Crusader Kings: Prisoners of War.

Chapter 85: Warmongering
It was wise not to mention this matter to Tia, otherwise she would definitely not be able to accept her own father's behavior morally, and there would be a quarrel between the two sides, which was unnecessary.

Then the few of them exchanged opinions with each other. Vespa had been busy all day and was physically exhausted. At his request, the three of them left the atrium and returned to their rooms to rest. Today's events came to an end.
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After the Senate and the emperor reached a consensus, the conscription plan was quickly implemented. From Rome to the Apennine Peninsula and then to various local provinces, various places began to mobilize troops and recruit new soldiers.

Things in Gaul are not optimistic now. Orville can only know the general situation in Rome. The uprising has spread from the original northern Gaul, Belgium and other places to Normandy and Brittany, and there is no sign of stopping. It is still spreading towards the central region of Gaul, and it seems to be out of control.

Due to lack of manpower, the Germanic legions stationed along the Rhine River did not dare to mobilize easily to quell the rebellion. They chose to hold their ground and wait for reinforcements. The governors of the remaining provinces in Gaul did not have enough manpower to go out to meet the enemy, so they could only continue to hold their ground and shrink the front line.

This was also within the expectations of the Senate. From the very beginning, they did not expect these governors of peaceful provinces to play much of a role. They just wanted to delay time and wait for the main force to be mobilized, and they would delay as long as possible.

The bottom line required by the city of Rome was to defend the province of Narbonne Gaul along the Mediterranean coast, which is the area where Marseille, Toulon, Montpellier, Avignon and other places are located today. It would be acceptable to lose the remaining areas before the main force arrives.

This place was colonized by the Greeks a long time ago. Cities like Marseille were built at that time. Later, this area was also the first to be conquered by the Romans. Today, it has basically been assimilated by the Romans. The locals' identification with Roman Latin culture may be greater than that with Gallic culture.

Rome has a popular base in the local area, and with the protection of the mountains, it would be very difficult for the Gauls to take over. This is the bottom line of the Senate.

Things like conscription and training of new soldiers were the responsibility of local military commanders and did not require Orville or Tia to worry about, so their lives were not greatly affected.

Tia still carried out high-intensity training as usual. After training, she would occasionally follow the emperor to participate in some social activities. In her free time, she would stay at home with Domitia or Orville. With Orville's efforts to bring them together, it can be felt that the relationship between the two sisters has improved a little, at least it is not the previous state of mutual respect.

Orville has more free time. In addition to supervising the hotel system and the training of the guards, he still has time to do other things.

In recent days, he would take out about two or three hours every day to sit in the square and conduct recruitment activities in his own name.

The war did not have a particularly big impact on Orville's business. Although the Romans were a little worried about the upcoming war, they had no doubt that they would win in the end, so there was not much panic in the city. It would be better to say that Orville's business was better than before, because there seemed to be more people going to Greece to study or travel, probably because they wanted to avoid the limelight and justify not joining the army.

Orville's business has a relatively fast capital turnover, plus he has some small treasury, and Palfi has also been receiving grain income, so he still has some money in his hands now and can do a lot of things.

After talking to Vespa, he got permission for Orville himself - Orville could build an army at his own expense and send it to the future battlefield in Gaul, but the number could not exceed four battalions, which was about 2,500 people, barely half a legion. In fact, Orville had enough money to build two battalions at most, so the Senate's worries were completely unnecessary.

When necessary, the Romans would also allow generals to pay for the formation of more troops at their own expense to join the war. A typical example should be Crassus, one of the three giants. The soldiers he led on the expedition to Parthia in the Battle of Carrhae were basically recruited at his own expense. During the period, he also robbed the temple of the Parvi people to raise military expenses. Although the final result was not very good and he was defeated by a small army, it can be regarded as a famous scene in history.

Orville and Tia will most likely be arranged to join the war. In order to ensure safety, it is normal for Orville to recruit more soldiers for himself. The Senate is happy to see someone bear the military expenses, but there should be only a few generals who do this. Normal people can just recruit some mercenaries temporarily to meet the needs. Raising a regular army and returning to the capital after the war will also take back the military power, which is not good for him. Orville has other ideas now.

He felt that after he finished fighting in Gaul, he might not return to Rome soon and would have to stay outside for a while, so it was necessary to have a reliable standing force. The five hundred Parphi people were useless and could only serve as guards. If he wanted to fight, he would need more people.

Now that he has time and also takes this matter very seriously, he decides to recruit soldiers himself. There is no shortage of passionate young people or experienced veterans near Rome. As long as Owell is willing to put in the effort, recruiting soldiers will not be difficult.

He asked someone to make a large and imposing sign with the following words engraved on it, which he copied from a later science fiction novel.

[The noblest cause a person can imagine is to use his body to stand between the desolate battlefield and the lovely home. ]

I don't know whether it was because of the good choice of slogan or because of Orville's special identity, but Orville himself must be more inclined to the former. In any case, there were quite a lot of people coming to participate in the recruitment, and Orville had room to choose.

He offered the soldiers a basic annual salary of 300 dinars, which was slightly higher than the standard 225 dinars. He also made the reason clear: there was no guarantee that these soldiers would receive retirement benefits, so he gave them a higher annual salary as compensation. He would also be a little more generous in distributing the spoils. Both have their pros and cons.

He also emphasized that there was no threshold for conscription. Roman citizens with voting rights, Latin citizens without voting rights, and foreigners from the provinces could all join the army. The years of service were calculated in the same way as the auxiliary army, and Roman citizenship would be granted after 25 years of service.

PS. In order to facilitate reading and understanding, modern place names are sometimes used to avoid unnecessary reading barriers. If necessary, I will attach a comparison between ancient place names and modern place names.

(End of this chapter)