Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 79 Raid on the Senate
Rome is a big city with tens of millions of people, and it is inevitable that there will be many wanderers with nothing to do, such as the retired soldiers that Orwell paid attention to. But during this period of time, they will not hang out in the gardens, there are bustling places to choose from, where they can kill time better.

Maybe during holidays or in the evening after dinner, some people would come for a walk or an outing. Orville couldn't control anyone's lifestyle; it was their own freedom.

But no matter what time it is, a dozen big men wearing cloaks and looking very suspicious gathered in a corner of the park, which is an unnatural thing no matter how you look at it.

In front of here is the Senate Chamber, and behind is the Pompey Theater which can accommodate tens of thousands of people. It is undoubtedly a prosperous area. Orville is suspicious and can't help but think too much. If these people are malicious, they look like the militants who carried out the KB attack.

He also knew that the other side was outnumbered and he was weak, so he could not arouse the other side's suspicion and had no conclusive evidence. So he subconsciously slowed down his pace a little, and immediately returned to his normal pace, with a relaxed expression on his face, as if he was just an ordinary citizen taking a walk.

Fortunately, Orville is a person who doesn't like to show off or be ostentatious. Unless it is a special occasion, he will not wear a military uniform or a purple cloak to show his identity when traveling. He looks like an ordinary citizen from a good family instead of someone with a conspicuous bag. Otherwise, it would be a bit troublesome.

Orville walked slowly past the crowd, just like an ordinary citizen who didn't want to cause trouble, and avoided the crowd a little bit. At the same time, he observed the clothes of these people with the corner of his eyes, and understood most of it after comparing them.

They were all wearing long trousers, and even though their faces couldn't be seen clearly, it was clear from this that they were from outside the area.

As mentioned earlier, because of the mild climate, the Romans living along the Mediterranean coast did not wear trousers, and they secretly despised this custom, regarding it as a cultural habit of barbarians. People who would stroll around the core area of ​​the city center would definitely not wear trousers.

Who would wear long trousers? Many people do, mainly people from the north, such as the Gauls and Germans.

Of course, there were many northern immigrants in Rome. It was an international city - there were regular immigrants, freed people, and traded slaves, with complex compositions and origins. But no matter what kind of people they were, they should not appear in suspicious clothing a few hundred meters in front of the gate of the Senate Hall. This was really disturbing.

After Orville left the crowd, he looked back briefly to make sure that he was not being followed. He walked around the garden several times before heading towards the door of the parliament hall.

In fact, Nerva was not necessarily uninterested in politics. Right now, the parliament hall was discussing the issue of military expansion in the war against the Gauls. It was only a few hundred meters away from the theater. He could be the first to learn about the situation here. It was more of a gesture to show that he had no intention of confronting the Flavian royal family. Vespa himself would definitely fall for it.

The guards on duty at the gate did not recognize Orville. He had never made a public appearance in the Guards camp, which was normal.

Orville felt that time was running out and there was no need to explain nonsense, so he got straight to the point: "I want to report that there is a group of suspicious people moving around in the garden. They are all wearing trousers and cloaks and don't look like Romans at all. I'm not sure if they have weapons. I have reason to suspect that they are dangerous elements."

Upon hearing such serious news, the guards looked at each other and did not dare to delay, so they prepared to ask their superiors to send someone to handle the matter.

But before the guards could even take a step, two high-speed spinning axes were thrown out from the bushes, accurately hitting the torsos or thighs of the guards closest to the bushes, and the terrifying impact force made them fall to the ground and die. Obviously, the impact force of a normal flying axe could not be that great, and the attacker must be a talented person. Orville's reaction was faster than most soldiers. He immediately bent down and retreated towards the stairs and columns of the parliament hall.

A few seconds later, a second round of flying axes hit several more unlucky Guards, taking their lives.

Even though the Roman Guards had become a little slow to react due to being far away from the war, they were still professional soldiers after all. After the second round of flying axes were thrown, they immediately reacted and began to retreat towards the columns of the council hall, wanting to use these sturdy columns carved from marble as their cover.

Out of fear of the gifted, these soldiers did not form a tight formation to block the gate, but retreated in groups of two or three to behind the pillars to avoid long-range attacks, and the formation became very loose.

The attackers also seized the opportunity at this time. They uttered all kinds of different war cries and rushed forward with a roar.

Probably to conceal their identities, they were not wearing armor and only had weapons such as one-handed swords and axes that were relatively light and easy to carry, but this did not affect their combat effectiveness at all.

Those who participated in this infiltration activity must have been elite warriors of various kinds. Their hand-to-hand combat ability was very strong. Even if the Roman soldiers were wearing armor and holding shields, they would not be at an advantage. In just three or two minutes, a dozen guards in front of the colonnade were all killed, and the other side lost one or two people.

When Orville saw people rushing towards him, he knew the situation was not good and quickly started to run back. It was a bit unrealistic for him to fight against more than a dozen burly men and at least one gifted person alone without any weapons.

The situation was urgent and there was no time to think. Orville quickly fled into the meeting room. The attackers outside were chasing him closely, biting Orville tightly and followed him into the meeting room. It seemed that their target was also here, not specifically for Orville.

There were also many fully armed guards inside, after all, this was where the elders were meeting, but they were still caught off guard and lost in the first round of fighting with the attackers. Orville didn't care too much and continued to flee into the meeting room, running into the hall where the elders were meeting.

In fact, although this is a very serious and formal occasion, the restrictions on people entering and leaving are not so strict. If the senators want to, they can imitate Caesar. During a Senate meeting, Caesar asked his slaves to go in and out of the meeting hall to help deliver letters. Some people suspected that he was treasonous and asked him to publish the contents of the letters. It turned out that Caesar was flirting with a relative of a senator and writing letters...

From this incident, we can probably tell that even when the Senate was in session, it did not seem to be a serious occasion where people only came in but did not leave.

The guard at the door wanted to stop Orville out of duty, but Vespa was presiding over the meeting. When he saw his godson running over in a hurry, he didn't know what had happened, so he quickly signaled to the guards to let him in.

(End of this chapter)