Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 322 Dirty Deal

The words "parliament" and "member of parliament" are somewhat new to David, but they are actually not unfamiliar to him.

The nobility has its own parliament, the church has its own parliament, and the cities have their own parliaments.

These parliaments represent the collective power of a class and are representatives of all levels of the country.

But how are these members of parliament chosen?

The parliament of the nobility is hereditary, derived from their blood and ancient traditions, and is the continuation of the state's rule.

The church council is essentially a union of bishops, and the birth of bishops does not depend on elections, but there are always various reasons.

As for the city council, taking Venice as an example, the birth of a councillor requires an extremely complicated process, but in the end he is not elected by the citizens, but nominated by the original council.

In a sense, popular elections are a novel concept compared to members of parliament.

Because for the vast majority of countries in this era, they do not have the concept of sovereignty of the people.

Of course, this does not mean that sovereignty lies with the monarch. In this ignorant and barbaric age, many concepts are not absolute.

Many times, we just vaguely follow the traditions of the past, and then people today make some modifications for various reasons.

Therefore, for David, there is nothing wrong in weakening the power of foreign monarchs. It would be more appropriate to use the power of representatives of various ethnic groups to help his country gain benefits.

Of course, it was far more than that. David also tried to hope that the newly established country could pay compensation directly to Georgia to make up for the huge amount of gold coins spent on this war.

You know, Georgia mobilized tens of thousands of people to participate in the war this time. Even if a large amount of supplies came from the enemy country, for Georgia, just the large amount of money rewarded to the nobles and soldiers could be said to be a serious blow.

If the reward is delayed, it will be detrimental to Tamara's rule.

After hearing what David said, Gairis thought for a moment and replied: "It is inappropriate for this Bey State, which was separated from the Sultanate, to pay compensation directly to Georgia."

"After all, whether it is Aladdin Bey or those Turkic tribes, they are all on our side. As the victors, if they still want to pay compensation to Georgia, it will undoubtedly provoke resistance from the locals."

Before David could express his dissatisfaction, Gaillis continued:

"But I think, Aladdin Bey, he needs to show us his gratitude. After all, it was us who saved him from certain death."

"Three hundred pounds of gold would be a more appropriate reward for this token of gratitude."

This price is obviously not much, but it is Garys's estimate of Aladdin's personal existing funds. In other words, it is the maximum amount that Aladdin Bey can come up with without plundering the people in the city.

These three hundred pounds of gold may seem like a lot, but David's face darkened. After all, he had so many people under his command, and it was just a small amount of money to feed beggars, right?

"Of course, it's not just that. After the establishment of the new country, I think the troops directly under Aladdin Bey should be abolished. Otherwise, it will be detrimental to the independence of the Turkic Parliament or the Grand Council."

"At the same time, in order to deal with the military threat from the Sultanate of Roma, this country does need standing troops for national defense."

"For this reason, I think it is necessary for Georgia to accept the invitation of the Bey State and send a force of about 3,000 people to be stationed here to assist the Bey State in completing its national defense work."

"Obviously, all expenses for this 3,000-man army should be borne by the Bey State."

David was certainly not a fool, and he somewhat understood the meaning of Garys's action.

It would be difficult for a country where power is dominated by parliament to directly impose large amounts of compensation on vassal states or allies.

It is almost inevitable once the country's internal conflicts are intensified.

Then the ruler of this country will directly tell the people that the reason they have to pay so much extra tax is because there is a suzerain country collecting tribute there.

In other words, due to the collection of indemnities or tributes, the internal conflicts of the Bey State would be directly transferred to the suzerain state.

If Georgia showed some signs of weakness, the rulers of the Bey State could easily break free from the shackles of the suzerain state by leveraging the anger and power of its ordinary people.

But if the money is withdrawn in the form of military expenditure, it will be relatively easy for the residents of the Bayi State to accept.

After all, this is "protection money", and it also exempts a considerable number of people in the Bey State from military service, and does not directly increase the living burden of the residents of the Bey State.

For Georgia, the benefits are actually even greater.

One is to use foreign taxes to support the country's military and reduce the pressure on domestic military spending.

Second, with troops stationed in Erzurum, the political situation there can be more directly influenced.

Even more than that, Gailis continued, "Of course, as a common ally of Jerusalem and Georgia, the Bey State also needs to fulfill its own military obligations."

"In addition to the 3,000 Georgian garrisons, the Bey State needs to build its own new army. To this end, it should pay Jerusalem for instructors and hire military instructors to provide guidance, thereby rebuilding an army that does not obey the original Aladdin Bey."

"Then, I think the weapons and armor made in Erzurum are obviously not keeping up with the times. In order to deal with the counterattack of the Sultanate of Rum, the soldiers of the Bey State have the right to use the best weapons, which means purchasing weapons from Jerusalem or Georgia."

When David heard this, he felt a little dizzy, and then realized that his original attempt to collect tribute from the Bey Kingdom was too rough.

Apart from collecting more money, there is no benefit for Georgia.

After Garys' combined attack, the Kingdom of Beyi was only a Kingdom of Beyi in name only.

This not only requires using the Bey's military funds to support Georgia's standing army, but also requires the Bey to pay to establish a new army influenced by Jerusalem, and to repeatedly earn this money by exporting arms.

It is under the dual control of Georgia and Jerusalem in terms of military, the Turkic Parliament has a monopoly on politics, and the Grand Council is responsible for the economy.

Is there any need for Aladdin Bey to exist?
If you think about it carefully, maybe in the future, even stamping might be done by a dedicated secretary on behalf of Aladdin Bey.

If Aladdin Bey wanted to oppose any decision, he might be asked, "Sir, why are you rebelling?"

But so what?

Not only did David not care, he was actually happy to see it happen.

After all, for feudal rulers, any agreement can be easily abandoned. Only more solid control can ensure that the Bey State can become a barrier for Georgia to block the Rum Sultanate.

Of course, this was not entirely without gain for Jerusalem.

However, due to the competition between Jerusalem and Egypt, it was not advisable to withdraw troops to the north.

But Gairis obtained the power to send instructors reasonably, which was enough for Jerusalem to convey Gairis' ideas in the new army of the Bey State.

The transformation of the Bey State will penetrate into every aspect of the country.

It can be said that David Soslan got the present, while Gairis planned to grasp the future. In this way, Gairis and David reached a preliminary consensus under the watchful eyes of Rum Sultan Suleiman II.

When Garys left the military tent, he left the head behind and gave it to David as a gift.

……

The autumn rain stopped and the morning mist dissipated with the arrival of dawn.

After this night of bloody fighting, Osman felt as if he were in another world.

There are only a few hundred people on their side, so it would be fine for them to attack at night and create panic, but once they get into a situation where they are exhausting each other, they will undoubtedly be defeated.

If Gairis had not taken the Sultan's head and sent it to various military camps in Erzurum in time, the enemy's counterattack would never have stopped so quickly.

After all, the Sultan is dead, so is there any need for these soldiers to resist?
They are fighting desperately, is there anyone who can reward them for their bravery?
If they can't get the reward and the other party is willing to let them live, what reason do they have to resist?
In a feudal era that emphasized personal dependence, this was often the case.

The army did not know why it was fighting, the concept of the country was illusory, and only the specific feudal lord was real.

Once the feudal lord is unable to allocate resources to the army, then there is no need for the feudal lord himself to exist.

The Ottoman troops were slightly different.

On the one hand, they are actually gathered together out of fear and suspicion, and have reasons to resist.

The other thing is that Gillis showed them the future.

Not only can you go to heaven after death, but you can also control the country after the success.

Therefore, the side that must win will fight to the death even if they are outnumbered.

The side with larger numbers surrendered easily because they could not find a reason to fight.

All of this is incomprehensible to ordinary people.

But Gillis could see through it.

This made Osman and others unconsciously respect Gairis even more.

Just as Osman and his soldiers were cleaning up the bodies scattered around in the chaos last night, the man in the robe returned alone from outside the city.

The light of morning dawn formed a halo behind him, and brightness became his embellishment.

When he passed through the crowd of soldiers, those who followed him to fight could not help but lower their heads to show their respect.

After Gellis came to Osman, he patted him on the shoulder but didn't say much.

Nowadays, the situation in Erzurum is almost the same.

……

There are a total of five patriarchates in the Christian world dating back to the Roman Empire era, namely Jerusalem, Rome, Antioch, Constantinople and Alexandria.

These five patriarchates were the seats of the five patriarchs during the Roman Empire, but with the decline of the Roman Empire and the rise of pagan forces, Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch were successively captured by non-Christian countries.

Now, with the rise of the Crusades, Antioch, Jerusalem, and even Alexandria have returned to the Christian world.

Putting aside the fact that the Kingdom of Jerusalem has become the biggest heresy of Catholicism, the Christian world today can be said to have restored its heyday.

Throughout the Mediterranean region, Christianity has an absolute advantage over Islam.

But for Catholics, this is hard to say.

Without Islam as an external enemy, the sectarian struggles within Christianity, under the influence of Gairis, came to a fateful crossroads.

Egypt was in the midst of a Cold War, and Constantine was also besieged by the Crusaders.

Perhaps only Antioch is relatively stable now.

The city of Antioch may still be prosperous today, but it is far from what it was in the most prosperous period in history.

This ancient city, founded in the 4th century BC during the Seleucid Empire, had a population of only tens of thousands by the time of the Crusades.

If it weren't for Gellis leading the army to reconquer Antioch and incorporate it into the Jerusalem system, the economy here might have been even more depressed.

At the beginning, in addition to Gailis, there was another person who had a profound influence on Antioch, and that person was actually Lance.

Reims had served as governor of Antioch since its establishment.

Compared to other areas influenced by Gellis, Reims showed a rather strong attitude.

Using the assassination of Gellis as an excuse, Reims forcibly cleared out almost all the lords in the Antioch region.

Tried to establish a bureaucratic system in which the Governor's Office directly managed the local areas.

In response, Gillis expressed tacit approval.

In fact, Garys did not interfere too much with many specific technical details. Most of the time, he was willing to respect the choices of people of this era.

After all, what the future will be like is not for Garys to decide alone.

The behavior of the Governor of Antioch could actually be used as a pilot project.

As for the results, Lance's behavior has both advantages and disadvantages.

Due to the lack of bureaucrats to manage the local areas, the Governor's Office for a long time lacked the ability to govern except for the ability to recruit soldiers. It was difficult to convey orders to the grassroots, and it was not enough to organize the construction of water conservancy projects.

Even in terms of finance, for quite a long time, payment transfers had to be made from the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

However, with the opening of schools throughout the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the graduation of large numbers of students over the past decade, the situation in Antioch began to gradually improve.

Economic development has also entered the fast lane.

When Yusuf arrived in Antioch with Gairis' letter, the city was also holding an autumn harvest celebration.

The faces of the people are filled with happiness and health that are different from those of the Anatolians.

(End of this chapter)