Water Margin people

Vicenza.

Pope Eugene III was sweating profusely. He kept wiping the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief, muttering something like "God bless you."

"Your Holiness, something bad has happened. Conrad III and Louis VII are unconscious and are still vomiting blood."

A priest came hurriedly to report.

"what!"

Eugene III just felt a tightness in his chest and a little breathless.

"How many more people are there?"

It took Eugene III a long time to suppress the urge to faint and finally asked.

"There are only 40,000 to 50,000 people left!"

The priest said, looking down.

The soldiers around were all sitting together, with their heads down, and some even buried their heads between their legs, as if they were frightened.

Two hundred thousand of the 250,000 Crusaders suffered 200,000 casualties in just one battle, and they hadn't even encountered the enemy. What a despair this was.

"What a terrifying divine power! Could it be that the gods of Qi have come to our side?"

The archbishops spoke up and said that they had all seen the horrific scene of hell descending, and everything seemed so insignificant in the explosion.

"Gods! There are no gods in Qi. They are just cannons on Qi ships!"

Bernard brought his men back and said.

"The ship's guns?"

Everyone looked at Bernard. They couldn’t understand what Bernard said. What Qi had were just warships converted from ordinary merchant ships. What could these ordinary ships do?

"It's not what we know! Qi's ironclad ships are coming. There are more than a hundred of them! They are all along the coast!"

Bernard spoke. He had just ventured back to the battlefield and saw with his own eyes the Qi ships docking. The huge steel beast also frightened him.

However, this explanation is better than the power of gods. If they only rely on warships, they may still be able to find a solution. If it is the power of gods, then they can only fail.

People can be defeated, but gods cannot.

"Ironclad ships? How is that possible? How could Qi's ships come here? This doesn't make sense!"

After knowing that everything that happened just now was done by human power, the fear in everyone's hearts dissipated a little, and they began to doubt Bernard's statement.

"Qi's canal has just been dug, how can it possibly reach the Mediterranean?"

A cardinal said that Western merchants had searched for thousands of years and traveled all along the Mediterranean coast, but they had not found a river connecting the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf. The two seas were completely isolated and ships could not pass through.

"I don't know how they did it, but I saw with my own eyes that the coast was lined with huge ironclad ships!"

Bernard looked at everyone and said seriously that he couldn't understand it either, but the facts were right in front of him. If these people didn't believe it, then he would take them to see it.

"Ironclad ship! I heard from merchants that it is a huge ship made entirely of steel, without sails or oars, and driven entirely by something called a steam engine!"

Someone said that they had also heard of Qi's ironclad ships, but they had only heard of them and no one had ever seen them.

"More than a hundred ironclad ships killed two hundred thousand of our troops!"

Some people couldn't believe it. If it were just warships, they wouldn't have been defeated so badly.

"Clear your heads, there can't be any gods from Qi on this land!"

Bernard looked at everyone and seemed to want to say that there were no gods in the world, but he couldn't say it out loud. In fact, the entire Western high-level officials knew that gods were fake and were just a slogan to realize their selfish desires and control civilians.

There are too many gods in the West, including the Roman Church, the Greek pantheon, the Norse mythology system, the Egyptian mythology system, and Catholic Christianity. There are so many different kinds of gods, but no one has ever really seen a god.

"Your Holiness, let's go back to the Vatican as soon as possible!"

An archbishop said that they had suffered a crushing defeat in this holy war and no longer had the ability to fight. Now they had no choice but to return to the Vatican to regroup. "What's the point of going back now? If the enemy can bombard Venice, they can bombard Rome!"

Bernard said, looking at those people.

"Bombard Rome? Impossible!"

"Absolutely not Rome!"

Everyone spoke up immediately, their voices becoming shrill. Rome was the headquarters of their Vatican. If the headquarters was bombed into ruins, how would they cope and where would the believers come from?

"No? You don't have the final say! Qi's ironclad warship is on the sea, and the gun barrel is pointed at your head!"

Bernard spoke up. He was very disdainful of these church leaders. These people held high positions but never thought about the future. They only knew how to lie in the Vatican and wait for death. They were still daydreaming even when the Qi State's cannon was pointed at their heads.

"What should I do?"

The church leaders were panicking, they didn't know what to do. In his mind, no matter success or failure, everything could be slowly resolved when he returned to the Vatican.

But now it seems different, Qi will not give them a chance.

"Let's go see the emperor first!"

Eugene III stood up, propped up his body with his scepter, and spoke.

Everyone came to a tent where Conrad III and Louis VII were lying on beds. Doctors were treating them and priests were praying for them.

"how's it going?"

Eugene III asked.

"Your Holiness, the Emperor is in a very bad condition. This... there is nothing we can do!"

Several doctors spoke up. Conrad III was already in poor health, and now he was so angry that he vomited blood, and his breath was intermittent. They were helpless at this time.

"Is there nothing you can do?"

Eugene III asked, he couldn't lose Conrad III now.

"This... there is one last solution!"

A doctor said, looking at Pope Eugene III.

"any solution?"

Pope Eugene III asked immediately.

"Blood transfusion... His Majesty the Emperor has vomited too much blood, and there is too little blood in his body, causing him to become weak. A blood transfusion will make him better."

Pope Eugene III frowned. Blood is a very serious matter in the church. If it is a saint's blood, then the blood will have magical powers and can exorcise evil spirits and demons.

But if it is dirty blood, the situation will be exactly the opposite, and it will bring all kinds of disasters.

"Your Holiness, we have conducted experiments and found that we can inject lamb or calf blood into the human body. This will make people strong and powerful."

The doctor said seriously.

"Also, you can shave your head, put the entrails of living animals on your head, and insert a tube into your anus for ventilation..."

"You can also bleed, repeatedly transfuse blood and let blood, to expel the toxins!"

The other doctors also talked about their own treatment methods.

Eugene III's face changed several times and he had an urge to vomit. The treatment methods of these doctors were too disgusting.

"I don't care, just find a way to wake the emperor up!"

Eugene III waved his hand and said that he didn't want to care about so much anymore. As long as Conrad III could be saved, it would be fine. Now he needed the Holy Roman Emperor to take charge of the situation. (End of this chapter)