Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 363 Bad News

While Orville was mobilizing its forces, the Senate was also busy trying to mobilize their forces in various places to concentrate on their homeland to deal with the Emperor's army that might land at any time.

After the emperor's death, Tia was naturally publicly identified as the heir to the throne, but at the same time the Senate also identified Tia as a public enemy of the state, believing that she wanted to subvert the country's rule. Both sides held different opinions, and choosing which side's point of view to believe mainly depended on their respective positions.

Places like southern Gaul, part of the Balkan Peninsula, Greece and Africa (that is, Carthage) are the Senate's base. They are naturally loyal to the Senate and are gathering supplies and troops to their homeland at this moment. However, the backup plans left by Orville and Vespa also caused them considerable obstacles.

The first was Belisarius, who landed in northern Gaul right after the Auvergne army. He had two legions and a large number of auxiliary soldiers under his command. Since the two commanders of the Germanic legions were ambiguous and were still watching the situation, the landing Belisarius army could easily come to the territory of Narbonne Gaul. He would not start burning, killing and looting, but the mere existence of his troops made the governors and nobles of Narbonne Gaul very nervous, and thus they dared not dispatch their military forces at will.

They also knew in their hearts that Belisarius would most likely not choose to condone his men's burning, killing and looting, but no one dared to bet that the moral bottom line of the opposing general would outweigh his duties as a general and allow the army to miss the opportunity.

On the other side, Greece was holding them back by the colonial city of Byzantium. After the Mithridatic War, Byzantium received considerable support from the emperor because of its correct stance and real military achievements. Orwell and Cleopatra also wanted to help it establish an advantageous position and were more caring towards it.

The result was that Byzantium developed very quickly. In recent years, it became the most important commercial hub and grain-producing area on the Black Sea coast, and its real strength was far ahead of all the weakened Greater Greek city-states.

It turns out that Constantine, who was once Orwell's subordinate, is now in the decision-making level of Byzantium and has a certain say. In this conflict between the imperial power and the Senate, they continue to choose to support the imperial power. After all, the Senate is highly bound to the Greek mainland. As a Greek colony, they have always been suppressed by the mainland. Only the imperial power can give them a voice and a broad space for development.

Now the Byzantine army and navy are in turn holding back the Greek mainland troops. Of course, the interest ties between Byzantium and Orwell are not very strong, and there is a sense of working without putting in any effort. Even so, this group of people has held back the Greek military forces that are larger in number than themselves, preventing them from returning to their homeland without restraint.

The attitudes of the provinces in the Iberian Peninsula were more complicated. There was not much difference in their support for the emperor and the Senate, which made them hesitant about sending troops directly to support. No matter how hard the Senate tried to persuade them, it would not have a good effect, because there were still people promoted by the emperor in the local areas who spoke for the emperor's family.

Therefore, in reality, only a part of the army of the province of Africa can directly support the homeland. This is a peaceful province and there is not much military force that can be mobilized. Mobilization also takes time. It can only be said that distant water cannot quench immediate thirst.
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Small groups of ships landed one after another at the ports on the island of Sicily. The emperor's fleet patrolling the shore would check them and make sure their identities were correct before choosing whether to release them or detain them.

In fact, the situation now is not much different from the war period, except that the bloody conflict has not really started yet, and due to the tense situation, there are fewer merchants traveling back and forth. Most of these people are nobles sent by the emperor or retired soldiers who have arrived spontaneously.

The benefits of taking the risk of seizing Sicily were apparent at this time, as it would provide them with a refuge. The most important person among them was of course the emperor, Tia himself.

Although there were many doubts within the faction about her accession to the throne, after all, in theory, the status of female talents was the same as that of men, but in reality there was always an invisible difference. This was the first time in history that a female emperor was elected, so some people were inevitably at a loss. However, the only person they could directly support was Orwell, and Orwell himself did not seem to want to compete with his wife for the throne, so these people could only hold back their dissatisfaction.

Orville had already given instructions for this, and Stilicho readily gave up his position as the commander-in-chief. Tia did not change her personality and rush back to Egypt to fight for power with Orville. She just stayed in Sicily to coordinate the island's resources and prepare for defense against attacks from the mainland.

The army in the mainland is remobilizing and organizing new legions. The military commander is the talented Aurelian. In a short period of time, they will be able to obtain at least three legions of troops as support. It is similar on the Orville side. Shiploads of soldiers are being transported to the mainland. Now it depends on who is faster. Whoever is faster will have an advantage in the next round of confrontation.
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On the other side, Orvel, who was far away in Syria, was staring stiffly at what was in front of him. He raised his eyes and said to the messenger: "Are you sure? The Kingdom of Bosporus has fallen?"

In front of him was a pile of saddles and armor. The bad news was that the style of these things was somewhat familiar to Orville. This was obviously not the style of Eastern European nomads, but rather the style of those nomads in East Asia.

In other words, these people were immigrants from outside. This made Orwell have a bad association - the easternmost power on the continent should be the Han Dynasty. The Roman Empire in this time and space has obviously been strengthened by many patches, making it much stronger than its contemporaries. By the same token, the Han Dynasty should have received similar treatment.

Maybe the northern nomadic people of this time and space encountered the Han Empire with even more exaggerated productivity and military power, and were driven here a few centuries earlier, and just happened to be bumped into by the current Orville.

He had seen this episode before, the so-called Attila the Scourge of God. Who knows, Orville might be facing a similar situation now.

Bosphorus, far away on the Black Sea coast, became the first victim. According to the survivors who escaped, there were also some Scythians among this group of nomads, which means that the other side has now absorbed some of the Scythian strength as a supplement.

Based on Orwell's rough understanding of this group of people, they will certainly not stop there, but will continue to move westward to plunder the territories of the Franks and Dacians. The Franks should be easy to deal with, but the Dacians may not be able to be stopped. Then it will be the turn of the Romans to confront this group of nomads head-on.

In real history, Attila caused a lot of trouble to this country. This was of course largely related to the fact that the Western Roman Empire was already half-dead at that time. But it is undeniable that the Romans did not have the rich experience in dealing with nomadic peoples like a certain Eastern power, and they would probably suffer a great loss if they encountered them now.

PS. Two updates in the evening should be the same as usual

(End of this chapter)