Chapter 210 The storm is coming, reactions from all parties
The Kingdom of Jerusalem, from its earliest days, was the kingdom of the Franks.
This is the cornerstone of the establishment of the kingdom. Without the successive waves of crusades of the Franks, it would be impossible for this country to continue to this day.
But what's the problem?
The question is, can the kingdom really rely on the Crusaders to survive for a long time?
The answer is impossible.
As long as more than two-thirds of the citizens in this country are still regarded as potential enemies.
Once the power of the Crusaders in Western Europe declined, the collective consciousness of the Muslim community strengthened.
Then the Crusader countries will be destroyed, and there will be no possibility of reconstruction.
The Muslims in this country can say that they have ushered in "liberation."
Crusaders who have just arrived can just pat their butts and leave, saying that this is not their hometown.
But where can people like Isabella, Balian, and the Leper King go?
The day the country is completely destroyed, that is when they will be homeless.
They must make a choice and forge a new identity.
The emergence of Garris provided the foundation for the birth of a new identity, making their choices no longer wishful thinking.
This case is not the first in history.
In 911, Rollo the Walker reached a peace agreement with Charles III, the "King of Confusion" at the time.
The latter gave Rouen and its surrounding lands to Rollo in exchange for his allegiance and his request to convert to Christianity.
Just one generation later, the Normans were born.
French replaced the Scandinavian languages, and Christian faith replaced the Norse gods.
The descendants of these Vikings openly integrated into the Christian world, and conquered England under the leadership of the later "illegitimate son" William.
Of course, the appearance of the Normans is difficult to replicate in the Middle East.
But because of the emergence of Gairis, whether it is Islam or Christianity, they have a new choice.
A choice that clearly embraces old beliefs.
Create a new system, distinct from the Catholic order, in which Jerusalem could dwell.
To put it crudely, you can win more and more local allies through Garris.
This ally is not just a country, but also a nation, especially Orthodox Christians and Muslims.
Facing the tide of Islam, the Franks, numbering over 100,000, were like a ship that could capsize at any time. On any stormy night, the ship could be broken and people would be killed.
But if there are millions of people who agree with Qairis, then in the face of the wave of Islam, they will be like a rock, able to stand firm no matter how the sea washes away.
And if millions of people believe that the Holy Word has returned to the earth and that Garris is a saint walking in the world, then there will be a brand new wave originating from Jerusalem, the holy city of the three religions, and rushing to all parts of the European continent.
This is not to establish a huge empire, but what is certain is that once the religious pattern of the Middle East changes, it will definitely be conducive to the continuation of the kingdom.
Because the country has more alternative futures.
Based on this future goal, the Orthodox Christians and Muslim groups in the kingdom are actually potential "common people" who can be put on the table to eat together.
Another point is that Isabella's confrontation with the old aristocratic group is not to take power to herself, but to really concentrate power in the King's Landing Parliament.
Because only in this way can we not only unify people's hearts with Garris's brand name, but also use practical political interests to tie everyone into the same boat.
Power and responsibility are matched, and rights and obligations are relative.
Seeking unlimited power means unlimited responsibility.
If people are not allowed to eat at the table, then those who cannot get to the table will eventually overturn the table as well.
[The kingdom is rich and the people are rich, the country is dominated by rich people, the only remaining rich man is the rich man, and the country is destroyed and the warehouse is rich. It is said that the top is full and the bottom is leaking, and there is no way to save the trouble. 】
——"Wei Liao Zi"
In Tire's palace, Isabella, Balian, and several other knights were making various calculations.
The Territory of Tire and the Territory of Beirut are not large territories that can be determined through a preliminary visit or inventory.
Although it is not enough to fully understand the population situation of the two territories, it is enough to determine the approximate number of villages and the distribution of religious conditions.
From these complicated data, a cold-faced Isabella said frankly: "It is not feasible to fully liberalize elections, and Garris also admits this."
"As far as the current situation is concerned, we do not need to fully liberalize elections. We just need some leading figures among the Greeks and Saracens to be able to have more in-depth exchanges with us."
"Due to our own circumstances, the right to be elected also needs to be more limited."
Balian and others on the side also knew what the limitations in Isabella's words meant.
After this long-term game and compromise, both the aristocratic group and the wealthy businessman group have accepted the consensus that members of the House of Commons are elected through election.
What kind of people are qualified to hold elections is another issue.
The plan proposed by the sect is that all adults over the age of 16 who can independently write a letter of commitment to stand for election in "simplified Latin" have the right to vote, regardless of gender.
"Simplified Latin" is a language that has appeared in history and is simpler than Latin.
The Frankish language of this era was, to a certain extent, a simplified version of "Simplified Latin", so traditional Frankish people could also accept it.
According to the plan, "simplified Latin" will be used as the written language for the various scriptures that the sect is sorting out in the Kingdom of Jerusalem (without restrictions abroad, such as Cyprus).
In other words, within the Kingdom of Jerusalem, believers in Galis theology have a greater chance of participating in the political power game.
This is naked favoritism, laying the foundation for political interests for a new community, a new national identity.
Just when Isabella and the others were discussing the plan intensely, an attendant opened the small door next to the meeting hall and walked in, delivering a letter to Isabella.
When Isabella saw the paint mark on the letter clearly, she was stunned for a moment, and then her cold and serious little face couldn't help but bloom like a flower.
But when she opened the letter and began to read its contents.
Isabella's expression turned cold again.
"Balian, we're in trouble."
"What's wrong?"
Balian was a little confused for a moment.
"The apocalypse is coming."
Of course, the situation may not necessarily deteriorate to that point, but Isabella and the others need to be prepared to deal with it and need to send personnel to support Garris.
Listening to Isabella repeating the contents of the letter, the people present made the sign of the cross together.
But unlike in the past, this time everyone on the scene did not think that this was Heavenly Father coming to punish the world.
Because Gareth was there and Gareth had told them how to fight off the plague.
The era of mortals losing their lives due to ignorance seems to be coming to an end.
After a brief discussion, Isabella, wearing a robe, began to issue orders one by one.
"Puldock, take two companies north and march as fast as possible to Tripoli."
"Yes!"
"Caffey, you gather the health workers from other companies and start inoculating cowpox on the residents of the port area."
"Yes!"
Pudock and Caffey each saluted to show that they obeyed Isabella's order.
"The port of Tire will enter a quarantine period from now on."
"The crew of any ship without a charter certificate must be quarantined for seven days before they can disembark."
Isabella gave orders one after another in a clear and logical manner, which in the eyes of Balian on the side could be said to have become more mature.
……
A similar scene also happened in Cyprus a few days ago.
However, unlike Tire, Cyprus does not have any internal disagreements and does not need to consider too many reforms in a short period of time.
Cyprus itself has a perfect tradition of autonomy. Whether it is the Eastern Empire or the Arab Empire, the rule of Cyprus is essentially based on the collection of tribute.
It will not interfere too much with the lives of the islanders.
Without Isaac, the lives of the Cypriot islanders seemed to have returned to peace.
But the traces of Garris could not be erased after all, and news about the changes in Cyprus began to spread to all directions in the Mediterranean along the passing merchant ships.
In fact, today’s residents of the island of Cyprus have been converted collectively because of the 30,000-person march and after witnessing the miracles performed by Gellis.
Of course, the islanders did not feel that they had betrayed their faith, but that they had moved from one correct path to another, more correct path.
It can be said that we are winning again and again.
Today, on the island of Cyprus, people range from the Archbishop of the Holy Synod to the farmers who herd cattle in the countryside.
The name of "Saint" Garris is already known to everyone.
In a short period of time, the Church of Cyprus also received immeasurable divine blessings because of the "miracle" performed by Garris.
In Orthodox Christianity, "miracle" shows the power and will of the Father, and means that "God" is intervening in people's lives.
It can be said that if Guerris does not correct it in the future, the island of Cyprus may truly move towards a "theocratic" system and become a country of churches in the true sense. In fact, according to Gareth's thinking, he did not feel the need to establish a huge autocratic empire spanning Europe, Asia and Africa.
Such an empire, in a certain sense, has little chance of long-term existence.
If it wants to maintain it for a long time, it will easily fall into the situation of the Ottoman Empire and become a prison for many ethnic groups.
This would go against Gareth's pursuit. He does not want a "dystopia" to appear, and he also rejects the existence of a "Leviathan".
Therefore, Guerris does not intend to directly force Cyprus, which has its own unique culture and history, into the Second Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Cyprus and the Second Kingdom can have a higher-level alliance, or they can coexist together as part of the "Federation".
Based on the response to Gallis's letter, the Cyprus Church and the Cyprus Liberation Front each organized personnel to be sent to Tripoli.
Since the island of Cyprus is only a one-day flight from Tripoli, representatives from Cyprus had already met with Gehrys on the day Isabella received the letter.
In Gallis's clinic, Gallis announced something to the people present.
"The stench of Tripoli and this city has reached the sky, and those Latin churches are so ignorant that they are blinded by sin."
"Pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, lust...these sins have caused them to unknowingly form an alliance with the devil."
"The apocalypse is coming, smallpox has arrived. In order to save this city from those evildoers, we need to pay the price of blood."
Garris's eyes once again swept across the people present.
Among these people were old subordinates like Jos, veterans of the FSLN, and Orthodox Christians from Botlen and Tripoli.
These people, these people standing in front of Garris, are convinced that they are going to follow Garris and fight against the spiritual evil forces in the air.
Dark clouds have gathered in the sky, and the city of Tripoli seems to be as lively and noisy as ever.
But in the busy city, there is such a courtyard, which is crowded with many people.
They looked at Garris on the stage, knowing full well that in the next room, they were isolating the discovered smallpox patients. There were already five of them.
It can be said that the spread of smallpox is a foregone conclusion.
But these people in front of Garris have nothing to fear, because Garris is standing here, walking with them, pointing out the way forward for them.
In front of these people, Gairis pronounced the verdict on the church in Tripoli, saying that the Latin priests here had been blinded by sin.
This was the first time that Garris had pronounced an entire local church as astray. In the past, he had always pursued transformation.
But now, there is no time for him to work slowly and meticulously. He must cut through the mess quickly, deal with the church in Tripoli, take over the city of Tripoli, and start the prevention and control of smallpox.
Whether the plague is controllable has actually become a point of conflict between Guerris's theology and Catholic doctrine.
Based on human life, Gallis must strongly deny the medieval church's view that plague, famine, and war are God's punishments for the world.
"What we can know about God, about the Father, about my Father and your Father, has been clearly and unmistakably written on paper."
"I want to tell you that because of the father's love, we have life and more freedom, so that we can experience happiness and beauty."
"However, life must be opposed to death, freedom must coexist with shackles, and only pain can highlight happiness."
"Jesus Christ prayed to our Father to remove the 'cup' but he still obeyed the 'cup' in the end because he knew very well that if he did not drink the bitter wine in the 'cup' and did not go to the cross to suffer, how would he show himself to the world? Resurrection? Prove to the world the existence of ‘eternal life’?”
"Therefore, whether it's sin, pain, disease, whatever... it's all like this."
"Only by drinking the bitter wine in the 'cup' can we better appreciate the sweetness."
"Those things that are not beautiful are also gifts given by the Lord. But this gift is wrapped with thorns and has sharp thorns everywhere. Only by enduring the pain and overcoming the suffering and opening the outer shell can we taste the essence inside."
Garris preached word for word, and this sermon was intended to criticize many theological doctrines of this era.
The reason why we should criticize is because the religion of this era makes people care more about the salvation of their souls than this world.
It is because the religion of this era has delayed mankind's fight against plague, famine, war, and death.
Marx once pointed out: "Abolition of religion as the people's fantasy happiness is to demand the realization of the people's real happiness."
The church in this era, whether consciously or unconsciously, often makes people fall into confusion, lose their ability to discern and think, and believe and blindly follow the words fabricated by priests as truth.
The church in Tripoli wants people to believe that the world is an abyss of sin and a sea of suffering; for the future happiness in heaven, one must endure hunger and endure the baptism of suffering.
This is substituting love for heaven for love on earth, and sanctifying poverty and suffering.
But those priests and nobles were often able to do whatever they wanted and live a dissolute and shameless life.
"Don't be blinded anymore! Open your eyes! Stand up! Face the suffering! Drink the bitter wine in the 'cup' with Jesus, go to the cross of history, and then welcome our Passover 'resurrection'!"
People demand life and "resurrection", and those who try to prevent all of this are servants of "death" who need to be fought, repented, and redeemed.
After finishing his speech, Garris received cheers from everyone in the audience.
Even the dead souls who have been buried here for thousands of years are rising from the earth to celebrate together, because the day of "resurrection" is coming.
After giving such a lecture, Garris also began to make his own arrangements.
In the past few days, Ghailis has visited the lower city of Tripoli.
Then he discovered at least three patients who were already in the rash stage. Garris forcibly dragged those people away from their homes and isolated them in this mansion.
As a serious viral infectious disease, smallpox is not only highly contagious and highly pathogenic, but also has a relatively long incubation period!
Generally speaking, smallpox can be divided into five stages, namely the incubation period, the prodromal stage, the rash stage, the scab stage, and the recovery stage.
The incubation period is as long as 5 to 16 days! Infected people are asymptomatic during this period and are not contagious.
The subsequent prodromal period lasts approximately 2 to 4 days. Infected people begin to experience flu-like symptoms such as high fever, headache, back pain, fatigue, vomiting, and sometimes muscle aches.
At this stage, the patient is already contagious.
Among them, the rash stage and scab stage are the most obvious. A red, maculopapular rash will gradually appear on the skin, usually starting on the face and extremities and gradually spreading throughout the body.
The rash is the most contagious, but may be mistaken for chickenpox.
As a severe infectious disease spread by droplets, when Gallis discovered a total of 5 patients in the rash stage, it actually meant that there were more patients in the prodromal and incubation stages that had not been discovered.
Even in the 20th century, due to the lack of effective antiviral drugs, the treatment of smallpox mainly relied on supportive care to help patients through the course of the disease from the perspective of alleviating symptoms and preventing complications.
Let alone the 12th century.
Therefore, in the fight against smallpox, vaccination with cowpox, isolation of patients, and blocking of transmission are the key points.
The good news is that if the patient is in the early stages of smallpox infection, the incubation period or when symptoms first appear, vaccination with cowpox vaccine can also reduce symptoms or prevent severe attacks of smallpox.
Although patients infected with smallpox cannot be cured by vaccination, mortality and severity of illness can at least be reduced.
Therefore, large-scale vaccination of cowpox is necessary and necessary!
In order to achieve this effect, Garris has already begun planning how to capture the city of Tripoli!
Before that, relying on the contacts between Orthodox Christians, small-scale vaccination against cowpox had also begun.
And this scene of cowpox vaccination was watched by the church in Tripoli.
In the solemn church, the situation of smallpox and the actions of Guerris and his party were sent to Archbishop Olivier every day.
But Archbishop Olivier was not in a hurry to speak out, nor did he intervene or stop it.
He was waiting for someone, waiting for the sword of God to be drawn from its sheath before it could strike at the enemies of the Church.
Previously, although there were several Templars and some sergeants around him.
But this number was far from enough to suppress the Greeks in the city.
After Raymond III, Count of Tripoli, sealed the castle on his own and declared a quarantine, the situation in the city of Tripoli took off in a wild direction.
In the early morning, the church is particularly solemn.
Huge stained glass windows break down the morning light into red, blue and gold colors, spilling them onto the smooth marble floor.
On the walls and stone pillars on both sides of the church, stone saints and angels look down from the shadows on everything in the hall.
Here, Archbishop Olivier waited for the person he expected, and there was also an unexpected surprise.
Two knights in armor walked into the church from the door, following the light of the rising sun.
One of them wore a pure white Knights Templar cloak, with a bright red cross standing out on his chest.
The other one was wearing a black cloak of the Knights Hospitaller, and the white cross pattern looked solemn and solemn on the black cloth.
After seeing the archbishop, the two men saluted one after another, and Archbishop Olivier responded.
Archbishop Olivier is not the superior of these two people. It can be said that these two people can come here entirely on their own initiative.
"Master Francois and Master Stephen, it is truly an honor for you to come." Archbishop Olivier said politely.
Master Francois is the head of the Tripoli branch of the Knights Templar, and Master Stephen is the head of the Tripoli branch of the Knights Hospitaller.
These two people are the leaders of the two major knights in Tripoli. Their words and deeds also represent the knights' concern for the situation in Tripoli.
"I have been a guest at Knights Castle these days. When I received the news from you, Stephen also heard it, and he decided to come together."
"By the way, where is that heretic now? What kind of blasphemous words did he say? How many people has he deceived?"
"I will take my men and catch him now!"
Master Francois seemed very talkative and full of confidence. He never thought about what would happen if he failed to defeat Garris.
How could something like that happen?
Knights Hospitaller·Knights Castle
(End of chapter)