Water Margin people

After hearing what everyone said, Conrad III nodded with satisfaction.

"Should we discuss this matter with the church?"

While everyone was talking and laughing, someone suddenly spoke.

These words stunned the people who were chatting and laughing. Although they were dissatisfied with the church, the civilians in the territory were all believers of the church, and every Crusade was ordered by the Pope.

"The church will naturally notify you!"

Conrad III looked at the crowd and smiled. He knew what these people were thinking. Without the Pope's order, the knights and civilians in their jurisdiction would not be able to participate enthusiastically, and might even resist.

Baldwin IV looked at Conrad III and others and shook his head secretly. The threat of the canal was self-evident, but after all, it was separated by the Arabs, and the Arabs were their enemies, so even if they sent troops, they could not send too many.

The banquet ended at midnight and everyone left with laughter.

Baldwin IV did not linger for long. He went out on horseback and left with his men.

War horses walked on the messy streets, and groups of rats squeaked and ran around in fear.

"Hey!"

Baldwin IV looked at the dirty city and sighed.

In the dark night, a ragged woman huddled in an alley in agony. Her hair was disheveled and her fingers were black, like the remains of dead branches burned by a raging fire.

“Lord, forgive me!”

Although the woman's face was distorted with pain, she still prayed devoutly, hoping that the gods would have mercy on her.

But no matter how she prayed, there was no movement in the dark night sky, no miracle happened, and the woman soon fell to the ground and died.

Not long after, a group of church servants drove a carriage slowly forward on the street. Several believers entered the alley, carried the dead woman out and threw her into the carriage.

At this time, there were already many corpses on the carriage, piled together in a mess.

"It's full, leave the city!"

The driver of the carriage looked back at the compartment, said hello, whipped the horse and drove away.

There were many similar carriages, which drove out from inside and outside the city and finally gathered at a blacksmith shop far away from the city. This shop had been converted into a crematorium, and the bodies carried by the carriages were thrown into it.

"Why are there still so many? The stove can't burn them all!"

The man in charge of the crematorium complained as he looked at the queue of carriages. More and more dead bodies were being brought in every day, and his crematorium was simply unable to handle them all.

"Sir Bernard asked for another furnace to be built!"

A priest spoke, covering his mouth and nose. The smell of the burning corpse was so unpleasant that he didn't want to stay any longer.

"That will take time, and I can't conjure up a furnace."

The man started complaining again. Those people above him never thought before giving orders. How could a furnace be so easy to build?

"Then I don't care, unload the body and let's go!"

The priest didn't care about that and asked the coachmen to unload the body and leave.

The drivers didn't want to stay in such a place for long, so they quickly dumped the body outside the blacksmith shop and left.

"you!"

The man in charge looked at the piles of dead bodies and wanted to curse. The stench here was already unbearable, and now these people had thrown the bodies all over the ground. How was he supposed to deal with this?

"What should we do? Should we move in by ourselves?"

The servants who were in charge of cremating the corpses also started to complain. It was already a hard job to begin with, and now they had to carry these smelly, cold corpses, which made them want to go on strike.

"What are you burning? How can we burn all the water every day? Isn't there a pit over there? Throw it in there!"

The manager was also furious. He had had enough of this kind of life. The stench of burning corpses was unbearable. He couldn't build another crematorium, so it would be better to just throw these corpses away and be done with it. "The pit!"

The servants were overjoyed when they heard this. The pit was just outside the city and was bottomless. Someone had gone down to investigate and said that there was water flowing underneath and anything that fell in could not be found. Some people also said that it was a bright river leading to hell.

"Let's go right now!"

The servants were all delighted. Although they still had to carry the corpses, they no longer had to burn them or smell the stench.

The servants moved quickly, and the body was carried to the vicinity of the pit and thrown in.

A few days later, the High Mass in Rome officially began. The inner city was full of nobles and was cleaned tidy. The streets were filled with flags of the church, the empire, and various kingdoms.

Pope Eugene III, dressed in gorgeous robes and a triple crown on his head, with a silver cross hanging on his chest, and holding an ancient Bible, he ascended the podium to preside over the High Mass.

Pilgrims from the outer towns and outside the city were also beginning Mass, led by the cardinal and priests.

The entire city of Rome was filled with the sound of reciting the Bible.

Eugene III looked at the people below with a kind smile on his face. He knew that after this mass, the church would return to its former glory.

Conrad III and others had no reaction. In fact, they did not want to attend this high mass. The church, which had been suppressed with great difficulty, might stand up again with the help of this mass.

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But they cannot not come. The people in their country are all devout believers. If they do not come to the High Mass held by the Pope himself, the common people may have some ideas about them. They cannot confront the church at the moment.

After reciting the Bible, the pilgrims began to circle the city, still reciting the Bible.

On top of the high tower in the city, ten golden plates reflected the dazzling sunlight.

When the pilgrims saw the ten gold plates, their expressions became even more pious.

Suddenly someone fell to the ground.

The pilgrims around him did not react at all, and just thought that he had fainted from being too excited.

But then, more people began to fall to the ground.

"Black, possessed by a demon!"

Someone shouted in fear, and he saw black spots on the face and fingers of the person lying on the ground.

"demon!"

“The Lord has appeared!”

"Expel the demon!"

Those fanatical believers roared in anger. They believed that these people were possessed by demons. Now that the Lord's holy relics had appeared, these demons had nowhere to hide.

"Quick, pull them down and purify them with holy water!"

The cardinal immediately said that it was not a good thing for believers possessed by demons to appear during the high mass.

The believers immediately stepped forward, dragged those people away, and sprinkled holy water on them.

But most of these people were already dead, and the holy water had no effect at all.

"Archbishop, these people are dead! They had the same symptoms as those who died a few days ago!"

A priest whispered to a cardinal.

"Drag him away! Drag him away!"

The cardinal was shocked. Quite a few people had died from black spots in the past few days, and a large-scale outbreak now was not a good thing.

The dead were dragged away, under the pretext of being taken to the church for treatment.

The rest of the pilgrims did not take it to heart and continued to circumambulate devoutly. (End of this chapter)