Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 319 Stacking Boxes

Everyone present was observing the prince's expressions and could clearly feel that his pain had been touched, so even though they felt a little offended by Orwell's "box stacking" logic of Romans>Greeks>Egyptians>Nubians, they couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Now that they know the opponent's fatal weakness, which is that they are strong on the outside but weak on the inside, the rest of the story will be easy to deal with. The Nubians will be completely outnumbered by them, and if Cleopatra wants to, she can only raise the price of food and they will suffer in silence. Therefore, this meeting will definitely end with their victory.

After Orville finished these lines, he sat down. Cleopatra continued and began to negotiate with the other party. This time the situation was one-sided in favor of Cleopatra. The prince's bluffing tactics were exposed, and he had to start haggling with Cleopatra seriously.

In the end, the prince barely got a peace treaty that was similar to the previous one, or even a little less favorable. This was the result of Cleopatra's "extraordinary kindness". If it were someone else, they would have been lucky not to take advantage of the opportunity to exploit him.

The agreement stipulated that the Nubians would immediately withdraw from Egyptian territory and promise not to invade again. At the same time, the Nubians would cease all communication with the Egyptian border guards and provide the Egyptians with a list, thus betraying the Egyptians who had cooperated with them.

This was also expected. The two parties were in a mutually beneficial relationship, so it would not be surprising if one of them betrayed the other.

In addition, Egypt also revised the trade agreement with Nubia. Egyptian merchants would import grain from other places and sell it to the Nubians upstream along the Nile. Since the Egyptians were acting as middlemen this time, the prices would naturally be higher than usual.

The Egyptians controlled the Nubians through food, but the Nubians had no way to deal with the Egyptians. A real war could not shake the foundation of Egypt. At the same time, the commodities they had, besides gold, included livestock by-products and mountain products, which were by no means irreplaceable. Therefore, they obviously lacked resistance to Egypt's threats and coercion. The prince could only take the treaty back.

It seemed that the Nubians still had something they wanted to achieve, but due to the current situation they did not directly raise it, so they asked us to stay in Egypt for a while.

Orville and Cleopatra readily agreed to the other party's request and took the initiative to provide a tour guide for the other party to visit. As expected, after seeing the great library and the harbor, the other party soon asked to visit the Roman military camp and the training of the Egyptian new army.

This matter needs Orville's opinion, and Orville is happy about it - he knows that he has a crushing advantage, so he is naturally happy to show his strength. Anyway, this will only help others recognize the gap between themselves and the Romans, and will not make them have any extra self-confidence.

During this period, the only ethnic groups that could come into contact with the Romans were on the other side of the Eurasian plate. In any case, they could not expect to fight in this life. For these "barbarians" with low levels of development and small populations, the Romans were indeed a difficult enemy to deal with. The more they could recognize this, the more beneficial it would be for both sides, and they would avoid war.
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After sending away these people from Nubia, Orville continued to handle Egyptian affairs.

That being said, after the framework was set up, he could actually "rule the country with ease", and he had many smart and capable officials under him who could participate in administrative work.

In particular, Orville and Cleopatra also brought a lot of people from mainland Greece to migrate here, including some people with some education level. The two appointed them as grassroots administrative officials. These people were new to Egypt and had no roots of their own, so it was very suitable for them to be administrative officials, and it was not easy for them to become too powerful. Moreover, Orville also asked them to take an assessment every year and a half, and rotate every three years, looking for opportunities to promote or demote them, which could make this system run relatively well.

The participation of these people has enriched the number of grassroots officials, which is definitely good for grassroots governance. The so-called phenomenon of over-bloated administrative officials is now completely invisible in the Mediterranean world, and administrative personnel are not sufficient everywhere.

In addition to administration, Orville also plans to set up a supervisory agency to systematically and institutionally supervise these personnel, which will be directly under the Romans and the King of Egypt. Currently, the staffing and details are still under planning.

He was planning to use Egypt as his own large-scale test field, and apply some of the experience and methods to the entire Roman Empire in the future. However, Orville was not messing around. What he did basically had a basis in history. He just made localized improvements to some policies and then moved them to Egypt. So although it was a bit controversial, most discerning people could see some feasibility and reluctantly agreed to Orville's various adjustments and arrangements in Egypt.

He probably determined his position in the Egyptian political system. Cleopatra needed him to play the role of husband in some scenes, and also the role of reformer and protector in some scenes. So far, he has been able to connect well and adapt to this change.

Although there were some controversies among the Greeks and Egyptians, and there was a tendency for the situation to intensify, the situation was still under control. It was just that the evaluation of Cleopatra herself was somewhat polarized.

Some people think that she is a national hero who sacrificed herself to feed the tiger, while others think that she is a shameless villain who colluded with foreigners and sold out national interests. It will take some time to make a final judgment, but as long as the remarks are not too harsh, Orville and Cleopatra will turn a blind eye to all these remarks.

Time passed day by day, and when the days were gradually becoming dull, Orville heard very surprising news from the Sinai Peninsula - Ivar the Boneless came back alive with his own fleet and a full load of spices and luxury goods.

Several months had passed, and it was already late spring. Orville had even doubted that they would not be able to come back, but fortunately the result was good.

After this voyage, regardless of the losses or gains, Orville could claim that his men had opened up a sea route from Egypt to India, which was almost unprecedented.

There is no doubt that the Romans knew almost no water, and it was really difficult for them to make ocean voyages in the 1st century, so most of the trade between the empire and the Indians was done by people on the Arabian Peninsula, and middlemen took a commission.

Even if the middlemen were not Arabs, they would be someone else, such as Nubians, Ethiopians, Parviz or Parthians. In short, the empire was always being exploited by the price difference.

(End of this chapter)