Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 338 Naval Battle
This time the Nabataeans really felt the threat, but they had been dealing with the Romans and doing business with them for many years, and they knew how difficult it was to deal with the Roman legions armed to the teeth. With their armed forces, if they wanted to defeat the Romans, they could only wait for the other side to make mistakes. But Orville might not be a brilliant military commander, but he was definitely a very cautious soldier. He did not give the locals this opportunity. The locals could only watch the Romans advance step by step without being able to do anything.

In this situation, they naturally set their sights on the navy. After all, in their perception, the Roman navy was relatively weak while they had an advantage at sea. As a result, they might be able to start from this aspect. As long as they cut off the Romans' supply routes, it would be difficult for the Romans not to surrender or retreat. At that time, they would have the initiative in the negotiations.

Ivar had a similar idea. He wanted to solve the problem of the Nabataeans who were competing with him for business once and for all, so he was also seeking a naval decisive battle. Under such circumstances, a naval battle was inevitable.
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The naval battle took place around the present-day port of Aqaba. The Romans had almost advanced to the vicinity of the city of Petra, leaving the Nabataeans with no choice but to engage in a decisive battle with the enemy if they did not want to sit and wait for death.

The ships of both sides were lined up along the coastline from east to west. Orville rode a horse with a team of cavalry and observed the situation with telescopes at the edge of the coastline so as to get the news as quickly as possible and make military deployments as quickly as possible.

It was quite different from the kind of naval battle that Orville had in mind, with neat formations, rigorous order and clear division of labor among various ships. Both sides were in a scattered formation made up of countless small warships. Basically, several small boats surrounded a larger warship, and the battle was carried out with this warship as the core. It was not so much a battle between two camps, but rather a battle between countless small groups under the two camps.

Both sides had relatively large battle formations - one belonged to the Nabatean king, one belonged to Ivar himself, and the other belonged to the Roman naval reinforcements. Pliny the Elder was very clear about his position and ability. After communicating with Ivar and confirming that he was not as skilled as him, he readily handed over the command to Ivar. Now the Roman naval commander was Ivar, and the other side was a fleet captain with some reputation, and Orville was not sure of his specific name.

The sky was clear, the air was fresh, and the wind was calm. After ensuring that their formations were basically stable, both sides began to attack each other's positions, and the two sides engaged in a chaotic battle.

When the battle started, the enemy commander made a big mistake. He identified a Roman five-decker galley as the flagship of the Roman fleet, and then assembled a large number of troops to surround and attack the ship. Due to poor coordination, the formation was already a bit scattered at this time. Ivar seized the opportunity and led his fleet to attack a weak gap in the enemy's formation directly from the flank, embedding it like a wedge.

Ivar's command flagship was not very big. It was just an ordinary dragon-headed warship (the Vikings' name for large warships), but it was hung with a conspicuous black crow flag, which was the symbol of their family faction. Dozens of small boats followed behind the warship and broke into the Nabataeans' naval formation, starting to force a boarding battle with the locals.

They used hooks, wooden boards and other things to climb onto the decks of enemy ships, or simply rammed head-on into enemy small warships, then boarded the enemy ship for hand-to-hand combat. In terms of familiarity with hydrology or ship-driving skills, these Nabataeans might consider themselves as good as others, but when it comes to close combat, they are obviously much inferior.

The Vikings who were able to come to Egypt were all powerful individuals selected from the best. They were tall and strong, and had a good grasp of the art of combat. In comparison, although the Nabataeans had an advantage in numbers, their quality was uneven.

The Nabataean coalition simply requisitioned some merchant ships and the sailors on them. These people may not have seen blood many times in their lives, and they certainly could not be compared with the northerners who could stop a baby from crying at night. This disadvantage became apparent in hand-to-hand combat. Many ships were either completely killed by the Vikings with red eyes and aggressive momentum. The surviving sailors could only save their lives by jumping off the ship, or they were stuck in a tough fight and could only barely hold on. There were even some embarrassing examples of them turning around and running away.

After all, they are just businessmen and are not prepared to fight to the death. The Vikings came here with a clear purpose, which is to make money and seek glory. They may live on the edge of a knife all their lives, believing that after a glorious death in battle, they can ascend to Valhalla and enjoy endless feasts. The spiritual world of both sides is quite different. One side is ordinary people, and the other side is well-trained warriors and robbers. The former will naturally show cowardice after fighting.

At this time, Ivar did not order his soldiers to show mercy or consider the overall situation in advance. Instead, he secretly ordered the captains of each ship to focus on killing the Nabataean sailors.

Ivar was not thinking about winning or not losing. He went to war with a very clear goal: to weaken the Nabataeans' maritime power so that his people would have an advantage in the future and control the trade network of the Red Sea. Orville was a person who paid attention to balance. He would not let the Vikings dominate alone. So after the war, once the Nabataeans were included in the Roman sphere of influence, they would soon be recruited by Orville and then use their sailors and ships to work for the Romans. Ivar knew very well that the Nabataeans were local tyrants with more people and deep roots. In the normal trade competition with the Nabataeans, they, the northerners, might not necessarily take advantage. Orville would find a way to make the two sides reach a dynamic balance, so it was okay, but the Roman rulers after him might not have this kind of thinking. At that time, the Vikings' power in the Red Sea might become a castle in the air that would collapse at the touch of a button and be attacked by the locals.

Besides, Ivar was not thinking about maintaining balance at all. The best outcome in his mind was that the northerners would win all, and then the Romans would create a so-called dynamic balance among the northerners. In that way, no matter who won or lost, it would be their own business. Thinking about the problem with such a clear purpose, these Nabataeans would be very conspicuous, but Ivar did not want to appear too dangerous in his daily life, so he had to take action at this opportunity.

Ivar was a smart man. He had no doubt that the Romans would win in the end and that Orville would achieve his goal. Before Orville achieved his goal, regardless of the outcome of one or two small wars, he had to find a way to weaken the Nabataeans as much as possible so that the northerners would have the upper hand in future internal struggles.

(End of this chapter)