Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 33 It Doesn't Matter Who Becomes the Emperor

After learning the news, Tia felt that the troops had been basically reorganized and no time could be wasted, so she began to order the troops to advance southward.

Perhaps the rebels felt that the Romans would not continue advancing without their main force, or perhaps they devoted too much energy to the civil war, so Tia did not encounter much resistance along the way.

In the past, her military strategy had always been radical, but now it tended to be conservative. She did not use her two war-tested legions, but gave the newly reorganized legions a chance to test themselves, allowing them to gradually adapt to the rhythm and methods of the war here through a series of small-intensity battles.

This was effective, and the new army quickly got used to each other. They were not newly recruited young men, but rather veterans who had been through many battles. The governors of various places did not send them here to embarrass themselves. These were the most elite soldiers in the local area, and their combat qualities were not bad. They might have been a little lazy and slack because of the long period of peace, but they would soon be able to recover to their best condition after a few weeks of war.

The situation on Orville's side was also okay. The Luo Xie Army, which he had carefully trained, had decent combat effectiveness and could basically complete orders. They were not very afraid of war. This was very good for a group of people who had only trained for two or three months and were positioned as cannon fodder.

What impressed the Romans was their willpower in fighting, probably because they had a blood feud with the Zealots or the Cutlasses before. The ferocity with which they fought surprised even the professional soldiers, and several legions spoke highly of this auxiliary army.

Orville, adhering to the spirit of continuous improvement, began to consider letting some of them take on more important tasks, but since the equipment and training were not in place, he had to postpone the plan temporarily.

While the Romans were advancing steadily, the Parvi people were shrinking their forces and gathering all available troops in the Holy City.

They were still in a state of civil war, but their willingness to fight each other was weakening. They saw clearly that the Romans were advancing towards the Holy City at a speed of several or more than ten kilometers a day, slowly but unstoppably.

Everyone in the city understood very well that perhaps they should sit down and have a good talk, otherwise everyone would be in big trouble.
-
Half a month later, in the Egyptian Governor's Palace where Vespa was stationed in Alexandria, Egypt, a dusty soldier was complaining to Vespa.

"Do you know what we encountered in Rome? Before the more than 50,000 Danube Legion arrived, Emperor Otto was defeated and committed suicide. We became rebels and traitors for no reason. If it were just like that, it would be fine. This might be an act of political speculation. We should pay the price for our speculation, but the damn Vitellius must not be forgiven. He insulted our dignity as Romans! Unbearable!!!"

Vespa looked at the soldier from the Danube Legion with sympathy, and felt greatly relieved in his heart.

Although the new emperor Vitellius of the German Legion pardoned several of his upper-level opponents, he was not at all lenient towards the middle and lower-level soldiers.

He executed a large number of centurions and forced the soldiers of the Danube Legion to perform labor to build the hippodrome.

In fact, the Romans were very willing to do this kind of public construction. They regarded participating in public service construction as an act of honor, and the legions were also obliged to do so. However, Vitellius asked local citizens to continue to ridicule and abuse them. In the eyes of Roman soldiers, this was an insult to their personal dignity.

In addition, Vitellius also disbanded more than 10,000 imperial guards on the grounds that they had previously supported Emperor Otto, and replaced them with his own Germanic legions, which made the guards very dissatisfied.

At this time, the famous law of succession of the Praetorian Guard had not yet been implemented. They were still somewhat loyal to the emperor, and Otto had indeed persuaded them to fight. Now they were being sent home, which was completely against the rules. The officer continued to complain: "Please judge, what they did was completely against the will of the Roman people and the will of our Danube Legion."

Vespa said kindly, "I understand your thoughts. The Danube Legion has indeed been treated unfairly for a long time. If I become the emperor, this will not continue. This is especially true for the German Legion. Their actions this time are too extreme and they have ignored the order and rules of the empire itself."

In Danube's view, they were being treated unfairly and the emperor never cared.

Theoretically, the Germanic Legion was under the greatest pressure, but after a long period of development, the Rhine River had long been built into an iron wall of defense. Coupled with the recent easing of relations with the Franks, they actually had not fought a serious battle for a long time.

Although Syria's Eastern Legion also had to face enemies, the eastern provinces were very wealthy and they could make a lot of money there.

Only on their side, located in a wild land, they have to fight with the barbarians every other day. The defense construction in this area is not yet perfect, and the emperor has never paid much attention to it.

In other words, other places were either leisurely and comfortable, or busy but paid, but their Danube Corps was the worst off, busy and without pay. They had long been dissatisfied with this treatment, so they supported Otto to ascend the throne and become emperor.

There were also people drawn from the Danube Legion in Vespa's legions, so they naturally knew the situation there, so they catered to the other side and made their own promises.

The other party was naturally very happy and said, "To be honest, we were originally planning to support the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Legion, the Syrian Governor Mucinus, to become emperor. With the help of the Eastern Legion, the two frontier legions would work together to defeat the Germanic Legion.

But when we came here, you had already dealt with everything. We can support anyone to become emperor, as long as they are not from the German Legion. So since you control the power of the Eastern Province, we will naturally serve you and respect you as emperor. "

Vespa didn't care at all when he mentioned the name of the Governor of Syria seemingly inadvertently. He said bluntly: "Mucinus is my good friend and my right-hand man. There is no difference between supporting him and supporting me. Hahahahaha!!"

After saying this, he started laughing. It seemed that he really didn't mind this matter and didn't suspect Mucinus.

Seeing that the two were really in harmony, unlike the hypocritical relationship between Otto and Galba, the officer felt a little relieved and laughed along.

The two men's loud laughter echoed throughout the Governor's Mansion.

(End of this chapter)