People in the Middle Ages, draw cards to get promoted

Chapter 195 Pirates on the Red Sea
Clear sky.

The humid sea breeze from the Mediterranean blows away the sand and dust brought from the inland desert.

Lothar was wearing a black cloak and riding a mount, walking at the front of the team.

Next to him is Ned Stark, who has just joined him and has not yet changed his job. He has collided with the characters in Winter and Song of Fire, but it is not uncommon.

Queen Agnes's husband and lover have the same name.

However, this did not affect Lothar's interception of a batch of well-fitting plate armor that was being sold in the armor workshop in Jerusalem, and changed the outfits of these knights who had recently come into effect under his command in advance.

"Ned, what happened to you and that noble girl from Austria?"

Ned forced a smile, "My lord, you still remember this."

Lothar said with a smile: "Of course, I was very envious of the way you looked at each other in the martial arts arena. A pure love is so precious among the nobles."

Ned lowered his eyes and said in frustration, "Scarlett was betrothed to a powerful baron. You also know that her father would not agree to betroth her to me for a poor knight like me."

Lothar was silent for a moment, feeling that his talent in chatting was really limited.

The outcome of that matter, think about it.

But he just didn't think about it, so he opened his mouth and came.

"Birth is not everything, Ned."

Lothar showed an encouraging smile: "I believe that even a person of ordinary origin without prominent ancestors and blood can make a great career."

Ned was stunned for a moment, he took this as Lothar's comfort to him, and said gratefully: "You can say that, I am very grateful."

Because what Lothar said is contrary to the mainstream view in Europe.

After the success of the Habsburg family in later generations, they also desperately tried to trace their unremarkable blood to a source—just as unreliable as the Li family of the Tang Dynasty recognizing Lao Tzu as their ancestor.

The Harburgs of later generations even referred their ancestors to the Julius family where Caesar belonged.

This Shinra and Rome, can that be the same thing?
"Honestly, Ned, I rarely see North Germans in the Holy Land."

Ned is from Holstein, which is almost the closest border of Great Germania to northern Europe.

Ned explained: "Just like in the Holy Land, you rarely see the Iberian Crusade. Compared with the Eastern Crusade, we would rather participate in the Northern Crusade, because it is closer to our hometown."

The targets of the Northern Crusades were the Baltic states, the later famous Kingdom of Prussia, and its predecessor, the Teutonic Knights, were the products of the Northern Crusades.

"I see."

The two were chatting, Ned was a very smart knight, with both courage and intelligence, and he was considered the most outstanding among the newly recruited command knights who were about to change their profession.

Beside the road, there are criss-crossing fields and grape plantations. A carriage carrying oak barrels is driving on the simple dirt road towards Jerusalem.

The estates of villages and nobles are distributed in various places in an orderly manner.

Some wealthy knights even built castles in their own territory. They stood on high ground, with various coats of arms and flags flying on the top.

"Lothar, are these lands yours?"

Otto galloped to Lothar's side and asked in surprise.

Lothar stretched out his hand, pointed to a grape plantation and said: "From there, except for some manor estates that were entrusted to the knights, they are all mine."

Otto immediately showed an envious expression: "Father, don't you have endless wine?"

Lothar snorted softly: "Well, not only that, Hebron's wine is famous throughout Jerusalem, and I can support an army of hundreds of people just by relying on the wine industry."

The land of the Earl of Aargau is actually quite fertile, but due to traffic and other problems, the crops produced cannot be sold into currency, and the grain in the warehouse obviously cannot be converted into various consumer goods.

The truly wealthy aristocrats on the European continent must belong to those who occupy large gold and silver mines and can exercise the right to mint coins.

For example, Emperor Henry, who owned the Gosla silver mine, and Ottoka I, Duke of Bohemia, who controlled the major gold and silver mines in Bohemia.

The famous silver mines of Tyrol under the control of Leopold, the Austrian frontier count, are still undiscovered.

Lothar actually has the idea of ​​buying this territory from Leopold if he returns to Europe one day.

This can be regarded as one of his few "foresights" that can be used.

Arrived at Hebron.

This former capital of King David at the beginning of the founding of the country, the city of Zoroastrianism and the Holy Land of Judaism, once again brought Otto an unimaginable shock.

Looking at the magnificent buildings, magnificent, mansions with gardens.

Otto had the feeling that Grandma Liu had entered the Grand View Garden.

That's the only way to be called a "prince" right?

In comparison, Argau, who is also an earl, is like a rich man in the countryside.

"Lothar, is this city your fief?"

Otto was not so much asking a question as he was expressing emotion.

"of course."

"Heavenly Father, His Majesty the King is really generous. Although you have made such outstanding achievements, such a rich city can be granted to you just by saying it?"

Lothar nodded slightly: "Well, I have to thank His Majesty for his generosity."

In addition to the city-states on the Apennine Peninsula in continental Europe, many cities in the Germanic region with a population of 6000 to [-] people already belong to the category of "big cities".

Paris, with nearly 5 people, and London, with 3 to [-] people, are both big cities second to none.

The entire population of Albion, including Gaelic and Ireland, is just over 300 million.

"In Europe, even some grand dukes don't have such a large and rich city. Even if there are, they are divided into free cities and city-states."

The rise of the city brought about the rise of handicraftsmen, guilds, and representatives of the citizens. The nobles needed them to earn money for themselves, and the two parties compromised each other in the struggle, thus giving birth to the rise of free cities.

"Of course, this is a holy land flowing with milk and honey."

Lothar said with a smile.

In fact, the population of the Kingdom of Jerusalem is not large, but a few large cities appear to be more developed due to commercial or religious reasons.

The permanent population of Hebron is more than 1, but if you count the pilgrims, it can easily double.

Lothar returned to the inner castle of Hebron, only took a short rest, prepared a glass of wine chilled in the well for each of the knights he led, and began to ask Coors about the recent situation of Hebron.

The answer can be simply summed up in four words "orderly".

Since the attack that night.

Lothar wiped out the traitors and rebels left behind by the local leaders, and was hit hard by Coors' thunderous means. Many people disappeared without a sound.

There was no public trial, and no arrests were made. It was just that their shops, mansions, and fields all quietly changed owners.

The butler of the royal court who used to be a vampire guard and protected the upper blood nobles full-time, because he has dealt with too many assassinations, he is also very good at assassination.

The ghostly and unpredictable shadow magic is impossible for ordinary transcendents to counteract.

What a talent Coors is!
Lothar felt emotional, and said to Coors: "Coors, are you too humble to be my housekeeper and financial officer?"

Coors shook his head and said respectfully: "Serving you is the duty of a servant."

Lothar said simply: "Well, Coors, I authorize you to form a spy force directly under me, responsible for intelligence, assassination, and security work. The manpower is from veterans, Varangian guards and others. Choose from among the hussars, whose loyalty is guaranteed."

"I see."

"In the initial stage, we don't need too many people. Let's tentatively set it to ten people. I know this is very small, but let's build a framework first."

Lothar's current military strength is actually quite a lot. As long as the full quota is recruited, he will basically be able to touch the upper limit of his current directly-administered territory and population.

But what is lacking is time.

"Oh, by the way, where's Julia?"

Julia was the vampire that Fringilla subdued, and after completing the task of assassinating Countess Stephanie, Lothar left her behind.

"Are you talking about the native vampire?"

Coors frowned slightly: "I'm sorry, my lord, because of the shortage of manpower some time ago, I took it upon myself to send her to scout for me."

Lothar couldn't help saying with emotion, as expected of a vampire, how could anyone be allowed to be lazy.

"Well, well, Hebron doesn't keep people who live on nothing."

Coors felt the same way, so he said, "My lord, that Baron Fulk, after recovering from his injury, was assigned by me to be a city guard officer, don't you think so?"

Lothar understood what Coors meant, shook his head and said, "Coors, I have a shortage of places for order knights. This Fulk, even if he has any outstanding talents, let's talk about it later."

To be honest, even without a job change, the loyalty of many subjects under Lothar's command is guaranteed.

After all, he is not some perverse tyrant who does not distinguish between rewards and punishments.

Therefore, for some knights and troops that do not involve his core secrets, Lothar generally has the idea of ​​not needing or delaying his job transfer.

"Okay, I won't stay here any longer, Coors, I'm relieved that Hebron is in your hands."

He also asked Andreas to study hard with Coors, so that he could be on his own as soon as possible.

Lothar left Hebron with his people and continued to the Port of Ella.

...

Red Sea.

The earth-red cliffs on both sides reflect a dark red color under the sunlight, and the dense algae in the shallow sea make this ocean really have a dark red color at first glance from a high place.

Two triremes sailing warships sailed side by side, cutting through the waves.

They are a pirate group from Yemen. Most of the former pirates were fishermen near the Gulf of Aden. They have nominally surrendered to Ayub with the Yemeni King Shemur, but they often flirt with Sassan Persia, who was loyal to them in the past. .

In the Indian Ocean, even flying the holy fire flag of Ayub does not exempt them from paying a toll.

At this time, the two galleys were sailing leisurely on the sea with their only mainsail hoisted.

One of them had a gigantic ram at the front, fashioned from the horn of a narwhal, a ferocious sea monster.

When approaching the enemy, the blood sacrifice can be used to awaken the evil spirit of the whale in it, and the speed can be increased severely, so that the sharp ramming horn can be directly inserted into the belly of the enemy ship.

With this horn, this pirate group from Yemen has made a big name in the West Indian Ocean (obviously, the West Indian Ocean in this era is not called the West Indian Ocean, it is only called this in the text for easy reading).

A penetrating eagle chirp sounded suddenly.

A very handsome falcon pierced through the clouds like a sharp arrow and swooped down.

The sailor with his arm covered with a layer of calfskin stretched out his arm and caught the swooping falcon. Its sharp claws even pierced the calfskin on the sailor's arm.

The sailor grinned in pain and cursed: "You damn flat-haired bastard, are you not satisfied every time you don't make blood spots all over my arms?"

He took off the parchment tied to the falcon's leg, looked at it roughly, and said excitedly: "Boss, it's time to work!"

Amidst the cheers of all the pirates, he quickly walked towards the captain standing at the bow and wearing a white turban, and said respectfully: "Boss, the 'Puncer' in Dahab gave us a reward, and asked us to Assault on Port Ella - all the loot is ours, we just ask us to kill as many defenders as possible."

"Isn't Port Ella part of his brother's territory?"

The captain frowned.

"It has fallen, and now the owner there is a crusader prince named 'Lossadin'."

"Lossardin?"

The captain frowned.

"never heard of that."

"Is he a subordinate of that arrogant Leonard?"

He has not paid attention to the situation of the Crusaders countries along the Mediterranean Sea for a long time. It was too far away from them. Before the opening of the Suez Canal, the distance between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea was simply a natural barrier.

Unless the ship was transported to land and then sent into the sea like that arrogant crusader prince Leonard - then, it really sank into the sea.

"Perhaps. The 'Piercing Man' didn't mention these details, but the terms he gave were indeed very favorable. You must know that it is the Port of Ella, the pearl on the Red Sea!"

The sailor beamed.

The captain snorted softly: "The Port of Ella, which has experienced the baptism of war once, and the Port of Ella, which has been ruined by that stupid brother of the Impaler, is no longer worthy of this title."

The sailor smiled and said, "Captain, there is a saying in our hometown that even a skinny Bactrian camel is bigger than a horse."

The captain nodded slightly: "Indeed - inform, the target is the Red Sea, and move forward at full speed. We will launch a surprise attack on the port of Ella early tomorrow morning with the first ray of sunlight rising from the east!"

In the eyes of these Yemeni pirates, the Crusader princes are nothing to worry about.

Because they are in the Indian Ocean, they don't have any sea power at all.

No matter how powerful the Crusader fleet has in the Mediterranean Sea, it is beyond their reach, and they cannot control the big pirates who are criss-crossing the Indian Ocean.

(End of this chapter)