Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 402: Damietta War

When Ali said that the head tax would be changed to 2 gold dinars, he was not trying to cheat or launch a surprise attack, but was well prepared.

Unlike Egypt during the Ayyubid period, the Crusaders' upper echelons were deeply aware that they could not get along with the local Egyptians.

A forced melon is not sweet. Since you can't wear the same pants, just don't wear them at all.

Previously, the poll tax continued the Ayyubid dynasty and was collected in different levels according to income.

It seems reasonable, but it may not be so when it comes to ruling.

Therein lies the problem.

In the past, when Muslims sent people to collect Jizya, they used Muslim officials to collect it from Christians or Jews.

But now it is Muslims who are collecting taxes from Muslims.

Consider the reality that the taxing group itself is the Muslim elite, the wealthy class among Muslims.

Let the rich collect taxes from another group of people who are related to them...

This is problematic no matter how you think about it.

Then at this time, the tiered tax mechanism brought about another consequence - false reporting of property and hidden accounts.

In the case of false reporting of assets and hidden accounts, a large number of Egypt's "middle class and wealthy households" will naturally pay as little as possible, or not pay at all.

Considering that Egypt's Muslim population starts at around five million, the number of people who should pay the poll tax should be at least 60.

Among them, the extremely poor male group does not need to pay head tax, but even if they want to pay, they don't have the money.

The families that actually had to pay the head tax had to have at least 3 Fedan starting land.

One feddan is approximately equal to 4200 square meters, which is equivalent to 6.3 acres.

According to records during the Ayyubid period, each feddan of land produced about 5.2 ardabs of wheat.

Ardab is a unit of volume, and when used to measure wheat, it is approximately 150 kilograms.

3 feddans of land, or 19 mu, produced about 2340 kilograms of wheat, with an average yield of about 246 kilograms per mu.

Only peasant families that produce around 5000 kilograms of wheat each year can still afford the head tax after paying those heavy taxes.

Another statistic shows that there were about 300 million feddans of land during the Ayyubid dynasty.

This means excluding those with little land, no land, and tax exemptions, there are at least hundreds of thousands of such farmers.

However, the total amount of poll tax actually collected by the Egyptian Crusaders was only 50 gold dinars, which was an important cash income.

How could the Egyptian nobles tolerate these people evading taxes?
In this case, why not just treat everyone equally? As long as every adult male who is not extremely poor pays a tax of 2 gold dinars, there will be much less room for loopholes.

If the tax system is simple enough, the legion can often send people to conduct investigations directly at the grassroots level to supervise the officials' implementation.

Even after a vote by the nobles of the Eight Councils, a quarter of all poll taxes collected would be used as commission for the tax officials.

As a result, the division among the Muslim population becomes more obvious.

The wealthy paid less taxes, so they naturally supported the pagan Crusaders more.

For the backbone class, paying a little less is better than nothing, and it can be considered a face-saving measure.

Officials and tax collectors received more bonuses, so they worked harder in collecting taxes.

The Crusaders not only collected more taxes, but also gained the favor of officials and wealthy people. This is a big win.

The officials and tax collectors had bulging pockets, having earned more money than they had in previous years, which was considered a win.

The rich pay less taxes and don’t have to hide their wealth, saving themselves all the superficial effort. This is a small win.

The whole process went from small wins to medium wins and then to big wins. Everyone was winning. It was really a win!

As for those at the bottom of society, such as the farmer kneeling in front of Ali, how can they be considered human beings?
He can't speak clearly, can't do the math, and can't do anything except working hard. Such a guy is nothing but an animal.

As long as the animals don't stand up and speak, they will always be animals.

Since you are not even a human being, you naturally don’t deserve to win.

After snatching the money from the farmer, Ali said slowly, "Oh, by the way, I remember your family also raised cows and sheep."

"But...but the sheep is dead..."

"Did you eat mutton?"

"Uh……"

"You have to know that according to the law, the ownership of any livestock is divided into three parts, one of which belongs to the state. In other words, you have to pay taxes if you eat sheep!"

This one sentence stumped the farmer, and then everything became natural.

The taxation of livestock and poultry was actually clearly recorded during the Saladin period. In 1184, Egypt's national finances were in crisis due to insufficient water from the Nile River.

Sultan Saladin imposed a royalty tax.

In one account, in one village in Fayoum, tax collectors took 104 chickens, which was even more than the prescribed share.

After finishing the calculations for the farmer, Ali went out. At the door, two other officials were waiting there.

Egypt does not have a system of tax farmers, but rather a relatively efficient bureaucracy.

It doesn't mean that individual officials can decide how much to collect.

One of the entire tax collection department has multiple positions.

Ali was just a tax collector, responsible for the actual collection of taxes.

In the actual tax collection process, the supervisor first brings people to measure the land and determine the amount of tax to be paid, and then the accounting officer is responsible for account registration and affairs handling.

Finally, the tax collector will come to your door to carry out the actual collection. After collection, a certificate must be issued to ensure that everything is correct.

Under such circumstances, coupled with the fact that the population density in Egypt's habitable area was actually over 200 people per square kilometer, it achieved a high degree of centralization that was unimaginable in other ancient countries (with the exception of the Qin and Han dynasties, which were also quite familiar with this).

After greeting his colleagues, Ali went to the next farmer.

When the setting sun began to burn the river bank red in the west, they left the village, leaving behind many people whose properties had been emptied.

Of course, these people still have hope, after all, there is a "good harvest" waiting for them next year.

……

300 million feddans of arable land, 5.2 albudas per feddan, and one albuda is equivalent to 150 kilograms of wheat.

From these figures, we can calculate that Egypt's total grain production is about 46 billion kilograms of wheat, minus the seeds and various losses, and adding other agricultural and sideline products such as fish and dates.

Egypt's net grain output was about 40 billion jin. Based on this calculation, the total population that Egypt could support at that time should be limited to million people.

When the population was lower than this number, Egypt was able to export a large amount of food to feed other parts of the Mediterranean. However, when the population exceeded this number, Egypt could not only not export food, but also needed to import food to maintain its survival because there was no more arable land.

Even in later generations, due to the impact of the Nile River on the plain, the land expanded due to the accumulation of silt, but overall, the amount of arable land did not double.

But the population increased several times, which is why in later generations, Egypt changed from an ancient granary to a "tumor".

In 2015, Egypt's population exceeded 40 million. Even with the support of modern agricultural production technology, Egypt's food self-sufficiency rate is only around %. As a third world country, it lacks sufficient supporting industries, which means that it may explode at any time.

Of course, it was only the year 1201, and the situation in Egypt was not nearly as extreme as it would be in later times.

With the per capita land area of ​​about half a feddan, or 3 acres, and the regular flooding of the Nile River bringing free silt every year, relatively high yields of grain can be grown.

The reason why the lower-class farmers in Egypt live a hard life is simply because the upper-class people take too much.

Whether it was the Crusader nobles, the Mamluks, or the officials and tax collectors...

If they wanted to maintain their extravagant lifestyle, they needed to find ways to take more food from the farmers and export it in exchange for currency to buy all kinds of luxury goods.

While the peasants were so poor that their entire family had no pants to wear, the nobles in the city were able to enjoy everything that the glorious civilization brought.

Clean city hygiene, soft and comfortable carpets, soap with rose fragrance, elegant Arabic calligraphy and poetry...

There are schools, civilization and everything that can be praised here, but that is all built on the premise that almost everything has been taken away from the farmers.

Especially during the time when the Egyptian Crusaders, in order to consolidate their rule, used ingenious methods to transform ethnic conflicts into class conflicts and ensure that the upper class of Muslims stood on their side.

Ali was chatting and laughing with his colleagues, and there was light in their eyes. After all, a quarter of the collected money would fall into their hands.

With this money, they can buy another property in the city, marry another young wife, buy some silk clothes... In short, everything will be good.

As long as the Crusaders survive, their lives will be fulfilling and they will have plenty to eat and drink!

As for Jerusalem's declaration of war on Egypt, it was different from the Frankish Crusaders who understood Jerusalem's fighting power.

In the eyes of these ordinary officials, Jerusalem was the Crusaders, Egypt was also the Crusaders, Jerusalem had cannons, and Egypt also had cannons.

The Jerusalem army had only about 20,000 men, but they had an army of more than 50,000.

No matter how you look at it, Egypt has the advantage!

Ali and his group are actually outsiders to the military, but it is precisely this kind of men who are most keen on discussing many military-related topics.

It was also when they were having a happy chat.

Suddenly there was a sharp whistling sound, and something flew past Ali.

When Ali looked carefully, he realized that it was an arrow that had pierced the chest of one of his followers.

These people were only going to the villages to collect taxes and had no intention of actually fighting and killing people. Therefore, neither the followers nor the officials actually wore armor.

Even the arrows fired from the light crossbows easily pierced through their beautiful clothes, pierced their flesh, and punctured their internal organs...

Listening to the groans of his followers, Ali was a little overwhelmed. He was not as tough as he was when discussing national affairs before.

When he came to his senses, he heard a few more sounds of breaking air and several crossbow arrows flew towards him.

Ali was shot in the thigh, and only realized what he was supposed to do when he screamed.

He rushed to the grain cart nearby, trying to find cover, but found that his colleagues were already there.

In a hurry, he didn't care about anything else and pushed his colleague away from the safe zone with all his strength.

The colleague who lost the protection of the grain carts screamed in pain when two crossbow arrows hit his body while he was still in a daze.

But before Ali could catch his breath, he heard a shout, which roughly meant not to let anyone go, and then a dark shadow appeared in front of him.

I saw the man holding up the long sword in his hand high.

The bleak sunlight of the setting sun reflected a scarlet color on it.

And then, when the knife fell.

With a snap, Ali's head was split in half, leaving a pile of snow-white, bright red, and light yellow things mixed together.

……

For Nasser, time really flies in a flash after almost half a year of military service.

He became a centurion as fast as flying. It was precisely because of the rapid expansion of the army that there were so many positions for people like him to be promoted.

However, Nasser knew that what really helped him get promoted was the "church", and all the others were just excuses and formalities.

From the moment he accepted the mission of a priest, he actually became a spy.

He was actually quite apprehensive at first, but it didn't take long for him to realize that there was nothing to worry about.

Because whether it is one's superiors, subordinates, or colleagues, there seem to be people in similar situations as oneself.

In other words, the entire Egyptian Legion was filled with informants from the "Church".

Since the Egyptian Eighth Regiment has already had so many "friends" added to its ranks during the expansion process, what is there to worry about?

That day, Nasser came to the captain's room.

The captain politely asked Nasser to sit aside and poured him a cup of coffee.

"Try it. It's a good product that just came in a while ago. People in Jerusalem love it."

It was the first time Nasser had seen this kind of drink, and out of curiosity he couldn't help but take a sip.

Then the expression on his face twisted into a ball. The bitterness in this was something he had never tasted before. He really couldn't understand why anyone would like this kind of thing.

Then he heard the hearty laughter of his captain and realized that this was a prank on him from the beginning.

"Nasser, you have been here for such a long time, and you have been doing dirty work for the Franks. I know you are not very happy. I want to tell you that I am not joking with you when I call you here today. I have a task to be assigned by the organization."

"How to say?"

Nasser sat up straight.

"Over in Damietta next door, some people are rebelling against taxes, and the Second Legion has sent many people to suppress them. You know, it's very difficult to hide in Egypt."

"So their losses were severe?"

"Correct."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Take your men to Damietta to stir up some trouble, distract the Second Legion's attention, and then find a chance to establish a relationship with those who rebelled and save them."

(End of this chapter)