Water Margin people

Chapter 1572 Medicine

"You mean the emperor wants to attack us? Does he have the strength to do so? How can he hold out over a distance of more than 100,000 miles?"

Baldwin IV asked in disbelief. Their Crusade was only ten thousand miles long, and they couldn't even hold on. The hundreds of thousands of miles of Qi State were still straight lines. If you count the mountains and rivers, the distance would definitely be over 200,000 miles. This distance is terrifying just to think about. It is simply not something that human power can do.

"But the Emperor has already assembled an army of more than 80,000 soldiers, and they are all elite cavalry!"

William spoke up.

"Eighty thousand elite troops!"

Baldwin IV widened his eyes and forgot about the discomfort in his body. In the last Crusade, it took almost three years to travel a distance of thousands of miles. Only 50,000 of the 150,000 people reached the holy city of Jerusalem. At the end of the war, there were less than 20,000 people left.

"They are now fighting with the Seljuk Turks. I have told them the intelligence, but they don't care. They just said they want to see you and asked me to bring this back!"

William took out a small blue and white porcelain vase and a letter. The letter was handed to him by Mr. Li Zu when he left, saying that it was a letter from His Majesty the Emperor.

Baldwin IV quickly took the letter and porcelain bottle with his gloved hands. He looked at the porcelain bottle and opened the letter.

"Your Majesty, what did the emperor say?"

Because Baldwin IV was wearing a gilded mask, William could not see the king's expression, but he could see shock in his eyes.

"The emperor said he wanted to see me. This bottle contains medicine that can cure diseases as a return gift!"

Baldwin IV said that the letter was written in Turkish and he had no problem understanding the language.

"drug!"

William looked at the exquisite blue porcelain vase with some hesitation. He, the king, was suffering from leprosy, a curse from God and an incurable disease. How could there be any medicine that could cure it?

Baldwin IV looked at the porcelain vase and felt the blue and white pattern on it with his gloved hand. He was not sure what was inside.

After thinking for a while, Baldwin IV opened the sealing wax on the porcelain bottle and pulled out the stopper. He saw several pills in the bottle.

"Your Majesty, you can't trust them!"

William hurriedly said to Baldwin IV that this medicine of unknown origin must not be taken carelessly. In the West, many kings have been poisoned to death. It is unclear whether Qi is an enemy or a friend, so how can this unknown medicine be taken?

Baldwin IV stared at the pills in the bottle in a daze. Ever since he contracted leprosy, he had accepted his fate and believed that he was a man cursed by God. Although he prayed devoutly for God's forgiveness, the disease became more serious day by day. It was obvious that God had abandoned him, and even though he had done his best for the holy city and believers, he could not get God's forgiveness.

Baldwin IV finally tilted the porcelain bottle and poured out a pill. The gray-brown pill looked inconspicuous, but a strong medicinal smell permeated the air.

"Your Majesty the King!"

When William saw the pill, it was as if he saw poison, and his voice unconsciously became a little louder.

"Teacher, do you think this is a medicine to cure the disease or a deadly poison?"

Baldwin IV looked at William and asked, his teacher was one of the most learned people in the entire West.

"Your Majesty the King!"

William could tell something was wrong with Baldwin IV's tone. He seemed to have a glimmer of hope for the elixir. He knew very well how terrible this hope was. For a desperate dying person, a glimmer of hope could drive him crazy and make him do anything irrational. "Your Majesty, this is the emperor's conspiracy. He is a demon, he is Satan. He deliberately used this thing to tempt you!"

William said quickly and brought up religion, trying to use religious beliefs to wake Baldwin IV up.

"Teacher, I've been in a lot of pain lately. My hands have been infected by the power of the devil and will soon turn into monster claws. My vision is becoming increasingly blurry..."

Baldwin IV looked at William and talked about his illness.

William's face turned pale with defeat when he heard this. Only now did he understand what kind of pain the young king was enduring. As the most devout believer of God, he was cursed by God, his body was infected by the power of the devil, and it was festering and deforming bit by bit, turning into a devil bit by bit. There was no punishment in the world more painful and desperate than this.

"Saladin is very powerful, we can't stop him! The Vatican has not responded yet, and I don't know when the Crusaders will come again. I know they are ashamed of me and think that I am also a pagan and a person despised by God!"

Baldwin IV looked at the pill in his hand and murmured, they guarded the Kingdom of Jerusalem for the Holy See, guarding this sacred city, but the Holy See was indifferent to the attacks of the Arabs on the Kingdom of Jerusalem in recent years, as if to let them fend for themselves.

"Your Majesty, these are all conspiracies of the Qi Emperor. These are all his schemes. You must not be fooled!"

William didn't know what to do. The Kingdom of Jerusalem was in danger. Although the Crusaders said they would come again, there was no definite news until now. Although Byzantium expressed its willingness to support, the support was only lip service without any actual action.

"Teacher, you don't understand. It doesn't matter whether it's poison or something else. For a person who is despised by God and is about to become a devil, poison may be a relief!"

Baldwin IV suddenly laughed, which made William feel creepy. He hadn't heard His Majesty laugh for two years.

Before William could react, Baldwin IV put the pill directly into his mouth and swallowed it.

"His Majesty!"

William was shocked and without caring about anything else, he stepped forward and prepared to make the king vomit.

But Baldwin IV stretched out his hand to block William. Through the gap between his gloves and sleeves, William saw festering skin, pink patches all over his wrists, and a little pus on them.

William finally stopped trying to dissuade him, because he knew that the young student was in too much pain. If it weren't for the people of the kingdom, he might have ended his life long ago.

William kept an eye on Baldwin IV, fearing that the medicine was poison.

But after a long time, Baldwin IV did not show any abnormality.

"It doesn't seem to have any effect!"

Baldwin IV felt it and said with some regret that he did have some hope for this medicine, but it obviously ended in disappointment. He has been disappointed too many times over the years.

"Forget it, the Emperor is kind-hearted. I appreciate his kindness!"

Baldwin IV put the bottle away and then spoke. Although the medicine was useless, he still appreciated the kindness of the emperor of a great country.

"Saladin has integrated all the forces, and now their goal is Jerusalem."

Baldwin IV spoke.

"Your Majesty, why not ask for help from the Vatican and the Holy Roman Empire and have the Crusaders come sooner!"

William looked at Baldwin IV and said that if Saladin unified the Caliphate, the Kingdom of Jerusalem alone would definitely not be able to stop it.