Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 139 Minerva Mutual Aid Society
With the support of a strong national force, combined with Orville's own understanding of the surrounding countries and wars, he was able to find the right remedy for the situation - the Anglo-Saxons on the British Isles used conscripted spearmen and elite Viking-style sword and shield infantry, so he specially organized and trained troops to completely target the enemy, and manufactured weapons and equipment that could completely restrain the enemy, ensuring that he would always have an advantage on the front battlefield.

The conscripted spearmen were used to restrain the spearmen with better training and longer weapons. The Romans were not afraid of those Viking-style sword and shield infantry, as the Roman legionaries themselves could handle them. They were professional soldiers with much better training and weapons than the other side. The Romans had accumulated considerable corresponding experience in the melee of heavy infantry along the Mediterranean coast, and were definitely much stronger than these Britons.

For this purpose, he specially ordered some legion battalions to be equipped with old-style heavy javelins. Although this type of javelin has a short range, it is designed completely for heavy infantry and their shields. As long as it hits the target, it will either kill or injure. It is just right to bring it back and put it into use again now.

Apart from those extremely abstract weapons, most weapons equipped by the troops have special uses. In the era of cold weapons, there are no obsolete weapons, only weapons that are suitable or not. Sometimes old weapons are better than new weapons.

Improvements in cavalry have been difficult to implement so far, due to a lack of sufficient warhorse resources, and the cost of maintaining a heavy cavalry unit is simply too high. Orville does not have the financial resources at present, and can only make do with the job for now, like the cavalry units led by other generals, which mainly rely on mercenary cavalry and light cavalry units, and accumulate technology and experiment with heavy cavalry.

Compared with the hard-to-find elite heavy cavalry units, Orville is more concerned with the construction and expansion of long-range troops.

The Romans relatively did not attach much importance to bows and crossbows. On the one hand, it was due to cultural factors, on the other hand it was due to adapting to local conditions, and on the other hand it was a matter of trade-offs. The golden three-piece set of legion infantry was a dagger, a large shield, and a javelin. This set of equipment has been proven to be quite versatile, and not only the Romans thought so. Qi Jiguang, a great Eastern power in later generations, also believed that sword and shield soldiers should be equipped with weapons such as javelins and javelins to maximize their effectiveness.

When it comes to weapons and equipment, it's more often a matter of trade-offs rather than having to have it all. The trade-off that the Romans made was to tilt resources toward sword and shield infantry. This was related to their citizenship system, as well as complex factors such as cultural background and geographical environment.

So relatively speaking, their ranged troops are not very good, and are positioned more as auxiliary infantry rather than elite forces. It is naturally best when conditions permit. When conditions do not permit, they can only use low-quality ranged troops to make do, and rely on legionnaires or cavalry units to make the final decision.

It was often uncertain whether they would be assigned to slingers, archers, javelin throwers or something else. Orville himself believed that this would cause great trouble to the military deployment of the legion commanders.

This is like a chef cooking. It is much easier to cook according to a set recipe than to improvise with random ingredients. It is obviously unrealistic to expect the auxiliary soldiers of each province or allied country to have various professional skills, but Orville can still make some improvements on his side, such as training a group of standing or semi-standing long-range troops to let the Romans know the combat effectiveness of elite long-range troops.

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There were many problems before him, and Orville had time to deal with them, but he was not in a hurry to do anything. Instead, he temporarily fell into a state of silence, maintaining stability and order while carefully observing the situation and customs in various places in Gaul.

The purpose of Vespasian Governor was to train her ability to deal with problems, not to let her sit back and reap the credit. Orville's current position was a tax collector and temporary governor of the province. He couldn't overstep his authority and do some things too thoroughly. He had to do things within the limits and think about how to deal with the rest, but he didn't have to do too much, after all, he was just a temporary replacement. In addition to maintaining public order and collecting indirect taxes such as trade taxes, inheritance taxes, and slave tax, Orville only did a few urgent things as a tax collector and governor.

Attract Roman immigrants into Gaul, build the port of Caen, and simply reorganize the Gallic garrison.

In addition to this, he also did some things as a businessman. Needless to say, he opened hotels, and he also tried to learn from the development experience of the Christian Church in some places.

Generally speaking, the Roman Empire had strong control over cities, but not necessarily over rural areas. This was a common problem in many ancient empires. This also gave the church room to develop, and the gaps in the rural governance structure gave them an opportunity to take advantage.

Drawing on their development experience, Orville established temples of the goddess Minerva in some places in Gaul and did other things in the name of the temple.

He asked the clergy to distribute some food and daily necessities such as wheat, wine, olive oil, and fish sauce during festivals. At the same time, he regularly organized activities such as "heart-to-heart talks" and "mutual aid groups" in the name of Minerva, encouraging the clergy to find ways to solve the problems encountered by local people in their lives, and also encouraging local people to help each other and solve problems in mutual aid groups.

Strictly speaking, Minerva has a priesthood as the patron saint of the city. Orwell extended this concept to the national level and forcibly interpreted Minerva as the patron saint of the Roman Empire. Therefore, Minerva's believers also need to maintain the stability and order of the empire. However, because the starting point is good and it is not a smear or slander, even Domitia, who is the most devout believer in Minerva, did not raise any objections, but only acquiesced to Orwell's behavior.

Just assume that he, a Roman who changed his career, can't tell the difference between Minerva and the Roman goddess. Since spreading faith in Gaul is in the interests of all Romans, it is acceptable to make some special explanations. There must be a reason. The gods have almost no full-time priests. The clergy are also civil servants. Their attitude is more pragmatic. In addition, Roman polytheism itself advocates rationality, so they are more accepting of these things than Orville thought.

As to why monotheism replaced polytheism and became the state religion of the Roman Empire, various analyses and understandings of later generations are extremely complicated, not much simpler than the decline of the Roman Empire itself. To be honest, Orwell himself was not sure whether the eventual replacement of polytheism was a coincidence or inevitability, but this did not prevent him from doing things that were beneficial to him.

He didn't care whether there were people among the locals who would spread the Eternal One's faith, but he hoped that the locals would be assimilated by the Romans as soon as possible, so he borrowed the methods of Christianity in the future to assimilate the Gauls. It was not complicated. It would not rise to the level of religious reform for the time being, at least that's what he thought.

(End of this chapter)