Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 340 Rebellion
In every sense, the old man was very sincere, and Orville was generally acceptable to this clause. His main purpose was to ensure that the stability of maritime trade was not affected. However, people are always unsatisfied, and after getting a little, they always want more.

If the naval battle had not taken place, Orville might have accepted the terms, but now he was convinced that the Nabataeans were weak and had little bargaining power, so he decided to go further.

After thinking for a while, he slowly said, "I don't want your land, and I don't even want your tribute, but I want the Romans to send tax collectors to Nabataea, and the Empire requires the right to collect tariffs in Nabataea. We will not interfere in your politics, nor in other parts of your business, but will only collect tariffs locally. The tariff is 5%, and luxury goods are specially taxed at 25%. We can only take half or even one-third of the money, and the rest can still go into your treasury."

In other words, Orville planned to completely integrate this place into the economic system of the empire. The Romans set up customs in Alexandria to collect tariffs, but there was always smuggling on the Nabataeans' side, which had a great negative impact on taxation. Once the tariff problem here was solved, Orville believed that the country's tariff revenue could increase further, and his financial situation would be much more comfortable.

The concept of sovereignty was still unclear in this era, but it was obvious that the old man vaguely knew the dangers of interference in sovereignty. He strongly opposed this clause at first, but Orville was stuck on this issue and refused to give in. In the end, the old man had to return empty-handed.

Orville was not in a hurry. He spent another week or two with the enemy and then began to attack the city slowly. Although there was no substantial result, this gesture once again stimulated the Nabataeans. After very intense internal discussions, they reluctantly accepted Orville's suggestion and agreed to the Romans to set up a customs agency here.

The envoy sent to negotiate this time was still the old man. Orville was in a good mood. Seeing the other party's sad face, he comforted him and said, "This may not be a bad thing for you. In order to ensure the normal flow of tax revenue, we will help you establish a normal customs tax system. Even if we take a large part of the income, your treasury revenue may actually increase."

This is not a lie. For a loose country composed of nomads, taxation is definitely difficult. After the Romans imposed compulsory taxation, the kingdom's fiscal revenue might even increase instead of decrease. Of course, the prerequisite is that the Romans acted like human beings here. There are many examples of them being unscrupulous when they ruled and collected taxes.

The old man glanced at Orville and said reluctantly, "Maybe."
-
The contract was signed, and the war was considered over. Orville left a large Egyptian army here to announce his presence, and he was preparing to return to Egypt slowly with his army, but at this time a messenger came from Alexandria, and he brought Orville a breaking news.

The Greek problem that had been unstable for the past few years finally broke out. The Hellenistic nobleman who claimed to be a descendant of the royal family of Pontus announced the independence of Greece and a considerable part of the city-states in Asia Minor. The country was called Pontus, and he himself was called Mithridates VI. When the news came, the other party had just declared independence. Now the news has been passed from Greece to Alexandria and then to Orwell. It has been about ten days. It is still unknown what the specific situation of the Greek provinces is. However, Orwell holds a rather pessimistic attitude overall. He does not think that the other party can control the situation.

Because he was inside the governor's circle and had been exchanging letters with Vespa, he knew that the current situation in Greece was a bit beyond the control of the government, otherwise the sea would not be in such chaos. The governor could no longer control it, and his rule was on the verge of being out of control.

He just didn't expect the rebellion to break out now. He originally thought it would happen earlier or later. Now the governors of the Greater Greece region don't have any combat power to speak of. Even Orville has to look up to them if they can keep the capital cities of their respective provinces. It is definitely impossible to expect these people to kill Mithridates.

He was now certain that the opponent seemed to be the Mithridates VI in history, the powerful ruler of the Kingdom of Pontus, who had fought three Pontic Wars with the Romans. Back then, he was no match for Lucullus (a famous general in the Sulla period, who was extremely good at defeating the enemy with a smaller force, and his representative battles were defeating Pontus, Armenia and other countries with an absolutely small number of troops). It would certainly be no problem for him to deal with several weak governors from various places. Orville was mentally prepared for the fall of most of Greece and Asia Minor.

The next thing to consider is how the emperor will respond after the other side rises, and how those forces outside the empire will react. Orville believes that the most urgent task is to return to Egypt to gather troops, ready to be sent to suppress the rebellion in Asia Minor or to keep an eye on the restless Parthians. His three legions are now idle and will definitely be mobilized by the emperor.

After thinking about it, he ordered a Roman legion and an Egyptian legion stationed in the Nile Delta of Egypt to set off and rush to the land of Palphi, while Orville took his own troops there to meet up with the other side.

Now he was only a few dozen kilometers away from Palfi, so there was no need to waste time and effort gathering the fleet. Orville could just take the troops by land. He let the baggage train return to Egypt by ship, and he asked the soldiers to take a week's worth of dry food and rush to Palfi along the main trade route.
-
Some Nabataeans seemed to be obsessed with the "great kindness" of the Romans and followed Orville's army from a distance, but Orville did not care too much and ordered his army to ignore them and continue marching. On the third day, they saw the first Parvi town, which meant that they had once again completely entered the Mediterranean world.

Orville marched through the Holy City, which had now become a somewhat Romanized city and the garrison of the legion. At this moment the army in the Holy City had also been mobilized, and all of them were packing up their things nervously under the command of the officers, looking as if they were preparing to go to war.

Without much effort, Orville found the legion commander who was familiar to him (a comrade-in-arms in the Holy City War) and learned the relevant situation from him.

(End of this chapter)