Chapter 66 Time passes
The scorching summer seemed to last forever. In the Karak Castle in Moab, the patrol team originally sent by Leonard had sent back good news one after another.
To be honest, if the knights really went to check the accounts, they actually didn't have the ability.
After all, although most knights are educated, there won't be many illiterates. But this is not enough to make them accountants, even medieval accountants.
Therefore, these knights who were sent out had a clear positioning of themselves.
They were just there to find trouble and extort money.
In order to fight for the war in the coming year, Leonard is not satisfied with the past taxes, so he has to find another way to squeeze some money out of the tax collector families. As for where the tax-farmer family should make up for the oil and water that had been squeezed out, Leonard didn't care at all.
After so many days, those knights had gained a lot, but Leonard still frowned.
Because the team with the largest number of people, the two hundred people led by Eric, seemed to be lost in the sea, and no news was sent back.
Until one day news came that in this gloomy castle, Leonard's face gradually became distorted, and the golden cup in his hand also deformed.
Eric!
It was okay if that guy died, but all 200 people were killed by him!
Even Leonard, as the lord of Transjordan, was able to recruit an army of 3,000 men from the entire territory at the last time, and sometimes more than 4,000.
But this doesn't mean that he can turn a blind eye to the loss of those 200 people!
My heart bleeds.
These 200 people were not just serfs picked randomly from the fields, but at last they were freedmen on his manor. They will receive certain military training every year and be able to bring their own weapons to participate in wars. This is the cornerstone for the Crusader lords to rule the land of Transjordan!
If they died on the battlefield against Saladin, Leonard would not blink an eye, but if he robs a tax collector, he will give them away...
Eric, that loser, why don’t you die?
No, that trash is dead now!
Damn it! Damn it!
After Leonard restrained his incompetent rage, he continued to ask in the empty castle.
"Who did it?"
A voice came from the shadows behind him: "I heard that there are people from the Anjou family who have authorized the farmers there to resist taxes and have already broken into the residences of local tax collectors."
"Anjou?" Leonard gritted his teeth.
"There is no second Anjou in this country. Now the only remaining Anjou in this country is sitting on the cursed throne!"
"Perhaps, before long, there will no longer be Anjou in this country..."
Hearing Leonard say that the throne was cursed, the man in the shadow chuckled, and then he continued.
"Reynard, but what if there really is a second Anjou in Jerusalem?"
"Absolutely impossible, absolutely impossible."
By repeating the same words twice, Leonard was no longer trying to convince others, but to comfort himself.
Compared with Jerusalem and the second Anjou, a few villages did not pay taxes and lost 200 people, but it was a trivial matter and not worth mentioning.
"Some things should not be said too harshly. Any careful plan may have loopholes during execution. The key lies in how to remedy it, rather than blindly denying it."
The words coming from the shadow were quite orderly, and the voice sounded particularly pleasant.
Perhaps he figured it out, Leonard sighed: "Brother, help me get rid of that person, no matter what the cost..."
"As you wish, Brother Leonard...I will go and inform the headquarters of the situation."
"Deusvult."
"Destiny is so." The first sentence is Latin and the latter sentence is French.
……
As summer passes and autumn comes, time is like a river that cannot be returned.
After two consecutive months of scorching sun, the land of Palestine finally received its first autumn rain.
Different from the heavy rain at the end of spring, this autumn rain is more like a silk thread, continuous and nourishing the earth for a long time.
The Middle East, from Mesopotamia to the Red Sea, from Asia Minor to the Nile River, had not yet declined to the point of continuous desertification at the end of the 12th century, and was therefore far richer than Western Europe itself.
Trade routes one after another from Mecca, from Cairo, from Baghdad, from Syria, from Quanzhou, from Lin'an... converge to Jerusalem, which is the last transit point on the Maritime Silk Road before heading to Europe.
And many of them have to pass through Jordan.
Even though Leonard, the crusader lord here, is a guy who doesn't keep his word, after all, wealth can be found in danger, and there are quite a lot of caravans, so there is no better choice.
But for Zaid, although he had never encountered extortion or robbery by Leonard, he had encountered the feared Bedouin gangsters.
Consistency of beliefs does not mean that one will be treated with mercy.
These Bedouin nomadic tribes living on the edge of the desert have long been assimilated by the harsh living environment. They have hearts as ruthless as the sand.
Zaid gave the order. He asked everyone to use camels and carriages to form a vehicle barrier to separate the enemy from ourselves.
He kept shouting loudly, hoping to communicate with the Bedouins outside the car barrier.
For a businessman like him, if he only hands over part of the goods, he can exchange them for the Bedouin's passage permit, which is a very cost-effective way.
However, perhaps because the other party was too greedy, the offer shouted by Zaid was not very attractive to the Bedouins outside the barrier.
The Bedouin wanted a little bit more, maybe everything from this caravan.
And this is obviously unacceptable to Zaid and the others.
As time passed, during the confrontation between the caravan and the bandits, many Bedouins arrived here.
The news of the arrival of the fat sheep had been spread back to their tribe or other tribes by the previous Bedouin people.
This is not good...
After all, Zaid and the others were unfamiliar with the place here and could not count on reinforcements, but there could be a steady stream of Bedouins.
However, Zaid was planning to take the lead in attacking and seeking a breakthrough.
There was a scream, drifting through the rain curtain.
"Ah!"
Those with sharp eyes followed the direction of the sound and looked westward through the thread-like drizzle.
Then he saw a vague figure holding a sword, and a corpse had fallen beside him.
No one realizes how he got there, and no one can understand why he kills.
In short, with that scream of the dead, he became the focus of the field.
But he was not afraid and spoke loudly.
"This is the boundary of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and all looting is prohibited."
The second volume has begun...then at 12 o'clock sharp I will post a single chapter and announce the winning number. Note that that is not an update
(End of chapter)