Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 310 Nomadic
The word "nomadic" can actually refer to two lifestyles: one is to live by following water and grass, and the other is to live in a seasonal fixed pasture.

For the former, private land ownership is almost incomprehensible, while the latter has been able to subdivide the ownership of grasslands in repeated conflicts.

"Fixed pasture" refers to a specific piece of land within a certain geographical area that herders consciously designate and use as a long-term grazing area based on seasonal and pasture conditions.

Compared to a completely nomadic lifestyle, fixed pastures mean having a relatively stable, regularly used piece of land on which herders will rely for a long time to feed their livestock.

Of course, the two are not strictly opposite, nor are they unconvertible.

After fixed pastures were divided, nomads actually began to shift to a semi-settled state, and they could concentrate in fixed places for certain periods of time every year.

Such a semi-settled life does not weaken the herders' strength.

On the contrary, it will make the family units of the tribe more stable, which will bring stronger family dependence and collective consciousness.

It is also a harbinger of another glorious era for nomads.

Arsalan was an intelligent man, but due to the limitations of his education, he could not use beautiful words like poetry to describe the hardships of herding life.

He couldn't describe the struggle he had with the heavens, the earth, nature, drought and the scorching heat. He only knew that people like him had developed a "highly resilient character".

If we say that in the Middle Ages, farming villages were scattered across the land, they were the bright stars in the night sky, the isolated islands far away in the ocean, and the rare oases in the desert.

But at least the farmers stick together. They may be surrounded by wilderness, but they rarely step out of their familiar "civilization".

And what about the herders?

In this vast world, most of the time, the people of a tribe live in families, scattered across a wilderness of hundreds of kilometers.

Their felt tents are like migratory birds wandering across the wilderness, chasing the alternating cycles of withering and lush grasslands.

The white plague devoured the entire pasture, and they had to cut open the veins of the mares and sip the warm blood.

The cold wind cut through the valley, and they huddled together in the tent, listening to the howling of wolves all night long.

When the scorching sun burns the earth, they squeeze the last drop of milk from the cattle and sheep to resist the hunger and thirst brought by the scorching sun.

Three or five people, seven or eight horses, a dozen cows, hundreds of sheep...that's all they have in their world. Most of the time, they can't even see their own kind.

Therefore, they are particularly hospitable because the guests bring news from afar, telling them that the real world is far more than just cattle and sheep.

They are like a small boat drifting on the sea. It can be said that the wildness of the world and the cruelty of the grassland are always revealed directly and polish their character.

Settling down and farming gave them another possibility of life.

Although Anatolia has cold winters due to its plateau terrain, it at least has rainfall.

After Arsalan's tribe came to Anatolia, they not only settled here, but also began to cultivate fields and established fixed settlements.

There seems to be a new option for future life, and we no longer have to fight alone in this lonely world.

When Yusuf's caravan, led by Arsalan, entered the settlement, many of the herdsmen who remained in the settlement showed expressions of surprise.

It is not autumn yet, and most people in the tribe are still grazing on the pastures allocated to their families.

There is not much output here, and there are usually no caravans passing by here deliberately during the summer.

And since the leader was Arsalan, everyone was even more confused.

After all, not long ago, the Sudanese recruited soldiers and twenty young men from their tribe applied, but how come he came back after just a few days?

Some people came up to him enthusiastically to inquire about the situation, but Arsalan evaded the question for a few sentences and did not tell the truth, which was what Gairis had instructed him to do before.

After pushing aside some acquaintances, he came to a dilapidated wooden house, pushed it open with force and shouted loudly:
"Mom! There are guests!"

There were footsteps in the house, and then a trembling voice came from the shadows: "Arslan?"

There was a hint of surprise and worry in his voice.

As the owner of the voice walked out of the shadows, she was an old woman with cracked and wrinkled skin, holding an unwiped wooden spoon in her hand.

There was some hesitation in her eyes. After all, it was not right for him to come back so soon.

"Arsalan... why did you come back? Didn't you say... you wanted to..."

Before she finished her words, Arslan walked over and hugged his mother tightly.

"Something happened. Anyway, I'm not going."

Arsalan's mother naturally did not ask too many questions. After showing some concern, she turned her attention to Yusuf's caravan.

She couldn't help but whispered, "Arslan, what did you say just now? Guests? Who are the guests?"

Arsalan paused and hesitated after hearing this: "Some people from the caravan, they... they encountered some troubles before, and they need to stop by our place to rest for a while."

What he didn't say was that he was actually the one in trouble, and even the horse he rode was hit and killed by Garys.

"Trouble? What kind of trouble is it?" Her tone became more urgent.

Arslan let go of her, turned around and pointed outside the house: "Let's not talk about that for now. The guests need to rest, I'm afraid they are hungry."

Then he took a deep breath and said, "I'll tell you."

The old woman looked at her son's tense back, sighed hesitantly, and finally did not ask any more questions.

On the other side, Gailis helped Yusuf unload the goods.

Although it is not autumn yet, since a caravan has entered the settlement, many people will come up and inquire about the goods if there is no hostility.

Most of the goods on Yusuf's camel were valuable items.

Soap, Damascus steel knives, silk...

But there are also some things that nomads would be interested in, such as: iron pots, needles and thread, and liquor.

These things are actually not very valuable, and transporting them in long-distance international trade is quite disadvantageous.

The reason why Yusuf prepared these goods was to establish good relations with the Turkic tribes he met along the way. After all, in many cases, being kind to others is also a cost.

If the valuable goods aroused the greed of the herdsmen, without Garys, there was no telling what kind of accidents would happen. Prepare some handicrafts that the herdsmen can use and show a gesture of long-term cooperation. Most semi-settled tribes would not easily kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

These pastoral tribes that have already established their own settlements have to maintain some dignity. If they ruin their reputation, no caravans will come to trade with them in the future, and they will not be able to easily obtain scarce handicrafts. In the long run, they will be the ones who suffer.

Although the initially settled Turkic people began to have some handicraft production capabilities of their own, it would not be until every tribe had a blacksmith in the short term.

Moreover, most of the time, the iron tools they forged were not complex or large. They were mainly arrowheads and spearheads, and a few were swords to meet the needs of war.

Iron pots, which are relatively complex and take up a lot of space, are not given a very high priority.

Things like iron pots and iron needles were naturally relatively scarce and had to be purchased from settled societies or caravans.

For herders, strong liquor is something they cannot refuse.

The long-term pastoral life and the process of survival in the wilderness will cause physical injuries and joint edema due to various fatigues... which will torture everyone indiscriminately.

Even in the 21st century, many herders still need to take painkillers to sleep peacefully at night.

In this era, herders can only rely on alcohol to soothe their spiritual emptiness and physical pain.

It can be said that the arrival of Yusuf's caravan made the Turkic people in this settlement so excited that it was like a festival.

After inquiring about the approximate population size of the tribe, Yusuf immediately announced that he would stay here for a longer period of time so that the surrounding grazing tribesmen could come here to trade.

Many people nearby took the wine bag handed over by Yusuf, took a sip, and cheered one after another.

Then they all dispersed, either spending the whole day on horseback visiting every household to inform them, or going to take care of the fields.

Life is life. The Turks, who seem extremely hateful and vicious to the peasants, do not live in the air and rely solely on looting for a living.

They are real people, not NPCs that appear on the roadside. They have their own lives, their own predicaments, and their own helplessness.

Nomads might have been encouraged to be belligerent, using the mobility of their horses to offset the numbers of farmers.

But after all, we are mortals, born by our parents, and we are sentient beings...

Garys naturally would not pity those who died in the looting, but he wanted to change their lifestyles, so that they could sing and dance instead of killing people with knives.

This way, it will be better for both parties.

But before changing, more understanding is needed rather than judgment.

Therefore, he said nothing and did not declare his identity. He just mixed in the caravan, silently observing and recording, and also helped Yusuf to build a caravan camp next to this settlement.

……

As night fell, Yusuf had finished a busy day's work and was out of breath, while Gairis beside him looked very pleased with himself.

After so many days of getting along, Youssef has become accustomed to communicating normally with Gairis.

After all, Gairis is not a man who likes to put on airs. His approachable manner often makes Yusuf forget his identity and regard Gairis only as his elder.

Garys was also happy to see this happen and would chat with Yusuf from time to time.

Under the full moon, after Yusuf finished his work, Gairis sat down next to him and said, "I may not go to Georgia for a while."

"Ah?" Yusuf didn't quite understand what was going on.

"I'm going to stay here for a while. As for you, don't go any further north. After all, if I'm not here, if you get caught up in a war, your life or death may be in jeopardy."

"If possible, after selling a batch of goods here, you should go back as soon as possible. By the way, please inform Antioch that I am fine and ask them to send some people from Cyprus, mainly Paladin."

Yusuf naturally took note of it carefully. After Gairis finished speaking, he asked, "Sir, do you have any reason? Why do you suddenly not plan to go to Georgia?"

After thinking for a while, Gailis said directly without hiding anything: "My original plan was to use the power of Georgia to directly revive Rome on the land of Anatolia."

"But thinking about it these days, maybe that was a bit too harsh? It's not enough to solve Anatolia's plight."

“Maybe there is another way?”

"I have seen the future and know many things that you don't know, but I am not Allah, who can truly know everything, so I need to understand and think."

"Arsalan, their tribe is now at a crossroads of change. I want to stay here to witness it, to give it a push, and to show other Turkic people a future."

Listening to what Garys said, Yusuf naturally nodded repeatedly.

After chatting for a while under the moon, just like when he met Uncle Yusuf, he couldn't help but say a few more words.

"I have seen the future, and I know that in the future there will be a nomadic empire the likes of which has never been seen before in history."

"That empire stretched ten thousand miles from east to west, ruling over Asia between the oceans."

"The Golden Family drove the herdsmen to fight all over the world and enrich the world, but what did the herdsmen get?"

"Indeed, some people climbed up, but many more were reduced to corpses."

"Boys aged thirteen or fourteen were conscripted in the land of Peach Blossom Stone. It took them three years to arrive at the land under our feet. By then, they had just reached adulthood and had gotten used to life in the army. Then they could draw their swords and kill people."

"They fought for Temujin, and their descendants became slaves for Temujin's descendants."

"They watched the nobles wearing gold and silver, while they themselves had to suffer from hunger and cold in the bitter cold."

“Is this a good future?”

Under the command of Genghis Khan's descendants, the Mongols slaughtered millions of people. After decades of fighting, the Mongols themselves lost hundreds of thousands of people.

And then what did you get in return?
It brought prosperity to the Golden Family and abnormal wealth to the grassland.

For the Mongolian people, they are burdened with a heavy burden and are unable to suppress their immersion in past successes.

Faced with the dissatisfaction of the Mongolian nobles, Kublai Khan's solution was quite simple. He directly led the Han people to suppress Mongolia.

All I can say is, use it to the fullest when it is needed, and throw it aside and wait for it to die when it is not needed.

Is this a good future?
Garys felt bad, so he wanted to change.

(End of this chapter)