Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 721: We cannot deny the Church just because a small number of priests have fallen

At noon, the convoy arrived at the small hill by the river on time according to Jessica's plan. Some soldiers were scattered to guard, while others went to do their own work.

The adjutant and the battalion officer were responsible for checking the water source and organizing everyone to fetch water. Jessica himself put aside other things and took a few engineers to the small bridge over the river to inspect the condition of the bridge and the water flow.

The condition of the bridge was much better than expected, and it looked like it had been renovated recently. The engineers inspected it and determined that there was no problem with the large truck, so they found a truck carrying miscellaneous items and tried it out. In this way, there was no need to prepare a special floating bridge, and today's journey would probably be much faster.

Everyone was very happy, so they organized a group of people to cross the river with the baggage carts first, while the rest of the people took a rest for a while and waited for the main force to approach before continuing the action.

During the march, they only had two meals a day. Usually in the afternoon when the sun was setting, they would stop and start digging trenches, laying out obstacles, and setting up barracks. After the camp was completed, they would dig a stove, bury the pot, cook, and have a hot meal.

Artificial lighting was a scarce tool these days, and was often either expensive or difficult to use—or both. The baggage train did have a headlamp given to them by Guo Kang, but that thing was so precious that it was considered a religious ritual item. Usually, everyone tried to finish all these things before dark to avoid any trouble.

At dawn the next day, a bugle call would be blown in the barracks to wake everyone up, finish their daily work, and have a meal. After that, they would abandon the camp and continue on their journey.

According to this process, the heavy physical labor of building the camp is repeated every day, which is not only tiring but also very boring, and there is no visible effect. It seems that they are deliberately tiring themselves before they even get to the battlefield. However, according to the experience of Jessica and others who "interned" in the Roman army, this kind of troublesome thing is actually indispensable.

Therefore, they also began to insist on this requirement and promote it in the army. Some new soldiers were very confused about this, but the captains didn't care, just saying that the regular army was like this and forced them to work together.

As for lunch, since there was no fixed campsite and no time to prepare hot food, we either skipped meals or took a short break and had some dry food. We were quite used to this.

Not long after the bridge problem was solved, Zhu Wenkui led a group of soldiers to the river as promised. They also brought tools for building a floating bridge. Zhu Wenkui personally carried a bag of nails and a tree-cutting axe and walked in front. Knowing that they no longer needed to do this work, everyone was very happy and relieved, and went to rest under the shade of the trees.

At this time, a team carrying the Huanglin County flag also appeared on the other side of the river.

This team also had several baggage wagons, followed by two riders and twenty or thirty farmers carrying pitchforks and flails. Brother Matt, the head of their county, led the team and soon arrived at the bridgehead.

The people on the other side greeted them and called the people here to come over. Jessica rushed over to greet them, talked with him, and asked about the local situation. After a few words, Zhu Wenkui also ran over, personally comforted everyone and thanked them for their help.

Although the people here have joined Daming for more than two years, they have never seen him. After listening to Jessica's introduction, they all came to watch. Zhu Wenkui did not put on airs with them, but directly asked about the situation here, saying that he had never been to this area and needed to understand the current situation and management.

"We are usually fine here. Although we are a little poor, the situation has improved a lot in the past two years. After the court sent people to teach us how to divert and store water, the drought has also eased." Brother Matt told him: "It's just that we have been hit by war during this period, which is very troublesome..."

"A group of Cuman soldiers came here and occupied the town. They also robbed and extorted people every day, which made everyone very upset." Jessica helped explain: "Unfortunately, we don't know where they are now. If we can meet them, we should drive them away first."

"Oh, this problem has been solved." Brother Matt heard this and quickly talked about the latest situation: "These two days, a leader who called himself Greynayan came with a group of Mongolian soldiers. The Cumans were afraid of the Mongols, so they were scared away."

"It seems to be the herdsmen who came with us." Jieshika told Zhu Wenkui: "I didn't expect it to have some effect..."

"So now, is there any situation in your county? Do you need help from the court?" Zhu Wenkui continued to ask.

"That group of Mongols has now occupied the town and is robbing and extorting money everywhere every day. They are more troublesome than the Cumans." Brother Matt complained: "Can the court drive the Mongols away as well?"

"No problem, we are experts in this." Zhu Wenkui patted his chest and agreed without thinking: "In the town, right? Send someone with our flag and tell them that Grandpa Zhu is here and tell them to get lost. I will pass by tomorrow, and I don't want to see a Mongolian appear there-"

"Wait, wait." Jessica hurriedly stopped him: "We haven't joined up with our friendly forces yet. We are outnumbered now, so we should be cautious. Those people are at least our allies in name. If we start a fight with them right away, our situation will be even more disadvantageous."

"It's okay. I think it's better to fight." Zhu Wenkui shook his head. "I feel now that these uncontrollable factors are more likely to become disasters. I think it's better to drive the Tartars away first, so that when we fight the barbarians, the rear will be safer. Now think about it, I shouldn't have agreed to bring these 'allies'. Sooner or later, they will trick us."

"Uh, what do we need to do first?" Brother Matt didn't understand these technical terms.

"Oh, Miss Tang and I have gotten used to talking these past few days. Those words are all Central Plains swear words, you don't need to learn them." Zhu Wenkui waved his hand and explained: "Anyway, we'll stop by and help you drive them away."

"There's no need to be so anxious." Brother Matt felt a little embarrassed when he saw how enthusiastic he was. It seemed that he had not expected that he would be agreed to so easily. "We petitioned just to report the current difficulties to you. Everyone knows what is more important. Why don't we deal with Prague's army first? The things here are not that important after all."

"You may not know that we have always lived like this. It was just that at first two nearby lords came to rob, then it became the Cumans, and recently it was the Mongols. So, everyone has long been accustomed to it. To be honest, we would rather let the Mongols be stationed here. Back then, those two barons robbed more crazily than them..."

"The government has told me about the current situation. We can still hold on here, and we can prepare some supplies now, which are in those cars." He turned around and pointed: "Compared with the war, these are all trivial matters. If you really miss us, come and help us after the war is over. Anyway, you don't mind enduring a few more days."

"It's okay. It's just a matter of convenience. However, it would be better if you had sent us a document earlier to explain the situation." Zhu Wenkui waved his hand: "I asked Miss Tang to take some people there in advance, and they should be able to drive them away. She says every day that she is organizing cavalry, so it's a good opportunity to see how good they are." "Now..." He looked back: "She said she was going to take people for training today, and I don't know where she went. If I had known that you needed them, I would have asked them to go there to train."

"This is indeed our problem. I didn't think of it before..." Brother Matt said angrily, "Besides, I'm the only one writing official documents in the county government office. I haven't thought of this matter recently, and no one else has thought of telling me about it."

"Is your county so busy?" Zhu Wenkui asked curiously, "As a county magistrate, you can't even handle writing official documents?"

"It's not too busy, but there are too few people." Brother Matt told him, "I'm the only one in the county who can write official documents, so although there are not too many things to do, it's really hard to get away..."

"what?"

"These newly established counties have not yet established a complete management system. Currently, they only have a very rough structure." Several other attendants hurriedly explained to him: "Huanglin County was established not long ago, and it is relatively remote. There are very few people who are capable of doing clerical work. This is the only way for the time being."

"Is it so scarce? Can't we find a few more people?" Zhu Wenkui asked.

"There's nothing we can do. There are only three people in the monastery who can write in the whole county. The others can't even read the official documents." Brother Matt spread his hands and said, "Two of the three people ran away, and I'm the only one left."

"Why are they running?" Zhu Wenkui asked curiously.

"You may not know that we had a big fight over indulgences." Brother Matt told him, "These three people, besides me, there is also the abbot and a monk who was brought from Prague when the abbot took office and is in charge of accounting."

"It's not easy to get the job of abbot. Even a small monastery in a remote area like this is a formal position. Therefore, in order to get this position, the abbot had to go around and spend a lot of money. After taking office, of course, he was eager to look for opportunities, hoping to quickly recover the cost."

"In addition to the parts that Rome allowed to be sold, he also secretly set up some items in order to make money faster, and claimed to everyone that his indulgences were having a limited promotion, and that those who purchased full indulgences within the year could get a 30% discount. When the promotion is over, there will be no such good prices anymore."

“Why is the church always using this trick…” Zhu Wenkui was no longer surprised.

"After all, they are really easy to sell. Mr. Guo also told me that the church's products are called 'selling peripherals', and that the methods will not be outdated even after hundreds of years." Jessica also echoed.

"Are there fake peripherals too?" Zhu Wenkui became even more curious.

"This is called the 'pirate version', or the 'copycat version', both are available." Jessica said confidently: "It probably means that they are like pirates and bandits, and they will take away some of the profits."

"Oh oh..." Everyone looked as if they had suddenly realized something. It seemed that he had indeed learned a lot from Guo Kang.

"We said it was fake, but most of the believers didn't know at the time. Those of us who knew didn't dare to say anything." Brother Matt shook his head: "So, many people were deceived by him and really bought it."

"However, some time ago, news came that Sigismund colluded with the church and killed Father Hus. As a result, the conflict between the various factions broke out. There were also Hussite priests who came here specifically to accuse the church of corruption and evil and called on everyone to boycott them."

"However, the residents of our county actually support the Roman Catholic Church more. Everyone believes that even if the church has various problems, it is appointed by God, is the inheritance of St. Peter, and is the only orthodox faith group. Because of this origin, the church cannot be really 'bad'. Those problems must be due to some people in the church forgetting their original intentions, not learning to be good, and even allowing a small group of conspirators to take advantage of them. For their own selfish interests, they have ruined the reputation of the church and harmed the believers."

"However, the essence of the church is still good. Besides, there is no other organization that upholds the orthodox faith to choose from. Can we still believe in paganism? Moreover, we cannot deny the history of the entire church, its orthodoxy and its long-term contributions just because a few priests are corrupt and degenerate, right?"

"That makes sense, right?" Zhu Wenkui and others also felt that it made some sense and said hesitantly.

"Yes, so everyone tends to think that the more times like this, the more we should believe in our faith and our church. In the face of difficulties, we should try to urge the church to correct its mistakes, rather than throwing up our hands and even threatening to abandon the church." Father Matt said, "So, although some people expressed sympathy, most people believe that the Hussites' actions are equivalent to further splitting the church, making the current difficult situation worse, which is really too radical."

"However, the Hussites did not give up. They believed that there must be a big problem with the church here, so they began to investigate. In the end, they really discovered it. It turned out that the indulgences that everyone bought were not issued by order of Rome. The question of whether it was excessive was simply made up by the dean himself."

"As a result, even believers who felt that they should not oppose the church felt that the abbot was going too far. People kept coming to his house, asking him to repent and return the stolen money. His trusted monks were also threatened by the villagers. However, the abbot had already sent the money to Prague to pay off his debts, and it was impossible for him to get it back. So he deceived everyone, even us monks, saying that he had repented and was preparing to raise funds."

"We were quite honest at that time and didn't think too much about it. As a result, they fled at night before we started fighting. Only a few of us monks stayed because we had good relations with everyone. I was in charge of purchasing various sundries for the monastery at that time. I knew a little Latin, so I became the only person in the county who could write. It happened that the higher-ups were urging us, saying that you haven't had a formal official for so long, so everyone said that I was the only one who could be the county magistrate. That's how I took office..."

"You've worked hard too..." Zhu Wenkui could only comfort her.

(End of this chapter)