Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 172 Transition
People inside the city wanted to escape, and people outside the city wanted to rush in.

Adil's army did block the gate of Karak, but that doesn't mean that Karak was really cut off from the outside world.

A city that is completely sealed off is hopeless. Regardless of whether the citizens agree or not, even the masters or lords have to try their best to find a way to survive.

Hundreds of years ago, the Orthodox Christians were able to dig underground churches in the city of Karak, so naturally they could also dig tunnels leading out of the city.

Father Antoine, along with the two young men, walked for a long time in this tunnel built with stone slabs.

The mottled moss on the wall trembled slightly in the echo of their footsteps.

The air in the tunnel is damp and stuffy, and every breath seems to carry with it the accumulation of dust and time.

Hundreds of years ago, the Greeks also traveled through this tunnel, seeking to escape from the attacks of the Saracens.

Gradually, the darkness before their eyes seemed to become thinner, and when they pushed open a hidden wooden door, the world before their eyes suddenly became clear.

The morning light poured down like a torrent, penetrating the clouds and illuminating the vast plateau in front of them.

The breeze carried the fragrance of grass and soil, and the sunlight reflected on the priest's face.

"We should go to Arnon and inform the people there to get ready to relieve Karak."

The priest repeated their mission to the people around him.

Today, the power of the lords in Karak City has been wiped out. As for those parliamentarians who have clearly expressed their willingness to surrender, they have all been executed under the anger of the citizens.

Even Garys had not thought about carrying out any procedural justice or formal execution at this juncture.

After all, this was the 12th century and the country was still at war, so there wasn't much logic to talk about.

Deciding to cut off ties with the majority of people in the city and exchanging the enslavement of the majority for one's own safety is essentially alienating oneself from the people.

At most, Garys placed the families of these congressmen under protective custody to prevent them from being massacred by angry citizens or suffering inhuman abuse.

The relevant liquidation issues can only be carried out after the siege is over.

Due to Amade's awareness, the church in Karak City is also fully supporting Garys.

In this case, there is no real meaning in continuing to keep Karak City under siege, and it will only waste Garys' time.

In the current situation, time is everything, and even Gairis has no way of knowing when Saladin will turn his attention to the territory of Transjordan.

……

While Father Antoine rushed to the Arnon Valley to deliver the letter, Adil also ordered his men to send the distraught Humphrey away.

Adil knew the identities of these corpses and heads.

He also felt the determination of the defenders in Karak City.

In order to defend themselves, the people in the city brazenly killed their lord Stephanie, and also beheaded the parliamentarians who intended to surrender, and sent them to demonstrate near their own military camp.

Malik, who was standing by, looked at the woman's head with her mouth wide open, shook his head, closed the wooden box again, and told someone to take it out and not leave it here to pollute people's eyes.

"Uncle, do we still need to continue to persuade the people in the city to surrender?"

Adil shook his head and said directly: "The people in the city nowadays are a complete mob."

"Malik, you are still young. You must always remember one thing. When facing the mob, whether it is us or those Christian lords, the only solution is to give the mob the most severe punishment."

"Riots are like a plague. They cannot be restrained by faith. The only thing that can stop riots is more powerful violence."

"Today, the city guilds in Alexandria and Cairo are able to retain their autonomous armed forces because those useless Shiites in the Fatimid period were unable to strike hard at the mobs, leaving me with such a mess."

When it comes to the city guild armed forces in Alexandria and Cairo, Adil feels a headache.

City guilds were indeed not a rare thing in the Middle Ages, but they had their own armed forces and were able to engage in unlimited fighting tournaments with local governors like Emile.

This has become a characteristic of the Arab Middle East.

Of course, as the Emir, Adil would definitely not look for the cause of the problem in himself.

In fact, if it were not for the long-standing political chaos in the Middle East and the "unlimited power" tyranny of the sultans and emirs.

There is no need for city guilds to develop to the point they are now. If you don't have a weapon in your hand, the Sultan and the Emir will not treat you as a human being at all.

As an older generation of feudal fighter, Adil sympathized with Stephanie's plight with simple emotions.

And he repeatedly assured Humphrey that he must inflict the most severe punishment on the city of Karak.

In such a situation, Adil intensified the siege of the city.

However, even in this situation, facing Adil's large-scale siege and stone throwing with catapults every now and then, Gairis still did not use his full strength. In fact, when Adil attacked the city, Gairis controlled the frequency of his arrows and did not stand out too much.

It was just a matter of shooting the key figures in the siege army more accurately to disrupt Adil's siege rhythm.

The reason for doing this was actually mainly because he was worried that he would use too much force at once and scare Adil's army.

Given Garys' current physical condition, he can stand there and pull the 160-pound bow for about half an hour.

Ten arrows can still be shot out in one minute, and even if only one third of the three hundred arrows can hit the target, that would still be 10 casualties.

Adil's army could not withstand the full force of Gairis in defending the city.

But this would be quite ugly.

After all, Garys will leave Karak, and sooner or later this city will have to face its own difficulties. At the same time, the army on the Arnon side also needs a chance to see blood.

If Garys does everything by himself, how will they deal with problems in the future when Garys is not here?

For this reason, under Gellis' deliberate control, Karak City always gave Adil's army a feeling.

There are actually not many people defending the city. As long as we increase our efforts a little more, we can conquer the city.

……

It's August now, a completely dry season.

Agriculture in the entire Transjordan region has almost stagnated, with only some fruit trees such as figs still needing care.

During this slack farming season, all districts under Arnon County are intensively training militia.

Even the Jerusalem Kingdom Army under Isabella's command expanded from one professional company to two companies.

The new professional company is the Second Company, which is different from the original First Company.

Although the first company is composed of a mixture of spearmen, sword and shieldmen, and crossbowmen, it is still a pure infantry company.

The Second Company was a mixed cavalry and infantry company formed with the help of a large number of horses captured from the Bedouins.

Of course, the infantry of the second company are actually all mounted infantry, with faster mobility. They can support the battlefield faster and even keep up with the mobility of the cavalry to help the cavalry provide support.

After receiving the letter in Yanen, relying on the guidance authority of the county governor and county council over the district councils, the militia in each district was mobilized in full swing.

These mobilized militias need to be temporarily organized into higher-level battalion-level combat units and undergo a period of intensive training before they can be put into real combat, in order to avoid various chaotic military orders due to temporary organization.

Different from the feudal armies of the same period, the various armies of Arnon, under the advice of Gairis, have now established a clear system of authority and responsibility, which specifies in detail the authority and responsibilities of officers and non-commissioned officers at all levels, and also clarifies the combat missions of each army.

It can be said that although the weapons of the Arnon army are still at the ordinary medieval level, its organizational structure is in line with the modern 17th and 18th centuries.

Even though it is still just a crude imitation at present, the organization of the army has indeed been improved.

Moreover, this improvement is equivalent to the improvement of the original Kingdom of Jerusalem, and is much higher than that of ordinary Muslim armies.

After the three-day training ended, the army of Arnon County, totaling 1,500 people, finally set out.

Through the communication through the secret passages in the city, Gailis also received the news.

Even Gailis organized a team of elite soldiers to carry out small-scale harassment on Adil's army through secret passages in the cover of night.

The main purpose is to disrupt the enemy's rest and keep the attacking troops in a nervous state.

Thanks to Gillis's participation in the campaign, these smaller raids were very successful.

Most of the attacks were directed at the enemy's sentries, and then rockets were fired at Adil's camp, making all kinds of noise.

Adil's response methods were quite limited. He could only keep sending out light cavalry to try to hunt down the team led by Garys.

But every time, every time, all the light cavalry sent out never returned.

When Adil realized this, he couldn't help but gasp.

It was just like a stone ox entering the sea. When the light cavalry sent out at night came back the next day, there were only horses but no people.

After similar incidents happened several times, the morale of Adil's army was severely damaged.

Adil even began to consider whether to withdraw troops.

At this moment, when the morning light once again shone on the earth, Arnon's reinforcements finally arrived.

　Because I have been writing 10,000 words a day for the past few days, my condition has been very bad these two days. I will update twice today to hold on. I will update more when I adjust my condition.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)