Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 191 Provincial Planning
The Carolingian royal family had just taken control of the country, and its prestige and power were still at their peak. King Charles had been leading his warriors to expand the country's territory since he was young. Most of the nobles present had fought under him and recognized this capable and warlike king.

Now that the king has issued his order, which is very reasonable, of course not many people will openly oppose him.

After all, asking the nobles to fight to the death against the powerful Romans requires complex distribution of interests and many promises. However, when dealing with barbarians who are inferior to the Franks or other Germanic peoples, most nobles would not have much objection. They are just worried that they will get less when the cake is divided. This is a small internal contradiction.

King Charles had always been a fair king. The nobles knew that as long as they obeyed the royal authority, the royal family would not reduce their rewards. After they had such trust in the royal family, the king's orders were quickly passed down to the armies of various nobles. In a short period of time, the large-scale army left the Rhine River and headed for the undeveloped land east of the Frankish Kingdom, preparing to expand the territory of their own kingdom.

The Romans on the other side of the river could not have failed to notice such a big move, but they acquiesced to it and did not try to organize the army again to take advantage of the empty Germanic border defense to attack the other side's border, because the gain would outweigh the loss.

What the Romans want now is to recuperate rather than go to war with the Germans on all fronts. As long as this goal is achieved, it will be fine. Emperor Vespa does not plan to recruit more troops to fill the German defense line. The empire needs some time to recover after the civil war, and expanding the scale of the war will not be good for them overall.

It was precisely because of this that King Charles dared to boldly transfer most of the troops at this time. He believed that the Romans did not intend to escalate the war, and the results showed that this was indeed the case.

With this unspoken tacit understanding, the two sides finally got through the crisis smoothly. As for the subsequent Roman occupation of Britain or the German encroachment on the east, they fell into the category of "regional conflict" and would not have a fundamental impact on the situation in the entire Western world.

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Turning his attention back to Orville, he had been paying attention to the situation on the front line and had received the news relatively early, so he was relieved.

The local nobles would not immediately behave themselves, but he had been prepared for this. As long as he did not face the pressure from the Franks directly, he would be more confident in handling local affairs.

Putting aside whether the Romans were more advanced than the Germanic people who were a mixture of feudalism and tribalism, Britain was in a state of division and warlord infighting before the Romans landed. There is no doubt that normal people desire stability and peace. The Romans could bring these and did not exploit the locals too much. In fact, these civilians did not care so much about where the rulers were noble lords.

Now his army is working with the locals to build various small fortresses on the east coast of England as a defense against the Vikings. Some officers in the army have advised him that this is a tiger breeding for trouble, saying that the defense line against the Vikings may also become a fortress against the Romans, but he himself does not think that this matter is too worrying.

After all, these Germanic people now rely on farming as their main livelihood and grazing as their secondary livelihood. The people can escape, but the land and livestock cannot. The small fortress he built for the Germanic people was not built according to the standards of a long-term fortress. In other words, there was no food inside, and the defense level could not withstand proper siege vehicles and siege weapons. It could only delay the Vikings who lacked equipment.

The idea behind building these fortresses was to hold them back. The Romans or the local strong central army would be responsible for driving the Vikings away. If the locals revolted, they would not have such a strong army to deal with the Romans. They could trap the Romans to death or burn the fields and just leave. Anyway, the locals would have no way to deal with them. However, these were just theoretical talks. The actual implementation would depend on the actual results. Orville believed that the gap between theory and practice would not be that big, so he gave the order.

Since the locals have not yet shown any willingness to resist more vigorously, he has taken the opportunity to start laying out the bureaucratic system.

Although Vespa's appointment had not yet been made, his advantage was that his father was the emperor, so he had a lot of room to maneuver outside the procedures. In the secret talks before the expedition, Vespa had almost told him everything. As long as he could handle the British affairs well, he could become the governor of Britain. Vespa's promise to his family was certainly not false, so before the appointment was made, he could design the administrative structure of this province in the name of the emperor and as an officer.

Anyway, all the Romans here were his subordinates and there were no outsiders. Even if someone (such as Procopius) saw that Orwell was acting on his own, they would not tell anyone, and at most they would criticize him in their hearts. This was his biggest advantage over many generals. Others who did these things would definitely be suspected of treason by the emperor, and would either be urgently recalled or put on ice in the future. If they met an emperor who was narrow-minded and suspicious, they might suffer a bloody disaster.

First of all, we should clarify what the "province" in the Roman concept is. This province is not quite the same as the province in China and is determined by very complex reasons.

The Latin word "provincia" literally means "the scope of authority of a law enforcement officer". A "province" is the scope of authority assigned to an official and recognized when exercising administrative power. Probably because of the remnants of the customs and cultural concepts of the city-state era, the Romans showed some characteristics in all aspects.

Specifically, one doctrine that gained favor was that the provinces were the "spoils" (praeda) of the Roman people, to be exploited as the situation dictated.

The Roman Empire after Augustus recognized this problem and made some repairs, but the overall effect was not good. The power of provincial governors was still unrestricted and the provincial bureaucracy was still severely shrunk.

Orville did not like this situation, so he once again "faked an imperial decree" and announced that the number of treasurers, auditors and legal officers in the soon-to-be-established British province would be increased. The number would not be increased slightly, but would be tripled on the original basis.

The increased number of people is mainly the most basic itinerant statisticians, itinerant judges and tribunes. These people are grassroots bureaucrats who do practical work. Even if the number is tripled, it probably will not be much.

At the same time, he made a decision that went against his ancestors - to set up a special banking institution, separate the bank's power from the temple, and let full-time bureaucrats do these tasks.

(End of this chapter)