Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 87 The Enemy Is on the Other Side of the Mountain

What is the value of the life of an ordinary person?
The answer is different in everyone's mind.

In the eyes of feudal lords, the value of ordinary people is equal to their lifetime output, because ordinary people are like their cattle and horses that do not eat grass.

But to bandits and gangsters, the value of ordinary people is only equivalent to the bid of slave traders.

Is Mach, who is dressed in rich clothes, a businessman?
He was naturally a businessman, and he was also a well-known slave supplier in the Levant.

Mach sent the Franks to Damascus and sold the Arabs to the Genoese, and he was able to get along with both sides.

"Boss, why do we have to walk so far and come to this mountain?" Yasser was quite puzzled.

Mach smiled when he heard what Yasser, the rude man, said.
"Didn't we just say this a few days ago? We came here to make a fortune."

"But it doesn't matter where you make money, why do you have to come here specifically?" Yasser became more and more confused.

"That's certainly due to other reasons." Mach, who was riding on his horse, looked at the hilltops in the distance and asked Yasser beside him, "Let me ask you, after the Prophet Muhammad, will there be a new prophet to come into the world?"

This question stumped Yasser immediately.

But he was honest and said directly: "Boss, you know, I am just a rough man. How can I know about the affairs of a person like the prophet? What does it have to do with us mortals whether this new prophet comes into the world?"

Mach felt a little overwhelmed when he heard Yasser's illiterate speech. He felt that he had not grasped the ideological and cultural aspects tightly enough, so that among the more than 200 brothers, he could not even find someone who could discuss scriptures with him.

Mach considered himself an educated person, so he felt uncomfortable when he heard illiterate people speaking.

However, as he loved to teach, he still explained it patiently.

"Prophet Muhammad is the last prophet and the seal of all prophets. He has brought the Book of Scripture to the world, which cannot be changed in any word."

"After him, there will be no new prophet. After him, all those who claim to be prophets are Dajjal and liars."

After hearing this remedial lesson, Yasser still could not understand the relationship between the Prophet and them.

"Then Boss, will this delay our making money?"

Mach is a little overwhelmed. It's really annoying that his subordinates are uneducated.

"Delay! Of course it will be delayed! Because the Prophet Muhammad said that the world will usher in the end after 30 false prophets appear! If this is the end of the world, how can we live happily and make money!"

As soon as Yasir heard Mach talk about the end of the world, he stopped talking.

In fact, Yasser didn't know much about the end of the world. He just simply felt that the end of the world must be something terrible.

"Of course, apart from the great deeds related to the end of the world, there is another most important reason. Someone found me and said that if we bring the head of the false prophet, we will be rewarded with 2000 gold dinars, which is enough for each of the brothers to share 5!"

As soon as the money was mentioned, Yasir immediately became energetic.

"That's great! Boss, can't you give me more of this?"

What false prophets, what doomsday, what faith, what Prophet Muhammad... For a rough man like him, all of these made him sleepy.

Whenever Maher mentioned the money earlier, Yasser would say that he would go and chop people down even though he was injured.

After all, there are only a few educated people in this world, and people like Yasser who only talk about money are rare.

……

The village of Skar is located in a basin valley. There are actually only three main entrances and exits. One is the downstream exit of the Arnon River, and the other two are gaps in the surrounding mountains.

Among the three entrances and exits of this valley, the north and south entrances are very narrow, and it can even be said that they can be turned into a military pass by simply building a wall.

The reason why Gellis attaches so much importance to the village of Skar is naturally inseparable from the mountainous terrain.

Perhaps no city could be developed here, but in the Middle Ages, it was enough to accommodate thousands of people, who cultivated the land, forged iron, and produced goods in this basin.

Of course, although it is a thought, this matter is not very feasible at the moment, mainly because Garys and his team cannot spare any manpower to repair the wall.

At most, checkpoints could be set up at various easily accessible intersections to guard the surroundings and prevent inappropriate people from entering the basin.

Because of Marwan, a letter was spread out on a conference table two hours ago.

The contents of the letter had been translated into Frankish by Gellis and told to others.

Basically, Abdullah recognized the other party's identity and realized that those people were snooping about the news of Skar Village and obviously had ill intentions towards Garys and others.

After listening to the contents of the letter, the militia captain Puldock spoke first: "Do you need me to mobilize the militias in each village now?"

"It's too late. According to the description in the letter and what we saw on the road to Malwan, I'm afraid it won't be long before the group of people come to kill us."

Among the people at the meeting, John directly rejected Puldock's proposal. Now, in Scar Village, Isabel is the nominal leader, Garys is the actual leader, and John with a scar on his face is the first person in charge of specific matters.

"What should we do? Are there enough people in the valley now?" At this time, another knight who attended the meeting complained.

After all, at present, the number of people in the valley who have received military training and can be used for combat is actually only about 120. Compared with the potential enemies mentioned in the letter, there may be only half of them.

Even if they believed that they would be able to win under the leadership of the prophet, it would not be a good thing if too many people were injured.

However, at this time, Jos suddenly stood up, looked around in front of everyone, and then spoke loudly.

"It took 10 martyrs for Christianity to become the state religion of the Roman Empire. We should also be aware of this!"

"Brother Jesus was the first grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died. The pain he endured is beyond our imagination. How can we reject true faith because of fear of death!"

"The true [Prophet] is right beside us. He is a genius! He is a great leader! He is always right! He never makes mistakes! He is the true successor of Brother Jesus! If we follow his footsteps, we will surely win again and again!"

Garys's brows twitched as he listened to Jos's speech, but he didn't know what to say.

Finally he spoke and made the final decision.

"Mobilize all those who have received military training in the valley. Have everyone put on their armor and take their weapons. Gather at the open space at the entrance of the valley. This time, I will lead the charge and rush to the front to pave the way for your victory."

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 】

—John 12:24
These words are said to have been spoken by Jesus after his resurrection from the dead, and they are meant to elevate the significance of his crucifixion.

As a result, during the three years of Jesus' preaching, his disciples were confined to Palestine. After he was hanged on the cross, the belief and worship of him spread uncontrollably to all parts of the world.

The seeds of the universal church were sown because of his death, which led to the Apostle Paul's subsequent reconstruction of the church.

……

In the valley of Skarr Village, there is no shortage of weapons, but armor is of course another matter.

For a skilled blacksmith of this era, it would take only a week to forge a simple longsword.

But if you want to weave a set of high-quality chain mail, it is actually not technically difficult, but it will take an extremely long time.

When reorganizing the surrendered soldiers previously, Gailis actually adapted to local conditions and distributed weapons as reasonably as possible, instead of using all standard equipment.

In the reorganized Kingdom Army company, the first and second rows were composed of sword and shield soldiers mixed with spearmen, and their armor-wearing rate was relatively good.

The third row concentrated all the long-range weapons they could collect, and carried out long-range projectile attacks while equipped with swords and shields, but they were basically not wearing armor.

Since these soldiers had already received training at Reynard's Manor, it was quite easy to reorganize them.

As for the shift system, it seems to be ahead of its time, but in fact it is just that.

There is no such thing as sophisticated squad combat. Soldiers' daily training is to push, stab, push, stab...

In the Roman period, this was nothing more than a centurion who was training new soldiers with a few veterans.

Even among other armies of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, it was only average and could not be considered good at fighting.

However, this army, which was not good at fighting, showed extreme fighting enthusiasm when it received the order to assemble.

When Gellis ordered all those who had received military training to assemble, they were the most active and the most orderly when they lined up.

Compared with them, the cult warriors on Simon's side, although better trained, were ultimately too few in number.

The men who were ready to join the battle were gathered in the open space. They looked at Garys, and Garys looked at them.

The autumn wind blew across the dry ridges of the fields, and birdsong could be heard from the nearby hills from time to time.

The sounds of breathing rose and fell, and the sound of chain mail shaking and colliding continued, but no one spoke.

They were waiting, waiting for Garys to make the announcement to them.

"What's on the other side of the mountain?"

Gellis asked everyone present, but before anyone could answer him, he continued, "If I tell you that there are enemies behind that mountain, would you believe me?"

With someone taking the lead, hundreds of people answered in unison: "We believe in you! Because you are the revelation from God! You show us the way forward!"

"Then listen, the Lord has chosen me as his messenger, and has commanded me to preach the truth in the world, so that sinners can receive fair judgment!"

　First update, now it is a 3,000-word chapter, so it will be changed to two updates

　　
　
(End of this chapter)