Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 225 Performance Display
Orville put a lot of effort into the land survey in England.

Orville mobilized more than 200 officers and soldiers who could read, write and do arithmetic in the army, used his own abilities to select more than 200 relatively reliable and capable nobles from the local area to participate, and then reached a cooperation with Gallic nobles such as Gilles Dress, and transferred 300 Gallic noble sons with basic qualities from there to help. Finally, he found that there were still not enough people, so he forcibly transferred dozens of people from his own hotel system to fill the gaps, and sometimes he even personally helped with counting and measuring the land.

More than 3,000 soldiers were mobilized to assist Ptolemy in his work. The military system, the provincial system and the local aristocratic system all gave the green light to the land inspection. In addition, Ptolemy was overloaded with work. After six inspections, he finally submitted this "Provincial Report" in the early spring.

Compared with the historical "Domesday Book", this report is certainly lacking in content, but let's not mention that it was a document from a thousand years later. William the Conqueror completed this property report in the twentieth year of his rule over England, and Orville completed it in the second year after conquering England. In terms of time, it was much more rushed. Orville was quite satisfied with the current level. Ptolemy's ability was beyond his expectations. He raised the efficiency of these bureaucrats to a level beyond the times, and he also had an advantage - he had dealt with nobles.

Ptolemy came from the Library of Alexandria, which was built with official funding from the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt. It can be said that the scholars in the library were all guests of the Egyptian king. These scholars had a significant advantage over the mainstream scholars of this era who did research and academic work based on their own interests. They knew how to present their research results to others, especially how to present them to the nobles. This was an ability that Orville needed very much now.

Orville was active in Britain as a provincial governor and legion commander. Since he was acting in this capacity, it would be best for him to show his performance to the Senate. This "Report" could serve as proof of his performance.

Ptolemy was very familiar with how to display performance. The statistical book he compiled displayed a large amount of data and information in a clear and logical manner. The Senate and the emperor could know how Orville's governance of the province was by looking at this statistical book.

In other words, when Orville returned to Rome, he only needed to show the Senate two books - one was the new war history written by Procopius, and the other was Ptolemy's statistical book, which was proof of his achievements.

Putting this aside, land inspection and census are also very important for governance. Orwell believes that a qualified ruling body should at least know how many people it is in charge of and how much arable land it has. If it can't even do this, it can hardly be called a qualified ruling body, which is the foundation of governance.

Before leaving Britain, Orville wanted to leave something behind, which was the reform of the official system and governance system. He wanted to do some experiments in the blank British province first. If the effect was good, he would promote the results to the whole country or several related provinces.

He expanded the provincial bureaucracy several times. Under the governor, there was a clear administrative organization - taxation, justice, public utilities, prosecution, religion... basically, the administrative team of the provincial governor, which was almost an empty shell, was supplemented to a barely acceptable level. In addition, the governor was equipped with a special secretariat. Originally, this position was mostly composed of the governor's staff and personal slaves, and their reliability and professionalism were almost unqualified. In this way, at least in Orwell's cognition, the administrative system of the British province was barely qualified and had taken shape.

In addition, he divided the current land of England into more than 30 counties according to the rough division of history. The Roman Empire had administrative agencies in each county, and established circuit courts, tribunes, prosecutors and other positions to try to achieve governance. This is his current change to the administrative system. In addition, he also has to fully consider the feelings of the nobles in various places. He gave each county a seat to participate in the parliament. Each county can send two representatives. In addition, some cities also have additional seats for representatives. These people can participate in the newly established "Great Council of Nobles" in Orwell, that is, the Council of Sages that has been slightly modified by the Romans. Their political demands can be expressed through this parliament, and they can communicate directly with the provincial governors to consult on issues such as taxation, justice, and trade economy.

Rome originally had autonomous councils in various cities, and on this basis Orville added consultation bodies within the provinces, imitating the measures of some medieval countries.

The Roman Empire is different from the Middle Ages, that’s for sure, but there are some similarities as well.

Orwell believed that at least the number of local Romans in Britain was seriously insufficient, and that in order to govern effectively, it was necessary to reach a balance with the locals. Under such conditions, it was natural to cede power to local nobles and part of the newly migrated nobles. We could not expect these people to be powerless and willing to work for the Romans. Achieving a political balance between the two sides was a prerequisite for stability. Otherwise, if nobles led a large group of dissatisfied civilians to rebel every few days, it would take at least three legions to maintain their land in Britain, which would be a very unprofitable deal.

Orville thought about these things and closed the statistics book with satisfaction. He looked at Ptolemy and others and said, "You have done very well. I am very satisfied with your results. If I have promised you anything, please rest assured that I will fulfill it. In addition, you can take a vacation now. I will not assign you any new tasks in the next one or two months. I will ask the kitchen to prepare a sumptuous dinner for you today, and bonuses and other things will be given to you at that time."

With this simple and effective combination of punches, these bureaucrats who originally had some complaints immediately smiled at Orville again. Orville encouraged them again and then sent them away. Only Orville and Ptolemy were left on the field.

Orville said to Ptolemy from the bottom of his heart: "You have worked so hard during this period. If you need any compensation, just tell me. I will satisfy you within the limit."

Orville's humble attitude was more useful than several talents of gold. Ptolemy immediately waved his hand and said, "No need for that. I am your staff member and I am just doing my job for you. Besides, my research this year has been fruitful. By mapping the terrain here, my map has made up for an imperfection, and I have discovered something new, the trajectory of the stars here."

(End of this chapter)