"Good. Say our men couldn't acclimate and lacked the strength to take on the main assault."
Leopold sneered.
Though the plan to go through the motions without putting in real effort had not been his idea, it represented the resentment harbored by the vast majority of German Crusaders.
The three giants of the military council had been far too unfair. At first, they had discriminated in the distribution of supplies; later, when assigning combat duties, they gave the German Crusaders nothing but difficult, thankless tasks.
Later still, even their mounts and horses were requisitioned to be supplied first to the Gaul Crusaders.
Many Gaul knights even humiliated them, saying their horsemanship was so poor that they deserved only to fight on foot like commoners.
Leopold could understand the military council's approach. If he had been in their place, he too would have prioritized his own direct followers.
After all, supplies were far from abundant. The County of Tripoli was nothing like Egypt, rich beyond measure. Supporting an army of seventy thousand men—a number still growing by the day—was already stretching resources to the limit.
If they truly treated everyone fairly, nobody would be satisfied. Even their original supporters would grow disgruntled and lose their loyalty.
The military council was controlled by the Three-Headed Alliance. Status mattered, but wealth mattered too. The mostly impoverished German nobles clearly lacked the standing to stand before the Three-Headed Alliance and fight for their own interests.
But understanding did not mean accepting it. Leopold had long harbored resentment over the Three-Headed Alliance's exclusion of them after arriving in the Holy Land.
If Leopold had not still hoped that Lothar would support him upon his arrival, he probably would have taken the German Crusaders north in a fit of rage to work for the Eastern Empire.