Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 300 Travel
Now Tiya has clearly expressed a lot of governing programs - increasing tariffs on luxury goods, reforming the bureaucratic system in various places, curbing excessive resource tilting towards the local area, and employing more middle- and lower-level talents and talents from other provinces to fill vacancies.
Considering these things from a national perspective, they are not wrong, and can even be considered the right choice. However, the right choice may not be acceptable to everyone, especially for vested interests such as the Senate.

It is conceivable that they will have different political views from Tia, which may manifest in the form of a palace assassination or a civil war. In short, things cannot just go on like this, and they will not remain silent and allow Orvel and Tia to do what they do.

In order to prepare for the possible chaos, Orville must prepare in advance. The most direct preparation is to have more soldiers.

Now he only has three legions of regular troops. If he has more, it will give people a reason to impeach Orville for plotting evil. So if he wants to expand the military power, the most direct way is to start with Cleopatra.

Cleopatra may not know so clearly, but she probably understands that Orville wants to make sure that she is on his chariot, so she blinked her big eyes and said bluntly: "Don't worry, Egypt will always be a friend of the Roman Empire, and you will always be my friend. I will not forget who extended a helping hand to me.

You don't have to worry about me. I've said from the beginning that the throne is dispensable to me. Maybe now I value you more than the crown."

Orville couldn't help but look sideways at the words that sounded like a confession: "Be careful when you say this kind of thing. It won't be good for you or me if it gets out."

He thought the other party was joking. Since their previous meeting, Cleopatra never tried to throw herself into his arms again. At most, she replaced the servants around her with tall and beautiful maids. Orville never appreciated it and soon replaced them with his own burly men.

From this point of view, Cleopatra and himself may have some friendship, but it is far from the level of love, and Orville never felt that he was that charming.

"Don't worry, it will definitely be good for me," Cleopatra smiled cunningly, "Of course, these words will be kept secret. My servants are very tight-lipped and will never say anything that they shouldn't."

Orville brought the topic back on track: "In short, you arrange a meeting later and let the Nubian representatives come to meet us."

"No problem, within a month I guarantee you'll see someone standing in front of you."
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Putting down the documents about the Nubian Kingdom in his hand, the somewhat tired Orville asked his new secretary Agricola.

"How's the labor conscription issue going?"

"We have now recruited more than 8,000 people, which is very close to your requirement."

Trajan went to the front line as commander of the troops, and Orville turned to Agricola as his secretary to test his abilities.

It turned out that there was nothing wrong with what he did, except that he was a little more impatient and talkative than Trajan. However, this was not an unacceptable problem in Orville's opinion. He continued to keep him by his side mainly because there was no one else available.

Alfred met the requirements perfectly, but he had his own lands to govern and had already sailed back to Britain. Among the remaining people, Agricola was the more desirable one.

"Once we have 10,000 people, let them start construction. The construction period will last until this year's flood. You keep an eye on it. My requirement is that the prisoners build water conservancy projects and the laborers build roads. Don't get confused, and don't be too harsh on their treatment. Follow the standards in the documents I issued. Anyone who fails to do their job well will be reported to me."

"Yes!" Agricola lowered his head and showed respect. It should be said that the Ptolemaic kings made certain contributions to the rule and development of Egypt. During their reign, they built a large number of irrigation facilities, which made Egypt's arable land not only limited to the narrow strip along the Nile River, but also expanded to the depths beyond the Nile River.

Orville was ready to take over their engineering tasks and continue to build water conservancy and irrigation facilities in Egypt. Only by managing this land well could agricultural production increase.

In addition, there is road construction. Although previous Egyptian governors had built a highway across Egypt that connected the provinces of Africa and Parphi, the traffic conditions between major cities in Egypt were not particularly good. Traffic between cities relied more on Nile River shipping. Most of the road networks were built by the early Ptolemaic kings and are now in disrepair and in urgent need of maintenance and expansion.

Orville treated the prisoners a little differently. The detention measures for the prisoners were stricter, and these prisoners did not receive any wages. They would not be released until they had served for three years. This was Orville's punishment for them.

Relatively speaking, it was already very light. Compared to those who were sold as slaves or killed on the spot, at least they still had some hope.

He spent some more time handling official business. After finishing it, Orville stretched his body. The servant handed him a wine glass. He drank the chilled wine in it and felt a little better.

"Prepare a horse and guards for me. I need to go to the Great Library to look for some information."

"Do you want me to go get it for you? It can save you some time."

Orville rejected it: "I also need to meet Mr. Claudius Ptolemy, so I will go directly there."

Agricola said nothing more and turned away to prepare a team for Orville to travel. About fifteen minutes later, Orville left the temporary palace with a guard team of about 200 people.

This was the first time he had wandered around the city in a while. He carefully observed the expressions of the people around him. It could be said that the mental state of the city residents was better than before. Before, everyone looked uneasy and worried, as if they were afraid that Orville would catch them and chop off their heads. Now, although they also felt fear and hatred towards Orville's team, at least they looked more normal.

Because during this period they actually discovered that the Romans were not very interested in torture and terror, and their lives were not greatly affected, so they finally relaxed a little.

Riding with great interest, Orville arrived in front of the Library of Alexandria. The building still had many traces of smoke and it was obvious that the haze caused by the fire had not completely dissipated.

The library's hall should have been filled with all kinds of books, but now most of the place is empty, with only a few new-looking bookshelves in the corners with a few books on them.

Orville observed his surroundings and came to the research institute located deeper in the library.

(End of this chapter)