Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 7 Speech and the Future

The next morning, after a small group of troops explored the route to ensure safety and no traps, Vespa's large group entered the city. Unlike the agreement, the rebels were not arrested, but most of them escaped. The local nobles explained that they had noticed something was wrong and had already fled. Obviously, Vespa didn't believe this explanation and thought that these nobles wanted to avoid offending both sides, so he gave them a small warning.

When the large army entered the city, he used the excuse that the city gate was too narrow and the troops would take too long to enter the city, which hindered the Romans' plan. He simply ordered the demolition of the southern section of the city wall to allow the army to enter and exit freely. The locals dared not speak out.

Perhaps because he was afraid of being ambushed by the locals, or perhaps because he did not want to disturb them, Vespa still set up his camp on the high ground outside the city. He did not rush to chase the rebels, but waited and watched, waiting for Tia's reinforcements to arrive.

As Vespa's entourage, Orville saw all of this. He felt that it was unnecessary at first, after all, the rebels were at a disadvantage in terms of quality and quantity, but later he understood Vespa's intention.

The rebels had no idea that the Romans had more than 10,000 men, and thought it was just a small force. They organized their forces in the nearby city of Waterdeep, ready to confront the Romans.

Vespa did this on purpose, deliberately letting them gather and then catching them all in one fell swoop.

Orville felt that this was the difference between Vespa and Tia's thinking. Vespa probably thought that the threat must be eliminated and all enemies should be eliminated. Tia, on the other hand, probably thought that it was enough to kill the leader, and the rest would naturally scatter. Before the other side could react, she would directly carry out a quick decapitation operation to end the war as soon as possible.

After Tia's reinforcements arrived and joined the main force, Vespa asked her to lead a battalion of 600 people from the 12th Legion to disperse the enemy. At the same time, he also assigned her 400 cavalry and 2,000 archers. Orville moved with these people and joined her on the battlefield.
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Orville looked at the commander named Ulpius Trajan and asked tentatively, "Do you have a son who was not born in the Apennines?"

The other party looked surprised: "How did you know? You are right."

Orville chuckled and began to secretly think about how to get in touch with his family: "I said, I have some prophetic talent. Your son will become a good man, strong and smart, and will become a great man."

Combining the other party's life experience and his identity as a supporter of Vespa, Orville was able to confirm that he was the biological father of Ulpius Nerva Trajanus, one of the Five Good Emperors of Rome, respected as the "best head of state" and "best leader", who had the potential to compete for the title of the best ruler in the nearly two thousand years of Roman history.

It is rare for a tiger son to have a dog father. Old Trajan was also a very good general and a military talent valued by Vespasian.

Regardless of whether it was a charlatan's words or not, everyone loves to hear auspicious words. Old Trajan was in a good mood after being praised. He said modestly, "For an eleven-year-old child, these are too far away. But thank you for your prediction. I will remember it."

He was transferred from Spain and had been following Vespa. He was not a local garrison, so he did not have much of an opinion about Orville. Even if he had some unclear prejudices, it was nothing compared to his loyalty to Vespa. The commander had spoken, so Orville was the Roman legion's staff officer and guide.

The two places were not far apart. When old Trajan, Orville and others arrived at their destination, both sides were gathering on the plain, and Tia was giving a pre-war speech to her subordinates.

She encouraged with a loud voice: "We have the best equipment! We have the best training! Although the enemies in front of us are numerous, they have no discipline and combat experience. They are just a mob. The purpose of your daily training is to defeat a large number of enemies with fewer troops! Victory has become a routine for my father. I don't have the face to go back to see him after a defeat. Are you qualified to be my warriors? Are you qualified to be a soldier embracing glory? I tell you clearly that this battle will end with a glorious victory. We will reap a far-reaching victory and return home with honor!" After that, she raised the sword in her hand high. A layer of red light was attached to the sword, which attracted attention under the sunlight. Tia pointed the tip of the sword at the Parfi army in front, which was far more numerous than the Romans, and rushed out first.

Seeing that their commander led the charge towards the enemy, the soldiers, inspired by the speech, naturally did not want to be outdone. They formed a tight formation and then rushed towards the enemy in an organized manner.

Seeing this, old Trajan sighed: "This former lawyer has good eloquence, unlike us rough people. If it were me, I would be speechless, but now he can kill me."

The number of the Parphians far exceeded that of the Romans. They fought bravely and were determined to fight to the death with the invaders who set foot on their land. However, the gap in training and weapons and equipment could not be made up by passion alone.

Due to their backward equipment, the weapons in their hands could hardly cause damage to the Romans' large shields and armor, and their coordination was not smooth. The soldiers holding long spears often bumped into each other, making it difficult to compare with the Romans' orderly phalanx.

For a while, it was the side with more people that was defeated and forced to retreat.

The Palph people in the city wanted to support them, but the additional 2,000 archers kept them inside the city, making it difficult for them to go out of the city to support their friendly forces. The battle situation was quite unfavorable to the Palph people from the beginning.

Orville knew very well that the biggest disadvantage of the Palfi people was that they had no cavalry. Most of the cavalry in the country were in the hands of moderate people such as the royal nobles. Even if they seized the horses, not many people could serve as qualified cavalry.

In this era, there were no riding equipment such as stirrups. Training qualified cavalry was a time-consuming, money-consuming and racially talented task. The Romans holding shields next door spent hundreds of years but failed to train many qualified cavalry, and they still mainly relied on mercenary cavalry.

The entrance of Trajan the Elder's cavalry sounded the clarion call for the end, and the cavalry cut down the number of the Parvi people layer by layer like scaling a fish, with spears and daggers constantly reaping lives.

After the effect of the blood boiling faded away, what emerged in everyone's mind was the fear of death. They did not have enough resilience like professional soldiers. The sounds of horses trampling corpses, the enemies' shouts and the sounds of daggers piercing flesh all continued to hit their morale.

At first it was just a few scattered individuals, but it soon turned into a great rout. These soldiers threw away their weapons and equipment just to run faster and quickly take refuge in the city.

Tia did not intend to attack Waterdeep with these people. Although this city was not a very complete one and there were many places without the protection of city walls, their number was too small and Tia felt uncertain.

(According to official history, Trajan should be 13 or 14 years old now, and the plot needs some changes to make him a few years younger. In addition, Berenice should be 39 years old now, and a certain feminized character is 27 years old. They are all a few years younger because the plot requires them to be a few years younger. I just mentioned it casually because of the big fight.)
(End of this chapter)