Tang Qi Tan

And on the top of Mont Saint-Michel, Francesco, a black-robed monk from the Benedictine Order of Saint-Maur, had just finished leading a long morning prayer, holding a lamp that had been extinguished, and walking Snow and frost all over the ground, carefully walking through the sea fog that has not yet completely dissipated.

This is also his homeland far away from Italy, following the daily routine of praying five times a day, working in the morning and copying scriptures in the afternoon, and spent No.20 penance years on this holy mountain island; All of this was disrupted with the arrival of the Holy Kingdom Army.

Although the holy mountain is mainly from foreign countries, the Benedictine monks who belong to the San Vanzoye Monastery in Italy in name; but all kinds of handymen, low-level monks and apprentices required for daily life, and stay in the local area for a long or short time pilgrims, but mainly from surrounding areas.

As a result, the soldiers of the Holy Kingdom occupied not only the piers, markets, hotels and houses at the foot of the mountain, but also broke into and controlled the monasteries and churches on the mountain; Food and materials stored in the monastery.

Only the original church on the top of the hill, the Church of Tombstone, and the chapel of Saint-Michel, where the skull of Bishop Auber was enshrined;But they took advantage of the trend to expel most of the local people on the mountain, which made them troublesome.

For example, the big bell on the giant Gothic tower located at the highest point of the holy mountain requires several young and strong monks to be able to drag and ring it with all their strength; Someone has to climb up and clean it up to keep it shining.

Therefore, like Francesco, the remaining monks had to put down their homework and spend more time taking on labor and miscellaneous tasks that were several times the amount they used to be.Thinking of this, he couldn't help taking another look at the black cross flag with ermine fur pattern fluttering between the city wall and the fortress down the mountain.

I don't know how long these soldiers of the Holy Kingdom will continue to occupy the holy mountain; what kind of results will it bring to this religious holy place.After all, although he was a member of the Ascetic Order, according to the practice among the monasteries, he took turns taking care of the sick pilgrims at the foot of the mountain.

Therefore, some have heard about the southern forces that have risen strongly in recent years after a long period of turbulent civil war in the Kingdom of Sealand.And this force, which is closely related to many heretical factions in the south of the kingdom, even defeated the intervention army of the Holy Kingdom several times, and promoted the Holy Kingdom Army to enter the Holy Mountain.

Although, the banner they played was to protect the Holy Mountain from being invaded by the heretic armed forces from the kingdom; but there is no doubt that with the long-term existence of these Holy Kingdom armies, when the heretics came, the Holy Mountain, which originally existed as a neutral territory, Mountains are also hard to escape from the flames of war.

Not long ago, Brittania once again strengthened its garrison on the holy mountain, and began to repair the outer city walls and the monastery fortress on the mountain; a large number of materials were transported from the other side of the bay regardless of risk, and further increased The worries of monks up and down the holy mountain.

There is no doubt that war is inevitable, it is just a matter of time.The Sacred Mountain Brotherhood, unable to change this situation, can only prepare secretly and is determined to protect the sanctuary; at the same time, it is praying that the war will end quickly and that it will not turn into the tragic "Charles Siege" in history.

It was the middle of the third (Acacia) dynasty. As the younger brother, Charles V, the Grand Duke of Normandy, he was in the civil war with his brother "Rooster King" Philip at the time; he led the last tribe to flee to the closely related Saint-Michel Mountain, also started the two-and-a-half-year-long siege operation of the Royal Army.

Although the Royal Army suffered many casualties under the extremely unfavorable terrain, they were unable to attack the holy mountain; instead, they could only set fire to the residential areas, markets, and docks below the mountain.However, Mont Saint-Michel, which was surrounded and cut off from supplies, also suffered from famine and disease.

In the end, although the surviving people quickly surrendered after Charles V died of illness, the soldiers of the Royal Army who entered the holy mountain immediately saw a scene like hell.Although, at the time most records were destroyed and a gag order was issued against the parties involved.

However, the local Benedictine monks and their followers disappeared into history.As one of the Italian branches of the Benedictine Order, the senior monks of the Order of St. Maurice were also invited by the "Rooster King" Philip to come to the Holy Mountain to deal with the aftermath at this time.

For example, there are only oral traditions among the monks, the ancient underground altar that disappeared with the collapse of the Church of Our Lady on Fire, and several mountain caves that were buried and closed.Another example is the only trace left at that time, on the monk's ossuary in the underground hall, there are suspected bite marks.

With this faint worry in mind, Francesco came to the giant Gothic tower, and led several middle-aged/young monks who were waiting here to climb up the high bell tower along the spiral stone steps. where.However, the monk who was in charge of pulling the rope of the big bell screamed one after another:
"God is above!"

"what is this?"

"The Holy Manifestation!"

Immediately, they all knelt and prostrated on the ground; various gestures and sacramental symbols prayed.The monk Francesco, who was facing them, also turned around belatedly; then he also knelt down on the floor with his feet softened, because he saw a white sailboat.

This is a typical Calais-style sailing ship, all the details are prosaic, not too different from the most common merchant ships in the bay of St. Loma.But this Calais sailing ship did not sail on the sea, but floated in the sky, riding the clouds and fog in the golden sun.

It is like the golden boat pulled by the sun god who defeated the darkness of the night in the pagan Egyptian mythology; it is also like the Noah’s Ark that landed on the earth following the trail led by the dove after the great flood in the last days of ancient times; With the golden light all over his body, he slowly descended from the sky.

In the next moment, there was a fierce ringing of bells at the highest point of Mont Saint-Michel; then, it turned into bells of all sizes spreading up and down the holy mountain, among all the monasteries and churches, one after another, resounding all over the place; in this area As the bell rang, people who were alarmed rushed out.

Then, in astonishment, shock and awe, they knelt down on the ground one after another, prayed loudly, or beat their bodies with obsessive and crazy magic weapons, trying to prove that they were not dreaming.In a blink of an eye, the flying sailboat landed.

Apparently the shock felt dull, it docked on the stone flat roof of the Tombstone Mountain Church Cathedral; in an instant, the top of the original stone frame support was dented under heavy pressure, and then slowly tilted to one side.Immediately, on the deck of the ship that stabilized, groups of heavily armored knights rushed down one after another.

And the soldiers of the Holy Kingdom at the foot of the mountain were similarly alarmed; they rushed out of various houses and buildings in disheveled clothes, and under the shouts of the officers, they gathered into a team and circled up the narrow mountain road. team; seems to be trying to figure out what's going on.

However, faster than their speed and reaction, are these heavy-duty knights who got off from the airship; they wear all kinds of heavy plate and chain armor in the shape of frog face, duckbill, pocket face, and tank, but they are agile There are three or five groups running around, steep and towering among the church buildings.

In a blink of an eye, like cannonballs falling from the sky, they suddenly flew and landed on the Holy Kingdom ranks climbing up the mountain; in an instant, amidst the screams and screams, the surrounding area was shaken and blown away. A group of soldiers; wielding leaf hammers and broad swords, slashed and killed again and again.

However, in the narrow winding corridor with no cover on the mountainside, these seemingly well-trained soldiers of the Holy Kingdom, who were also wearing half-length breastplates or pierced armor, could not give full play to their advantages in numbers and coordination. Armored knights swept across the mountain path piece by piece and forced down.

All of a sudden, all kinds of broken limbs and struggling and screaming soldiers surrounded the dangerous places around the mountain, rolling down like rubbish that had been swept away.Afterwards, the crossbowmen from the Holy Kingdom Army where Shanshan came from climbed up to the top of various buildings in an attempt to support the slaughtered comrades.

Then, one step faster than them, the flames and explosions roared from overhead; but some armored knights who had already occupied the commanding heights on the mountainside, the monastery/fortress, the outer walls, and towers began to fire their firearms, or It's throwing bombs one after another...

The condescending drop of the mountain made it easy for them to hit the most densely populated positions of the Holy National Army's crossbowmen; and scattered the battered crossbowmen who were bombarded like chickens flying like dogs.Even if some sporadic arrows counterattacked, they bounced off their armor one after another.

In a short period of time, the hastily assembled Holy Kingdom Army was defeated one after another, and one after another, the buildings where they were hiding were set on fire.But immediately after, from the monastery and church buildings on the mountainside, groups of holy kingdom knights also in heavy armor rushed out again,
They passed through the building without hesitation, blocked by the blazing flames and the roar of throwing explosives; along the narrow and uncovered mountain road, they once again fought fiercely with the special attack knights during the period of refusal .In the midst of this hissing and screaming.

After a lot of effort and cost, Jiang Tian, ​​who sent the boat people over, also watched the warnings and injury reminders disappearing from his vision, and slowly recovered.Appeared on the mast of the sailing ship, and passed through the air lightly, from the top bell tower under the statue of the golden archangel.

Then, he said to a group of monks who were still kneeling on the ground to pray, but were stunned and stiff on the spot: "I am looking for an important thing, but it was hidden on the holy mountain not long ago, so now I need someone who can lead the way." people……"

The next moment, Francesco, the oldest black-robed monk among the group of monks, with agility and reaction speed far beyond his age, rushed forward on his knees, shouting frantically and excitedly. : "Follow your orders, holy one with great power!"