Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 103: Quick Victory

Up to now, Aurelian has only advanced a few dozen kilometers to the north, and the Gauls still have a very broad strategic depth. As long as the Gauls do not collapse in confidence, this battle can still be fought. This is also why Orville is not in a hurry.

It would be more advantageous for them to focus all the attention of both sides on the vicinity of Narbonne Gaul so that they could attack the enemy by surprise.

While paying close attention to the battle situation on the front line, Orville did not forget to train the young men under his command and to integrate his legionnaires.

After some basic understanding over time, he had a rough idea of ​​the situation of his army.

The difference in combat effectiveness between the Ninth Legion and his private legion is not that big. The quality of officers and equipment level are slightly worse. After all, the latter were painstakingly configured one by one by himself, and are definitely higher-end than the allocated ones. However, it is not a big deal. The Ninth Legion is still at the level of a normal legion.

Among the people pushed over by the Herod royal family, there were about 1,500 former auxiliary soldiers and about 500 royal private soldiers. The former basically met all the requirements of auxiliary soldiers, while the latter gave him a big surprise.

After all, they are private soldiers raised by middle and upper class nobles, so their combat effectiveness is worth looking forward to. The gap between them and the legion infantry is not much. They are proficient in all necessary skills and are truly a panacea, the kind that can be used as elite troops.

Actually, the Herod royal family was quite generous. In addition to these people, there were also 500 light cavalrymen assigned to Orville to be used as reconnaissance cavalry. Cavalry was still very valuable at that time.

The combat effectiveness of these Palphic light cavalry is certainly not as good as the well-known Numidian cavalry or Germanic mercenary cavalry, but they have no problem completing some tasks. Orville does not intend to use them to fight the Gallic cavalry head-on. It is enough to use them as scouts or "mounted police".

Vespa gave him a sum of money before he set out on the expedition, which was used for him to hire barbarian soldiers. There were many such opportunities along the way. All we can say is that Orville would act according to circumstances and should be able to meet a suitable mercenary team.

Finally, there was the issue of the able-bodied soldiers. The person responsible for training them was Belisarius, who was the most patient and relatively trustworthy. After setting up camp and before going to bed, he would organize some time to give them simple training.

In his own words - after these days of hard work, they have been able to distinguish between the spear head and the spear shaft, and can thrust the long weapons in their hands.

According to Belisarius' optimistic estimate, under this condition of training while marching, they should be able to basically obey simple orders before arriving at the garrison, and not collapse at the first blow on the battlefield, and be able to hold on for a while. That would be thankful, and Orville did not ask for anything else.

In his opinion, even auxiliary troops should undergo three to five months of basic training before going to the battlefield, otherwise they will be a drag. Now the situation is to use whatever they have and it will be fine as long as they can be used.
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The marching process was generally very uneventful. After all, it was a march within the national border, and even if there were bandits and robbers, they would not provoke tens of thousands of regular troops. However, Tia was not very satisfied with the marching speed, and repeatedly tried to speed up the army's march so as to reach the legion's garrison as soon as possible and cooperate with Aurelian's military operations in Gaul.

Every other day, Orville would send a signalman to the front line where Aurelian was, to ensure that he could get relatively comprehensive and fresh information. Later, the signalmen formed a line, and every day a signalman returned to report the situation on the front line to Orville, which gave him a relatively sufficient and rich understanding of the situation on the front line. There was not much he could do during the march, and he quickly finished reading the few books he brought with him. When he had nothing to do, he could only follow Tia or his officers to do deductions to pass the time, so he paid more attention to relevant information.

After all, Aurelian was a military talent that the voices in his head praised as brilliant. He fought even the tough battles of security warfare with great success. Although the advancement was slow, he was truly steady and did not give his opponent any chances, gradually reducing the opponent's range of activities.

Later, it was the Gauls who could not bear the loneliness and launched several sneak attacks on the Roman army's supply convoys or reinforcements. This gave Aurelian the opportunity to counterattack the opponent's sneak attack troops, causing heavy losses to their manpower.

This battle was undoubtedly a hopeless one for the Gauls. Faced with such an opponent who had every plan in place and whose military power was even higher than theirs, there was really no way to break the situation. They could only watch their territory being conquered again bit by bit.

Every day, the news that Orville received from the front line was either that Aurelian had conquered a certain town, that he had captured and crucified so many people, or that he had defeated the guerrillas led by a certain Gallic noble.

These news continued to boost the morale of the Romans, but in contrast, the morale of the Gauls fell to a low point.

A war tests the confidence of both sides in victory. No matter whether they can actually fight or not, if they lose confidence, they lose. On the contrary, even if the objective conditions are very different, overflowing confidence may create miracles. The Gauls are now in a state of lack of confidence after being beaten up by Aurelian.

However, as mentioned earlier, this war cannot be easily ended by winning a few battles and seizing a few pieces of land. On the way to the Germanic Legion’s garrison, Orville kept receiving reports of victory from the front line. Void victories were not particularly popular in those days, and the information was basically credible. However, the Gauls still did not collapse, but continued to resist with gritted teeth. The sticky tactics also caused great trouble to the Romans.
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While Orville was studying the front-line sand table, Aurelian, who was fighting hard in Gaul far away in Narpan, was also frowning and thinking at the map.

Both the Senate and the Emperor had high expectations of him, so they entrusted him with such an important task. He did not disappoint the expectations of the city of Rome and has done some good things so far.

After he led 50,000 men to Narbonne Gaul, he reintegrated the local garrison and the defeated soldiers from various provinces in northern Gaul in a very short time. The two sides together had a force of 70,000, which was enough for him to make great strides in this Roman province.

He did succeed in defeating the largest main force of the Gauls, killing or capturing 50,000 of them, and then took advantage of the situation to invade the Gauls' territory, sounding the clarion call for the Roman Empire's counterattack.

But now, he was not very satisfied with his achievements - for him who advocated quick attack, competing with the Gauls for land one village and one town at a time was too slow. He needed a more decisive strategy and bolder military decisions.

(End of this chapter)