Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 135: Trade Routes and Trade

Steel is still too expensive these days.

After thinking for a moment, Garys noticed that Marwan on the side seemed to be hesitant to speak. Now, this young man who had been treated for snake venom by Garys was almost able to stand on his own.

"If you have any ideas, just say it."

After listening to this, Marwan organized his words and said, "I think if we only consider cost and profit, sandwich steel farm tools are definitely not suitable."

"But the problem is that the harvest will start in two months. If a new batch of high-quality agricultural tools cannot be supplied, it will obviously affect this year's spring harvest."

"And..." When he said this, Marwan paused, a little timidly, and looked at Knight Water again.

Walter frowned and said, "Go ahead, it's okay."

"This year is different from previous years. The prophet also emphasized in his sermons that war will break out this year. I think it is more important to make good food reserves than to worry about the cost and profit at the moment."

"If we want to promote new agricultural tools, we can do so by selling them on credit or at no profit."

Marwan's speech made Garys subconsciously applaud a few times.

Garys holds Sunday worship every weekend. This is not only a religious ritual, but also a meeting for everyone to understand the important issues of the moment and the close relationship between them and the church.

The fact that Marwan was able to grasp the priorities for 1187 meant that he had indeed listened carefully and thought carefully.

Later, he proposed to promote new agricultural products that can be sold on credit or without profit, which further represents that he can think about the problem from a global perspective.

Being able to ignore temporary gains and losses, transcend personal immediate interests, and look at problems dialectically is quite outstanding.

Knight Walter actually has his own opinion on this: "When I say that the cost of sandwich steel is high, it's not because it's expensive, but because a war will break out this year. If we expand the army, we need more high-quality weapons..."

After listening to this, Garys also nodded.

Compared to coming up with a fixed answer, the process of constant thinking and debate is actually more important.

Since Gairis is alone, he will leave the territory of Transjordan and go to other places sooner or later. When that time comes, those who are far away from Gairis will need to use their own wisdom to come up with the answer.

An atmosphere that allows for discussion is much better than a mode of giving orders based on one's own ideas.

After all, three heads are better than one.

Marwan argued with Watt for a long time, but he was restrained and did not take the argument too far.

After listening for a long time, Gaillis felt that the time was right.

"Indeed, I didn't think it through, but we can change our thinking. Steel is expensive, and we are in a hurry to harvest."

"We could think about that first and produce cheaper alternatives that are not as durable."

Then Garys proposed a Pinduoduo plan, which made Marwan and Water look very uncomfortable.

"If you think steel is expensive, use pig iron. If you think sandwich steel is troublesome, pour sauce on it."

“The iron mold is made directly from wrought iron, and then pig iron is poured on the iron mold as the outer layer.”

"Then the pig iron provides hardness and sharpness as the outer layer, while the wrought iron provides toughness and strength as the inner core."

“It saves costs and shortens working hours.”

Garys said it lightly, but Marwan and Watt's faces changed, because they understood this technology as soon as they heard it, but if the casting technology is not up to standard...

So the durability of this thing is much worse than that of sandwich steel, and the outer layer of pig iron is actually quite easy to break, but it is indeed much better than pure pig iron or wrought iron farm tools.

Is this the wisdom of the prophet?
In this era when everyone is pursuing durability and a family heirloom is passed down for three generations, the prophet can always come up with some technologies that are of lower quality but more cost-effective.

Cheap Damascus steel, cheap Syrian Aleppo soap, cheap “sandwich steel” farm tools…

I have to say, this is indeed a kind of wisdom.

……

The prototype of the "Roman Road" in the text is the King's Road in reality. The protagonist is currently located east of the Dead Sea. The location of Al-Hadi Town is in Dibon in the picture. The two tributaries of Dibon in the north and south are the river valley area in the book, which is also the Arnon River in reality.

This map shows the main trade route, which can be said to be a real "border area"

……

It is trade that maintains this border area.

Different from the East and the West, in the center of this world island, each human settlement is like an isolated island, located in the ocean of loess.

For the residents of the oasis island, trade is a natural necessity. Without trade, how can food be turned into clothing? How can figs and vines produce wheat? Where do salt and iron come from?

Those trade routes were no different from shipping routes, and the camel merchants who came and went were like sea ships, constantly visiting the isolated islands in the oasis.

It is the camel traders who connect this isolated oasis island, bringing goods to the residents and taking away the produced goods.

Along with it come anecdotes and legends from foreign countries.

The trade route from Damascus to Cairo is about 900 kilometers long, and a single trip takes about two months.

The journey from Baghdad to Damascus is also about 1,000 kilometers, and it would take two months for merchants to travel. But if a courier rode a horse quickly, it would take at most ten days to complete the journey of more than 1,000 kilometers.

When a letter was sent from Damascus to Baghdad, and another letter was sent from Baghdad back to Damascus.

The big city with a population of over one hundred thousand people was boiling again.

The contents of the letter were also spread to all directions along with the caravan.

When another caravan from Damascus to Cairo stopped at Al-Hadi, they brought news from Damascus.

"The Nasrid Caliph of the Abbasid dynasty recognized the jihad of Sultan Saladin and gave the curtains from the Kaaba to Saladin as a military flag."

"Did you foresee this?"

Zayed, who came all the way from Damascus, met Gairis at the hospital gate. He couldn't wait to share the news he brought. Now he has established a close relationship with Gairis.

The so-called Abbasid Dynasty is actually the Black Caliphate, which can also be understood as the Second Arab Empire.

It was founded in 750, but from the middle of the 9th century, local forces gradually began to break away from the control of the central government.

As a dynasty that combined politics and religion, although the Abbasid Caliph had lost local control, he was still the highest religious leader of Sunni Islam.

In other words, the Caliph of the Abbasid Dynasty became similar to the emperor of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty or the emperor of the Shogunate.

As for the Sultan Saladin of the Ayyubid Dynasty, he had the style of a Spring and Autumn Period overlord or a general.

Now that the Middle East overlord Saladin and the Islamic emperor Nasri have joined forces, a wave of jihad that will spread across the Islamic world is imminent.

But Zayed still had some doubts in his heart, because he personally participated in and witnessed this prophecy...

Rather than saying that it was God's will that Jerusalem was captured, it was more accurate to say that it was man's will, the people in history, who led the times towards a long-anticipated future.

Garys stood side by side with Zayed as they walked through the streets to see the goods that Zayed had brought.

During this time, Zayed asked the questions in his mind. He found it difficult to understand why the prophet's prophecy was about to come true so simply.

In this regard, Garys also chatted a few words.

"Zeid, I don't know if you know my brother, or the Messiah who calls himself the Lord."

"But I want to tell you that my brother who issued the commandments on Mount Sinai is a person of history. I am also a person of history. The so-called future is shaped by my Father through our hands."

“He is my Father and your Father.”

Zayed paused. What Gairis said was extremely contrary to Islamic teachings.

Because Allah is the Lord, He does not marry, He does not have children, He is natural and eternal, He is high above and plans all processes...

But the Allah that Gairis spoke of seemed to be different. In the narration of this prophet who claimed to be the son of Allah, Allah seemed to be a little bit intimate?

If we follow what Gailis meant, it is as if Allah is right beside us, walking with us, and not so high above us.

Gellis didn't explain much to Zayd.

Although from the perspective of worldly understanding, Christianity, Islam, or Judaism all believe in the one and only Supreme Lord.

But when it comes to the question of how to know God, different religions are not only contradictory, but can even be said to be completely unrelated.

Gérisse's ideas incorporated the ideas of Muenzer during the later German Peasants' War, the concepts of natural theology, and the liberation theology of Latin America. It can be said to be quite messy.

Many of these views, in this day and age, are no longer heretical. Most people simply cannot understand them, as if they were listening to a foreign book.

Zaid paused and asked another question: "Prophet, according to what you said, doesn't it mean that everyone should be brothers and sisters? Even slaves are like this?"

"Yes Yes."

Gellis answered in the affirmative, but his words were so heavy that they had to be repeated twice.

Because the goods he entrusted Zayed to purchase from Damascus last time were not dead objects, nor were they livestock or cattle and horses, but living people.

……

Those people were tied together, some wearing tattered cloth, some just wrapped in a piece of cloth, they were tied together with hemp ropes or shackles.

In these days of March, although spring has arrived on the plateau 600 meters above sea level, these people are still shivering, because not only have their clothes been stripped off, but their souls have also been taken away, making them no different from the walking corpses.

The setting sun stretched their shadows extremely long, almost swallowing up their figures.

The pale sky has never been so gloomy, as if the whole world is pressing down on this small inn.

Just looking at them, Gaillis felt that the surroundings were suffocatingly quiet, with only a slight breeze blowing, bringing a hint of chill.

[There is no longer any Jew or Greek, there is no longer any slave or free, there is no longer any male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.]

—Galatians 3:28
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(End of this chapter)