Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

Cleopatra had expected Orville's attitude for a long time, and it was not surprising now. If his desire for power was really that strong, the other party would have kicked her away and monopolized the power for himself. But now instead of turning herself into a rubber stamp, the other party has given herself a certain amount of power. This rare generosity is also the reason why Cleopatra has a certain affection for him.

After taking a deep look at the other party, Cleopatra added to the other party: "As long as you don't regret your choice, I will support your decision within limits. This country's human, material and financial resources are at your disposal. , as long as you can adjust it."

Orville was greatly relieved when he heard this. If the other party was willing to support him, everything would be fine. He could now prepare for the most important war with peace of mind.

——

A few years can be said to be fast or slow. If you stay in one place and concentrate on doing things, it will pass quickly.

Time flies to 1979, five or six years after Orville took office as governor of Egypt. In the past few years, he has not started any new foreign wars. At most, he has sent a few large groups of soldiers to help the Nubians fight against the Aksumites, and that's it.

In the past few years, the news coming from the capital has become less and less optimistic, including but not limited to: Vespa's health is deteriorating, the senators have legitimate concerns about the emperor's successor selection, and the new senators who belong to the emperor's faction Conflicts broke out with old clans and so on.

Orville stayed in faraway Egypt and watched the changes, but he no longer had so many anxious thoughts in his heart. All he had to do was to concentrate on waiting for the time.

Finally, a letter dictated by Vespa arrived in Orville's hands.

"My physical condition has become worse and worse recently. I have now left Rome and spent my last days in the country house in my hometown. I have informed Tia of the news and she has made the necessary preparations. You should do the same , be mentally prepared that I will die at any time.”

His fingers unconsciously crumpled the letter with force. After reading it, Orville put the letter on a candle and burned it to eliminate the evidence, and at the same time called his men.

The person who was finally called to the Governor's Palace was Stilicho. He was a mixed-blood barbarian and was therefore very unpopular among the Romans. However, he was promoted by Orville and lived with Orville for a long time. He should be the most reliable in terms of loyalty besides Belisarius.

Orville looked at the other person. When he met Stilko, the other person was in his early thirties. Now the other person is almost forty years old. Even though he is a talented person, he has been weathered due to years of marching and fighting, and the years are still on his face and body. There were a lot of marks left on it, and one could clearly feel that the other party was no longer as energetic as before and seemed more composed.

He spoke slowly: "Don't tell others what happens next, do you understand?"

Stilico nodded with excitement in his eyes. He was the only one who responded to the call, and now he has to tell him confidential matters. This shows that Orville trusts him. As a marginalized figure in the society of the Roman Empire, Trust is as important to him as money, status, and honor, and even more important to some extent. After all, with trust, you are more likely to obtain the following things.

"The recent news from my family is the same as the rumors. As you know, my father's health is gradually getting worse, and it has reached an unsustainable point recently. And those in the Senate and our faction There is some dispute over the issue of the heir. Her Royal Highness and I are trying our best to avoid it, but I am afraid that we will end up at war with each other.

If this turns out to be the case, we should be prepared in advance, just like I planned with you before. "

"Yes! I'm going to gather the soldiers to prepare for battle!" The mood was a little heavy. No one likes the flames of war to come to their homes, but Stilico also knew that some things were unavoidable from the beginning.

Now it seems that the conflict between the royal family and the Senate is no longer limited to "little details" such as the gender of the heir and the place of origin. Under the influence of Orville, Tiya's policies and views have become more "progressive", or from the views of the senators. From a point of view, it is even more "terrifying".

When Tia was in Rome, she would express her desire to take back the land of the senators from time to time, and hope that the bureaucrats would be more involved in specific governance work instead of the nobles. This, in the view of the senators, was to deprive them of their ancient sacred power. , is an unacceptable transgression.

Although Tiya is not very tough, and she is open to discussion on many issues, but now that they have this kind of mentality, looking back at what happened in Egypt, it is somewhat of a warning to others. The rabbit died and the fox felt sad.

Stilico can also see these things clearly, so he knows that the possibility of this battle is very high and that there is a fundamental conflict between the two sides.

And he would choose to support the royal family without hesitation in this conflict. After all, it was the royal family, not the senators, who gave him everything he has now. Orville was the one who promoted him. He is considered a direct descendant by following Orville, and he is considered a traitor by turning to the senators to survive. Unlike some people, he does not have much choice.

"How do you want to arrange it specifically?"

The two legions originally stationed in Egypt included many citizens from the local area or other provinces. They did not have so many shackles to protect their masters, but their loyalty may not be that high. As for the Ninth Legion, which he has gradually grown up, there is no problem with loyalty, but it is easy to face the difficult choice of loyalty and filial piety, and people's hearts may not be firm.

"Move all three legions there. The Egyptians now have four combat-ready legions. Move two of them there. Prepare based on this. Once the war starts, move the fleet directly to Brindisi. The rest of the things should not be difficult to handle after landing."

Trust your people. Since these people are all soldiers who get paid under his command, as long as the battle is resolved quickly enough, there won't be so many troubles.

At this time, Orville was still confident because he had been preparing for this war for several years. He had been doing targeted training in the past few years. He didn't know what the overall attitude of the Senate was, but it was definitely not as firm as his side.

There was a plan, but there was no intention. The odds of winning or losing the war were definitely greater on his side.

——

At the same time, in the home of a certain elder, more than a dozen people were sitting together, discussing things expressionlessly.

"His Majesty the Emperor has recently returned to his country villa in his hometown, under the pretext of recuperation, but in fact he was just looking for a place to spend his last period of time. We should be prepared for this, and this should be the case in all aspects. I think we should have reached a consensus." He looked around with an inquiring look.

"Of course," one person took over the conversation, "Tia or Orwell are not suitable to inherit the throne, and the ignorant girl Domitia is even more unspeakable. She does not have the qualifications in all aspects. Once the emperor is in trouble, we should make some changes when necessary."

Everyone nodded silently and stopped talking. It was difficult for the nearly 600 people in the Senate to unify their opinions. The people of their faction did not support the succession of the current emperor's descendants and chose a coup.

"It is not easy to communicate with the Guards, but after the efforts of Nerva and others, Aurelian and other Guards officers finally agreed to our proposal. Most of them will help us capture Rome, which is not a problem. Those people sent by the emperor are no match for the emperor. The main thing is what we should do next."

Everyone present knew that once the conflict broke out in the form of war, the legions loyal to the emperor in the East would not give up, and the two sides would fight again, just like what happened when Vespa took the throne. They are now preparing to deal with this war, and there is no specific result until now.

Everyone started to discuss whether to win over an officer from the Danube Legion or the German Legion as a helper, and whether to spend a huge price to win over the governor of a province to assist.

Just when everyone was deadlocked, another senator, regardless of the rule that horses cannot be ridden in Rome, rushed into the villa with his guards, and directly greeted everyone: "The emperor is dead! The emperor is dead!!"

Everyone was excited, and Nerva, the leader, was the first to react and made a decision: "Go and inform Aurelian, let the guards move first!"

——

While some people in the Senate were busy, Belisarius, who was far away in Britain, was also preparing his army.

He was a fellow countryman of the emperor, and was also promoted to governor by the emperor's family. Of course, he was a die-hard emperor faction. His loyalty was unquestionable and he had always been trusted.

So like Orville, he could receive letters directly from Vespa, and the content of the letters was not quite the same as those to Orville.

The content of this recent letter is that the emperor is in poor health, so Belisarius should prepare for war from the moment he receives the letter, and cross the English Channel when necessary to confront the German Legion.

The current German Legion is the group of soldiers transferred from the Danube River that year. They are not the confidants of the Senate or the emperor, but just a group of speculators. Helping Vespa defeat the old German Legion is more of a personal grudge. Vespa is worried that these people will turn to the Senate, so he gave this difficult task to Belisarius.

You should know that there are eight legions on the German defense line, and Belisarius has only two legions in total (one more was expanded after the subsequent financial situation improved), and the strength of the two sides is completely unequal.

This is the first instruction Vespa left for Belisarius. It is easy to understand. Although it is difficult, Belisarius will do his best to do it. The second one made Belisarius sweat.

The letter said that after the civil war was over, Belisarius would help Tia as much as possible. If Tia was really not suitable for the throne, he could turn to support Orwell with confidence. The specific scale was left to Belisarius to judge. He would not blame the other party if he knew it in his afterlife.

Belisarius was a little confused about what the emperor meant, but he temporarily put these doubts in the deepest part of his heart and made plans after this matter was over. In his opinion, the emperor's vision must be longer-term than his. He might see things clearly in the future and would not rush.

After almost eight years of development, countless lives were sacrificed, and Belisarius himself died of countless brain cells. He finally built a rough framework for the wild land of the British province.

He built 33 small fortresses throughout Britain to defend against pirates, and also established three larger colonial cities. The road network took shape, and trade was finally completely connected with the European continent. After having the spare capacity to set up a second legion, he finally managed to basically control the nobles of this country and let them fight for him.

So if we want to send troops now, Belisarius can actually pull out a lot of babies to fill in the gaps, but the quality is not very good.

Some generals may think that these people are just a burden, but Belisarius thinks that these people can be used.

He immediately notified his messenger to send letters to the chiefs of various chiefdoms, noble lords and Vikings, asking them to bring their soldiers to Londinium to gather. There are military orders from the center of the empire for them to complete. He will decide his military strategy based on the number of soldiers recruited.

——

Being far away from the political center of the empire is always a bit disadvantageous. Orville learned about the military coup in Rome many days later. At this time, he had just received the news that Vespa went to the country villa for recuperation, but it had been seven or eight days since the coup.

Since most of the guards had rebelled, the guards in the city were also bought by the bigwigs in Rome who had great connections, and the messengers sent out by the official background were directly stopped. At this time, Nicanor, a relative of Stilicho and quite loyal and reliable, played his role - he called the passenger ship originally belonging to the hotel, urgently took the news out of the city, and then supplied it through the hotel in Orwell, and sent the news to Orwell at the fastest speed.

But that was all, and then many of Orwell's industries were seized and confiscated. It seemed that the other party really intended to tear his face with Orwell or the royal family, and didn't care about face at this time.

At this time, Orwell's army was not fully prepared, and there was still a half legion on the border of Fayoum, Thebes and Nubia, which could not be directly mobilized for a while.

Because the Egyptians had to be more responsible for defense and security in various places, in addition to the guards, Cleopatra could only give Orwell one legion of troops. The combined troops of both sides were about more than 10,000 people, and these soldiers were not many.

Nevertheless, after confirming that the navy was able to transport so many people and was basically ready, he decided to launch a special military operation right after the Senate.

PS. There should be one or two more chapters later, but you don't have to wait until late at night.