When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 576 We are free!
"These dung collectors really succeeded."

"What kind of dung collector? Remember to call him Salvation Army master."

"What Savior Army, sir? I think it was most likely the Savior Army that held back the Imperial Order Company in this battle, but they were actually defeated by the great Grand Duke Meliati."

"The Salvation Army is just roaming around without fighting, the Duke's Army is the main force against the Prince!"

"Let's be honest. The Savior Army was the first to defeat the Command Company. That's correct, right?"

On the side of the road, citizens holding flowers and colorful triangular flags were discussing the war while waiting.

Compared with the Salvation Army who wantonly distributed land, the Grand Duke Meliati was more to the taste of the city nobles, big businessmen and ordinary citizens.

But for the craftsmen and low-level laborers, although the Salvation Army had a lot of rumors, their act of abolishing the Labor Law still made them unconsciously stand on Horn's side.

But no matter who the main force of this war is, everyone realizes that things have changed in Qianhe Valley.

"Here it comes, here it comes, get ready."

As they were talking, they heard someone pointing at the end of the road and shouting. The citizens and servants who were sitting on the ground to rest immediately jumped up.

This time the city nobles and citizen representatives had learned their lesson. They ran twenty miles in one breath and caught up with the original imperial order company at the gate of the camp to greet them.

In addition, farmers and townspeople nearby who had heard the news gathered around, wanting to see what the famous Twin Pearls of the Thousand River Valley were really like.

The Holy Sun Righteous Army was already waiting nearby, and with the addition of the population already in the camp ordered by the emperor, they actually gathered more than 10,000 people nearby.

At the end of the road, the ground was shaking, and the Guards, who were the vanguard, were marching in neat steps.

There were dark red bloodstains on the silver tips of the guns. Every ten men held a black and red military flag, and they rushed towards the citizens and farmers like a flowing river of flags.

Those who had been advocating that the Salvation Army was just a guerrilla force now shut their mouths, forced out ingratiating smiles, and began to scatter flower petals with great effort.

Behind the Salvation Army's vanguard, carriages were loaded with the pickled heads of the Order Knights.

As for Prince Condé, he was a single-person bicycle, packed in a scary green bottle, making people call him a devil, a wizard, and a heretic.

Standing on one side with the Saviors were the lazy mountain knights. Although they were not as orderly as the Saviors, their murderous aura still made the citizens and city nobles tremble.

A large number of carriages carrying prisoners and heads drove into the camp, but Horn and Meliati not only did not dismount, they did not even look at them.

I just sent someone to tell them not to panic and to maintain the law and order of Feiliu Castle, and I will visit them later.

Just as the Salvation Army and mountain knights entered the camp, the crowd was about to disperse, but several gendarmes rushed over on horseback.

"Everyone, don't leave yet." They galloped past the villagers and citizens who were watching the excitement, holding up the tin trumpets and shouting at them, "Your Majesty has something to say later. Unless it's urgent, please stay for a while."

…………

On the earthen platform that had been built in advance, there was something like a small hill covered with canvas. It looked mysterious and no one knew what was inside it.

The Salvation Army maintained order and arranged for citizens and villagers to enter the simple venue. By the time they were settled in, there were at least 10,000 people including the Salvation Army.

They included nobles wearing loose black and blue dyed robes, merchants and citizens wearing tassels on their heads, blacksmiths rolled up their sleeves to reveal their hairy arms, and tailors secretly touched the clothes of the Salvation Army with five fingers wrapped in felt.

They lowered their heads, leaned against each other, and talked in low voices.

Occasionally they would look up at Horn and Jeanne, as well as the Savior Army infantrymen, who were standing on the edge of the platform.

There was fear, contempt and even sarcasm in his eyes, but most of all it was indifference, numbness and impatience after waiting.

So what if they were replaced by the Salvation Army? Master Kush was replaced by Master Farran, and there was no change?

Standing behind the platform, Horn was still asking about Meliati's whereabouts.

He had originally asked Meliati if she wanted to go up and give a speech, to express her victory to her future subjects.

Unfortunately, Meliati is good at verbal battles but not at debates, and she thinks speeches are useless and has little interest in them.

Without letting the villagers wait long, Horn walked onto the platform.

"Earlier, a villager named Bobcat Tucker asked me when I would fulfill my promise and let them go home." With the help of the amplifying monk, Horn's voice came out clearly. "I don't want to say more, because facts speak louder than words. I tell you, that time is now."

The covering of the mountain-like thing behind him was lifted, revealing a bunch of pale, light things. The slaves and craftsmen in the camp all raised their heads.

Many people's eyes slowly widened. If they were not mistaken, it should be the church's IOU, indenture and loan sharking contract.

Three or five monks were pouring firewood and tar on these sinful papers. What did they want to do? Burn these terrible shackles?
With a scream, the rising flames climbed up the papers. The contracts and IOUs were swallowed up by the flames bit by bit, and the mouths of the slaves and laborers slowly opened wide.

The debts and contracts that had frightened countless people day and night were so fragile that they slowly disappeared in the flames.

The chilly wind flickered the flames, and the fire burned brighter and brighter, radiating warmth to everyone.

Standing in front of the flames, Horn's hair swayed with the hot and cold wind, and his words were transmitted to everyone's ears through the miracle of amplification.

“Five hundred years ago, the people of the Thousand Valleys migrated from the Kush River to this place because of war. With the hard work of countless people of the Thousand Valleys, we turned this place into a paradise orchard in the chaotic and dark world.

Five hundred years later, the people of Thousand Valley gathered here again, only to find that our once beloved families had become pigs and dogs of the priests, and our beloved hometown had been turned into a scorched earth purgatory in the hands of the church and the empire.

And we have become homeless people in our own home.

A year and a half ago, the Holy Lord summoned me to heaven for questioning. He asked me whether I wanted to continue staying on earth or return to the heavenly kingdom of Mount Bliss.

I couldn't make a choice, so the Holy Lord took me to a place where everyone lived and worked in peace and contentment, lived in warm houses, everyone had a face that had never been bullied by noble priests, and even the air was so sweet. I asked the Holy Lord, is this the Paradise Mountain in heaven?

Grandma said, no, this is the Thousand River Valley a hundred years later."

What will Qianhe Valley look like a hundred years from now?

The previously numb people raised their heads and looked at the young man shrouded in smoke and flames.

"In the Thousand River Valley at that time, I saw the sons of former nobles and the sons of former serfs singing hand in hand beside the gurgling Nauan River."

Pursing her lips tightly, Jeanna's eyes flashed with the faces of Danji and Frick.

"In the Thousand River Valleys at that time, I saw that in the solemn and simple cathedral, judges no longer judged based on wealth or poverty, noble or humble, but based on legal justice."

Tears gradually welled up in Madeleine's eyes.

"In the Valley of a Thousand Rivers, I saw that our children lived in a country where they were judged not by their bloodline but by the content of their character and their talents."

Grampven held his son in his arms and turned to smile at Dia beside him.

"There will be a day, a day when our children will live to adulthood, be able to support themselves, be treated fairly, and be able to earn enough food and money for their families through their labor."

"There will be a day, there will be a day when we will untie the ropes around our necks, cut off the shackles and chains on our feet, we can live in warm houses, and my next generation will not become wine and toys for the priests to amuse themselves."

The original low voice of conversation disappeared, and everyone stood there in a daze, and their dusty eyes gradually lit up.

Will Qianhe Valley look like this a hundred years from now?
"I ask the Holy Lord, is that day far away?"

"The Lord said that as long as we hold onto hope, that day will only get closer and closer, so I chose to return to the human world."

"With this hope, I returned to the human world, walked toward the battlefield, and charged at those terrifying and ferocious knights with hope."

The flames behind him flickered, and IOUs, indentures and loan sharking contracts turned into black ashes in the flames and flew onto everyone's heads.

It covers the sky and blocks out the sun, like a flock of crows flying over a sea of ​​flowers.

Everyone raised their heads, some wearing straw hats, some wearing cloth shoes, some in rags, some in well-dressed clothes, all looked towards the ashes.

The ashes flew and flew, and melted into the blue sky. As I watched, tears flowed unconsciously.

Standing on the high platform, with the fire burning more and more fiercely behind him, Horn walked towards the front step by step. With every step, he shouted: "I have always had hope, because I have seen that day, and I know that day will come eventually!
I believe that one day we will be able to knock a hole in this majestic mountain called despair!
I believe that one day, the people of the Thousand Valleys will be able to obtain fairness and freedom!

I believe that one day, the people of Qianhegu will be able to proudly say: I am a Qianhegu person!
We pray together with my fellow believers, work together, march together, pursue together, and go to the battlefield together, because one day, the Thousand River Valley will break her shackles! And the people of the Thousand River Valley will be able to live in their homes once again! "

Horn took a deep breath and paused. The whole place was quiet with only the sound of the wind. The air behind him was distorted, as if dancing wildly to his voice.

Countless pairs of eyes with tears in their eyes stared at Horn standing on the high platform.

Horn didn't dare to blink. He was afraid that if he blinked, the blurriness in front of his eyes would turn into tears and flow down, but his throat was already choked.

"That day, that day, I have fantasized about that day so many times, and it's finally here!"

“I fantasize about it, five years from now, ten years from now, or tomorrow?”

"But I was wrong. That day was today."

“Today is not the end, today is the beginning.”

"From today on, the shackles are unlocked, and the cages are shattered!"

"My friends, my fellow countrymen of the Thousand River Valley, who share the same blood, I want to announce to you that from today, from this moment on, you, you..."

Halfway through his speech, Horn suddenly stopped talking amid an exclamation.

It turned out that due to blurred vision, Horn took a step forward, but did not see the step under his feet, stepped on empty air, and fell down.

A bitter smile flashed across Horn's face. He had performed the magic trick so many times without any accidents, but now he was about to lose face when he started such an important speech.

But after waiting for a long time, he did not feel the pain of the hard ground hitting his chest. Instead, something soft but rough like a sponge supported his chest, waist and shoulders.

When Horn opened his eyes and looked up, he saw countless raised faces in front of him, and everyone stretched out their hands to try to catch him.

At this moment, he was being held up by a sea of ​​hands, including the calloused hands of farmers, the hands of a tailor holding woolen cloth, the hands of skinny old people, and the hands of chubby little children.

Everyone looked at him, waiting for him to say that sentence.

Being carried like this, Horn did not choose to stand up again, but instead struggled to straighten his upper body.

He wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes with his sleeve, and the corners of his mouth gradually widened and curved. He stretched out his right hand as if he wanted to shake hands with everyone.

"No more Priests and Commanderies! No more Blue Bloods and Lancers!"

"Thousand River Valley is free!"

"us--"

“Free!!!”

(Volume 2, end)

(End of this chapter)