Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

A century ago, during the Augustus era, there was an idea to push the defense line from the Rhine River to the Elbe River, and then connect with the Danube River Defense Line to form a new imperial border defense line.

The new border defense line covers more territory, and at the same time the defense pressure is greatly reduced. It is almost 500 kilometers shorter than the previous defense line. It can also protect the security of the homeland more effectively. If military capabilities permit, this does not seem to be a big deal. is a bad idea.

In fact, Augustus was also consciously trying to realize this plan, and it even went quite smoothly for a time, until the emergence of the Teutonic Forest disrupted his original plan.

Later, Augustus also asked Tiberius and others to continue the Germanic war, but this plan ultimately failed.

The situation in this time and space is slightly different. Due to the strong national power of the Franks, Augustus almost a hundred years ago did not choose to directly use force to solve the problem after weighing the pros and cons. After all, his grand strategy was to consolidate the existing land and then consolidate it. If we start a major war, disarmament will be out of the question.

The main thing Emperor Tiberius did in the future was to stabilize internal affairs. Although the subsequent emperors had a relatively normal internal environment, they had more or less problems with their abilities or personalities. It would be over after all. Several decades later, it was during the Flavian Dynasty.

Needless to say, Vespa was busy stabilizing the internal affairs. Tia was also doing similar things in the first few years after taking over. Now she and Orville feel that the country's strength is almost stable and can carry out large-scale external wars. At the same time, the Frankish Kingdom The entangled situation with the Huns did give him this opportunity.

They also have a card in their hand - Belisarius's wife Judith is a Merovingian princess. In recent years, Britain has successively taken in many elderly people who escaped from the previous dynasty. These people can become the enemy of the Romans and the Franks. critical force.

The funds were made from the profits from the spice trade, the revenue from the treasury, and the oil and water scraped from the senators. With this money and Orville taking the lead in inciting the senators to donate some property, they probably gathered the funds needed for the expedition. The plan was also approved by a vote of the Senate members.

So, after more than two years of careful preparations, a new round of war against the Germans began again in the spring.

Orwell mobilized most of the troops from Upper and Lower Germany, Britain and Gaul, and also transferred almost 30,000 troops from Egypt, Syria and other places in the east. Plus more than 10,000 veterans temporarily recruited from the mainland, the total number of troops was almost the same. The number reached 140,000. Adding in the Vikings wandering in the North Sea and the remnants of the previous dynasty, the number exceeded 160,000. This number can be regarded as huge.

Under normal circumstances, the current Frankish Kingdom can only muster half of this number of troops, not to mention that it is currently being attacked from two sides. There are also many old Merovingian dynasty rebels inside, and the entire country is in a state of turmoil in an instant.

Orville's banner was to regain territory for the orthodox royal family. His goal was not to annex the entire Frankish Kingdom. Such a large land was not worth the loss for them. He only needed to form the Elbe River defense line envisioned by Augustus.

In the early stage, he planned to treat the land between the Rhine and Elbe rivers as a vassal state, and then slowly assimilate and annex this place over decades or more, depending on the skill of the heir.

Large-scale military mobilization can easily be traced, and the Franks have already been prepared. However, the German army of 60,000 to 70,000 people is really difficult to compete with the Roman army that is two or three times their size. The Germans The Romans also simply chose to use guerrilla tactics to delay time, hoping that after winter came, the Romans would retreat.

But they are no longer barbarians who make their home in the forest. They have basically entered a civilized society and still rely on farming to support themselves. The same is true for the Romans. It is not as difficult for them to spend the winter locally as it was in the official history. On the contrary, they only need to do The preparation is not difficult.

Belisarius and Trajan were both excellent military talents with a certain amount of experience. They were warned to be cautious and had an excellent team of lieutenants and were not prone to making mistakes. Their strong national strength also gave the Romans a high degree of error tolerance. They are moving forward steadily without pursuing the goal of killing the enemy with one strike.

The long Germanic war went on intermittently for more than a year. At this time, the Romans had almost achieved two-thirds of their goals. The progress of the subsequent advancement was slightly slowed down due to terrain and supply lines, but with the continuous supply of funds and materials, it seemed to be completed. The Elbe River Defense Line is just a matter of time.

In this case, the king of the Frankish Kingdom finally chose to bow his head and engage in peace negotiations in exchange for a decent contract.

——

"We can accept the Romans' Elbe defense line and hand over the land within the defense line to the Merovingian royal family, but the Romans must agree not to block the border, open some areas to immigration, and allow our people to evacuate the land west of the Elbe River , ensuring the stability and security of the remaining parts of the country."

Lin Zongzong seemed to have put forward a lot of conditions, but in fact they were just to ensure that the Romans would not push further.

Orville said generously: "Please rest assured that too much land is not good for the empire. My successors will also recognize this problem, so at least within this hundred years, the border will not advance further." , I can’t guarantee what will happen next.”

"That's natural. If the effectiveness of the treaty can be maintained for that long, we will be satisfied."

The person who spoke was the prince of King Charles. In Orville's opinion, he was a man of courage and talent, but now he could only sit at the negotiation table and slowly negotiate with the Romans.

In their opinion, it was helpless to accept such a treaty now. After losing several key battles in a row on the front battlefield, the Romans only suffered some damage, but they would be seriously injured.

For a regime like the Romans with a population of tens of millions, it was not worrying to lose thousands or tens of thousands of people in battle. The trouble was that the legions were destroyed as a whole.

If only ten legions were reduced by 10%, the new recruits could easily form combat effectiveness again under the leadership of the veterans, but if a legion was completely destroyed, it would be very troublesome to rebuild it.

Now their war failed to destroy the Roman army as a whole. The Romans could continuously recruit new soldiers to fill the gaps. There was also a gap in the productivity level of both sides. In this way, even if the Franks could get a little advantage in exchange for the losses, it would be useless because there were too many Romans.

Therefore, the Frankish royal family could only choose to take back a proper contract, such as using the power of the Romans to deal with the restless Huns.

"We are now facing the invasion of the Scythians and are at a loss. Please help us suppress their power. If you can do it, we don't mind signing this clause."

"The Germans should first understand that the enemies they are facing are not ordinary Scythians. They come from the end of the world and the other side of the prairie. You must at least understand your enemies before you can make appropriate countermeasures. This is my advice to you Germans. Think about it slowly later.

Of course, we can help you deal with the Huns and teach you how to deal with them. As long as you are willing to accept the existing peace terms, I am willing to guarantee you with the reputation of my family and the gods, and even help you solve the Huns problem first. What is King Charles's intention?"

Orville didn't care about teaching the Germans techniques such as chariot formations. Anyway, they would learn it sooner or later, so it would be better to use it generously as a bargaining chip. Chariot formations were of no use to the Romans. Their bows, crossbows, javelins and heavy projectile weapons were more advanced and could restrain a simple chariot formation.

"Of course!" Seeing that the other party was so easy to talk to, the prince was relieved.

"It's a deal!"

Regardless of how many little tricks the Franks had, the standard siege was finally settled, and Orwell could breathe a sigh of relief.

——

It was obvious that these Franks were thinking of driving the tiger to eat the wolf, and Orwell's response was also very simple. He only sent out one legion of people, led by Belisarius.

If there were too many people, the Franks might have some concerns, but now there were only four or five thousand people in a legion, so they didn't avoid it. They just sent a group of noble officers to watch Belisarius fight. They wanted to see what methods the Romans had developed to deal with nomads.

It was similar to the tactics used to deal with the Scythians in Asia Minor before, but this time the tactical coordination was more perfect and exquisite, because Orwell had notified Belisarius in advance to study this tactic against cavalry, and the other party had been thinking about it for three or four years.

The vehicles were still surrounded in a half-moon shape, and the Vikings' boats were used in the river for harassment and transportation of supplies. This time, only one legion of soldiers was on the battlefield. After carefully confirming this, the opponent's scouts became bolder.

After all, they had an absolute numerical advantage. There were more than 10,000 warriors on horseback. According to common sense, infantry had an overwhelming numerical advantage over cavalry. To put it bluntly, they could win by just pressing them.

So, they charged the Roman chariot position like the Scythians, and suffered a disastrous defeat like the Scythians.

It was not known whether the Han Dynasty on the other side had not invented similar tactics or had forgotten about them. They crashed into the Roman position like headless flies, and then found that the impact of their cavalry could not do anything about the specially reinforced chariot barrier, but the crossbows, crossbows and javelins in the position could effectively harm the nomadic cavalry outside the position. There was no need to elaborate on what happened next.

The enemy's soldiers were wasting their lives in vain in front of the position, and had no choice but to retreat, leaving the bodies of the wounded soldiers all over the ground. Even so, Belisarius did not intend to let the enemy leave, and sent out his own cavalry.

The heavy cavalry, both men and horses, stuck to the back of the enemy's retreating team. Those nomadic warriors who had to walk because of their injured horses, or those vassal soldiers who had no horses at the beginning, could only be ruthlessly crushed.

The enemy's cavalry did not dare to return to the rescue when facing the Roman infantry square that was pressing step by step, and could only abandon these people and run away in embarrassment. The result of the war was a complete victory for Belisarius' army.

For these nomadic peoples, losing one or two battles was not a big deal. After all, they still had vitality and mobility as long as the main force was not annihilated. The key was that Belisarius was really patient in teaching the Franks how to use chariots to deal with their enemies in this war.

As a result, in several larger-scale Hun-Frank conflicts in the following years, the Franks gained considerable advantage by using this tactic. Coupled with the Romans' subtle support and mediation behind the scenes, the Huns' offensive was eventually stopped.

Even though the Franks were very reluctant, they had to fulfill the terms in the end, and the Romans also followed the terms and did not invade again for decades, because they had already got what they wanted.

After several years of war, another triumphal ceremony was held, this time the protagonists were Belisarius and Trajan. Trajan obtained the qualifications and abilities required for his succession, and Belisarius was appointed as the new commander of the border defense line.

Up to this point, he had basically solved all the external threats, and the remaining ones were just minor problems, which was a normal situation for a country.