Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 380 The End
Historically, it was actually easier for the Komnenos brothers to conquer Trebizond than it is now after Gelis took the initiative to intervene.

After all, in the original history, the Komnenos brothers entered Trebizond by merging with the local nobles rather than simply conquering them.

At that time, after the coalition forces of the local aristocratic factions were defeated by the Georgian army, the nobles in the city decisively gave up resistance and chose to join if they could not win.

At the same time when they stepped into the city of Trebizond, Yuniye and Sinop announced their support for their "uprising".

He hoped to support the two of them to enter Constantinople and become emperors of the empire.

But now, because of the appearance of Gellis, the nobles in Trebizond, led by Ioannis, directly surrendered to the Latin Empire and regarded the Komnenos brothers as their mortal enemies.

Although Ioannis's behavior was somewhat unexpected, it was actually normal.

It is essentially the same as "It is better to fight foreign enemies than to be domestic slaves." That is, you can still get some bones by being a dog for the Latin foreigners.

This situation has actually occurred in previous history.

David Komnenos, the younger brother of the Komnenos brothers, encountered the Empire of Nicaea while leading his troops on a westward expedition.

If the Latins led by Thierry de Los had not taken timely action to capture Nicomedia, forcing the Nicene army to stop pursuing, David would have been driven directly out of western Asia Minor.

After this incident, in order to thank the Latin Empire for its assistance, David rewarded the Latin Empire with ships full of grain and ham.

Later, when the Sultan of Rum besieged Trebizond, the Komnenos brothers expressed their wish to submit to the Latin Empire rather than be annexed by the Empire of Nicaea.

Yes, after Trebizond was forced to ask the Latin Empire for help, in order to completely eliminate the Komnenos brothers, the Empire of Nicaea chose to ally with the Turks.

The loss of Constantinople and the destruction of Hagia Sophia were not worth mentioning in the eyes of the Komnenos brothers.

To the Empire of Nicaea, the Turks were their half-brothers.

Throughout history, most of the time when a political power has reached its wits' end and faces a survival crisis, survival becomes the top priority.

Besides, everything can only be discussed after one survives.

In a sense, the appearance of Gelis did not reduce the difficulty for the Komnenos brothers to capture Trebizond, but increased it.

This is mainly because the existence of Garys has made the presence of the religious system too prominent.

Stalin once said the classic words: The Pope! How many divisions does he have?
Although the Soviet Union later lost all its divisions, it did prove the embarrassing situation of the religious system for most of history.

Although it has a certain secular influence, it does not have enough power on its own.

Even though Catholicism has its own religious orders, they are not directly governed but more like a dependent relationship.

But the theology of the newly established Jerusalem Church was completely different.

Even if we remove the super-sized existence of Garys, Jerusalem Zongguang itself does have its own military forces and can have an all-round influence on the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

In a sense, considering the attributes of Gairis, the current Kingdom of Jerusalem is a large-scale Papal State.

It also established the central government's authority over local governments, rather than the Pope who had to face constant provocations from Roman nobles.

This means that "Pope" Garys really has troops.

When the Pope has his own troops and is able to go on patrol for him, then changing camps will become very inconvenient, or even lead to being hit hard.

This kind of political entity dominated by religion is relatively more difficult to change direction flexibly.

After all, unlike monarchies, religiously dominated political entities derive their legitimacy from their interpretation of and adherence to their own religion.

As long as enough people participate in religious life and the masses are not ignorant, they will be difficult to deceive.

Relatively speaking, the rulers also have to be more restrained. This is precisely the reason why many religions resist religious reforms. After all, religious reforms always make many people who originally did not have the right to debate scriptures participate in the debates and divide the pie of vested interests.

That's going a bit far.

Back to the present, just when Alexios was still regretting that the general from Trebizond had escaped, he received news the next day that Ioannis was surrounded by angry serfs in his own manor.

Then they were forced to surrender to the serfs.

According to the informant, Ioannis tried to resist when he was surrounded, but he had thrown away everything he could in order to escape.

For a moment, he didn't even have a suitable weapon in his hand.

Then, he claimed to be the master of the serfs, the general and governor of the Cardia Military Region, and asked the peasants to leave.

But then, among the peasants, women shouted that the nobles were to be beaten and the generals were to be captured, and then they threw stones at Ioannis and his gang.

When someone takes the lead, others will follow. Facing the raging crowd, Ioannis knelt decisively.

If he had been a little later, he might have been beaten to death on the spot.

"What do you intend to do with the Governor?"

Alexius asked Garys who was standing beside him.

"Don't worry about it. The authority to deal with him is not in your hands. As the saying goes, you will be measured by the same standard you use to measure others."

"As the saying goes, whoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; the cry of injustice has reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts."

Here, Gellis quoted a few verses from the scriptures, the meaning of which is very clear.

At this point, Gailis paused, and then continued: "A few days ago, the person I sent to Persia a year ago finally came back. He told me that the Khitan was at war with the Muslim Ghur Dynasty, and Khwarezm supported the Khitan in the war..."

As he was talking, Gailis discovered that Alexios seemed very confused, as if what he said happened in another world.

Therefore, Gellis chose to stop talking about this topic and turned around and said: "The world is very big, far more than just Asia Minor. When the whole world is flooded, don't think you can survive."

The Khitan mentioned by Garys actually has another name - Western Liao.

At present, Western Liao is deploying troops in Central Asia, so it is not suitable for it to continue to explore the east for information.

But this matter alone is like a dark cloud that won't dissipate.

After all, it might not be long before an army that no one had ever heard of before would appear on the grassland north of Taohuashi.

"What's next?"

Alexius asked again.

"Next?"

"From now on, you'll be on your own!"

"You don't care about this matter anymore?"

Alexius' tone revealed a hint of excitement that he himself was not aware of. He felt relieved about Garys's departure. After all, there was no longer an unpredictable person by his side.

"You guys should handle your own affairs here, as for me, I should go back now."

Thinking of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and his daughter, even Gailis couldn't help but feel much happier.

(End of this chapter)