Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 438 Victorious March!

The fact that the captured mob had escaped during the night had actually been discovered at night.

But the guards didn't care and didn't report it to the Bai until the next day.

This enraged Ahmed, but after his rage subsided, he was filled with dread. The Frankish centurion's expression was too cold, leaving Ahmed unable to grasp the situation.

However, just as Sebastian was about to say something, a man suddenly burst in from outside and told Ahmedbay and the Frankish gentlemen that the prisoners who had escaped last night had just been found.

This surprised many people present.

Although Egypt is not a large country, how did they find it so quickly?

The person who was reporting was overjoyed, but he stammered and couldn't speak a complete sentence for a long time. It wasn't until another person next to him slapped him that he was able to explain himself.

It turns out that the prisoners who escaped last night didn't go far; they all fled back to their own homes to hide.

Those "homes" were hardly homes; they were nothing more than sheds or mud houses.

You can see them just by walking around the village.

After hearing this news, Nasser turned to look at Sebastian again and found that the other man could no longer maintain his cold expression.

It then became abnormally distorted, making it impossible to discern its meaning.

It wasn't until Sebastian uttered, "Even a rabbit knows to stay away from a hunter, and even a pig, seeing its master with a knife, should think of running away. What are they doing?"

Nasser then realized the other person's thought—disdain.

Nasser felt a pang of regret, regretting that he had drunk alcohol the night before and that he hadn't acted skillfully.

But what good is it to be skillful in doing things?
He should have thought of that. Farmers are rooted in the land; they cannot live without it. They would rather die in the fields than face the sandstorms beyond the delta.

After all, there might be a chance to survive if you stay in the ground, but once you leave the riverbank, there will only be endless sandstorms.

For the Fila people here, the world is so small, an isolated island in the desert.

In order to punish those who fled, Sebastian directly ordered his soldiers to plunder the village.

All day long, Egyptian legion soldiers were committing violence against an Egyptian village.

Nasser, being an Egyptian, could only watch from the sidelines. As for the old man Ahmedbai, he kept cheering, saying that it was a good kill, a brilliant kill, and that those ungrateful bastards deserved to suffer a bit so that they would remember whose land they were cultivating and whose favors they had relied on to survive to this day.

In the end, Sebastian didn't bring back 30 heads; he brought back a full 100.

The reason we didn't bring back more heads wasn't because we didn't have enough people to kill, but because any more would have been troublesome.

Nasser became increasingly silent; what he had seen and heard in Damietta was constantly tormenting him.

He realized that every breath he took was tinged with the smell of blood, and every bite of food seemed to be made from the flesh and blood of a living person.

As an awakened being, he realized one thing: he was eating people.

Fortunately, Nasser heard good news in Damietta.

During the Easter Lent, the Fourth Legion's attack on Jerusalem failed, and the Jerusalem forces seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack, now almost reaching Suez! Suez's history is not very long, at least compared to other ancient cities of the same era. Even the pronunciation of the word Suez was only gradually determined after the Arab conquests, as it existed as a newly emerging port city.

However, Suez's appearance in history was not that late.

As early as the time of Darius, there were monuments in the Isthmus of Suez to commemorate the opening of the canal between the Nile and the Bitter Lake, which facilitated shipping links between Egypt (then a governorate of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia) and Persia (the majority of the empire's territory).

I am a Persian; I set out from Persia and conquered Egypt. I ordered this canal to be dug, from the Nile that flows through Egypt to the sea that originates in Persia.

Of course, Nasser was unaware of these matters, but given his limited geographical knowledge, he was at least aware of one thing.

If the legions of Jerusalem truly control the port of Suez, then from there, infantry could reach Cairo in just four days, threatening the heart of Egypt.

One day!
Less than a week!
It can be said that Jerusalem has put a knife to the neck of the Egyptian army, and now the Egyptian army, from top to bottom, will not be able to sleep well.

Not to mention distant places, in Damieta alone, mobilization orders and martial law have been issued, requiring all soldiers on leave to return to their posts and strictly enforcing the curfew, with the possibility of sending troops to fight Jerusalem at any time.

As for him, the centurion who had been sent here from Alexander's legion, he was suddenly left unattended and became exceptionally free.

……

Three days earlier, General Ragard, commander of the Fourth Army Corps, was bewildered in the monastery of St. Catherine.

He simply couldn't understand how things had developed to this point.

What a coincidence! What a coincidence!

He chose to launch his attack on the Jerusalem garrison on Sunday, a day when all Christians would be resting.

Jerusalem had completed its maneuver a day ahead of schedule, either by intercepting enemy forces en route or by launching a surprise attack on the camp, resulting in a base swap.

No, how did the other side know their battle plan?
How did they know the exact location of his camp?!
Although the legion had suffered more defeats than victories in previous scouting battles, it shouldn't have been so thoroughly figured out by the enemy.

I can't figure it out, I really can't figure it out.

The situation has deteriorated so much that even he himself has to start gathering his troops and retreating.

He really couldn't see much of a chance of victory by continuing to fight small-scale battles with small units in the Sinai wilderness.

After all, it was clear that the other side was more familiar with the terrain in the vicinity, and their small force had greater mobility and firepower.

It might be more advantageous to retreat towards Egypt and defend using the Isthmus of Suez.

At least the Suez region is a plain, unlike the Sinai Peninsula, where troops had to be dispersed and stationed elsewhere.

It can also take advantage of its proximity to the Nile Delta to easily assemble more troops for heavy garrisoning or to fight large-scale battles with superior troop strength.

On the other hand, Jerusalem will face various supply difficulties due to the rugged terrain of the Sinai Peninsula, making it difficult to launch a long-distance expedition.

Therefore, this is definitely not a defeat, but a strategic shift!

It was a victorious march toward more advantageous terrain after a crushing defeat of the heretics in Jerusalem!
(End of this chapter)