Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 138 Resources and Military Statistics

After nearly a month of adjustment and adaptation, the situation in the province of Lugden in Gaul has basically returned to normal, various problems have been temporarily suppressed, military control in many areas has gradually been lifted, and production and life have gradually returned to normal.

It was time for Orville to think about the most important military issue. The first step was to take inventory of the various strategic materials he had.

Let’s start with the most important precious metals. Gaul has gold and silver mines, and they are relatively well developed, but most of them need to be shipped to Rome, and the governor can only use a small part of his share to subsidize the finances.

After comprehensive calculation, it is probably enough to cover the maintenance costs of various post stations, banks (temples), mines, and public facilities in the province, almost not a penny more or less, just right.

The accountants were so good at calculating accounts that Orville could hardly stand up to them.

The next step is the statistics of metallurgical capacity.

Including the blacksmiths who could be requisitioned from Gaul and hundreds of blacksmiths attached to the army, he could gather about four hundred blacksmiths, with varying qualities. The blacksmiths attached to the army could basically forge all the necessary equipment, while those requisitioned would depend on their abilities, and there were all kinds of people.

Basic ores such as copper and iron are produced in Gaul by mines, some of which are state-owned industries. They are almost enough to meet the demand and do not require much extra cost except for operation and maintenance costs.

Gaul has not yet introduced Rome's advanced blast furnaces in large quantities. Many places still use the traditional and relatively backward block ironmaking technology, and the iron production is relatively small. At least in Orville's opinion, it is not enough to meet the demand.

Therefore, it is necessary to build iron smelters in Gaul and improve the level of the metallurgical industry as much as possible within the limits.

In addition to iron, another important military resource is war horses. Orville made a summary of the number of war horses seized and confiscated, and it was still not a satisfactory level. There were only three to five hundred horses left in Orville's hands, which was only enough for him to play with and equip a cavalry unit of reconnaissance auxiliary nature.

He intended to use the armored cavalry in actual combat, which required taller and stronger war horses. After screening, he estimated that only a small half of them would be qualified, which was barely enough for his experiment.

Gaul has been a horse-producing place since ancient times, at least better than Italy, and has produced some cavalry units of decent quality. Auvers and the local nobles have reached a reconciliation and cooperation on the surface, but in order to get these people to work, it will require some diplomatic efforts, and they will have to use coercion and inducement.

If we only look at Britain, there are basically no cavalry units there, and the strength of these cavalry units is enough to crush them, but it is hard to say what will happen to the Franks, so it is best to be careful. He regards the Franks' top cavalry units as his imaginary enemy.

In addition, food, high-quality timber and arrows can also be considered strategic materials. Gaul generally has no shortage of the former two, and it is more than enough to supply an army of 20,000 to 30,000 people.

The latter was a bit more troublesome, because Orville lacked high-quality crossbow craftsmen, and in addition to crossbows, spears, long and short iron swords, armor, javelins, etc. were not abundant, and all of these needed to be made by blacksmiths, which was not realistic to complete at the same time, so they needed to prioritize. The first thing Orville requested was a spear. On the one hand, this weapon was simple to make and very effective, suitable for equipping auxiliary troops and Gaul locals. On the other hand, after Orville's inspection and inquiry of Rollo, Britain was also more suitable for using spears.

When Rollo was looting, he also plundered several small kingdoms in Britain, and had a certain understanding of the military situation there. Generally speaking, it was not much different from the Seven Kingdoms era of England in later generations, and the soldiers were divided into three types.

The nobles' private soldiers are elite sword and shield infantry and cavalry, the more elite conscripts use spears and a few long swords and axes, and the lowest-level peasant soldiers have all kinds of weapons.

They have always been troubled by the Vikings. The larger feudal states found it difficult to deal with such small, mobile and highly organized troops. They could not catch up with them, and they were not sure they could defeat them.

After decades of love-hate relationship, the Vikings made the Anglo-Saxons change their combat mode, and they carried out some minor military reforms based on the Vikings.

Their backbone forces, that is, those elite sword and shield infantry began to imitate the Vikings' practices, organizing shield walls and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the Vikings. In this way, their elite troops were actually evenly matched when fighting against the Vikings, and who won or lost depended on the situation. Due to their physique and combat morale, the Vikings won slightly more times.

This type of short-armed sword and shield infantry actually had no advantage when facing phalanx spearmen head-on. The reason why the Vikings were able to defeat the conscripted spearmen was mainly because they had the advantage in mobility and organization.

In the era of cold weapons, spearmen are always the most cost-effective type of troops. They are simple to train, cheap, and easy to produce results. They are good against both cavalry and infantry. The only disadvantage is that they are afraid of long-range projection and flanking. These problems can be overcome through command and coordination of arms. As far as Orville knows, Britain's conscripted spearmen have not yet begun to "involve".

In fact, a weapon about two meters long is enough to restrain cavalry. As for why the weapons of later generations of spearmen were so outrageously long, often four or five meters, it was mainly due to the infantry themselves.

An inch longer, an inch stronger. While one side uses a two-meter spear, the other side is eager to use a three-meter spear to gain the advantage in attack distance. Then, when the opponent sees that they are at a disadvantage, they start using a three-and-a-half-meter spear instead. As a result, the mainstream spears in the battle formation become exaggerated models of four or five meters or even longer.

The Romans used sword and shield legion infantry and did not take the lead in rolling up their spears. The intensity of the Britons' war was relatively low and there was no need to roll up the length of their spears. If the historical process had been followed, Europe would have started to roll up the length of their spears crazily several hundred years later. Orville slightly accelerated the process and made longer spears for his soldiers, so that when they engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy on the British Isles, they would find that they had the upper hand in frontal close combat.

Vespa did not provide himself with much real material and military support, but Orville did have the strong national power of the Roman Empire behind it, and its productivity and technological levels were relatively advantageous compared to the surrounding countries.

In order to maintain this huge and vast empire, the empire's legion infantry had to deal with enemies from all over the world with completely different customs and combat modes. The Romans chose to remain unchanged in the face of ever-changing situations. The legion infantry, which was widely used and had no obvious shortcomings, was a one-trick pony that could be used everywhere. However, Orville's idea was somewhat different from the mainstream of Rome.

(End of this chapter)