Chapter 391 - 276: Damascus (2)

The two men bowed silently once more as they watched the last officer exit the great hall.

Kan: "We should thank him for staying so late. Gave my back another chance to ache."

Tur: "He really deserves a medal. ’The Award for Giving Guards the Worst Back Pain.’ I’ll go to the tailor tomorrow, get a piece of cloth, and make one for him myself."

At this point, Kan had completely dropped his pretense of loyalty. Rubbing his sore back, he muttered, "Our great Lord Aziz will have already slipped away before you even get a chance to give him that medal.

After all, Lord Aziz is a hero to us Turkic People, Syria’s famous ’Barefoot Flying General.’"

Tur feigned a serious expression. "What do you know? You have to understand, it’s called a ’strategic retreat’! Fleeing from Cairo to Damascus, then from Damascus to Jerusalem. He’s so fast on his feet so he won’t be late for his next defeat!"

"Right, right. And he probably slips on a few banana peels while he’s running, landing flat on his back."

The two men almost burst out laughing but quickly heard footsteps in the distance. They straightened up at once, about to bow in greeting, but when they looked up—unfortunately, it was none other than the very Lord Aziz they had been mocking, walking toward them with a grim expression.

Aziz had heard their conversation. He stopped and stared coldly at the two men. He spoke, enunciating each word, "It seems my men are not only good at guarding gates but also have quite the sharp tongues. Were you talking about me?"

Kan and Tur froze instantly. The smiles vanished from their faces as they quickly bowed their heads. "My Lord, we absolutely didn’t mean that! We were just worried you were working too hard tonight and should rest when..."

Aziz snorted. "Rest? Only useless people need rest. If I hear any more of your nonsense, I’ll tie you to a horse’s tail and we’ll see who runs faster! You pair of idiots, just you wait. Tomorrow, I’m putting you two on stable duty!"

Kan cursed inwardly but quickly agreed out loud, "My Lord, we wouldn’t dare slack off on stable duty! We are at your service."

Aziz glared at them but said no more, striding straight into the great hall. His figure disappeared into the light of the palace, leaving the two guards standing in place, their hearts still pounding with fear.

Kan said softly, "Looks like we’ve got a lot of work in the stables tomorrow. But compared to ’retreating’ with Aziz, I’d rather shovel horse manure."

Tur sighed. "You’re right. Who knows, maybe if we get enough practice shoveling, we’ll be able to run away faster than him!"

"Seriously, Lord Aziz’s brothers must regret not taking your advice to go clean the stables. Then they wouldn’t have been unable to keep up with his pace, and one wouldn’t have had his head chopped off by Jamil, and the other his arm."

"Sometimes I think it’s not such a bad thing. At least this way, they can’t threaten Lord Aziz’s position, and his son can inherit this Duchy."

"Position? As Tutush’s dog? Does anyone even remember why we followed him from Khorasan to this godforsaken place? Wasn’t it to get away from the crap we had to take from those Seljuk lords?"

"Those Seljuk lords... their bellies are so big. I suspect they’ve eaten the entire harvest of Khorasan!"

"Remember? That time we were herding our sheep across the border and ran into the Lord’s tax collectors? Those men were hungrier than wolves! The way they looked at our sheep, it was like they were staring at Gold, their eyes gleaming!"

"I remember, I remember. ’Pay your tax! Pay your tax! A tax on every sheep! Or you’re not crossing this road!’—Ha! I’m telling you, those guys might as well start taxing us shepherds like livestock! In a few years, they’ll probably be taxing the water we drink!"

"And that time, the Bey, he issued me a ’grazing permit’ just to herd my sheep! Said the pasture was his, and I had to pay to use it!"

"That was a real eye-opener for me. The Earth-Mother (Yer-Su) gives us the grasslands. The mountains and rivers are gifts from the heavens, for the good of all people."

"But those Beys insist it all belongs to them, so we have to pay them to graze our own sheep!"

"They even have their high-and-mighty excuses."

"’Ah, you see, our taxes are to make the Empire strong!’ The Empire? Haha! I think they just want to line their own pockets. Forget the Empire; even the wild rabbits on the plains know how to feed themselves better than those lords do."

"If we had stayed there any longer, they probably would have invented a ’breathing tax’! With minds like theirs, they can come up with any crazy idea!"

"That’s why for the longest time, I thought, ’Thank goodness we have Aziz.’ I still remember what he told me back then: ’Friend, we’re going to Syria. Once we’re there, we won’t have to deal with these damn taxes. As long as we can stay alive, we can live for ourselves!’"

"Damn it all, and now? Now he’s in the great hall licking the ass of his new Seljuk master. Probably negotiating a good price to sell us. Ten years of running around Syria, and all we have is a pathetic..."

Suddenly, both guards froze, trying to stand a little straighter. Behind them, the great doors opened silently.

Several servants emerged from the hall, carrying a body covered by a white sheet. The body swayed slightly, as if recounting its grim fate even in death.

Kan was stunned. He whispered, "Is that Lord Aziz?"

Tur leaned in, squinting to get a better look. He suddenly lowered his voice and said, "It’s him! Look at the hand, isn’t it missing a finger? He lost it in an old injury."

The two of them understood instantly. The corpse was the same Aziz they had been mocking just minutes before. Tur couldn’t help but blurt out, "Well, looks like Lord Aziz has become one of those ’useless people’ now."

Kan nodded, a bitter smile on his face. "Seems no matter how fast he was on his feet this time, he couldn’t outrun Tutush’s bowstring."

Just as they were snickering in low voices, a far more terrifying figure appeared in the doorway. Tutush strode out, a ruthless expression on his face, his gaze sweeping over them like a blade.

The two guards immediately snapped to attention, stood ramrod straight, and bowed respectfully. "Selam olsun, beyim."

Tutush gave them a cold glance, as if seeing right through them. He stopped, looking down on the two men, and said in a deep voice, "How long have you been here?"

Kan answered immediately, "My Lord, we’ve been on guard since sunrise."

Tutush continued, "Tell me, what do you see before you now?"

The two guards glanced at each other and immediately knelt. "Our new master, the great Bey of Damascus, Tutush."

"Very good. You will be rewarded handsomely."

...

PS: Aziz was a Turkmen mercenary Commander who seized Palestine and southern Syria from the Fatima Dynasty in 1071 and established a Duchy there.

After arriving in Syria, he appears to have joined the Fatima Dynasty in fighting against the Bedouin. In 1070, with the civil war in the Caliphate still ongoing, a dispute over payment seemingly led some Turkmen to switch their allegiance to the Bedouin, successfully taking control of Damascus and establishing their own Duchy.

In October 1076, Aziz attempted to invade Egypt. He was crushed by the Fatima Grand Vizier Jamal and forced to appeal to the Seljuk Empire for help. Malikshah dispatched his brother, Tutush, to aid Aziz and scare off the Fatima forces. However, Tutush murdered Aziz and seized all his lands.