Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 403 Damietta and Egypt

The "Church" has indeed infiltrated Egypt a lot. After all, Jerusalem has more advanced theological ideas, and with Gairis in charge, there are many talented people who know the times.

But the impact of this infiltration is different in different parts of Egypt.

For example, in Alexander's Second Legion, the highest position was the captain, while in Damietta's Third Legion, the highest position was just some clerical staff.

They are able to share intelligence, but they are not qualified to influence the Third Legion's course of action.

In addition, the Crusaders landed in Damietta at the beginning and massacred the local residents. The relationship between the Frankish Crusaders and the local people was worse than in other places.

The most die-hard Crusaders were also gathered in the Damietta Legion.

This led the Damietta Legion to adopt more brutal riot control measures when dealing with such local popular resistance.

The purge process must also be more cruel, and it is truly better to kill a thousand people by mistake than to let one go.

Although it is not clear whether those who started the riots were related to Garys theology.

But considering that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, the "Church" still has to find a way to protect the other side.

In addition to giving orders, the captain also took Nasser aside to chat about recent developments.

Overall, things are not going well for Alexander.

Although Alexander's taxation was not as harsh and direct as Damietta's, a large number of people had become unemployed or bankrupt due to the economic blockade.

There are more thieves and pickpockets on the streets, and the public security in the countryside has begun to deteriorate.

The whole society is in a state of turmoil.

During the conversation, Nasser saw his captain again, who drank two cups of coffee as if nothing had happened. He couldn't help but think that his captain was a pervert who could drink such a bitter thing.

……

Although Egypt is an ancient civilization, it is different from several other countries.

Egypt had reached its limit a long time ago.

Many people have only a rough understanding of Egypt. When they think of it as an ancient country comparable to China, they think of how powerful it is and how much potential it has.

But if you really study it in detail, you will find that the most important area of ​​Egypt is actually only about half the size of Jiangsu Province.

The bases of the first three Egyptian legions were in Cairo, Alexandria, and Damietta.

The three cities form an equilateral triangle on the map, with each side being approximately 170 kilometers.

Coincidentally, the distance from the center of Nanjing to Suzhou is roughly the same.

Given the small size of the area, if Nasser, who was in Alexandria, wanted to go to Damietta legitimately, he only needed a piece of paper to have a suitable reason.

To make a simple analogy, it is almost like Nanjing police enforcing the law across cities, although other cities in Jiangsu would definitely not be happy about it.

But if you insist on going, it won't become an enemy conflict.

Take Nasser's visit this time for example. His reason for going there was that witnesses said that the group of bandits currently roaming around Damietta actually ran over from Alexandria.

Based on the principle of personal territoriality, Alexander's legions also had the power to enforce the law. The concept of personal territoriality also existed in the Middle Ages.

Personal dependence is stronger than geographical relationship, which is a consensus of this era.

It doesn't matter whether those who resisted the tax were from Alexandria or not. It only takes one day and one night to travel from Alexandria to Damietta by boat.

But because of the blockade of Venice, Nasser could only travel by land.

Even though we were on horseback, the journey took about three days.

After arriving at the place, Nasser did not encounter the various difficulties he had expected. Instead, he felt a little nervous on Damietta's side.

Unlike Alexandria, which has hundreds of thousands of citizens and a strong medieval urban flavor, Damietta is more like a military city.

Walking on the streets here, you will find that there are almost no wandering citizens, and there are basically only legion soldiers, their families or servants.

After completing the massacre of the locals, the Crusaders regarded Damietta as their base camp and a large number of their families were settled here.

Its business environment has basically been reduced to providing services to the Crusaders and it no longer serves as a transit point from the Nile Delta to the Mediterranean.

Many people in Alexandria didn’t really care about the attack on Jerusalem. For the people of Alexandria, how bad could things be?
At most, they complained that the business environment had deteriorated and that life had become increasingly difficult.

But as long as the war is over, whether Egypt wins or loses, life will be better.

Therefore, the people of Alexandria were actually hoping that Jerusalem would attack them sooner rather than later, so that there would be a result. Instead, they were most afraid of being stuck here.

But the inhabitants of Damietta were different; they were there because they had massacred the locals.

Does the person who created the figurines have no descendants?
Naturally, after entering the war, they were always worried, afraid that the same things they had done would happen to them again.

After verifying my identity, I went into the city to eat a meal and heard all kinds of rumors that the Jerusalemites were going to attack me.
What followed was all kinds of cursing to vent their dissatisfaction.

This bluffing attitude is more like cheering oneself up, constantly hypnotizing oneself that there is nothing to be afraid of in Jerusalem.

In addition, some people also mentioned the people who intercepted and killed tax collectors outside the city of Damietta.

But compared with their attitude towards the Jerusalem army, those diners inexplicably revealed a hint of indifference and a lot of gloating.

According to Nasser's own speculation, the reason why he did not take it seriously was because the opponent's strength was relatively weak.

The gloating was directed at the group of tax collectors who were massacred by the local Egyptians.

As for the lower ranks of the legion, they were not in the same boat with the Egyptian officials and tax collectors.

On the contrary, some of those who joined the legion earlier believed that the Egyptian bureaucrats had more or less taken their places.

The design of the upper echelons of the legion to separate the local areas and the army prevents those within the legion from directly gaining too many benefits for themselves.

At a time when the tax collectors are unable to deal with local riots, the importance of their legions is highlighted.

After having a quick meal here, Nasser and his subordinates did not cause any trouble. Instead, they rushed to the legion headquarters here to report as soon as possible. It was more important to confirm their identities.

After all, they came here in an official capacity.

(End of this chapter)