Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 311 Farming
After listening to Gellis's advice, Yusuf chose to leave Anatolia and return directly along the same route after selling a batch of goods.

However, what surprised Gailis was that before Yusuf left, he handed over all the goods that he had not sold, including some camels, to him.

"Sir, I have learned a lot from you these days, and you have been taking care of the family business. Moreover, if it were not for you, I would have died in the earthquake or been captured by the Turks."

"There's nothing I can do to help you, but when I think about your plan to build a career in the Roman land, you'll need money anyway."

Garys frowned and wanted to refuse again.

But Yusuf emphasized, "Sir, Anatolia is in chaos right now. If I carry so many valuable goods with me, it will be easy for people to have bad intentions. It will be easier for me to return to Antioch safely if I travel light."

As he said this, Yusuf asked someone to take out a box from his camel and handed it to Gairis.

At the same time, Yusuf's face showed a look of reluctance.

After opening the box, Gailis naturally understood why the other party did that.

The box contained some medicines, some of which were very valuable, so valuable that the kingdom had to impose heavy taxes on them. They were considered miracle drugs in that era.

And Yusuf was willing to give it directly to Gairis, which was enough to show the other party's sincerity.

Faced with this situation, Gailis did not continue to refuse. Instead, he asked Yusuf to get paper and pen, wrote a few letters and asked the other party to pass them on.

After noticing the recipients of the letters, Yusuf was quite surprised, and then realized that this was all his chance.

After all, whether it was Isabella or Archos... these names were all well-known in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and they were big figures that he had never been able to meet in the past.

Only his uncle could talk to him from time to time.

It was not a humiliation for Garys to ask him to deliver the letter. Instead, it was his honor and his luck.

When Yusuf left with the remaining camels and other members of the caravan, Gailis felt a little lost.

For him, this is all a new beginning.

Of course it was different from before, when Gillis was in a desperate situation and had no choice.

And now, he knows that in the distance, there is this country waiting for him to return, and there is a family there.

Thinking of the fact that his daughter was ignored by others, he couldn't help but put on a smile, hoping that when the other party received his reply, there would be little pearls hanging in the corners of his eyes.

……

The Yuktu tribe, the name of an unknown small tribe, has somehow survived to this day as nomads continued to migrate westward.

The long-term displacement, coupled with the excellent agricultural conditions in the Anatolia region, prompted the Yuktu tribe to choose to shift to a semi-settled state.

The area within a radius of dozens of kilometers here is their territory, which was rewarded to them by the Sultan of Rum.

Of course, this area of ​​dozens of kilometers does not mean that they are the lords of this land, but only means that they have the right to graze.

This was to avoid conflicts between them and other Turkic tribes.

In addition, there are pastures in the south where they spend the winter.

Unlike the Mediterranean climate in the Levant region, which has rainy winters, the hinterland of the Anatolia region, where the Yuktu tribe is located, actually has a temperate continental climate, similar to that of northwest China, with more rainfall in summer and less rainfall in winter.

But in terms of rainfall, the rainfall in the Anatolia region is actually roughly close to that in Hebei, China, and in the marginal areas it can reach the level of Shandong.

Therefore, whether it is grazing or farming, it is a good choice.

Of course, due to the rainfall issue, they need to distinguish between winter and summer pastures.

The place where Arsalan and his companions are now is closer to the north and close to the summer pasture, but it is not a real summer pasture.

The Turks who stayed in this settlement mainly took care of the fields and raised a few sheep, which were not many in number.

Except for the fact that twenty young men from their tribe responded to the Sultan's call for troops some time ago, there was nothing worth worrying about on weekdays.

However, not long ago, Arsalan suddenly came back alone and brought a caravan with him, which made everyone in the tribe happy for a long time.

Unlike the relatively stable agricultural society, the economic structure of the Turkic tribes has long relied on nomadism and animal husbandry, and they have relatively little experience in participating in market transactions.

In fact, most tribes are not familiar with economic activities such as the circulation, price, and exchange of agricultural products, and are not familiar enough with the surrounding merchants. When they go to buy things, who knows how much they will be ripped off.

This problem, of course, was not unique to the Anatolians of this era. It was also repeatedly encountered on the Mongolian Plateau in later generations.

This time, Yusuf's caravan came to sell the goods at such a low price that many people in the tribe felt embarrassed. They even raised the price on their own initiative, hoping that Yusuf would make some profit and hope that he would come again next year.

After that, another relatively less noteworthy but very strange thing was that there was a man in Yusuf's caravan who was willing to stay and run a "shop" here.

Shop? What is this?
As a Turkic nomadic tribe that had just begun to become semi-settled, their usual economic activities mainly revolved around animal husbandry and the exchange of materials with caravans and other nomads.

In the past, it was mostly after the autumn harvest and before winter that merchants and caravans brought goods from cities and other areas to hold markets here, and only on an annual or quarterly basis would there be some sporadic transactions.

These bazaars are usually not fixed shops, but mobile trading sites, similar to temporary markets, and it can be said that the concept of shop is not important.

But after the nomads understood that the store was selling supplies here for a long time, they all expressed their joy.

After all, this means that many families who are short of money to buy supplies at the moment, even if they miss Yusuf's caravan, can still buy needles and thread, iron pots, etc. in the future.

Of course, due to the pitiful trading volume of the Yuktu tribe.

Although Garys has set up a small shop here, he basically doesn't stay in the shop as the boss.

If you want to buy something from him, you can either go there in the evening or make an appointment in advance.

During the day, he was elusive. If a customer wanted to find him, he would be closed eight out of ten times.

After Gailis had gotten a good understanding of the surrounding geography, he found the elders of the tribe and asked if he could buy a piece of land to grow some vegetables.

When the elders of the tribe heard about the land purchase, they were confused for a moment, and it took them a while to react.

For them, the concept of private land ownership at this stage was not yet clear. Although there was a division of pastures, pastures and farmland were two different things and could not be lumped together.

After thinking for a while, the elders gathered together the people who remained in the settlement. After a not-too-troublesome discussion, these people agreed to give Gellis a piece of land for him to cultivate.

But the condition is that when Garys farms, he also needs to teach the young people in their tribe.

On a July afternoon, the sun scorched the undulating loess hills, and the scattered wheat fields not far away rolled green waves in the dry and hot wind.

Wearing the straw sandals he had woven himself, Garys stood firmly on his own farmland, swinging the hoe without much effort. The iron hoe was not heavy, but with the wooden pole, it weighed at least 6 to 7 pounds, much heavier than a long sword.

However, such a heavy hoe seemed as light as a feather when wielded by Garys.

When it smashed into the soil, it was so powerful that it seemed to be breaking the earth.

Each time he struck, he went very deep into the ground.

Arsalan on the side was stunned. It was true that it took him three or five swings to dig out the mud, but for Gairis it was just a matter of one second.

This morning, after just a short while of plowing the soil together, Garys had already opened up two acres of land.

Even those oxen are not as capable as Garys!
Faced with the gap between the two sides, Arsalan not only did not give up, but instead increased his efforts and started to dig.

However, this increased intensity made him out of breath soon after, and the gap between him and Garys not only did not narrow, but widened.

"Pay attention to your breathing, pay attention to your breathing, empty your mind, don't think too much."

Seeing Arsalan's actions, Gailis couldn't help but give him a few more words of advice.

Although Arsalan made some adjustments, they were of little use. After all, he had only been farming for a few days and had never suffered such hardship before.

When he was really too tired, Gailis stopped hoeing the ground and took him to sit aside to drink water.

"In the end, you're the only one left."

Arsalan on the side said nothing and just sighed.

"Is there something wrong with this hoe?"

Garys required that the land must be plowed to at least the depth of a vertical palm. For a barren mountain, this depth of plowing was enough to give every young man blisters on the first day.

Even the young people who once claimed to have farmed the land found a random excuse to stop participating in Garys’ farm work after three days of intensive land cultivation.

Only Arslan has persisted until now.

Of course, having held on until now, Arsalan also realized that something was wrong with the hoe in his hand.

You know, the quality of iron farm tools these days is actually quite poor. Once they are damaged, it is difficult to find a blacksmith, which delays farm work.

And he also has the hoe in Garys's hand. After several days of intensive use, the hoe is still sharp enough to cut through ordinary leather armor.

A few days ago, after Gellis acquired the land, he brought a few young people in the settlement to cultivate the land.

At the beginning, everyone was very excited. After all, Garys took the initiative to take out a few iron hoes from the store for everyone to use.

Iron hoes are very important these days. Compared with wooden hoes, they are naturally lighter.

Moreover, the hoe that Garys took out was not an ordinary iron hoe, but a farm tool made of sandwich steel.

In the world of farm tools, this can be regarded as a treasure passed down from generation to generation. After all, his hoe is not only light, but also has a hardness and sharpness that the young people have never seen before. It is sharper and tougher than the spears or daggers in their homes.

When it hits a person's head, it may be no different from a war hammer.

Fearing that the young people might become greedy, Gailis never mentioned the truth and just taught them how to hoe the fields.

But even with the newfangled farm tools, everyone was exhausted by Garys's demands for land reclamation.

Now, only Arslan is left, and he can still sit here and chat with Gairis and discuss the farm tools in their hands.

Faced with Arsalan's proactive questioning, Gairis did not hide anything. After all, Arsalan's persistence until now was considered to have won his recognition.

Then with just one sentence, he made Arsalan doubt his life.

"This hoe is made of steel..."

After Arsalan understood the process of farm tool production, he couldn't help but feel awe.

At the beginning in Transjordan, Marwan made sandwich steel farm tools at his suggestion.

However, at that time, due to the limitations of production technology, material costs, and even labor issues, Marwan turned to the production of juice pouring tools.

That is to pour pig iron on wrought iron tires to increase the sharpness of agricultural tools.

The sickle produced with that kind of technology can be used to cut wheat very efficiently.

However, although the wrought iron body improves the toughness of the farm tool, after the cast iron part is worn away, it will become less and less convenient to use.

It would be more troublesome if it were used to make a hoe.

Sandwich steel farm tools do not have this problem. Since the inner layer is steel, it is extremely sharp after polishing and is much more durable than wrought iron.

The wrought iron provides a certain degree of protection, allowing the thin steel sheet in the middle to be used for a long time.

"...You know, this is farming. What your tribe did before, you just found a place, turned the soil, planted seeds, and waited for the harvest in autumn. How can that be called farming?"

"Of course, there's more to it than that. If your tribe really wants to farm, there are still things to learn!"

Faced with Garys' words, Arslan chose to remain silent.

The Turkic tribes had long been accustomed to the natural replacement of grassland resources, and when faced with changes in land and climate, they could migrate to more suitable places.

But after settling down, they had to face many problems.

Some were natural disasters, some were man-made disasters, all of which they had never considered before.

Natural disasters such as drought, floods or frost can cause crop failures.

Overcultivation of the land, poor soil quality and improper seed selection make it difficult for them to grow enough food.

If it were not for their current main business, which is still herding, they would have faced an even more severe food crisis long ago.

"Come to think of it, Arslan, don't you dislike farming?"

Garys asked. In his memory, when Arsalan mentioned farming before, he looked somewhat unhappy.

(End of this chapter)