Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

In all senses, this old man is very sincere, and Orville can generally accept this clause. His main purpose is to ensure that the stability of maritime trade is not affected, but people are always dissatisfied. Want more.

Orville might have accepted this clause if the naval battle had not been fought, but now he was convinced of the fact that the Nabateans were weak and there was no room for bargaining, so he decided to go further.

He thought for a while and then slowly spoke: "I don't want your land, or even your donations, but I want the Romans to send tax collectors in Nabatean, and the empire requires the power to collect customs duties in Nabatean. We will not interfere with you. We will not interfere with other aspects of our politics. We will only collect tariffs locally. The tariff amount is 5%, and the special tax on luxury goods is 25%. We can only take half or even one-third. One’s money can still be returned to your treasury.”

In other words, Orwell planned to completely integrate this place into the empire's economic system. The Romans set up a customs in Alexandria to collect customs duties, but smuggling was always indispensable on the Nabataean side, which brought a lot of negative effects on tax revenue. Once the tariff issue here is resolved, Orville believes that the country's tariff revenue will increase significantly, and his financial situation will also be much better.

In this era, the concept of sovereignty is not yet clear, but it is obvious that the old man vaguely understands the dangers of interference with sovereignty. He initially strongly opposed this clause, but Orville was stuck on this issue and would not let go. In the end, the old man could only Can return without success.

Orville was not in a hurry, and spent another week or two with the opponent, and then began to slowly attack the city. Although there was no substantial result, this gesture still stimulated the Nabateans again. After very intense internal discussions, they Still reluctantly accepted Orville's suggestion and agreed to the Romans setting up a customs agency here.

The envoy sent to negotiate this time was still the old man. Orville was in a good mood. Seeing the sadness on the other side's face, he comforted the other side and said, "This is not necessarily a bad thing for you. In order to allow the tax revenue to flow normally, we will Help you establish a normal customs tax system. Even if we take away a large part of the revenue, your treasury revenue may actually increase. "

This is not a lie. For a loose country composed of nomads, taxation must be difficult. After the Romans imposed mandatory taxes, the kingdom's fiscal revenue may not fall but rise. Of course, the prerequisite is that the Romans behave like human beings here. There are many examples of their being unconscionable when they ruled and collected taxes.

The old man glanced at Orville and said reluctantly: "Maybe."

——

The contract was signed and the war was tentatively over. Orville left a large group of Egyptian legions here to declare their existence, and he was preparing to take the army back to Egypt slowly. But at this time, another messenger came from Alexandria, and he brought Orville a breaking news.

The Greek problem that has been unstable in the past few years finally broke out. The Hellenistic noble who claimed to be a descendant of the Pontic royal family declared independence with a considerable part of the city-states in Greece and Asia Minor. The country called it Pontus, and he himself Called Mithridates VI. At the time when the news came, the other party had just declared independence. Now the news has spread from Greece to Alexandria and then to Orville. It has been roughly ten days. We still don’t know the specific situation of the Greek provinces, but Orville Overall, he has a rather pessimistic attitude. He doesn't think the other party can control the situation.

Because he is a member of the governor's circle and has always exchanged letters with Vespa, he knows that the situation in Greece is already a bit out of control, otherwise the sea would not be so chaotic. The governor can no longer control it, and the rule is almost out of control. edge position.

He just didn't expect that the rebellion would break out now. He originally thought it would be earlier or later. Now the governors in Magna Greece don't have much fighting power to protect the capital cities of their respective provinces without losing Orville. You have to look at them high. It is definitely impossible to expect these people to kill Mithridates.

He can now confirm that the other party seems to be Mithridates VI in history, the hero of the Pontic Kingdom, the man who fought three Pontic wars with the Romans. At that time, he was unmatched by Lucullus (Su A famous general from the Ra period, who was extremely good at defeating many with less. His representative battle was to defeat Pontus, Armenia and other countries with an absolutely small number of troops.) This kind of famous general who is ranked high in history will definitely not be able to deal with several fishy governors in various places. By the way, Orville was mentally prepared for the fall of most of Greece and Asia Minor.

Next, we should consider how the emperor will respond to the rise of the other party, and how the forces outside the empire will react. Orville believes that the top priority is to quickly return to Egypt to gather troops, and prepare to be sent there to suppress the rebellion in Asia Minor, or be sent there. Watching the restless Parthians, his three legions are now idle and will definitely be mobilized by the emperor.

After thinking about it, he ordered a Roman legion and an Egyptian legion stationed in the Nile Delta of Egypt to set off and prepare to rush to the land of Parphi. Orville took his army there to join the other side.

Now he was only a few dozen kilometers away from Palphi, so there was no need to spend time and effort to gather the fleet. Orville could just take the troops by land. He asked the baggage team to return to Egypt by boat, and asked the soldiers to take a week's worth of dry food and rush to Palphi along the main trade route.

——

Some Nabataeans seemed to be obsessed with the "great kindness" of the Romans, and had been following Orville's army from a distance, but Orville didn't care too much and ordered the army to ignore them and continue marching. On the third day, they saw the first Palphi town, which meant that they had completely entered the Mediterranean world again.

Orville marched through the Holy City, which has now become a somewhat Romanized city and the garrison of the legion. At this moment, the army in the Holy City was also mobilized. Everyone was nervously packing up under the command of the officers, looking like they were ready to go on an expedition.

Without much effort, Orville found the legion commander who was familiar to him (a comrade-in-arms in the Holy City War) and learned the relevant situation from him.