Chapter 47: Saladin's Fortress

  A camel team walked slowly in the desert, with endless deserts stretching out as far as the eye could see. The scenery on both sides was bleak and vast. Although not far away is the world's longest river 'Nile River'. It has a bit of the flavor of "the vast desert smoke goes straight, the long river sunset rounds".

  What Liu Qi couldn't understand was why, with a good road available, 'Amur' the elder insisted on returning to Cairo via this desert. Although Liu Qi's heart was burning with anxiety and worry about the fate of that small unit in the storm, as the messenger of God in this all-knowing role, he couldn't ask 'Amur'.

  The camel's steady, step-by-step gait was still quite comfortable for Liu Qi. Except that the camel's hair kept poking through the fabric of his robe and stabbing him in the butt. This also made Liu Qi, who only had one outer garment on, feel rather miserable.

  The other nine elders have all returned to their respective places. Only 'Amr' led Liu Qi towards Cairo. Of course, as a great elder, 'Amr' still had many servants serving him. In front of 'Amr', they were not allowed to ride camels. Only Liu Qi, the messenger of God, was respectfully let onto the camel by 'Amr'.

  Amul's attendants and bodyguards found it strange that the elderly Amul was so respectful to someone, a treatment not even afforded to foreign Sultans. However, good education and strict discipline kept them united without anyone uttering a word.

  Although the camel is slow, there will also be a time when the road is finished. In the evening, Liu Qi finally stepped into the land of Cairo Plain.

  The ancient Egyptians called Cairo "the mother of the city", and the Arabs called it "Al-Qahira", meaning conqueror or victor. The Nile River, this world-famous river, flows through the city and divides into two branches, continuing north to empty into the Mediterranean Sea, which separates Europe and Africa, forming a vast and fertile Nile Delta. Cairo is located in the southern part of this delta. Due to its location at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, Cairo's position is extremely important.

  Since humans have had the ability to navigate on the ocean, the ocean has been in an unyielding struggle with humanity. The dangers of navigation at sea are quite astonishing, storms, hidden reefs, diseases and loneliness have always accompanied those who go out to seek wealth and freedom. Therefore, sailors are still a symbol of bravery in people's minds until now.

  In the early days, European navigators all went south from Africa's Cape of Good Hope and then to the mysterious East for purchasing and trading goods. However, the vast ocean was ruthless. Out of ten ships that set out, only one or two could return with cargo. The high cost of transportation made silk and porcelain from the East art pieces that only rich nobles could collect.

  But the quest for wealth is something that every ruler cannot avoid. When it was discovered that Egypt's Suez region connects the Mediterranean and Red Sea with only a short 175 kilometers in between, while going around Africa's southernmost point would be a long 11,000 kilometers, digging a canal became the most important thing to do.

  The earliest canal to be dug was by the Pharaohs Senusret and Setut in ancient Egypt. Through large-scale construction of canals, Senusret successfully solved the country's employment problem, but also consumed a huge amount of national finances. Later, due to the abandonment of the canal, it became silted up with mud and sand. In later years, successive conquerors conquered Egypt for this canal. Until 1300, after the Muslims conquered Egypt, the Suez Canal was reopened for 150 years.

  With the advent of the Industrial Revolution in several European countries, including Britain and France, breaking through foreign trade exports, reducing transportation costs, and seeking export solutions for domestic overproduction were all within the grasp of the ruling powers of these countries.

  The final result was that Britain and France sent troops to Egypt, directly using war to make the local feudal regime in Egypt collapse. The Suez Canal became an international canal, and on November 17, 1869, the Suez Canal opened to international transportation, of course, tolls were definitely collected, and they were not cheap at all, and the money went directly into the British Empire's treasury. And poor Egypt also became one of the most important colonies of Britain and France.

  When Liu Qi heard the elder 'Amr' asking him to lead the Egyptian people to resist British rule and take back the Suez Canal in the temple, he couldn't help but laugh. It turned out that Elder 'Amr's request was what he was doing now. The British must be fought, as for the ownership of the Suez Canal, it would have to wait until the British were defeated first.

  But it turned out that Liu Qi was also clueless, and only relied on luck and the mysterious radar in his brain to take down Meng Ge's command center. Then he dreamed of further advancing on Cairo. Little did he know that using the phrase "a snake swallowing an elephant" to describe Liu Qi would be a bit of an understatement - it should be called an ant swallowing a giant elephant, or rather, just one single ant.

  As we entered Cairo, we saw British military camps and anti-aircraft positions along the way, as well as checkpoints every few hundred meters. It's clear that the British are on high alert here. However, the elderly 'Amr' didn't seem to care about these things. As he rode his camel through the streets, vendors on both sides stopped doing business and bowed their heads in respect. Pedestrians and vehicles ahead also stopped and stood still by the side of the road, clearing a path and bowing their heads. The originally crowded and noisy street suddenly became wide and quiet. Liu Qi was shocked to discover that even British and French people were among those paying respects on the roadside, revealing the high status of 'Amr' in this place.

  What surprised Liu Qi even more was that at those military checkpoints, not a single person came forward to ask questions or block the team of 'Amur' Dalao. Instead, when they saw the team of 'Amur' Dalao approaching, they moved away the roadblocks on the road early and stood at attention beside them, saluting. And 'Amur' Dalao didn't even glance at them, just walked past directly.

  "Amur" led the team through the southern part of Cairo and arrived at Mokattam Mountain in the eastern suburbs. After walking for a while, Liu Qi couldn't help but ask, "'Amur', where are you taking me? We've already arrived in Cairo, why are we leaving the city again?"

  "Noble divine messenger, our ancestor 'Saladin' had foretold your arrival. The place we are going to now is the Saladin Castle built by our ancestors, which is the only place worthy of your noble status." replied Amr. In fact, there were two more reasons that Amr did not mention: one was that Amr himself lived in a house within the Saladin Castle, and the other reason was that this was where Amr contacted his 'Holy War Knights Alliance'.

  After walking for a while, Liu Qi saw a castle-like building appearing in the distance. Under the glow of sunset, it looked majestic and magnificent. In front of the castle was a green lawn, with walls 2 meters wide. The castle was divided into inner and outer cities, with palaces and temples built inside. The sharp tower on top of the mosque rose like a sharp sword into the clouds, while the large dome shone brightly in the sunset.

  Outside the castle there is a very large square, and at the other end of the square there is also a mosque, which is also very grand and echoes with the castle.

  Liu Qi followed Amur directly into the castle of Saladin, and as soon as he entered the castle, he felt shocked, extremely shocked. It wasn't because of the grandeur and magnificence of the castle that he was shocked - to be honest, Liu Qi was also a graduate of the Civil Engineering Department in his previous life, and during his internship, his teacher had taken him and his classmates to visit several large architectural complexes for inspection. So even if this castle was extremely grand and magnificent, Liu Qi wouldn't have been shocked. Of course, Liu Qi would be even less likely to be shocked by the golden splendor inside the castle - no matter how well decorated it was, could it compare to the Great Hall of the People?

  What really shocked Liu Qi was that there was no interior decoration in this castle, and from the stones used to build the castle, it could be seen that no decorative work had been done here at all. Everything was so rough, with no patterns or gold and silver decorations on the stone pillars, and the floor was just ordinary marble. On the side of the marble road, a few Egyptian palm trees were scattered about. Was this really the residence of the great king 'Saladin', why did it look like a military prison?

  Liu Qi looked at 'Amur' with a puzzled expression and said, "Could it be that this place was once occupied by an alien tribe? Why is there not even one decent thing here?"

  "Honorable messenger. It's not like that, this place has been kept intact from the time it was built until now. When my ancestor 'Saladin' spent all his wealth on the construction of the country and the unity of the nation, he also distributed a large amount of money to the poor. He left only 1 gold coin and 47 silver coins as property when he died. And this palace is also not decorated according to his request. Our ancestor 'Saladin' was very generous to people, including his enemies." Amrul explained.

  "Oh, is he generous to his enemies as well? How did he do that?" Liu Qi asked.

  "In those years, our ancestor Saladin led only a small part of the army to Damascus, which was quite dangerous. If the garrison in Damascus had resisted for just one hour, Saladin would have been in danger of being completely defeated. However, Saladin did not use bows and swords to attack Damascus, but instead comforted people along the way. He brought a large amount of gold and coins from Egypt and heavily rewarded the army that followed him willingly. As a result, when he arrived in Damascus, the garrison did not resist at all and opened the gates to welcome him." Amr said.

  "Is that so? Such things happen." Liu Qi said.

  "Yes, then our ancestor 'Saladin' distributed a large amount of money to the army and civilians in Damascus, almost exhausting all the gold and money brought from Egypt. In this way, he fought all the way to the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. He negotiated with the commander of the garrison, offering to exchange 5 cities for Aleppo, and also allowing the defenders to take away all the treasures in the city, while he only wanted the stones of Aleppo. At night, the city gate was indeed opened, and Saladin kept his promise and let the defenders leave with the treasures in the city."

  Liu Qi couldn't help but sigh, the Arabs' imagination and creativity were indeed rich enough, they could even use such a unique way to fight wars. No wonder "One Thousand and One Nights" this popular story can only be passed down by the Arabs.

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  Two more servings coming up.

  The Storming Troop of Jiangdong