Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 395 This is a holy place, full of miracles

At this point, the first battle between the two cities of Antioch and Aleppo ended with Aziz's troops being defeated and chased by cavalry, leading to almost complete annihilation of the army.

One of the two stumbling blocks mentioned by Lance has been removed, and what remains is how to deal with the city of Aleppo.

With sufficient supplies and the destruction of a large number of the enemy's manpower, this is actually a slow and steady approach.

There are ways to do this, by spending enough time preparing siege equipment, digging tunnels, forming a tacit understanding with the insiders in the city, or even simply gathering enough artillery to blast open the opponent's city walls.

In addition, Lance and Russell came to visit Roger's camp to express their condolences.

In this battle, Roger's troops, with a size of 600 people, held out for two days and two nights under the siege of 3,000 people.

At least 80 people were killed and 200 were injured. The casualties were so tragic that they were rare since the kingdom was rebuilt.

Other similar situations were mostly caused by wrong decisions made by commanders, but the battle handled by Roger was simply due to the difference in numbers between the enemy and us, which was an irresistible factor.

This is even more valuable considering that these soldiers are mainly militiamen.

After all, if you put yourself in their shoes and think about it from their perspective, even Lance himself doesn't think he will succeed.

After all, what protected Roger's troops was just a camel wall, not a real chariot barrier.

Compared with the mature car barrier tactics, the temporary choice of camel wall is quite dangerous and gambling.

When facing the overwhelming rain of arrows, it is impossible to avoid any damage. Everyone will be hit more or less.

Therefore, Lance did not say much about the casualty figures.

He just took people to visit the wounded, asked their names, learned about their family backgrounds, and provided help to the best of his ability.

When he saw Heinrich, Lance patted him on the shoulder.

"Not bad, good job."

It is indeed good, although nowadays, the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem no longer requires officers or Paladins to have strong personal martial arts, nor does it require officers to participate in battle as elite soldiers.

But Heinrich still chose to lead by example and led the battalion's direct team to plug the gap.

As a result, the battalion's guard platoon suffered heavy losses, and Heinrich himself lost an arm.

After the examination, the military doctor said that there was no other option but amputation.

This also means that although Heinrich can still retain his status as a Paladin, he is unlikely to continue serving in the combat troops.

A disabled person with a broken arm obviously faces much greater danger in war than a healthy person, so there is no need for him to make unnecessary sacrifices.

After Lance asked Heinrich what his wish was.

Heinrich replied: "Can the Third Battalion of the Antiochian Militia continue to exist after the war?"

Lance was a little surprised when he heard this, but after looking at Russell, he also felt Russell's embarrassment.

In a sense, the military system of the Kingdom of Jerusalem has taken a "reversal" and is no longer the army of a feudal lord.

Whether it is a standing professional army or a temporarily mobilized militia, they will be organized into battalions, companies and platoons according to certain specifications.

However, unlike the relatively stable organization of the standing army, the organization of the militia, especially the militia in war, is quite unstable and is essentially the result of a temporary assembly.

After the war, the militia groups will naturally disband and return to their hometowns.

Militia, militia, civilians in peacetime and soldiers in wartime.

"Why do you think so?" Lance expressed his doubts.

In this era, since the military organization itself is very chaotic, it is natural that no one cares about this matter.

"I feel that if we disband like this, how will these honors be passed on?"

"I understand."

In this era, honor has nothing to do with ordinary soldiers. It is something only for nobles and knights.

But the Kingdom of Jerusalem is no longer like that after all, and there is nothing wrong with letting the soldiers pursue honor and be proud of honor.

From a utilitarian point of view, this will bring more centripetal force and allow soldiers to maintain higher morale.

Emotionally speaking, Heinrich had to leave the camp. He didn't want to meet those who had experienced the war again in a few years, only to recall the past instead of communicating with new people who inherited their spirit.

At this time, Russell interrupted and said, "Prophet Garys actually proposed the concept of an honorary corps."

"I think that if enough militiamen in your battalion are willing to stay and become a professional army, we can use them as the backbone to build a guard battalion."

"Let's call it the First Aleppo Guards Battalion to commemorate your outstanding contribution in this war."

When the Guards were mentioned, Lance nodded and added, "Since they have achieved such outstanding merits, if the militiamen choose to continue serving, they will also enjoy corresponding merit allowances and have priority in obtaining equipment replacements."

A preliminary idea was born, which brought the concept of honorary troops to the subsequent Jerusalem army.

After getting Reims's promise, Heinrich had nothing else to ask for.

Although this matter has not been finalized yet, with the promotion of Lance and Russell, it will be accomplished sooner or later.

As for Roger, he doesn't know the good news yet.

Instead, he brought his soldiers to search, inspect, and collect the bodies left over from last night's battle.

To be honest, he was a little shocked when he saw Antiochus' main force launching a night attack last night.

The orange-yellow flames streaking across the sky made him mistakenly think that they were meteorites or shooting stars falling to the ground.

Putting himself in Roger's shoes, he felt that the explosion that occurred afterwards would not be handled well by him.

People's fear comes from the unknown. When they encounter something for the first time, they become panicked.

However, after inspecting the battlefield today, Roger had some idea of ​​what was going on.

After all, the charred marks and the already faint smell of gunpowder in the enemy camp made Roger feel familiar.

After being introduced by friendly forces, Roger learned the name of this weapon - rocket.

The Levant region, including the Arabian Peninsula, has a much smaller population than Western Europe.

But in terms of technical level, it is much more advanced.

They were also more open to technological innovation. Twelve years ago, after Gairis used gunpowder on the battlefield, the Ayyubid dynasty soon began to understand the technology of gunpowder.

To put it bluntly, when it comes to black powder, once you know the formula, there are no difficult technical details to overcome.

As for the more advanced parts, it does not hinder the combustion or explosion of ordinary black powder. It only affects the explosion effect and the efficiency of saltpeter production.

But Roger never thought that gunpowder could actually be used as a propellant. It was not only used to launch artillery shells, but also to throw explosive packs directly into the enemy camp.

What Roger didn't know was that the use of gunpowder in warfare had already been quite fancy in the Song Dynasty at the same time.

Of course, since the Kingdom of Jerusalem had ideas that were ahead of their time, its rocket technology developed faster.

The rockets used by Lance and his troops last night were closer to the Mysore rockets of later India than the rockets of the Song Dynasty.

It has to be said that India is blessed with natural advantages.

Among the vast lands of the seven continents on Earth, only the Indian subcontinent and some South American countries are truly rich in saltpeter.

Controlling India and controlling South America means controlling the global saltpeter trade.

With so much saltpeter to waste, the development of Indian rockets seemed particularly extravagant.

The military manual of the Mysore Dynasty stipulated that each Mysore infantry brigade must be equipped with 200 rocket soldiers.

In the end, the group had a total of 5000 people, specializing in rocket warfare.

The rockets they use are usually composed of an iron tube about 20 cm long and 3.8 to 7.6 cm in diameter, one end of which is closed and tied to a bamboo pole about 1 meter long.

This iron tube served as the combustion chamber, containing a well-filled black powder propellant.

It can fire about one pound of gunpowder nearly a thousand meters away.

The accuracy of this weapon is of course very poor, but once the number is accumulated, it becomes particularly terrifying.

After learning about the weapon's structure and principle from friendly forces, Roger couldn't help but sigh that this weapon was good in every way, but there was a fatal problem - it was too expensive.

Even the main force of Antiochus only carried a hundred rockets, which were released last night to scare Aziz's troops.

To be honest, according to Roger's statistics today, there may be only a few people who actually died in the rocket explosion, including the injured, there are probably only a dozen people, and the others were either trampled to death or burned by the flames.

However, the psychological panic this brought about triggered a camp roar, making it difficult for the entire army to cope with the subsequent night attack.

……

"Good news! Good news! Just yesterday the Ayyubids lost their first battle! The Antiochian army is advancing triumphantly!"

Such shouts were heard one after another in cities across the kingdom.

A large number of newsboys walked the streets, selling freshly printed newspapers to citizens.

Because of the newsboys' excited words, many people became curious. Even many passers-by who originally did not buy newspapers gritted their teeth, paid a lot of copper coins, and took the newspapers from the newsboys.

Then they exclaimed one by one.

After all, for many old Jerusalemites, the scene when the kingdom was almost destroyed by Saladin is still fresh in their memory.

Many people who were forced to leave Jerusalem, even if they did not hate Saladin, felt fear in their hearts.

Now, the situation has changed and it is the Ayyubid dynasty's turn to be on the verge of collapse, which naturally makes many people feel much more excited.

In addition to the newspapers that can be purchased on the streets, more newspapers are delivered to various hotels, pubs or noble residences in the city in the early morning thanks to the efforts of newsboys.

These places are the newspaper's stable customers, who subscribe to newspapers for a long time and care about the kingdom's political affairs.

For example, after receiving the newspaper delivered by his servant, old man Delfino finally felt relieved.

He kept muttering things like "That's how it should be", "It's good as long as I win", "Oh, I have to make a lot of money again".

Corner, who had just arrived and was currently staying at Delfino's mansion, was quite shocked.

He was struck by two things.

First of all, Antiochus' army won its first victory on the battlefield so easily and was about to besiege Aleppo.

You know, this newspaper claimed that Antiochus's army destroyed Ayyubid's army of 3,000 people with only 100 casualties!
A casualty ratio of 1 to 30, is this reasonable? !
If this is true, doesn't it mean that the Kingdom of Jerusalem is now truly invincible on land?

Of course, Korner didn't know much about military affairs, so he could only be skeptical about what was going on here.

But another thing really shocked him.

How come the war that happened in Syria yesterday has spread to Tyre today? !
Although Korner did not have an accurate map, he could tell him directly that the distance between the two branches was about 400 kilometers.

But he at least knew that this trade route would take about half a month by land!

In other words, news that should have been known half a month later became known to everyone in the Kingdom of Jerusalem in just one night.

Is it really reliable?
Are you trying to fool people?
But when Korner saw the expression of old man Delfino standing beside him, he knew that this was most likely true.

"Just get used to it, just get used to it." Old Man Delfino comforted Corner.

"I didn't really understand it at first, but now I'm used to it. The Holy Land is full of miracles. Otherwise, how can it be called a Holy Land?"

Because he wanted to increase investment in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but was worried that he would not be able to access first-hand information and would be deceived, he took a boat from Venice to Corna in the Holy Land, with a complicated look on his face.

Delfino's explanation is worse than no explanation at all.

What does it mean: The holy land is full of miracles, otherwise how can it be called a holy land?

Although this can be considered politically correct in Christian theology, your words are full of pride and contempt for outsiders.

But aren't you from Venice?
Korner was actually very familiar with this tone, but usually, it was used by the Venetians to address people from other regions - "Hey! You stinky outsider, you come to Venice to beg for food!"

Having said that, Delfino still reluctantly explained to Korner what the optical communication system that is now spread throughout the Kingdom of Jerusalem is.

Korner just didn't understand, but he was not stupid. As a businessman who had received systematic education, he quickly understood the principles behind it.

Although many specific details are still unclear, he already understands the feasibility.

Then he couldn't help but open his mouth.

Oh my god, this is possible?!
It really is in line with what Delfino said: This is a holy place, full of miracles.

(End of this chapter)