Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

Tia sent a letter to Alexandria a few days ago, but there was no reply after three weeks. Just when Tia lost her patience and thought the messenger was intercepted, a fleet of astonishing size arrived at the port of Caesarea.

Along with the army came the latest news from Rome - the leader of the German Legion, Emperor Vitellius, was defeated, and the Danube Legion and the Eastern Legion led by the Syrian Governor Mucinus met in Rome.

After fierce street fighting, Vitellius was killed.

The Danube Legion, the Eastern Legion and the Senate jointly nominated Vespa as the new Roman emperor, and Vespa is currently leading people to Rome.

It was said a few days ago that Vitellius was a Dong Zhuo-like figure. After disbanding the Guards, he appointed his men as Guards.

The Roman Guards camp can only accommodate 10,000 people, and Vitellius brought 60,000 men. Many of these people were Roman citizens in Gaul. They had no residence in Rome, and it was their first time in Rome. Intermarriage with the local Gauls and Franks had tainted them with a lot of bold and even vulgar culture.

These people did not burn, kill, and rob in Rome, but they could not avoid bullying men and women and occupying public space. This continued for several months, and the citizens in Rome were dissatisfied with the Germania Legion.

After Vitellius ascended the throne, he did not promulgate any policies to maintain stability and benefit the country and the people. On the contrary, he spent most of his time enjoying himself and depravity. The government affairs of the entire country were basically suspended, and it was all supported by the elders of the Senate.

He did not have a definite governing philosophy, and only wanted to live happily day by day. It was okay to be a mountain king, a bandit, or a warlord, but being a Roman emperor, at least the current Senate and the Roman people could not stand it.

On the other side, the Danube Legion, which had been severely humiliated and basically all members were in a red-hot state, and the furious Danube Legion also came to kill.

They vowed to take revenge, both old and new, and fought the German Legion again in the place where the former Emperor Otto was defeated and their fellow legionaries were sentenced to labor.

This time the Danube Legion was in excellent condition, and the German Legion was slaughtered and routed. The furious Danube Legion did not even take any prisoners, and killed all the captured German Legion soldiers. However, anger can make people lose their minds, and they also massacred a town that insulted their legion when they were doing labor.

This was something that was hard to imagine at the time. There could be civil wars and political struggles between the Roman legions, but their swords would hardly be aimed at the civilians of Rome, and the Danube Legion had violated a taboo.

In the original history, the Danube Legion directly marched into Rome, chopped down Vitellius, and honored Vespa as emperor, but at this time the army of the eastern province had just entered the Apennine Peninsula by land.

In this time and space, Vespa was more fully prepared and better informed. He landed directly by sea and encountered no resistance along the way. He just met with the Danube Legion outside the city of Rome and surrounded the remnants of the Germanic Legion.

Everything went smoothly. Now the people of the Danube Legion also knew that they had violated a taboo, and the troops from other provinces could not stay near the city of Rome for a long time, so they only left a team of people to ask for merit and reward, and the rest of the main force all returned to the Danube front, waiting for the reward to arrive.

The Syrian Governor Mucinus was also very disciplined. He transferred most of the soldiers back to the Syrian front, did not stay in the capital for a long time, and had no intention of proclaiming himself emperor.

The Senate recalled 10,000 guards and waited for Vespa to come to Rome and be officially crowned. The Roman people waited to see whether this emperor could stabilize the situation and get the country back on track.

Some people in foreign countries or at home were also waiting to see what kind of emperor Vespa was, which determined their next move.

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After receiving such good news, Orville and Tiya were naturally overjoyed, but what made them more relieved at the moment was the reinforcement from Alexandria.

After confirming that Rome did not need reinforcement, the reserve troops that were originally on standby in Alexandria were able to move, and the first thing was to strengthen Tiya.

Two elite reorganized legions, twenty legion battalions drawn from various places, more than 10,000 various auxiliary troops, and more than 20,000 troops outside the city now, a total of 60,000 people, and a large number of military slaves accompanying the army. If it is not enough, more soldiers will be sent from Egypt later.

Considering that two-thirds of them are professional soldiers, after five years or more of training and fighting, this is already a lot. The number of people mobilized in several representative large-scale wars in history is just like this.

In addition to the soldiers, the Governor of Egypt also came with him. He was not a brilliant general, but his ability to plan and coordinate was not bad, and he could assist Tiya, who had no experience in leading large-scale troops, in combat.

Originally, the enemy troops in the city could still launch several surprise attacks with their numerical advantage, but now the surprise attacks are more difficult. These regular troops built the surrounding mountain camps in a neat and complete manner. They were very vigilant and would only suffer losses if they acted rashly.

Watching the Romans finish building the camps, and then flattening the gullies and stone walls around the holy city in a few days, the siege officially began on May 1st.

To the north of the city, which was easier to attack, the Romans began to build earthen embankments to provide cover for their equipment.

In order to build a long enough earthen embankment, several small hills around were completely flattened, and trees within a radius of more than ten kilometers were cut down to build bunkers and siege weapons on the spot.

During this period, the Parfis continuously organized small groups of troops at night to carry out harassment, but the results were minimal, and the earthen embankment was still piled up as planned.

With sufficient manpower and perfect technology, the Romans quickly built the earthen embankment and pushed the scorpion crossbows and catapults up to suppress the defenders on the city wall.

Although the defenders in the city also seized some catapults and scorpion crossbows, not everyone can use such weapons, and they cannot compare with the Romans in terms of quantity and accuracy.

The catapult is okay, but the scorpion crossbow, also known as the torsion crossbow cannon, has a significant disadvantage - it is precise and not durable, and often needs to be overhauled or even scrapped after several high-intensity battles. The Romans mastered the manufacturing technology and there was a large amount of wood around to use. They were not too afraid of consumption and could just build new ones on the spot. However, the scorpion crossbows on the city wall were not like that, and they would be scrapped soon.

Even if the Parfis could reverse engineer and restore the replica in a short time, the materials needed for manufacturing were not so abundant, and they did not have an advantage in consumption.

Because of this, it wasn't long before they could only fight back with bows and slings. Most of the scorpion crossbows were scrapped, but the accuracy of the trebuchets was really impressive, and they were just enough to show off their strength.