Hearing Gawain's words, Anselm was silent, but his throat made a loud noise, a bit like thick phlegm stuffed there, gurgling up and down, Gawain knew the patriarch too well, and such a demeanor reflected that he began to weigh the stakes. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Gawain pouted with anticipation and grievances: "I am an old friend of the Holy See, he is equal to my father, I am equal to his son, and we are like brothers and sisters, so you are not also equal to the son of the Holy See?" In addition, people, we must always look forward, and the Holy See is also very old now, and it may not be a few years before we have to take over, and we have to pay attention to the aftermath now. ”

"That's right, ahem."

"So my idea is that I beg you to draw up a document and send it to the city of Rome, saying that I am willing to become a vassal of the Holy See, as in Sicily, and to pay the vassal tax to the city of Rome every year, on the condition that I wish to become a 'papal emissary' and that you will return to the city of Rome to be a cardinal of a diocese."

Anselm's eyes quadrupled, his appearance had the sequelae of snoring, although he tried his best to deal with religious affairs on weekdays, he always did not sleep well, his appearance was swollen, his mouth was drooling, his hair was thinning, and his chin was short and protruding, but even so he still had a fervent yearning for the Holy See in the city of Rome: I am almost sixty years old, and I am the patriarch of such an important area as Tarsus, there is no reason to be worse than Sambel and Maurice in Jerusalem, "You can, Anselm come on!" ”

After making up his mind, Anselm swallowed his mouth completely, stretched out his hand, and clasped it tightly with the smiling Gawain, "Paperwork, I'll draft it right away!" ”

Soon after, a large number of old and new ships set sail from the new port of São Paulo and arrived at the port of Salamis, Cyprus - the former Tarsus Governor Andodat commanded two brigades, plus nearly 10,000 civilian troops and new annexed troops, day and night, arrived in Belitus and disembarked with Jubail, and then he joined Prajit, the officer who stayed behind, and officially began to march north along the coastal passage on the west side of the Lebanese Mountains, and a few days later arrived at the "Pilgrim Hill", which occupies less than two quakes from the port of Bora, and built roads and forts on this mountain, began to erect siege equipment and lay siege artillery to look down on the fortresses and walls of the city, and on the other hand, Winmoha led a fleet (including four large ships supported by Amalfi and Reladuck) to tightly block the sea of Bora Harbor.

At the same time, Anderodat sent to the mountain plateau on the east side of the mountain plateau by the former Patriarch of Antioch. Oakhill's own letter was addressed to the Maronites who lived in the mountains, and who had previously obeyed John Murphy. In a letter to Patriarch Antioch, he asked all Maronite hill followers to submit to the authority of Tarsus and to help the siege of Tripoli.

The Maronite leader said yes, but on the condition that "we are allowed to keep the armed forces and the fortress in the mountains." ”

Ander Odat also personally stamped the reply, "Absolutely. ”

At the beginning of October, more than 3,000 Maroon soldiers descended the mountain and camped on the side of the Tarsus Guards, reinforcing the siege of Androdart.

Earlier, the city of Tripoli, having learned that the situation was not good, sent messengers to the city of Damascus to report to their original suzerain, Dukaq. Tutushi pleaded for military assistance, or diplomatic mediation.

The city even offered to pay 50,000 gold coins as a reward if the Tarsus side were willing to withdraw their troops.

But Tripoli, which has always been the most important shipbuilding base in the Levant, with a complete dock and port, has long been a battleground for Gawain, and he now doesn't care about money or people, as long as the city. Ducak is also a somewhat weak character, in the face of the vassal city's request for help, he did not dare to send troops to turn his face with Gawain, but sent a secret envoy to the court of Tarsus to plead that he "has no intention of provoking", which is equivalent to secretly betraying Tripoli!

The desperate city of Tripoli began to turn to the Fatimid court in Egypt for help.

This is the only hope they have left.

But now Fatima's momentum is even more declining than before. Before the Christians' crusades, it had lost vast territory to the East and West, and could only maintain influence in Egypt itself and some seaport cities in the southern Levant, and then it was invaded by the emerging Turks, who lost power over Baghdad and Syria. At home, where famine, religious persecution, and corruption were rife, the fertile Nile no longer brought food, the Coptic peasants died or fled en masse, Christians and Jews were forced to wear black robes and special emblems and were discriminated against and abused, and the scheming generals and ministers fought each other with the support of Berber, Turkic, Armenian, or Ethiopian mercenary forbidden armies, and the Caliph was little more than a noble prisoner in a majestic palace.

Now that the Christians have recovered Jerusalem, Egypt's control of the territory has shrunk, but the powerful Grand Vizier Everdel has been able to stabilize the crumbling situation with an iron fist. However, after the previous Battle of Azul, Everdler was defeated by the combined forces of Gawain, Baldwin, and Bohemond, and lost most of his elite army, so he hid in Ashkelon's mansion and was ashamed.

Therefore, when the letter of help from Tripoli reached him, Everdeler immediately decided that "it would be harmful to go to war with Tarsus and Jerusalem at this moment." Then he sent several envoys to the palace in Cairo by boat and told the Fatimid caliph Musta Ali, "From now on, we must take the tax system and recuperate as the best policy, and strive to maintain peaceful relations with other countries." ”

In addition to justice, of course, there was his selfishness in doing so: most of the elite of the dynasty was still concentrated in the Ashkelon region, and he stayed here trying to hold on to this army, unwilling to move out at will in order to maintain his power.

The letter from the Grand Vizier arrived at the gates of the Caliph's Palace, which was guarded by an Armenian Praetorian Guard, commanded by Ashot, who had previously defended the castle at the Battle of Kars and had been captured by Gawain.

It was getting late, and the caliph was sleeping in another palace, the Western Palace, so his trusted General Asaut took the letter.

Unexpectedly, when the servant held the candle, he accidentally burned the corner of the letter, and General Asaut hurriedly asked two Coptic clerks to tear out the small black half of the letter and put it on the table for rescue transcription.

It doesn't matter if this transcript is made, that is, the bloody "change of the Raven Palace".