Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 69 National Cornerstone
This was roughly the content of the conversation between Orville and Mucinus. He knew very well that it was not the right time to use revolutionary technology so early, so he made some suggestions for minor repairs, which worked well.

Mucinus was indeed a qualified general. Once he made a decision, he was very efficient. He went straight to the Senate, holding the javelin given to him by Orville, and used simple and plain words to convince the elders of the Senate to support him in changing his weapons.

Orville has been quite active recently. Although ordinary people would not pay much attention to the people working behind the scenes, Orville has gained some positive recognition among the new rich of prominent families.

In their view, the Flavian family was a very good topic - Vespa ascended the throne at the age of sixty, and despite his humble origins, he ruled the Roman Empire; Tia was a rare female general with outstanding abilities and remarkable military exploits; and Orville was a former rebel leader who was adopted by the emperor as a prince without any warning.

No matter what the public thinks of these people, they will still pay attention to them to some extent, and Orville is one of the objects of attention. Many people did not understand why Orville became a prince before.

As Vespa's policies were gradually revealed, Orville also began to move around in the city, and the public gradually discovered the commonality between the two - they were both greedy for money.

Vespa used all kinds of methods to make money. In fact, everyone knows the reason behind it. It's nothing more than that the treasury can't support it. He himself is not extravagant. Among the emperors of all dynasties, he is a frugal and a little stingy. But rationally understanding it doesn't mean that they can accept Vespa's behavior emotionally.

In particular, the collection of "toilet taxes" and the sale of official positions and titles were considered extremely immoral by the Romans, and the citizens often mocked Vespa for his greed, either explicitly or implicitly.

Vespa was a kind-hearted and generous person who did not care at all. Instead, he cheerfully joked with the citizens and occasionally took money from the treasury to renovate various facilities within the empire and hold collective celebrations, acting like a people-friendly emperor.

He has been in power for several months. Everyone can tell how he behaves. Apart from being a bit greedy, Vespa is a very good emperor. He is diligent, close to the people, generous, and kind. Now is a time when the country is in a tense situation. It is good for such an emperor to come to power. Everyone knows this, so the voices against him are not powerful at all.

The dissatisfaction with him was limited to mocking his greed for money and calling him a "mule trader" and a "salted fish merchant". These statements were spread by word of mouth among the citizens, and occasionally some courageous activists openly criticized him. These were all within an acceptable range and there was no problem with it. There must always be some way to vent dissatisfaction.

As for Orville, his reputation was slightly better than Vespa's. Although people who knew his behavior could see that he was more or less greedy for money, Orville would not do something like raising taxes to compete with the people for profits, so his way of making money was considered legitimate.
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A little later, Orville was chatting with Tia in the room.

Unlike most women of this era, Tia has received a complete education and has sufficient concern and thought about many real-life issues. Chatting with her is very interesting, and her words are meaningful, which is good for expanding Orville's thinking mode.

Orville still did not change the layout of the room, but just moved things around and cleaned it up. After Tia said it several times, she gave up the treatment. She also admitted that it was indeed more convenient. Tia was half lying on the bench in the atrium, with a puzzled expression: "I understand that there is no essential difference between slaves and free people. The difference between the two sides is just their different fates. The kings of the monarchy era all acknowledged this. We are not the Greeks who equate slaves with livestock. But I still don't quite understand why you think slaves are detrimental to agricultural development.

Slaves can basically do all the farm work that freemen can do, and they can maintain their masters' farms when their masters are away on military service. In addition, the money spent on hiring a freeman to work on the farm for two or three years is almost enough to buy a slave to work for you. As long as a slave is given enough care, he can work for at least 20 years. Taking into account the cost of food and care, there is still a big difference.

I admit that some slaves live in terrible conditions, and I will try to improve this in the future, but using slaves to work and farm is indeed a more economical and efficient method, and this has been repeatedly verified. "

She wore clothes that were very tight, so she didn't have to worry about exposing herself, which made Orville feel a little regretful for some reason.

"That's not the way it should be. The cornerstone of Roman society was the citizens, the people who owned land, worked, and fought in the army. They paid taxes, they shed blood, and they defended the country.

Every citizen who served in the army had to be away from home for more than ten years or even longer. Perhaps they had domestic slaves to help them at home, but the main force of labor was still their family members. There were four or five million free people on the Apennine Peninsula but only more than one million slaves, and more people worked as a family unit.

Without strong men in their families, they simply cannot compete with large estates that employ a large number of slaves in terms of labor production. When citizens return home after completing their military service, they will find that their farmland does not make any money at all. It is even possible that their families will have to sell the land to make a living. If they have no land and are in debt, they may become unemployed vagrants or slaves. Is this fair to the glorious soldiers?"

Tia frowned. This was the first time she heard such a statement. It was different from what she had been taught before, so she instinctively wanted to reject it, but she couldn't find any suitable reason to reject it.

"Even if the men in the family returned, they still could not compete with the large farms that used slaves because the latter had lower costs. The result was that more families might lose their farmland, and there would be more and more large farms that used slaves. In the end, only the big landowners and slaves would be left, and the people in between would all disappear, and the foundation of the empire would be hollowed out.

Only tough and strong citizen soldiers can support the empire. How can we recruit soldiers without them? The big landowners may be able to provide a few elite private soldiers and a large number of inferior conscripts, but the combat effectiveness of these people is nothing compared to the legionnaires. I dare say that two legions with proper command can defeat 50,000 such inferior troops. How can we go to war with other countries at that time?
Without war, we will lose our main source of slaves. How will these large estates be maintained? They will either collapse on their own or absorb Roman citizens as serfs. Either way, it will lead to the systemic collapse of the country. My sister, do you understand?"

(End of this chapter)