Chapter 1686 That’s a Castle
Xiao Peng looked at the information on his phone and was a little confused: "The house Yi'er gave you is a car repair shop?"
The photo of the building in the phone is the photo of the house that Yier compensated him with. The shape of this house is very interesting: there is a stone foundation underneath, and on the foundation is a three-story building - in fact, it is not correct to say three stories, it should be "two and a half stories". The third floor is the roof, but you can see that there is an attic.
This house isn't really that big. It's not even as big as the government buildings in some Republican-era movies. It looks more like a primary school building built during the Soviet-aid period! And it's so ordinary, there's now a car repair shop here.
Xiao Peng was puzzled as to why Fabian would be interested in such a house.
He is now even more certain: Il gave the house to Fabian, saying it was an apology, but in fact it was just to get rid of the burden!
Fabian said cheerfully, "Well, I've already notified the auto repair shop and asked them to move out and find a new place. We won't rent this house anymore!"
Xiao Peng touched Fabian's forehead and said, "You got such a shabby house in such a shabby place. Are you okay? At that time, Yi Er said he would give you a lot of houses as compensation. Why did you take this one?"
Fabian did not answer Xiao Peng's question, but instead asked Xiao Peng a question: "Brother, do you know the four major crusader states and the three major knightly orders?"
Xiao Peng nodded and then shook his head. If you were to survive in Europe, you'd definitely need to know about the Four Crusader States and the Three Knightly Orders, as they still existed today. However, as an atheist, he genuinely had no interest in the three orders. That's why he nodded and shook his head.
When talking about European history, we cannot fail to mention the Crusades, which were a series of wars launched by Pope Urban II. They were wars launched by the feudal lords of Western Europe against the MSL countries on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. They lasted for nearly two hundred years. There were a total of nine large-scale crusades. They were said to be for the purpose of recovering lost territory, but in fact they were also for the purpose of occupation. During these two hundred years, the feudal lords of Western Europe established dozens of countries of varying sizes in the occupied territories. The four largest of them were the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch and the County of Edessa, which are the four major Crusader states mentioned by Fabian.
At first, the Crusades were invincible, with a few hundred Crusader knights able to sweep across Syria. However, in the 1240s, with the rise of the Zengid dynasty and the establishment of the Ayyubid and Mamluk dynasties, these Crusader states were directly destroyed! Therefore, the Crusades ended in failure.
The Three Great Knights were a group of knights organized by the Pope during the Crusades. They served as the Pope's direct military force. Their mission was to fight against Muslim nations. There were three knightly orders: the Knights Hospitaller, the Knights Templar, and the Teutonic Knights, which are what Fabian refers to as the Three Great Knights.
The earliest known order of knights was the Knights Hospitaller, a name unusually long because it was called the "Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Rhodes, and Malta." This order still exists today as the "Order of Malta," serving as a UN observer organization, headquartered in Rome and possessing diplomatic powers—but without any territory; their current headquarters are leased from Italy. This is distinct from the island nation of Malta.
The Knights Hospitaller was founded by a French nobleman named Gerard in a prison near Jerusalem. Their original purpose was to care for the wounded, but they later became a weapon for the Pope. They occupied Malta and fought against the Turks for hundreds of years.
In the end, the Knights Templar were destroyed by Napoleon! Most of the Knights Templar went to Russia and elected Tsar Paul I of Russia as Grand Master of the Order. They received Paul I's protection until 1834, when they returned to Europe and rebuilt their headquarters in Rome, where they still exist today.
The second knightly order to be established was the Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, also known as the Knights Templar, a figure who has appeared repeatedly in Hollywood films. Most of its members were French Crusaders, who founded the order in a mosque in Jerusalem. They wore white robes and were symbolized by a red cross within a white shield. However, this order is the only one of the three major orders to disappear in history, having been disbanded by order of the Pope in 1312.
The third knightly order to be established was the German Charitable Order of Saint Mary of Jerusalem, also known as the Teutonic Knights. As the name suggests, this order's members were primarily German nobles. When it was formed, the Pope approved their use of white robes, similar to the Knights Templar, but with a black cross embroidered on it, and the cross was tilted to the left, rather than symmetrical. This left-leaning cross is now found on the flags of Nordic countries and is known as the "Scandinavian Cross."
The Teutonic Knights were the last of the three major orders to be established, but they were also the most influential. They established a knightly state in Prussia and expanded throughout Europe. A detailed account of their activities in Central Europe could take three days and three nights.
Like the Knights Hospitaller, the Teutonic Knights still exist today, but they have no territory. And unlike the Knights Hospitaller, they converted to Protestantism during the Reformation and became a Protestant knightly order. When Napoleon invaded Germany, the first thing he did was to attack the Teutonic Knights. They hid for twenty or thirty years before reappearing as a purely religious knightly order, now called the 'German Order', with its headquarters in Vienna, and now specializes in charity.
However, Xiao Peng was still a little confused: "What does your purchase of this shabby house have to do with the four major Crusader states and the three major knightly orders?"
Fabian looked around and lowered his voice with a mysterious look on his face: "You said this is a dilapidated house? Let me tell you, the original name of this house was Neuhausen Castle!"
Now it was Xiao Peng's turn to be confused. "What the hell? You call this shabby house a castle? The tube-shaped buildings in our old town were sturdier than this one. What kind of castle is this?"
Fabian pointed at the photo and said, "Do you see it? This is the stone foundation! This house is eight or nine hundred years old and it's still standing. It can still be used as a car repair shop! If this isn't a castle, what is it? The most important thing is, do you know? This is the original castle of the Teutonic Knights!"
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