Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 163 Differences in Thinking
In the classical era when there were no firearms such as cannons, there were only a few ways to engage in siege warfare. You could either use a battering ram or something like that to break open the city wall, or use ladders and siege towers to climb over the city wall, or dig a tunnel through the city wall from the ground. These were basically the mainstream methods. Apart from that, you could only rely on siege and the hawk-watching tactic to drain the enemy's food supply, and then the enemy would naturally surrender.

To be honest, it is very difficult to take down a truly fortified city in ancient times by force of attack. Most of the time, one can only rely on siege without attacking to wear down the enemy. The defenders and attackers are not in equal conditions, otherwise no one would spend so much effort to build a fortified city.

Orville now understands Tia's irritability when she besieged the holy city. Anyone would be irritable in this situation. Those who attack forcefully have their hearts bleeding, but those who surround without attacking are afraid that something might happen if they are too late. No matter what they do, they will be unpopular.

After carefully settling the accounts, he decided to continue the offensive because he really could not delay any longer as disturbing news had already come from the north.

The main force of the army of the Kingdom of Northumbria in the north was gathering to fight against the sons of Ragnar. King Ella wanted to defeat the pirates in one fell swoop, which obviously overestimated his own strength and underestimated the strength of Ragnar's sons. The result was that the king was captured and executed, and the Kingdom of Northumbria was annexed by the Vikings.

By then, the only kingdom that England could boast of would be the Kingdom of Wessex. Orville knew that the name of the Roman Empire was too conspicuous. He also knew that Ivar the Boneless was not a fool. He might propose to divide the territory with the Kingdom of Wessex. Then Orville would be in danger of being besieged. He did not want to face the cities of Wessex, the Frankish cavalry and the Viking longships at the same time. If that happened, he might have to withdraw in disgrace, which would destroy the dignity of him and the Flavian royal family. He could not accept that.

However, the news that reached Orville was not all bad. About a month after the siege began, another force joined the war against the Anglo-Saxons.

After returning to her own territory, Boudica fulfilled her promise and organized a large army, marching east from Wales and south to Winchester. Due to the rush of time, Boudica could not organize too many warriors at once, and she also knew that too many people would be a burden, so she only selected 3,000 to 5,000 people from the best, and the combat effectiveness of these people should be barely usable.

Orville did not expect these barbarians to be of any use. They were just there to strengthen their morale and serve as labor. He still had to rely on his own elite troops for the decisive battle.

Up to this point, England has completely become a hot land, with everyone fighting in a melee. Each force has its own special interests, and each force is not particularly weak. They are either local snakes or powerful dragons. The situation has gradually become more chaotic.
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Orville would organize a team to attack the city every few days, but this time he did not attack the gap that had been made. Instead, he found another place and started smashing it with a catapult. After loosening the frame, he pulled the battering ram up to hit it until the city wall was knocked down.

After opening up a gap, he would not try to invade the city from the gap, but would immediately shift his focus and start creating another gap, constantly creating new wounds on the long city wall.

His intention was already very clear at this time: since he couldn't break in through one opening, he might as well open a few more openings and fight on multiple fronts. Orville had more troops on his side and was not afraid to do so.

The Wessex people were not slow to react and could easily see the opponent's intentions, but they had no way to stop it because they did not have the ability to destroy the battering ram, nor did they have the force to effectively kill Orville's guards.

Sending talents to kill the guards seems feasible, but in fact the risk is very high. Orville also has talents with strong combat effectiveness, and the number is still three to two. If they show up rashly, they will probably suffer. Orville did not send anyone down to keep an eye on the talents of Wessex and wait for the opportunity to decapitate them. If the Wessex people lose any more talents, the battle will be more difficult to fight. Obviously, the other side does not want to take the risk now. In this case, Wessex has lost the initiative and can only respond to the moves.

As before, the two sides were still engaged in high-intensity small-scale games openly and secretly. Overall, both sides won and lost, but the wounds on the city wall were indeed increasing day by day. The siege lasted for about half a month, and seven or eight relatively weak small wounds were made on the city wall.

At this time, Orville found Astolfo, who had been watching the show nearby, and wanted to chat with him.

He was not wearing armor now, but a more decent robe, which was a more casual outfit for home. He was not nervous or angry at all, as if he just treated this war as a knight's adventure, and he didn't care much about winning or losing.

Orville couldn't help but be curious: "I am attacking your hometown now, won't you be angry and upset about this?"

"I see that your military discipline is pretty good. There is basically no burning, killing, or looting. Since civilians are not persecuted, I don't have a good reason to resent you. You don't seem to understand why I came here. I came here to do good deeds, not to fight. After I came here, I found that I was not really needed here. Instead, my compatriots did some shameful things. They were not friendly to the indigenous people here."

Orville is indeed judging others by his own standards, because as a general and a politician he has to use this kind of thinking to speculate about others, but in fact there are many people who are unwilling to live this way, such as Jeanne d'Acre and Astolfo now.

He laughed at himself and continued to ask, "What do you think will be the outcome of this war?"

"I don't know, and I don't care, but if you really want me to say it, I actually think you will win, because you know that your Roman army is much stronger than the Kingdom of Wessex, and it is logical that the strong will win in the end, that's all.

You've asked so many questions, so I'll ask you a question in return. I heard that you are from Palphi. I've heard from some missionaries in the Frankish Kingdom that Palphi executed a powerful prophet decades ago. Is this true or false?"

Astolfo didn't care about political gains and losses at all. Instead, he began to ask about the prophets and the chosen ones. In his opinion, these legendary stories were the most interesting things.

(End of this chapter)