Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 173 Abdicate and give way to talents

"I deeply feel that I am old and weak, and I am no longer qualified to be the leader of the clan, so I hope to entrust the position of clan leader to my younger brother Alfred."

In short, the exhausted Æthelred was ready to abdicate.

Orville was not happy with this outcome, but he had no reason to object. However, for the purpose of ensuring the stability of Wessex, he still made some suggestions.

"Are you sure? The rewards of this position are well worth the hard work. You've done well so far. I have no objection at all if you continue."

Ethelred shook his head slightly. "If you need anything in the future, go find my brother. He is a man with better talents than me, and he will be able to meet your needs better."

At this point, Orville did not try to persuade the other party, but just let him go back. Since the matter has been brought to Orville's attention, there is nothing more to say, and he just has to do what the other party wants.

Now theoretically, the Kingdom of Wessex still exists, and Æthelred has also transferred his kingship to Alfred, which makes Alfred in this time and space also the King of Wessex. However, this king is unlikely to last long, as this will soon become a province of the Roman Empire, and King Alfred will probably become Senator Alfred of the Senate.

…………

Things in Wessex had not actually been settled yet, only the situation near Winchester had been dealt with. But before these Germans, Orville had to take the time to deal with the unexpected situation of the Celts.

There is a deep blood feud between the Celts and the Germans, and it is not easy for Orville to intervene or take sides, but that does not mean he has to let the Celts do whatever they want.

They claimed that they would implement a bloody policy against the civilians of Winchester as well, and would use the blood of the Anglo-Saxons to sacrifice to the gods. Orville rejected this request without a second thought.

Seriously speaking, civilization is a relative thing. The Romans left behind some customs that seem very bloody and barbaric to modern people, such as gladiator and beast fighting culture, but they also couldn't stand customs that were bloodier and barbaric than their culture, such as human blood sacrifice, which is considered a very backward custom by modern Romans.

From a moral perspective, Orville certainly doesn't like human sacrifice, which should have been banned long ago. More importantly, he has to let the Celts know who will be the future ruler of Britain. Orville will not be unreasonable in responding to their reasonable requests, but understanding and tolerance does not mean tacitly allowing them to interfere.

He quickly left an order to Belisar: "Prepare a sumptuous dinner for those Celts. Thirty percent of the spoils harvested from the city can be distributed to them and handed directly to Boudica. Those people can be responsible for the distribution themselves. However, they are not allowed to enter the city, nor are they allowed to plunder at will. This is my bottom line."

Belisarius nodded to Orville and went downstairs to begin making arrangements.

Not long after, Belisarius came back with a headache on his face and reported the situation to Orville: "Those people are very dissatisfied and say that the Germans must pay with blood... I tried to calm them down, but the situation is not optimistic."

He was a kind-hearted man and did not want such casualties to happen, so even though he and the Anglo-Saxons were enemies on the battlefield not long ago, his current position was slightly biased towards the Wessex people. Orville nodded expressionlessly: "Let the army wear armor and take weapons and stand on the city wall. If they insist on entering the city to defy us, then we will start a war."

Obviously, it was necessary to strike back at the other side. Orville needed helpers, not ancestors. If the Celtics here were really so stubborn, he could only resort to force to solve the problem. No one wanted to go to this point, but if necessary, they had to fight.

…………

Orville put on his armor and came to the wall of Winchester surrounded by his guards.

Now the army has basically assembled. He can clearly notice that his troops are a little confused. They don't quite understand why the friendly forces that had just fought side by side suddenly started fighting. But the misunderstanding did not prevent them from obeying orders and putting on weapons and equipment to come to the front line.

He stood on the city wall and gave a speech to the soldiers around him.

"My dear brave soldiers, I understand your confusion and bewilderment, but everything we are doing now is necessary. What we are doing is to expand our territory and extend the borders of the empire to new lands, rather than being satisfied with killing and plundering like the barbarians here. The reason we are confronting these Celts now is that these people have defied the authority of the Roman Empire and ignored my orders. They are determined to plunder cities and massacre civilians.

Winchester has become part of the Roman Empire. I am naturally responsible for the civilians here. The Celtic's behavior is unacceptable. This is the fundamental reason why I chose to draw my weapon. Do you remember the Teutoburg Forest Massacre? This happened because the local barbarians despised our authority. We must prevent it in advance and not accept any contempt for our authority. If the Celts choose to raise their weapons against us in order to satisfy their desire for destruction and revenge, then they are naturally enemies of the Roman Empire. "

These words and phrases might be a little hard for the soldiers to accept, but Orville was mainly speaking to cheer himself up, and the effect was quite good for him.

He stood on the wall, staring at the Celtic camp in the distance, paying attention to the movements over there.

The Romans were ready to fight, but the Celts were not so determined. They were not professional soldiers, their will to fight was not that strong, and they did not have a deep hatred for the Romans. At the same time, they knew one obvious thing in their hearts.

If a real fight breaks out, they will definitely not be the winners. If Boudica had brought all the so-called 60,000 people over, they might have dared to give it a try relying on their numbers, but now the number of Romans is almost three times theirs, and it is obvious that their military quality and equipment level are several levels higher than theirs.

Although they were very dissatisfied with Orville's decision, they were not determined to have a real fight. After weighing the pros and cons, the Celtics finally backed down first and retreated quietly.

Orville silently followed the Celtics' actions, and in fact, he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

He is not afraid if a real fight breaks out, but the fewer the enemies, the better. He does not intend to waste too much time on the Celts, provided that the Celts surrender and know the limits. The result is acceptable now, and Boudica is not a stupid person.

(End of this chapter)