Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

Now that the news of the rebellion in Greece has reached Parfi, the local provincial governor ordered the garrisoned army to do a good job of vigilance. On the one hand, he was preparing to dispatch manpower to suppress the rebellion, and on the other hand, he was preparing to deal with the invasion from the eastern forces—— The Parthians, the Nabataeans, the Idumeans. These are all potential rivals that could take a bite if the empire falls into chaos.

The emperor's mobilization order has not yet arrived. Of course, the legion cannot leave its garrison too far casually, especially if it moves under the order of Orville, a foreign commander. This is a very alarming phenomenon. Of course, Orville will not offend the public.

But he still succeeded in convincing the commander of the legion to prepare a large group of elite soldiers. Once the order for mobilization was received, they would go directly to the port city of Caesarea in Parphi to assemble. He would also go there at that time.

Vespa had already told Orville what he would probably do if this happened. First, he would mobilize one or two legions of the Eastern Army in Syria into Asia Minor, and then mobilize one or two legions stationed on the Danube River to go south. Macedonia, Thrace and other places, and finally troops from various places, especially Egypt, followed into Magna Graecia to quell the rebellion.

Knowing the emperor's general plan, Orville was ready to wait for news at the junction of Egypt and Parphi. As soon as he arrived there, an order from the emperor came from the city of Rome - as expected, Orville was ordered to mobilize at least The two legions counterinsurgency, the route is from Alexandria to Antioch (Antioch) and the Syrian army converged, both sides rushed to the front battlefield together.

It was a fairly solid plan, and Orville also planned to make some other arrangements along the way.

He wrote to Rollo and Vespa at the same time, informing the former to quickly mobilize the navy south to the Mediterranean, and informing the latter about mobilizing Rollo. In fact, the two sides were exchanging confessions.

Vespa gave himself considerable autonomy, but it was really inappropriate for him, the governor of the Egyptian province, to order the sailors of the British province, so some processing had to be done to turn the matter into the emperor ordering Rollo to go south. Orville was just the one giving advice, and Belisarius just followed it, and no one made any mistakes.

The flow of information was slow, which was very troublesome in the ancient world. If everything needed to be discussed, it would be too time-consuming. Soldiers are very fast, and going back and forth for approval is a waste of precious response time, but most generals and emperors They still care about this thing. The general does not dare to be suspected by the emperor and the emperor does not want the general to overstep. Orville and Vespa can still break out of this framework a little because of their kinship.

But now Orville himself doesn’t actually know how much Vesper still trusts him. What he did since going to Egypt is indeed worthy of an emperor’s vigilance, but he believes that even if Vesper wants to warn him, He will not pick this critical moment, he will solve the problem in a more peaceful way. Orville asked himself that he did not intend to rebel. All kinds of secrets in the government had always been inspected and reported by Vespa's cronies. Vespa was a very reasonable person and had an overall view of the situation. He would not risk his life for such a thing. Too suspicious of Orville.

In addition to Rollo, Orville also specifically asked Cleopatra to send Constantine and his men over. These were locals from the Byzantine city-state. Byzantium was a giant Greek city-state on the Black Sea coast. Winning them over could help Provide some assistance to Orville's operations in Greece.

——

Egypt's political power was completely returned to Cleopatra's hands. Orville only left half a legion of soldiers in Egypt to prevent any unexpected events, plus an Egyptian legion, the Praetorian Guards and some border guards, a total of more than 20,000 people. , this is the force Cleopatra has in hand, which can only be said to be barely enough to face the hidden temple forces.

This is acceptable to the two of them. With another half-legion of regular troops arriving at the port of Caesarea, and a large force supported by Governor Palfi, Orville has nearly four legions and more than 20,000 troops. The combat effectiveness of the people is actually about the same as the number of troops held by the commanders of the three major legions.

Considering that the navy's transportation capacity was not enough and the sea area there was now relatively dangerous, Orville ordered the large forces to enter the Syrian area through provincial roads and only use the navy to transport food and baggage, so as not to cause too serious impact on local civilians. After about twenty days of march, his army arrived near Antioch. At this time, Mucinus had also prepared soldiers and was waiting for his arrival in the city.

In the Governor's Palace of Antioch, Mucinus did not prepare a grand welcome party like other nobles, but just called a few officers together to entertain Orville. It was said to be a reception, but in fact it was just a simple meeting. Everyone except Muchinus was a stranger, and Orville didn't know who was talking to whom.

Mucinus seemed to have no intention of introducing Orville, but said to him with a livid face: "It has been many years since I left Rome. To be honest, I did not expect you to have such an achievement. This is very good and worthy of us. All learn.

But long story short now, things are not going well in Greece, those craps now seem to have lost several important cities like Athens, Smyrna, etc. We now need to move into a stable situation as soon as possible, how many fighters do you have on hand? "

"More than 21,000, 15,000 are Roman soldiers, and 6,000 are Egyptian soldiers trained according to Roman methods. Their quality is pretty good." Orville answered truthfully.

"There are enough, which is pretty good. I have to stay here and keep an eye on those Parthians. They are thinking about Armenia and even want to cause trouble on the border. I can't leave, and I can't send them according to the emperor's orders. A legion and a half to support the provinces of Magna Graecia, I’m sorry.”

It wasn't Mucinus' problem, but he still expressed his apology to Orville.

"I can only give you one legion of regular soldiers, with about 8,000 auxiliary soldiers. The legion commander is a local Roman citizen I like very much, Lucius Septimius Odenesus."

As soon as he finished speaking, an officer with slightly dark skin stood up and greeted Orville. His serious expression made Orville think that he wanted to duel with him.

He didn't want to get into trouble because of this, and said to Mucinus: "I understand, when is the best time to set off?"

"It's best now. I have all the food and transport ships ready, and I'm just waiting for your soldiers to be dispatched."