Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 625: There are no Jews in the city, not because they are kind, but because our army has been here
Over the next two days, the group attended several banquets and the legion purchased supplies in the city before continuing south to Jerusalem.

In fact, most people here have no interest in Jerusalem. Hafez's soldiers were already stationed here, so they would have gone there long ago if they wanted to. As for the army of the Purple Tent Khanate, they have no special interest in this city either.

The state religion of the Khanate was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The doctrinal texts were compiled by Patriarch Zhang. In the scriptures that people use daily, only when mentioning the story of Brother Tian, ​​will they talk about his ancestral home and emphasize that this is also the former Roman land. Most of the other scriptures and doctrines are about various principles and have little to do with a specific place.

Moreover, Xi'an, the former capital of the Purple Tent Khanate, was the place where the God Worshipping Society was first established. Back then, the Khanate and the Church officially settled down for the first time and determined the capital in this small Bulgarian town. To this day, the earliest church, the prayer room where Patriarch Zhang talked with his brother Tian at night, and the archives where the first batch of scriptures were stored are still there.

At that time, people hoped that the country could be as strong as the Han and Tang dynasties, and that this place could also prosper and become the Chang'an of the West, so the name "Xi'an" was given. Unfortunately, due to its poor location, it never became a big city. The economic and political center of the Khanate also moved south to Dadu, where transportation was more convenient. However, as a place of special significance, many people still visit it today.

For the followers of the God Worshipping Society, when they mention the Holy City, the first thing that comes to mind is the county town of Xi'an; when they mention the Holy Sepulchre, the first thing that comes to mind is the mausoleum of Patriarch Zhang in the city. As for Jerusalem, it no longer has much connection with their religion.

The same is true for other branches of the church. The Russians under Guo Kang are all believers of the Orthodox Church in theory. Of course, even the churches in Kiev and Moscow cannot completely control this land. What they actually believe in is often a "rustic" Orthodoxy mixed with a lot of local legends and folk stories, and has nothing to do with Jerusalem.

Guo Kang had told them before that the princess would take them to the holy city. The soldiers found it strange and said that the priest had already said that the holy city of us Russians is Dadu, so why did they want to go there again?

On the other hand, considering the issue of external publicity, it would be useful to go there. And Jerusalem is not very far away, just on the way south, so if Theodora wants to go there, it is no problem for her to stop by.

The place where Jerusalem is located is called Palestine, a name given by the Romans.

When the Romans came here, the area was still occupied by the Kingdom of Judea. However, the Jews always rebelled for unknown reasons. Finally, the Roman army invaded Jerusalem and abolished the Kingdom of Judea. The city of Jerusalem was renamed Aelia Capitoline, and the area was renamed Palestine, which means "the land of the Philistines." Later, the Romans converted to Christianity, and the name of the city was changed back, but the name of the area has not changed to this day. It is still called this in the official Roman archives and maps.

Like the northern Syrian region, the terrain of Palestine can also be divided into the coast, the mountains near the sea, and the valleys outside the mountains. From Beirut to the south, along the coast, there are a series of ports such as Tyre, Acre, Haifa, Caesarea, Jaffa, and Gaza. The sea transportation is very developed and it is also the richest place. However, the coastal plain is also very narrow. Not far inland, there are the Galilee Mountains, Samaria Mountains, and Judean Mountains running north and south, which are connected to each other and separate the terrain on both sides. Towns such as Nazareth and Jerusalem are located in the open space between the mountains.

Further east of the mountain is the Jordan River Valley. The Jordan River starts from Lake Tiberias, also known as the Sea of ​​Galilee, and flows southward to the Dead Sea. The area on both sides of the river is therefore named "Jordan".

Later, the Crusaders occupied this area. The border of their sphere of influence was right here at the Jordan River. Therefore, Europeans began to call the area east of the Jordan River, controlled by the Muslim princes, Transjordan; and the area west of the Jordan River, controlled by the Crusaders, Inner Jordan.

The history here is quite old. Jericho on the west bank of the river was once the oldest city in the world, with a history of 10,000 years - but later cities of this era were also discovered in Seris, so it can only be called one of them. However, although it started early and has been around for a long time, the local strength has always been weak, and it has always been attacked from all sides. Instead, the longer the history, the more difficult it is...

Before setting off, the senior and middle-level personnel of the corps held a brief meeting. Before that, Guo Kang took advantage of the banquet to learn about the terrain of this area from the locals, and then hired a guide to record the situation along the way. At the meeting, he gave a report to everyone.

"There are two common routes from Damascus through this area to Jerusalem. One is to go back to the seaside first, then go south to Jaffa Port, then go east inland and directly enter Jerusalem;" he said to everyone on the map: "The other is to go directly southwest, pass the Golan Heights, reach the shore of Lake Tiberias, go south along the Jordan River, and then go west into the city."

"The former is much farther, but the transportation is well developed and there is no problem with supplies. The latter is closer, but there are many mountains and deserts here, and there is a lack of water along the way, which is very troublesome for the army. The hill west of Lake Tiberias is called the 'Horn of Hattin'. The army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was defeated and destroyed there due to lack of water." He said, "Now that time is not very tight, I think the former is better."

Everyone agreed with this, except Zhu Wenkui, who was curious and asked, "Wasn't it said that the area west of the Jordan River was originally the territory of the Crusaders? How could they collapse due to lack of water in their own territory?"

"That's not surprising," Guo Kang said. "When the Arabs fought the Turks, they were also in their own territory, and they were dispersed by the river because of thirst. There are many such incidents in history, so it's not special."

"That's it..."

Zhu Wenkui nodded thoughtfully, and together with everyone else, began to calculate the amount of supplies needed and the location to replenish them.

But their work is relatively simple.

Although the Roman territory in Syria was not under its control for a long time and could even be considered half-given, it was still stable and it was relatively convenient to purchase supplies.

Guo Kang did not understand the local people's enthusiasm, which was even a bit excessive, at first, but when he was marching in Syria, someone took him to see the human head tower left by Timur. The tower was not too big, but it was not covered with soil like the Jingguan. Instead, it was neatly piled up with a layer of soil and a layer of skulls, so the visual effect was quite shocking.

According to local people, this is the one that was left after Timur's army looted nearby villages and towns. It is a relatively small one. The largest one nearby is in Aleppo in the north. At that time, Timur sent an envoy to Syria to demand the surrender of the local garrison, but the envoy was killed by the garrison. Timur was furious and sent troops to break into the city. He killed more than 20,000 people in the city, regardless of gender, age or status, and piled their heads into a huge tower. To this day, the tower is still there outside the city.

The locals seemed to have never seen a Jingguan before, and it was the first time they saw a tower of human heads, so they were shocked. The Mamluk Sultan found that he could not win, so he fled back to Egypt. The cities north of the Sinai Peninsula found that they had no one to protect them, so they almost all surrendered to the Purple Tent Khanate.

Later, although the Egyptian Mamluks thought about counterattacking, the political turmoil never stopped for more than a decade. In the end, the local lords in Syria and Palestine even dared to openly confront the Sultan. The local Mamluks had actually become independent, and finally fought a war with the Egyptian Sultan and captured him alive.

That time, the Sultan was released again through the mediation of Rome, but not long after, he was assassinated by an unknown assassin. Since then, the current strange situation of "the Emir appointing the Caliph to serve as the Sultan" has emerged.

Because of this, although the Purple Tent Khanate had little actual control over the area south of Damascus, when the army passed through, the lords and chambers of commerce in various places were still very welcoming, even to the point where Guo Kang felt it was a bit exaggerated. Now that the team has not set out yet, many merchants have come to solicit business. As long as the legion makes a good plan, sends out quartermasters in advance, and rents local warehouses, it will be enough to complete the task.

Guo Kang once felt that something was wrong, but at a previous banquet, Hafiz got drunk and complained to them about the local people's behavior.

Hafez said that he had been leading troops here for quite a long time and was very familiar with the temperament of these people. Syria, like the Mesopotamians and Persians to the east, was a very ancient ethnic group with a long history and rich culture. Naturally, they had a lot of experience - so much that only scholars who specialized in studying history could figure out these issues, anyway, he himself did not understand.

However, these people are weak and not very good at fighting. Their glory days have passed for too long, and now no one thinks they have any fighting power - including themselves.

Therefore, these people formed a strange cultural atmosphere.

There are opportunists who change their minds according to the situation, bullies who are afraid of the strong and bully the weak, and fence-sitters who are good at both sides. On the one hand, they are very proud of their history and culture, and they are always arrogant, thinking that they are superior to other "barbaric nations"; but this does not mean that they are really confident. On the contrary, on the other hand, they are actually very inferior and have no confidence in their own strength. When they meet a stronger person, they are busy kneeling and kowtow, actively catering to the other party, and serving them. That so-called pride is just a means of self-boasting and comfort. I guess this is also due to the environment. People who are not like this cannot survive in this war-torn place. Therefore, it is normal for these Syrians to be respectful and even flattering to Rome. After all, the Romans are the most benevolent rulers around them, at least they can save their lives. If these people don't listen one day, there is no need to worry. Find someone like the old emperor's uncle and let them all go into the tower of heads. The rest of the people will naturally know who to respect.

Hafez also said that this is why he and his colleagues have always adhered to tradition and only purchased slaves from the mountains to supplement their troops, and never conscripted local people.

Warriors are a precious resource, not available everywhere. Their cultural atmosphere does not allow for the existence of warriors. Even if Hu Da blesses them and a hero emerges among them, he will definitely be betrayed and harmed by others. Unless someone can reverse this cultural atmosphere as a whole and change the customs of the entire ethnic group - but it is better to hope for Mahdi to come out than to hope for such a thing.

In comparison, the residents of the mountainous area of ​​his hometown, although mostly uneducated, are at least brave and simple, have a normal sense of shame, and are not the kind of cunning and cunning waste. It is such people who are more reliable.

Guo Kang felt that this seemed to make some sense.

In the history of his world, although Timur had been trying to ask for surrender, he ignored it and the army entered Damascus without much resistance. Tens of thousands of people were killed in the city, and even the Umayyad mosque, which served as the original text, was burned down by Timur's holy warriors. The old, weak, women and children who had fled to the mosque to avoid the war were all burned to death. The surviving men and women were sold as slaves, and the craftsmen were taken to Samarkand.

Although they escaped the war this time, the threat of war was not far away. Everyone knew how brutal the Turkic army leaders were. Perhaps that was why they were so honest.

In the following days, more and more people came forward on their own initiative. As the army moved south, the march became easier and easier.

From Damascus to Cairo is also an ancient and popular trade route. Although it has been politically divided, the local traditional caravans still travel between cities to transport goods.

So they arrived outside Jerusalem in the middle of the month.

The soldiers of the two legions, plus the Mamluks and local auxiliary soldiers that Hafiz and others had gathered along the way, numbered nearly 30,000. Jerusalem had not seen an army of this size for a long time since the Khwarazm mercenaries massacred the city. In the morning, everyone broke camp and set out, marching in a mighty procession on the hill. For a moment, the momentum was quite overwhelming.

The senior officers of the army, along with guests such as Theodora, rode to the roadside to watch the preparations for entering the city. At this time, Li Xuanying, wearing a centurion helmet, walked to the front of the queue and led everyone to sing loudly.

"Old Qin, come and restore our land!" he began.

"Old Qin, come and restore our land.

There will be no truce until the blood is shed.

To the west is the Great Qin, rising like the sun.

A thousand years of national hatred is hard to calm.

How can we be at peace when the world is in turmoil?
Qin has sharp warriors, who can compete with them?" The soldiers carried their weapons and followed him as they marched, singing loudly.

Soon, not only their team, but most of the legion began to sing along, marching steadily towards the east, towards the Old City of Jerusalem in the morning light.

"The tune of this song is a little strange, it doesn't sound like ours?" Someone asked curiously, "Is it a song by Ceris?"

"Yes." Tuo Huan explained: "This was adapted by Guo Kang and Li Xuanying."

"What do these words mean? My Chinese is not good and I don't quite understand." Another customer asked.

"That is to say, our great Qin Kingdom must recover our homeland." Tuohuan replied.

"Is that so? When I heard the word, I thought it was the Qin State during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period." Theodora said in surprise.

"The Qin State was just a vassal state fighting for hegemony back then, and suffered a little loss. How can it be called a national humiliation?" Tuo Huan shook his head: "The thousand-year national humiliation refers to the fifth century when Rome was invaded by barbarians and fell apart. It has been a thousand years now."

"There is no sea beside Qin State. This vast sea obviously refers to the Mediterranean Sea. When we regain the entire Mediterranean Sea, we can wash away our national humiliation." He sighed: "This Western Great Qin State obviously refers to us."

"So that's what it means..." Everyone looked as if they had suddenly understood.

When they arrived at the edge of the city, representatives from the city had already come to greet them.

Jerusalem is roughly divided into four areas, namely Jews, Christians, Muslims and Armenians. The last three communities all sent elders and leaders to hold a welcoming ceremony, but the Jews did not show up.

According to other elders, the Jewish elders in the city had all fled overnight when they heard that the Roman legion was coming. Even many Jews in the city were scared away. Now the people who were left behind were in chaos and could only ask them for help and intercede.

They also admitted that they were actually surprised after receiving the notice, and didn't know why the army had to make a detour and come here - although most of them were leaders of religious communities, they also knew that marching for religious goals was no longer popular.

Tuohuan himself was also a little embarrassed, so he had to send someone to appease them first, and then prepare to enter the city.

(End of this chapter)