Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 18 Income
He selected a dozen of his soldiers who were smart, hardworking and simple, and sorted the materials. He gave his soldiers a holiday if they were suitable for local sales, and asked them to sell them in the city, and then gave them some money when they returned. As for those suitable for selling by sea, Orville packaged them and sold them to the Roman merchants who arrived late.

Orville discovered that he might have a talent for being a lackey, and when facing these people, he mainly used the strategy of bullying.

He had more than 600 soldiers under his command. Regardless of their combat effectiveness, the title of "Captain of the Auxiliary Army" was considered a mid-to-high-ranking officer. In addition, he claimed to be the staff of the legion commander and a friend of the local king. In short, he made up a story about someone powerful. When the merchants inquired, it seemed to be true, so they believed Orwell and accepted the goods at a price that gave benefits to the people with connections.

After deducting the few costs, Orville's income was about 225 dinars, which was already a huge sum of money. After all, an ordinary soldier made dinars a year, and an officer like a centurion made about dinars a year. If you only count the income on paper, it is actually a lot.

Of course, they are still far inferior to the children of nobles. For example, the famous Caesar was captured by pirates when he was young. At that time, his family was not considered wealthy among the prominent families, and the ransom prepared for him was about 75 dinars.

Caesar loved reading, lived a luxurious life, was generous and sociable. By the age of 1300, he was said to have owed 1.5 talents. We only need to know that this unit was often used to measure treasury revenue. In that era, one talent was about 11 dinars, which was enough to hire ordinary soldiers for a whole year.
Owing so much money is a skill, which shows how wealthy the family is.

After having the cash, Orville was quite generous. He took this as an excuse to treat the soldiers in the legion to a feast in batches, under the pretext of giving back to his brothers.

After a few interactions, the relationship between Orville and his colleagues in the legion improved a lot. After all, no one can resist money. The Roman culture made them more accustomed to assimilating losers and putting the past aside. Now they are comrades-in-arms, and in the future Orville will also lead others to bleed with them.

Another reason is that they really didn't see much of the Palphian ethnic characteristics in Orwell. Unlike other people of his race, he didn't pray to his gods every day, refused to work one day a week, and had a strange and arrogant attitude towards the Romans. On the contrary, as an officer, he was quite approachable, often talking about Greek and Roman mythology, and was not opposed to Roman customs such as erecting statues of emperors, and was similar to all citizens.

As time went by, they had somewhat forgotten that this was a foreigner without citizenship, or in their opinion, Orville would soon become a Roman citizen like themselves.
-
Some time later, Anna, the former high priest and leader of the priest party, was giving a speech with all his heart.

"The Temple of the Eternal has been defiled by countless evil deeds. This sacred place is now filled with evildoers with blood on their hands. Fellow citizens, is this what you want to see?"

There were also many civilians gathered around him. They all opposed the Zealots. It was not because they were unwilling to be enemies of the Romans, but because the Zealots had a military discipline similar to that of the Liangshan heroes. Over the past six months, bloodshed, robbery and vicious incidents had occurred one after another. The order of the entire city was almost out of control. Most of the people could not stand this situation, but they dared to be angry but not speak out.

Now, in their view, the Zealots were probably not much stronger than the Romans.

Seeing the excitement, Anna began to hint intentionally or unintentionally: "Even the Romans have not trampled on any of our sacred customs, but only looked at the walls of the sanctuary respectfully from a distance. But our own people, the Parphites who grew up under our customs, do whatever they want in the sanctuary, and their hands are dripping with the blood of their people. In short, fellow countrymen, I tell you that perhaps the Romans are the ones who truly support the law, and the real enemies of the law are inside the holy city."

There was no need for him to add fuel to the fire. Those who could listen to the speech here had already been dissatisfied with the Zealots. "We must restore the sanctity of the temple and elect a true leader. We can't let those evil people continue!" The one who shouted this was John Levi. His eyes were red and his breathing was heavy, as if he really had an irreconcilable hatred with the Zealots.

With everyone singing the same tune, the emotions of the civilians were aroused again. Seeing this opportunity, Anna immediately ordered weapons to be distributed to everyone and to arm the new team.

All of this was seen clearly by the Zealots' spies, so when they were arming their troops, a large force suddenly rushed out of the occupied temple and headed straight for Anna and others.

The two sides were on the verge of a fight, and soon it became a mess. At first they threw stones at each other, then javelins, and finally they just started to fight hand to hand, attacking each other with swords and spears.

The Zealots did not expect that the Priests would resort to force so quickly. They were caught off guard, and with the people outraged, they quickly found themselves at a disadvantage after a brief battle. They fought and retreated, and began to retreat towards the temple.

The Zealots did not defend the outer court of the temple, but simply retreated to the inner court of the temple and closed the door. The priests' party arrived shortly afterwards and surrounded the inner court of the temple.

If they chose to break down the door at this time and fight to the death with the Zealots inside, they might not lose, but the former high priest Anna was really hesitant at this time.

He looked at the gate with a wandering look in his eyes. In the end, he did not give the order to attack. He just shook his head and said helplessly: "These people are at the end of their rope. The food inside is not enough for them to eat for long. Soon they will be too hungry to surrender. The sacred holy place cannot be disturbed by swords, so don't use force inside the temple. Just send people to guard it outside."

As a noble, Anna is the leader of the Palphi high-ranking officials. As a priest, Anna is the spiritual sustenance of the common people. Now, Anna has led his men to trap the Zealots. Even if some people below feel that if they delay, there will be changes, they can't say anything more. No one wants to bear the crime of breaking tradition.

Seeing this, John Levi nodded secretly, found a secluded place, handed a letter to his confidant and said, "Go to the desert country in the south, find the leader of the Idumea, and give him this letter."

The confidant was a little confused, but nodded and did as he was told. John Levi watched the other person go away with a smile on his face.

(End of this chapter)