Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War

This is roughly what Orville and Mucinus talked about. He knew that it was not the right time to use revolutionary technology so early, so he made some suggestions for minor repairs, which worked well.

Mucinus was indeed a qualified general. Once a decision was made, he was very efficient. He turned around and went directly to the Senate, holding the javelin given to him by Orville, and used simple and plain language to convince the elders of the Senate to support him in changing his weapons.

Orville's activities have been quite frequent recently. Although civilians don't pay much attention to the people working behind the scenes, Orville has gained some positive popularity among the new nobles of the prominent families.

In their opinion, the topic of the Flavian family is really good - Vespa ascended the throne at the age of sixty, and ruled the Roman Empire despite her humble origins, Tia was a rare female general with outstanding abilities and remarkable military exploits, and Orville was a former rebel leader who was adopted by the emperor without any signs.

No matter what the public thinks of these people, they will still pay attention to them to some extent, and Orville is also one of the objects of attention. Many people didn't understand why Orville became a prince before.

As Vespa's policies were gradually revealed, Orville also began to move around in the city, and the public gradually discovered the commonality between the two - they were both greedy for money.

Vespa used all kinds of methods to make money. In fact, everyone knows the reason behind it. It's nothing more than that the treasury can't hold on. He himself is not extravagant. Among the emperors of all dynasties, he is frugal to the point of being a little stingy. But rational understanding does not mean that they can accept Vespa's behavior emotionally.

In particular, the collection of "toilet taxes" and the sale of official positions are also very immoral in the eyes of the Romans. Citizens have ridiculed Vespa for being greedy for money.

Vespa is very kind and generous. He doesn't care at all. Instead, he jokes with the citizens happily. Occasionally, he takes money from the treasury to renovate various facilities in the empire and hold collective celebrations. He looks like a people-friendly emperor.

He has been in power for several months. Everyone can probably tell how he behaves. Apart from being a little greedy, Vespa is a very good emperor. He is diligent, close to the people, generous, and kind. Now is a time when the country is a little tense. It is good for such an emperor to come to power. Everyone knows this, so the voices against him are not powerful at all.

The dissatisfaction with him is limited to mocking him for being greedy and mocking him as a "mule dealer" and "salted fish merchant". These statements are spread by word of mouth among the citizens. Occasionally, some bold activists openly criticize him. These are all within the acceptable range. There is no problem. There must be some way to vent dissatisfaction.

As for Orville, his reputation is slightly better than Vespa. Although people who know his behavior can also see that he is more or less greedy, Orville can't do things like raising taxes to compete with the people for profits, and his way of making money is also reasonable.

——

Soon after, Orville was chatting with Tia in the room.

Unlike most women of this era, Tia received a complete education and had enough concern and thought about many real-life issues. It was very interesting to chat with her. Her words were meaningful, which was good for expanding Orville's thinking mode.

Orville still did not change the layout of the room, but just moved things slightly and cleaned it up. After Tia said it several times in a row, she gave up the treatment. She also admitted that it was indeed more convenient.

Tiya half-lying on the bench in the atrium, with a somewhat surprised and puzzled expression: "I understand that there is no essential difference between slaves and freemen. The difference between the two sides is only the different fate. The kings of the monarchy era all acknowledged this. We are not Greeks who equate slaves with livestock. But I still don't quite understand why you think slaves are detrimental to agricultural development.

Slaves can basically do the farm work that freemen can do. They can maintain the owner's farm when the owner is away from home for military service. In addition, the money spent on hiring a freeman to work on the farm for two or three years is almost enough to buy a slave to work for you. As long as a slave is given enough care, he can work for at least 20 years. Counting the cost of food and care, there is still a big gap.

I admit that some slaves live in a bad environment. I will find a way to improve this in the future, but using slaves to work and farm is indeed a more economical and efficient way. This has been repeatedly verified."

She wore very tight clothes, so there was no need to worry about problems such as exposure, which made Orville feel inexplicably regretful.

"You can't look at it that way. The cornerstone of Roman society is citizens, citizens who own land, have jobs, and join the army to fight. They pay taxes, they shed blood, and they defend the country.

Every citizen who serves in the army has to leave home for more than ten years or even longer. Maybe they have domestic slaves to help them, but the main force of labor is still their family. There are four or five million free people in the Apennine Peninsula, but only more than one million slaves. More people work as a family unit.

Without the strong men in the family, they can't compete with the large estates that employ a large number of slaves in terms of labor production. When citizens return home after serving in the military, they will find that their farmland can't make any money at all. It is even possible that their families have to sell the land to make a living. If they have no land and are in debt, they may become unemployed vagrants or slaves. Is this fair to the glorious soldiers?"

Tia frowned. This was the first time she had heard such a statement. It was different from her previous education, so she instinctively wanted to reject it, but she couldn't find any suitable reason to reject it.

"Even if the men in the family come back, they still can't compete with the large farms that use slaves, because the latter are cheaper. The result is that more families may lose their farmland. There are more and more large farms that use slaves. In the end, only the big landlords and slaves are left. All the people in the middle disappear, and the foundation of the empire is hollowed out.

Only tough and strong citizen soldiers can support the empire. How can we recruit soldiers without these people? The big landlords may be able to provide a few elite private soldiers and a large number of inferior conscripts, but the combat effectiveness of these people is not good compared with the legionnaires. I dare say that two legions can defeat 50,000 such inferior troops with proper command. How can we fight other countries at that time?

Without war, we will lose the main source of slaves. How can these large estates be maintained at that time? Either they will collapse on their own or absorb Roman citizens as serfs. In any case, it will lead to the systemic collapse of the country. My sister, can you understand?"