Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 22 Ladder
After several days of burning, killing and looting in the holy city, the Idumeans left satisfied. Only a few stayed as supporters of John and joined the Zealots.

From what the general said, he was a little reluctant to leave because there was some problem in his territory, so he had to go back.

Simon and General Idumea, who had been checking John, had both left. Now the Zealots jointly elected John, who had saved them and turned the tide, as their leader. The outsider John became the new king of the holy city, but he could not necessarily be called wise.

Although he urged his men to arm themselves and strengthen fortifications as soon as he came to power, and even demolished the palaces of the king and nobles to use as materials for city defense, but like Simon, he hardly restrained his men and allowed them to do whatever they wanted in the city, looting and plundering. Originally, they had been restrained because of the existence of the Priest Party, but now they had no scruples and acted even more recklessly.

It’s not that no one advised John, saying that it was important to organize the army, restore military discipline, and turn around to deal with the Romans. John’s response to this was to keep them silent.

"If the common people are afraid of being robbed, then why don't they join the Zealots and rob others? The Zealots will protect the safety of the Holy City from the Romans, so it's not wrong to enjoy more for this. If the common people think it's wrong, then they can join the Zealots."

Many civilians could not stand it any more and did not have enough force to confront the powerful Zealots, so they simply left the city and went to the Romans. The Zealots regarded these people as traitors of the Parvi people and executed them directly if they were caught.

Even so, it was unable to completely curb the number of people fleeing, and a large number of residents and refugees attempted to escape.

A few days later, in a secret room underground, a group of people sat in their seats, silent.

The first to speak was a man dressed as a priest, with tears streaming down his face. He said angrily, "Those bandits did the most filthy things, turning the entire city into a hostage, killing people and bringing disaster to the holy city. It was a complete disaster."

They are the remnants of the priest party and luckily managed to save their lives, but the situation is now not optimistic.

The other old man braced himself and said, "Now we have to consider what to do in the future. Should we give up this city and our wealth to the Romans, or should we try to make a comeback and overthrow the Zealots?"

Both sides have their own opinions on these two views, but they all agree that they are no longer able to confront the Zealots head-on, and if they go to the Romans, they will not be taken seriously and will at least suffer heavy losses.

Finally, someone who had been silent the whole time said sinisterly, "The Zealots were the first to break the rules, using force and bringing in the Idumaean gang. We can follow their example."

"You mean to lure the Romans? They are still some distance away from here. Along the way are strongholds and towns controlled by the Zealots. It will take March or April to get here no matter how much it costs. Besides, it's winter now, so it's difficult to send troops."

The man gritted his teeth and said, "I didn't mean to attract the Romans. Recently, there has been a new force in the southwest called the Short Knife Gang. They have been robbing and robbing everywhere to gain strength, causing a lot of trouble."

Everyone was silent. Everyone knew that this was a complete gang, even worse than the Zealots.

In any case, in the past year or so, the Zealots still acted according to the rules. Although the organization's members were mainly middle and lower class civilians, their radical ideas of opposing the mixed-blood Herod royal family, opposing Roman rule, and being completely loyal to the law and freedom still attracted the support of many nobles and wealthy businessmen. The group of people in the Short Sword Party was different. Although they claimed to be a branch of the Zealots, and many of them were indeed former Zealots, they were almost completely a warlord bandit force. They were enemies of the Romans, but they did not have a clear political goal at all.

Now he wants to bring in the Dagger Gang. To put it nicely, it's fighting fire with fire, but to put it bluntly, it's letting the wolf in.

Seeing that everyone was hesitating, he continued to persuade them: "How about this, the Idumaeans are now going back to confront the leader of the Dagger Party, Bar. Giora. I am optimistic about the Dagger Party. If the result is indeed in favor of the Dagger Party, we will contact him. The Dagger Party has never concealed its desire for the Holy City and will definitely not refuse.

"Chaos is a ladder," the common people said, wantonly stirring up chaos and destroying the stable situation we have worked so hard to build. This was the case in Herod's time and it is still the case now. They like this, so let's show them the chaos and see how vulnerable they will be to the mob without the protection of the nobles! Especially John! Disaster will come upon him suddenly, and he will be instantly corrupted beyond repair!"

The nobleman's eyes were red, his breathing was heavy, and he was completely out of control, but no one present wanted to blame him.

No one could remain calm if he lost all his wealth and status, or if his entire family was killed or looted. On the contrary, everyone present had suffered this kind of treatment to a greater or lesser extent, and their emotions were aroused as a result.

He became more and more excited as he spoke: "I know this is inviting a wolf into the house, we all know it. But this holy city has been polluted by countless sins. If the Romans come, perhaps this city will usher in a just judgment, and our God will be able to rest assured. If we can't control the situation, then we can take advantage of the conflict between the Daggers and the Zealots to join the Romans. We have created chaos in the holy city, which is a merit to some extent. This is our stepping stone to rise, how do you think?"

Seeing that everyone was somewhat interested, but most of them remained silent, he asked again: "How is it?!!!"

This woke everyone up. They looked at each other's expressions and then raised their hands to agree with this plan.

From beginning to end, the Zealots, the Priests, the Idumeaine, or the Daggers never seemed to ask what the local civilians were thinking, and they only thought about what was best for themselves.
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Turning our attention back to Orville, he received the unsurprising news on Cyprus, an island on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean.

The new emperor Galba died, and another emperor succeeded him, Otto, Galba's deputy and the mastermind of the murder.

Just as Orville had thought on the road, the most powerful Germanic legion was indeed dissatisfied and announced an uprising against Galba.

At this critical juncture, the childless Galba made another mistake and chose a native Roman noble as his heir. Otto, his deputy who had always supported Galba in the hope of becoming heir, was greatly disappointed and decided to murder Galba.

He won over the Roman Praetorian Guard, and after making the death of Galba an established fact, he forced the Senate to crown him emperor.

Now, the new emperor who murdered the previous emperor has to deal with the main force of the Germanic army who is coming in full force.

(End of this chapter)