Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 341 Convergence
Now the news of the rebellion in Greece has also reached Parfiti. The local provincial governor has ordered the garrisoned legions to be on alert. On the one hand, they are preparing to transfer personnel to quell the rebellion. On the other hand, they are preparing to deal with the invasion from the Eastern forces - Parthians, Nabataeans, Idumea. These are potential opponents who may take a bite when the empire falls into chaos.

The emperor's mobilization order has not arrived yet, so the legion certainly cannot move too far away from its garrison, especially when moving under the order of Orville, a foreign commander. This is a very alarming phenomenon, and Orville certainly will not offend the public.

But he still managed to persuade the legion commander to prepare a battalion of elite soldiers. Once the mobilization order came, they would directly go to the port city of Caesarea in Palphi to gather, and he would also go there at that time.

Vespa had already given Orville the bottom line in advance, and if this situation happened, he would probably do something. First, he would withdraw one or two legions of the Eastern Legion in Syria to Asia Minor, and then mobilize one or two legions stationed on the Danube to go south to Macedonia, Thrace and other places, and finally, he would withdraw troops from various places, especially Egypt, to enter the Greater Greece region to quell the rebellion.

Knowing the emperor's general plan, Orville prepared to wait for news at the border between Egypt and Parphi. As soon as he arrived there, an order from the emperor in Rome came - as expected, ordering Orville to transfer at least two legions to quell the rebellion. The route was from Alexandria to Antioch and meet up with the Syrian army, and both sides rushed to the front battlefield together.

It was a safe and standard plan, and Orville also planned to make some other arrangements.

He wrote to Rollo and Vespa at the same time, informing the former to quickly mobilize the navy to head south to the Mediterranean, and informing the latter that he had mobilized Rollo. In fact, the two parties were colluding with each other.

Vespa gave himself considerable autonomy, but it was inappropriate for him, as the governor of the province of Egypt, to command the sailors under the province of Britain, so some processing had to be done to turn the matter into the emperor ordering Rollo to go south. Orville was just the one who made the suggestion, and Belisarius just did it, and no one made any mistakes.

The slow flow of information was very troublesome in the ancient world. If everything needed to be discussed, it would be too time-consuming. Speed ​​is of the essence in war, and the repeated approvals were a waste of precious response time. However, most generals and emperors still cared about this. The generals did not dare to be suspected by the emperors, and the emperors did not want the generals to overstep their boundaries. Orville and Vespa were able to slightly break out of this framework due to their kinship.

But now Orville himself actually didn't know how much Vespa still trusted him. What he had done since he went to Egypt was indeed worthy of an emperor's vigilance, but he believed that even if Vespa wanted to warn him, he would not choose this critical moment. He would solve the problem in a more peaceful way. Orville asked himself that he did not intend to rebel. All the secrets in the government had been checked and reported by Vespa's confidants. Vespa was a very reasonable person with a broad perspective. He would not be too suspicious of Orville for such a thing.

In addition to Rollo, Orville also specifically asked Cleopatra to send Constantine and his men over. These were locals from the Byzantine city-state, a giant Greek city-state on the Black Sea coast. Winning them over could provide some help for Orville's operations in Greece.
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The political power of Egypt returned completely to Cleopatra's hands. Orville only left half a legion of soldiers in Egypt to prevent any accidents. Together with an Egyptian legion, the Royal Guards and some border guards, there were a total of more than 20,000 people. This was the force controlled by Cleopatra. Facing those hidden temple forces, it was barely enough.

This was acceptable to the two men. With the arrival of another half legion of regular troops at the port of Caesarea, plus a battalion of troops supported by Governor Palphi, Orville had nearly four legions of more than 20,000 combat troops, which was actually about the same number of troops as the commanders of the three legions.

Considering that the navy's transport capacity was not enough and the sea there was dangerous, Orville ordered the army to enter the Syrian region via the provincial road, and only use the navy to transport food and supplies, so as not to cause too serious impact on local civilians. After about 20 days of marching, his army arrived near Antioch. At this time, Mucinus had already prepared soldiers and was waiting for him in the city. In the Governor's Palace of Antioch, Mucinus did not prepare a grand welcome party like other nobles, but just called a few officers together to entertain Orville. It was called a reception, but in fact it was just a simple meeting. Except for Mucinus, everyone else was a stranger, and Orville didn't know who was talking to whom.

Mucinus didn't seem to have any intention of introducing Orville. He just said to him with a sullen face, "It's been many years since we last saw each other in Rome. To be honest, I didn't expect you to achieve such success. This is great and worth learning for all of us.

But to make a long story short, the situation in Greece is not good. Those bastards seem to have lost several important cities such as Athens and Smyrna. We need to move forward as soon as possible to stabilize the situation. How many soldiers do you have?"

"More than 21,000. Fifteen thousand are Roman soldiers, and six thousand are Egyptian soldiers trained in Roman ways. Their quality is pretty good." Orville answered truthfully.

"That's enough, that's good. I have to stay here and keep an eye on the Parthians. They are plotting against Armenia and even want to cause trouble on the border. I can't leave, and I can't send one and a half legions to support the provinces of Magna Graecia as ordered by the emperor. I'm sorry."

It wasn't Mucinus's fault, but he still expressed his apologies to Orville.

"I can only give you a legion of regular soldiers, with about 8,000 auxiliary soldiers. The commander of the legion is a local Roman citizen whom I like very much, Lucius Septimius Odenaissus."

As soon as he finished speaking, an officer who looked a little dark-skinned stood up and greeted Orville. His serious expression made Orville think that he wanted to duel with him.

He was not so upset that he said to Mucinus, "I understand. When is the best time to set off?"

"Now is the best time. I have already prepared food, transport ships and other things. I am just waiting for your soldiers to go out."

(End of this chapter)