Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 45 Alexander's Unknown Successor

The middle-aged man suddenly became nervous: "No, no!"

Orville smiled and shook his head. "Anyway, many people have done this. They sold all their wealth in the Holy City and exchanged it for gold coins. A few Syrian auxiliary soldiers saw it a while ago. The result was not good. More than 800 people died in one night. They were all disemboweled by auxiliary soldiers or poor legionnaires. They didn't care whether they actually had money or not. They just dissected them first."

The middle-aged man's face turned pale in an instant: "Really?!"

"Anyway, I had their bodies buried. If you don't believe me, you can go and see for yourself. They should not have rotted away yet, and you can identify the abdominal wounds.

If you didn't hide anything, it doesn't matter. If you hid something and it wasn't discovered, I don't care. But if you hid something and it was discovered, I can't guarantee your safety. The policy I arranged is that the informant will get half of the hidden gold, and the remaining half will be confiscated. No matter if you are a refugee or a soldier, you can get it. You will live with other refugees during this period. "

The middle-aged man swallowed hard and said, "Is there no other way?"

"Report yourself, and then pay 30% of your property as protection money. I will arrange another camp, which is safer and more comfortable, and there will be no such reports. Of course, the minimum protection money is 100 dinars to prevent too many people. I worked hard to get this condition, and it's up to you to choose."

Orville didn't want to use this method. There would be some accidental injuries. Many people had saved a little money with great effort and wanted to protect their property. Such people were undoubtedly worthy of sympathy. But in ancient times, the military discipline of these soldiers was really unreliable. Even in modern times, few armies could achieve the goal of not robbing a penny. It was useless to just prohibit and restrict this phenomenon.

After the vicious incident of murder for gold, Tia was very angry and even wanted to lead the cavalry to surround the perpetrators and kill them all with eleven strokes. However, too many people were implicated and she was finally persuaded by Orville and the Governor of Egypt.

She ordered the entire army to punish the perpetrators and warned that those who committed the same offense would be sentenced to death, but the phenomenon still occurred. In the end, she had no choice but to ask Orville to help her deal with the matter.

Orville knew that tough regulations were useless, and he had to use other methods to divert the soldiers' greed for gold. At least the report would not harm civilians without property, which was a more appropriate solution. After doing this, at least the situation of killing people for gold almost disappeared.

He is indeed very suitable for this job, and can see through other people's attributes and abilities, which means that he can find smart and strategic talents without much effort. They don't need to be crouching dragons and phoenixes, or seek great things in the world, as long as they deceive the rich businessmen and let these people voluntarily pay protection fees.

Even if everyone disguised themselves before leaving the city and knew that wealth should not be exposed, it was still easy to distinguish between the rich and the poor. After such a long siege, those who were still in good shape and not starving to death were either spies or wealthy merchants. Either of them was the focus of attention.
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The next morning, Orville had just gotten out of bed when he was dragged by Tia to meet the friendly reinforcements.

"You said it was Greeks who came?"

Tia nodded and admitted: "Yes, from a small kingdom in Anatolia. The country is called Commagene, and the current king is Antiochus IV."

Orville looked at the army in front of him and agreed: "I see."

These soldiers looked majestic, all wearing Greek bronze armor and holding sarissas, which were extra-long spears used with both hands. The famous Macedonian phalanx used this type of weapon.

They formed a phalanx of sixteen rows deep, very thick and wide, and advanced in an orderly manner. This was exactly the same as the formation of the Macedonian phalanx. Obviously, the king trained his army in the Macedonian way. Seeing this scene, Orville shook his head and said jokingly, "I guess he will definitely mention Alexander the Great within five sentences."

Tia covered her head helplessly: "I think you said too much, less than three sentences is enough."

Every nation with a history is extremely proud of its ancestors. Greece's achievements in thought and philosophy are unquestionable, but in military terms, they seem to have worshipped Alexander the Great a little too much.

After the death of this great monarch, countless rulers wanted to be like Alexander the Great, to replicate his feats and to establish a great Greek empire, but it turned out that most of these monarchs were representative figures of poor character.

During this period, the position of Alexander the Great in the hearts of the Greek rulers was probably equivalent to the position of Napoleon in the heart of the benevolent monarch of Tongliao, a strange small country in Asia, Africa and Latin America in later generations.

Everyone wants to be Alexander the Great, but no one is Alexander the Great. If he knew about these poor imitators, he would probably say that fans should not take the idol’s behavior too seriously.

As expected, a general in fine clothes and on a horse came to Tia and said confidently and with a bit of arrogance: "Please allow my troops to launch an attack immediately. We can't wait to capture this city."

"Are you sure you don't need to let your soldiers rest? They have come from a long way, they should familiarize themselves with the situation before making any plans."

"I believe that is not necessary. My soldiers are all elite warriors trained according to Macedonian standards. Moreover, they are in their prime. They have unstoppable vigor and vitality. They only need one move to capture the city."

Tia persuaded them several times, and these young soldiers claimed that they did not need rest or preparation and could directly join the battle.

Seeing that the young king looked unhappy, Tia knew that he would not succeed, but she could not persuade him. She could only sigh and agree to his request.

"You have as many chances as any Roman. Do as you please."

After obtaining permission, the king led his troops forward like a proud peacock and began to attack the city.

It is conceivable that even Caesar and Alexander would not let the recruits participate in such brutal battles. The recruits who have completed training will first work in the transport team for a period of time, and then perform some minor military tasks after becoming familiar with the battlefield atmosphere.

These new recruits looked impressive, but in reality they lacked sufficient battlefield experience and had no idea how to protect themselves under the fierce enemy fire.

The Roman soldiers had square shields that gave them a sense of security, while the Macedonian soldiers had to hold their spears with both hands, so they could only wear a small round shield at most. The protective area was not enough. In addition, their formation was too dense, and spears were inconvenient to carry. They were severely damaged by the projectile weapons of the city defense army.

(End of this chapter)