survived.

Galio struggled into his dilapidated house, which he couldn't even call home, and sat down on the ground with some weakness, his heart pounding until now.

What happened tonight was a nightmare for him, a mediocre stevedore.

Whether it's those deformed, werewolf monsters that gnaw at the living.

Farris, a Frank man with a horned helmet, who rescued him in a moment of crisis.

and the section of the wall that seemed to be paved with corpses after the knight was gone.

And also...

And when he was allowed to leave.

The werewolves who had been nearly slaughtered, and had no resistance at all.

He lifted the jug in the corner, took a piece of dry cake and ate it, thinking to himself, those Franks, even the monster army can easily defeat them, is there anyone in this world who can stop them?

Then.

There was a sound of footsteps outside the door.

Mr. Hussein, the most revered member of the neighborhood and the one responsible for transporting him to the battlefield, was leading a group of residents in.

"Why are you back?"

"Galio, what's going on outside, has General Jabri defeated the Crusaders?"

"Looking at his appearance, he is so embarrassed, could he be a deserter?"

"That's right, he must have been a deserter, even if General Jabri wins the battle, he needs to fulfill his duty to defend the city, not show up in his kennel!"

The ghetto where he was located couldn't hide secrets, and before he entered the alley, someone might notice him coming back, after all, the moonlight was bright tonight, and the citizens didn't have the heart to go to bed early.

The crowd gradually filled the doorway of Galio's dilapidated house.

Someone shouted, "Anyway, catch him first!" ”

"This boy has become a deserter and betrayed the Governor of Mahri, and if we don't catch him, everyone will suffer."

"Mr. Hussein, what do you think?"

"You're going to arrest me?"

Galio, who was already feeling physically and mentally exhausted, perhaps because he was used to seeing dead people tonight, added a bit of anger to his chest, and he grabbed the iron sword he picked up from the pile of corpses, his expression was a little hideous.

He was forced out by these people to serve the neighborhood.

As a migrant worker, Galio is not a "citizen" at all, but a "commoner" at best, and can only do the cheapest manual work in the city, and has to suffer from the exploitation of the guild.

I didn't get much benefit, and I almost lost my life.

The more he thought about it, the more angry he became, and he pointed to the noisy figure in the crowd and shouted: "I'm just a stevedore, do I have to be killed like a chicken by the Franks to fulfill my duty?" ”

"Everybody's dead, Jabri, Himiro, Fadro - their big guys, the hapless ones who were sent with me, the ruffians of the city guards... The current city of Semanud is no longer in charge of Governor Mahri! ”

The young stevedore, who was holding the weapon, picked up the weapon in his hand and said with a hideous expression: "I ran away, yes, but I am a Christian, and I don't want to be a heretic... What's wrong with working for those monsters? ”

One stone stirs up a thousand waves.

No one cared about the anger of a tiny stevedore, but everyone cared about the news that the enemy had captured the city.

"Oh my God, the flame is on it!"

"It's a disaster."

"No wonder the movement outside has gradually quieted down, I thought it was General Jabri who defeated the Franks."

"What a holy fire, it is the Father above!"

The wise man has already begun to draw crosses in front of them, and when they return home, they will take out the icons and crosses handed down by their ancestors, and place them in the most conspicuous place, and hang the cross flag in front of their homes.

"Traitor, you have turned your back on the Holy Fire!"

Immediately, a citizen of the faithful stood up and rebuked the man: "Aren't you afraid that you will sink in purgatory after death and never be liberated?" ”

"Fart, I'm just pretending to convert, and I'll repent when King Saladin recovers Semanud."

"That's right, little Hassan is right, we're just pretending to be converted."

The citizens said this one after another, and no one cared about Galio, an inconspicuous stevedore.

Hussein coughed at this time, quieted down the group, and then spoke: "Little Hassan is right, let's all go back now, let your wives rush to make cross-embroidered flags overnight, everyone should not go out easily, and if the Franks break in, do not resist in vain." ”

After he finished speaking, he added: "Galio, you have to get out of here, you have become a soldier of the infidels, who knows if you have killed the soldiers of the Crusaders, if you continue to stay here, we may be affected by you." ”

Galio was stunned.

His expression was wonderful, as if he had watched a comical mime, and he burst out laughing.

In his opinion, this scene is too ironic.

Hussein's face was a little unbearable, with his status, when did he need to be ridiculed by such a lowly civilian.

"Get out of the way!"

Galio picked up the weapon in his hand: "I will go, I must tell you that I did desert from this battle, and I was almost killed by a monster of the Warlords, and it was a knight of the Crusaders who saved me." ”

He sneered, "That knight promised me to be his squire, so from now on, please leave my room, and I will naturally leave here after I have packed up." ”

"You want a deserter to be your squire?"

"He's lying!"

"Tie him up and give him to the Franks!"

Hussein's cheek twitched, and after a moment, he still said: "Galio, your time is limited, after packing up, let's leave as soon as possible, I don't want to see you in this neighborhood after a quarter of an hour." ”

No one believed that Galio would be valued by a knight.

What really made Hussein choose to back down was actually the weapon in Galio's hand and the eyes that put life and death aside - it was a manifestation of the transformation of man from a civilian to an outlaw.

…

Doge's Palace.

Lothar is working on a map.

It clearly indicates the various neighborhoods, towers, distribution of gang forces in the city of Semanud.

Now that the city of Semanoud has been laid, how to govern it has become a problem.

Normally, the city was run by the burgher class (decent people and merchants of the various artisanal guilds).

The owners of the city are often willing to give the citizens autonomy in exchange for a large sum of money, or sign a tax system similar to that of the tax collector, and sit back and wait for the money to be collected every year, without participating in the management of the city.

In addition to the self-government of the citizens, there was also a tradition of dividing the nobility of the city.

Divide the neighborhood into sections, each belonging to a certain nobleman, and sometimes just stepping on another street reveals the coats of arms worn by the guards, the color of the burqa, and the coats of arms hanging on the walls.

Many of the towers of the city were built by the urban aristocracy in order to condescend to detect the enemy's movements in the densely populated urban areas and to assert their authority.

Their infighting also often presents street scuffles similar to gang patterns, which is also the inspiration for Lothar when designing the "Two Sicilian Wolf Clan".

Truth be told, the urban aristocracy is usually the worst choice.

If the citizens are self-governing, they do not need to contribute on their own, and they can still collect money every year, and even recruit the city militia to fight.

Of course, the need for military service depends on the contract, as well as the strength of the lord and the burghers, and many European free cities have even defeated the local lords and forced them to grant "autonomy".

Such free cities often not only do not require military service, but even the money paid to the lord is very low.

In addition, there was no contradiction between the urban aristocracy and the autonomy of the burghers, and the two were usually in parallel.

It is not uncommon for a large businessman of the burgher class and a city councilor to be crowned a city nobleman by virtue of his contribution to the feudal monarch and his military expenses.

In the final analysis, it is still profit-oriented, as long as the finance and taxation can be provided, the lords and lords do not care who manages the city.

But Lothar was not an ordinary feudal lord, he thought more about the problem and the longer term.

Coors walked into the room, holding an open letter.

Lothar frowned and said, "Kurs, your face is not very good-looking, is there something wrong?" ”

"Yes, sir."

He handed the letter in.

"It's a letter from Baron Gofrey, who stayed in Damietta."

Lothar scanned it roughly, and the letter was about a Gallic Crusader lord who had thrown himself over to Richard the Lionheart, who had been killed by a coalition of peasant rebels.

"Peasant uprising?"

Lothar was not too surprised by this, where there was oppression, there was resistance.

As soon as some of the crusader nobles took possession of the territory, they recklessly exploited it, on the one hand, because they were really poor, and they had to do so in order to maintain the dignity of the nobles, and on the other hand, to maintain military supplies.

Many of the fallen knights who participated in the crusade had not been robbers before.

"The local lord didn't send troops to suppress it?"

"The strength of this rebel army is not weak, and it seems that they also have the private support of the Saracen lords, not only were they not suppressed, but they used the terrain to kill the suppression army and captured a large number of ordnance."

When it comes to the peasant rebels, most people's impression is nothing more than the word "rabble".

The peasants were undoubtedly the lowest and largest group of people in the world, but they were also the weakest link compared to the nobility, the clergy, and even the weaker burghers.

The only advantage of "the number of people and the strength of the many" is also because most of the leaders of the rebel army are illiterate and their vision is not broad enough, so they cannot be brought into play.

The peasant rebel army is considered to be on the high level even if it does not fall into infighting, let alone unite.

Lothar hesitated: "This matter..."

It's pretty bad, to be honest.

It was not that Lothar took pity on the tyrannical lord, but that he was worried that the crusaders in the province of Damietta would be seen by the Copts as strong and middle-class, after all, the inhabitants of the entire Damietta region must have millions of people, dozens of times more than the crusaders.

If they all raise the anti-flag, even if they are a rabble, they will definitely inflict heavy losses on the crusaders.