Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 17 Best Thought Construction
Half a month passed, and another major event happened in the holy city.

A riot broke out in the city, and the unrest captured the prince of royal blood who was in charge of the public treasury and two other prominent nobles. These people had just been imprisoned, and their allies and men did not even have time to try to rescue them. Their throats were cut in prison.

This incident caused an uproar. Although the royal family had been expelled from the Holy City, the nobles who remained in the Holy City still had a profound influence. The death of three prominent nobles was a completely unacceptable event.

After that, Zealot radicals began to give speeches in the city.

"Those nobles deserved to be executed! Laws and procedures should not be left to traitors. They have always maintained close ties with the Romans and have even conspired to surrender to Rome and give up our Holy City! Brothers, this is totally unacceptable behavior. The priest party has become the running dogs of the Romans in the Holy City. Only we are the realizers of the freedom of the Parvi people, and only we are the hope of this nation! So brothers, follow us, and together we will realize true freedom!"

Such remarks were not uncommon, and some people did indeed turn to the Zealots, whom they disliked very much, because after all, they really wanted to fight the Romans.

Taking advantage of the public opinion of these people, the Zealots forcibly elected a man of ordinary origin to be the high priest of the holy city, and forcibly occupied the temple, driving out all the members of the Priest Party.

Although he had the blood of the first generation of high priests hundreds of years ago, he had long since become a commoner, born in a village near the Holy City. Perhaps stonemason was a very respectable profession for a low-level priest, and the Zealots also arranged for him to have a wife of good family background as a supplement, but in the eyes of the upper class of the Holy City, this was a provocation to them and the beginning of the common people declaring war on themselves.

In the lavishly decorated reception room, several upper-class nobles were discussing countermeasures.

The leader was a worried old man: "My four brothers and I have all served as high priests. I think everyone here knows that only people who have received a complete education can better interpret God's will. I cannot accept the Zealots randomly nominating a stonemason from a village as the high priest."

Another man dressed as a wealthy businessman also said, "I don't have a problem with the poor stonemason, but the appointment of priests has always been our internal affairs. The Zealots have blatantly crossed the line and occupied the temple. Coupled with the death of Antipas, it is obvious that they are preparing for a new war. We have to do something."

This resonated with more people, who were powerful figures in both the political and business circles, and chose to fight against the Romans together with the common people for various reasons. But now it seems that the royal family's choice was the right one.

The Romans would not interfere in their internal politics, would not plunder the city wantonly, and would not occupy the holy city's temple and refuse to leave as they did now.

Internal conflicts, coupled with successive defeats in external wars, have gradually shaken the hearts of these people.

The old man looked around and said, "I know some of you have had dealings with those Romans outside. I am not here to accuse you. I just want to say that after this problem is resolved, maybe we should discuss the issue of peace talks."

Everyone nodded knowingly, agreeing with the old man's words.

John Levi, who was sitting at the end and not very noticeable, spoke up at this time: "Those Zealots can incite the people, and we can do the same thing. Compared with the Romans far to the north, I think the Zealots who are looting in the city now are even more unpopular. How about starting from this point? If you don't mind, I am willing to help organize people and make this happen."

This was also an important reason why he was recruited. Although John Levi was a "foreigner" who was looked down upon by the nobles, his men did not lose many lives, and he gathered many scattered defeated troops along the way. If we only look at the number of people, he is also the top figure in the Holy City. Seeing John Levi so sensible, the old man was quite satisfied: "Let you do this, we will provide you with all the political and financial support, and we will act when the time is right."

John Levi bowed his head and said yes, with a cold light flashing in his eyes.
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After half a month of training, the soldiers under Orville finally took on human form, their physical fitness was basically up to standard, and they could basically complete slightly simpler commands and formations. Valerian was quite satisfied with the progress.

It is just late autumn now, and there is still some time before the spring war. By the time spring comes, these 600 people will be a very qualified Luo Xie Army.

Of course, in addition to training, Orville did not forget ideological construction, and his method was simple and crude - giving money.

This was the blood tax they paid, the price of tolerating the rebels. Perhaps the town would give some compensation to the selected families, but they only had food and lodging provided in Rome, without receiving a penny. These people would not get a share of the spoils either. Orville paid them wages himself, half the standard of the Roman regular army, 110 dinars per person per year, and paid them after each training cycle, and promised that there would be rewards if they won in the future.

Orwell would definitely not give them the same treatment as the heavy infantry, which would make the Roman soldiers dissatisfied with him. The current amount was just right, not too much but not too little. Especially in this year of war, life was difficult. If the men were fed and housed in the barracks, this money was enough for their families to maintain a minimum standard of living and ensure that they would not starve to death in these years.

The price of food here is very expensive now, almost doubling. One dinar can buy 7.3 liters, or about 5.5 kilograms, of wheat. 110 dinars is 600 kilograms, enough to feed a small family.

Orville assured everyone that he would pay them exactly the amount of money they said, and as long as they trained hard and fought bravely, there would be no deductions. In fact, he did just that in the past half month.

It is hard to find a job that pays on time every week and has good treatment. There are risks on the battlefield, but now being a coachman will be robbed by robbers, and being a farmer will be forced to collect food by the Romans or bandits. There are risks in everything, but at least this job will definitely get you paid.

So, after we started distributing money, the training went visibly more smoothly.

With a salary of more than 100 yuan, they did not risk their lives, but they did manage to be serious and responsible during training.

Orville got some commission as a middleman. King Architas II paid close attention to the matter personally and was paid quickly. He used the money to buy some spoils of war that the king didn't need, such as cloth, jewelry, bottles and jars. Architas II was also happy to do him a favor. He was too lazy to pay attention to the whereabouts of these unimportant things, so he simply transferred them to Orville at a friendly price.

He didn't care about the spoils themselves at all. What he spent money on was the fact that "the royal family paid out of its own pocket to buy back the spoils taken away by Rome." His goal had been achieved, and he wouldn't care about the quality of the things like a merchant would.

As a result, Orville basically got these supplies for nothing.

(End of this chapter)