Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 632: Lighthouse or Water Conservancy

After leaving Jerusalem, Guo Kang and others returned to the coastal port of Jaffa, and continued to head south to Egypt.

The port of Jaffa has complete facilities and is large enough. During the Crusades, it was the most important source of supplies for the European army. Today, there are still large warehouses set up by Venetian and Genoese merchants, where you can buy a lot of things.

Because of its important geographical location, this place has been very famous until later generations, but the most commonly used name is not Jaffa. At that time, the Jews in Jaffa felt that the rent was too expensive, so they moved to nearby places and established the Tel Aviv settlement, which developed and annexed Jaffa.

Of course, the Jews may not have figured out how the price rose. Soon, Tel Aviv became the place with the highest cost of living in the world...

After the supply was completed, everyone continued to move south and arrived at the Gaza Port on the Egyptian border.

This is the last important port before entering Egypt. Although it is close to the coast, the city itself is located on a naturally formed platform, so it also has some defensive capabilities.

When Alexander was on his way to attack Egypt, he passed by here. At that time, Darius had been defeated and fled, and the Persian nobles along the way surrendered one after another. Only one eunuch gathered a group of mercenaries from the Arab tribes in the wilderness and stationed them in the city.

The Macedonians thought there would be no resistance, but the eunuchs refused Alexander's surrender and used the terrain to block the attack of the Macedonian army. Alexander then took it seriously and ordered engineers to build earth hills and set up catapults to attack the city. However, the Arab mercenaries in the city went out to fight back and destroyed the siege equipment. Alexander himself was injured in the battle.

After that, the Macedonians tried many methods such as tunnels and stone throwing, and destroyed a large section of the city wall, but they failed to break in. Finally, they piled up a circle of earth outside the city to cover the terrace, and then surrounded it like ants. This stupid method was actually the most effective. The people in the city could not withstand this kind of consumption, and almost all those who could fight died in the battle, and finally they were defeated.

Alexander still wanted to persuade the eunuch to surrender, but the other party still refused to accept it. Alexander, with mixed feelings, imitated the way Achilles treated Hector and executed this man.

This battle was also the last major battle in Egypt. After the fall of Gaza, all of Egypt surrendered to Alexander without any further resistance.

However, this happened nearly two thousand years ago. For this city, this kind of resolute resistance is actually a special case. Although it is located at the junction of two political plates and is often occupied and divided by various forces, there has been no major war in this place for most of the time since then. In the Middle Ages, the port of Gaza was still very rich. Both sea and land trade routes passed through here. Some of the oriental goods shipped from the Red Sea were packaged here and then shipped to Cyprus, Asia Minor, and even all over Europe. Similarly, products from Egypt and Syria also passed through here and were sent south to the Arabian Peninsula or north to Europe.

Even with the Crusaders' governance, this place was very prosperous. The sea route records that Guo Kang and his team used for reference were originally compiled by the Bishop of Gaza stationed here. Later, due to the changes in the strength comparison between the Crusaders and Egypt, Gaza changed hands many times and was ceded back and forth in the treaties as a bargaining chip for peace talks during the intermittent fighting.

The people of Gaza have long been accustomed to these changing of flags on the city walls and have no resistance - to put it bluntly, they are actually a group of businessmen, not soldiers. As long as they can do business, they will follow anyone to do it.

After the fall of the Crusader States, the Mamluk dynasty ruled Gaza. The Mamluks' governance ability is also hard to describe, but because of the repeated looting and destruction of various cities and ports in the north by the Crusaders, Turkmen warlords, and Mongols, Gaza, located in the far south, became more prosperous.

The wealthy citizens built many racecourses, schools, hospitals and other facilities, making this place a famous local city. After the Mamluk dynasty fell into civil strife, business was affected and the city's income began to shrink. But the foundation was still there, so even if the past 20 or 30 years were not easy, it was much better than the surrounding areas. In comparison, Jerusalem was just a broken town...

Before the army arrived here, Hafiz had sent messengers to inform the people in the city that there was a Mamluk officer stationed here, with only five or six Mamluk followers and about three hundred soldiers.

Hafiz and Sheikh had issued orders to them, asking them to obey their orders. But the Mamluks always said that they were seriously short of manpower. With so few people, they had to watch the port and defend the city, which was too much for them. Not actively requesting reinforcements was already a sign of understanding for their superiors' difficulties. How could they have anyone to send to them?

Egypt and Syria were both unstable internally, and neither side had the energy to care about them. The city also had money, so they simply paid tribute to both sides to stop them from causing trouble. So they had been wasting time like this for the past few years. They had no interest in who would be the new Sultan or which country would rule here.

In addition, the city actually has its own militia guards. Since the city is relatively large, there are quite a few of them, and it is said that there are thousands of them, and they are fully equipped. However, the fighting power of the local villagers has always been weak. According to Joanna, who came to transport grain, they are probably not as good as the city militia in her hometown.

The Mamluk captain in the city also said that these armed forces were mainly there to help defend the city and could not even be expected to go out of the city to suppress bandits.

In recent years, due to the endless wars, bandits have also "rolled up". Before, a Bedouin tribe came from Egypt and looted around the city. As auxiliary troops, these people have participated in several Mamluk civil wars in Egypt and have some practical experience. The Gazans didn't know at the time, and seeing that the other side had few people, they came out in full force and wanted to wipe out the bandits. As a result, they were defeated not long after the battle. The militia rushed back, but fortunately the Mamluks reacted quickly and responded in time to prevent the Bedouins from rushing in.

After that, the people in the city simply didn't dare to go out of the city for patrols. According to the captain, the number of soldiers under his command was much larger than normal, and this was also the reason. After the defeat, the Chamber of Commerce was frightened and urgently paid money to recruit some Kurdish mercenaries from the north to supplement the city defense. In this way, the situation was stabilized.

Therefore, he did not recommend recruiting these militias to participate in any military operations, and even logistics was best not to participate. Because these people did not want to leave their hometown to fight, and their combat effectiveness was not even as good as that of horse bandits, and they were only capable of causing trouble. Tuohuan and others thought it made sense, and quickly gave up the plan to recruit them to help transport grain.

However, the city's Chamber of Commerce still welcomed the Roman army. The president personally led a convoy and transported a batch of military rations to welcome them.

They told Tuohuan that since the country fell into chaos, the emirs of various places no longer obeyed the orders of Cairo. Basically, they had to make arrangements again after passing through a city, which made merchants bear a lot of extra burdens. The original tax law was no longer applicable. Warlords competed to increase taxes on merchants in order to obtain higher military funds to expand their subordinates and fight for power and profit. The trade routes that were originally safe were now full of troubles. Everywhere they went, there were all kinds of legal or illegal robbers who came to ask for money to pass through.

They really hope to reorganize the country through this action. Of course, it would be even better if they could establish contact with Rome. So, they took this opportunity to show their goodwill. Tuohuan also took advantage of the situation and agreed, saying that they have always attached great importance to the trade route, and this time they will also use everyone's help to try to restore the trade here as soon as possible.

After meeting with the locals, Tuohuan led everyone to look south outside the city and expressed his feelings. Everyone was curious and asked him what he was sighing about.

"I just heard people say these days that Gaza City is also a place of symbolic significance." Tuohuan replied: "When the Mongols invaded the west, the farthest point they reached on the southern front was here."

"At that time, Hulagu led his army and attacked Damascus. The Sultan of Damascus abandoned the city and fled to Gaza. Hulagu sent his vanguard officer Qebuka to pursue him all the way here. The people of Gaza handed over the Sultan, and the Ayyubid dynasty in Damascus was destroyed."

"But at this time, news came from the rear that Genghis Khan had died suddenly. Hulagu was shocked and immediately led the main force back, leaving only Qebuka's troops here. Soon, the Ayyubid army of Egypt arrived and drove out the Mongolian army stationed in Gaza. So this place became the farthest place the Mongols reached."

"So there is such a story." Everyone also sighed.

"On our way to Jerusalem, the locals told us that there is a small town called Nablus in the north of the city, west of the Jordan River. More than a hundred years ago, the Mongols and the Mamluks had a decisive battle there. At that time, the Mongols called that place Ain Jalut." Tuohuan continued: "The Mongolian army was defeated there and never reached further west."

"Many of our ancestors followed Hulagu's army to the Western Land. After passing this city, we have finally surpassed them. Before, we were just fighting over the heritage of our ancestors, but now we will take our first step in history."

Everyone agreed and said they would work harder. However, although the atmosphere was good, Guo Kang hesitated and reminded them: "We are here to recover our homeland as Rome, not to conquer and plunder as Mongolia. Everyone should make a clear distinction."

"The Romans conquered a lot, too." Tuohuan said in surprise.

"The Romans were also brutal, killing people and destroying cities, but the Romans had more and more people, while the Mongols had fewer and fewer people." Guo Kang shook his head: "The Mongolian headquarters brought by the Ilkhanate, together with the old, young, women and children from various tribes, totaled only 20. However, when Abaqa Khan fought against the Mamluks in Abrushtan, a small army was destroyed, and he lost people. Ghazan Khan fought against the Mamluks in the Sufar Steppe and was defeated again, with more than people captured. By the time of Wanjedu Khan, it was difficult to even gather a Mongolian army, and they couldn't even cross the Euphrates River."

"The Romans' culture was not well developed back then, and was far inferior to that of the Greeks. They also had no economic advantages. Carthage was much richer than them. But they were still known as the 'Hydra' and could constantly mobilize forces to participate in wars. The Mongols were even stronger than them when they marched west, but they became weaker and weaker, and finally killed themselves. I think we still have to consider the reasons behind this. This is the most important thing next." He pointed in the direction of Egypt and said.

At this point, the others also understood what he meant. Tuo Huan thought about it and nodded.

"You're right. This is a very delicate matter. We can't just think about achieving success quickly, otherwise we'll mess it up." He scratched his head. "We just erected a monument in Jerusalem. I was thinking of erecting one when we pass this city. Now that I mention it, it suddenly doesn't seem right."

"The tombstone still needs to be erected, but it doesn't have to be here," said Guo Kang.

"Where are we going? Alexandria Port?" Tuohuan asked.

"If you erect a monument in Alexandria, even if you directly recapture Egypt and erect a stone monument as high as the lighthouse on Pharos Island, you will only be the second Alexander - or even the second Ptolemy." Guo Kang shook his head: "I think it is better to erect a monument in the Isthmus of Suez. There, you will be the first."

"Oh, the canal you mentioned." Tuohuan figured out what he meant, but still asked, "That canal can't be built in a short time. For such a long project, it would be useless even if you erect a monument."

"The longer the better." Guo Kang said, "This is how water conservancy projects work. If construction and maintenance really take a very long time, then having a monument or not actually doesn't matter. The project itself is a monument."

"That's right... I haven't thought of comparing myself to Alexander, and I know I don't have that ability." Tuohuan scratched his head: "But you really know how to talk. These few sentences are enough to make people feel itchy. What do you think?" He said and asked the entourage.

Everyone was either thoughtful or confused, and they all started discussing for a while.

"I've heard scholars talk about the lighthouse of Iskandar. There are many legends about it, and some even say it's the greatest wisdom and miracle of the pagan era. But we don't really know much about water conservancy." An emir among the accompanying guests asked curiously, "Can this thing be built on a large scale? Can it be compared to a miraculous project like a lighthouse?"

"Of course." Guo Kang had no doubts this time and said directly: "You will know when the time comes. How can a lighthouse be compared with a water conservancy project?"

(End of this chapter)