In the beginning, Egil's attitude towards Zhaohaier was nothing more than dispensable. (The update is the fastest and most stable, look,.) Of course it's good that he surrendered, but it's nothing if he doesn't. However, when the spies in Jerusalem came to the news that Zhaohail had guessed half of Egil's next strategic objective, Egil's interest in this guy increased greatly.

"This guy's strategic vision is pretty good...... Although due to limitations, only half of the guess was correct. But it's already stronger than the vast majority of people in the world. Egir flicked his fingers at the paper of the report, and marveled—yes, just as Zhao Haier had guessed at the beginning for the sake of his skill. His Majesty the Emperor of the Norman Empire did intend to open a second battlefield and continue to attack Egypt's power - after all, the goal given by the system was to cut the opponent's strength in half - or even eliminate it. The capture of Jerusalem was only the lowest and lowest goal.

Damascus. The capital of the empire founded by Saladin is claimed to be the largest and most prosperous city in Islam. In terms of size, status, and importance, it is much larger than Jerusalem, a purely religious city. And its garrison ...... Unfortunately, there were only about 10,000 troops, although the 10,000 troops were relatively elite professional troops. But the quantity is still insufficient.

people, and even the Crusaders themselves. The vast majority of people thought that the goal of the campaign was Jerusalem - or that then, after the capture of Jerusalem, greed would drive the soldiers and the noble lords to continue the campaign. But while Jerusalem was still in Muslim hands, no one wanted another city.

Except for Egil.

One of the few commanders of the Norman Empire with the rank of marshal, Egil's henchman. Joan of Arc, who was also one of his pillow men, led a total of 20,000 heavily armed Norman soldiers, and a similar number of Eastern European conscripts, the Christian Crusaders - 40,000 troops in total appeared under the walls of Damascus, and when they attacked with the siege machinery that had been prepared, the defenders of Damascus did not even react - and some even took these soldiers as their own army, shouting to open the gates to meet them, and no one expected that they would be attacked.

The term crusader was too far for the inhabitants of Damascus. In addition to being often used by mothers to scare the little ones into obedience. Never appeared anywhere again. It's more like a noun, a distant thing, a ghost with an inexplicable shape. and not an actual enemy......

Thus, when the news of the Crusader siege came, when the large number of well-armed Crusader soldiers slowly approached Damascus through the morning mist, the defenders on the walls did not have time to react. It almost allowed the Norman hussars to take the gates. When the inhabitants of Damascus heard the news, they were at first surprised, and after a while they reacted - and then they felt a little inexplicable, and even suspected that it was a prank...... It was not until the Norman soldiers shouted and rushed over with ladder carts, building carts, rushing carts and other siege machinery, and no one could ignore the earth-shattering killing sounds, that people believed for sure that it was indeed the Crusaders......

"Quick, get up to the wall!Blow the trumpet, prepare your bow and arrows, resist, kill them!!! quickly," At this moment, the general of the Damascus garrison appointed by Saladin was still drunk and asleep. The army garrisoned on the walls was less than a thousand men. The rest of the troops still slept in the barracks in the city......

"It's just too simple. At the time, Joan of Arc, who was in a wheelchair, barely stood up. Then he said with a frown. In order to achieve the suddenness of the battle, she deliberately ordered the army to sleep during the day, get up at midnight and start preparations. Attack at dawn...... However, despite this, she didn't expect things to be so simple. As the ladder cart approached the city walls, the assault troops moved quickly, forcibly breaking through the defenses of a small number of enemies and opening the city gates...... The total time spent before and after this was definitely not more than half an hour. ...,

"This is in times of war...... Such a lack of vigilance really shouldn't be. Joan of Arc shook her head, and watched her army rush into the city cheering, and after waiting a little longer, she unsurprisingly received good news from the attacking troops from several other directions—that Damascus had been lost on all sides. It's going to be gone......

After this, Joan of Arc took out her pocket watch and looked at it, the hands of which were approaching seven o'clock. A smooth mess.

"The order goes down, and in the evening I want Damascus to take over in its entirety. Joan of Arc seemed in high spirits for a moment. Because the siege battle went unexpectedly well, she also rarely seemed a little excited. Originally, her goal was to capture Damascus within a month. The end result is that way.

"This gives you more time for other tasks. Joan of Arc had this in mind: with Damascus as the center, send cavalry units to sweep the surrounding enemy towns and tribes. After that, the main force continued northward and captured Aleppo. and then occupy the whole of northern Syria...... If everything were as easy as the capture of Damascus, the whole task would be completed by June at the latest...... The whole of Northern Syria was a larger territory than the Kingdom of Jerusalem in its heyday. Just thinking about it makes people's blood boil.

When the Crusaders stormed the city, the already panicked inhabitants of Damascus became even more panicked. Quite a few people chose to resist, and they raised whatever they could use as weapons, benches, farm tools, stones. Even with bare hands - of course, this level of resistance was soon well armed and trained. The murderous crusaders were settled. Then the improvised conscripts, as well as the Christian crusaders, could not bear it anymore and looted, set fires, and raped. All kinds of crimes are staged one after another.

And Norman's army turned a blind eye to this. Some of the soldiers were eager to get involved, but were quickly reprimanded by the officers.

"Our goal is not that—in the city, in the places where the pagan nobles live, and in the storehouses, and in the palaces of the pagan chieftains. The pagan merchants' cabinets—those are our targets!" the Norman officers reprimanded their men in a whisper, but unusually harshly. At the same time, under the guidance of the Norman spies who had infiltrated the city in advance, they rushed towards those more valuable targets. In addition to this, a number of Norman soldiers were sent to the barracks area of the city to deal with the enemy defenders.

The battle went very smoothly, and under the guidance of Norman spies who were familiar with the terrain, the Norman army advanced quite quickly. They quickly seized important warehouses stocked with military supplies, precious metals, or grain. The homes of those Arab nobles were ransacked. And step by step, he advanced towards the palace in the middle of Damascus, the beautiful Grand Palace, which Saladin had spent countless efforts and money to build.

"What's going on?!Can anyone tell me what's going on?!" Just after the Crusaders had broken through Damascus, Abdullayah, the general of the Damascus garrison, woke up, jumped out of his bed, and then roared like this, grabbing his coat and draping it over his body, shouting at the equally panicked guards: "Can it still be the Crusaders?"

And then, with a dense rain of arrows, several guards in front of him screamed and fell in a pool of blood, and he was also hit by several arrows. I can't afford to fall to the ground, and I'm going to die.

"Shit, damn it......" the Arab general continued to struggle, trying to get up. Soon, however, he was kicked back by a Norman centurion who rushed in. Then he stomped on his stomach hard. The pain was so intense that Abdullaye screamed. ...,

"That's right, it's the Crusaders, it's our ......," said the Norman officer, with a triumphant smile characteristic of a victor. At the same time, he drew the battle axe from his waist, bent down and cut off the general's head, and then stuck it in the shaft of the spear handed by his men. Then he shouted, "Grab me!" This guy is a big official, and he must have a lot of good things in his house - and, remember, half of the robbery must be given to the lord. If anyone dares to hide it privately, don't blame me for not being emotional!"

The soldiers, who had been impatient, laughed and agreed to the officer's words, and then scrambled into Abdullaya's villa. Magnificent gowns made of ceramic vases, gold and silver vessels, ornaments, silver cutlery and precious fabrics...... Others, similar, valuables were emptied - and when they found Abdullayah's treasury, there was a cheer from the crowd - as one of Saladin's trusted generals, this guy had a very rich family......

In this way, Damascus fell in chaos. The Arab star and moon banner was torn down by the Crusaders and thrown to the ground and trampled. The Crusader flag with a red cross on a white background, the Norman phoenix flag and the Emperor's Will banner were replaced......

And in this battle, the only real battle was in the area of the barracks, where the Arab defenders were dying - although they did not react immediately. But then, after the Crusaders broke the city, the nearly 10,000 defenders in the area refused to surrender and chose to hold on. And the crusaders became scattered after entering the city. For a while, there was no strength to forcibly break through here......

! @#