Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 134: Twist it off and hang it on the spear!

Balian was too lazy to wait for Reynard's reply. The reason why he made a special trip to Karak Castle was that he had been enduring Reynard for a long time.

Now I can no longer tolerate it! There is no need to tolerate it anymore!

From a public perspective, if Reynard had not repeatedly violated the peace agreement, causing public outrage in the Islamic world, things would not have come to this point!
Personally speaking, Humphrey is Reynard's stepson, and Isabella is Balian's stepdaughter. They should be considered relatives by marriage, but from the information I got from Isabella, Reynard, this scum, is not worthy of being a son!

Colluding with pagans to kill Isabella! More than once!
If Isabella hadn't told him, he would have thought that his daughter's disappearance had nothing to do with Leonard!

"You treat Isabella like this! What do you think of her? This punch is for the Leper King! This punch is for Isabella!"

Compared with Balian, who looked ten years younger, Leonard was indeed an old man. He was knocked to the ground by Balian's hammer, and then he rode on him and punched him again and again.

It was not until the guards outside the door heard the screams coming from the hall that they rushed in and saw an unbelievable scene.

The most noble people in the kingdom were fighting each other like thugs. No, to be exact, only Reynard was getting beaten.

Just when the guards were at a loss for a moment, Balian stood up and stopped beating the old man.

Reynard recovered and stretched his neck, then stood up with the help of the guards.

His cloudy eyes looked at Balian with a crazy smile. Even though he was hit several times all over his body, he still felt that it didn't matter.

"Ballian, good! good! good!"

"As long as you can figure it out, let's fight together!"

"Tear off the head of that damn pagan king and hang it on a spear!"

"We are going to take Damascus! We are going to take Alexandria! We are going to take Mecca!"

"Ahahahaha!"

Leonard clenched his fists, punched them towards the sky, and cheered loudly.

Looking at Leonard's crazy attitude, Balian's fists hardened again. This guy really didn't care about the punch he threw, but was happy from the bottom of his heart.

"Madman." After saying these two words, Balian turned and left.

Leonard didn't care about Balian's comments.

He is sixty-two years old now. In a few years, he will be too old to walk. Instead of lying in bed unable to take care of himself, he can only regret the mistakes he made in his life.

It would be better to make a blazing exit. Even if I die, I will drag the corpses of tens of thousands of people with me to be buried with me!
And if he wins, he will be ranked among the greatest men in the Christian world!

Even after a thousand years, people will still sing his name, and I will leave my mark on this world in a different way.

……

February and March were turbulent months in Palestine.

It is a consensus among many people that the war is about to begin, and the month in which the war breaks out will probably be May or June.

Because the harvest season in the Holy Land will be coming to an end at that time, the granaries will be full of grain, and the farmers will no longer have to hold their sickles.

But before that, it does not mean that nothing will happen. The mercenaries need time to assemble, the knights need to strengthen their martial arts training, and messengers seeking allies will travel to all parts of the world.

All forces were making intensive preparations, but what many lords and nobles in the kingdom did not expect was...

Even Balian, who had always advocated peace, no longer opposed going to war with Saladin. For a moment, all the lords in the kingdom clearly realized that the war was really about to break out.

However, unlike other lords who strengthened their own armies, Balian made a request to the current King Guy, hoping to take over the defense of Jerusalem.

King Guy agreed to this after discussing it with Gerald, Grand Master of the Knights Templar.

For their faction, as long as Balian does not stand up and actively oppose the war, then giving the other party a few positions in exchange is actually harmless.

The turmoil in the outside world has little to do with Garys.

Now, he is busy teaching every day and discussing with the blacksmith knight Walter and others how to make better farm tools.

Unlike other feudal lords, the relationship between the order and the peasants was not a simple zero-sum relationship.

It does not mean that if the peasants eat less, the religious order can get more grain. In this traditional feudal model, the so-called benevolent government actually means that the court or the lord, for some reason, decided to take less grain this year and let the peasants eat more.

But in actual practice, it is hard to say whether it can be truly passed on to the grassroots level. After all, for the tax farmers, if the lord steals less grain, doesn’t it mean that he can make more?

But in the eyes of the sect founded by Gellis, previous methods were foolish and sinful.

The prophet once said: "Man is created in the image and likeness of God. The voice of the poor who want to live is the voice of God. God is not the God of death, but the God of life who can hear the cry of God's people."

As the Lord of Life who can hear the cries of God’s people, every poor person can actually be well fed and should not be hungry.
It is only because of human ignorance and the various sins committed by the world that humans are unable to truly understand the world and cannot use God's wisdom to cultivate the world.

Now that the prophets have brought God’s wisdom, we can use this wisdom to increase the output of the land and cultivate more people to understand what God’s wisdom (natural science) is.

For example, land that originally could only produce 1000 pounds of food a year can now produce one more season of food through irrigation projects. Better farm tools can be used to deep-plow the land, and sharper sickles can be used to harvest efficiently.

In the end, the land that originally produced only 1000 pounds of food a year was turned into one that produced 1500 pounds of food a year.

What does this mean? It means that there will be an extra 50 pounds of tax without any additional tax.

This means that there will be an additional three or four hundred pounds of commercial grain circulating in the market.

These extra three or four hundred pounds of commercial grain can feed a non-agricultural population!

One non-agricultural population will produce ironware, cloth, sugar, salt, soap...

The external sales of these goods are the main source of income for the cult.

Throughout the process, farmers’ taxes were reduced, non-agricultural jobs were created, everyone was able to have enough food to eat, and the church’s cash income increased.

Even if an economic crisis or other forms of famine breaks out in the future, it will be better than the current absolute scarcity of food, which will inevitably lead to people starving to death.

Many experienced feudal fighters could not understand what was going on throughout their lives.

Sima Guang, a seasoned feudalist fighter, once criticized Wang Anshi: "If you don't do this, you will collect all the money from the people. If the people are all thieves, it will not be a blessing for the country."

Wang Anshi said: "Those who are good at managing finances can make up for the country's financial needs without increasing taxes."

Sima Guang finally replied: "How can there be such a thing in the world? The wealth and goods created by heaven and earth are limited to this number. If it is not in the people, then it is in the government."

This conversation clearly shows that in the eyes of feudal fighters, they themselves know that the relationship between rulers and the ruled is a zero-sum relationship.

They don't look at the world from a developmental perspective at all.

As for Wang Anshi, although he realized the problem and tried to reform the country, he failed in the end.

Many people know one sentence from reading books: the economic base determines the superstructure.

It seems that if the economic foundation is not accumulated, no change can occur.

But those people often forget the following sentence: the superstructure reacts on the economic base.

Gellis did not create a progressive society out of thin air; he used medieval religious organizations to guide the peasants, enabling them to produce more food and prepare for future changes.

In a blacksmith shop in Alhadi Town, the blacksmith knight Walter and Marwan took out some farm tools and introduced them to Garys.

"I tried the sandwich steel you mentioned before and it worked really well. It's much better than traditional iron farm tools, but the problem is, don't you think the cost is too high? After all, it uses steel."

Having said this, the blacksmith knight Walter handed a sickle to Garys. Compared with traditional sickles, this sickle was actually thicker and obviously made of more material.

After inspection, Garys found that Walter's craftsmanship was indeed good and he had achieved the effect he wanted.

The so-called sandwich steel is a technology that combines different types of metals to produce farm tools or weapons.

Typically, high carbon hard steel is sandwiched between softer wrought iron or low carbon steel to form a "sandwich" structure.

When in use, the high-carbon steel with high hardness and wear resistance is polished to become the exposed blade, so that the blade can remain sharp for a longer time.

At the same time, the main body of the farm tool or weapon, which is the outer layer that clamps the high-carbon steel, is usually made of softer iron or low-carbon steel, which makes the tool tougher and less likely to break due to collision or bending.

The weapons or farm tools produced by this technology have both the sharpness of high-carbon steel and the toughness of wrought iron, and can save a certain amount of cost compared to using only steel to make iron tools.

(End of this chapter)