kingdom of nations

Chapter 345 Emina (Part 1)
"Half is heaven, half is hell."

As Emina walked through the streets and alleys of Damascus with her mistress, her maid couldn't help but sigh, while Emina remained silent. "Where is there a place that's half heaven and half hell? Even though Damascus hasn't started a war yet, it's already a swamp full of blood and mud."

Not long ago, she had been to Damascus, for reasons too shameful to recount – when she insisted on returning to Homs, her brother Saladin sent a trusted guard to escort her.

On their return journey, however, they were far too careless. Perhaps because the war had ended and both sides had entered into peace talks, they were attacked by a group of shameless and immoral Christian knights. One of the most despicable and shameless men even abducted her, intending to violate her in front of everyone, so as to shame Saladin—her brother—and another man, her husband—the governor of Holmes.

At that time, she had no chance to resist or commit suicide. The other party showed no mercy to a weak person. Later, when the priest treated her, he found that her injuries were even worse than those of a knight on the battlefield. Just when she thought she was going to be humiliated, another Christian knight saved her—not only her life, but also her honor.

Afterwards, she was sent to Damascus, where she was treated like a Christian princess. Knights and servants alike treated her with great respect. Even Baldwin, the King of Alaska, who was in Damascus at the time, came to greet her and apologize, which was completely unexpected for her.

Not only that, he also sent her generous gifts, and it was then that she learned that the knight who saved her was César, the governor of Damascus.

Although this name is not entirely appropriate.

Because the position of governor did not exist in the Christian kingdom, she later learned that it was proposed by the former governor of Damascus, Lazis, as a condition for peace talks. At that time, she was filled with confusion. She had also heard Saladin mention such a noble and brave young man, but she did not understand why her brother would praise an enemy in this way, just as she did not understand why Lazis was willing to hand over Damascus to the Christians.

After her initial fear subsided, she asked the young governor if she could go to the temple to pray. It was a tentative request, after all, in the records and stories she had read, Christians rarely allowed pagans to continue to keep their temples and scholars. But to her surprise, her request was granted.

Although the largest Umayyad temple has been converted into a Christian church, the Christians still allowed the people of Damascus to keep three temples.

Although the temple was so small that it was overcrowded, and the scholars and their students were driven out, believers still had a place to pray to God.

Inside the temple, there were only her and her maidservant, along with some ordinary monks. But as she walked down the street, she could still see quite a few Saracens. Although they had sorrow in their brows and their mouths always drooped down, and they would subconsciously avoid and look away when they saw Christians, at least their lives were normal.

As she left Damascus and continued her journey back to Holmes, she encountered merchants entering the city. They and their goods had been piling up for far too long, and as soon as the city gates opened, they surged in with an almost frenzied enthusiasm.

Because she was Saladin's sister and the wife of Ibn, the governor of Holmes, and because of the previous accident, she received many gifts. Some merchants, like bees smelling honey, came to her caravan. They wanted to ask her what she had to sell and what she wanted to buy.

Emina was deeply surprised, after all, everyone knows that after a war, no matter what kind of city it is, it takes several years of hardship to barely recover its former prosperity, or even to the point of being prosperous, but only to barely maintain a certain balance.

Like her former home, Apole, which was only caught up in the Saracen civil war, it has now been transformed from a prosperous metropolis into unrecognizable ruins.

Not to mention merchants, even workshop owners, landowners and ordinary residents of Apol want to leave—if it weren't for the ongoing war in Syria, Apol might already be a ghost town.

"Because he is fair," the merchant replied without hesitation. Merchants are arguably the most well-informed people, since commerce in this world is almost entirely controlled by those in power. Where merchants come from, where they go, what they can buy, what they can sell, and even the pricing and methods of buying and selling goods can all be subject to interference from the local rulers.

There's no need to elaborate on things like franchise licenses, production licenses, and transportation licenses for specific goods.

Transaction tax, market tax, landing tax, and all sorts of strange and complicated miscellaneous taxes derived from them are entirely at the discretion of the lord or his officials to increase or decrease them.

If a businessman lacks a keen sense of opportunity and doesn't know who to visit first and who to visit later when he arrives in a new place, and fails to make proper arrangements with certain people, he may not only lose his fortune, but could even end up in jail or lose his life.

“Although,” a merchant clicked his tongue and said with some regret, “this lord is just too fair.”

Those around him burst into laughter upon hearing this; it was not a grammatically incorrect sentence.

In the past, when lords and kings were judging cases—if a merchant could bring his commercial dispute to the king's attention, the lord or king, acting as the temporary judge, would always favor the merchant who had given him the most money. However, the lord never accepted the merchant's gifts casually. In Cyprus, even when Bethlehem, Arrassa Road, or Venetians had conflicts with foreign merchants, the same principle applied: whoever was more in the right or acted in accordance with the law, without any bias based on their status.

"What's wrong with that?" a merchant retorted, "Think of all the rock sugar, Roman cement, and coffee the Venetians took."

Moreover, Cyprus now uses only their own rulers and weights.

He meant that any merchant who comes to Cyprus, whether selling or buying, must comply with Cypriot law. Yes, they have a specific law, and in every market and shop there is a ruler, a weight, and a scale.

If a businessman complains that he doesn't have enough money to prepare such a set of tools, he can rent them temporarily.

In short, these are the things that Cyprus has the most of now—and this whole system was originally created by the Venetians!
Merchants didn't even need to walk a hundred steps to find another ruler and weight to determine whether the transaction between the two parties complied with the local laws. Some merchants, however, were defiant and tried to cut corners by switching the ruler and weight, but if they were discovered, they would be immediately thrown into prison for blasphemy against the lord.

"What does it mean to blaspheme the lord?" Emina couldn't help but ask.

The merchants explained that when the lord was determining the new units of measurement with the Venetians, he used his own height and weight. He used one two-hundredth of his weight as a pound and one-tenth of his height as a foot. This was slightly different from the original units of measurement and weight, but not by much.

"Did he see himself as a prophet walking among men?" At that moment, she felt somewhat displeased. Although Christians referred to César as a minor saint, this was a form of praise and expectation; for him to say it himself was presumptuous and arrogant.

"No, no, madam, the lord is doing this only to nip in the bud that is taking hold in Frankish times."

Since ancient Roman times, emperors have used their own feet, elbows, and arm spans to determine units of length. Later, Charlemagne of the Franks adopted this method, but this unit of measurement quickly underwent various changes. This was because those in power loved to hear flattery. When a merchant claimed that his "ruler" was because the king's feet or elbows were necessarily longer than those of ordinary people, it was difficult for the other party to refute him. After all, even the king would think such a statement was unreasonable and would certainly prefer another eloquent fellow.

But this kind of behavior is not seen in Cyprus.

Leaving aside the tax collectors and pipers scattered throughout the land, even the most ordinary people knew that their lord was not the kind of person who changed his mind frequently and was fickle. On the contrary, he respected promises and valued oaths extremely. Every ruler and weight used in the market was engraved with his family motto, "Be with the Lord," which was written by Cesare himself. Moreover, soldiers and tax collectors would tell merchants that arbitrarily altering these two items was an unforgivable sin. The lord did not need to belittle others or flatter them.

Emina listened intently: "Really? Can such a law actually be implemented?"

Frankish merchants were so despised precisely because they would do anything for the clinking of coins—from food and wine to cloth, from cloth to utensils, from utensils to furniture, from furniture to wood, metal, and charcoal, the number of people cheated after passing through their hands was countless.

At the same time, the merchants were also victims. They had to become cunning, otherwise a single deal could ruin them and leave them with no chance to make a comeback.

Even the lowest-ranking merchants are always better off than ordinary craftsmen or farmers.

“You don’t know this yet?” a Saracen merchant couldn’t help but say. “It’s not that we want to collude with infidels, nor that we don’t have wise monarchs or benevolent rulers among us, it’s just that their thoughts may not be as thorough and novel as this young man’s.”

He even held regular competitions for various goods at the market, much like a martial arts tournament.

"What kind of competition is this? It's a selection contest," a Christian merchant said, emphasizing the importance of the goods. "At the market, the Lord himself will come, accompanied by his family and servants, and each merchant must bring out the goods he is selling—goods that are currently being sold, not anything rare or unique."

For example, between silk and cotton, lords would prefer cotton.

Merchants would bring out the cotton cloth they were selling and compare it to each other, considering everything from the density of the thread and the number of knots to the dyeing process, width, length, and even thickness. The judgment wasn't made by the merchants or lords, but by the other merchants and commoners gathered in the market. Once they selected the best goods, that merchant would receive a franchise to choose one of three things: rock sugar, Roman cement, or coffee.

“Oh, right,” another merchant added, “there’s one more thing now, coal.” He looked rather troubled. “We don’t really need it.”

But all that dark stuff has been snatched up by those Frankish barbarians. Madam, it's getting colder the further north you go, and it's no secret that they need a lot of charcoal there.

It is said that this kind of coal, when burned, does not have that hellish smell, nor will it give rise to demons that strangle sleeping people; it can burn for a long time and can quickly boil a pot of water.

"I don't think I've seen much of it." Apol was sometimes very cold and gloomy, like in Sultan Nur ad-Din's harem, where every winter, dozens of women would fall ill with coughs and fevers due to the damp and cold air, eventually dying.

"Didn't I say those Frankish barbarians stole them?" the Saracen merchant said, shrugging.

Upon hearing this, another merchant couldn't help but ask longingly, "Would that lord do the same in Damascus?"

"They'll probably do that. But I think we'll have to wait until Damascus is pacified."

"Can you be sure he'll stay here as governor? If you're sure he'll stay here as governor, or whatever, even if I have to move my shops here, I'd be willing."

Where is your shop?

"Apollo".

"Hahahaha..." The merchants burst into laughter. In the past, anyone who owned a shop in Apole would be the envy of everyone. But now, everyone knows that the Queen Mother and Sultan Saleh of Apole are desperately short of money. They keep raising taxes, and the merchants are less willing to go there. The less the merchants go, the more they can extort money from others—it's a vicious cycle!
It's said that even the family that started making soap around 300 BC couldn't resist the urge to move away...

“But he’s a Christian,” Emina said involuntarily. “He’s a Christian, but I always felt he was more of a Saracen, a Saracen who followed the teachings of the prophet.”

A Saracen guide added.

They parted ways, and as she walked towards the outskirts of Damascus, gazing at the endless stream of carriages and horses, a strange thought even arose in Emina's mind.

She recalled the time when her brother Saladin was governor of Damascus, a period of great prosperity and peace when everyone lived in happiness and contentment.

Emina had once accepted her brother's invitation to live in Damascus for a time. She remembered the scorching sun, the gilded domes, the sapphire sky, and the emerald olive trees. She often saw groups of nobles, accompanied by their maids and attendants, spreading out exquisite carpets in the shade of the minarets, sitting there, smoking hookahs, drinking coffee, sitting cross-legged, and chatting on cushions.

Merchants mostly gathered under the colonnades at the edge of the market, which were remnants of the ancient Romans—you could see them in many places. Some merchants would hide behind the columns, their hands tucked into their sleeves, haggling and arguing with another person over the price of the goods they wanted—perhaps the Isaacs, who liked to determine the price of goods in this way.

More common were itinerant vendors and peddlers. Perhaps due to limited capital, their boxes and stalls contained only cheap and low-quality trinkets, scraps of cloth, or spices soaked in water. However, because of the low prices, they attracted many inquiries and purchases.

There are also small vendors selling their own dates, olives, and flowers. Sometimes they carry a basket on their back or a winnowing basket on their chest and hawk their wares. Others stay under the wooden roofs extending from the alleyways, taking advantage of the shade to leisurely do their business.

In certain fixed locations, you can see vendors selling straw mats, blacksmiths, and firewood.

If you get hungry while wandering around, you can go home, but that's what rich people and nobles do. Ordinary people usually just buy food from restaurants, which offer the most basic bean soup, fried dough rings, and some not-so-good meat.

There were also drinks, drinks with ice. Don't be surprised, this hot place has had methods for making and storing ice for a long time. Although expensive, it wasn't just for nobles and sultans to afford.

In the afternoon, people from all walks of life would perform ghusl, or ablution, and both men and women would clean themselves as much as possible before sunset. By evening, the scholars on the minarets would call people to prayer, and the streets would be deserted.

In the dead of night, there are only patrolling soldiers and cats and dogs wandering around.

"Madam?" the maid called out worriedly.

All the illusions shattered before her eyes like broken mirrors and vanished, replaced by pairs of pained eyes, helpless pleas, and arms as thin as withered branches reaching out to her, while her maids and attendants placed small bags of rice in their hands.

This was all she could do for the people of Damascus.

“Kind lady,” some people murmured, “God will protect you.”

Some people say, "You will ascend to heaven."

Some even kissed her feet, but Emina felt little joy, only the torment of a guilty conscience.

Because the suffering of these people was brought about by her husband, Ibn.

She admitted that her husband was originally an ambitious man, but so what? Every man she had ever met since birth was ambitious, including her father, her brother, and her uncle, but did such ambition really have to be paid for with the suffering of the people?

Especially after she had already seen "two" Damascus before.

Although she insisted on returning to her husband, the actions and words of her brother Saladin had a profound impact on her.

Emina also disagreed with treating Saracens and non-Sarasans differently. She suggested that the former might be given some preferential treatment, but the latter did not necessarily need to be exterminated. She even believed that some Christians, Turks, and even Isaacs who were willing to abide by their religious and secular laws could be tolerated.

Especially for ordinary people, if they were made to farm, trade, raise horses, cattle and sheep, and pay taxes and serve the Sultan, what would be unforgivable?
Ibn, however, did not think so. He had previously attacked Damascus twice, but failed both times with the combined efforts of Laziz and the people of Damascus, which greatly frustrated and humiliated him—at least that's how he saw it.

Finally, when Ibn heard that Laziz and the Damascus were willing to surrender to a Christian knight, he was furious. He did not want the Damascus to do this, because it was his previous constant harassment that made it impossible for the Damascus to continue.

In fact, Laches had sent him a letter asking for help, hoping he would come to Damascus's aid, but Ibn just sneered and threw the letter into the fire.

Perhaps Ibn had hoped to see a blood-soaked Damascus—he hoped that the Christians would kill all those who had resisted him after conquering Damascus—but Cesar did not do so.

This disappointed Ibn, and he flew into a rage, but he soon cheered up—because the Christians were also making foolish mistakes.

If Count Raymond of Tripoli had ruled the city from the beginning, the people of Damascus might have been able to tolerate his tyranny. But it was because of Baldwin and Cesar that the Count's harshness became unbearable for the people of Damascus.

Although Lazis certainly opposed it, unfortunately he was already imprisoned at that time, and the Damascus's momentary impulse brought them an irreparable disaster.

Ibn did not believe them at all. He regarded them as unfaithful people who had betrayed God, as maggots in flowers, and stains on carpets, and was determined to get rid of them.

After entering Damascus, he executed a large number of nobles in the city in the name of Lazis and expelled all the scholars who had returned, on the grounds that they had not put up a firm resistance when Damascus was attacked and had even abandoned their temples.

Officials who had been promoted by Lazis or those who had been left behind were also arrested, imprisoned, or executed. They were replaced by some people he brought from Holmes. Among them, there may have been some capable individuals, but most were sycophants who deceived their superiors.

As for the people of Damascus, he confiscated their property, ordered them to pay more taxes, and at the same time deliberately allowed his soldiers to oppress and humiliate them.

These soldiers marched through the streets; only a small portion were Saracens, the majority were Holmesian mercenaries and so-called reinforcements from other places, which was what made the governor of Holmes, Ibn, so proud.

According to him, not only did the Sultan of Al-Apoll send envoys and troops, but also Mosul, Bedouin, Turkmen, and Quman... even the Abbasid Caliph sent twenty white-skinned warriors and twenty black-skinned warriors, and even the distant Sultan of Khwarezm sent his son...

These people received a warm welcome from Ibn, who elevated him to the highest position. On any occasion, he sat in the main seat, on a silk cushion reserved for the Sultan. No head was raised before him, and not a speck of dust was beneath his feet. Silk, gold, and women were offered to him in abundance.

But Emina always felt that perhaps to those sultans and caliphs, Ibn was just a mercenary. They were unwilling to fight Christians because it could really mean death and deplete their savings—the gold and silk they offered Ibn were just a drop in the ocean… But Ibn had already emptied the treasuries of his family and the treasuries of Holmes and Hama.

There are now nearly 30,000 troops in Damascus. This number is not a figurative figure like that of Christians, but a real number.

As the defenders, they already had a considerable advantage, and this sheer number of troops fueled Ibn's arrogance. He even said that even if the Prophet were to rise from the dead and attack Damascus, he might not be able to take it down.

These blasphemous words were like a venomous snake biting into Emina's heart. She didn't know when her husband had become like this, or if he had never changed at all. Most Saracens were like Ibn, and how many could see further ahead like her brother Saladin?

Lazis might be one, but unfortunately, he has already been executed by her husband.

It goes without saying what would happen when such a large number of soldiers and ordinary people crowded into a city. Even Cesare couldn't guarantee that there wouldn't be one or two disloyal knights among his knights. Moreover, mercenaries are the most uncontrollable and insatiable group of people. They stayed here not only because Ibn emptied half of Damascus as their commission, but also because they were eager to continue attacking important cities such as Nalazar, Bethlehem, Arrassa, and Acre after defeating these Christians, so that they could plunder them and make a fortune.

Of course, this did not stop them from scouring Damascus like hungry hyenas, searching for the last bit of meat.

The Damascus mansion had been barely preserved when the Christians were still around—she had heard from the Damascus that there was even a knight named David who was willing to fight against his own people for their sake.

But now he, like his father, is a prisoner of Ibn. Having lost their last protection, Ibn has abandoned them, and those despicable beasts have become even more unscrupulous in their actions.

Women and children could be abducted, men could be killed, homes could be seized, and not only could valuables be stolen, but even the last bite of bread could be taken away.

Now, all Emina sees are elderly men, or rather, only these elderly men dare to appear outside. Young men are even tied up and whipped to perform forced labor.

They might have hidden one or two children, or a few women, somewhere, but they dared not call them out to walk around. Emina would place a small bag, a small bag of beans or wheat, in these empty hands, but she didn't know how long this could last.

Sure enough, when she returned to the Governor's Palace, she was met with a slap from her husband.

Ibn was, of course, furious. To him, the people of Damascus were nothing but a pack of unruly beasts, and he kept them around only to feed his bloodthirsty and insatiable mercenaries, not to allow his wife to demonstrate her mercy.

Moreover, it goes without saying how important food was to the defending troops at this time.

“Fine! Fine!” he shouted. “If you insist on doing that, then I’ll tell you what those people will do.”
"When they have no food, they'll capture all those people, roast them over a fire, and eat their flesh," he smiled maliciously. "So, do as you please. It's all food, just in different forms."

Emina vomited in disgust.

(End of this chapter)