Chapter 303: Genoese protest
Andouq, which once flourished, declined in the long-term confrontation between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Saracens, but the city of Damascus was still prosperous.
The siege of nearly two weeks has added a lot of sadness to the majestic city of Damascus. But that day was over, and Damascus was willing to surrender to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and abandon their former master Saladin.
Even Saladin expressed his willingness to quit the war in exchange for his rule over the remaining land of the Ayub dynasty.
Neither Eden nor Gerris had any objection to this request. The military power of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, even with the German Crusaders under Eden, could no longer continue to go deep into the territory of the Ayubic dynasty to capture cities and plunder.
For the Kingdom of Seizing Damascus, it is mainly to establish a buffer belt for itself to prevent the Kingdom of Jerusalem from continuing to contact the Muslim dynasties in the Middle East.
Now that after Damascus surrendered, Gerris's goal has been achieved. As for whether Eden intends to seize more land, it is his personal interest needs.
Peace resurrected this city, or resurrected the Middle East world except Egypt. The third crusade of the German Crusade came to an end with the capture of the city of Damascus.
For the citizens in Damascus, everything seems to be back to normal, but the residents in the city have to accept the fact that their lords have become Franks, but fortunately the Franks' army, Not entering the city directly, disturbing their lives, and giving them a transition period to adapt to the transformation of the lord.
Eden accepted Gerris's suggestion. In the first three days after Adil was surrender, he did not get busy entering the city, but ensured control of the city walls, while inspecting the army outside the city for three consecutive days. In three days, Eden took the gold from the warehouse in Damascus and rewarded his soldiers with rounds of merit.
At the same time, light cavalry were sent to investigate the villages and castles around Damascus.
If you plan to establish a kingdom, it is impossible that Damascus is the only one.
The nobles who followed Eden in the Levant region were extremely eager for the arrival of this moment.
Their clan is about to take root in this strange land, and they themselves will become the founders of a brand new family, with fiefdom and wealth waiting for them.
Of course, after Eden saw the Kingdom of Jerusalem, he did not think that the standard feudal system of enfeoffment was so perfect.
That is just the result of evolution with history.
When he was in Jerusalem, he often asked Geis about how to govern a country and how to build a combat-capable army that had always been established.
The question Eden was thinking about was how to centralize power in a feudal society.
Rewarding merits and practices must be rewarded according to merits and practices. This army under the command of Eden can instantly be free from one's heart and virtue.
Unlike the standing army established by Gerris with currency, the officers and infantry under Eden lacked stable salaries.
What really attracts them to serve under Eden for a long time is their devout belief in religion and their desire for land.
Geris didn't say much or very carefully to Eden.
After all, Eden only plays a buffer zone for the Second Kingdom, and secondly, it plays the role of a source of raw materials and a commodity dumping market.
Geris simply mentioned a little key content:
"I actually know your situation, the nobles long for land, but your soldiers also long for land. Who else is there besides them? There are also farmers, tenants and slaves who lack land." br>
"I can tell you so clearly that when you seize Damascus, whoever owns a large tract of land is your enemy, and whoever desires to obtain land through you is your friends, don't care about their faith , nation, don’t care whether they are noble or poor or poor. ”
As early as half a month ago, Gerris explained the key points of Damascus to Eden, but in fact, it was just one word - land.
The Crusaders came to Damascus for land, so the enemy of the Crusaders were the local Muslim wealthy landlords who held the land.
But if it is in the name of the Crusaders, or the name of the Frank people, then the seizure of land will be intensified into ethnic or religious contradictions.
Nationally, the German Crusaders had only tens of thousands of people, but there were hundreds of thousands of people in Damascus and surrounding areas; religiously, the German Crusaders believed in Catholicism, and local Christians could not urinate into the same pot as them. .
Since you are trying to seize the land anyway, why not just resolutely and just reshuffle it?
Transform ethnic and religious contradictions into more substantial levels of contradictions, and package Eden himself as a liberator of tenants and slaves.
The sharecroppers and slaves will be united by Eden. As long as they are given no need for too much land and freedom, they can be grateful to Eden.
Ordinary German soldiers can be transformed into peasant soldiers similar to the Eastern Roman Military Region system.
That is, they enjoy tax incentives, own a lot of land, and become small landlords, but if they want to pass on the land to the next generation, they need to serve the royal power.
The aristocratic group refers to the aristocratic parliamentary system of the Second Kingdom.
Enjoy the status of a hereditary noble MP in the central government and serve as a chief in the local area. As time goes by, this is certainly not stable, but it is enough.
As Eden left Jerusalem and embarked on his journey to Damascus, Gerris gave another advice.
"Unite the majority and attack a few people, you can only take the initiative when there are many friends and few enemies."
The Eastern Empire's military region peasant and military system, the main military and administrative system of the Byzantine Empire in the 7th to the 11th century, greatly supported the empire's defense system and shaped the military tradition of the Eastern Empire.
The military region system originated in the mid-7th century and was mainly to deal with the expansion of the Islamic Empire.
Due to the offensive of the Arab army on the Eastern Front, Byzantine could no longer maintain the original professional army and border garrison system, so Emperor Constantine IV (probably earlier Chiraclio) implemented a new defense Strategy, divide the imperial territory into military regions and give the local garrison land, making the soldiers hereditary peasant soldiers, and the obligation to exchange land for lifelong service.
And this system has actually collapsed in the Eastern Empire today.
First, because local aristocrats continued to annex small peasant land, many peasants in the military region lost the land they depended for survival, and the army scale was reduced.
The second is related to the gradual weakening of the power of the military chief in the late Macedonian dynasty.
Of course, the complete collapse of the peasant and military system was mainly due to the invasion of the Seljuk Turks, which led to the loss of most of the territory of Asia Minor.
Faced with Garys' advice, Eden also fell into deep thought at that time. Land is the foundation of feudal society. Whoever controls land is the backbone of feudal society, and whoever controls the power to distribute land will inevitably be the ruler in feudal society.
Even many people in power do not have the power to redistribute land.
An excellent opportunity was placed before Eden, but whether he could seize it depends on his own ability.
Give up the name of the crusaders and start with more substantial economic conflicts, thus gaining support from local tenants and slaves.
This is not that Eden betrayed his class, nor that he subverted the feudal rule, but just a round of reshuffle within the ruling class. Obviously, Eden is the winner, so he can defeat the loser Throw chips out and win over people's hearts.
…
Now it is the eve of Isabella's arrival in Jerusalem, and Gerris and others are preparing to hold a second crowning ceremony here in Jerusalem, thus declaring the end of the war. , and the victory of regaining lost lands.
It was at this time that news from Egypt actually came to Gerris's ears.
In the former Alex Mosque on Temple Hill, Gerris listened to the Paladins' reports and could feel the solidified blood filling his nose, as if every mouthful of air was bloody.
Their description of Damietta's tragic situation made those scenes seem to appear before Gerris. "What do you think Egypt will be like?" Gerris asked Iraqi on the side of the room.
No mistakes, one poem, one post, one content, one in 6, one book, one bar, one read!
"My Prophet, isn't this what you have made a decision? The Lord has already arranged the ending of all this."
When speaking, Iraq's eyes were lowered, making it difficult for him to see what his gaze was. .
Geris was a little silent and dumb. As he adapted to this life, he was not numb, but became more sentimental.
In Garys's eyes, everyone is a living existence, a life, and the same existence as himself.
Human empathy becomes more and more profound in Gerris.
And at this time, another official document was delivered by Paladin.
Aka submitted this document.
The main content is: the Genoese protested against the complete ban on slavery in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the Genoese believed that this was a preference for the Venetians.
The Genoese were already a little overwhelmed.
When I noticed the content of this official document, Iraqi also published a little about his understanding of the Genoese.
"The Genoese need slaves. As the emerging maritime commercial republic, their capital or foundation is actually quite limited. The Venetians controlled the Adriatic Sea and had numerous colonies that could recruit a large number of free paddlers, but the Genoese did "
"If they want to maintain their huge navy, they will inevitably need a large number of slaves as paddlers. Of course, slaves are not only that for the Genoese, and the commodities for commercial trade are actually limited these days Although Northern Italy exports a large number of handicraft products and imports a lot of luxury goods from the Middle East, the slave trade is the focus of Genoa's profit. "
"They purchased slaves from the Crimean Peninsula from all over the Mediterranean Collect slaves, sell them to Damascus and Egypt, and then purchase luxury goods from Damascus and Egypt to ship them to Europe. "
But those present actually didn't care much.
The Genoese protested against the suppression of slavery in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
However, since the Kingdom of Jerusalem unifies the Palestinian region, the entire eastern coast of the Mediterranean has been ruled by Jerusalem.
In the past, the Genoese could take a detour and go to Damascus to trade, but now... even Damascus was controlled by the German Crusaders, an ally of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
It can be said that as long as Jerusalem and Eden jointly suppress slavery, the Genoese will truly lose the slave market, Damascus. "We don't need to care about them, right? Our next plan is to take back those extraterritorial legal powers from many northern Italian city-states, right?" "What is the Genoese protest? Can the Genoese drive the ship onto land? If not, why should Gerris care about their protest?
As for what army to organize to intervene, it is even more a joke. The vibrant groups in Europe are now concentrated in the wave of the Third Crusade.
Of course, more importantly, it is to take back the extraterritorial power of various communities from many city-states in Northern Italy, which is what Gerris had planned long ago.
Not only the Genoese, but also the Pisa, Venetians, etc.
In the old Kingdom of Jerusalem, one class had one class law, one ethnic group had one ethnic group law, and one religion had one religious law.
This situation is impossible for the New Kingdom of Jerusalem to continue.
Gerris is already helping the Second Kingdom formulate a new set of laws, which are hundreds of times better than the old Jerusalem Kingdom.
What Paladins need to do is promote that set of laws and ensure that everyone can be equal before the law when it is enforced. "We still need to pay attention. After all, our main job is actually to develop the market and introduce population from outside. Genoese are the objects we cannot avoid in this process." br>
For the Kingdom of Jerusalem, military operations have come to an end, and in the next few years, daily work will focus on economic development.
Europe today is not the Europe that discovered America in the 16th century. In the 12th century, the development of productivity has just been on the right track, and currency itself is extremely scarce.
The cost of developing such a market will be astronomical.
If Gerris intends to save energy, the best choice is to cooperate with commercial republics such as Venice and Genoa.
Introducing population from Europe requires a commercial republic, and obtaining raw materials from outside Palestine also requires a commercial republic. The goods produced are also required to sell back to Europe.
Compared with those feudal lords, the commercial republics these days are already considered the target of cooperation.
(This chapter ends)