Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 130 The Sun Has Set on Jerusalem

[As Samuel grew older, the Spirit of the Lord was with him, ensuring that every word he spoke came true.]

【From Dan to Beersheba, all the people of Israel knew that the Lord had appointed Samuel as a prophet.】

[The Lord appeared again in Shiloh, revealing His words to Samuel, and Samuel spread them throughout the country of Israel.]

——3 Samuel 19:21-
In the Bible, the vast majority of prophets were not actually very popular, and were rarely supported. Instead, there were more records of certain prophets being rejected or opposed.

Even the establishment of the ancient Kingdom of Israel went against the will of the prophet Samuel.

Even though everyone in Israel knew that Samuel was a prophet and that the Spirit of the Lord was with him, making every word he spoke come true, he still could not command the twelve tribes.

But obviously, Garys is a special person, and his reputation in this land is already extremely high.

Balian is a man of great courage and wisdom.

He knows clearly what his principles and bottom line are, and as long as his bottom line is not touched, he will be very flexible.

There's nothing wrong with being flexible. In this world, being too rigid can lead to failure.

In his eyes, Humphrey's value as a "human" had long since dried up. If Humphrey was not the lord of Torun and had political value as a bargaining chip, he would not even want to bring this young man to see Isabella.

As they spent time together along the way, Balian became more and more disappointed with Humphrey as he got to know him better.

Therefore, although he did not understand Gellis's status in the town, he immediately performed the holy cutting after noticing that the situation was not good.

……

The farce was over, and Humphrey, abandoned by Balian, did not have the courage to repeat what he had said before in front of hundreds of potentially hostile people.

When Humphrey and his two knights were disarmed and under guard, Gaillis invited Balian to lunch at the Grapevine Inn.

Al-Hadi Town is dominated by Arab restaurants, and there are only two places suitable for Franks to eat.

Since it was Garys who treated them, Balian and his knight attendant sat down casually after arriving at the inn and ordered the most expensive dish of the day.

Looking at the royal seal ring on the ring finger of Garys's left hand, Balian's expression was not very good. After all, his own daughter, who had never written a letter to him, had a private partner for her whole life, which was really hard for him to adapt to.

But after looking at Isabella sitting side by side with Garys, his expression softened a little.

Isabella today does have the willpower that matches her status.

This identity and position does not mean a princess, but the heir to the kingdom.

"Gailis, tell me about your current situation now. This town should be Leonard's land." Before waiting for the food to be served, Balian took the initiative to bring up a topic.

"It should be said that it was originally Reynard's territory. Now, the territory from the Arnon River Valley in the south to the northern shore of the Dead Sea in the north is...Isabella's territory."

Halfway through his words, Gailis paused and did not open up directly.

"How did you do it? Is Reynard that guy not so easy to talk to? And then, why do the surrounding townspeople call you a prophet?"

Garys briefly talked to Balian about what had happened during this period.

However, Balian couldn't hold back when he opened his mouth for the first sentence.

"Wait, you said you came back from the dead?!"

Garys spread his hands and showed Balian the penetrating wound on his left hand and the horrific wound from his ribs to his abdomen.

After reading this, Balian fell silent. As a veteran knight, Balian naturally knew what injuries could be survived and what injuries could only be cured by the Lord.

Just like what Balian had taught others before, he did not rush to question Garys's subsequent words, but chose to listen and think more.

After Garys finished his long speech, Balian ignored the incomprehensible miracles and extracted a few key points.

"So, you have already killed four hundred of Reynard's men, and completely eliminated the tax farmers in this land, and even controlled those Islamic preachers and made them serve you?"

Gaillis nodded. It was so convenient to talk to smart people.

For smart people, they always grasp the key points of things and know how to communicate with others effectively.

Balian took a deep breath. Among these three key points, eating the four hundred people related to Leonard was actually the least worth mentioning.

The latter two are what the kingdom has found difficult to achieve in the past 87 years.

Eliminating the power of tax farmers means direct rule over local areas, and controlling Islamic preachers means mobilizing the power of Muslims.

Although Balian didn't quite understand how Gailis did it, looking at the expression of his adopted daughter beside him, he knew that Gailis was not lying.

"Bella, aren't you going back to Jerusalem now?" Balian asked. Isabella shook her head. It was easy for her to tell which place was dangerous and which was safe.

What's more, the Leper King is now dead, Baldwin V's nephew also died inexplicably, and the only living Angevin relative, her sister, is so unfamiliar that it is difficult to distinguish her.

Everything is different now. The past is the past, and the present is the present. We cannot always treat the past as the present.

"I would rather go to Nablus than to Jerusalem." At least her mother and several half-brothers and sisters were still in Nablus.

"The throne..."

Before Balian could finish his words, he got the answer from Isabella's eyes.

Therefore, he turned his head and looked at Garys. After taking another look at the royal seal ring, he said, "Tell me what you think, young man."

In this cozy hotel lobby, Garys listened to Balian's words and knew that he was testing him.

With his index finger tapping the table a few times, Gailis gave his answer: "Given the current situation in the Holy Land, war with the Ayyubid dynasty is inevitable."

“Even in this small town, I hear the caravans passing by spreading the news of Jihad.”

Jihad is the Islamic concept of holy war, but Islam divides Jihad into greater jihad and lesser jihad.

One thing to note is that the terms big and small jihad do not describe the difference in scale, but rather the difference in the targets of their jihad.

The Great Holy War is generally considered to be a struggle against the devil and an attempt to free himself from his corruption.

The lesser jihad often means a struggle with swords and knives.

Although this jihad was initiated by Saladin and will be recognized by the Abbasid Caliph in the future, and its aftermath will spread to the entire Islamic world, it is still a small jihad.

The meaning of this is: [This pagan regime is persecuting Muslims, we must fight back! ]

"It would be useless to ask Isabella to go to Jerusalem and force the emperor to take the throne. Even Saladin is powerless to prevent the outbreak of the holy war. Changing the king will not bring us peace at this moment."

"However, if I rashly declare myself king, it will only create another round of division within the kingdom."

"With a powerful enemy in front of us, we should not unite and face the enemy together, but we should not take the initiative to jump out and become a target either."

"Although the throne is good, it is not something that ordinary people can sit on safely."

Balian nodded. Although Gailis's speech was not profound, it showed sufficient self-awareness.

"Not bad, much better than Humphrey."

If Balian had read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he would have quoted Cao Cao's famous saying in his evaluation of Humphrey: He appears to be fierce but has a weak courage, and is good at making plans without making decisions. He is willing to do great things but cherishes his body, and forgets his life when he sees little profit. He is not a hero.

Humphrey put his own interests above those of others, and when the opportunity to become king arose, he unscrupulously connected with the nobles, disregarding the overall interests of the kingdom.

However, once he discovered that Isabella was missing, he immediately surrendered, rushed to the palace overnight, pledged allegiance to Sibylla and Guy, and completely abandoned those allies who had conspired with him.

Although he could not be said to be wavering, in Balian's opinion, he definitely did not have the qualities of a king.

In fact, most of the nobles in the Kingdom of Jerusalem were of this level, nothing more than insects.

Humphrey was not a mean person among them, and he was even a strong one among the insects.

But insects could not save the country, and the sun had already set on Jerusalem.

Even if Balian dared to say that he could sacrifice his life for his country, it would be of no avail.

"Tell me how many soldiers you can mobilize in total and what their training equipment is like."

Gailis thought about it for a while, then felt there was no need to hide it: "First of all, there are a total of 11 knights, including me, and 28 squires."

Those servants who survived the rainy night have all been knighted by Isabella or Gellis. In addition, Jos, who surrendered to Gellis, was also knighted because of his outstanding performance, totaling 11 people.

As for the attendants, they are mainly holy knights of the order. At present, they are actually guards directly under Garys.

The new batch of servants is being trained by Simon, while the old batch has already gone to other villages with some veterans to train militia.

"In addition, there is one company of the standing army, currently totaling 1 men, eight companies of the conscripted militia, and a smaller number of individual companies, close to a thousand men."

Company in French is compagnie, which comes from companion. It originally refers to a group of people who live, work or travel together, but with the formation of feudal system and military organization, it began to take on military color.

Therefore, when Garys said that he had a total of 9 companies, Balian was able to understand the meaning.

"Standing army?" Balian was a little confused about the word. He was not confused about the meaning of the standing army, but was wondering whether Garys could afford the standing army in his mind?
Is Gillis that rich?

(End of this chapter)