Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 145 We Need to Face History

As Reynard's army went away, the assembled militia began to disband, but the company commanders of each militia company and half of the platoon leaders of the militia companies were left behind.

In addition to them, there were company commanders, platoon leaders and soldier representatives in the Jerusalem Kingdom Army, plus those Palatine representatives.

Led by Gellis, these people walked into the classroom of Alhadi Town School.

Everyone took their seats according to their respective affiliations.

Nowadays, the larger the territory is, the more people there are in the organization. The opportunities to bring together company and platoon commanders and soldier representatives to hold meetings in person will become fewer and fewer.

But since they were already here, Garys would not miss this opportunity to give everyone a lesson and hold a meeting to unify their thoughts.

Before the meeting, Gailis first scanned the entire classroom. Some of these people were familiar faces to Gailis, while others were new to him.

Especially on the militia side, quite a number of platoon leaders were actually appointed by local constituency councils or village communities, and this was their first meeting with Garys.

The way they looked at Garys was particularly fanatical.

"Good morning, everyone!"

"Good morning, Prophet!"

With a simple greeting, today's lecture began.

"Everyone knows that the war in the Holy Land is imminent, and there will be a battle between Saladin and the Kingdom. I rejected Reynald's invitation to join the war because I think it will be meaningless to you whether Saladin wins or the Kingdom wins."

"Of course, if you think that participating in this war will be helpful to you, everyone here can stand up and speak up."

In Garys's eyes, some people hesitated to speak but ultimately did not speak up.

"There must always be a reason for war, for land, for wealth, for faith..."

"But whose faith is it? Whose land is it? Whose wealth is it?"

"Now, I have brought you the truth that was hidden by sinners in the past. Are there still any of you who want to fight for the sinners' faith?"

"As for the land, it never belongs to anyone. It is a gift from my father to us. We are proud of being self-reliant. In Transjordan, there are large tracts of wasteland waiting to be developed. What we lack are the hands to explore the wealth of the land, not to covet more land."

"And what about wealth? Using swords to seize wealth?!"

"What a joke! Robber, you will be robbed; looter, others will rob you; when you stop looting, others will punish you!"

“If one builds and another tears down, what good is that to you except your labor?”

"One person prays, one curses. Whose voice will my Father listen to?"

Garys' tone gradually became higher. He didn't want these students in front of him to forget why they took up arms.

In his design, the warriors of the order are not soldiers at all, but they are supposed to fight against all things in the world that harm the people with virtue, knowledge and swords.

The Jerusalem Kingdom Army should take up arms in response to the people's call. They exist only for liberation.

As for the militia, on the one hand they are the reserve and supplement of the first two, but their greatest role is to protect themselves and their homes from all kinds of "bandits". They have to protect the food they produce and their wealth.

"I know that this world is like a dark tunnel, long and endless. The land beneath our feet flows with tears and blood, it is a valley of tears."

"So some will become warriors, always ready to fight, with those of flesh and blood, with those of the invisible, with those of the evil spirits of the air."

"But don't forget that we are fighting to create peace, not to destroy the enemy or grab spoils."

"We put on armor in order to take it off, we pick up weapons in order to put them down, we turn plowshares into swords and sickles into spears in order to one day turn swords into plowshares and spears into sickles!"

"If one day, you fight just for the sake of fighting, to oppress the weak and rob wealth, then the sword holder will become a slave to the sword, and the dragon slayer will become a dragon!"

"Then my brother's words will come true."

“Remember: All who take up the sword will die by the sword.”

This was an ideological education, but Garys was particularly excited.

[What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.] Gellis had foreseen many things, but he still tried his best to avoid and delay them.

He hoped that even if it was only a momentary shine, lighting the torch to illuminate the road, he also hoped that the torch could burn longer, until the long night was over, to welcome the arrival of the real sun.

After this, Gellis told the history to those present.

Use copper as a mirror to adjust your clothes and appearance; use the past as a mirror to understand the rise and fall of things.

Gellis needs to explain the ins and outs of the Crusades one by one, so that those present can understand what the Crusades are all about, thus achieving the purpose of demystification.

The story of Jerusalem begins in the 10th century BC.

At that time, David, the king of ancient Israel, was the one who killed the giant Goliath with a sling.

He conquered Jebus, renamed the city Jerusalem, built a royal palace there, and established a unified kingdom with Jerusalem as its capital.

From that time on, Jerusalem has had a sacred place in the hearts of the Jews.

Later in the 1st century, Jesus, the brother of Gérice, became active and voluntarily was crucified in order to bear the sins of the world and redeem the world.

Since then, Christianity has also regarded Jerusalem as a holy place.

Later, in 621 AD, the Prophet Muhammad was taken to Jerusalem by angels, from where he ascended to heaven, visited the seven heavens, met with the prophets, and finally saw Allah.

Therefore, Jerusalem is also regarded as the third holiest place in Islam, after Mecca and Medina.

The subsequent Arab conquest began, and the Arabs conquered Jerusalem from the Eastern Roman Empire in 637, exactly 550 years ago.

However, the Roman Catholic Church at that time did not care about the loss of Jerusalem.

It was not until 1095 that the Eastern Roman Emperor Alexios I Komnenos asked the Catholic Church for help.

At that time, Pope Urban II's power was unstable, and he urgently needed something that could inspire religious fanaticism in Western Europe to consolidate his power.

He responded to Alexios I and traveled to Clermont, France, where he gave a speech.

Pope Urban II portrayed the fall of Jerusalem as if it had just happened recently, and described Muslims who also believed in the one true God as blasphemous pagans, accusing Muslims of massacring Christians and destroying churches.

Relying on this hand of pinching cards out of thin air, Pope Urban II packaged the cross as the side of justice.

He then said that Palestine was the land of Canaan, with infinite richness and beauty, and claimed that those who participated in the Crusades would be fully pardoned, emphasizing that this was a good opportunity to regain the Holy Land and fight for the Lord.

Simply put, killing pagans can lead to heaven, robbing pagans' money does not count as robbery, and everyone will be rewarded for taking back the holy land.

This marked the beginning of one disaster after another.

"The Crusades were a disaster from the beginning," Gaillis stressed.

"Tens of thousands of people were encouraged by the Pope's inexplicable reasons to march thousands of kilometers on foot without any logistics."

"Those people, those noble lords, plundered their peasants without conscience before setting out on the Crusade. For those knights on the Crusade, since participating in the Crusade can wash away their sins, why not commit more sins!"

"During the march, the only way they could get food was by looting. The Crusaders looted the Hungarians, the Bulgarians, the Greeks..."

"The knights of Lorraine looted all of Thrace, and the knights of southern Italy looted Macedonia and Epirus. The French knights were brutal in attacking Dalmatia..."

"Many Crusaders were counterattacked and were defeated or even annihilated by the armies of the Christian world before they even reached the edge of the Holy Land."

"According to historical records, the Crusaders suffered so many casualties in Europe that the blood dyed the Danube red, and the bodies that floated downstream covered the river surface, making it impossible to see the flowing water..."

"Is this the will of the Lord? When did my father ever say such a thing? To let his warriors plunder his people?! And then die in Europe?!"

"We need to get rid of those vile lies and face history."

　Second update. There should be two more updates tonight.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)