Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 259 The Temptation of the Kingdom

Orville roughly explained the current situation to the other party, basically hiding nothing. After thinking about it, a hint of coldness flashed in the other party's eyes.

"In my opinion, this matter doesn't seem to be very difficult to resolve. Don't you have the most powerful warriors in the world? Just find a chance to assassinate Antonis, and then take advantage of the chaos in the enemy's camp to set fire to it..."

In Cleopatra's description, a plan that sounded good was designed.

To put it bluntly, it was a decapitation operation to first kill the enemy's leader, and then create chaos in this city with a population of hundreds of thousands, making it difficult for the garrison to mobilize. Then, taking advantage of this opportunity, a small group of elite troops were used to attack the garrisons scattered throughout the city, thus weakening the enemy's combat effectiveness once again.

After that, Cleopatra suggested that Orville lead his army to capture the fortified island of Soros near the port of Alexandria. This island was connected to the port of Alexandria by only an embankment. There were cliffs and built camps on the island, making it quite easy to defend and difficult to attack. All they had to do after that was to hold on and wait for help.

By the time the news reached Rome, Orville had already become an established fact. Vespa would definitely side with Orville, a family member. Once the pressure from the emperor subsided, he would be able to escape unscathed.

Obviously, this plan was very risky - the assassination might fail, the legions under Antonius might get out of control, and King Ptolemy might overturn the table. At the very least, he might risk everything to besiege him, or at worst, he might directly rebel against the empire.

Cleopatra naturally understood Orville's concerns. She walked closer to him, leaned over and whispered, "Thank you very much. There are some things I have thought about carefully for a long time. This is one of them. I have something that you will definitely be interested in."

She pulled out a rolled scroll about ten centimeters thick from the blanket where she had previously hidden herself, then spread it out on Orville's desk and slowly unfolded it.

It was a very accurate map of Alexandria. The stuff Orville had obtained before could not compare with this map at all. Moreover, a huge amount of information was marked in tiny handwriting on it. A cursory glance revealed that they were all military secrets - the location and time of military patrols, the flow of people on each street, the location and details of military camps and warehouses, and even a number of prepared safe houses were marked.

"The eunuch Berdinos simply did not understand the importance of knowledge. Under his rule, the Library of Alexandria lost its glory. He also did not consider how much valuable knowledge and talents there were in the library. This gave me the opportunity to use them, and one of the results is now in front of you."

Orville looked at the other party deeply - in fact, the other party was quite well prepared, with seduction and picture offering, which took care of both physiological and political needs.

“Is the above information true?”

"There are still many of my supporters in the library. They are helping me update the information. The map you see was just updated five days ago. I am willing to bet my life on their loyalty. If you can trust them, this is true."

Orville didn't say anything, but just stretched out his hand and touched the other person's wrist, and the corresponding information came into his mind.

[Cleopatra Thea Philopator, the royal family that dances with long sleeves]

Diplomacy: 17》30
Military: 8》9
Management: 10》18
Strategy: 14》20
Knowledge: 15》26
The attributes seem to be very powerful, and the total attributes even reach 103 points. For reference, the total attributes of Trajan, who is now in his growth period, are 95, and the total attributes of Alfred, who was praised as a god in later generations, are 102, which are slightly lower than her. Except that the military is slightly inferior to Tia's strategy, there are no shortcomings. This is not a fatal flaw for a ruler. As long as you can know people and assign them to the right positions, it is not unacceptable not to be unable to fight. Not all nations are like the Romans, requiring rulers to be "triumphant generals", and the duties of rulers may not include being able to personally command the army to fight.

Seriously speaking, this is not the attribute panel that a king of a fallen country should have. In fact, many monarchs of the Ptolemaic dynasty were quite capable if you look into it. It was mainly because the kingdom's national strength was limited by long-term internal friction and meaningless foreign hegemony, and then they were suppressed by the rising Romans.

All in all, referring to the other party's attribute values, Orville believes that the other party still has basic ability to judge people, otherwise it would be impossible for him to survive in the court struggle until now.

The next step is to consider whether to accept the other party’s proposal and follow the other party to bet everything on this gamble.

This time, Orville frowned and pondered for a long time, carefully weighing the pros and cons, wondering whether he should follow Cleopatra's advice.

He knew that he probably only had this one chance. If he didn't seize it, Egypt would miss out on his camp for a long time. More importantly, he didn't know if Vespasian could handle the problem of Antonis in his lifetime. It would be even more troublesome to raise a tiger to cause trouble.

Taking into account Vespa's limited life span and Tia's rather troublesome succession issue, Orville felt that he had to gamble. He needed the land of Egypt as his base. The natural endowments of Britain or half of Gaul did not support him in fighting against potential enemies of the Senate, but Egypt was different. If Rome did not have other provinces to provide continuous transfusions, Egypt would definitely be much richer than Rome itself.

He needed this land, and this land was obviously irreplaceable, and there was no other place more suitable than here.

The eastern Mediterranean is generally richer than the western Mediterranean. There are three potential options: Syria, Egypt, and the coast of Asia Minor. Syria has strong border defense pressure, Asia Minor is not so well endowed, and Egypt is not only richer than the other two, but also does not have much border defense pressure.

All in all, this is the best piece of land, and it is attractive enough to Orville to make him willing to take the risk.

Leaning his head on the table, tapping his knuckles regularly, Orville gave the other party a relatively affirmative answer after calmly thinking: "I have to admit that I am personally tempted. Tomorrow I will discuss the feasibility with my staff and generals, and I will give you a reply then. Wait for tomorrow's news."

Having said that, Orville is their commander after all. Unless something he agrees to is really not feasible at all, the people below him generally won't object. They will just list the difficulties and then try to help Orville solve the problem.

Cleopatra was also aware of this, and she bowed to thank him: "I will try my best to prepare and cooperate with your actions, and please provide me with shelter in this short period of time."

"Of course, as long as you don't forget the agreement between us." Orville was not afraid that the other party would break the contract. Her foundation was too weak, and once she became king, she could only rely on the power of the Romans.

(End of this chapter)