"Are you going to go on another expedition soon?" The early autumn wind, with the summer heat and humidity, Anna raised her chin and asked Gawain.

"Baldwin has taken control of the Porta Alexandria the Lesser (i.e., the Porte of Syria, from which Alexander the Great's expedition to the Persian Empire was named, very close to the city of Antioch), and the road to Antioch is open, but the next great disagreement among the pilgrims will soon come like a storm-for-for the Norman Tancred, the young boy, did not lose his strength after the Battle of the Pheramis, as I had expected, and he was in Maras, and in Tubersena, On the contrary, he gained greater prestige than Prince Ruben, and many local Armenian, Saracen, and even Turkic lords threw themselves on him. ”

"You mean, the Normans will not be willing to go all the way with us, but will take a detour through the mountains of Caesarea and Marash to Antioch?" Gawain exhaled, leaned on the cavernous windowsill, and nodded, "I'm afraid that many of the great lords will be deceived by Bohemond, and they will take this route, including Raymond, the two Roberts, and Stephen of Blois, who are also full of jealousy of Baldwin and my meritorious territory, but let them be, we will be in a much better position to go through the plains of Cilicia, supported by developed water transport and grain, than their marches - the march of Brasilon and the mountains of Paphragonia has killed so many war horses." The combat effectiveness of the team has been greatly weakened, which is why I can't resist confronting Theodoro and the Danishmond Turks, and this expedition to Antioch must avoid such a situation from happening again. ”

"The army will support you completely, and I will go with you. Stop at Zephilim, the Gospel Farms in West Cilicia need my Director to supervise and look after them. I'll help you oversee the logistics here. Anna stood on tiptoe and wrapped her arms around Gawain's waist. The request said.

I guess I heard the news that Cabeamiya would lead 400 Paulians into the army and serve as light archers! (After Aspar was killed, the Paulines also ceased a lot, and the female consul immediately sent many saffron seeds, and skilled flower farmers, expressing their willingness to let the military government monopolize this material) This little girl said that she was supervising the farm, but in fact she was using her position to supervise her own personal convenience - but Gawain was not easy to refuse, after all, Anna was one of the few people under his command who had the ability to supervise large undertakings. Even though she was a teenage girl, she was after all a scholar from the court, proficient in language and writing, able to read ancient agricultural books, and had helped her father to take care of the orphanages and almshouses in the imperial capital, and had a strong interest in politics -- it was better to channel her vigorous energy in this direction, so the "appointment" of her as the director of the Department of Agriculture was also taken into account.

"That's good, but don't disturb my military operations!" Gawain should be remarried. The tone also became stern, and after being spanked hard that night, Gawain regained the upper hand, and Anna became much more submissive. She immediately sweetly tightened up, saying of course not, "but if you go from the Adana Road." I must invite Sister Goethehild to come to Zefelim and be my company. ”

Now. Gawain seemed to remember something, "That's right. There is also a great work that you need to oversee - I am going to build a large hospital in the valley between the Seleucian port and the agora of Akoum. ”

"Is it a pilgrim's business?"

"Yes, in my conversation with Francesco, he advised me to do so. A large hospital, with lodging and lodging for pilgrims and warriors, I will write a letter asking the Holy See of Rome to approve the matter, and have asked Francisco to communicate with the 'Blessed One' in the Holy City. His Excellency Thom, who was also the director of John the Baptist's Hospital, made contact—Gerald said that he would be glad that the presence of a hospital serving the pilgrims in Seleucia, a key city in Asia Minor, would ease his work in the Holy City, and that Pantaleoni, the consul of Amalfi, would give his full support to the cause, since the hospital had been built with donations from his city's merchants. So Anna, in the future, you can just know what you say, and don't mention it too much in front of others. Gawain cautioned.

In fact, pilgrimage was very popular in Europe as early as the time of Charlemagne, when many kings were eager to get monks from Jerusalem to do penance work on their deathbeds, so they donated a lot of money to help monks build churches and hospitals in the holy city, responsible for rescuing pilgrims from afar, and burying the dead Christians, but later destroyed most of them by the Seljuk Turks. The donation of Amalfi City, and the "John the Baptist Hospital", which was run by the Benedictine monk Gerald, was one of the lucky ones - because Gerald endured the humiliation and paid heavy taxes to Crescent officials every year in exchange for the safety of the business, but this also gave rise to another problem, the hospital was financially constrained, and the Benedictine Church had already attached importance to the practice of life and did not accept the luxurious rights of life, but now it had to bear the heavy taxes imposed by the pagans, which made the economic situation worse.

Now that Gawain was willing to pay for the establishment of a hospital and a inn in Seleucia, Abbot Gerard was naturally overjoyed, and Seleucia, which was located in the middle of southern Asia Minor, was a good transit point for pilgrims by sea, and it would be nice if pilgrims could enjoy care and services here. He soon granted Gawain the license of the "Hospital of John the Baptist" to Gawain, and the permission from Urban II's side must have been a matter of course.

"Big barbarian, I don't care if I don't say such things, but don't we have any interests at all, so we build this hospital, and we don't charge any fees for passing personnel, but also pay for places, personnel, and medicines, won't that cause a great burden on the finances?" Anna asked curiously.

"I've built a hospital in Bari before, and the benefits are much greater than the pay, and this investment is even more so." However, Gawain's answer came to an abrupt end, leaving Anna with room to ponder.

However, Anna now knew that the cost of building the hospital was not a big problem: Gawain had previously joined forces with Baldwin to conquer Adana, Issus, Mamisstra and other places, plundering no less than 100,000 Byzantit gold coins, of which Gawain received forty percent, which was actually equivalent to transporting the wealth of Eastern Cilicia to Seleucia, and in addition to the rewards for the soldiers of the division, there were nearly 20,000 Byzantian gold coins.

At that time, it was only 3,000 to 10,000 gold coins to build or redeem a castle, so it was more than enough to build a hospital with this money. (For example, during the Third Crusade, Richard the Lionheart conquered Byzantine Cyprus, and then he could not govern it, so he sold it for 100,000 Byzantine gold coins, of which 40,000 had to be paid in cash, and a Cyprus was worth that price.) )