People in the Middle Ages, draw cards to get promoted

Chapter 93 Lothar the Brave (Two in One)

In the ears, flies buzzed one after another.

Lothar covered his mouth and nose with a mask, and the strong smell of blood and carrion was disgusting.

The royal knights suffered heavy losses, and the disadvantaged Saracens suffered even more serious casualties, especially those light cavalry who only wore leather armor or had no armor at all.

The corpses of the Saracens were scattered all over the place. They were stripped of their armor and naked, and even some of their close-fitting fabrics were looted by the sergeants.

Participating in the Crusades is a sacred mission, but if the sacred mission cannot be linked to plundering the wealth of pagans, it will no longer have the original appeal.

A section of the torn corpse, densely packed with mosquitoes and flies crawling on it, wriggling back and forth.

As the vultures flapped their wings and landed, the mosquitoes scattered and exploded into a cloud of black mist, hovering in mid-air.

Hans said with emotion: "My former instructor once said that flies are the revenge of the dead on the living. The living kill the dead, and the dead breed flies."

Lothar chuckled and said, "Your instructor is Knight Friedrich, right? This is the first time I've heard that he's actually a philosopher."

Hans was a little surprised: "You know?"

Lothar recalled: "Knight Friedrich is a very powerful officer. Although his personal martial arts are limited, he is good at training recruits and boosting morale. I really hope that I can call him to work with you."

This Friedrich knight is a five-star retinue. Although his combat effectiveness is average, he has three halo talents.

This kind of squire who can benefit an army, his personal combat effectiveness is not so important, not to mention that he is also good at training recruits.

Hans said with emotion: "Indeed, if there were Instructor Friedrich in command of the Royal Knights, we would definitely not have fought such a difficult battle."

Lothar turned his head and ordered: "Andreas, send someone to burn the corpses of those Saracens."

This first-generation leader who used to be a knight's personal servant has now changed his job to a heroic hussar. In the previous battle, he killed three enemies in a row.

Andreas wondered: "My lord, in the belief of Zoroastrianism, if the body is burned after death, it can return to the kingdom of God. Do we really want to be so lenient to them?"

Lothar shook his head and said:
"This is not a benevolent act. The rest of the crusaders' team is behind us. I am worried that exposing these corpses to the wilderness will breed a plague."

Lothar paused slightly, and said again: "As a hussar, you should also know what 'bacteria' and 'virus' are. They are the source of disease."

"I've had enough of those 'quacks' who would cut off a whole leg and get a headache from a blunt force blow and think it's heretic The devils of the world have invaded inside, to drive crosses into their skulls."

"Is this killing people or saving lives?"

Hans said with some indignation: "The hussars taught their first aid knowledge in the field, and they were scorned by those people. In my opinion, we should drive all these quack doctors out of our team."

"Then do it, and drive them all away when we reach the next foothold!"

Lothar said coldly: "Those who disregard my orders by relying on their status as doctors should get rid of the Royal Knights. Compared to them, I would rather invite some Saracen doctors to my army."

talking room.

A group of people have already crossed the battlefield.

On a small hill ahead, the Saracen cavalry had gathered here.

Seeing Lothar's group approaching, the leading Mamluk shouted in Gaul: "Stop, Franks, where is my master?"

Lothar nodded and said, "That's right."

"We will surrender to you in accordance with the master's will, but I must remind you that what cannot be obtained on the battlefield cannot be obtained on the negotiating table."

Lothar frowned: "You want to disobey your master's will?"

Mamluks who disobey their masters will lose all their political credibility.

Now is not the era when the Mamluks have formed huge military and political groups, and can even control the government.

The Mamluk leader said loudly: "No, of course not, the master's will is our life."

"We will pay the wealth equivalent to our personal life, but don't expect us to walk into your prisoner camp obediently, because we know very well that if we do this, the safety of our master will not be guaranteed even more!"

"can."

Lothar nodded in agreement: "Maybe you don't believe it, but I never thought of harming your lives from the beginning to the end. Since you are willing to pay the ransom in advance, I am willing to accept it."

Lothar cleared his throat and said loudly: "According to the ransom, we should at least get gold and silver equivalent to the full set of weapons and equipment and horses on your body."

"That is to say, each light cavalry will get 150 Suledes, and each armored cavalry will get [-] Suledes—you still have [-] left, right?"

The Lothar lion opened his mouth: "To make it all up, I want [-] Suledes gold coins, or equivalent silver coins, jewelry, and war horses."

"No, you are blackmailing!"

The Mamluk team was immediately blown away by this terrifying number.

"A nobleman's ransom is usually only a thousand dinars in silver coins, and a strong Frankish slave is only worth ten dinars. How dare you call out such an outrageously high price?"

The Mamluk leader said angrily: "Even if we take out all the money we have, it is impossible to make up this number."

"First of all, you are so brave and good at fighting, how can you compare with ordinary slaves? The price of nobles is just right. But the problem is that the asking price of [-] dinars is to let you leave empty-handed-but now it is obvious that you You will not hand over your weapons, equipment, and mounts, because you cannot walk out of the border of the Kingdom of Jerusalem with just your legs."

The Mamluk leaders were all stunned.

Someone whispered: "Sir, I think what he said is very reasonable. In terms of bravery, we are not inferior to those nobles."

The leader scolded him, and continued to shout: "No, don't fool us with such nonsense, we are just slaves, not nobles, and should not bear such a high ransom."

Lothar refused to budge: "High? No! This is a reasonable price. If I hadn't reached an agreement with your master, I would have killed you all on the battlefield. By then, everything on you would have been mine. spoils of war!"

The Mamluk leader said angrily: "If you continue to fight, you will also suffer huge losses. This is not your favor to us!"

Lothar said coldly: "You have already disobeyed Prince Zahir's order, and I generously agreed to your request, but you have pushed forward and refused to hand over even a sum of money. You are tarnishing your master's reputation , to place him in breach of the oaths he swore by the holy fire and in the honor of King Saladin."

"Think about it, if Prince Zahir goes back, what will you think of your group of 'Mamluks' who are not loyal enough?"

These words completely defeated the psychological defense of the Mamluks.

I saw them talking in a low voice for a while.

After a while, the leader shouted: "We really don't have so much money, and it's impossible to give up our armor, weapons and mounts. It's no different from entering your prisoner camp. If you want to break your oath, We won't have any countermeasures."

This time, his tone softened a lot.

Lothar frowned, thinking that [-] Suledes was a bit outrageous, and said: "Then eight thousand, this is the lowest number, if it is lower, you will bear the burden of 'going against the master's will, and using The master suffers the crime of ruining his promise!"

The Mamluks discussed for a while, and the leader shouted: "Yes, we will collect the money before sunset and send it to your camp, but I want to warn you, you must protect the safety of the master, otherwise We will launch a desperate charge to your barracks at all costs!"

"no problem!"

Lothar readily agreed.

Although war is tragic, it is indeed the fastest way to get money.

The [-] Suledes gold coins, based on tax collection, are equivalent to hundreds of years of taxation in Yogliusburg.

As long as you bring this money back to Greater Germania, find a way to buy a dukedom, it won't be a problem.

In the evening, the Mamluks indeed sent a group of people into the Knights' camp.

They lifted heavy wooden boxes from the camels and moved them into Lothar's camp.

When I opened it, I found that it was full of gold and silver utensils, coins and precious stones, many of which could not be valued. If I lost it in the system mall, I would not be able to exchange it for [-] gold coins.

But that's because the system mall is inherently black and doesn't consider "artistic added value" at all.

If you sell those precious stones and gold and silver utensils slowly, instead of just taking the value of their precious metals, you can exchange for [-] Suledes gold coins, which is more than enough.

The Mamluks kept their promises, and Lothar naturally reciprocated, generously agreeing to their request to see their master.

In addition, Lothar also ordered people to spread the news of the recovery of the spoils, so that the sergeants and knights would take all the spoils that were inconvenient to carry to a camp to exchange for coins.

And Lothar went back to the income system mall in exchange for gold and silver coins with his face engraved on it, and took one-tenth of the "fire consumption" and exchanged them for them.

Lothar didn't intend to use that little "fire consumption", but simply carrying these bits and pieces would greatly slow down the march of the Knights.

In addition, increasing the circulation of this kind of gold and silver coins with his face on it can also greatly increase his prestige.

By the time all this was done, it was completely dark.

Hans walked into the tent and said with a smile: "My lord, do you know that the sergeants of the Knights secretly gave you a nickname."

Lothar said with great interest: "What nickname? A stingy one?"

The system mall is really dark, and Lothar is also worried that the recovery price he gave will dissatisfy the sergeants and knights, but if he knows the prices offered by the military merchants, he will definitely not think so.

"Of course not, one is Lothar the generous, and the other is Lothar the brave!"

Lothar said with some surprise: "Ha, this is really surprising."

The nicknames of medieval lords are not all commendatory words.

Such as Charlie the Bald, Louis Stuttering, and Amalric the Fat (the former king of Jerusalem).

The more neutral ones are Edward the Longlegs and Frederick the Redbeard.

Lothar's ability to win the titles of "Brave" and "Generous" is enough to prove that his reputation in the Knights has reached a new height at this time.

Fighting a tough battle is indeed easy to suffer losses, but it is also easier to gather the morale of the army.

The premise is to win.

evening.

outside Jerusalem.

The military tents are like white flowers, blooming on the desolate Gobi Desert.

Most of the crusaders have set off in recent days.

Tomorrow will be the last batch, which is the headquarters of Baldwin IV, the Knights of Jerusalem commanded by Baron Godfrey.

In the king's tent in the center, there are soft woolen carpets, exquisite woven flower curtains hanging on the walls, tables and chairs inlaid with patterns and magic-resistant gold threads, filled with exquisite oriental colored porcelain.

Baldwin IV leaned back on the chair, and rarely took off his mask. On the surface, his appearance has almost completely returned to normal, but his physical deformity has not been greatly improved.

Opposite him, Baron Godfrey is holding black chess and playing against him.

"Baron Godfrey, I want to deprive Hebron from Earl Leonard and give it to Lothar. His fiefdom is too barren. I don't know how long it will take to grow into a pillar of the kingdom."

"Facts have proved that he is very talented. Just a remote castle has enabled him to train an elite army. If it were a rich city like Hebron, he would definitely do better."

"indeed."

Baron Godfrey frowned and said: "But I'm afraid it won't work, unless Carleburg is breached, otherwise, why would you deprive Earl Leonard of his territory when he has no obvious guilt? There will be too many people objected."

Baldwin IV put forward a hypothesis: "What if Bethlehem is granted to Leonard and replaced with Hebron?"

"This may work, but a better choice is to seal Bethlehem to Lothar. Although this will cause his territory to be unable to be connected together, Yogryusburg is not very important. Send a knight to manage it for him enough."

Baron Godfrey paused slightly, and said again: "It's just that Lothar can make enough achievements. After all, Bethlehem has been coveted by many nobles for a long time."

"Ugh."

Baldwin IV let out a long sigh.

Urdin's treatment reinvigorated his broken life, and with the aromatherapy provided by the royal physician, he could feel his body gradually recovering.

He also sometimes thinks that if he could receive this kind of treatment when he was young, instead of the "enema" and "bloodletting" proposed by those quack doctors, maybe the situation in Jerusalem now would be very different.

But at this time, the situation in Jerusalem had completely turned into a mess.

His enemies are the generals of the Crusaders, the stubborn nobles, the ambitious newcomers from the European continent, the independent military order knights, and those who are full of intrigues and scheming for power. The clergy of the church—and, besides, the most powerful enemy, Saladin, the Egyptian eagle of great talent.

"Godfrey, let Belian come to my tent to listen to the order. I will make him a banner bearer knight. Maybe he can learn something from me."

Godfrey said in surprise, "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Baldwin IV's eyes were still peaceful, but inside, there was a hint of impatience suppressed. Jerusalem, like him now, looked like a terminally ill person.

The only people he can count on as confidantes are Baron Godfrey and Lothar.

He is desperate to increase the strength of the royal party.

In the evening of the next day, Lothar had already led the Knights to the outside of Montreal.

The Mamluk cavalry left Jerusalem after meeting Prince Zahir.

Montreal is not the Montreal of Quebec.

It is a desert city located in the Counties of Transjordan. It was built here in order to maintain the supply line during the First Crusade.

Therefore, it has a strong Western European castle style, rather than the European, Arabic and Jewish style of Jerusalem.

On the high ground in the center of the city, a towering castle made of mud and bricks stands majestically. Nearly 70 years of wind and sun have made the walls of the city look dilapidated and mottled.

"There is an army!"

On the tower, the guards were terrified: "Is Saladin's army coming? Could it be that Kale Fort has been breached?"

"Impossible, Kaleburg is so majestic, how could it be easily breached?"

They cried out uneasily with the fear of impending doom.

"It's not the flame flag, you see the idiot clearly, it's the crusader flag and the black eagle flag!"

The panic on the guard's face was quickly replaced by excitement: "It's great that the reinforcements are here. They are ours. Please notify your lord immediately and prepare to welcome them."

Lothar and his party were quickly welcomed into the city.

The guardian of the city is the stepson of Earl Leonard, the son of Countess Stephanie and her ex-husband, also named Humphrey.

Just like Amalric was the name of the former king, the prime minister of the court, and the concubine of the Queen Mother Agnes.

The rate of duplicate names in this era is too high, just like calling Charlie in Gaul, Enrique in Iberia, and Hans in Germany, there will be countless people answering.

Humphrey rushed over with his knights and attendants, and he complimented him all over his face.

"Baron Lothar, I've heard your name before. You solved the swarm of locusts in the desert, and now you're the first to lead the royal knights to support you. It's really admirable!"

"I don't have any conflicts with Earl Leonard, so why don't we ignore the past?"

Lothar had a sincere smile on his face: "My army ran into a Saracen cavalry outside the city. They fought fiercely and suffered heavy losses. If Lord Humphrey can agree with us to set aside a piece of land in Montreal as a It would be better if the camp is repaired and enough supplies are given."

Humphrey's face changed slightly: "It's a heavy loss..."

(End of this chapter)