Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 105 Proceed with caution
Eventually, Tia's army was stationed near the important city of Trier, because there were strategic reserve granaries there that could supply the military rations needed for the war.

Even though she had made detailed preparations for several months in advance, she was not in a hurry to launch military operations. Instead, she allowed the army to run in first and adapt to the local climate.

The auxiliary soldiers in her army are either Egyptians or Parvi people. The climate over there is very different from this side, and now it is already mid-September. To be honest, it is not a good time to start military activities. The best time should be in early spring around March. However, there is no way now and they can only continue the war under this condition.

After the arrival of her three fully-strength legions, the Franks who had been restless on the other side of the river became much more obedient. Before that, the defenders of the Germanic legion were worried all day long, fearing that the Frankish king would do something stupid and go to war with the Roman Empire directly, and they would be the first to be attacked.

In fact, there was a time when the Frankish king had already assembled his army and was ready to go, but it seemed that due to domestic political turmoil, he had to postpone the expedition. This prevented the war from breaking out between the two countries immediately. It can only be said that Vitellius chose a good time to go south to Rome, just in time for problems to arise in the Frankish country.

Under Tia's supervision, the various strongholds and outposts along the Rhine River quickly began to operate again, and the various functions of this line of defense returned to normal. It was only then that the Franks seemed to have truly given up, and there were fewer spies and scouts that could be observed.

Because Vespa's large army had to carry winter supplies, the composition was even more bloated, so they arrived at the German Legion's base half a month later. Vespa immediately took over Tia's defense work, and his team paid attention to various unusual movements along the Rhine River.

Only at this moment could Dia feel relieved and turn around to prepare to deal with the Gauls.

She had been very bold during the siege of the Holy City before, but now she is relatively cautious. It is not because her character has changed, but more because one cannot be too bold in this kind of battle, as it is easy to fail.

That was a siege, and she was sure that the enemy was fighting desperately, so being bold could boost morale. Now it was a security and offensive war, and she would easily be ambushed if she was not careful. After all, the Gauls had lived under the Romans for more than a hundred years, and many leaders of the rebels came from the Roman military system, and they knew the Romans very well.

If an accident occurred, the Teutoburg Forest Massacre might be repeated - the locals, led by a leader who was familiar with the Roman army, would inflict heavy damage or even annihilate the legion. She could not bear this responsibility.

For her first battle in the Gallic theater, Tia chose Reims, the important city closest to her, as her target. After taking it, using this city as a node to control the villages and towns along the Marne River was not difficult and feasible, making it a perfect test.

Before attacking Reims, it is necessary to capture two small towns near the city. One is slightly larger and called Mur, and the other is smaller and called Bercy. Orville is responsible for leading people to attack Bercy, and Tia will lead the remaining troops to attack Mur.

It’s not difficult, just try your hand, the march and attack will start soon.
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Seriously speaking, only one legion needs to complete the task of attacking Reims, and the remaining two legions can attack the other two cities at the same time. Tia's attack plan this time is very safe, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Orville just needs to follow orders.

It took a long time to reach Bercy from Trier, and Orville did not encounter any decent resistance along the way. Except for a few stupid teams that occasionally confronted Orville's legion head-on, Orville did not encounter any real enemy forces.

But outside the front battlefield, things became much more troublesome. The locals obviously did not welcome their arrival. The grain transport team from Trier encountered four surprise attacks along the way. Although they all failed, it was still a bit troublesome. In addition, there were many phenomena such as attacking sentinels, intercepting messengers, and not cooperating with Roman soldiers. One or two times was acceptable, but after too many times, Orville was annoyed.

I wrote a letter to Tia to report the situation, explaining that I might arrive a little later than expected. As a result, the other party replied that the situation there was also not optimistic, and the marching and advancement speed was very slow.

Finally unable to bear it any longer, Orville and Tia filed a report, requesting that they be allowed to deal with these harassment problems. As expected, Tia agreed. She was not good at dealing with these things and could not bear to do it.

After obtaining permission, Orville quickly "invited" the heads of various villages and towns in the currently occupied area to his camp. He wanted to hold a proper meeting with these people.

…………

The original plan was to hold the meeting in a tent, but because there were so many representatives from the villages and towns, the tent could not accommodate them all, so the meeting had to be held outdoors.

There were nearly three hundred representatives present, which was just enough for Orville to speak loudly so that everyone could hear him, but not so loud that his throat would break, which was acceptable.

They sat cross-legged on the grass, surrounded by unarmed Roman soldiers, while Orville stood in the center of the field with no soldiers around him.

He got straight to the point and said, "I am Orville Flavius ​​Vespasianus. You probably haven't heard of my name, but it doesn't matter because I don't know your names either.

You need to know two things first. The first thing is that I am a so-called royal descendant. The current Roman emperor is my adoptive father, and I am also one of the military commanders of this war. My words carry some weight and can reach the ears of the emperor. If you have anything you want to ask or say, you can say it after I finish speaking. This may be one of the few opportunities for you to talk to high-ranking Roman military officers.

The second thing is that I can understand you to some extent, because I was also a rebel leader three years ago, but fate is really interesting. It is probably God's will that makes me what I am now, because my God chose my father to be the Roman emperor. If you feel that life is unbearable, there is nothing wrong with choosing to rebel. Those who do not resist are only worthy of being slaves who accept everything. On the premise that I affirm some of your things, I hope to have a good communication with you. "

After saying this, Orville was quiet for a few minutes, and then the people below talked to each other before continuing.

In Rome, he never showed off his royal status or mentioned his former identity as a rebel leader. Most of the time, he just acted as a "Roman citizen". Now was the time when he needed to use these identity labels, so Orville would not hesitate to use them.

(End of this chapter)