Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 266 Helpless Military System

Bringing the topic back to the military aspect, the founding emperor Ptolemy I may have been unaware of the drawbacks that "military settlers" would bring, but there was really nothing he could do about it.

The foundation of Ptolemy's Egypt was the Greeks who fought with him to conquer the world. In order to protect the interests of the Greeks, successive kings did not introduce too many Egyptians into the core layer of the army. In order to get enough Greeks to join the army, they had to use the military household system to ensure a stable number of soldiers and, by the way, to steadily increase the population of Greek immigrants.

This restriction is not only reflected in the military, but there are invisible barriers to native Egyptians in all aspects. Although the barriers have weakened over the past few hundred years, they still exist objectively. It will probably take several generations to eliminate them. For example, about a quarter of the Egyptian army is Egyptian, which is certainly not negligible, but compared to the fact that the number of Egyptians exceeds the number of Greek settlers by at least six or seven times, this is still very small.

Even if this had been done, Ptolemy Egypt was still unable to fundamentally change the situation due to the weak population of mainland Greece and the huge population base of Egypt. On the contrary, this military system made his military strength extremely weak.

Orville was not Greek, and he did not intend to continue the policy of absolute preferential treatment for Greeks, so Cleopatra was right about this point, and he slightly raised his rating of the other party in his heart. The more smart people there are, the better, provided that one can control himself and not make mistakes.

Rome also faced the same problem. The residents of Rome coerced the emperor and the Senate. Even if he did not consider the local Egyptians, he had to think about the future of his country and learn some advanced experience from Egypt.

After a few seconds of silence, he nodded slightly: "I accept your explanation for the time being, but I also hope that there will be fewer cases of people acting first and asking for permission later in the future. I hate this kind of behavior."

Cleopatra smiled and said, "Of course, I won't do that again in the future."

"It's better this way." Orville didn't believe what the other party said.

While he was chatting with the other party, Trajan came up from the stairs and reported the important matter to Orwell loudly: "Just now, some soldiers tried to land and sneak in under the cover of night, but they were discovered and stopped by Ivar's men. Now they are all captured. What do you think we should do with them?"

Orville wanted to say that he should continue the interrogation and then be detained, but at this time Cleopatra grabbed his arm and signaled with her eyes that she wanted to speak.

Seeing this, Orville shrugged slightly, then signaled the other party that he could speak.

"Excuse me, Lord Trajan, what kind of armor are they wearing? Can you give a brief description?"

Trajan glanced at Cleopatra's hand and frowned slightly, but after Orwell acquiesced, he chose to tell the truth: "Wearing a yellow cloak, a bronze helmet, and scale armor, all with patterns on them, I don't quite recognize the specifics."

"Then can I go with you? These people should be the royal guards. I have some reputation there, maybe I can persuade them." Trajan looked at Orville, and only agreed after Orville nodded: "No problem, come with me if you have time."

Cleopatra went to the temporary interrogation room with the other party, leaving Orville alone there. He took a long breath, turned around and continued his work, preparing a plan to deal with Ptolemy's army.
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The next morning, the Ptolemaic royal family launched another offensive. This time the intensity of the attack was significantly higher than before. The amateur phalanx spearmen were replaced by sword and shield infantry who specialized in mincing meat. The pressure Ivar faced increased significantly.

Orvel didn't want Ivar's army to suffer too much damage, so when he saw that the situation was almost right, he ordered his army to find a way to withdraw and let his own legion soldiers take over.

There is not much to say about the contents of the later part of the causeway. Soldiers formed the so-called tortoise shell formation and blocked one end of the causeway, and not far away was the crossbow position.

After paying the compensation, the soldiers dismantled many of the townspeople's boats or houses overnight, and used the dismantled thick wooden boards to erect as shelters and supports, and then fired at the soldiers on the causeway from their positions. The causeway was too narrow, with a width of three or four meters, which could not accommodate many long-range soldiers, and the enemy was at a disadvantage when shooting at them.

The shooting accuracy of the Roman soldiers is indeed quite touching. Compared with professionals, it is quite unsightly. But this time they don't need to shoot at moving targets. They just need to aim at the position of the causeway and shoot arrows. Their positions are also relatively fixed. After trying a few more times, they can basically find the feeling, and then draw the bow and arrow based on experience. This makes up for the problem of poor accuracy to a certain extent.

The Ptolemaic royal family probably knew that a head-on charge would have little chance of success, so they had a backup plan in place - dozens of ships of various types attempted to land on the beach from all directions of Soros Island. Orville did not have any decent navy, so it could only watch the other side land, and then different numbers of soldiers jumped off each ship.

After gathering and organizing, the soldiers began to attack the positions at the entrance of the causeway. Orville also organized soldiers to fight back, and the two sides began a melee on the beach.

It has to be said that although what Cleopatra did was controversial, it was only controversial to a certain extent. It was definitely beneficial. If she had not burned the ships in Alexandria, Ptolemy would probably be able to mobilize one or two hundred warships to send thousands or tens of thousands of soldiers to the island at a time, instead of requisitioning dozens of ships from nowhere to barely send one or two thousand people to land.

Orville might not be unable to bear it at that time, but it would definitely have to abandon the causeway and retreat to the fortress. The situation would become more passive. Now the communication with the outside world could be said to be cut off, and it was unknown how long they would have to wait. It would be a relief if they could have some spare time.

There were two gifted people mixed in with the enemy's landing force this time. Orville was sure that this was not the entire combat power of a great country, even though Egypt had fewer gifted people than the wild lands because of its high level of civilization.

It is estimated that a large amount of combat power has been dispersed across the country, and the opponent is not sure whether Cu Chulainn, who assassinated Antonius, is on Soros Island. Eighty percent of them have left a lot of gifted people to guard the important personnel. As a result, the opponent tentatively sent two gifted people up this time.

The number and quality of talents on Orville's side were higher than those of the opponent. Needless to say, he did not send all of them forward. He only let Ivar, Stilicho and Trajan, the three who had shown up, deal with the two opponents in a three-on-two ratio.

(End of this chapter)