The Youngest Prince Of The English Royalty House [EN]: Chapter 65

65. Alexandria is a Port (3)

—1187, Egypt—

“We are not Crusaders. We are warriors of Allah disguised as Crusaders!”

“Allahu Akbar!” [God is the greatest]

I thought I had experienced everything while fighting the Crusaders, but undercover Islamic warriors are a first for me.

Our Crusader camp was in chaos.

There’s a saying that when something is too absurd, you don’t even get angry. This is 100 percent proof that we had Islamic spies among us!

I didn’t have time to dwell on the fact that my reliable comrade, whom I had entrusted my back to, was actually a Muslim in disguise. I immediately cut down the soldier in front of me.

At that moment, an Islamic commander in expensive armor approached me, glaring, and said,

“Prince John, I will take you as a hostage!”

‘Do you think I’ll be captured easily?’

Of course, I can’t be captured.

The commander approached me, thinking I was a weakling who could be easily taken, but he didn’t seem to know why I hadn’t been captured until now.

‘There are no weaklings in our Angevin family, you infidel friend.’

That’s how confident I am; that’s why I’m fighting on the front lines.

—Ugh

Richard’s noble teaching—if you lack strength, you must use the opponent’s strength against them! I didn’t know it would work so well.

‘Go, Nefertari!’

—Heeheehee.

I pulled on the reins of Nefertari, my Egyptian horse, and faced countless enemies while riding.

“Prince John!”

In this sudden situation, the Safe Knights rushed to protect me, but the number of those who had been hiding their identities was far greater than expected.

Those Islamic spies in Crusader attire.

“Don’t interfere!”

Since they had revealed their identities, fully prepared for everything, they must have been determined to capture me this time.

“Kill Prince John!”

“No! Capture him and offer him to Allah.”

‘Since I’m Henry II’s son, there’s a high chance I’ll be taken hostage, so I won’t be beheaded right away.’

I am the best among hostages, a promising talent who can become an SSS-class hostage to the Islamic guys.

In my cousin Pierre’s old stories, Ramses II in a similar predicament was given strength by the god Amon. I wish Roland, the knight of Charlemagne beyond the Jordan River, would possess me.

—Swish.

—Thud.

—Stab.

The fierce battle continued, but I was not alone.

“We will protect His Highness to the very end.”

“I trust you and will move forward.”

It’s obvious, but medieval knights can only fight confidently with the support of troops!

I’m not a character in a game, so I can’t run wild on this harsh battlefield.

Fortunately, my personal guards were on either side of me.

To avoid being isolated, my guards and I fought off the enemies surrounding us, trying to reach our allies as much as possible.

Fortunately, we were able to reach a place very close to my allies. I was really lucky.

“Your Highness!”

—Thwack.

Robin shot an arrow, taking care of the Islamic soldier in front of me.

“Our army is being surrounded.”

Troops were gathering, mainly from my territory, holding the Angevin and Irish flags.

It would be good to go towards the enemy commander Saladin, who rules the Islamic forces in Alexandria, but he is an experienced commander, so it won’t be easy to target him.

What’s important now.

Is to break through the barrier made of Islamic soldiers and join another corps.

“I see Masoud’s army over there.”

“We’ll advance towards them.”

“We’ll support you with crossbows.”

Crossbowmen with Brown Bess crossbows shot at the enemies.

“We have come to keep the contract we made with Queen Eleanor!”

And the Flemish mercenaries, who are worth their money, were approaching me.

For now, I’ve overcome the immediate crisis, and now I’m worried about the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

‘There was a reason why the Kingdom of Jerusalem fell so early. There were so many people hidden from the start.’

I didn’t know the Islamic friends would use such a scheme.

No, it must have been like this for a long time.

“Everyone is safe.”

“Your Highness, I’m glad you’re safe.”

But the enemies had no intention of giving us a breather.

Suddenly, a new army was deployed nearby.

“They are new Western Liao barbarians!”

What are new Western Liao barbarians again?

A new Western Liao mercenary corps appeared, each with a large axe and a horn bow made of buffalo horns.

And a huge bald guy was talking nonsense.

“Repent to Allah, John.”

Like!

Ah, of course, I can speak Arabic; I know what it means.

Now it’s my turn to talk nonsense.

I deliberately spoke in stuttering Arabic.

“The knight of God, recognized by both Michael and Gabriel, John Plantagenet! That’s me!”

If the main archangel of Christianity is Michael.

The archangel that Islam loves to death is Gabriel.

From today, I will say that I am protected by the archangels Michael and Gabriel, and I decided to become Dangerous John.

At that moment, David’s ring appeared on my fingertip.

‘This too shall pass.’ The ring of King David, who was the greatest monarch in the Kingdom of Israel but lived a more difficult life than anyone else.

* * *

“Waaah!”

The Islamic army sensed that their operation had succeeded.

As they thought, the army led by Prince John was now in crisis.

“Thoroughly isolate Prince John’s unit!”

Then, the Islamic army began to harvest the heads of the Crusaders with curved swords and began to take the valuable knights as hostages.

The Crusaders, knowing the political, religious, and economic importance of Prince John, could not bear to see Prince John captured.

“Save Prince John!”

“Ah, new Islamic troops!”

However, the Islamic army did not allow the Crusaders to easily save Prince John, who was the core target of this battle.

“Do you think we’ll let you get there?”

Even if people who speak Arabic and Latin do not know each other’s languages, there are times when they understand the meaning with their eyes.

The Crusaders were in trouble, and the Islamic army was slowly smiling.

Perhaps the Islamic army’s trump card seemed to have worked.

For now, it did not seem easy to break through the encirclement around Prince John.

Above all, the electors of the Holy Roman Empire were showing defensive movements, more concerned with assisting the emperor than saving Prince John.

In the first place, the Islamic army bet everything on capturing Prince John, rather than targeting the most vulnerable army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

If Henry II, the supreme leader of the West, had the weakness of ‘John,’ things would be easier in many ways.

In addition, the Islamic commanders did not think that the Western electors would go out of their way to save Prince John.

‘We just need to move in a way that checks the Count of Zülzbach, known as the Emperor’s Sword.’

‘There is no one among the other Crusader commanders to worry about. The electors and the rest of the nobles are John and Friedrich.’

It’s not carelessness. Even before the war broke out, Saladin had thoroughly investigated the situation of the Crusader commanders through various routes and had already realized that there were no commanders to be careful of except for those two.

Today, Saladin did not utter obvious slogans such as ‘Allahu Akbar.’

He was just silently watching Prince John’s camp, which was increasingly in crisis, and giving timely orders.

The weakness of the Crusaders throughout Egypt is the camp of the Jerusalem army. To be exact, it is the existence of Muslims who have infiltrated the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

‘John, what you didn’t expect is the fake Crusaders we planted decades ago.’

To capture John, Saladin prepared not only false rumors.

Persian Islamic brothers whom Saladin and his predecessors had planted in Jerusalem long ago. In other words, they used people who were no different from Caucasians to create a good opportunity.

“Surround the camp led by the Western Emperor.”

The Crusaders belonging to the Holy Roman Empire were prevented from saving John at all costs.

The Holy Roman Empire, silently watching the Islamic warriors, was wearing an inscrutable, wrinkled smile.

* * *

Godfrey, Charles, Robin, Akbulhoe.

Charles, one of John’s four knights, the only commander specialized in the navy.

He muttered, looking at the Islamic fleet far away.

“There are so many of them.”

‘I have to be prepared today. Of course, I couldn’t trust those damn Sicilians and Castilians.’

He steeled his heart.

Yes, the fleets of Sicily and Castile had already lost Charles’ trust.

Hadn’t the Islamic army almost taken away the sea power that Charles and his lord, Prince John, had worked so hard to create?

Although they were gathered under the banner of the Crusaders, it was the truth of this era to attack the same Christians even if the interests were slightly different.

Rather than the Sicilian Castilians, the fleet of the Eastern Roman Empire, which would not check John’s fleet, and Venice, which was in some sense an allied force with John, were more reliable.

Now, next to the Irish fleet, there was a support fleet from such Eastern Rome Venice, and Admiral Charles had a plan to win this naval battle.

‘Even if I ply him with alcohol, he protects the secret of gunpowder and keeps his loyalty to China [referring to Akbulhoe], he is respectable as a knight.’

Of course, Akbulhoe, who had not yet abandoned his loyalty to the Song Dynasty, did not reveal the secrets of the exploding gunpowder.

But it is not that there was no result of coaxing the drunk Akbulhoe.

‘Charles, I don’t hate Prince John. In our great Song Dynasty, there are few superiors like Prince John.’

Akbulhoe opened the floodgates in slurred Latin, revealing the long-accumulated Chinese naval tactics.

Akbulhoe, since he has no chance to go to China anyway, he said that he would not betray his country even if he told the situation related to naval battles?

For Charles, who already had a lot of knowledge about fleet warfare, Eastern naval tactics were like welcome rain. It took too long to build the warships that came out of it.

Adding a Chinese ‘ram’ to existing battleships did not take long.

So Charles shouted confidently towards the sea.

“Use ramming tactics!”

“Yes, sir!”

New ramming tactics using Chinese-style rams.

Charles deviates from the medieval ramming tactics, which at best dropped sailors from enemy ships or broke oars to lose mobility.

Using the Song Dynasty-style ram that Akbulhoe told him, he tried to awaken the macho spirit of the ancient sailors that was in the Battle of Actium [a decisive naval battle in Roman history].

The Islamic fleet was caught completely by surprise.

“Those… those crazy heathens.”

“They’re trying to ram us, right?”

It is the moment when the Renaissance of naval warfare begins.

* * *

—Syrian Front, Damascus—

While the storm was brewing in Alexandria.

The battle of Damascus was also continuing.

“Attack!”

“Block the Crusaders’ attacks!”

“Woo!”

“Sultan, this is the limit.”

“I have to endure more for my brother.”

“You have endured so far.”

Saladin had already evacuated the Muslims who had not fought for a long time.

And he endured for a long time.

“This is the limit. I can’t hold on any longer; start the retreat operation.”

“I understand. Sultan!”

No matter how much the support troops increased, even if the opposing Crusaders were exhausted, the power of Damascus Castle had its limits.

‘Brother, this brother has endured as much as he could for Egypt.’

Prince Richard and Baldwin IV are threatening commanders. Defending Damascus Castle, one of the centers of Syria, against them for a long time is because Saladin is such a capable commander.

What’s even more surprising is that Saladin has not only defended the Damascus area but has also been preparing a rear base to retreat to.

The Crusaders who have survived in the Syrian region so far could see the atmosphere of Damascus Castle from afar.

And soon after, Damascus was dedicated to Jesus Christ.

“Waaaaaaaah!”

The Crusaders, who had fought a tiring siege, cheered.

The commanders also had faces that seemed to have forgotten their fatigue.

“Your Majesty, congratulations. Our Crusaders have finally obtained Damascus!”

“Lord Richard, thank you for your hard work. Finally… finally… Damascus, which threatened the Kingdom of Jerusalem…….”

Baldwin IV, who should have died two years ago, became a Christian who had recaptured Damascus alive and well.

But as the saying goes, glory and misfortune come together.

Even though Baldwin IV had carried out such a purge, the real traitors were still alive. The fact that there are undercover Islamic forces in the Kingdom of Jerusalem will not be known to the Jerusalem monarch soon.

This was because Emperor Friedrich was imprisoning the Jerusalem Kingdom army and controlling information.