Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 271 Gambling
Finally, after an urgent discussion, Berdinos and others decided to deploy more than 10 million people, not only to guard against the 12th Legion, but also to guard against more legions that might follow. At least 30,000 people would be enough to make them feel at ease.

There were three gifted people going with the army. Previously, there was only one gifted person supervising the battle on the front line, which was really not enough. At least four people were needed to have some deterrence and margin.

This inevitably left Alexandria with a gap in its military strength. Ptolemaic Egypt handed over all national defense affairs to the Romans in batches, and only maintained an army of more than 60,000 people. A large part of them had to guard against peasant uprisings in various places and the northward migration of Nubians near the southern border. Although Alexandria was the absolute capital in political, economic, and cultural terms, the number of troops stationed nearby was only about 30,000. After this transfer, there were only more than 10,000 troops left.

This is still an advantage, but it is much smaller than before. Minus the loss of troops during this period of time and some temporary miscellaneous troops, the number of troops on the other side is now only 13,000 to 14,000, which is about three times that of Orville.

The gap is huge, but if you look into it more deeply, it's not that they can't win.
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Mucinus's appearance in Parfit was not accidental. Orville had secretly sent a letter to him before the war, asking him to pay attention to the developments in Egypt and the emperor's orders. Once the situation changed, it would be best not to waste time and avoid mobilizing border troops slowly, which would increase the defense risk of the Syrian province and the risk on Orville's side. He took his small team with him and temporarily took over the command of the 12th Legion.

Mucinus was also quite receptive to the advice. After receiving the letter, he stayed in Antioch and paid close attention to the situation in the two places. After receiving the emperor's order, he was well aware of the principle of speed in war and knew that he could not waste a moment, so he traveled day and night to Parphi.

Orville had previously informed the commander of the 12th Legion and explained the situation. In addition, with the emperor's order letter, the other party handed over his military power without much delay. That's why this incident happened suddenly. The 12th Legion suddenly attacked Egypt, and Alexandria hastily dispatched troops to support it.

Orville had been observing the enemy's troop movements on Soros Island. The high tower had a good view, and the scale of this incident was so large that it could not be hidden at all. Orville noticed that their military deployment had become somewhat chaotic, and only the garrisons on the island in front of him were still intact.

If he could defeat the enemy forces on these islands before they could redeploy, and then take advantage of the situation to attack Alexandria, the result could not be bad.

While thinking about the various possibilities of military issues in her mind, Cleopatra reached out and handed a somewhat heavy and rough wooden barrel back to Orville.

"This thing called a telescope is really magical. Is it some kind of magic or the work of a gifted person?"

"It's just a simple optical problem. You can ask Ptolemy. He should be able to explain it to you after thinking about it."

Orville explained briefly and carefully put his telescope into his arms.

The principle of this thing is not difficult, at least Orville, who has hardly studied physics, can understand it. It's just that the materials are really hard to find. There were almost no such transparent and suitable things in ancient times.

There are still many impurities in glass these days. Orville also wanted to make pure and transparent glass like other time travelers to make a lot of money, but he tried many times with various methods he remembered but still had no results. He could only say that it might take a few more years of trial and error. In the end, he put the matter aside for the time being, spent money to find pure and transparent crystals, and then manually polished them into the right shape, and barely made a few telescope prototypes.

The effect is not satisfactory. The magnification is not high and it is a bit unclear. Maybe using it is the biggest improvement.

This space-time telescope is not so revolutionary, because there really is a small group of "eagle-eyed" people who can serve as telescopes in the army. But this does not mean that this little thing is not practical. It is still very useful during marching and fighting, and its function is even more than that.

Cleopatra said jokingly, "I also learned a little from him, and I also know the story of Archimedes. The key point should be these two pieces of crystal. Maybe we can cooperate to do some business in the future. This kind of novelty may not be easy to use in the army, but after decorating it, it will definitely make a lot of money to show it to the dignitaries."

Legend has it that Archimedes once built an extra-large concave mirror, and then used this concave mirror as an optical weapon to concentrate light to ignite the sails of the Romans in order to resist the Roman invasion. The truth of this story is very controversial among modern people, but at least similar stories exist in this time and space.

Orville couldn't help but look at the other person. There was a reason why her knowledge attribute was so high. Even among all people, Cleopatra was a person of the intellectual level.

"I will find you if I have the chance. And not only that, there are many things we can discuss cooperation on. But not now, it's better to concentrate on the battle now."

Cleopatra bowed to Orwell and said, "Goddess Isis (the goddess of life) will bless your victory, and Anubis and Hades (both gods of death) will be waiting for your enemies in the underworld. I don't have a deep understanding of the battlefield, so I won't go over to cause trouble, but if you can rush into Alexandria, my hidden soldiers will contact you as soon as possible. I have given them instructions, and they will be your subordinates at your command. There are about 500 of them, and their combat effectiveness should be good. I hope I can help."

Orville was quite satisfied with the other party's attitude of telling him the whole story. He did not like people hiding important matters during cooperation, and an army was certainly part of the important matters.

After thinking for a while, he ordered a guard beside him, "Take 30 people with you and keep an eye on Her Royal Highness the Princess while we go out for the night raid. If the situation on our side becomes bad, take her and important personnel on a boat and quickly break out and leave Soros Island. From now on, you will temporarily take command of her and protect her safety as you would protect mine."

He felt a little regretful about not having the chance to fight for glory, but the bodyguard actually knew that this was a kind of care for him. The situation on the battlefield was very dangerous, and the orders of his superiors were absolute and could not be violated, so he saluted Orville to show his obedience, and then went down to mobilize people.

Orville also went down to give the soldiers a final pre-war mobilization.

(End of this chapter)