Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 173 [Thou Shalt Not Kill]

Thou shalt not kill

—Exodus 20:13
Everything went according to plan. Before the sun rose in the east, the residents of Karak City had already mobilized in full swing.

All, almost all, men took up arms that day, and the strongest among them put on armor.

Those who were not so strong carried bows and crossbows and arrows and helped people carry supplies.

Thanks to the existence of Karak Castle, Karak City is not short of weapons.

As for Gailis, in the night, he stood on the city wall with Amade, looking at the Adil military camp in the distance.

"Amadeo, I suddenly realized one thing. You never seemed to question my act of killing people."

Since they were just killing time, Garys asked Amedai a question about the core doctrine of Christianity - murder.

God the Father spoke ten words on the mountain from the fire, and those ten words were engraved on stone tablets and given to Moses.

These ten sentences are the Ten Commandments.

In Catholicism, the Ten Commandments have an important status and significance. They are regarded as laws directly revealed by God the Father and form the foundation of Christian moral life.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Ten Commandments are universal obligations for all rational beings, and violating them is considered a mortal sin.

The sixth commandment is: Thou shalt not kill.

Amedee pondered for a moment and then gave his own answer to this question, which came from the Bible: "I will require your blood for your lives, whether it is beast or man...Whoever sheds the blood of man, his blood shall be shed by man, for man is made in the image of God."

This passage comes from the ninth book of Genesis.

This is actually a question of stance. In this era, the Ten Commandments, which prohibit killing, are actually meant by most priests to help vested interests maintain their interests.

Since Amadeus can jump out of that framework, it means that he has the correct understanding.

At least, Amedee would not use Jesus' words to emphasize Christian obedience when preaching to the poor.

“But I tell you, do not resist someone who is evil. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the left also. ”

——Matthew 5:39
These words of Jesus are essentially advocating that violence should not be countered with violence, but they are often used by those who distort the scriptures to demand that believers obey the current "structural violence."

But it is not enough for just one Amadeus to wake up, so he needs to patch up this one of the Ten Commandments.

"Listen, Amedee, and remember what I am going to say."

"First, all human life is sacred and killing is a felony."

"But prohibiting killing is not just about asking yourself not to kill, but more importantly, it is about making it impossible for unjust attackers to harm others!"

The Ten Commandments say you shall not kill, but Garys gave an expanded interpretation, saying that the prohibition against killing should not only be used to restrain oneself, but should also be used to stop injustice and unfairness in society.

We must prevent evil people from harming others again!

Similarly, based on this interpretation, when facing an unjust war, when facing "structural violence" and "institutional oppression", and when the lives and rights of others are being destroyed in a bloodless way, the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" should also be applied.

Today, Adil is waging war for his own personal ambition, to satisfy his greedy desire for wealth and to reduce free people to slavery.

Therefore, anyone who is a Christian should come forward to stop it.

Since no one else came forward to stop this, Garys had to do it himself.

Through the tunnel, Garys had already established good contact with John and the others.

Due to the various massacres of Adil's light cavalry by Gellis in recent days, the Adil camp no longer sends light cavalry for night patrols.

After all, almost any light cavalryman who dares to patrol at night has a nearly 50% chance of never returning.

Adil was actually quite puzzled by this.

It is difficult for people to imagine things they have never seen, so Adil could not realize what he was facing no matter how hard he tried.

Due to the lack of night patrols outside Adil's military camp, the reinforcements from the Arnon Valley led by Old John and his men were not discovered until they were 500 meters away from Adil's military camp.

Gellis also organized about a thousand citizens, plus all the defenders of Karak Castle, to participate in the siege.

The relief of Karak City was much simpler than Gailis had imagined.

The first to launch the attack were naturally a company of the Jerusalem Kingdom Army, followed by a militia battalion.

These nearly 600 people climbed over the hills and approached the Adil military camp to a position 300 meters away without being discovered.

According to the military camp garrison in those days, it was natural to arrange sentries at night. Not to mention going out to patrol the wild, they should also be on guard in the watchtower.

It is naturally impossible for these sentries to stand guard all night, and they need to be rotated in batches.

But at the Saracens' level of military organization, no one really follows any military common sense.

Finally, those who had some connections found excuses to shirk their duty as sentinels. Those who had no connections and looked easy to bully were left in sentry towers or at the gates of military camps. But if the top beam is not straight, the bottom beam will be crooked. Since some people enjoy privileges, don't blame others for not working hard.

What's more, everyone in Palestine now knows that Saladin won a great victory and destroyed almost all the main forces of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in one battle.

In this case, why would we need to worry about a large-scale enemy attack on our camp?
As for Garys's small actions, most of them were aimed at disrupting the rest of the soldiers in Adil's camp.

In this case, since you are not sleeping well to begin with, you should seize the time to get more sleep.

Garys didn't do any work tonight, and the sentry on the watchtower fell asleep right there.

When the morning light shone on his face, the sentry yawned and stretched. When he stood up, he saw a dark crowd of people almost approaching the military camp.

At first, the sentry failed to react and thought that these were reinforcements coming from nowhere.

It was not until the next time when he saw the flags flown by the troops that he realized the problem.

"F-Franks! The Franks are attacking the camp!"

But he only shouted out this warning, and along with his voice, a volley of crossbow arrows flew towards the watchtower, one of which hit his forehead accurately.

At this point, a battle began.

As for the city of Karak, the city gates had already been opened. Under the command of Gairis, the organized personnel marched towards Adil's camp that blocked the city gates.

To be honest, these citizens could not form any military formation at all. Most of them just relied on the city walls to help build up momentum.

The armored soldiers and citizens were the main force participating in the war.

Judging from the current battlefield situation, the soldiers in the Arnon Valley, together with the reinforcements sent from the city, are actually less numerous and powerful than Adil's side.

Therefore, the main purpose of this battle was to relieve the siege and force Adil's army to flee.

Even if Garys took action personally, he could only climb over the camp wall with his bare hands, and together with John and the others, he opened the camp gate and launched an attack on the camp.

Because in the past few days, Garys had been hiding during the day and coming out at night, disturbing the rest of Adil's camp, and this was a sudden attack.

It shouldn't be difficult to win this battle. What Garys really cares about is whether the Arnon militia can fight.

Many of those militia companies had been formed for more than a year, and this was their first real large-scale entry into the battlefield.

Considering the current situation in the Holy Land, this battle is just an appetizer.

"Where are the Mamluks! Where are the Mamluks!"

Adil, who was in the core position of the military camp, shouted loudly to the chaotic troops nearby, and gradually gathered a fairly elite army around him.

Like Saladin, as Saladin's younger brother, Adil had similar problems.

Both brothers were equally insensitive in their assessment of the battlefield situation.

But they both have one thing in common, which is seeking stability.

Therefore, after making sure that there were enough Mamluks gathered around him, he also made sure that important figures such as Humphrey and Malik were by his side.

Adil glanced at the military flags in the east and shouted, "Everyone! Pass on my order! Launch an attack to the east together!"

Then Adil turned his horse around and pointed to the west, obviously he had his own wise plans.

Humphrey was a little stunned, and Malik was even more confused.

On the contrary, the Mamluk guards, who had been with the Saladin brothers for a long time, immediately realized what was going on.

One after another, they shouted, "Let's follow Lord Adil and attack to the east!"

Just then, some soldiers who did not know why launched an attack towards the rising sun in the east to stop the troops attacking the camp.

Adil took the lead and led the small team of a hundred people to make a roundabout move to the west.

As for the other side of the battlefield, the army that successfully broke through the camp gate was almost invincible under the leadership of Garys.

In this kind of large-scale battle, for Garys, rather than performing miracles, it is more important to maintain stable output and keep enough physical strength to deal with the crisis.

But even so, Gellis held the sword in both hands, swung it up, and with a single charge of ten steps, he chopped off the heads of seven Saracens.

Behind him, those fully armed soldiers were also greatly encouraged!

As the saying goes, a man who knows the times is a hero. Now, this group of heroes are fighting bravely with Garys at the risk of their lives.

As for the Saracens and Egyptians, they were stunned and shocked by the scene of Garys's killing spree.

　First update

　　
　
(End of this chapter)