Chapter 269 As the saying goes...
Mount Tabor is indeed a dangerous terrain. When more than two thousand Turks surrounded a monastery, they hesitated for a long time and did not launch a direct attack when faced with so few monks.
Now that the Brotherhood occupies this dangerous place, it is even easier to defend and difficult to attack for the Turks.
In this way, both parties can live in peace.
As for Saladin?
The Turks would not tell Saladin that they had a thorn in their side that they could not deal with.
After all, wouldn't it be very shameful to tell Saladin that one of their tribes could not control a group of bandits?
Under the tax farming system, the right to tax was divided up at different levels, and relatively speaking, the obligation to suppress was actually shared down at all levels.
As long as the peasants do not reject the authority of the highest-level lords and are willing to accept rule, then the lower-level lords are useless if they cannot control the peasants.
After Alex showed his attitude that he could be recruited, he joined the feudal system and expanded his power wantonly in his tax-free area.
Today, the real fighters of the Brotherhood are still the guys who joined the army in Transjordan.
But those families who joined the brotherhood, besides farming, also began to participate in militia training like the system in Transjordan.
A village can gather about twenty young men, and ten villages can produce about two hundred people.
Although this number is not much in total, it is far from being able to compete with overlords like Saladin, but it is enough to attack Nazareth, or expand outward and swallow up other tax farming areas.
In order to formulate such a plan, Charles would need to take Alex back to Mount Tabor to communicate with other officers or veterans.
After all, there are three gangs of heroes. Only by having more people checking for deficiencies and listening to other people's suggestions can we avoid unexpected problems during implementation.
However, just when Paladin, the company commander and some people from Bandi Village planned to rush back to the monastery overnight.
In this dusk, I suddenly ran into many Turks, also camping at the foot of the mountain.
Alex secretly thought that this was a surprise attack by the Turks, just as they were planning to change their route to avoid this group of Turks.
The monastery tower on the mountain noticed the arrival of their group and quickly raised a flag to show that they were not in danger.
Just when Alex and others were confused about the situation, a young man ran down the mountain and came to them.
Panting, he informed the current situation.
"What? You said that group of Turks were driven out of Nazareth by the kingdom and came to us for help?!"
For a moment, Alex and Charles were speechless.
……
Turks are a very peculiar concept. In a sense, Turks cannot specifically refer to a certain nation, but should be an ethnic group...
It can even refer to anyone who uses Turkic letters, speaks Turkic language, and is infected with Turkic culture.
A Turkic people, not a Turkic people.
The Turkic people should have originated from the present-day Mongolian Plateau and its surrounding Altai Mountains and Orkhon River Basin.
They are representatives of nomadic culture. They call the grassland their home and are good at horse training and riding and shooting.
When the Turkic Khanate was divided into Eastern and Western Turks, it reached as far as the northern border of China in the east and near the Caspian Sea in the west.
Immediately afterwards, the westward advance of the Turkic peoples became an inevitable trend.
During the period when the Abbasid dynasty was still at its peak, a large number of Islamized Turks were recruited as mercenaries.
In the following 11th century, the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantine Empire, controlled Anatolia and Persia, and established the Seljuk Empire.
As a result, the Eastern Empire had to request reinforcements from the Pope due to the loss of large areas of territory, leading to the outbreak of the Crusades.
It can be said that the Turks in history were mainly active in Central Asia at first. When their religion changed from shamanic culture to Islam, they had begun to penetrate into West Asia and the Middle East, and were recruited as Mamluks by Saladin as slaves.
Of course, it would actually be very interesting to look at Islamic history from a national perspective.
In a sense, while the Islamic religion changed the Turks, the Abbasid Caliphate also began to become the plaything of the Turks.
As for Egypt, this ancient country with a history of thousands of years has been in a situation of being ruled by a minority for a long time after its Islamization was infiltrated by the Arabs.
First, the Shiite Fatimid dynasty ruled Egypt, and now Saladin, a Kurd, has taken over Egypt. The military factions are controlled by the Turkic emir. As for the subsequent Mamluk era, let alone...
In this case, Saladin was actually very familiar with the Turks, and he would naturally use the power of the Turks to rule, suppress, and collect taxes.
As for the Arabs?
Do the Arabs still have any martial virtues today?
Probably no more.
Fawaz, a chief of a Turkic tribe, served in Saladin's army because he had relatives.
Hearing that Lord Saladin Sultan had done a lot of work in Palestine, he was so happy that he took the whole family on a migration. He really planned to settle down in the relatively rich land of Palestine.
But who would have thought that this Sultan would lose one after another within two years of conquering the Holy City?
Logically speaking, if you win, you fight, if you don't win, you run away. This has been the truth of the Turks since ancient times.
But this time is different from the past. The young people in the tribe have certainly withdrawn from Nazareth.
However, the women, children and elderly people in the tribe were resettled in Jerusalem by Saladin after the failure of the Battle of Acre not long ago.
With high emotional intelligence, their women and children are in the rear, avoiding the war on the front lines, enjoying the prosperity and wealth of big cities, and living a better life than they have ever had before.
With low emotional intelligence, after the failure of the Battle of Acre, Saladin could not trust the Turks and simply took the hostages of these tribes in his hands.
The news of this desertion had just reached Jerusalem not long ago, and Saladin sent a messenger on a fast horse, and within two days he gave them the order to recapture Nazareth.
Otherwise...
Although the letter did not make it clear, Fawaz reversed his roles, put himself in Saladin's position, and thought about this issue.
Then came the answer.
Otherwise, they, the Fawaz tribe, would not have to eat on the table anymore.
After all, the number of troops from the Second Kingdom that advanced into Nazareth was only around three hundred.
The small number of people can be counted at random. The Fawaz tribe wanted to conceal it, but they could not withstand the supervisory army sent by Saladin at that time and saw their fighting process with their own eyes.
Their tribe of nearly a thousand people could be driven out by three hundred people from the other side. What a shame and humiliation!
Fawaz, who knew he was in the wrong, could only think of ways to recruit more manpower. He first went to the next door to recruit some reinforcements, and then came to Tashan in person to pay homage to the dock.
I hope that Alex, after seeing their friendship in the past two years, can help his brother. If nothing else, he can have dozens of brothers come over to build momentum and have a smooth fight.
Of course, to be honest, Favaz and Alex were not really close to each other to this extent.
Therefore, when Charles and Alex suddenly bumped into the Turks, they subconsciously wanted to take another route.
Fawaz didn't dare to lead people up the mountain without authorization. Wouldn't it be a big loss if the other party misunderstood and shot arrows at them?
As a result, the two sides were stuck there, relying on messengers to come and go, exchanging information inefficiently.
It wasn't until Alex and Charles, the two talkers, returned to the foot of Talbot Mountain that things turned around.
Fawaz received the news that Alex had returned to the mountain and was willing to meet him, regardless of the fact that it was late at night
He held the stars and the moon in his arms and climbed up with his followers.
As for whether Alex would turn his back on others, he wasn't worried.
After all, he was placed there with hundreds of people at the bottom of the mountain, and Alex had to weigh it up.
Besides, if Alex wants to fall out, what is he trying to do?
Is it possible for him, an Orthodox Christian, to defect to the Catholic side?
Although he has to take risks, Favaz still wants Alex to see his sincerity in exchange for his hard work.
Walking up the mountain, you will see a lot of terraced fields.
There are also a lot of grains or vegetables grown on these terraces. It can be seen that the bandits on Mount Tabor, the so-called Greek Brotherhood, really regard this place as their home base. They are a real local force, and all of them are farmers.
It's not unusual for farmers to work part-time as bandits these days. In troubled times, if you don't master some "life" skills, you will starve to death.
This in turn proves that this group of Greek brotherhoods on the mountain are probably really local bandits.
After all, these days, no Crusaders have ever been able to farm with peace of mind, let alone nomads like them.
The higher he went, the more terraced fields he saw, and the more peaceful Favaz felt.
When he reached the top of the mountain, he saw the "grand" monastery complex.
And Alex, who personally came out to greet others at the gate of the monastery.
"Please come inside, please come inside... Why didn't I notify you in advance when you came all the way? If I knew, why would I let you come in person?"
Favaz was quite moved by the various polite words that Alex had learned in the past two years of doing business. It had to be a brother on Tashan who had feelings for him.
When the Turkic tribes next door heard that he had lost Nazareth, they all expressed their faces and wanted to take advantage of him.
How could Alex, the leader of the fraternity, be so kind?
Alex personally took Favaz and his group to visit the monastery.
During this process, Fawaz and his party saw with their own eyes that Alex was like a slave, commanding the monks in the monastery, making these Catholic monks busy preparing for the banquet.
When he saw this scene, Fawaz finally felt at ease.
After all, Alex treated the Catholic monks like this, and there was no way he would sell him to the Crusaders just because of some Christian sentiments.
When everyone was seated, Alex, the big boss, sat at the head of the table, Charles, the second boss of the fraternity, sat on the left, and Charles, the third boss, sat on the right of the big boss.
He, Favaz, sat side by side with Alex, although this was somewhat inappropriate given his status.
But Fawaz is not a person who pays attention to red tape, so naturally he will not delve into this matter. After all, it is he who is asking for help now.
Alex clapped his hands, and one after another sumptuous dishes were served by the Catholic monks with grimaces.
It was also during this banquet that Fawaz made his request in person. After listening, Alex looked embarrassed.
"My lord..."
"Don't call me adults. I'm a few years older than you. Just call me buddy."
Fawaz seemed particularly easy to talk to.
Alex naturally followed the other person's words and shouted: "Brother, do you want me to help you fight the Crusades?"
"Yes, that's what happened."
“But, I am more or less a believer in Christ, so it’s not appropriate.”
Hearing Alex's words, Favaz frowned, thinking that it was true.
Although I heard that the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church were not at odds with each other, I also heard that Lord Saladin had formed an alliance with the Roman Emperor.
But this is all about believing in the Messiah, who is the Messiah, and is more or less the same clan as the enemy.
"Then what do you think we should do? Brother, I have nowhere to go here. Master Saladin's orders are very tight. You don't know how hard those Crusaders are fighting."
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"Even though the Crusaders only brought 300 people, they somehow managed to make a thunderous sound. Although someone told me what the artillery was called, it was no big deal, but I just couldn't do anything about it for a while!"
Alex quietly obtained information from Fawaz. Recently, their contact with Tire has been severely cut off. They have not received any orders from Tire for a long time. .
Apart from knowing that the Kingdom retook Akka, many details are unclear.
Although Fawaz is not a confidant of Saladin, as the chief of a tribe, the level of information he has access to is still higher than him.
After all this ramble, Alex and Charles finally understood the current situation.
No matter how loud Favaz's claims are, in Alex and Alex's opinion, in short, the rabbit's tail can't grow!
But they were still hesitant about whether to directly capture Fawaz in front of them.
Until Favaz said that he planned to borrow a few hundred troops from the neighboring tribe, plus a few hundred people from the Greek Brotherhood, to build up a total of 2,000 troops to wipe out the "Crusader heretics", Alex Only then did Charles and Charles make a decision in their hearts - this person must be kept!
"Brother, don't look at it. Our brotherhood has occupied this holy mountain of Catholicism and used the Catholic monks as slaves, but this holy mountain is even more the holy mountain of our Orthodox Church!"
"Brother, the reason why I am a little thin among the Greeks and can draw hundreds of people from various villages is because of the reputation of the Holy Mountain?"
"But the Orthodox Church, even if they go astray, can still be regarded as brothers of the same sect, this..."
Fawaz nodded repeatedly after hearing this.
He has also heard about Mount Tabor's status in Christianity. Even in Islam, it actually has some status.
After all, Jesus is also the prophet of Islam, Jesus. How could the places where Jesus performed miracles be so sparse and ordinary?
As a religious holy place, even if there are no pilgrims these days, it is easy to establish prestige among believers, thereby increasing its power.
In Favaz's view, the reason why Alex emphasized this point was that Alex wanted to shirk it. After all, bullying a Catholic monk was a bully, but his rash participation in the holy war against his fellow sects somewhat ruined his reputation.
"So..."
At the end of the sentence, Alex drew out his voice and gave it away.
"So what?"
“You have to pay more!”
Alex replied categorically.
"Hi~ That's easy to talk about!"
Favaz couldn't help but sneered at Alex's gesture, why did he say so much.
After all, it's not about money.
"Look, there are two tax areas nearby, a total of thirteen villages. After this is done, they will all belong to you!"
Alex didn't hesitate and immediately spoke righteously.
"How can this work! That's the Crusaders!"
"Then, from now on, I will collect 20% less of the taxes you pay here?"
Alex's face became a little kinder, but he still emphasized various objective difficulties.
After all this back and forth, the two sides decided on a plan to send troops.
According to the agreement between the two parties, the Greek Brotherhood will also pull out at least 500 people to assist the Turks in defeating the Frankish pagans.
Moreover, Fawaz also promised that after regaining Nazareth, he would ask for credit for Alex, and when he met with Master Saladin later, he would have to say a few nice words, and maybe he would be granted the title of Lord of Iqta in the future. , it’s not impossible!
In response, Alex and Charles naturally smiled in agreement, and then started eating and drinking together.
……
As for the other side, Garis and others who led troops into Nazareth, in addition to stabilizing the place, inevitably had to perform many religious performances.
In the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Gairis operates as the head of Cyprus and the lord of Tripoli.
But even so, everyone still lacks a lot of knowledge about Garris.
Therefore, Geris needed to show his piety and show that he was a brother of Christianity in the city of Nazareth.
Then a certain small "miracle" was added to suggest that the Nazarene dignitaries who accompanied Géris on his visit to the Church of the Annunciation were trustworthy.
In the Christian world, many churches have a special status, and those related to Christ the Messiah are even more important.
One of them is the Church of the Annunciation. This church is closely related to the Annunciation event in the Bible. It is a holy place for Catholics and Orthodox Christians, attracting pilgrims from all over the world.
According to the New Testament Gospel of Luke (1:26-38), the angel Gabriel came to deliver a message to Mary at the command of God, telling her that she would be conceived by the Holy Spirit and give birth to the Savior Jesus Christ. This event is known as "The Annunciation."
Tradition holds that it was in Nazareth that the angel conveyed this message to Mary.
To commemorate this event, the Annunciation Church was built.
Every year on March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, the church holds a grand mass and celebration.
What needs to be said is that in Nazareth, the Church of the Annunciation exists in the plural.
If you travel to Nazareth in the 21st century, you will see dozens of monasteries and churches, including 18 Churches of the Annunciation, which are recognized holy places by various Christian sects.
It is worth mentioning that the Catholic Church of the Annunciation occupies the position mentioned in the four orthodox gospels, while the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation occupies the position mentioned in the apocryphal Gospel of James.
[She goes out to fetch water with a can. Then a voice said to her: "Hello, you favored one. The Lord is with you, blessed are you among women."]
——"The Gospel of James"
At the end of the 12th century, there were naturally not that many churches in Nazareth, but Geris also needed to visit them one by one.
In fact, the first church Gallis visited was not a Catholic one, but went directly to the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation.
In later generations, 99.8% of the city of Nazareth was Arab.
But in this era, nearly half of the population in Nazareth were Greek-speaking Orthodox Christians.
Garris took Mono and the Paladins, accompanied by representatives from the city of Nazareth, and left the town and walked northeast for a while.
There they saw a small fountain, and behind the fountain was a small underground church.
Everyone made the sign of the cross once, because this is said to be the place where Jesus, the heavenly brother, often fetched water.
The early morning sun shone on everyone's faces, and the ground outside the hall was enveloped in a warm glow.
The wind blew gently, raising the fine sand on the ground, and the earth listened quietly.
A Frankish man with light blond hair stood on the stone steps. The sunlight stretched his figure to a slender figure. His face was lit by the morning light, carrying the brilliance of heaven.
He raised his hands and his voice penetrated the silent air:
"Brothers and sisters, today we stand in this holy place to commemorate the Virgin Mary's acceptance of God's call here. Her words, 'Let it be done to me according to your word,' become the starting point for the liberation of our lives."
"Our Lady's obedience is not a surrender to oppression, but a response to God's justice. It is in this land that God reveals His will - to free the prisoner and heal the brokenhearted."
< br>
The wind blew again, bringing with it the fragrance of the distant fields, and a low "Amen" came from the crowd.
The Paladins, as well as the Orthodox believers, were either enthusiastic or silent in the face of Garris's preaching.
Gareth's voice gradually became louder:
“We come here not just to pray, but also to respond to God’s call! Like Our Lady, we want God’s will to be accomplished: no more hungry people, no more trampled people, no more weeping people ! ”
"God was born not for the powerful, nor for the strong, but for the poor, the oppressed and the lonely. His gospel is for all lost people, and it is a liberation for the suffering!"
"Just as Our Lady says to God here: 'Let it be done to me according to your word,' so we must respond to God's call. Let us pray together for the renewal of this land and for the freedom of all the oppressed."< br>
The crowd gradually turned from silence to a murmur of prayer, and Garris led the crowd in shouting: "Lord, may your justice come like the morning sun, and may your mercy fall like rain on this dry land!"
The Paladins responded: "May your kingdom come, and may your will be done on earth!"
Just at this moment, several white pigeons flew through the sky and landed on the eaves of the church. Many of them pecked at the corners of the eaves, and then turned their heads to look at everyone.
It was at this time that Garris' figure became slightly illusory, and a burst of thunder sounded behind him.
"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
"This is my Son, my chosen one, listen to him!"
For a while, those Paladins were fine, but the other Nazarenes who came with them looked at each other in fear.
It was supposed to be just a simple show, how could such a situation happen!
(End of chapter)