Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 634 Who is the Caliph loyal to?
After entering Egypt, the expected battle did not occur immediately.

Tuohuan and others had originally expected that the Mamluk warlords in Egypt would unite under external pressure, and, like when they fought against King Louis of France, they would gather a large army and try to fight them near the fortified cities on the border of the controlled area. However, this time, they did not encounter a similar situation.

In terms of intelligence, the Purple Tent Khanate inherited the good tradition formed since the Mongol invasion of the West, and had good relations with merchants from all over the country, often using traveling merchants to collect key information. This time, they also had been using merchants from Italy and Syria, as well as specially sent spies, to enter various transportation routes in advance to investigate the situation.

In the Mediterranean world, the management of mobile personnel in countries other than the Purple Tent Khanate itself was almost non-existent. Especially in cities and towns with prosperous trade, sorting out foreign personnel was almost an impossible task. In Dadu, there were so many private armed organizations that existed in broad daylight, let alone other places. In addition, other armies generally relied on merchants to supply military rations and various supplies, so it was basically impossible for the army to be mobilized secretly.

But intelligence from all sides showed that the Mamluks of Egypt did not mobilize their troops to meet the enemy. Instead, several major military leaders led their troops to the west of the Nile River to avoid the sharp edge of the Roman legions, and then gathered together to attack the Caliph first.

This reaction did not completely exceed the expectations of the Purple Tent Khanate.

Their itinerary was full of twists and turns, which was actually intentional. The conflict between the Egyptian warlords and the Caliph was getting more and more serious. If they could fight, it would be a good thing for the Purple Tent. Although everyone knew that the Caliph was just a puppet, puppets also had face. If the Mamluk warlords exposed this face, it would actually be beneficial to the future propaganda and management of the Purple Tent.

On the other hand, the Caliph also gathered some supporters to guard the last stronghold of Alexandria, which was not easy to take down in one fell swoop. If the Mamluk warlords and the Caliph fought and attacked Alexandria, both sides would suffer. It would be easier to deal with the Mamluks in the future; when controlling the Caliph, there would be no need to worry about his followers causing trouble.

Although it is difficult to grasp the timing accurately, even if Sheikh and his gang advance rapidly and really capture Alexandria and capture the Caliph, it will not prevent everyone from continuing the attack under the pretext of saving people or revenge.

Therefore, during the previous march, although the Caliph's messengers came frequently and urged him several times, Toghan only replied, asking him to have confidence, guard the port, and wait for rescue. The Syrian Hafez tribe that marched with them also knew this very well, and everyone marched slowly together, not taking the urging seriously.

In mid-April, the army captured the port city of Damietta, northeast of the Nile Delta.

According to Lady Jeanne, this is where Louis IX landed. At that time, the Crusaders were even more powerful than the coalition forces this time, but due to the miraculous performance of the French, they finally gave up the good situation.

But this time, the situation was obviously different. Up to this point, they had not encountered any organized resistance.

After staying for three days and obtaining a batch of supplies from the Italian ship, everyone began to discuss the next course of action.

When in Palestine, there was news that the Sheikh also knew about the military dispatch and planned to remove Alexander before they entered Egypt to prevent the two sides from joining forces and putting themselves at a disadvantage.

Some traditional officials and jurists wanted to dissuade this idea, saying that believers should at least give the Caliph basic respect, and it would be a bit disgraceful to directly mobilize troops to fight. However, the Mamluks did not take it seriously at all, and even shouted in public, "The Caliph, do you really take it seriously? He is just a son appointed by my master. If you can appoint him, you can also depose him."

Scholars repeatedly advised that these words can be done but not said; even if it is purely from a utilitarian perspective, it is necessary to do superficial work. In the early years, when the Sultan supported the Caliph, he did not give him any power, simply to increase the legitimacy of the country. Now if everyone openly mobilizes troops and makes the Caliph completely lose his authority, the prestige of the country will also decline, which is not conducive to your rule, right?

Unfortunately, the Mamluks have never paid attention to these principles, so no one has ever listened to the advice.

As a big leader, the Sheikh himself is more stable and considers more comprehensively. He told the opponents that he had certainly considered the issue of legitimacy. This matter is actually very simple: if they cannot catch the caliph, they are rebels; and if they can win and capture the caliph, then these actions are naturally legal. Therefore, the key now is to send troops quickly and capture the caliph - anyone who dares to oppose everyone's capture of the caliph is opposing legitimacy and the caliph as the representative of legitimacy. They are all heretics who are plotting treason and must be chopped off!
This analysis confused the scholars, and no one dared to object. Everyone sighed that the boss was more knowledgeable, and Sheikh himself felt that he was a logical genius, so he happily gathered his troops and marched north.

Now, the Roman-Syrian coalition forces faced a choice: whether to go directly to Alexandria to rescue the Caliph; or to go south along the Nile River and attack Cairo directly to force the enemy to return for support.

After discussion, everyone chose the first option.

After discussion, Tuohuan, the two legion commanders, and other officials and generals believed that the most advantageous option for Rome was to fight a quick and decisive battle with the enemy as soon as possible.

Going to Cairo first can indeed threaten the enemy's rear and put pressure on them. But the situation in Egypt is different from other places. Although the capital of the Mamluk regime is in Cairo, it seems that they don't care too much about the gains and losses of a city or a place. After this march, everyone realized this.

If they attack the city, not to mention the time and possible losses, the effect of mobilizing the enemy may not be very ideal. Moreover, after the war, they have to allocate manpower to guard the cities and traffic arteries along the way. This time, they didn't bring many people, and the larger the territory they occupied, the more trouble they would have. It would be better to directly disperse the enemy's main force while they are still in high spirits.

This decision was approved by most people and finally confirmed by Tuo Huan and sent to various departments for implementation. They were required to assemble the fleet, return to the port of Damietta, and after boarding the ship, go directly to Alexandria by sea.

When he received the order, Guo Kang was still in a village outside the city, following the "Old Sea Urchin" master and apprentice to conduct an investigation. Damietta, in the local Egyptian language, is called "Dumietta". Like most places in Egypt, it has a very long history. The current name comes from the Coptic language, which was recorded as early as the Hellenistic era. And this Coptic name is likely to be directly derived from the ancient Egyptian "anchor, port, town". I am afraid that there are not many such ancient names in the whole of Europe.

The city of Damietta was originally located on the seashore, and the Fifth Crusade later landed here. The Fifth Crusade was extremely chaotic, with participants from all backgrounds disagreeing with each other and even the landing point being inconsistent. The most capable leader, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, was even banned by the Pope from participating in the expedition. Despite this, Frederick managed to use diplomatic means to gain important support for his subordinates - the Sultanate of Rum in Asia Minor, an old enemy of the Ayyubid dynasty, also agreed to join the war and cooperate in the battle.

Although the city was well fortified, with three walls and dozens of towers, the Crusaders, with the prestige of their previous conquest of Constantinople, still conquered it in one fell swoop. The Crusaders, overwhelmed by their victory, even rejected the Egyptian Sultan's proposal to exchange Jerusalem for Damietta, hoping to conquer Egypt in one fell swoop. However, in the subsequent battles, the Crusaders were in chaos and the nobles were arguing all day, which led to the loss of command and the inability to expand their victory.

On the northern front, the real main force of the Crusaders, the Sultanate of Rum, was unexpectedly defeated prematurely by the Ayyubid Dynasty, which allowed the Syrian army to withdraw and move south, doubling the pressure on the Egyptian Crusaders.

When the Crusaders finally made up their minds to leave the city for a decisive battle, they encountered the flooding of the Nile River, and they were stuck. In the end, the Crusaders were completely defeated in Mansoura, and the remaining people had no choice but to surrender, give up the city in exchange for prisoners, and then escape by boat. But the city was also ruined, the population decreased significantly, and it declined.

Thirty years later, the Seventh Crusade, led by the French, visited here again. At this time, the city's defenses had been destroyed a lot, and Egypt was in civil strife, and the resistance was weak, so it fell again. However, the flooding of the Nile River delayed the army again. When the river receded, they found that Sultan Ayyubid had died of illness, his son did not have enough authority, the Mamluks in the army were ready to move, and the highest power of the country was controlled by the Sultan's widow.

The French obviously thought this was a good opportunity. After all, what could a group of people do against a woman? However, in the subsequent battle, the Crusaders were defeated in Mansurah and were chased all the way back. Louis IX personally ran to the front line to encourage the soldiers and barely maintained the defense. But after holding on for a while, the king himself fell ill. The morale of the army completely collapsed and surrendered one after another. More than 30,000 people, including the king himself, were captured.

The date of the French surrender even became a local holiday. Until Guo Kang's time, the National Day of Damietta was different from that of other provinces in Egypt. They celebrated modern festivals, but their National Day was still the "French Rubbing Day".

Although the Crusaders were eventually defeated twice, this place was really uninhabitable. After the civil strife in Egypt ended, the new Sultan Baibars abandoned the original city site and built a new city of Damiat at the mouth of the river farther from the coast. The new city was several miles away from the coast, leaving a buffer space, and it was right at the river crossing, making it more convenient for defense. But this time, the Purple Tent Army came from land, and the Mamluks stationed in the city fled early without even resisting. These carefully designed defense facilities still failed to play a role.

South of Damietta is the city of Mansoura, where both Crusades were defeated. But now, there is no large army stationed there. The officials and guards guarding the city lay down early and sent messengers to tell them that they had no hostility.

The messenger claimed that the people in the city were loyal and unwaveringly loyal to the Caliph and the Sultan. As for who the Caliph and the Sultan were, they had no interest in it. They had no hostility towards you and the candidates you supported. Anyway, after you finish fighting, just tell us, and we will continue to be loyal.

Since the strategic direction had not yet been determined, the army was not in a hurry to move south. Instead, after sending out a large number of scouts to survey the terrain, Guo Kang simply led his men to visit and explore everywhere.

There are several agricultural villages near Damietta, which, like other places along the river, are lined up along the Nile and its tributaries, relying on river water for farming, just like their ancestors thousands of years ago. There is also a fishing port near the pier along the coast, where some fishermen gather. However, the fishery here does not seem to be abundant, so the number of fishermen is small and not rich, and some are simply part-time vendors and nearby farmers.

As for fishing along the river, it is often done by the villagers themselves. But the villagers said that there are many crocodiles in the river and mosquitoes are particularly rampant, so people don’t really want to go fishing unless they need it. But the tax collectors come every year, and the grain produced by the fields is not enough to pay taxes in the past two years, so they can only go to the river to fish, harvest reeds and other labor to supplement and barely have some food to eat.

Most of the villagers here believe in Islam, and there are also some believers of the Coptic Church in the port city. Many Copts in the city are engaged in business, so they have some money and a relatively higher level of education. They pay an additional protection fee to the Mamluk chief in the city every year in exchange for the other party not interfering in the internal affairs of the parish. Therefore, the Mamluks are happy to see the existence of these pagan communities and do not care much.

The Muslims in the village were not so lucky. Although they were numerous, they were generally very poor. The Coptics in the city were excited about the arrival of the Legion and took the initiative to contact them and report what they knew. But the villagers were very wary of them. Most of them were very timid. If they were pulled over to ask about the situation, they would be so scared that they could not speak.

Fortunately, the old sea urchin who served as the translator had been in the underworld for many years and was very good at dealing with strangers. After a lot of talking back and forth, the locals finally told them something.

People in that area said that the river has been acting strangely in recent years, with water levels fluctuating. They suspected that Huda was angry. As a result, food production has dropped significantly, making life even worse for the villagers. The priests here also told the Mamluks in the city that they hoped to reduce taxes. But the Mamluks wanted to go to war, so they not only disagreed, but also wanted to increase taxes.

The cleric was very dissatisfied, so he went to the local "Qadi" and threatened to go to Cairo to complain. As a result, the Mamluks sent people to arrest the Qadi and several village clerics. Until now, the local government has changed, but these people have not been released.

Guo Kang and others were speechless. Muhammad suggested that he send someone back to the city to check and confirm. The villagers were generally timid and did not dare to deal with them, especially not to enter the city casually. Guo Kang personally took two brave villagers as representatives and went there. As a result, they found that those people were really in jail.

It turned out that the Mamluk governor had fled, but the jailers were all locals in the city and could not leave together. They had not received any orders from the new ruler, so they continued to guard the cells loyally according to inertia. No one remembered how these unfortunate guys got in, so they were kept in there.

Guo Kang then took the initiative and released them, saying that according to Roman custom, the army was passing through here, so no matter what religion they believed in or which saint they worshipped, they would not have to pay taxes this year and should go back quickly.

The villagers were very grateful for this, and after that, Guo Kang collected information much faster.

(End of this chapter)