A Guide to Becoming a God Starting from a Monastery

"Also, I'll write another letter to the Holy See." Thomas thought for a moment and decided it would be best to rely on Rome for this matter. "Ask Rome to provide as much supplies as possible. Ideally, they should sell us all their military reserves!"

Anyway, there was no direct threat from Rome.

At least in the short term, no force had the courage to attack the city of Rome.

The Roman garrison must have a lot of supplies that they can’t use for the time being, so just take them all!

There was a noise outside, and Thomas saw a head poking in from the entrance of the meeting room.

It was none other than Louis.

"Grandmaster, there's a letter for you?"

"Bring it over and show it to me."

The attendant brought the letter, Thomas opened the envelope and took out a piece of paper.

His expression suddenly turned ugly.

"Grand Commander, what's going on?!" Demetrios looked at Thomas's face and knew that the letter did not bring any good news.

"Bad news!" Thomas snorted coldly and handed the letter to Demetrios.

Demetrios took a look at the letter and saw that it was an official letter from the Pope.

In other words, it was written in the name of the Pope. However, it did not have the Pope's personal signature, but a seal, which meant that the letter was an official letter.

It does not necessarily represent the personal opinion of the Pope, but it definitely represents the opinion of the entire Roman Curia.

In the letter, the Pope earnestly advised Thomas not to fight to the death with the Sultan in Smyrna.

The Sultanate of Rum mobilized an army of 200,000, while the entire Knights Templar had less than 10,000 men.

Considering that part of the troops had to remain in Rhodes, only 7,000 could be gathered in Smyrna.

Seven thousand against two hundred thousand, if there was no support from the Byzantines, it would be like an egg hitting a rock.

The Byzantines clearly would not support.

Even with a newly built castle, there is no way to attack it.

The Pope suggested that we should rely on the superior navy to ensure the safety of the sea route and the smooth traffic to the Holy Land, rather than fighting the Turks to the death on land.

"Grand Commander, this..." Demetrios also understood.

"It's nothing, just a thousand soldiers are missing." Thomas said with a cold face.

Everyone is pessimistic about me and thinks I will lose!

“How many soldiers can we have?” Thomas paused and asked.

"Probably, about five thousand people."

Chapter 274 Bad News 2

Since Thomas took office, the strength of the Knights has grown rapidly.

But after all, the foundation is too weak.

When Thomas took office, excluding the Rhodes Island city defense forces, the Knights remained at approximately 3,000 to 4,000 men, with fewer than 200 official members.

The Knights now number over 10,000, with over 300 official members.

Unfortunately, most of them are navy.

After all, the Knights were primarily navy-based, with the army merely supplementing them, so naturally their strength would grow more slowly.

Now that the army is needed to defend the city, the military strength is somewhat insufficient.

"Too little..." Thomas knocked on the table.

"The Knights' own army consists of only a thousand men," Demetrios explained in detail.

Thomas nodded.

The result of prioritizing the expansion of the navy is that the number of Marines has grown relatively slowly.

In the battle to capture Smyrna, the Marines lost 150 men, a truly heartbreaking loss.

After all, this was one of the most elite units of this era, the cream of the crop of the Knights' army. It wasn't something that could be restored, let alone expanded, with the current 1,000 men, so there really wasn't much to criticize.

"Another two thousand mercenaries."

"A little less." Thomas sighed.

"We recruit mercenaries from all over the country, looking for those with good credit and combat experience, so there aren't many who meet the requirements," Dimitrios explained. "Among them are many gunners."

Thomas nodded slightly again.

Gunners are very important because operating a cannon requires a technical job and requires mathematical calculations of the trajectory.

Those who can be gunners are all high-paid talents.

If you insist on using someone who can't read a single word to be a gunner, you are just making a joke of yourself.

"There are also two thousand men recruited from the local Christians!" Demetrios said. "They'll serve as the city's defense. More men are possible, but their loyalty can't be guaranteed!"

"Not enough." Thomas gritted his teeth. "We need 10,000 people."

"Then..." Demetrios asked tentatively. "We can call on some personnel from the navy."

"How much can it be adjusted?"

"As long as the combat effectiveness doesn't drop significantly, we can have about 2,000 people!"

In this era, the combat effectiveness of the navy is directly linked to the number of crew members.

"Draw three thousand men from Rhodes Island's city defense forces!" Thomas finally made his decision. "Also, regarding the armament price hike... as long as it's not an extortionate move, just satisfy those vampires!"

With naval support, Rhodes Island's own security is relatively guaranteed.

This is the tragedy of a small country.

Although the name of the Knights Templar is Knights Templar, it is actually a country.

Faced with this bottleneck situation, big countries can still tap their internal potential, but small countries have no choice but to accept blackmail.

"But as for the money..." Demetrios said. "I'm afraid it's not enough."

"It's okay, I can owe you some." Thomas also figured it out.

Regardless of the final outcome of the Battle of Smyrna, at least the Knights would not be destroyed. After all, there was still Rhodes Island and the navy. So, owing them some money would be acceptable to those vampires.

"Then I'll arrange it right away," said Dimitrios.

The Knights had reached this point, and although they were not at ease in confronting a great power head-on, they were not in a very difficult situation either.

And there is the Navy and Rhodes Island as the last resort.

All we can say is that Thomas did a lot, otherwise this would have been unimaginable for the Knights in the past.

In fact, if the Seljuks had not sent an army of 200,000 this time, but 30,000 or 50,000 or something...

If it were 30,000, no one in the Knights Temperance would take it seriously.

If it were 50,000, everyone would take it a little more seriously.

Even if there were only 100,000 troops, the Knights would just mobilize them fully and not care too much, because they all knew they could hold on.

No one thinks they will lose!

This bastion, which cost millions of florins to build, is by no means a decoration!

But with an army of 200,000, even those who were the most confident and had the most faith in the defense of the new castle would not dare to make any guarantees.

After Demetrios left, Thomas sighed deeply.

Although he didn't want to admit it, it was true. Thomas almost thought he could change his fate and rely on the defense of the bastion to prevent the enemy from attacking.

Now it seems that I was overthinking it!

"Grand Commander." Louis beside him spoke.

“What?” Thomas asked.

"The light on you..." Louis' pupils had turned a deep purple. "It seems to have dimmed a little?"

"Ah..." Thomas was startled.

"If it was ten points in the past, it's only seven or eight points now," Louis said seriously.

In other words... have I become unlucky? Thomas sighed. "How about compared to ordinary people?"

"It's still much brighter than ordinary people." Louis said.

It's really unlucky. Even the Pope doesn't think I can win this battle.

It can be said that in the first round of diplomatic battle, Thomas was completely defeated by the Sultan.

But even so, Thomas didn't think he would lose.

I'm not 100% sure, but I'm 70% to 80% sure.

In fact, if the Sultan had delayed for another year, Thomas's chances of winning would have gone from 70% to 80% to 99%.

Because he had a golden apple tree.

The golden apple tree is no longer what it used to be.

This tree started to bear fruit when it was about the same height as Thomas, and now the top of the apple tree is almost touching the top of the cave in the secondary plane, and it is even more lush.

Perhaps because of the abundant water and fertilizer, the fruits on top are stacked up layer upon layer, and it feels like there are more of them than leaves.

If Thomas were given another year, he estimated that he could create seven or eight more protectors of the country.

If Thomas is given three to five years, it will not be a problem for the Knights to protect the country.

Once the Knights have dozens of protectors...

Apart from anything else, there would definitely be no problem in conquering the Seljuk Sultanate.

This is Thomas’s fundamental confidence.

As long as you give him enough time, it's hard to say whether you can unify the world, but if you follow the example of the Jews, fight six Middle East wars, and defeat the Crescent Moon Christians, then there should be no problem!

In fact, this golden apple tree can be said to be the most valuable of all Thomas's possessions.

The only problem is, it takes time!

Even if we lose the Battle of Smyrna this time, we can make a comeback in three to five years.

While I was thinking about this question, someone suddenly came to report that the Knights' advisor, Master Radagast, had arrived.

Chapter 275 No Divination Required

Radagast came into the conference room hall.

He looked very happy. Thomas guessed that the magician had probably gotten what he wanted.

Thomas glanced at the attendants around him and saw Louis looking surprised.

"Louis, what did you see?" Thomas asked in a low voice.

"His whole body seemed to be radiating streams of light, from the inside out..." Louis answered in a low voice.

In other words... unusually lucky?

Thomas began to understand.

"Not before?"

"Not obviously," Louis replied.

In other words, the blue-robed wizard will continue to be lucky?

Thomas suddenly became curious. What would happen to the old wizard next? He would surely stay in the Order for several years. Would anything good happen during those years?

Well, at least something that's good for Radagast?

"Grand Commander!" On this side, Radagast had already taken the initiative to salute.

"Master Radagast, have you completed your work?" Thomas asked.

"Haha, although it took a little time, but... it's finally done." Radagast didn't seem to want to laugh, but the corners of his mouth kept curling up disobediently.