Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 355 Again and Again
Everything seemed to make sense. A group of Turks attacked a farm during the spring plowing season.

As for the motivation for doing this?

Do the Turks need a motive for their raids?
Although the Greeks would say so, it is actually necessary.

Now that winter is just coming to an end, many Turkic herdsmen are having a hard time. They have lost a lot of cattle and sheep. It is difficult for them to survive solely on dairy products, and they have fallen to the point of having to live by slaughtering cattle and sheep.

Dairy products are interest, while cattle and sheep are the principal. Losing cattle and sheep in difficult times is actually an extremely painful thing for herders, just like farmers losing their land.

Therefore, after each difficult winter, when farmers are engaged in spring ploughing, the number of attacks by nomadic herders on farmers will increase significantly.

But really?
Alexandros, who was half Turkic, had lived in the tribe for more than ten years. One thing he was sure of was that the Turks were not demons. They would neither eat children alive nor kill people on sight.

Human beings themselves can be sold as commodities, and robbing slaves is the custom of the Turks.

Of course, what will happen to those who are not suitable to be slaves is another matter.

However, despite having such a guess, Alexandros did not say it out loud, and he had no evidence to prove that the people who came last night were not Turks.

"Are there any relatives of yours around here?"

Alexandros asked.

"Riosca, my aunt and her family are there..."

The other party reported a place name, but the suspicion in his eyes, like that of a wounded cub, could not be eliminated.

"Come, let me help you bury the person."

Greg nodded at this, at least it wasn't a bad thing.

There weren't many people in the caravan, but it wasn't a big deal to just dig a hole and bury one person, and there was no need for a coffin or a tombstone, so it wasn't a big deal.

After the simple funeral, most of the day had passed. As it was getting dark, the caravan simply set up camp here to rest.

At night, Arslan found Alexandros and the first thing he said was: "It can't be a Turk, at least not from my tribe."

Alexandros glanced at Arslan and could feel the other party's anxiety, or perhaps the unhappiness caused by being "slandered".

"what happened?"

“I looked at their horseshoe prints and not only did their horses use horseshoes, but the prints were deeper and wider.”

Alexandros understood what Arslan meant.

Nomadic horses mostly roam in grasslands, deserts and hilly areas where the ground is relatively soft, causing relatively little wear and tear on the horses' hooves. They do not need to walk on roads like in most of the Christian world, so they have a lower demand for horseshoes.

On the other hand, horseshoes require metal smelting and blacksmithing skills, but nomads have relatively weak iron smelting capabilities and limited metal resources, which are mainly used to make weapons and tools, so they will not focus on horseshoes.

As for the fact that the mark is deeper and wider, it means that the attacker's horse was larger, which is inconsistent with the breed of horses raised by the Turks.

Of course, these situations are not absolute, but it is not just one or two horses that are like this. Instead, after Arsalan observed all the marks, he found that all of them were like this.

"Someone is pretending to be a Turk and attacking people? Is there any reason?"

Alexandros couldn't figure out the reason for doing this for a moment.

Arsalan just shook his head, unable to explain.

"Go to bed early. We have to travel tomorrow. This might just be an accident..."

Alexandros said this casually, and Arsalan gave up. After all, what could they do? They were not the lords or officials here. Besides, it was too troublesome to deliberately search for a group of people these days.

So the two of them rested.

However, just two days later, Alexandros opened his mouth slightly, with anger in his eyes.

As for the Gregor brothers standing by, they were also gasping for breath, unable to suppress the sadness in their hearts.

Another village was attacked.

But, how to put it?

Relatively speaking, there was no massacre here, but only a fire was set, houses were burned down, crops were trampled, and property was looted...not many people died.

It just so happened that Greg's aunt and her family were all killed in the attack.

Suddenly, Gregor felt that he was alone, with no one to worry about except his brother.

Or maybe, he was just filled with anger and needed someone to vent it on.

Almost subconsciously, Gregor looked at the Turks in the caravan again.

In fact, it wasn't just Gregor. Alexandros' caravan was not allowed to enter the village at all. Only a few individuals were allowed in.

The villagers here looked at their caravan with vigilance, and some of them even kept muttering about driving them away.

At this juncture, Arsalan couldn't help it.

He took the initiative to show the horseshoe to the villagers and Gregor, and talked about the difference between them for a long time.

But in terms of effect, it can only be said that it is better than nothing.

It changes the other party's hostility from existing to the possibility of hostility.

Finally, Alexandros couldn't bear it anymore and patted Arslan on the shoulder.

"Let's go, Arsalan, we really need to take care of this matter..."

"It's useless for you to keep talking nonsense here. Once we tear off those people's heads and throw them here, the people here will naturally understand."

Although Alexandros was not a lord or official here, he was a Palatine after all.

However, Paladin's duties required him not to ignore these repeated vicious incidents.

As they were leaving, Gregor heard the conversation between Alexandros and the others and came over on his own initiative: "Are you saying that you are going to hunt down those... bandits?"

Gregor was halfway through his words when Arsalan glared at him fiercely, so he took back the word and called the other party a bandit instead.

"Yes, I don't know what's going on with the other party, but this has affected our business after all, which is not good, so we have to intervene."

"Count me in, well, and my brother too!"

After hearing what the other party said, Alexandros gestured at his chest with his hand, meaning that the other party was only as tall as his chest, which was obviously too small.

"It's better to stay here than to die in obscurity."

"Will I not die in obscurity if I stay here? Those people attack once, they will attack twice! If we don't kill the hungry wolves, they will keep staring at the sheepfold! Besides, there is no place for us to live here. My brothers and I are in Riosca, and we only know my aunt and the others..."

(End of this chapter)