People in the Middle Ages, draw cards to get promoted

Chapter 30 Arriving at the Holy Land
Today is a rare fine weather.

The sky is clear, the wind is light and the waves are gentle.

After the death of the strict and stingy Jewish businessman.

The captain and sailors no longer need to pretend to be busy, bare their wet and sticky skin, and stand leisurely on the deck basking in the sun.

An assorted change of laundry hangs from the mast.

The passengers were also chatting in twos and threes on the deck, and no one wanted to continue to stay in the stuffy cabin.

In the past two days, the atmosphere on the ship has been very awkward.

Several passengers simply disembarked in Crete, planning to transfer to other ships to go to the Holy Land to escape this embarrassment.

On Siren Night, Lothar saw many unsightly scenes. Passengers and sailors, regardless of gender, were embracing each other. According to Catholic doctrine, both homosexuality and homosexuality are sins.

"When you reach the Holy Land, all evil will be eradicated."

Father Beckett told the people.

That night, under the influence of the siren's singing, he rolled with a male sailor in the cabin for a long time.

Jesus certainly didn't think that people's sins were wiped away when they arrived at the Holy Land, but the priest said so anyway.

Just as Jesus would not think that killing heretics is not sinful, but the way to heaven, but His Majesty the Pope still said so.

The sailors have a very clear view of these things. They have been traveling at sea all year round, and their beliefs are not pious.

In times of tsunamis, pirates, and storms, they even pray to the pagan god of the sea, Poseidon.

And on a narrow, isolated ship, sexual affection, if not common, is by no means unimaginable.

It is said that the corpses of the sea monsters can be extracted from the precious spices that are comparable to ambergris and have aphrodisiac effects, but Lothar gave up the practice of cutting up their corpses to extract the incense.

To slaughter humanoid creatures like pigs and sheep, he can't do this kind of thing for the time being.

...

It has been two full days since they sailed from Crete.

They passed through the island of Cyprus, but they didn't stay there much. They just added another wave of fresh water and then sailed away.

It used to be the core territory of the Eastern Empire. After the crowning of the Queen Regent of the Eastern Empire, it took the opportunity to become independent and possessed a good sea force.

After passing through Cyprus, they were already very close to the holy land, and from time to time they could vaguely see the dim yellow coastline in the distance.

The ships here have also become much denser.

Merchant ships loaded with spices and silk from the East; passenger ships carrying scattered crusaders; Floating broken ship planks and barrels.

It was the wreck of a merchant ship that was looted and destroyed, and a pirate ship that was destroyed by the navy.

"Look!"

The sailors suddenly became excited.

Someone cheered: "It's our ship!"

On the distant sea level, a huge fleet gradually appeared in front of everyone.

Smaller frigates, larger capital ships, galleys.
On their huge black sails, there are white cross emblems printed one by one.

The sails swelled against the wind, bringing powerful power, pushing the big ships across the sea.

"That's... the fleet of the Knights Hospitaller!"

Lothar immediately ordered: "Hang the crusader flag, don't let our Christian brothers misunderstand our identities!"

Father Beckett and You Rongyan said: "The Knights Hospitaller has a large-scale sea force in the Holy Land. They often go out to patrol the sea to protect the safety of commercial routes and sea pilgrims."

This is the power of the knight order today.

Not a kingdom, but more than a kingdom.

Lothar squinted at him, making him a little guilty.

In the past few days, Father Beckett has obviously calmed down a lot. The old guy's loss of dignity made him lose face on the boat. He was afraid that Lothar would spread the matter and became worried about gains and losses.

When the Kirk boat arrived at the port outside Jaffa, it happened to be noon and the light was at its most poisonous.

The landforms here are severely weathered, deserts and Gobi Desert are everywhere, and several heavily eroded tower-style buildings can be seen faintly, standing on the endless Gobi Desert.

Furingilla's lazy voice sounded: "My lord, the sun is so hot that I'm about to die."

Losa felt helpless: "Don't pretend, you just overdrawn your mental power once, and you'll be fine after two days of sleep. How can you be so fragile like a dignified vampire royal family?"

"It's the vampires who are afraid of the sun!"

Prajna still quietly followed Lothar, like his shadow.

Normally, I try to reduce my sense of existence as much as possible, but at critical moments, it is always reassuring.

"Hans, fly my swallowtail flag!"

Lothar ordered: "From today onwards, we may have to deal with many nobles, and you will be temporarily appointed as the Herald Officer."

Hans looked distressed: "I'm sorry, my lord, although I'm honored to accept this position, but my knowledge of heraldry is limited, I'm afraid I can't be qualified for this position."

Lothar shook his head and said: "You have to be incompetent. Moreover, your knowledge of heraldry is already better than most knights."

Ryan told the citizens under his command, and said loudly: "Stand up straight, remember what Sergeant Model and I have taught you these days, don't lose face as an adult!"

"Yes!"

Among these citizens, the men now all hold spears and shields. Although they don't wear armor, they all put on the uniform burqa, and they look decent.

Of course, they are still just appearances and can only play the role of a guard of honor.

Its combat effectiveness is also a little stronger than the conscripted peasants and soldiers.

Talking about war on paper is never as good as a real drill.

Lothar took a deep breath of the dry wind blowing from the interior.

finally reached!

"This is the Holy Land. Countless people come here to seek salvation...and wealth. The impoverished knights from the West can also transform themselves into city lords here."

Lothar stood on the pier, stepping on solid ground for the first time in several days, which made his footsteps unconsciously a little erratic, but Prajna helped him in time.

"Get ready to go. This place is not far from Jerusalem. If we arrive at our destination earlier, we can rest well."

The Kirk ship was handed over to the captain by him, but he confiscated all the wealth of the merchants on board as "sacred funding" for defending the holy land.

Just walked out not long ago.

At this time, Lothar saw a team coming down from the pier. They were holding a flag with a cross on a yellow background, and most of them were wearing dark red and white smocks.

Well-equipped, it looks like a professional sergeant and knight.

The leading knight led the horse and asked directly: "This familiar standing lion coat of arms, you belong to the Habsburg family?"

"You are?"

Lothar frowned.

The Habsburgs were not such a prominent family, and their influence was limited to Swabia and Bavaria.

He really didn't expect that he would be recognized not long after he got off the boat.

"I am the knight Kevin McKidd who is loyal to Baron Godfrey of Ibelin. This is my young master, the only heir of Baron Ibelin, His Excellency Belian."

Lothar cast his gaze behind the knight, the young man wrapped in a dark red burqa.

It turned out that this person was the rightful owner, but he didn't seem to have any sense of existence.

"I am Lothar of Argau, the Habsburg family, the second son of Earl Werner, and a landless knight."

Lothar nodded to the other party: "It's an honor to meet you, Sir Belian of Ibelin, Knight Kevin."

"Knight Lothar, your father and my master are very good friends. They once served His Majesty the King in the Royal Knights of Jerusalem. I witnessed their profound friendship fighting side by side."

Cavalier Kevin looked at Lothar's burqa, with nostalgia in his eyes: "It's this style of robe, it's really nostalgic."

The Royal Knights of Jerusalem are obviously not a military order like the Temple and the Knights Hospitaller.

Rather, it is similar to the honorary title of the Knights of the Golden Fleece in Burgundy, which represents a kind of honor and glory.

"It's just that I don't understand why he didn't choose to stay in the Holy Land, but returned to a poor mountain like Switzerland and became a country earl."

"To be honest, I don't understand what he thinks - I always thought that he returned to Swabia because he couldn't get along in the Holy Land."

Lothar shrugged.

He had heard of the other party's name, one of the few comrades in the Holy Land that Count Werner had mentioned in a limited amount.

Lord Godfrey of Ibelin.

The Ibelin family is not simple. Although it is only a baron, the baron's gold content is still not comparable to that of Earl Werner of Argau.

First of all, Ibelin is so close to Jaffa, and it is a trading city with developed commerce and trade. In the past, there was an endless stream of caravans, but the tax collection was a huge amount of income.

In addition, the Kingdom of Jerusalem is limited in size, and there are only a dozen barons with surnames.

And Baron Ibelin is obviously the best among them. He belongs to King Baldwin's confidant, a hard-core royalist, and there is more than one fief in Ibelin's name.

On the way here, Lothar was thinking about how to get involved with them, but he didn't expect to meet the other party's heirs and retainers here.

Knight Kevin asked: "Knight Lothar, are you planning to go to the Holy City?"

"That's right, now that you've arrived at the Holy Land, how can you hold back your eagerness to rush to the Holy City immediately to see the Holy Sepulchre and the Cathedral of Suffering on the Mount of Olives?"

"Ha, that's true. If you don't mind, let's go together. The baron is waiting in the city of Jaffa. I think he must be very happy to see himself and his old friend's son at the same time."

"That couldn't be better."

Lothar talked to the other party with a smile on his face: "Berrian, are you Gaul? Maybe it's more appropriate for me to call you Berrian."

Belian nodded slightly: "Yes, that's right, Knight of Lothar."

"Belian, you seem a little reserved?"

"It's true...I'm not a nobleman. I mean, I was just a blacksmith, so I'm not good at dealing with people like you."

"I see."

Lothar nodded and said: "But with all due respect, you don't need to be restrained at all. In this era, nobles who are as despicable as villains abound. As long as you have a noble soul, even a blacksmith can be proud of a prince."

The situation of Berrian, to put it bluntly, is the legalization of illegitimate children, which is not uncommon in this era.

It is mostly seen in families with extinct heirs. Of course, due to the weak claim, the inheritance rights are forcibly taken away by relatives of powerful nobles.

The Middle Ages paid attention to a legal principle, but in the final analysis, it still depends on fists.

ps: A lot of the content of the movie Kingdom of Heaven has been artistically processed, or even fabricated out of thin air. For example, Berrian is not an illegitimate child at all, but the third son of the family, and he is not as young as in the movie.

The point here is, don't try to learn history from fiction.

Because the author said that he would use part of the movie plot, fabricate part of the plot, and finally add a small part of the historical plot.

(End of this chapter)