People in the Middle Ages, draw cards to get promoted

Chapter 896 Treasure
Groups of Crusaders strolled through the streets of Damascus, carrying the arrogance of conquerors but also the reservedness of country bumpkins coming to the big city.

boom--

Several armed monks raised their pickaxes and smashed the relief on the lintel of the Holy Fire Temple. They hung a huge wooden cross they carried with them above the temple, which drew cheers from the Crusaders.

The monks of the Order of Saint Lazarus immediately blocked the library in Damascus.

Here, they discovered tens of thousands of precious books, including parchment, papyrus, and oriental paper, covering a time period from the Greek successors to the Old Empire, the Eastern Empire, and even the Saracen dynasties. Many of these precious manuscripts were not available even in the Library of Constantinople, which was famous for its rich collection of books.

"Your Majesty, what a happy event!"

Bishop Urdin, a stern old man, showed such joy for the first time: "You will never guess what I found in the library, a copy of Geometry and Avicenna's Canon of Medicine. The essence of Saracen civilization is all here."

Lothar obviously understood the value of this knowledge better than those crude Crusader lords. Medical books could cure diseases and drive away plague; artisan books could improve farm tools and build water conservancy projects; there were also many handicraft books, astronomy, geometry, and even ancient alchemy, all of which were of great use.

For example, the astronomy books in the book show that the Saracens were able to develop such a prosperous maritime transportation industry with the help of astronomy.

"How does it compare to the collection in Cairo?"

"It needs to be even richer. The collection in Cairo is made up of too many theological books. Many of them are annotations or records of debates left by Zoroastrian masters. It is very difficult to identify useful knowledge."

Seeing Ulding so excited, Lothar couldn't help but smile and said, "From now on, this library will be handed over to you. All the soldiers of the Order will be assigned to you. Please organize and translate these books as soon as possible."

"No problem. Many of the books in Damascus are relics of the empire, and even many Latin and Greek originals are preserved, which greatly reduces the difficulty of translation."

Urdin made a guarantee, but his eyes were fixed on the Medical Codex in his hand without blinking. Lothar subconsciously lowered his footsteps so as not to disturb the other party anymore and walked straight out of this priceless treasure house.

Lothar was well aware of the importance of these books. How did the Saracens, who were originally nomadic people, build such a vast empire and become a beacon of medieval civilization?

The Saracens of this era were truly qualified to call Europeans Frankish barbarians.

Saladin had three core cities in his territory in Syria. Although Antioch was the most prosperous in his early years, by the time the Crusaders captured the city, it had declined to the point where only tens of thousands of residents remained.

The second is Aleppo. In the early years under the rule of the Zengid Dynasty, this place was also extremely prosperous as the capital. However, a major earthquake fifty years ago caused Aleppo to suffer severe damage, resulting in the loss of nearly 200,000 people. It has not yet recovered its prosperity.

Finally, there is Damascus. It has been the capital of the vast Saracen Empire since the Umayyad dynasty. Throughout the Abbasid, Fatimid, Zengid and Ayyubid dynasties, it has always been an important hub city, in no way inferior to Alexandria, Ctesiphon and Baghdad, and only slightly inferior to Constantinople.

By taking Damascus, Lothar would have obtained half of the inheritance of the entire Saracen civilization, many of which were even inheritances that had been discontinued in the Eastern Empire. According to the descriptions in the immortal cultivation novels, it was no less than digging up the tomb of an ancient powerful being.

In the city, the Crusaders who were patrolling the streets in groups of two or three soon received the news.

"Have you heard? His Majesty is going to publicly execute Reynard in the central square, and everyone who has nothing to do should go and watch the ceremony!"

"Reynard?"

The knight who heard the news was a little incredulous and said, "Which Reynard? Could it be the King of the Dead Sea?"

After receiving a positive answer from the other party, the knight couldn't help but exclaimed: "Oh my God, such a great man is going to be executed. What crime did he commit?"

Although he was just a clown in Lothar's eyes, even though Reynald had lost his title of earl, he was still undoubtedly one of the greatest nobles in the Holy Land.

The territories of the nobles in the Holy Land were generally small. In the early years, the entire Kingdom of Jerusalem even had only four major barons.

Someone like Baron Godfrey, who has hundreds of light and heavy cavalry under his command, is already a very prominent and powerful person in the kingdom. Otherwise, he would not have been able to carry the banner of the royalist party on his own.

Someone immediately expressed his opinion: "Your Majesty wants to kill him, and he definitely deserves to die."

Another noble from the Holy Land could not help but retort: ​​"What if His Majesty wants to kill you?"

"That means I deserve to die too!"

"you!"

"This is simply crazy. Your Majesty, this will put everyone in danger."

In the Song Dynasty in the East, the emperor and the literati ruled the world together, while the European tradition was that the king and the nobles ruled the world together.

According to the "Ordinance of Jerusalem" issued by Godfrey of Bouillon, the guardian of the Holy Sepulchre, the king had the right to execute a vassal who committed a serious fault, but Baldwin IV never exercised this authority.

Over time, it has become a recognized unspoken rule that no nobles, at least great nobles, will be punished, unless it involves unforgivable crimes such as treason and regicide.

"Doesn't Your Majesty have the power to execute a criminal?"

"Of course there is... But I think that the fact that Lord Reynard and his knights killed more than a dozen pagans is not worthy of being executed as a nobleman."

In addition to this reason, there are many other reasons that cannot be stated.

Many Crusaders also committed robbery, extortion and other violations of military regulations in private. After all, the citizens and clergy of Damascus were too wealthy, and money could tempt people. In the face of interests, Lothar's authority was not 100% effective.

It’s just that their actions were more secretive and they were not caught by the supervision team. The citizens who were blackmailed thought they were in the same group. In addition, due to language barriers, the other party did not do anything excessive and was unlikely to come forward to complain.

More and more Crusaders gathered at the square. Some of them wanted to persuade Lothar to take back his order, but most of them just wanted to watch the fun.

As a great noble, the target chosen by Lothar to make an example of someone was just right. It would not touch the nerves of veteran nobles such as Reynard, but was enough to shock people - if he could kill Reynard, why can't he kill you?

The city is bustling, and it is not quiet outside the city either.

Groups of Damascus prisoners were escorted separately to various camps left by the Crusaders outside the city. Having been stripped of their armor and having lost their weapons, they looked confused and filled with fear for the future.

"Will we be sold into slavery in the mines?"

Someone murmured quietly that slaves also had different ranks, and the Mamluks were slaves, but who dared to look down on them? Saladin's household slaves, those lowly black slaves, even had to be careful to please some dignitaries.

"Selling us as slaves is still good. I am now worried that they are going to lock us up in a camp and let the dragon burn us all to death."

"We can't just wait to die like this, let's just fight them!"

"Idiot, that's all speculation. We have no weapons and no armor. If those Crusader Knights charge, we will be slaughtered in the wilderness!"

"That's better than waiting to die!"

The soldiers who escorted them and understood Saracen took a deep look at the "instigators" in the crowd and finally said, "Don't think about it. You will not be executed or sold into slavery, but your hands are stained with the blood of Christians. You must redeem your freedom with labor."

These Saracen soldiers, especially the Mamluks who are professional soldiers with good combat skills, are destabilizing factors and will never be let go.

Losa's response was also very simple, which was to set up labor camps, select those with outstanding performance and greater cooperation, and absorb them into the army. Ordinary elements would redeem themselves as civilians after working, and the diehards would be driven into the mines.

For example, the one who instigated the prisoners to rebel was labeled a "diehard" by the soldiers escorting them and was forced to work in the mines for three years - this was basically equivalent to a death sentence.