Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 80: Hufu Riding and Shooting (Additional notice at the end of the article)
Anyway, it was rare to see someone like Orville rushing in like a headless fly, and it was almost impossible to see him in a normal meeting.

As soon as he rushed into the meeting room, everyone subconsciously stopped what they were doing and stared at Orville, their eyes fixed on him, filled with all kinds of emotions: confusion, curiosity, surprise, anger.
If it were an ordinary person, he would be so nervous that he would be speechless at this time, but Orville had developed a big heart when he fought in the army, so he didn't care about this scene. After being stunned for a few seconds, he quickly reacted and shouted loudly to the group of elders.

"There's an assassin! There's an assassin! The assassin is attacking the meeting room, everyone please be careful!!"

The first person to react was Tia. She was the most vigilant among the group and she also trusted Orville very much. Although she didn't understand the situation and didn't know why Orville suddenly rushed in, she completely believed the key word of assassin attack.

She immediately stood up, took a dagger from the guard beside her, walked quickly to Vespa, took a defensive posture, and stared at the gate vigilantly.

This act of treating others as if they were facing a formidable enemy also infected other people. Since this was a relatively important military meeting, there were many serious soldiers among the elders present. They were not the kind who gained experience in the army so that they could make money and enjoy life in politics in the future. They were real warriors who had been on the battlefield and drawn knives to kill people.

Seeing that Tiya was so cautious, they did not dare to be negligent. They either took their weapons and equipment from the guards, or took out daggers and short knives for self-defense from their wide robes. They also spontaneously formed a battle formation of five to ten people to prepare to deal with the intruders.

Just one or two minutes after Orville entered the meeting room, guards with nervous expressions rushed into the room. They formed a human wall at the door, guarding against attackers who might break through the defense line.

Although these senators have weapons in their hands, we cannot rely on them if a real fight breaks out. This is nothing as they have been pampered in Rome for a long time. The main thing is that they are here for a meeting, not to fight. Not only will they not be wearing armor, but the clothes they wear will make it difficult for them to move.

This was a formal meeting of the elders. All the attendees, including Tia, wore togas, which were Roman formal attire to show their status. In layman's terms, it was a large semicircular wool blanket about 5.5 meters long and 3.5 meters wide. It was difficult to put on this kind of clothes without the help of servants. It was extremely heavy and stuffy, but it looked very dignified and respectable. People would only wear it when attending important occasions.

People with weak physique would feel uncomfortable wearing this kind of clothes for a long time, not to mention fighting in this kind of formal wear, so when a real fight comes, we will have to rely on the soldiers wearing shiny ring-plate armor and holding spears and swords. The elders hold weapons more to give themselves psychological comfort.

After the scene gradually quieted down, everyone could vaguely hear shouts and screams coming from not far away. Everyone's heart was in suspense, but fortunately, this was the center of Rome after all, and the security force was still in place. After waiting for more than ten minutes in agony, a team of guards finally came to report the situation.

The attackers had been controlled and the safety of the elders was guaranteed. The guards had originally wanted to capture them alive, but when the attackers saw that the situation was hopeless, they immediately chose to commit suicide, leaving no one alive.

Vespa couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and did not blame these diligent guards. He just asked them to retreat and continue their duty, and be alert to possible enemies lurking nearby.

He looked around and took the opportunity to continue, "You all saw it. I can't say whether it was done by the Gauls or the Franks, but I can be sure that some people have begun to get restless. The reason is that our strength has shown signs of weakening a little, which has made the hyenas and vultures entrenched around us eye us covetously. It cannot be denied that the series of chaos that began last year has weakened our strength, but we cannot show any signs of weakening. Now is not the time to save the little gold and silver in the treasury. If we lose the war with the Gauls, what will the Germans do? What will the Parthians do? Will the Egyptians still be so law-abiding? If we are not careful, we will face the dilemma of being attacked from all sides, so I insist on my original opinion. We must expand the army on a large scale. After replenishing the losses of the Germanic Legion, we must temporarily expand at least five more legions to deal with the Gauls. Only in this way can we ensure our suppression of these two nations."

The elders who originally held opposing opinions and did not want to spend too much money on maintaining the army are now a little hesitant. What happened just now left a deep impression on them. The killing happened dozens or hundreds of meters away from them. This was not an entertainment activity like gladiators, but an attack against them with the purpose of killing them.

The senators who had some knowledge of history could not help but recall the stories from hundreds of years ago - Rome today is a city without walls. The Romans were confident that no foreign race could threaten their capital, so the capital of such a powerful empire did not need walls at all. Walls would only hinder the expansion and development of the city, but no country is strong from the beginning.

In the hundreds of years of history since the founding of Rome, the city has not been without threats from foreigners, but apart from the Roman Civil War, there has only been one war that could threaten the city's survival. That was the war in which the Gauls went south to sack Rome. This took place four hundred years ago, when Rome was still a small city-state on the Apennine Peninsula.

The city of Rome four hundred years ago was not strong. Faced with the threat from the Gauls, they had no choice but to abandon the city where they lived and many women, children and the elderly. The strong and healthy people retreated to the hills and barely held on. Later, they had to pay compensation to the Gauls to barely gain peace.

The Gauls’ occupation lasted for seven months. Their cities were almost destroyed. Many people who failed to go up the mountain were killed, raped, and sold into slavery. Like many losers in history, the Romans suffered heavy losses in this war. If the Gauls had not been impatient and the disease was rampant in the army, they might have been conquered in one go.

This war seriously stimulated the self-esteem of the Romans. After that, they worked hard to recuperate quickly, and began the alternative "Hu clothing and horse riding" - absorbing the Gauls' metallurgical technology and armament concepts to carry out military innovation.

It should be said that these measures were effective. Three hundred years later, the Romans completely conquered almost the entire Gaul nation. Within eight hundred years after the fall of Rome, the city had never been captured by the enemy again, until the decadent era at the end of the Roman Empire.

But no matter how powerful Rome became later, the Gallic invasion was always a thorn in the hearts of many people and a humiliating piece of history, especially for these senators.

PS. I just saw the second round of recommendations, so let's continue. I promised to update more. After calculating, it seems that there is no hope of advancing, but what is promised is what is promised, and thank you for reading this far.

By default, one update is added every day, and one more update is added for every 400 favorites.

This may be one of the few additional updates in recent months, because the author is quite busy with his studies, with many courses for two degrees and a lot of academic pressure. I wrote this book very slowly and it is good if I can write 1K5 in an hour (normal should be 3k). When I am busy, I really don’t have that much time to write.

(End of this chapter)