Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 131 If Jesus Had Lived, He Would Have Been a Guerrilla
"Yes, the standing army, including officers, has a total of 140 people, and is currently fully staffed. Most of them are armored heavy infantry who can use swords, shields and spears, and some are crossbowmen."

According to Gellis's standards, such a standard company is actually an 8*4*4 model, that is, 8 people form a squad, 1 squads form a platoon, and 4 platoons form a company, which is roughly one platoon of swordsmen and shieldmen, two platoons of spearmen, and one platoon of crossbowmen.

A squad of 8 people will choose one of the soldiers to be the squad leader. A platoon of 1 squads will appoint two additional veterans as platoon leaders as sergeants. The company headquarters will be composed of the company commander, deputy commander and two medical staff, totaling 4 people.

This organization is more complicated than the medieval army, but far inferior to that of later generations. It doesn't even have a kitchen team.

Generally speaking, it is designed to deal with small-scale battles in the Middle Ages.

However, even such a seemingly simple company of 140 people was not easy to equip for the feudal system in Western Europe.

The feudal lords were happy to see this happen, allowing lower-level feudal lords to recruit private armies. They were willing to pay high prices to recruit mercenaries in times of war and were willing to grant manors to knights in exchange for their loyalty.

Nor will they maintain too many standing armies.

Everyone knows the advantages of a standing army. An army that can be mobilized immediately and trained regularly will have an overwhelming advantage when fighting against conscripts.

But the standing army has a disadvantage: it is too expensive.

This "precious" means precious in the subtitle's sense, and it requires a large amount of gold to maintain.

A well-trained elite standing army will divide its overall expenses into three parts, namely personnel expenses, equipment maintenance, and logistical support.

The expenditure ratio of these three parts will be close to 1:1:1.

According to Gellis's calculations, the salary he paid to his standing army was 6 gold dinars per year, and if equipment expenses and logistical support were taken into account.

The annual expenses for each of these soldiers who obey Garys' orders are close to 25 gold dinars.

A company of 140 people would cost at least 3500 gold dinars, and the actual cost would be closer to 4000 gold dinars.

According to the poll tax standard of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, on average an old farmer's family of five had to pay 2 gold dinars per year.

In other words, if it were a lord from another territory, it would mean that 2000 old farmers would be needed to support a company of Garys standard.

Besides, even if the militia didn't take much money from the treasury, those knights and servants were all gold-devouring beasts, right?

That is to say, Garys has his own team of blacksmiths, and can purchase livestock from farmers without going through the middlemen, so he can reduce the actual amount of money spent.

Well, focusing on an internal circulation to recover money and self-production and self-sales is the way to go these days.

"The main reason is that a war is imminent. Even if I don't plan to lead troops to fight, I still need to have a certain amount of self-defense force. Therefore, this is not a matter of calculating short-term gains and losses."

As Gailis was speaking, a waiter came over and filled the glasses of wine for everyone at the table. Of course, Isabella only got a glass of sweet drink.

"What's more, the wealth accumulated by the tax farmers for generations has been confiscated by me, so I still have a lot of money on hand."

Thanks to brother Ahmed, it was tax farmers like him who provided Gairis with a large amount of supplies and cash, as well as a ready-made compound for training soldiers.

"Besides, because of the camel trade route in Transjordan, there are many caravans coming and going, and doing business with them is really profitable."

As if in response to Garys' words, several plates of grilled meat were served on the table.

Looking at the carefully prepared food on the table, Balian thought of the meal he had yesterday evening. Garys was really bold in selling dinner for half a gold dinar.

But when I think about the hardships those merchants have to endure on their journey, and considering how rich they are.

In addition, the dry food for traveling is not kind to human teeth and stomach.

Balian could understand why such an exquisite dinner could be sold at a high price.

As for the militia, Balian didn't ask too much.

Balian now has a preliminary understanding of Garys's strength.

The total number of troops is 1000, including a long-trained professional infantry company, 1 knights and 11 squires.

This has already surpassed the average of all the territories of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and is even comparable to the Ibelin Family.

Moreover, in Balian's opinion, the quality of Gellis' army should not be bad. It has enough knights, elite heavy infantry, and conscripted peasant soldiers, which is quite good in the Middle Ages.

Just like this, everyone chatted, talked about the future, and shared news with each other, and the atmosphere was quite harmonious.

After the meal, Isabella was sent away and Balian's knight was sent back to the guest room.

When only Balian and Gillis were left, the two looked at each other and realized that they both had something to say that was not suitable to be said in front of others.

The diners nearby came and went, and even though they were too embarrassed to come up and greet Garys, he was still the focus of their attention.

"This place is not suitable, come with me outside," said Gailis.

Listening to Garys' words, Balian also nodded.

……

East of the Jordan River, apart from those excellent river valleys, it is generally a slightly desolate plateau.

The width of the Transjordan Plateau ranges from 50 to 130 kilometers, and its altitude gradually decreases towards the east, becoming more desolate.

Although it is a plateau, the annual rainfall is at least 350 mm, which is enough to maintain autumn ploughing and spring harvest. Now is the season of transition from winter to spring, the winter rain has gradually died down, and the spring rain will come again in early March.

More than half a year ago, Garys came back to life in the spring rain on the Transjordan Plateau, and now a year has almost passed.

Garys took Balian out of Alhadi Town and stepped into the wilderness.

On this green plateau with stars, a middle-aged man in his forties and a young man in his twenties stood side by side.

Garys was a little taller and more erect, while Balian was broader-chested, had dark brown hair, and was actually quite handsome.

After they were far away from the town and determined that they were the only two people on the earth, Balian stopped first, looked at Garys' face, and spoke first.

"You say you are a prophet? That you are Jesus' brother and that you will meet the Father in Heaven when you die?"

Even though he had seen the wounds on Garys' body and put those doubts aside, it did not mean that he thought Garys was a true prophet.

Maybe it was just good luck, maybe it was just God who healed me, maybe it was even the power of the devil...

He could understand why Garys wanted to package himself, and he could imagine what Garys was carrying.

In this desolate land, if we want to build a territory from scratch and bridge the gap between Christians and Muslims.

Then pretending to be a prophet is a perfect method.

Replace the old religious identity with a new one.

But he still felt that what Garys did was quite blasphemous, but he was embarrassed to say it when he was in the town earlier.

After all, that town was obviously already full of Garys’ followers.

Humphrey had seen the sea boil when he questioned the prophet in front of his followers.

"Of course I am a prophet." Garys spread his hands towards Balian, very frankly. Now he no longer worries about many things.

Even though no one or god had ever placed a mission on Garys' shoulders, he still carried the cross himself, just like Jesus.

It’s the same old saying: Things cannot be named, names cannot describe the reality of things, names and things are not real, therefore things do not exist.

Sometimes, Gellis would often think about one thing: if we remove all the deifications of Jesus by later generations and restore him to a living mortal.

So what was Jesus thinking when he burst into the temple and accused the chief priests and scribes of turning the temple into a den of thieves?

Perhaps he was really angry. What was Jesus thinking when the Romans came to arrest him after he was threatened and reported by the Jewish elders?

Despite the questioning of the Roman governor and the contempt of the people around him, he still calmly said that he was a prophet. What was he thinking at that time?
He could escape the death penalty by simply denying it, but he never said it...

It was indeed Jesus who took up the Cross Himself, and He never denied Himself until His death.

This was indeed a rebellion against authority and a confrontation with the corrupt Jewish upper class.

As Father Camilo Torres said in later generations: If Jesus were alive, he would be a guerrilla fighter.

Garys often feels that there is nothing wrong with this statement.

"How do you prove that?"

Balian's eyes were amber, and there was no trace of joking in them.

Garys still had his hands spread out, and then the young man disappeared from in front of Balian. Before Balian could show any disbelief, he felt a light tap on his right shoulder.

Almost subconsciously, Balian turned around and punched him.

Then he found that his fist was caught by Garys's left hand.

This punch not only did not cause any harm to Garys, but instead shocked him, as if he had punched granite.

Balian stared at Garys. He subconsciously held his breath and didn't even dare to blink.

But it was of no use, as his left shoulder was tapped again, but this time Balian did not punch again.

The expression on her face showed that she couldn't tell whether she was crying or laughing. For a moment, she didn't know how she should face this world, nor did she know what tone to use when talking to Garys.

Finally, after a long while, he turned around and asked, "Prophet, what prophecy did you bring from God?"

At this moment, the afternoon sun shines on this desolate plateau, but it does not bring the slightest warmth.

The ground was pale yellow, with sparse vegetation lingering in the wind. The mountain ridge in the distance was like a lifeless skeleton, stretching under the pale sky.

Time seems to have stopped here, only the sun is setting slowly in the west.

Standing on such a piece of land, Gellis repeated the words that Jesus had said.

"When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that her desolation is near. Then those in Judea will flee to the mountains, and those in the royal city will leave, and those in the countryside will not enter her. This is a day of vengeance, so that everything written will come to pass."

(End of this chapter)