Chapter 112: Bethlehem (7)

"But those ministers at court, as well as the Grand Master of the Templars and the Grand Master of the Hospitallers, will surely stop him, won't they?"

"They will certainly stop him if they see no hope. But what if they do?" Le Gao said. "The news we received is absolutely true. Nur ad-Din's condition has been fluctuating, his three sons each have their own agendas, not to mention his 'Emirs' (military commanders)." Le Gao sighed deeply.

"You know about the conflict between Nur ad-Din, Shirkuh in Egypt, and his nephew Saladin, don't you?"

If Nur ad-Din were healthy and strong, he certainly wouldn't target Shirkuh and Saladin at this time. After all, he had just fought a war against Arslan of Marash, and his soldiers had not yet recovered from the fatigue and excitement of the war. But he had no choice; after all, the Emirs under his command were watching him.

If he did not punish Shirkuh and Saladin, they would suspect that this lion was old, his teeth loose, and his claws fallen off, and he would be attacked by all.

"Doesn't he have sons?"

"The worst part is that he has three sons, plus his brother and his brother's children. They are all eyeing Nur ad-Din's throne and territory, just waiting for him to show signs of fatigue. That is why he must put on an extremely stern front to face those two Kurds. If possible, he might even use them as an example to deter those who are restless. Do you know their recent movements?"

"Merchants from Damascus sent word back saying that Nur ad-Din once summoned Shirkuh and Saladin back to Damascus or Aleppo in the name of launching a Jihad. However, although those two Kurds verbally acknowledged the Sultan's decree and appeared fearful and trembling, they never set out."

"Their family moved the capital of the Fatimid dynasty from the burned-down Fustat to Cairo. I heard they are gathering craftsmen to rebuild the walls, palaces, and fortresses of Cairo. Now Shirkuh is the Grand Vizier of the Fatimid dynasty, and his nephew Saladin holds military power and is awe-inspiring. It seems they will not return to Syria again."

Until that day, the total assets of the Templars could buy a kingdom. Their castles were not only all over Syria, Al-Azar, and Egypt, but also all over Frank and the Apennines; they were kings and popes in their own territories, with their own laws and their own doctrines. They collected secular head taxes and also collected sacred tithes. They owned mills, wells, and manors, and they could appoint officials in cities or clerics in the church as they pleased.

"Just speaking of now, do you think Nur ad-Din is preparing to launch a Jihad, or does he just want to find an excuse?"

"It's hard to say."

No matter how profound the grace and care Baldwin IV received from God and the saints, he was still only fourteen years old. So young and lacking a foundation—Jacques meant that this heir to the kingdom, who had to live in isolation due to leprosy, did not have many friends and subordinates he could trust.

His two ministers, Raymond, Count of Tripoli, and Bohemond, Prince of Antioch, were his legitimate elders. If he showed the kind of awe and obedience toward elders that ordinary children have by nature, he would just be a puppet.

Thinking of this, Jacques could not help but show a look of worry. Judging from the Bethlehem knights, their new king might not be a cowardly and useless person. But participating in such dangerous political struggles, they were also worried about whether they would be swallowed by a sudden whirlpool.

"What we are doing does not hinder the interests of those lords, and we are not explicitly inciting the new king to do anything. But if our intelligence can help him regain his power sooner—I dare not say how much benefit we can get, but at least in the commercial field, we should be able to obtain great convenience and privileges."

What Le Gao did not say was that he wanted to take this opportunity to fight for a greater voice for the Isaac people before the new king. Every generation of Isaac people did this kind of thing; some succeeded, some did not. But even if they succeeded, the results those people could produce could only be called barely acceptable—the Isaac people were still mostly excluded from guilds and forbidden from owning land or becoming officials.

They could still only engage in professions such as merchants, moneylenders, or money changers, which were not popular.

He did have a friend who was once a skilled goldsmith, but because he was rejected by the guild, he had to move to Bilbeis—"By the way," Le Gao suddenly said, "I once had a friend who lived in Bilbeis. When Bilbeis fell, he escaped from inside. Now he is going to another place, but his daughter is ill. I arranged for them to stay in an inn for a few days, and wait for the girl's illness to recover before talking about what happens next."

"If possible, I will arrange for him to meet you. He is a... wise and kind elder. I think you can learn some things from him that you cannot learn from me."

Jacques certainly would not refuse. He knew his father-in-law regarded him as another son. Every suggestion he gave him was for his own good. Suddenly asking him to meet such a person must have a reason that he could not know but was important enough.

Le Gao nodded with satisfaction.

For this son-in-law, he also felt satisfied, except that he was not an Isaac person.

However, if he were an Isaac person, he would not let him become his son-in-law and heir. After all, to walk in front of those Christians, an Isaac person would not do.

After Le Gao left, Jacques sat alone at the table for a while. He thought over and over about what had happened in the past few days, as well as the plans and arrangements for the future. Since he had decided to actively participate in the war between the Saracens and the Christians—they must be very careful, leaving no traces, and yet let the new king see their achievements.

He pondered until the candle beside him was nothing but a pile of wax tears before he stood up and returned to the bedroom. His wife saw him and immediately stood up.

"What are you doing?"

Jacques asked curiously, because he saw his wife open a trunk and take out a few pieces of clothing, placing them on a stool nearby.

"It's one of my aunts." Jacques's wife frowned. "She suddenly came to visit me today and told me about her hardships and difficulties. I intend to give her a few pieces of clothing, and perhaps some money."

They were drilling everywhere, just wanting to know what would happen in the future. In the case of not being able to determine what might happen later, they could only assume the worst and worry deeply about it. If so, that's fine, they would also do many stupid things, attracting more people with ulterior motives to blackmail, extort, and cheat...

"Yes, she married a Christian knight. But I heard that this marriage was not recognized by the church. Her husband was a Crusader knight, after all." Jacques's wife said with a worried look, not knowing what to say when thinking of her poor aunt.

The Isaac people had always maintained a very cautious attitude regarding intermarriage with other races. After all, in the scriptures they revered as the standard, the saint Abraham once said, "Do not intermarry with the women of Jianan."

At that time, God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Abraham obeyed this command, but at the last moment, God sent an angel to replace Isaac with a pure lamb—when Isaac grew up and was about to marry and have children, Abraham found a steward and told him to go to Abraham's hometown, which was the Mesopotamia region, to find a pure-blooded Hebrew woman, rather than asking Isaac to marry a local Canaanite woman.

Therefore, not intermarrying with other races became the creed of the Isaac people.

Of course, all creeds could be broken, especially in Al-Azar and surrounding countries. This place was originally a place where many ethnic groups lived together, and the number of Isaac people here was not enough for them to stick to this law—they either had to leave Al-Azar or marry into races of different faiths.

However, in marriage, the situation of Isaac women marrying out was still more common than Isaac men marrying Christian or Saracen women. Jacques could marry Le Gao's daughter; among the Isaac ethnic group, he was also tacitly assumed to be someone who would convert in the future—now it was just for the convenience of doing business with Christians. Isaac people were sometimes very flexible.

But the situation of Jacques's wife's aunt was different. She had always been a stubborn person, and no one thought this marriage could succeed.

Jacques was originally just the son of a craftsman, and later just a merchant. No one would care too much if he married an Isaac woman or a Saracen woman. But a Crusader knight marrying an Isaac woman, especially twenty years ago, was very hard for people to accept.

At least the clerics and the knights of the orders firmly believed that this marriage was invalid. They were just cohabiting, and their child was just a bastard. And the worrying thing indeed happened. Within two years, the knight died on the battlefield, and as his wife, she was not only unable to get his inheritance but was also driven out of the castle along with the child.

If it weren't for the fact that the knight had a brother who was a castle steward, who knows how hard their life as mother and son would have been.

"Is her son named Witt... didn't he already enter the castle to work as a servant before?"

Hearing Jacques ask this, Jacques's wife showed an awkward smile. "Something happened." She said vaguely. "Unfortunately, he died."

Jacques did not care. A widow who lost her son turning to wealthy relatives was not an excessive thing. He even walked over and picked up the money bag, pouring out the money inside to count it. "Is this enough? Do you want to add more?"

"It's enough." Jacques's wife said. "She is just staying here for a stopover, at most a few months. I heard she wants to go back to the Apennines next year, where she has other relatives to rely on."

"Indeed," Jacques said sincerely, "A woman alone staying in Al-Azar is ultimately too dangerous."

————

Early the next morning, Jacques's wife went to see her aunt. To tell the truth, she did not like the other party very much because the latter was always quite arrogant—although it was not incomprehensible. Although she was an Isaac person, when she was young, she had beauty like morning dew and roses. It was also because of this reason that the knight fell in love with her regardless of everything.

And she had also said that rather than being married off by her father to an Isaac person, giving birth to an Isaac child, and continuing to suffer contempt and torture, she would rather stay at home forever. And if she could marry a Christian knight, that would be even better. And when she insisted on marrying him regardless of her mother's crying and her father's curses—not only did the church not recognize their marriage, but among the Isaac people here, she was also as good as dead.

In the faint memory of Jacques's wife, this aunt had also returned once, standing far away outside the area where the Isaac people lived. Her grandfather closed the doors and windows as soon as he saw her, and even if her father mumbled and wanted to go out to take a look, he was ruthlessly refused. But to say that the relationship was truly severed, that was not necessarily true. At least after the knight died, her grandfather had once wanted to take her back.

But her aunt refused. Jacques's wife did not know what she was thinking, but she concealed some things and did not tell her husband—she knew that her aunt's son Witt had once been a servant of the prince and had accidentally received God's blessing—this was all found out by her father Le Gao. Later, Witt became a monk, and then for some reason, he died.

Le Gao let it slip after drinking, and later he forced those who heard it at the time, his wife and daughter, never to speak of this matter. It seemed that it was related to some big figure...

"Madam?" She asked in a low voice.

In the narrow inn room, Witt's mother was still wearing coarse black linen clothes, wearing a hood and a face veil. When she turned her head, her eyes were like two bright spots of some animal flickering in the dark.

Jacques's wife was startled. She pressed her chest and walked into the room. She did not bring a servant—after all, she was a person who had "died." If she were seen by the "wise men" of the Isaac people, she would be punished for it.

She brought the things for her aunt, clothes, food, and money. Because she had obtained her husband's permission, she even added a little more, enough for her aunt to board a ship returning to the Apennines, and even find a monastery or a small house to live in temporarily. But her aunt just flipped through them and put them down boredly.

"I also brought you an amulet." Jacques's wife said.

This pure silver amulet—when her aunt left the Isaac settlement, she did not take anything with her, only a thin set of clothes. Their "wise men" would not allow her to continue to defile the holy objects of the Isaac people. Jacques's wife was still worried that she would be furious or disdainful, but she took it, looked at it carefully, and hung it around her neck as a treasure.

Jacques's wife felt relieved. "I'm leaving," she said. "The ship has been arranged. After you board the ship and arrive in the Apennines, write to me."

Her aunt just pulled down her veil and smiled strangely: "Then, come and kiss me, my dear little niece."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 113 =====