Chapter 225: People and things, all living beings have feelings
The situation in Antioch was determined by the battle.
On the frontal battlefield, the rabble gathered by Leonard was unstable under the continuous bombardment of artillery.
Unable to withstand the attack of the Tripoli coalition led by the third company.
When Leonard was about to launch a knight's charge and flank the Garris infantry line, he was stopped by Garris alone.
A spear easily pierced a knight, and a short spear was thrown casually. Due to the 10 times acceleration, the supersonic short spear was blasted.
The short spears that Garris carries on his back weigh on average 1 kilogram each, and fly at about 400 meters/second, calculated according to the kinetic energy formula Ek=1/2mv.
It will also be concluded that Ek=1/2×1×400, which is 80,000 joules of kinetic energy. The kinetic energy of the later 9mm Parabellum is usually 400 to 600 joules.
In other words, Gareth fired the cannon with his bare hands.
Facing the impact of 80,000 joules of kinetic energy, the knight next to Leonard, even though he was wearing an iron plate.
The release of kinetic energy can still directly break the tissue of the site, creating an explosion effect on the body when it hits the bones.
Of course, even with Garris's physical condition, his hands could not help but tremble after doing such an outrageous thing.
It’s better to try to avoid this kind of thing in the future.
But no matter what, the fact that Garris fired a sonic boom and threw a spear with his bare hands had scared the knights to their knees.
Even under Leonard's direction, there were still a few diehards who wanted to fight back.
But Garris fired another shot casually, directly blowing up the horse under Leonard's crotch.
Faced with such a god coming down to earth, there is naturally not much to say about the outcome of this battle.
After Leonard was captured alive, the main battlefield also ushered in the end of the battle.
Aside from the fact that Garris had consumed a lot of energy and was walking a little erratically, there were actually no regrets.
This also declared the Principality of Antioch to formally surrender to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
But, how can I put it, there are still some people who plan to resist stubbornly. After all, the process of Garris's acquisition of Antioch was a bit too easy.
After all, why did the efforts of several generations of the Bohemond family lose to the fledgling Garris?
Now, in the entire Levant region, relatively large fragments of the Crusader countries have been gathered by Gellis.
The Transjordan region was the first to follow Gairis and implemented relatively complete reforms, eliminating almost all lords and tax collectors. It was a model for reform.
Tire became the temporary capital of the Second Kingdom, and radiated to the surrounding areas and began to take over the County of Tripoli. It had already begun to implement reforms similar to those in Transjordan in the territories directly under the royal family.
As for Cyprus, as an independent country, it has its own unique national conditions, and it is also the territory that truly has Guerris as its head of state.
As for Antioch, it has only just been recovered so far, and the grassroots level has not been touched at all.
Under this situation, Gareth no longer needs to carry out subsequent expansion of the surrounding area.
Instead, we need to focus on the lands and people we already have, carry out more detailed reforms, and unify them at the ideological level.
Although Gareth has no intention of creating a Leviathan-style empire, that doesn't mean he intends to simply let it go.
Under this situation, Garris gathered the people around him as much as possible and held a simple meeting to convey his views to the people around him and listen to the opinions of others.
Those attending this meeting were basically representatives of all parties involved in the coalition.
Volunteer leaders provided by the liberation of Cyprus: Nicholas and Andrei.
Spokesperson for the interests of the Italian city-states in the Kingdom of Jerusalem: Conrad.
Representative of the princes of the County of Tripoli: Priwan.
Two company commanders of the Second Kingdom's standing army: José and Charles.
Of course, there is also one of the apostles who followed Garris and created this great cause: Lance.
Garris didn't know when the term 12 Apostles appeared under his command.
But in short, the 12 witnesses who had witnessed his own resurrection began to be unwrittenly titled apostles within the sect.
These 12 people were his first believers and witnesses. They could be said to be the first seeds of the Taiping Religion.
In this case, Garris did not reject the argument in the cult.
On the contrary, since these people have been following Garis for the longest time, even Garis often needs these people as his wings, consults their advice, and entrusts them with important tasks.
Currently, many of the 12 apostles are working alone.
For example, Old John, who has the most seniority, is currently the governor of Transjordan, and Knight Walter runs the business between Transjordan and Tire.
George also became Field Marshal of the Kingdom, training troops in Transjordan.
Now, Lance, a middle-aged man with a relatively plump figure, a kind-hearted speech, and a seemingly harmless appearance, also came to the stage.
Garris looked around at the people present, and he had basically covered Garris's basics.
"I'm calling everyone here today. Before the formal meeting, I'd like to announce some good news to you."
"So far, with the joint efforts of you and many soldiers, the Christian countries in the Levant have completely completed the unity!"
There was a round of applause from the people below. This is indeed something worth celebrating. It means that when fighting against Islamic sultans like Saladin, the Christian countries in the Levant will no longer be in disarray.
Although the current total of all of us is actually only six to seven hundred thousand people, and the total number of Christians may be less than half, but at least this is a good start.
"Of course, everyone must be aware of the current situation in various places. The ethnic and religious issues between various regions are complicated..."
At this meeting, Garris led the attendees to review and analyze the current situation in the Levant.
From a macro perspective, the Levant region is currently divided into two clear camps.
One was the Ayyubid dynasty headed by Saladin.
One is the Christian countries with Garis as the core.
But within the two camps, they are not actually very pure.
Even Saladin's Egypt had hundreds of thousands of Christians and hundreds of thousands of Shia Muslims. There were also various small sects in Syria, and the Turkic forces did not completely surrender to Saladin.
As for Galis, Cyprus and Transjordan are already the two purest regions.
In Cyprus, the entire island is Orthodox, basically Roman-identified, and speaks a unified Greek language.
Transjordan, excluding the original local Arabs, are basically Franks, and there are only two distinct ethnic groups.
In the Tire area, Italians, Greeks, Jews, and Samaritans began to live.
The same goes for the County of Tripoli. Going north, there will be Turks, Armenians, and Kurds...
Not only are the nationalities different, but the languages and writings are also different.
Latin, Greek, Arabic, Turkic, Armenian...
This is not the situation after Qin Shihuang unified the six countries. The seven countries actually have a common cultural ancestor and can be roughly similar in writing.
Rather, it has truly overlapping multiple civilizational circles, creating an extremely complex national melting pot.
Under such circumstances, it can be said that it is difficult for almost any ruler to establish a reliable direct management system.
It can only be said that accepting tributes and taxes paid by different groups of people and nationalities will not interfere too much with the internal autonomy of different communities.
In essence, it became a stacked structure with tribute and tax as the link.
After all, if you want to appoint a local official to manage the local area, the local official must know at least three to four languages so that he can communicate directly with the local people and not listen to the one-sided words of local forces.
In this case, Garris wouldn't say that he couldn't think about it and insisted on creating some kind of unification.
Of course, this does not mean that it is left to chance. For example, Tire began to try to promote the new scriptures written by Garris as an official language.
But this is not a hurry. It may not be until their generation gets older that they will see any results.
For this situation, these people here actually understand it. To be precise, they don't quite understand why Garris regrets this situation.
After all, in their hometown, the rulers did not actually need to be of the same ethnic group as the ruled.
In this situation where administrative unification could not be achieved, Garris took advantage of his own advantages and first carried out organic ideological unification.
Garris also proposed the concept of "Omen of Heaven".
In this new "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom", Garis is not only the first-class priest, but also a prophet and king.
"People in all kingdoms gain the dignity of kings by believing in the only God. Because of my declaration, one day, everyone will sanctify their hearts and become priests."
"A man who is holy in his heart will also rule over his body, and he will be his own king."
"In this world, no matter how many doctrinal differences there are, in the final analysis there is only one religion, which believes in the only Lord." "Whether it is orthodox religion, Catholic religion, believers in Islam, even those who worship the Immortal Heaven... all actually believe in that person. Lord, it is just because of people’s sins that they only see one or two sides of the Lord, so they claim to have the truth and persecute others.”
"First, I declare that many existing Christian churches should reform themselves to prepare for the coming of the kingdom of heaven."
"Second, my brother's death is not blamed on all the Jews. It is not caused by a certain nation, but by all sinners on the earth. It is not the devil who crucified him, but sinners and idols together with the devil again and again. Crucified him once and for all.”
"Third, my Father's plan of salvation covers all people in the world. Everyone who follows his own conscience and is holy by his holy heart will somehow communicate with our Father through the Holy Spirit. The first person to reach a covenant is the Islamic believers. ”
"Fourth, no matter how vast the world is, how far away humans are scattered, or how many differences there are among various nations, we all have only one ancestor and one source, so we must have only one common ending."
"Therefore, all real people should feel that a slap on anyone's face is a slap on their own face."
"He is the universal Savior. He has torn down the barriers that separate us, so that every forgotten corner of the world can be illuminated by the light of divine love."
"The kingdom of the Lord is great, and no one is outside the Lord's love. Even bread can become a symbol of the Lord in the Eucharist, but can't people? Each of us is loved and loved by God. Cherished people.”
The people share the same things, and all living beings have feelings.
Faith should be universal and open. What Gehrys means is that faith should not be closed in a narrow circle, but should coexist with the entire world and all human beings.
In this case, all people in the Levant should be brothers and sisters and a part of the greater order.
As Father Gutierre said in later generations: No one is completely excluded from God’s grace. All people are God’s creations and children of God.
Gareth recognizes no artificial boundaries, his kingdom is open and no one is excluded.
Since even bread can be sacred, then human beings are also sacred and indivisible, and will eliminate all barriers and differences.
The intention of Garris was very clear to everyone present. The church will be unified and will inevitably have communion.
However, this kind of church does not have unity or communion with Rome as its core, but only with Garris, the Holy Word who walks the earth, as its core.
……
A precise assassination requires clear intelligence. This information includes: the target’s movement trajectory, living habits, trusted people, etc.
By having this information, the success rate of an assassination can be greatly improved.
As intelligence continued to be collected, Altaïr gradually gained a deeper understanding of Gareth and began to understand what kind of person he really was.
Garris spends a lot of time every day visiting various neighborhoods in Antioch City, talking to local people and understanding every detail of their lives.
Although he is a leader, he can always make people open their hearts and speak freely. The art of language is skillfully used in his hands, making him deeply loved by the people.
He ate and lived with his soldiers and never pursued luxurious life enjoyment. Those knights who followed him were also forced by him to sit and eat with the soldiers.
Such behavior earned him the respect and following of the soldiers.
Facing Garris like this, Altaïr hesitated slightly, but the task still needed to be completed.
As a member of the Masyaf Citadel, or a member of the Nichari Ismailis, commonly known as the Assassins, they belong to a very special faction in the Islamic world.
If we say Shias are a minority in Islam. Then the Ismailis are a minority among the Shiites, and the Nicharis are a minority among the Ismailis.
Just as the left can be divided into infinite subdivisions, Islam can be equally divided into nuances.
As a member of the Shia sect, they believe that Ali is the successor of the Prophet and an Imam.
As members of the Ismaili sect, they believe that the Imam is not only a religious leader, but also a spiritual guide with the authority of divine revelation. Every era has an Imam to guide believers.
The Nicharis emphasize inner faith and loyalty to the Imam, pay special attention to the power of knowledge, emphasize in-depth interpretation of the classics, and encourage believers to constantly pursue hidden truths.
As for the title "Assassin", it is not the official name of the order to which Altaïr belongs, but a derogatory title.
The Ismailis and other Sunnis of the Fatimid dynasty called them "Assassins", which means "vulgar low-class people", "infidels who have been abandoned by society", or "cannabis smokers", which means Accusing them of being "atheists" and "junkies."
Unlike traditional assassinations, Altaïr's actions often had a clear political purpose.
To be precise, what they are fighting in this chaotic world is an endless war, but the battlefield is more sophisticated, threatening the enemy forces through assassinations, or eradicating the enemy's leaders, leaving the enemy leaderless.
This is a means of precision strike aimed at avoiding large-scale war disasters.
As a member of the Assassin, Altaïr was very good at disguise.
He quietly blended into the mob under Garis' command, observing Garis's actions while planning how to get rid of him.
But even so, he still had two letters in his arms.
One is a letter from Acre, stamped with Saladin's seal, and the words are full of Saladin's intention to win over the Nichari Ismailis.
In a magnanimous gesture, he expressed that he would no longer care about past conflicts and called on everyone to unite and fight against the Franks. If they can do this, God will bless them.
The letter also mentions threats from the Holy One of Jerusalem, Gehris.
Saladin pointed out that the appearance of Gehrys could reunite the Franks and acquire strange military technology, which would greatly threaten Muslim control of the Holy Land.
Therefore, at the end of the letter, Saladin made it clear that he hoped that the Nichari Ismailis could launch a successful assassination of Qaris.
He promised that if the assassination was successful, the Nichari Ismailis would receive the privilege of preaching in Aleppo.
Another letter comes from Bohemond, Count of Latakia.
In the letter, Bohemond recalled the past to Rashid al-Din Sinan ibn Salman ibn Muhammad Abu Hassan al-Basri.
He recalled the friendship between the various forces that united to solve the Leonard problem, and bluntly said that Masyaf Castle was about to face another powerful and difficult lord like Leonard.
Bohemond warned that once Guerris unifies the three Crusaders, he will definitely target Masyaf Fort, because Guerris is a fanatical religious believer. This guy is so crazy about Orthodox Christianity that he even plans to launch a crusade against Catholicism. .
At the end of the letter, Bohemond implored the Order to take action against Garris, and promised to give thirty thousand gold dinars as a reward upon success.
Both letters were written to the old man in the mountains, Sinan, but what is intriguing is that Sinan specifically asked Altaïr to carry them with him.
Altaïr didn't fully understand the meaning behind this, but he knew that the mission he shouldered was crucial.
As disciples of Sinan, Altaïr and his companions were fanatically willing to sacrifice their lives for a specific cause.
The goal they pursue is not personal wealth, but an ideal paradise in the mountains.
For this goal, they can cooperate with various forces, or they can become their enemies without hesitation. Altaïr's faith was deeply rooted in his desire for justice and freedom, and this faith made him willing to sacrifice everything.
In Altaïr's perception, that "heaven" is not what is described in "Marco Polo's Travels":
"The old man in the mountain named Aladdin believed in Islam and built a luxurious garden in a beautiful canyon between two mountains. There were rivers flowing with wine, milk, honey and clear water, and beautiful girls lived there. He Using anesthetics and illusions to inspire young people to serve him and assassinate enemies."
Nor is it the description in Liu Yu's "Records of the Western Envoy": "Indulge yourself for a few days and return to your old place. When you wake up, ask them what they saw and teach them how to be an assassin. You will enjoy such a happy death."
For Altaïr, that paradise is more like the description in "The Peach Blossom Spring": "If I ask what time it is now, I don't know whether there was Han, regardless of Wei and Jin."
In Altaïr's mind, that paradise was a land free from strife, free and peaceful.
Hundreds of years of war have swept across the Middle East, and endless killing and bloodshed have brought heavy taxes and oppression.
The Nichari Ismailis used the banner of "heaven", but the essence was to reduce the people's burden and eliminate tyranny.
This idea naturally aroused the hostility of the surrounding feudal lords, and slanders and rumors were overwhelming. They were called "unbelievers" and smeared as heretics.
Despite this, countless people who longed for "paradise" joined the Nichari Ismailis.
As the Order's power grew, their ideas posed a real threat to other feudal rulers.
In the view of the Nichari Ismailis, if a huge army is used to launch a war, it will inevitably increase the levy on the people and form a new tyranny. In the end, the dragon slayer will also become an evil dragon.
In order to defend their own survival at the minimum cost, they chose assassination as a weapon. By assassinating high-level and middle-level officials of the hostile forces, they used fear to maintain the existence of the sect.
Assassins like Altaïr knew their destiny from the moment they voluntarily joined the organization: they were victims, the price paid to achieve "heaven."
Altaïr's spirit of self-sacrifice lies in his knowing that he is only a bridge to his ideal, but he marches toward his destiny without regrets.
He now has a sharp knife ready in his arms, and is willing to sacrifice himself to seek the "heaven" of the cult.
Now, he has arrived at the square of Antioch. Looking up, he can see the target of this mission.
The afterglow of the setting sun shines through the towering stone walls, and Garris stands in a square in Antioch. He is wearing a simple robe, and his voice is loud and gentle, like sunshine, spreading warmth into the hearts of the people around him.
“Remember that grace permeates the whole world and that God’s love has no boundaries.”
“There is no so-called “pure” nature, and no one is not invited to communion with the Lord.”
"Everyone, no matter who you are or where you come from, is a child of God. The image and likeness of God are deeply imprinted in each of our hearts. Because of this grace, each of us is holy …”
This is another sermon. As Bohemond said, Guerris had a strong Orthodox color. Under his rule, the Catholic Church in Antioch seemed to have fallen out of favor.
As the head of state from Cyprus, Guerris preached in Antioch again and again.
This provided Altaïr with the opportunity to assassinate him in public.
"Now, let us receive Holy Communion..."
Most of the description of the Assassins in this article is fictitious. The character of Altaïr is purely fictitious. If there is any similarity, it is just a borrowed name
(End of chapter)