Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 370 Old Idea
A century ago, in the Augustan era, there was a vision to push the defense line from the Rhine to the Elbe River, and then connect it with the Danube defense line to form a new imperial border defense line.

The new border defense line covers more territory, while the defense pressure is greatly reduced. It is about 500 kilometers shorter than the previous defense line and can more effectively protect the security of the homeland. If military capabilities permit, this does not seem to be a bad idea.

In fact, Augustus was also consciously trying to realize this plan, and it was even quite successful at one point, until the incident in the Teutoburg Forest disrupted his original plan.

Later, Augustus also asked Tiberius and others to continue the Germanic War, but this plan ultimately failed.

The situation in this time and space is slightly different. Due to the strong national strength of the Franks, Augustus almost a hundred years ago did not choose to directly use force to conquer the problem after weighing the pros and cons. After all, his grand strategy was to stop the war and consolidate the existing land. If he started another major war, there would be no talk of disarmament.

Later, Emperor Tiberius mainly focused on stabilizing internal affairs. Although the emperors who came after him had a relatively normal internal environment, they all had more or less some problems in their abilities or personalities. After several decades of twists and turns, it was the Flavian Dynasty.

Needless to say, Vespa was busy stabilizing the internal situation. Tia did similar things in the first few years after taking over. Now she and Orville felt that the country's strength was almost stable and could carry out larger-scale foreign wars. At the same time, the entanglement between the Frankish Kingdom and the Huns did give him this opportunity.

They also have another card in their hand - Belisarius' wife Judith is a princess of the Merovingian dynasty. Over the years, Britain has taken in many escaped old men from the former dynasty, and these people can become the key force in the confrontation between the Romans and the Franks.

The funds came from the profits of the spice trade, the treasury revenue, and the money skimmed from the senators. Together with the money from the senators who were instigated by Orville to donate some of their property, the funds needed for the expedition were probably gathered. The expedition plan was also approved by the members of the Senate.

So, after more than two years of careful preparation, a new round of war against the Germans began again in the spring.

Orville mobilized most of the troops from Upper and Lower Germany, Britain, and Gaul, and drew nearly 30,000 troops from Egypt, Syria and other places in the east. Together with more than 10,000 veterans temporarily recruited from the mainland, the total number of troops reached nearly 140,000. Together with the Vikings wandering in the North Sea and the old people of the previous dynasty, the number of troops exceeded 160,000. This number can be said to be huge.

Under normal circumstances, the current Frankish Kingdom can only muster half of this number of troops, not to mention that it is now being attacked from both sides and many Merovingian dynasty veterans have rebelled internally. In an instant, the entire country is in a precarious situation.

The banner that Orville raised was to recover territory for the orthodox royal family. His goal was not to annex the entire Frankish Kingdom. Such a large piece of land would not be worth the loss for them. He only wanted to form the Elbe River defense line envisioned by Augustus.

Initially, he planned to make the land between the Rhine and the Elbe rivers a vassal state, and then use decades or even longer to slowly assimilate and annex this place, depending on the skills of his successor.

Large-scale military movements can be easily detected, and the Franks had already made preparations. However, the Germanic army of 60,000 to 70,000 people could hardly compete with the Roman army that was two or three times their size. The Germanic army simply chose to use guerrilla tactics to delay time, hoping that after winter, the Romans would give up.

But they were no longer barbarians who made the forest their home. They had basically entered civilized society and still had to rely on farming to feed themselves. The same was true for the Romans. It was not as difficult for them to spend the winter there as described in official history. On the contrary, it was not difficult as long as they were well prepared.

Belisarius and Trajan were both excellent military talents with certain experience. They were not likely to make mistakes when they were told to be cautious and had an excellent team of adjutants. The strong national strength also gave the Romans a high tolerance rate. Without seeking to kill the enemy in one blow, they were steadily moving forward.

The long Germanic War lasted intermittently for more than a year. At this time, the Romans had almost achieved two-thirds of their goal. The subsequent advancement progress was slightly slowed down due to terrain and supply lines, but with the continuous supply of funds and materials, it seemed that completing the Elbe River defense line was only a matter of time.

Under such circumstances, the king of the Frankish Kingdom finally chose to bow his head and negotiate in exchange for a decent contract.
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"We can accept the Roman Elbe defense line and give the land within the defense line to the Merovingian royal family, but the Romans must agree not to block the border, open up some areas for immigration, allow our people to withdraw from the land west of the Elbe River, and ensure the stability and security of the rest of the country."

Although it seems that a lot of conditions have been put forward, in fact, they are just to ensure that the Romans will not go too far.

Orville said generously: "Please rest assured about this. Too much land is not good for the empire. My successors will also recognize this problem, so at least in the next hundred years, the border line will not move forward. I can't guarantee what will happen next."

"Of course. If the treaty can last that long, we will be satisfied."

The person who spoke was King Charles's prince, who seemed to Orville to be a man of great courage and talent. However, now he could only sit at the negotiation table and slowly negotiate terms with the Romans.

In their opinion, there was no choice but to accept such a treaty now. After losing several key battles in a row on the front battlefield, the Romans had only suffered some damage, but they would have suffered serious injuries.

For a regime like the Romans, with a population of tens of millions, losing a few thousand or tens of thousands of people in normal battles was not a cause for concern. The troublesome part was that the legions were destroyed as a whole.

If only ten legions each lost 10%, the new recruits could easily regain combat effectiveness under the leadership of the veterans, but if a legion was completely wiped out, it would be very troublesome to rebuild it. Now their war failed to destroy the Roman army in an organized manner, and the Romans could continuously recruit new soldiers to fill the gaps. There was also a certain gap in the productivity levels of both sides. In this way, even if the Franks could get a little advantage in exchange for the losses, it would be useless because there were too many Romans.

Therefore, the Frankish royal family had no choice but to take back a proper contract, such as relying on the power of the Romans to deal with the restless Huns.

"We are now facing the invasion of the Scythians and are at a loss. Please help us suppress their power. If you can do it, we don't mind signing this clause."

"The Germans should first understand that the enemies they are facing are not ordinary Scythians. They come from the end of the world, from the other side of the steppe. You must at least understand your enemies, and then you can make appropriate countermeasures. This is my advice to you Germans, and you can think about it slowly later.

Of course we can help you deal with the Huns, and we can also teach you how to deal with them. As long as you are willing to accept the current peace terms, I am willing to guarantee you with the reputation of my family and the gods, and I will even help you solve the Hun problem first. What exactly does King Charles want?"

Orville didn't care about teaching the Germans techniques like chariot formations. They would learn from him sooner or later anyway, so he might as well use them generously as bargaining chips. Chariot formations were of no use to the Romans, as their bows, crossbows, javelins and heavy projectile weapons were more advanced and could restrain a simple chariot formation.

"Of course!" The prince breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the other party was so easy to talk to.

"A word is settled!"

Regardless of how many tricks the Franks had, the standard humiliation treaty was finally settled, and Orville could breathe a sigh of relief.
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It was obvious that these Franks were thinking of driving the tiger to devour the wolf. Orville's response was very simple. He only sent out a legion of people, led by Belisarius.

If there were too many people, the Franks might have some concerns, but now there is only a legion of four or five thousand people, so they did not avoid it. They just sent a group of noble officers to watch Belisarius fight. They wanted to see what methods the Romans had developed to deal with the nomads.

It was similar to the tactics used against the Scythians in Asia Minor, except that the tactical coordination this time was more complete and sophisticated, because Orville had informed Belisarius in advance to study this tactic against cavalry, and the other party had been thinking about it for three or four years.

The vehicles were still fighting in a crescent shape with their backs to the water. There were small Viking boats in the river for harassment and transportation of supplies. This time, only one legion of soldiers were fighting openly. After the opponent's scouts carefully confirmed this, their style of action became bolder.

After all, they had an absolute numerical advantage. There were more than 10,000 soldiers on horseback. According to common sense, infantry had an overwhelming numerical advantage over cavalry. To put it bluntly, they could win by just overwhelming them.

So, like the Scythians, they charged the Roman chariot positions and, like the Scythians, suffered a disastrous defeat.

It is not known whether the Han Dynasty on the opposite side had not invented similar tactics or had already forgotten about it, but they rushed towards the Roman positions like headless flies, and then found that the impact of their own cavalry was no match for the specially reinforced chariot barrier. The crossbow carts, bows and javelins in the position could effectively harm the nomadic cavalry outside the position. There is no need to elaborate on what happened next.

The enemy soldiers wasted their lives in vain in front of the position and had no choice but to retreat, leaving the bodies of wounded and killed soldiers all over the ground. Even so, Belisarius still did not intend to let the enemy leave and sent out his own cavalry unit.

The heavy cavalry, both mounted and armored, stuck to the back of the enemy's retreating troops. The nomadic warriors who had to walk because their horses were injured, or the vassal troops who had no horses at the beginning, could only be ruthlessly crushed.

The enemy cavalry did not dare to return to support the Roman infantry phalanx at this time, and could only abandon these people and run away in a panic. The result of the war was a complete victory for Belisarius' army.

For these nomadic peoples, losing one or two battles was not a big deal. After all, as long as the main force was not annihilated, they still had vitality and mobility. The key was that Belisarius was really patient in teaching the Franks how to use chariots to deal with their enemies in this war.

As a result, in several larger-scale Hun-Frank conflicts in the following years, the Franks gained considerable advantage by using this tactic. Coupled with the subtle blood supply and mediation of the Romans behind the scenes, the Huns' offensive was eventually stopped.

Even though the Franks were very reluctant, they had to fulfill the terms in the end. The Romans also followed the terms and did not invade again for decades because they had already got what they wanted.

After several years of war, another triumphal ceremony was held. This time the protagonists were Belisarius and Trajan. Trajan obtained the qualifications and abilities required for his succession, while Belisarius was appointed as the new commander of the border defense line.

Up to this point, he has basically solved all the external threats, and the remaining ones are just minor problems, which are normal for a country.

(End of this chapter)