Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

Rhodes was quiet in the early morning. The dim sunlight still shone on the sea, and the thick fog made it look dead silent.

A small longship broke through the fog and hit the coastline of Rhodes. After the first longship, the second, third, and fourth longships came. More than a dozen small boats landed on the island without anyone knowing.

The leader was not Ivar but Cuchulainn, and the first leaders who jumped off the longships were also leaders - Astolfo, Ivar, Constantine, the gifted people sent by the Nubians to help, and the gifted people in the Syrian provincial legion.

At first glance, almost half of the leaders were gifted people with outstanding strength. Orville threw all the gifted people he could mobilize into this raid to give Rhodes a fatal blow.

Not only the gifted, but also the rest of the crew are mostly elite warriors who are selected from the best, proficient in all kinds of necessary combat skills. Fighting one against three or even one against five without armor is just basic skills. It can be said that they are the death squads selected by Orwell with great effort.

After dragging the boat ashore and hiding it in the woods, Cu Chulainn himself dealt with the few patrol guards around, and then a group of more than a hundred people, carrying bottles and jars on their backs, quietly came to the naval port of Rhodes.

The Greeks have not produced many gifted since the heroic age, and the population of Rhodes is not very dense, so there are only one or two combat-type gifted people on the island, and their strength is also very mediocre. Such precious characters will certainly not be allowed to patrol, so the team with overwhelming combat power easily entered the naval port.

They removed the wax seal or cork of the bottle and poured the dark and thick liquid inside on the boat or the port planks. The group of people moved very quickly and completed the task in about ten minutes.

This was a gift that Orwell brought back when he fought the Nabataeans. The asphalt from the Red Sea coast was mixed with grease, sulfur, naphtha and other things. It can be said that this was a simplified prototype of Greek fire, which was very flammable.

Cu Chulainn made a gesture to the people around him, and they also evacuated the scene very tactfully, leaving Cu Chulainn alone holding a torch and lighting the naval port.

The entire naval port quickly caught fire in a short period of time. The sky-high flames naturally alarmed the soldiers patrolling around. They woke up the sleeping Rhodes, and then the soldiers and some residents on the island began to put out the fire in a hurry.

Cu Chulainn silently observed the behavior of these people in the dark. When he felt that people were gathering and the time was almost up, his muscles began to swell, twitching and spasming uncontrollably, his eyes sometimes sunken deeply into the eye sockets and sometimes protruding from the eye sockets, and his joints twisted and trembled abnormally. The intense transformation process lasted for about two minutes, and Cu Chulainn once again became the kind of crazy behemoth in the myth.

He squeezed out indistinguishable syllables, howling and rushing towards the crowd who were putting out the fire. The unprepared crowd encountered such a nearly mythical monster, which was a complete massacre. He set off a bloody storm in the crowd.

Constantine looked at Cu Chulainn who was killing people from a distance, and a trace of fear and dread flashed in his eyes. He quickly came to his senses and greeted others: "Let's continue. The armory should be in the south. This island is so big, it's not difficult to find."

While the local soldiers were busy dealing with Cu Chulainn, Constantine, who was more familiar with the terrain, led people to set fire to the armory, military camps and other places. Originally, Ivar also suggested burning residential areas and granaries, but was rejected by Constantine. Ivar knew that the other party had different ideas from him, so he didn't insist. The group then started the next task-raiding the government of Rhodes Island.

But this time they came up empty-handed. There was no one in the government courtyard. It was probably because the intention of this kind of feint to the east and attacking the west was too obvious, and they had evacuated early.

However, everyone was satisfied with today's results, so they quickly turned back to meet Cu Chulainn.

Cu Chulainn, who was in a frenzy, certainly didn't recognize his relatives, but they were in large numbers, so they forced the already exhausted opponent into the water. After the opponent was barely calmed down and recovered due to the low temperature of the sea water and choking, Astolfo carried Cu Chulainn and evacuated quickly.

Everyone left the scene in the fog that had not yet completely dissipated. Constantine went to Athens by himself and separated from the main force, while the rest of the people took a small boat back to the city of Ephesus in Asia Minor. The city was still in the hands of the Romans, perhaps due to the social activities that Cleopatra had done here before.

——

There was a delay in regional communication. Orville learned the news two days later, and he must have been in a good mood about it-Rhodes' navy was severely damaged, and the army and infrastructure were also not good. This was definitely good news for them, because Rhodes could be said to be offline in the future and could not pose a threat to the Romans.

Orville is now located in Phaselis (Antalya in later generations, roughly 200 kilometers east of Rhodes). Most of the cities in Asia Minor along the Mediterranean coast are still in the hands of the Romans. He did not encounter any battles worth mentioning along the way, only countless harassment and small-scale encounters. Military staff estimated that Mithridates had at most 30,000 to 40,000 people, and their quality was uneven, which was not very comparable to the five legions on Orville's side. The opponent's main force is still staying in mainland Greece to recruit soldiers, and they should not travel a long distance to seek a decisive battle at this time, so as long as they do not split their troops, they will be safe.

Now Orville should consider how to get to the Greek mainland. The journey ahead is just as difficult or even more difficult. If the legionnaires want to go there, it will take a lot of time, and it seems that there is no need now.

The emperor also ordered the Danube Legion to go south. The enemy commander also noticed that Byzantium was resisting Mithridates' offensive, so he consciously moved closer to the enemy's position. At present, the progress seems to be gratifying, and they will be able to join the enemy soon.

The staff officers were fiddling with the map, marking various information and troop estimation data on the map. Orville glanced at Trajan, who was silent, and asked him: "What suggestions do you have?"

Trajan answered very honestly: "The troops will be divided into two groups. One group will take Smyrna and other cities in Asia Minor, and the other group will take advantage of the fact that the enemy's troops are in the north and cannot return to help. Land in important cities such as Athens. I think that since the Rhodes Navy is now severely damaged, we should be able to solve the problem with our own naval forces. You have been to that place, and it is no longer hundreds of years ago."