Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 537: The Siege of Jerusalem
"Plop!" With a dull sound, the precious Persian tapestry presented to Morris by the local Arab leader was thrown heavily to the ground by him: it was not that the commander did not want to hear the noise, but it was because almost everything that could be thrown in the room was broken.
"Why did you act on your own? Why didn't you ask for permission? Instead, you led two divisions deep into the interior? What if the enemy set an ambush near Jerusalem? No, not just a "what if"? There must be an ambush! Just look at how perfect the timing of the enemy's cavalry's appearance was. You can see that our two divisions have been targeted by them for a long time!"
Morris couldn't help being so angry: As a top commander of this era, Morris' battlefield intuition was extremely sharp. After carefully asking the staff of the 19th Division who came to report with the communication ship about the detailed battle situation during this period, he instinctively realized that something was wrong: No wonder the Venetians are lobbying me to go to Cyprus and then attack Jerusalem all day long. Combining the two, the Ottomans' calculations are already very clear!
However, after venting his anger, he still had to accept Coutinho's decision: This war was promoted throughout Europe as a "holy war"! Your Spanish army has been chasing the enemy to within 50 kilometers of the holy city, but you don't want to continue moving forward? Is this still a holy war? Haven't you seen that Christians in the Ottoman Empire have been sending petitions to the European Union recently, asking the jihadists to recapture Jerusalem? And recently, clergy in the European Union and even the Pope have been petitioning His Majesty Philip to recapture the holy city as soon as possible?
Therefore, with such strong political pressure, it would be fine if the Spanish army was still in Alexandria or Crete. This has been led to Gaza by the Chinese, so there is absolutely no reason not to go to Jerusalem !
Besides, Maurice was only a Dutchman after all. Although the Netherlands was now a direct territory of Spain, there was still a difference between the Dutch and the Castilians. If a Dutch commander did not save two army divisions mainly composed of Castilians in crisis, he could not bear the moral pressure.
Therefore, pressure from religion, politics, ethnicity, morality, and many other aspects forced Morris to face this problem after a violent outburst.
"Mr. Barudis, please send a squadron immediately to Crete to pick up the 11th and 12th divisions and send them to Gaza as soon as possible."
"As you command, sir."
"Frederick, Alexander is temporarily under your command. Don't launch a large-scale attack. Just like in the past few months, slowly plow the ground with artillery fire and advance inch by inch."
"All right, brother. Are you going to Gaza yourself?"
"I will go to Crete first. In addition to the 11th and 12th divisions, I will also select four more divisions to lead them to Gaza. No, at that time, maybe I will lead these four divisions to rescue that stupid Coutinho."
…
"Maldita Sea! What's so stupid about Coutinho? He obviously wants to rely on his experience of conquering the Holy City to move up to a higher position!" When Morris was helplessly making rescue preparations in Alexandria, a few days later, in Rome, Philip, who received the same news, also rarely cursed.
He was a scholar before he traveled through time, and after traveling through time, he was given the title of "Son of God". Therefore, Philip had always appeared in front of everyone with a gentle, elegant, and intellectual appearance. But today, he was so angry that he spit out the Spanish national curse, which directly shocked the group of servants around him.
But Philip quickly reacted and restrained his temper. Then he took a deep breath and said, "Recovering the Holy City is the mission that every believer of the Lord strives for. Although it is still a little early to go to the Holy City when Alexandria has not been taken and Egypt has not been completely controlled by us. But... since the opportunity has appeared, we must seize it. Therefore, I ratify all the orders of Mr. Maurice. At the same time, I think that since the ten divisions in Alexandria are making slow progress for the time being, we should transfer two more divisions from there to Jerusalem. After all, it is not too cautious to recover the Holy City."
"As you command, Your Majesty, I will draft your decree immediately."
"Well, Raimondo, Durenni, you have been with me for many years. This time, I will let you go to Alexandria and follow those two divisions to see the battlefield, okay?"
"Ah?" The two great commanders of this historical plane, the passionate young men at this moment, jumped up at once: "Thank you for giving us such a sacred mission, we will do our best to serve you."
"Okay, I'll draft the order right away. Raimondo, your rank is temporarily set as lieutenant, and Durenni, your rank is temporarily set as second lieutenant. Remember, you are all future commanders of the imperial army, not ordinary soldiers who charge into battle. Therefore, if you really encounter a battle in Jerusalem this time, your first task is to take care of yourself."
"Thank you for your care, Your Majesty!"
"Huh~" He took another deep breath to calm the depression in his chest, and then said, "Let Marca, The Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and other newspapers send military reporters to Jerusalem. We want to let all the believers of the Lord of Europe know everything about the recovery of the Holy City!"
"As you command, Your Majesty."
…
On August 5, 1625, after repelling the Ming's Sixth Division in Gaza, Coutinho took a short break, especially after getting 30 days' worth of military rations from the navy, and then led the 19th and 20th divisions to rush towards Jerusalem. Along the way, a small number of Ottoman cavalry did appear in his sight. However, these cavalry were few in number and poorly equipped. So they only monitored from a distance and did not really rush over.
On the 7th, a communication ship from Gaza arrived in Alexandria. Maurice was furious, but he had no choice but to give the order to send troops to support.
On the 8th, Coutinho's entire detachment arrived at the gates of Jerusalem. The Ottomans, Arabs, and Crescent Moon Christians of all ethnic groups in the city had already fled: during the Crusades, these white Europeans killed all the Crescent Moon Christians along the way. Later, when Saladin led the Arabs back, he spared the lives of these Christians.
In short, with such historical experience, not to mention the Crescent Church, even many Christians here have fled - who knows if these new generation of Crusaders will go crazy and kill even their brothers in the church? After all, the white people in Europe are ruthless in killing pagans, and even more ruthless in killing heretics. Spain, the leader of the European Union, is the only country in history that has cleansed the land occupied by the Crescent Church without any trace of the Crescent Church. And the most effective way to achieve this historical uniqueness is to roast people alive, which is really cruel. So, let's run away. If we don't run away, we will be roasted by accident.
So, when Coutinho entered Jerusalem on the 8th, he found an almost empty city.
However, what Coutinho needed was not the population here, but the honor of being the "Restorer of the Holy City". Therefore, he did not care about these. After taking Jerusalem, he arranged for manpower to deploy defenses to prepare for the counterattack of the Ottomans. On the other hand, he sent clerks in the army, with the news releases that he personally reviewed, back along the way to find newspaper reporters in Alexandria or Crete, to spread the news throughout Europe as soon as possible.
As for himself, of course he went along the Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to pray.
On the 9th, the Spanish 11th and 12th Divisions, which had been prepared on Crete, began to board ships and prepare to sail to Gaza.
On the same day, Morris arrived on Crete and issued an order to gather four divisions to prepare to land in Gaza: this would take some time, after all, these four divisions were in a non-war state at this time and were harming Greek girls and Venetian ladies on Crete. It would take at least three to five days to gather them and then reorganize the entire army and board the ship.
Of course, this cannot be blamed on Morris : the second-line troops that are not fighting cannot be kept too tight for a long time, and the right way is to relax and tighten. It's all because of this damn Coutinho who acted on his own and caught the commander off guard. I just hope that the bastard Coutinho's luck is not too bad, and he won't be surrounded and annihilated by the enemy's large army.
On the 10th, Philip in Rome received the report and made further adjustments after a rare outburst of anger: transferring two more divisions from the Alexandria front.
However, on the same 10th, Richelieu led an army of 100,000 and surrounded Jerusalem!
