"This is our hometown, a tiny corner of the world. We are not at the center of the world, and we have no status on the stage."

The straightforward and unadorned language made everyone a little unhappy, but no one spoke out to refute. In any case, they paid some attention to the world and knew that the Romans in Britain were at most a small army. Below the Romans were the Anglo-Saxons and the northerners, and below them were the Celtic natives.

"Now the masters of the world are those Romans wearing bristle helmets. You must face the reality. For our weak nations, whoever can climb the big tree can develop further. The northerners are not only better at fighting than us, but also much ahead in this regard. Ivar, the bandit, is now a hot figure under the Romans, and we have no ties with the Romans, only a piece of paper.

Do you know how dangerous this is? Once Ivar has achieved something under the Romans, we may be rewarded to those northerners and eaten up by the bandits."

Some people questioned this statement: "How could the Romans allow the northerners to be so powerful right beside their bed?"

Finn glanced at him and said: "Let's face the facts. We are not that important at all. Whether the northerners occupy Dublin or occupy a few more Dublin-sized lands, it is harmless to the Romans. At that time, the meaning of our existence will only be to contain the northerners. As long as we have a breath left, it doesn't matter how the northerners ravage us. They are fully capable of doing such things.

In order to avoid this result, we must show our value to the Romans. Only with value can we have weight in people's hearts. How to create value, use your brains to think about the problem. Since the Vikings paid blood tax, we have to pay it too, and we have to pay more and work harder, and we have to stand in front of their high-level activities. Belisarius is not high enough. He does everything according to the orders of the emperor and the prince. We have to start with these two people to be on an equal footing with the northerners."

PS. The author tried to change the writing style from the second half of the previous picture. Are you used to it? Which one is better?