Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 107 Orleans

Due to the shortage of cavalry and the fact that Orville had not seen any reliable mercenaries, Tia lent Orville 500 cavalry from her own legion, allowing the cavalry of both sides to patrol the occupied area continuously. The situation was effectively contained and the advancement speed was much faster.

They easily captured the two towns and then began to attack the city of Reims.

Although this is a formal city with city walls and there are a large number of defenders in the city, Tiya thinks this siege is relatively easy.

Because the last city she attacked was the holy city of the Parvi people, which was specially designed for city defense. The three city walls were built according to the terrain and the facilities were extremely complete. The Romans couldn't even get rid of the bricks on the strongest temple fortress. She had conquered those big cities that were easy to defend and difficult to attack. Reims was at best a medium-to-large city with mediocre city defenses. It had only a mediocre city wall that could not stop the Roman attack.

There was no need to build earthen embankments, repair walls, or make shooting towers. The battering ram was pushed up against the defenders' projectile weapons, and then after about half an hour of chiseling, the wall collapsed. Including the time spent on setting up the battering ram and building the camp, it took a total of one and a half days.

After engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the defenders and capturing the city wall, Tia did not order further attacks on the city, but went to the city wall in person to persuade the defenders to surrender.

"If my army enters the city, what awaits you is only a bloodbath. I cannot guarantee the safety of all civilians, nor can I guarantee that anyone's life and property will not be infringed. In order to show mercy and achieve peace, I am willing to make concessions. I swear in the name of the Flavian royal family that soldiers who are willing to continue to resist can leave the city, and those who give up resistance can drop their weapons and come out to temporarily accept our custody. I will regard those who give up resistance as coerced civilians rather than rebels.

This may be your last chance to escape punishment, please cherish everything you have so far, and have mercy on the residents here, let them be safe, and don't bring war into this peaceful city."

The entire city has been surrounded by the Roman army, and this proposal is still very attractive. Under Tia's persuasion, many people dropped their weapons and walked to the city wall to surrender.

Tia always keeps her word. She took these people away and put them under guard. She let them go after the situation stabilized, giving them a chance.

As for those who still planned to continue resisting, Tia did manage to let them leave safely, allowing them to take the necessary food and weapons and leave through the main gate to other cities to join other Gallic leaders.

The ratio of surrender to departure was about 3:1. The latter were mainly some local Gaul nobles who left with their own private armed forces, mixed with a few real local garrisons, which was not much different from Orville's valuation.

After all, the main reason why the locals took up arms to resist was to protect the safety of their families and property. After Tia guaranteed these things and demonstrated her strength, their enthusiasm for resistance would be greatly reduced. Only a small number of them could persist and fight to the death.

After taking Reims, Orville was responsible for clearing out the remaining rebel forces nearby and consolidating the occupation of the surrounding areas, while Tia led her two legions to continue advancing towards the surrounding cities to expand the results of the battle.

The Gauls had been maintaining a truce with the Germanic Legion before, and were caught off guard by the arrival of Tia's army. They did not arrange many garrisons nearby, and all their military forces were used to confront Aurelian, so there would be no decisive battles along the way, only constant harassment and security battles. Tia would feel very annoyed, but should be able to cope with it.
-
Just as Orville had thought, Tia, who had done enough preparation before the war began, advanced smoothly. In the following month, it successively occupied the surrounding medium-sized cities such as Soissons and Amiens, and was now advancing towards the English Channel. While the war in Tia was advancing triumphantly, Aurelian received disturbing news - Orville's communications were cut off, and he could not get the latest intelligence from there.

He specially sent someone to communicate with Vespa, and the accurate reply he got was that Vespa's communications soldier was also missing, and now the emperor was trying to find out the latest battle report of Aurelian in Aquitania.

This is not good news. Orville could be said to have encountered some accident, but Vespa also encountered the same problem, which means that there is a problem in some section of the transportation line. It is likely that the Gauls have some new military action that has affected the transportation.

However, Orville, who was hundreds or thousands of kilometers away, had no good solution and could only wait for the situation to change and do his job well.

Tia was constantly advancing northward, while Orville stationed his legion in Reims, and the distance between the two was getting farther and farther. He was responsible for maintaining Rome's occupation and rule over the surrounding areas, while advancing along the banks of the Marne River to a limited extent and controlling the land along the river.

Another half month passed before news from the Aquitanian front resumed circulating. As expected, the first piece of news was bad - the Roman army suffered its first real defeat after arriving in Gaul, and it occurred in the city of Orleans, which made Orville feel very bad.

After reading the battle report carefully, Orville suddenly felt that the situation was getting worse. The sense of déjà vu of the script was too strong, making him, a time traveler, deeply uneasy.

The Romans' plan to capture Orleans was almost successful. They used the cage tactic to blockade the city of Orleans. Just as Orleans was about to run out of ammunition and food and was about to surrender, something went wrong.

The chief leader of this Gallic uprising was a Gallic noble named Diviciagus Julius Bagauda. He was capable but far inferior to Aurelian and was constantly on the run.

According to his strategic deployment, he should have abandoned cities such as Orleans, continued to retreat, and organized resistance in his base in the province of Lugden in Gaul, but the situation turned out to be beyond the expectations of the Romans and himself.

A woman of unknown origin seemed to have persuaded him to send a symbolic reinforcement to Orleans with a certain amount of supplies. In theory, this was just a gesture to prevent the defenders in Orleans from giving up hope. No one expected such a small army to break through the Roman blockade.

But miraculously, the army broke through the Roman blockade and sent all the troops and supplies into the city.

(End of this chapter)