Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 150 Login
The visibility on the foggy English coastline was very poor. The shepherd on the shore could not see the situation in the sea clearly, but he never paid attention to such things. He just focused on doing his job well without thinking too much.

He waved the whip in his hand to drive the flock to move. Today's work was done and it was almost time to go home. But just as he was slowly driving the sheep, a slender Viking longship broke through the blockade of the fog and came close to the coastline, only a few dozen meters away from him, almost within reach. The shepherd could vaguely see the metal Viking eye helmet of the Viking warrior on it.

This is the southwest corner of England, and there should not be any Vikings here. But now that things have happened, he has no time to think about it. He hurriedly began to drive the sheep away, but when he found that the sheep were too slow and the Vikings had already rushed onto the beach, he didn't care about much and left the sheep behind to escape.

After all, no matter how valuable the landlord's sheep are, they are not as valuable as human life. If the landlord's sheep are lost, they may be sold to the local market as slaves, but if they are caught by the Vikings, it is hard to say where they will be sent to be slaves. Most of them may be killed on the spot or die during transportation. The shepherds have also heard of the Vikings' notoriety and naturally do not want to provoke them.

But just as he was leaving in a hurry, a pair of big hands had already pressed the other person's shoulders.

The unusually tall Luo Luo looked at the other person with a bit of joking, and said in a somewhat unfamiliar plastic Anglophone: "Don't leave in a hurry, right?"

The shepherd swallowed hard and put on a stiff smile: "What do you want, sir?"
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After all, the Vikings were far more talented at sailing than the Romans, and their longships were more flexible. Orville was worried that his heavy galleys would run aground in a place like the English Channel, so he asked Rollo to take people to investigate the situation first.

Rollo had done this kind of thing at least a dozen times, so he was naturally very familiar with it. In about half an hour, the other party caught a guide and apart from the mental damage of the poor shepherd, there were no casualties. The group finally reached the shore safely and officially landed on the British Isles.

After the Romans landed, they did not start looting and collecting food like the Vikings did. Instead, they followed standard procedures and began to cut down trees and set up camp on the spot, preparing to build a camp here. The next step was to build a simple unloading port. This was a move they made to stay in Britain for a long time.

When the Romans were marching and fighting, they often spent a lot of time setting up camp, from as little as three hours to as much as eight hours a day, depending on the situation. These camps were not just for the legionaries themselves.

In fact, the key to their supply and transportation guarantee system is these high-quality villages. Military camps are built wherever they go, and the baggage train behind can be stationed directly in the camp, which greatly increases safety and transportation speed.

Until the era after the decline of the Roman Empire, the barbarians who replaced the Romans in various places liked to use the camps left behind by the Roman legions all over the world. With a little modification, they were very suitable for making towns, castles or military camps. The quality was guaranteed and those who had used them all said they were good.

It was already dusk when the barracks were repaired. Orville asked the reconnaissance cavalry who had been prepared long ago to go out to investigate the situation, while he stayed in the camp waiting for news and at the same time being on guard against possible night attacks or harassment from the enemy.

He didn't think that the Kingdom of Wessex had the ability to mobilize an army within half a day. If it really had this kind of execution ability, the Vikings would probably not be their opponents at all. However, basic vigilance was still necessary. His combat style was to build a strong stronghold and fight a stupid battle, slowly pushing forward step by step.

To deal with these Germans, you don't necessarily need to rely on your frontal combat strength, but on being cautious and not making low-level mistakes. If you really deploy your formation on flat ground and fight a fair game, even if the number of Germans doubles or even multiplies several times, they may not be able to defeat a reorganized legion. This has been proven.

But this may not be the case in special circumstances such as mountains, forests, and swamps. Roman troops of equal or even greater numbers may also be defeated.

If the soldiers in the army were attacked while marching, they might not even be wearing armor and forming a battle formation. They might only have short swords in their hands but no large shields or javelins. At this time, the Germans would not necessarily lose.

Instead of figuring out how to make the Romans defeat the Germans ambushed in the forest, it would be better to ensure that they would not be attacked from the beginning. There were not many serious melee cavalry or shock cavalry in Orville's army, almost all of them were reconnaissance light cavalry.

Once the army set out or set up camp, they would be spread out like a net. If any team of cavalry discovered the enemy in advance, the Romans would be able to prepare for battle in time. The fully prepared Romans were not afraid of any enemy on the island.

In a somewhat tense and solemn atmosphere, Orville spent his first night on the British Isles.
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The next morning, follow-up troops arrived and Orville's legion continued to march, aiming for the nearby Anglo-Saxon town.

The fleet left the port of Caen in Gaul and went straight across the English Channel to arrive at the area near Portsmouth on the other side of the channel. The locals seemed unaware of the arrival of the Romans, and were caught off guard and could not even assemble an army. They could only mobilize the militia and townspeople to put together an armed force that resembled an army.

Without even formally fighting the locals, Orville only sent out a few centuries to suppress the locals' desire for resistance, and the nobles in the town left the city to surrender.

Even though the level of development in the world at this time and space is much higher, the level of development here is relatively backward compared to the European continent. There are only a few thousand people in this town, which is not on the same level as those ancient megacities with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people.

It is relatively peaceful here. There is no need to deal with Viking invasions. It is also far away from the borders of various kingdoms. There is not even a city wall, only fences to deal with wild beasts. The number of residents in the city is less than the number of Roman soldiers. Surrender is indeed the most realistic and rational option for them.

Orville did not make things difficult for those who surrendered. He just asked them to hand over their weapons and armor, and provided some food supplies and non-staple food as military supplies. The rest were not harmed at all. They even set up camp in a barracks built outside the city and did not enter the urban area. In ancient times, this should be considered a strict military discipline.

He only needed to be responsible for military affairs and occupation. The romanization of the remaining occupied areas would be handled by full-time officials, so he didn't need to do two things at once. After making sure that the situation in Portsmouth was stable, he left an auxiliary garrison of about 300 people as a security force, and then continued to advance northward towards the big city of Winchester.

(End of this chapter)