Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 298 It’s Time to Behead

"You will not hold us responsible for the offense?"

Gossel did not answer this question, but shook his head with a hint of impatience to express his attitude.

"Dral, untie the rope of Leila and let her go!" Landolfo shouted into the house, and when he mentioned Leila's name, his tone rose a little.

When Gothel heard the name Leila, he felt a little confused, but he didn't show it.

After a while, a strong man came out of the house, holding a little girl.

When Denise saw Gothel, she realized that she was saved, but the current situation prevented her from being too excited.

"Can you walk by yourself?" Gothel asked softly.

Denise shook her head: "My legs are weak and I have no strength."

"Then sit next to me and take a break."

The most basic goal has been achieved, but Gothel is not in a hurry to leave, and Landolfo and the others will not let Gothel leave just like that. After all, what if Gothel does not admit it?

Looking at the looks in Landolfo's gang's eyes and their positions as they tried to block the door, one could understand the implicit threat.

"I will arrange a small sampan for you, and you can use that sampan to leave Tyre directly, and we will never see each other again."

Landolfo nodded. In his current state, it was impossible for him to really extort the gold coins. As for the idea of ​​taking Gothel hostage, although it was very tempting, considering the rumored military strength of Gothel, he suppressed the idea.

"But before you leave Tyre, I have one more question for you to answer."

"what?"

"Who in the kingdom is buying slaves through you?"

There would be no harm without buying and selling. Market demand has led to the emergence of human traffickers like Landolfo.

Human traffickers and brokers like Landolfo are naturally not unique to Palestine.

There is a saying in China: Even if they are innocent, shop assistants and porters should be put to death. This refers to the five professions in feudal society that deserve to be put to death even if no evidence of their guilt is found.

People like Landolfo can actually be classified as prostitutes. They buy children from civilians in various cities and then sell them to the slave market in Damascus for training. They then bring back suitable slaves from the slave market according to the client's requirements.

The round trip was hundreds of miles long and naturally full of hardships, but the income was much higher than what one could earn from farming.

Since Landolfo was active in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, in other words, there were a large number of customers who bought people from him, which meant that there were a large number of "criminals".

Of course, those customers did not feel that they had committed a crime; they were just following the ancient rules.

Faced with Gossel's question, Landolfo shook his head.

Although Gothel is not an official figure in the kingdom, and can even be considered a representative of the lower class in Tyre, he is not the same kind of person as Landolfo after all. The gap between the two is like that between a knight and a gangster.

And those customers are Landolfo's bread and butter, not to mention that quite a few of them are people that Landolfo cannot afford to offend.

Gothel knew the answer from Landolfo's silence. In the current situation, Gothel did not want to show his hostility directly. If he took action now, he might not be able to catch them all in one fell swoop. It would also be troublesome if he could not handle it cleanly.

"All the other kids are in the cellar." Landolfo briefly described the situation of the other children.

Gossel nodded and motioned for Landolf and the others to follow. In the current situation, it was impossible for him to really go to the cellar to check, as doing so would actually be taking unnecessary risks.

Gothel picked up Denise with one hand and held the sword with the other, and left the yard surrounded by Landolf and other human traffickers.

As soon as Landolfo and his companions left the yard, their expressions changed involuntarily. There were too many people welcoming them outside the yard, which made them glad that there was no real conflict between the two sides.

When Landolfo and his companions were rowing away from the coast of Tyre, Gosel, who was still holding Denise, asked Gilles beside him, "Have you arranged everything on the coast?"

"Well, Morris is leading the team. He won't lose anyone. You can trust him on that."

Before arriving at this courtyard, Gossel and Gilles had actually made a judgment that this courtyard was at most the foothold of this group of human traffickers in Tyre, and their real base and hiding place in the Kingdom of Jerusalem should actually be outside the city.

The decisiveness they showed when faced with Gothel's request for them to leave also confirmed the judgment of Gothel and his men - it was precisely because there were not many goods here that they abandoned them without hesitation.

And when those human traffickers packed up their belongings and left the yard, it further confirmed what Gossel and the others had thought. It was obvious that their valuable belongings were kept in their real hiding place.

And it was for this reason that Gothel and Gilles decided to let them go.

"After all, you have to cast a long line to catch a big fish."

Relying on telescopes, we could monitor the enemy in the dark and transmit information efficiently over long distances through flag signals.
Without direct contact with the target group, the team led by Morris found the other party's real hiding place, the manor of a nobleman, just as Gossel and his team had expected.

The situation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was completely different from that of Transjordan. Many systems that had long been implemented in Arnon were now difficult to implement in the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

The kingdom has limited energy, and in the past period of time, it needs to use that energy more effectively.

Although serfs have been granted actual political status, this does not mean that it can be fully implemented. This is a long process.

But now, a group of human traffickers, slave brokers, and human teeth dealers like Landolfo have turned the Paladin's attention back to the remaining land nobles.

Because the matter involved the aristocratic group, Gossel and Gilles came to the palace specifically to inform Isabella of the situation.

"Whose estate is that?"

In the reception room, Isabella asked Gilles directly, there are not many manors around Tyre and there are only a few owners of those manors.

"Jocelyn III, Count of Edessa." Isabella frowned when Gilles answered the name.

The title of Count of Edessa naturally comes from the long-extinct County of Edessa, and the current title of Count of Edessa is actually just an empty title.

But it was indeed the legacy left by Jocelyn II, the last powerful Count of Edessa, to his son Jocelyn III.

The former County of Edessa had a special significance for the Kingdom of Jerusalem. During the Crusades, the County of Edessa was the first Crusader state to be established, and its founder was Baldwin of Boulogne, the brother of Frego of Boulogne, the founder of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the guardian of the Holy Sepulchre, and the first true king of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

As the Crusader state farthest from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Edessa needed the support of the Kingdom of Jerusalem because of its long-term poor relations with Antioch. The two sides often maintained a long and stable kinship relationship.

There were even three kings of the Kingdom of Jerusalem who served as Counts of Edessa.

When this kind of kinship is implemented on Jocelyn III, his sister is Agnes, the ex-wife of the former King Amauri I of Jerusalem, his nephew is the Leper King, and his niece is Sibylla.

Such a close relationship meant that even after he was captured by Sultan Nur ad-Din, the son of the Bloody Zengi, in the battle of 1164, he was freed by the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1176 after paying a ransom of dinars.

This expensive price is already half of the price that King Richard the Lionheart paid for Cyprus in history, which can be said to be half a kingdom.

In 1180, the Leper King and Reynald began to reach some agreements, including Humphrey IV of Toruń handing over part of his estate to the royal family. The reason for this was related to the aristocratic politics within the kingdom at that time and Isabella's engagement.

In these agreements, Jocelyn III obtained part of the manors in Torrhenia as the royal agent, and after that, he continued to expand the number of his manors and fiefdoms by purchasing them with money.

He had fiefs and manors around Acre, and he also had fiefs and manors around Tyre.

Most of these manors and fiefs fell in the subsequent invasion of Saladin, but Jocelyn III still retained some of them.
After leaving Tyre, Landolf went to one of them.

Jocelyn had close ties to the royal family, but more to the Leper King and Sibylla than to Isabella.

Especially when arranging the engagement, Jocelyn was quite enthusiastic.

Even in the list of opposition members submitted by Iraklio to Gellis, Jocelyn was the one who jumped up and down the most.

At the opposition meeting, he openly called for Guy's soul and wanted to oppose the reform.

You know, because of personal interests, Jocelyn was actually hostile to Guy in the old Kingdom of Jerusalem, but now he is flying Guy's banner.

When annoying people and annoying things get together, Isabella becomes very unhappy. In front of acquaintances like Gossel and Gilles, Isabella doesn't even bother to pretend.

"Humphrey is still close to Jocelyn, right?" Isabella asked.

"It's not just Humphrey. In fact, it should be said that Jocelyn has close relations with almost all the landless nobles." Gilles added.

Where there are people, there are factions. The noble group seems to be united, but there are also many factions. Not to mention the noble factions during the Kingdom of Jerusalem, there are as many as three noble factions in the current New Jerusalem Kingdom.

First of all, there are the princes of Tripoli. As vassals of the original County of Tripoli, they enjoy a transcendent status in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Although the nobles have been repeatedly conscripted to serve in excess of their terms in the past two years, their core interests have never been harmed.

Although they were dissatisfied with some of the movements of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, they were shocked by the fate of the Antiochian nobles. Coupled with the threat from Saladin, they were generally more obedient.

The other faction was more of a political alliance than a faction. It was an alliance of royal nobles of the Kingdom of Jerusalem with Isabella as the core. The important figures in the alliance were Balian and Conrad. The two of them were the backbone of the alliance.

These two people, together with some other scattered nobles, actually constitute the main body of the Senate of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Apart from these two rows, there were the landless nobles of the former Kingdom of Jerusalem, who united around Iraklius.

The core demand of their faction is nothing more than to become the lord again, and if possible, to restore the current Kingdom of Jerusalem to its original state.

[Those who were once wealthy want to go back to the old days, those who are currently wealthy want to maintain the status quo, and those who are not yet wealthy want revolution; it was so in the past, it is so now, and it will always be so.]

The landless nobles were the ones who were once wealthy, while the Tripoli nobles and the Lords were the ones who were becoming wealthy.

"How about Landolfo? Can we surround Jocelyn's estate?"

Gilles asked Isabella that the problem involved nobility, so he would have to refer to Isabella's advice.

"Jocelyn is now in the south, and the related nobles are scattered all over the place. If it is confirmed that the manor is the hiding place of the human traffickers, I allow you to surround it and detain the relevant personnel." Isabella made a decision.

Jocelyn was a proper nobleman and a member of the House of Lords. While he enjoyed the privileges of aristocracy, he also had feudal obligations, such as paying taxes and obeying conscription.

Simply put, Jocelyn is currently serving feudal military service under Garys.

"But if this involves other nobles who have lost their land, how should we deal with them?"

"If they're not serving on the front lines, they're not nobles anymore."

Isabella expressed her attitude and characterized the matter.

Previously, when Iraklius was in power, he had actually announced that only after three years of military service could one restore his noble status.

To this day, there are still people who are hoping to get away with it by cheating.

Now, it's time to take action against them.

The establishment of the Second Kingdom was not a violent, radical reform, nor was it an uprising in which one class overthrew another.

Therefore, in order to maintain its own legitimate legal system, it has never chopped off the heads of nobles in a blatant manner.

But now, it's almost time.

(End of this chapter)