Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

The climate here is relatively dry, not as unfriendly as Britain, so it is more suitable to equip composite bows. Orville is equipping the legionnaires with composite bows, and even further, distributing high-quality composite bows to auxiliary soldiers and Egyptian legions.

The improvement of the efficiency of long-range weapon projection is definitely a major progress in history. The Roman cavalry is not dominant, and now the heavy infantry alone is already slightly tired. Orville's idea is to enhance the long-range ability to make up for the shortcomings. Judging from the feedback from Gaul, Britain, Egypt and other places, this is absolutely feasible, and the situation in history is exactly the same.

According to his idea, the legionnaires should at least be able to draw the bow and arrow, not to mention being able to shoot with both hands. The legionnaires are positioned as all-round soldiers, and long-range ability should naturally be considered as one of them.

Orville's salary for his legionnaires exceeds the average level. The national standard is 225 dinars, and Orville will subsidize the soldiers under various names. In the end, the silver coins in his hand are worth about 360 dinars. He is still rich now, and he can afford to increase the salary of the grassroots soldiers by this amount.

This is one of the reasons why the two local legions quickly accepted Orwell's command, and it is also the main reason why the legion soldiers are willing to undergo more intensive training - with a lot of money and good treatment, the soldiers are naturally willing to work hard for training, especially these professional soldiers who rely on salaries for their living.

In addition to the swordsmanship, formations, javelin throwing, heavy equipment use and marching construction techniques that ordinary soldiers should learn, Orwell also trained the soldiers to use long spears and bows, and even required a certain proportion of them to try to learn to ride horses in the army, and try to train talents to be alternative cavalry. High-intensity training will bring more well-trained and more versatile soldiers, and their combat effectiveness will exceed their peers.

For the purpose of physical exercise and propaganda needs, Orwell will regularly undergo training with the soldiers. After all, he doesn't want to die inexplicably on the battlefield. This kind of people-friendly method makes him very popular in the army. The military and civilians of this era still eat this set of things. Sharing weal and woe with the soldiers can form a bond between the soldiers and the generals. Although it is not a good phenomenon that the soldiers love the generals too much, it can indeed make the soldiers' fighting will stronger. At present, it is still more beneficial than harmful.

Now the equipment level of his soldiers is gradually improving at a fairly fast rate:

The shape of armor is gradually unified into chain mail and scale armor, which increases defense and facilitates maintenance by blacksmiths.

The proportion of the shield is slightly reduced but the thickness is increased. Orville even uses iron nails on the legion shield to enhance defense. Let’s not talk about whether there is money to make iron shields. The area of ​​the legion shield is too large. Even if it is just a layer of skin, it is not very light. The army is not Superman and cannot hold the shield for a long time. Therefore, Orville still did not make too many modifications to the wooden legion shield.

Reducing the protective area of ​​the shield makes the soldiers’ lower body more vulnerable to attack. Orville also has plans for this. He made greaves for the soldiers. With armor protecting the lower body, shields are not so needed.

The Romans have the technology to make ring armor, which has delicate hinges and joints. Although ring armor has never been popularized from beginning to end, this technology has been popularized.

For example, the Roman soldiers stationed in the Danube and Germanic legions had ring armor shoulder guards on their shoulders to protect their shoulders from being hacked by tall barbarians. Since it has been passed down, it means that this thing is still very useful.

With this kind of technical accumulation, it is not very difficult to create greaves with similar basic principles. Orwell added ring armor greaves on the basis of chain mail, but the cost is still relatively expensive. Orwell gritted his teeth and began to change the army's equipment little by little. Relying on his own production, the cost is barely acceptable.

The Romans are a nation that does not wear pants. To this day, some soldiers in the British Legion still disdain to wear pants in order to show their strength. In Orwell's view, this is a face-saving punishment, but when it comes to their lives, they have a very flexible bottom line of dignity. Almost no one resists wearing armor that can protect the lower body during fully armed training or marching and fighting.

The policy of increasing armor was easily promoted and even praised by the soldiers. Almost no one opposed it. Even if there were, they looked at the problem from a financial perspective. No one denied that armor was indeed good for the army.

He thought that except for the Guards, his soldiers were the best treated and equipped soldiers in the empire. In terms of combat effectiveness, the legion he led was also top-notch. The only drawback was that it was very expensive to maintain the army, but this was inevitable.

Apart from the cavalry, these were the changes that Orville had made to the military. In addition, he was also preparing to improve the training quality and equipment level of the auxiliary soldiers, increase the coordination between the legion and the auxiliary soldiers, and it would be best to organize the auxiliary corps in advance like in later generations.

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One day not long after, Orville was visiting a private house. The owner of the house was Quintilian, Domitia's teacher.

Since his father asked him to be more respectful, Orville was also very respectful to him and suggested that he live in the Great Library or the Governor's Palace (the royal palace). This should be a very high-level courtesy for a scholar, but Quintilian did not appreciate it. Instead, he bought a secluded house and lived in seclusion. As a result, he had to take a one-hour carriage ride every morning to come to teach Domitia, but he enjoyed it and did not think it was a hassle. Orville respected this. He had seen even stranger people before.

Quintilian was said to be an old scholar with a keen spirit of study. He opened a school and worked as a lawyer part-time. His life seemed to be relatively poor, unlike other lawyers who were rich and powerful. Even his daughter was married off by students who couldn't stand it.

After Vespas knew about this person, he respected him very much and gave him a high salary. The stingy emperor was rarely generous. The annual salary Quintilian received from the emperor was almost equivalent to the annual salary of 250 soldiers. In ancient times, it was a high-paying job anyway.

The Romans did not think that education was part of public services. It was said that Quintilian was the first educator to receive a salary from the state. Even if he was not, he was a pioneer and a leader. Therefore, not only Orville and Vespas father and son, but most intellectuals respected him very much. Even the self-esteem of the Greeks could not help but throw away their tinted glasses and look up to him intentionally or unintentionally.