Water Margin people

"Your Holiness, we cannot just rush in and kill. We should counsel the lost sheep and believe that God can save them."

Bernard understood the interests involved and spoke immediately.

If the Holy See really kills hundreds of thousands of civilians at one time, then there will be no need to mention the name of the Holy See's mercy in the future.

What's more, these civilians were forced to convert to the Imperial Religion because of the Black Death.

The inaction of God and the Vatican during the outbreak of the Black Death has already made the believers very dissatisfied. Now that these people are being slaughtered wantonly, the Vatican's status in the hearts of believers will be further reduced.

"Why not? Those are pagans!"

The extremists immediately started clamoring that they would not tolerate any infidels.

"Shut up, believers are just bewitched. We want to proclaim God's mercy!"

Eugene III spoke while holding up his scepter.

With the Pope's order, those extremists dared not say anything, but they all looked indignant and obviously would not give up.

……

Ruan Xiaoqi led the fleet into the bay, but Li Jun left the team with a dozen warships and took Theodore away.

"General, how can I be of any service?"

Theodore looked at Li Jun with a flattering face. He now had some understanding of the Qi navy. The Li Jun in front of him was the second in command of the Qi fleet.

"Of course there is room for you to be of service!"

Li Jun looked at Theodore with a smile. Ruan Xiaoqi and the fleet were enough to support Yue Fei. He also had other tasks.

"Military Xu!"

Li Jun shouted to the rear of the ship.

Xu Guanzhong, who was looking at the surrounding sea through a telescope and drawing nautical charts, finally put down his pen.

Theodore looked at Xu Guanzhong who was walking slowly towards him with a look of disbelief on his face, because the Qi soldiers were very respectful to this man, and even Li Jun saluted the new man.

"Greetings, General!"

Theodore looked at Xu Guanzhong coming and saluted quickly. Although he didn't know the identity of the visitor, he knew that no one should be offended.

"Your name is Theodore?"

Xu Guanzhong looked at Theodore and asked.

"The General... knows our language!"

Theodore looked at Xu Guanzhong in disbelief. Before, he had communicated with the people of Qi through an interpreter, but the Qi general in front of him was speaking their language with a very pure accent. If he did not have an oriental face, he would have thought that the man in front of him was a native Roman.

“Although it’s a bit complicated, it’s not too difficult to learn!”

Xu Guanzhong smiled and said that during the trip he not only drew nautical charts and recorded what he saw and heard along the way, he also learned languages. He had a talent in this area and had already mastered the written languages ​​of the Arabs and the West.

"The general is really... awesome!"

Theodore was not an ignorant person. Western and Eastern written languages ​​were two completely different things, and it was not easy to learn them.

Several soldiers came out carrying two boxes. When they opened the boxes, they were full of maps.

"You are the Byzantine admiral. These were found on your ship. Please introduce them to us!"

Xu Guanzhong pointed at the maps and spoke.

The soldiers brought a table with a map and a pen on it. Xu Guanzhong sat down and picked up the pen to take notes.

Theodore understood what Xu Guanzhong meant and immediately began to introduce the nautical charts in detail.

It took Theodore from day till night to finish introducing his nautical chart, which was equivalent to introducing the entire Mediterranean Sea area.

Theodore, who was thirsty, drank some water and felt a little better.

"General, these...these are not ours!"

Theodore pointed to the last pile of maps, which were of the northern seas.

"Just tell me what you know!"

Xu Guanzhong didn't say much, just knocked on the table.

Theodore did not know much about the situation in the north, so he could only tell us what he knew, mostly about the situation along the coast of England and France.

"Military Advisor Xu, what's the situation?" Li Jun walked over and asked with a smile.

"Almost done, the map is done!"

Xu Guanzhong pointed to the map on the table and nodded, saying that this map had been combined with maps from many sources including the Merchants of Venice, Nesbar, Viking Pirates, and Byzantium, and had been revised.

"Military Advisor, have you found the route to the north?"

Li Jun quickly looked at the map and asked.

"There is no road to the north. Just as we analyzed before, there are islands and glaciers to the north, but it is a barren land. It is not where we want to go. We can only go west in the end!"

Xu Guanzhong said.

"The only way is west!"

Li Jun was not disappointed at all, as he had originally planned to go west.

"Thank you for your hard work, Military Advisor!"

Li Jun saluted to Xu Guanzhong.

"Well, we need to resupply first, now let's go to Byzantium!"

Xu Guanzhong nodded.

Theodore didn't understand what Xu Guanzhong and Li Jun were saying, but he keenly heard a name - Byzantium.

"This is... going to Byzantium!"

Theodore was shocked. It seemed that the enemy was discussing something and mentioned Byzantium. There was no need to translate what they were talking about.

"Did you hear that too?"

Xu Guanzhong looked at Theodore and asked.

"General, Byzantium is willing to surrender. Please don't kill anyone!"

Theodore quickly pleaded, saying that the Byzantines were definitely no match for this large army.

……

The Crusaders slowly approached Venice.

The murderous atmosphere of an army of 250,000 soldiers lined up in battle formation instantly frightened the followers of the Imperial Cult on the coast, and their prayers stopped.

"Stop what you are doing! Now is the time to express your piety!"

Wu Yong shouted while looking at the believers.

The chanting sounded again, the sound of hundreds of thousands of people chanting resounded through the sky, and for a moment it actually diluted the murderous aura of the Crusaders.

"court death!"

The fanatics were immediately furious upon seeing this. Their Crusader enemies actually dared to spread evil cults in the face of them.

"Don't worry, the enemy hasn't shown up yet!"

Conrad III looked across the sea and saw no Qi army except civilians.

"Are these people forcing us to kill civilians?"

Louis VII said that Qi's avoidance was forcing them to kill people.

"So what if he's killed? He's a pagan anyway!"

Someone spoke.

"Then you go!"

Louis VII looked coldly at the kings who spoke. They were all fools. Massacre of civilians was not a big deal, but who would be willing to bear the reputation of massacring so many civilians?

Conrad III also remained silent. He was not stupid. He was the emperor of the empire. If he massacred civilians on a large scale, he would be labeled a butcher and a tyrant.

Those kings who wanted to show off immediately shut up. They were all from small countries and did not dare to rush forward on their own.

The Pope and the archbishops did not say anything as they could not participate in the war.

"Philadelph, go challenge him!"

Conrad III looked at Philip I and gave the order. (End of this chapter)