Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 106 Conqueror

After everyone in the audience calmed down a little, Orville continued to speak.

"I understand that you are dissatisfied with the policies of the Roman Empire, and I admit that these policies are sometimes unfair. However, the era of injustice is over now. It was the dead Roman Emperor Nero who oppressed Gaul and levied crazy taxes. My father is the new emperor of the Roman Empire. He will not impose so many taxes on you. Like the previous hundred years, you will not have a heavy burden, and various rights will continue to be guaranteed. This is the promise I can make to you now. If you behave well, there may be more compensation.

But I have to say that your connivance, acquiescence, and instigation have really annoyed my subordinates, and I am also a little tired of it. No one's life should be wasted on such things. Maybe there were some things that we didn't talk about before, now let me analyze this matter for you.

You let people rob my grain transport team. If you fail, you will die. If you succeed, my subordinates will have nothing to eat. If they have nothing to eat, they will rob on the spot. You will have a lot of food left, and people will still die. Does it make a difference? Why not change your mindset and let my grain transport team go? Then no one will die in this matter. "

At this time, a young man who looked full of vigor stood up and said angrily: "You robbed our food in the first place, we just took it back!!"

Orville did not evade the question, but admitted generously: "Indeed, I understand how the Belgian Governor treated you. He went too far. I will let my father punish him as a token of my apology to you. But there is only so much I can do. Let's not embarrass each other.

You think the Romans robbed, which is not wrong, but there are more terrible robbers besides the Romans. As far as I know, the population of the British Isles has been reduced by a quarter because of those Germanic barbarians. They are the real robbers and butchers. Who kept the Germans out? It was us Romans. The Gauls have proved from ancient times to the present that they cannot stop the Germans.

If I were the governor, I would not impose those taxes, but I am only the general responsible for suppressing the rebels. It is useless for you to argue with me about the source of food, because tens of thousands of people under my command have to eat all the time. If there is no food, we have to make do with local materials. Isn't this more miserable for you? I am not a philosopher who argues with you about who is right or wrong. I am just here to solve the problem. "

Orville's generous admission made the young man speechless. Now it was the Romans who held the weapons, and the Romans also had leverage over everyone present.

They had just finished the autumn harvest in August and now have a lot of food in the granary for the winter. If these warriors are really pushed into a corner, you can imagine what they will do.

"You should know that General Aurelian in the south is rather violent and has a bad reputation. I don't want to solve the problem the same way as him, so I have always strictly controlled my soldiers and wanted to reason with you. However, some of his policies will also apply here, such as exposing and denouncing, collective punishment, etc. Forget about the cross for civilians, I will only punish you with hard labor, but it is also very dangerous, don't underestimate this kind of thing.

I hope you can cherish the opportunity in the future. I promise that your taxes will not be increased, and I also promise that as long as you don't make trouble, the three legions will not harm your fields and food. I personally think this is very generous. General Tiya and I are the two with the best tempers among the dozen or so senior officers this time. You should really feel lucky to have been selected.

"First courtesy, then force. This is very clear. If there are any more problems, then we will have to rely on our own abilities. If you think you can challenge the conqueror's rule, then we can only respond." Someone was dissatisfied and asked angrily, "Just because Rome aspires to rule the world, do people have to submit silently?"

"Of course not. I personally admire your willingness to resist and fight. But resistance requires victory. I don't think you can win now, so I suggest you don't resist. If you do, you will just be civilians coerced by the rebels. If you resist, I can only treat you according to the standards for rebels. Do you understand this?
I personally have a lot of complaints about the Empire's policies, but what can I do? Do you want me to abandon everything I have now and join the rebels with you? I regard this war as my mission rather than my mission. Even the mission should be completed seriously. Soldiers must obey orders. "

He finished his words very politely. Several people raised some questions about the specific scope of "exposing and reporting and collective punishment", and Orville patiently answered them one by one.

"I will let you enter the tent later and report the situation to the officers one-on-one. I am sure that I know that some of you have colluded with the rebels. It will be better for you to confess. I promise that I will let bygones be bygones. But if you are caught by me, you will have to endure it. If you still have private communication with the rebels, I hope you will cut off such contact. Otherwise, it depends on your ability."

After saying this, Orville left the scene. Dozens of officers who had been instructed before took over his work. Each of them took a few local people away for questioning.
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It should be said that Orville's efforts were not in vain. After that, the local people's boycott activities were obviously less, but the grain transport teams were still being attacked, and they certainly didn't expect that verbal attacks could convince them.

He was no longer polite when dealing with these rebels. He would deal with them however he should, otherwise his soldiers would become dissatisfied.

Anyone caught by Orville with involvement with the rebels would be sentenced to hard labor, and their first task was to erect crosses to crucify rebels who had committed extremely serious crimes.

In addition, if a village as a whole was colluding with the rebels, Orville would confiscate 30% to half of their food, and the informant would receive 10% to 20% of the food as a reward, in order to alienate the relationship between the local rebels and the locals as much as possible.

Some people will definitely die because of this, but kindness makes the army unfit for command. If reasoning and a conciliatory policy could completely win over the people of a place, then Orville would not have been sent to work under Tia. He is Tia's external brain in this regard, specializing in doing this kind of dirty work that she cannot do.

The locals had a grudge against the Romans, but generally speaking it was not a blood feud, and Orville also gave them a way out to return to normal. Most people were not brave enough to face death, and facing the imminent threat of death, many people chose to retreat and remain silent. After all, staying alive was the most important thing, and it was not like they couldn't survive now.

(End of this chapter)