Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 306 Pirates
Cleopatra looked at Orville with satisfaction: "I feel relieved when you say that!"

At this time, Orville suddenly felt a little worried. He was a little worried that Cleopatra would want to find something for him to do, such as sending someone to find evidence against Mithridates.

But he suppressed the thought in his mind and continued to chat with her. Her knowledge was indeed good. No matter what kind of unusual things Orville talked about, she could say a few words, and her opinions were quite insightful. As a pastime during the journey, chatting with such a person was very suitable.

Just when the two thought it was time to have dinner, they saw a faint fire in the distance, and then Cleopatra's chief sailor rushed over in a panic to report the situation: "There are pirates ahead! There are a lot of them, they have six or seven ships!!"

Cleopatra said in a somewhat sinister tone: "Let's not talk about other things. You are a soldier of this country. You are so panicked when you see a bunch of bandits. If you are asked to deal with the navy of another country in the future, will you go crazy on the spot? Or are you afraid of selling out your country to others?"

The officer, knowing he had made a mistake, quickly begged for mercy. Cleopatra was in no mood to argue with an officer at this time, so she turned her attention to the problems that needed to be solved urgently.

She ordered her men: "Open the sails, row quickly, and try to reach a safe area before the enemy catches up with us. There should be a fleet patrolling the route nearby. We will be safe if we meet them. If necessary, have the warriors wear armor, bring swords and bows, and prepare the crossbows. We will fight them."

There are talented people on board as guards, which should not be a problem, but the work that needs to be done still needs to be done, and we cannot rely solely on these talented people to survive.

Military galleys are still okay, but those transport ships mostly rely on sails for propulsion, with oars as an aid. They are mainly useful when entering the port. Without so many oarsmen rowing, they are naturally at a disadvantage in speed.

The result was similar to what Cleopatra had expected. The pirates' light and multi-oared ships gradually caught up with the transport fleet. Orville then carefully observed the group's ships - judging from the structure, they should be mainly Greek pirates, because the ship type was typical Greek. Of course, the possibility of the other party robbing the ship to become pirates was not ruled out.

Seeing the distance between the two sides shortening, Cleopatra waved her hand and said, "Let the warships push forward!"

The signalman on Cleopatra's ship blew a shrill horn, and the warship that received the order immediately made a maneuver, turned its head and rushed towards the six or seven pirate ships.

Orville quietly patted the other person's shoulder and said, "Do you need my people to help you? They can handle this matter properly."

Cleopatra flatly refused: "There is no need for this for now. Let us wait and see how these people perform."

She was quite dissatisfied with the performance of the naval officer just now, and she was going to take this opportunity to test these naval soldiers.

Orville understood this very well and stood on the boat with his arms folded to watch the show.

It seemed that the soldiers were rowing at a fast speed, and they responded well at the beginning, but as the two sides got into a fight, the soldiers became a little flustered. These pirates were obviously experienced veterans. The low-hulled pirate ship immediately dispersed in the face of the tall warship, and then they began to throw some kind of grappling hook at the sail of the warship, which destroyed the sail of the warship.

Before the sailors on the warship had time to climb onto the sails and untie the grappling ropes, many pirates climbed up along the grappling ropes and started fighting with the sailors on the ship.

In fact, the sailors receive a lot of training and their equipment is certainly not bad, but they haven't fought a war for a while. The objective conditions may be good, but subjectively their fighting will and combat experience are really not that good.

With a slight disparity in numbers, the sailors felt a bit disadvantaged. Cleopatra was able to roughly observe the situation with the telescope Orville gave her. At this time, Orville thought that he might as well not give her this thing, as it might be good for her physical and mental health.

Seeing that more and more pirates were climbing up, Orville silently asked the messenger to send a signal to Sigurd below. Sigurd, who was on standby at the edge of the battlefield, immediately led his men to the battlefield and joined the battle as a friendly force of the Egyptians.

Although they were unfamiliar with the place, they were still quite experienced when it came to naval battles. Three not-so-large Viking longships quickly came near the pirate ship. They placed wooden boards across the pirate ship and their own longships, then walked onto the boards one by one and began the so-called boarding battle.

It is not known whether it is a problem of diet structure, environment or genes, but these northerners are obviously much taller than those in the eastern provinces, and the combat skills of these Vikings are indeed impeccable. On the narrow ship, the Vikings formed teams of three or two, advanced and retreated in an orderly manner and remained calm in times of danger. From the very beginning, they firmly suppressed these pirates whose composition was complex and whose coordination was slightly worse.

After Sigurd personally killed seven or eight ferocious pirates, the pirates' will to fight was basically gone. They dropped their weapons and prostrated themselves on the ground according to the rules, muttering something in their mouths.

Sigurd did not speak the same language as these people. Fortunately, he could speak a few words of Latin, but he really could not understand the Greek. However, he still knew the general meaning of the internationally used gestures and movements. After the other party showed his intention to surrender, Sigurd did not kill them all. He asked his men to tie them up and keep them under custody.

After the pirates on the pirate ship were controlled, the pirates who were resisting stubbornly on the warships did not resist for long. So this naval battle ended with the help of the Vikings, and the Egyptians performed quite badly.
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"The results are out. They are just a group of aimless pirates. They should not be instructed by anyone else. This is their confession."

An officer handed the two men a scroll with all the confessions of everyone written on it. After a quick glance, there shouldn't be any major problems.

"Very good, you can go down." Cleopatra sent the other person away.

Orville said at this time: "It seems that these people welcome you very much."

"I guess I'm not the only one who is welcomed like this. The situation here seems a bit dangerous. Do you know the situation in Rhodes and Cyprus?"

(End of this chapter)