Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 626 Why were the Jews afraid of the Archon’s procession?
After everyone arrived, Guo Kang and others had already commanded some soldiers to enter the city first and control the city gates and other key points and commanding heights. There were also some people outside, standing in line, waiting for Tuohuan and others to arrive and hold the ceremony.

Of course, the city gates and defense facilities here are only symbolic at present. Everyone's main job is to manage the noisy crowds and drive them to designated locations to prevent them from running around. Since the whole city is in chaos, the time given to these troublemakers to maintain order even exceeds the time it takes to enter the city.

Jerusalem theoretically had city defenses, but it had long since fallen into disrepair after years of war. Moreover, after the end of the Crusades, both the Christians and the Muslims gradually lost interest in the city. The local economy declined sharply, and the city was in poverty. By this century, it had become so desolate that even Timur, the emperor's uncle, was too lazy to come and rob it.

No one has made it clear who Jerusalem belongs to now. The Mamluk regime in Cairo has lost control of this place for nearly 20 years, and no one has tried to take it back. The Purple Horde is also content to stay north of Damascus and has shown no interest in this holy place so close.

Everyone knows that these days, the so-called holy land has little money left. Changing the status quo will not bring much benefit, but will instead attract the attention of other forces and set them up.

How much is Jerusalem worth? Everyone knows it. On the one hand, it is worthless; on the other hand, it is extremely important, beyond the economic measurement of benefits.

For example, if anyone takes this place, at most they will be praised by their fellow believers and then make more requests, but they will not get any real help. From this perspective, Jerusalem is worthless.

But on the other hand, this place is located at the junction of various forces and is not easy to defend. Resources must be constantly piled in. However, if they are forced to shrink and lose this place because they are unable to defend, the church members will not be polite. In their mouths, this city is more important than anything else. Whoever loses it will be guilty of a heinous crime.

So this kind of place is very uncomfortable. All parties pretended to be ignorant of the situation here, neither spending money to defend it nor sending troops to fight for it. Hafez, the warlord who nominally controlled this place, tried to seize the position of Mamluk Sultan while paying tribute to Rome, making it unclear who this city belonged to.

Moreover, even Hafez himself had no interest in managing the holy places. The Mamluks’ rule was already very loose, and they were too lazy to set up officials in such a useless place. They just set up tax collectors at a few intersections to collect tolls from merchants and pilgrims passing by.

In theory, according to the rules of the Mamluk dynasty, these religious facilities in the holy land are tax-free, but despite this, the emirs still come regularly and demand protection fees from the entire city without explanation. Moreover, not only the tribute to them, but also the money needed to manage the tax collectors and bribe the benefits of the military leaders are indispensable. In the whole process, if anyone fails to smooth the way, it can cause big and small troubles in the city. This money has to be squeezed out by everyone.

Moreover, after receiving the money, the Emir would not care about the affairs here. All the affairs in the city had to be organized by themselves. Therefore, the actual managers of Jerusalem were the elders and priests of various communities who came to welcome them today. Meeting with them was not just a matter of face.

In fact, the Purple Tent Khanate had not bothered to care about this place before. This time, they came mainly to demonstrate and send a signal, rather than to really rule this place.

Theodora believed that if she wanted to manage Egypt, she had to consider the complex religious relations there. As a common holy place for multiple religions, holding activities in Jerusalem would allow all parties to express their positions. Therefore, before sending troops, she had reported this matter to others. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Church also supported this. This formal plan was proposed by Lama Wang and approved by the Ministry of Rites - although Guo Kang always felt that she just wanted to travel along the way.

But no matter what she thought at first, as long as the court could make good use of this matter and achieve diplomatic and political goals, that would be enough. Therefore, except for some middle and lower-level officers who felt that such a march was too troublesome, no one else explicitly objected and came here.

Soon, Toghan and a large group of his entourage also arrived at the small square outside the city gate. After everyone arrived, the great lama Wang personally began to preside over the ceremony. Representatives of the Muslim Church, the Catholic Church, and the Armenian Church came one after another to exchange blessings and greetings with him.

There are also clergy from the Orthodox Church active here, but after the rise of the Purple Horde, the overseas Orthodox Churches that had been dispersed due to the decline of the Eastern Roman Empire have gradually reestablished contact with Dadu. It is said that there are also several Greek churches in Jerusalem, but they have long joined the Roman Church and have to ask Dadu for sponsorship every year, so they are considered to be the church's own expatriates, not local church organizations. Therefore, they are separated and greet each other as subordinates meeting superiors, rather than the courtesy of host and guest meeting.

Of course, they themselves were actually quite happy. This showed that the Roman Catholic Church really regarded them as their own people, and that this year's funding would definitely be settled. As for the issue of the subordination between the churches, that was something that could only be considered by organizations that had sufficient financial resources and power to be independent. With their current poverty, who would care if they were really given money?

Lama Wang gave a brief speech, saying that the Roman government and the church both valued the special status of Jerusalem, and therefore attached great importance to the religious and secular circles in the city. Here, he specifically thanked everyone for their efforts to maintain the city, and especially praised their recognition and welcome to the court. By the way, he called on all religions to unite under the banner of Rome, educate the people, build the country, and work hard to achieve the short-term goal of the great revival of Rome and the long-term goal of establishing an ideal country on earth. These are all official words that everyone has long been tired of hearing, and Lama Wang himself understands them very well. He didn't talk for too long before he ended his speech and began to introduce the important people who visited this time to the local elders and the audience, and asked the local representatives to meet Tuohuan and others.

The other elders and priests were all fine. Those who could survive in such a poor and dangerous place and become a leader were at least strong-willed people who had seen warlords coming and going, otherwise they would have been scared away. When they met an army like theirs that was already very reasonable, they naturally wouldn't be too nervous.

The representatives saluted Toghan as usual, and took turns to greet and bless him. Toghan also greeted them one by one. However, at the end, when the representative of the Jewish community came forward, he was so nervous that he couldn't even walk steadily. He couldn't stammer out what he needed to say, and could only move forward in panic.

Seeing his abnormal expression, the guards beside him immediately stepped forward and shouted to stop him. The Jewish representative was so frightened when he saw the axe and stick in the guards' hands that he sat down on the ground and burst into tears. The guards had not expected this and reached out to pull it, only to find that the man's robe was wet. It turned out that he was literally scared to pee...

Now the situation became a little awkward.

Fortunately, the other elders were experienced and came forward to explain. They said that the leaders of the Jewish community had disappeared, and this situation had been reported to Rome before.

Originally, everyone thought that since it had come to this, let it go. But the advance personnel of the legion said that Taiji had to come in person and the ceremony was very important. After all, Judaism was the main religion in the area, and the Jewish community here was also a relatively important part, so after much thought, they decided to let the Jews quickly elect a representative to at least complete the ceremony. Anyway, it was all routine, and there shouldn't be this unlucky guy who was just thrown out by the Jews at the last minute and became the representative.

The elders also helped him to excuse himself, saying that they had never thought that such a thing would happen. Although he was a newcomer, everyone was supposed to be helping him, and they didn't know why he was so scared. It was probably because the Roman soldiers were too powerful, and the Taiji and other officials were too majestic, which made him unable to bear it and lost his composure for a while.

The Purple Tent people were also quite surprised by this, saying that Jews do business everywhere every day, and should have seen the world, so why are they so scared by a ceremonial procession? They thought something was wrong. However, the elders said that they themselves did not know.

They also complained that they were also victims. The Jewish headman did often do business, and because he had run a bank, the city's annual taxes and tributes were collected by those people and then handed over to the Emir.

However, when something happened, they immediately sent someone to check, only to find that the Jewish leader seemed to have been prepared. When he fled, he also took away all the important valuables such as gold, silver, and account books. After a careful inspection, they found that except for some large and worthless items, the house had been cleared out. I guess only Hu Da knew how they were able to pack up the money so quickly...

Now, the lack of people is not a big deal. The main problem is that the city has lost the money it was prepared to pay. In the past, many tourists would visit here during the year-end, Christmas and other festivals, which is also the city's main source of cash income. The part that needs to be handed over was only collected by them some time ago, so it was a coincidence. If this part cannot be recovered, the tribute this year will definitely not be paid in full, and all the people in the city will be in trouble - even those ordinary Jews who did not escape. I don't know why this person is so wicked...

Therefore, they still want to ask the court to forgive them once. They dare not say that they will not hand them over, but they just hope to give them a little more time to catch these guys. When the time comes, they will definitely pay them back with interest.

Their request was too humble, and they didn't know how badly they were blackmailed by both sides. They didn't even dare to ask for a reduction in interest. Tuo Huan and others were helpless and could only agree to it, saying that they would discuss it with the emirs. They didn't care about other things for now, and quickly moved this unsightly person away...

Just like that, the long-awaited entry ceremony ended hastily amid the smell of feces and urine.

(End of this chapter)