Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 33 Alhadi Town

Chain mail was a fairly common armor in the early and middle ages. It was a type of armor woven with a large number of small metal rings. It was designed to provide protection against slashing and stabbing while maintaining a certain degree of flexibility, allowing the wearer to move freely in combat.

The chain mail worn by cavalry is usually significantly heavier than that worn by infantry.

Even though it was much lighter than cavalry chain mail, the armor worn by these recruits still weighed 20 to 30 pounds, or about 10 to 15 kilograms.

Even if there were seven people carrying five sets, it would be enough to tire them out.

In Simon's eyes, the only one who performed well among the seven was Russell, the second son of the Cardoso family.

Under the sunlight, compared to the other six people who shared four sets of armor, they were already out of breath, unable to hold their weapons, and their steps were getting slower and slower.

Although Russell was also sweating profusely, at least he was able to carry a full set of armor, a helmet and weapons, and march with the team.

His entire outfit weighed at least 40 pounds, twice as much as his comrades around him.

After Simon showed Russell a look of approval, he immediately shouted, "Lift your legs! Lift your legs! I've told you so many times to take big steps when marching! Use your thighs! Use your thighs!"

The calf muscles are obviously not as strong as the thigh muscles, but most people, due to fatigue, will gradually rely on the calf muscles to exert force during walking, and then their steps will become smaller and smaller, until they end up dragging their legs and crawling forward.

If you want to march long distances, you must increase your pace and get used to marching at long steps. This will help you avoid premature fatigue of your leg muscles, or maintain a certain marching speed even when you are extremely tired.

But theory is theory, and practice is practice. When people are extremely tired, there are very few people who can use their willpower to force themselves to maintain the standard marching pace. They are the real elite.

Even most of the knights could not maintain their passion during a long-distance march, let alone these new recruits.

Just when the one at the end of the team was almost unable to move and was about to fall behind, Garys and his group finally stopped.

This is not to say that it is time to rest, but their destination is not far away.

Looking from afar, the sun scorched the earth and the heat waves distorted the vision. The town of Alhadi was like a small stone lost in the desert, hidden in the vast wilderness and not conspicuous.

Compared to the Monterey village where we stayed before, this town is actually not very big, and may even be smaller.

It has only one street, which is like a thin ribbon winding across the land.

But even so, this is still a small town, not a village.

After all, the Muslim town of Al-Hadi is located on the trade route from Mecca to Jerusalem. Although this trade route has become depressed in recent years because of Reynald, there are still caravans or pilgrims stopping here.

Farmers from nearby villages also often need to come to this town to sell their agricultural products and purchase many daily necessities.

Compared to villages that mainly rely on agricultural production, Alhadi Town relies on handicrafts and commerce to maintain its existence.

It can be said that size is not the key factor in distinguishing a town from a village. What matters is what industry the residents rely on to survive.

However, before heading to Alhadi Town, Garys and his group, led by Russell from Monterey Village, took another fork in the road instead of heading directly to Alhadi Town. This was an open space in the shade of the sun, where everyone rested first, took out dry food and water, had a full meal, and recovered their strength.

During this time, Garys took Russell and used branches to draw a map of the surrounding area on the ground. He used a line to represent the nearby town of Alhadi. Then, after determining the east, south, west and north, Russell placed a stone just east of the line.

This stone represents the yard of Ahmed's house.

After seeing where Russell had placed it, Garys was a little confused: "Ahmed doesn't live in town?"

"Yes, yes, sir." Although Russell was tired, the respectful tone in his words did not diminish.

"Russell, stop calling me sir. In the eyes of Heavenly Father, all people in the world are brothers and sisters. Just call me brother, or fighting brother."

"Okay, my lord."

Garys frowned and didn't dwell on the issue any further.

"Go on, why doesn't he live in town."

"Sir, I heard from my father that Ahmed, as a tax collector, would not only collect taxes from us Christians, but also from Muslims. Their family is not popular no matter where they are."

"In order to ensure the safety of their family members, they chose to move away from the town and built a large courtyard with a well, a watchtower, and barracks for private soldiers. It was like a small castle. Only in this way could Ahmed and his family feel safe."

When he heard this, Gailis frowned. This was not a tax collector at all. This tax farmer was in fact a feudal lord.

He had his own private army, thick courtyard walls, the right to levy taxes, and could decide the life and death of nearby farmers.

If this is not a feudal lord, then what is a feudal lord?

In fact, as long as the Ahmed family can pay the fixed taxes regularly, the Crusader lords of Transjordan will not bother to interfere with the behavior of the Ahmed family.

It is precisely because of this that the Crusader Lords' rule over the Transjordanian territory is so smooth...

After all, for the Crusader lords, they do not need to bear the burden of managing the grassroots, nor do they need to worry about collecting taxes at the grassroots. They just need to wait for tax farmer families like Ahmed, which have existed since the heyday of the Seljuk Empire, to pay annual taxes on a regular basis. This is very, very easy.

To be honest, this model is actually quite good for Garys today.

Cruel petty feudal lords like Ahmed have already alienated themselves from the people, and if they and their family lived in a small town, Gailis would also have to worry about how to deal with potential hostility from other Muslim townspeople.

After all, the townspeople may find it difficult to understand Garys's ideas, which may lead to hostility, but Garys does not want to attack innocent people, which is very troublesome.

But this is a separate house, so there is nothing to worry about...

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(End of this chapter)