Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 242 Army Expansion
In an era when political marriages have become the norm, it is commendable that Vespa listens to his children, but Orville has no intention of asking Vespa to revoke his decision.

He knew that Tia had sacrificed far more than he did in this matter, but Tia seemed to not care about the potential consequences and expressed her feelings generously and proactively. Vespa had also overcome difficulties and acquiesced and even expressed his support. If he continued to be hesitant, it would be too unmanly.

So he put aside the questions in his mind for the time being, and said to Tia, "Of course I have no objection either. Let's go according to father's arrangement. I will take care of things in the next few days. Can I invite relatives and friends to be witnesses?"

Tia let out a long sigh, and then hurriedly said, "Of course, no problem. I will do the same. Many family members will come. That's it. I'm going to sleep first. Diana (Moon Goddess Artemis) and Hypnos (God of Sleep) bless you with a good dream."

After she finished speaking, without waiting for Orville's reply, she disappeared in front of Orville and went into her room. Orville was not interested in embarrassing others, so he just smiled and shrugged, then returned to his room full of documents.

………………

In Orville's plan, the one and a half legions of regular troops with seven or eight thousand people are not enough, because most of them are pinned down in Britain, so he wants to expand the army. Now he needs a suitable reason, which is not difficult to do.

Originally, these soldiers he recruited at his own expense were nominally used to deal with the Gallic rebels. The Senate was happy to see the suckers voluntarily spend money to fill the military expenses, and these troops would not stay in the homeland and posed little threat to them, so the senators approved Orville's request without much effort.

After the Gallic War, Orville did not return to his homeland but continued to march into Britain. The army followed him to fight. Now he wanted to expand the army. The reason he gave to the Senate was that the troops were seriously insufficient and more soldiers were needed to maintain the British province at this stage.

Vespa approved Orville's request, but the army and power were not given to Orville himself, but to the position of Governor of Britain.

After returning to Rome to report the situation, Vespa put a stamp on their achievements, allowing Orville to carry out various reforms and experiments in Britain, and temporarily handed over the military and political power to the Governor of Britain.

Generally speaking, ordinary provinces do not have garrisons. Even if they are stationed for the purpose of maintaining stability, there is a division of power between the governor and the legion commander. But there are a few exceptions - the Syrian province where the main force of the Eastern Legion is located, the Germanic province where the main force of the Germanic Legion is located, and the Mercian province where the main force of the Danube Legion is located. Due to external pressure, the governor of these border areas must grasp the military and political power, so the governor also serves as the army commander.

Now the province of Britain also has this power, allowing the governor to hold military and political power, while allowing Orville to recruit a second legion in the mainland to suppress the locals and keep an eye on the Franks on the other side. If Britain is an important province, this matter may cause great controversy, because it is equivalent to adding a powerful potential warlord. However, the province of Britain is just an inconspicuous place, and this policy is at best "for convenience." Two legions cannot accomplish anything big. While giving the governor of Britain great power, Vespa announced that the taxes of the province of Britain would not be collected to the central government for the time being, that is, the local finances would be self-managed.

Orville asked Ptolemy to work hard to compile statistics for Britain. Vespa also had a general understanding of these contents. In his opinion, there was not much money to be made from these people, and it would be good if they could not make a loss. After Orville told him, he simply chose to give up power for a few years and let Orville do it on his own. In short, he just didn't want to lose the province in the end. The province would take care of its own finances. Orville could use his property to cover the small amount of money, and he could keep the large amount himself or continue to build the province. He would not interfere too much.

Such a casual policy, not only did Vespa agree to it, but there was also not much resistance from the Senate. Orville felt very strange at first, but after listening to Vespa's analysis once, he could roughly understand it.

In their eyes, the Mediterranean world is the most important place, which means that Narbonne Gaul in the south of Gaul is the most important Gaul land, while Aquitania and Lugden Gaul in the north are not so important. The situation in this world is slightly better, but they do not pay enough attention to the land in the north. There are a total of fifty senator seats in Gaul, thirty-five of which are in Narbonne Gaul, and the remaining fifteen seats are allocated to the other three provinces. It can be said that it is completely unequal.

Therefore, when the Gallic uprising occurred, only the residents of the province of Narbonne Gallia hardly participated in it, because the locals had been basically assimilated and accepted by the Romans, and they identified themselves more as residents of the Roman province than the Gauls.

Under this premise, the Senate did not care so much about the other provinces of Gaul. It was certainly an achievement and honor for Orville to take over Britain and establish a province, but in their opinion, the actual value was not great. Apart from those export commodities that could be replaced, another major role of Britain was to ensure stability in northern Gaul. They did not even care much about the Gaul province in the north, otherwise there would not have been resentment and uprising in the local area. How could they care about what happened in Britain now?

At the same time, there was another problem. Britain's population and resources were relatively weak. The senators viewed this province with the traditional Roman political governance structure. To put it bluntly, the Roman bureaucratic system was quite inefficient. In their eyes, this island with a population of one million people could not collect much money.

Therefore, the province of Britain became something dispensable in the eyes of the Senate. It would be best to have it, but it would have no impact on them if they didn't have it. After all, northern Gaul and Britain were both imperial provinces, and they didn't have much industry there at all. It was up to the emperor to do whatever he wanted with them, as long as he didn't have to pay any money.

Orville was of course happy to see the elders' casual attitude. He seized the opportunity and began to recruit soldiers in his native land again. This time he had become more or less famous. Many landless poor people and second sons of self-employed farmers with unstable lives chose to participate in Orville's recruitment activities because they knew that Orville was very generous and was never stingy with bounties or retirement pay.

Two or three thousand people are certainly not a small number, but that is the case in Italy, which has a population of millions. Orville personally presided over the conscription as before, and recruited these soldiers with guaranteed quality and quantity in just a few days.

(End of this chapter)