When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 951: Armand on his way out, Richelieu on his return

"Snapped!"

Little Pierre opened his folded palms, revealing a mosquito covered in blood and mud.

Old Pierre, who was brushing his shoes, looked up and asked, "What's wrong?"

Little Pierre shook his head: "There are too many mosquitoes in the Thousand River Valley. It's still autumn."

"This is inside the mountains and we are sailing on the water. It is normal to have mosquitoes." Old Pierre continued to brush his shoes without even raising his head.

Little Pierre was interrupted from his concentration and lost interest in reading, so he came to the side of the boat.

The weather has gradually turned cooler with the autumn rain some time ago, but the big mosquitoes in Qianhe Valley have not yet died out.

Looking up, you can see the blue-gray mountains surrounding like an open-air theater, shrouding the sky that is gradually changing from steel blue to gray.

On the top of the mountains, you can see more than a dozen wooden wind turbines slowly turning.

The serpentine black line that winds from the hillside to the bottom of the mountain is the freight track made up of square nails, iron fasteners, sleepers and wooden rails.

A number of small square-shaped cars, bathed in the morning light and emitting sparks, slowly slid down the mountain road.

The cart was filled with neatly stacked, schoolbag-sized, wound-up mainspring chambers.

Although little Pierre came from an ordinary citizen family and never went to college, he taught himself a lot of knowledge related to mechanics and engineering.

Even the person who pretended to be an engineer from the University of Neufchamps in France was not discovered.

As one of the leaders of the Holy Fathers in the Windmill area, he also handled many clockwork warehouses.

But so far, he has not been able to crack this clockwork.

This backpack-sized mainspring chamber actually requires one horse to pull it and three horses to wind it up.

Little Pierre's face showed a complex expression of longing and fear: "The Thousand River Valley is such a magical place."

"Who says it's not?" Old Pierre came over after brushing his shoes and looked at the mountains surrounding Daze Township. "More than a decade ago, this place was still a wild swamp."

On the surface of Nanze Lake, beastman fishermen paddled their fishing boats and sang fishing songs.

Not far away in Shimokitazawa, you can see farmers digging pond mud everywhere.

They bent over and used large long-handled wooden spoons to dig out the fertile silt and pile it on the high ground nearby.

On the shallow lake surface, large and small squares of farmland stand upright like a chessboard.

Of course, in the middle of the square farmlands on both sides, there is a deep water canal specially for ships to pass through.

Next to the canal are two embankments that are higher than the farmland. The embankments have bridge holes, and in the bridge holes are wooden sluices.

On the blue river, large and small woolen ships carrying woolen yarn from South Mound County upstream were heading towards the distant Autumn Dusk Island one after another.

Old Pierre had traveled around with the caravan in the past and had been to the Thousand River Valley before, but things had changed so much.

The original town had a sparse population and uninhabited houses were everywhere.

At that time they thought that the population decrease was caused by the war, but when they went to the new town in the countryside, they found that most of the population had moved to the countryside.

Compared to the harsh rural environment in the past, it is so open there now.

"Factory..." Old Pierre couldn't help muttering.

The Holy Alliance actually overwhelmed the guild and set up the factory.

No wonder, no wonder craftsmen and masters from across the empire are running to Thousand River Valley!

There is no guild oppression, no labor law restrictions, no noble extortion, no church heavy taxes...

For the industries that Shenglian focuses on supporting, there are not only low-interest or even interest-free loans, but also three to five years of tax exemption policies.

For this reason, workshop owners and guild merchants from all over the country even had to set up checkpoints and increase wages, otherwise they would not be able to retain the craftsmen who had left.

It is almost foreseeable that after Windmill Land, Thousand River Valley will become the next Windmill Land.

It was even more prosperous than the current windmill areas because it had an absurdly cheap heat source - peat.

Looking at the gurgling water under the side of the boat, the son was still overwhelmed with emotion, while the old father was mixed with sadness and joy.

As the ferry gradually approached the newly opened ferry terminal on Qiumu Island, the people who were originally sitting lazily in the ferry stood up one after another.

They were arranged in rows and columns according to their identity and status, and the two standing in the front were the ones with the highest identity and status.

Cardinal Armand Richelieu returns from the windmills.

And Catherine, the director of the Holy Maternity Guardianship Bureau and the president of the Holy Lady Bank, who returned from France.

In mid-September, in front of the pier on the dock that was turned brown and black by the lake water, Horn, dressed in monk's clothes, greeted us with a smile.

The ferry reached the shore, and the first person to jump off the ferry and walk over quickly was Armand. "Your Majesty!"

"Armand!"

They both opened their arms at the same time and hugged each other tightly.

Armand went to the Windmill Lands before the Second War of the Thousand Valleys, and except for a trip back for the grand military parade after the victory of the war, he has been in the Windmill Lands for the past four years.

To be precise, he presides over the entire Congregation for the Worship of the Fathers and the Holy Word Mission.

"You're growing up so fast, kid." Looking at Armand, who was almost 1.80 meters tall, Horn pinched his shoulders hard, as if he wanted to push him back to 1.70 meters.

Armand smiled and said, "I was starving when I was in the monastery. I only had enough food in the past few years. It's normal for me to grow taller."

Horn took his arm and looked him up and down.

The young monk who was fourteen years old back then is now twenty-three years old.

His body was noticeably stronger, no longer the skinny boy he used to be, and there was even a circle of stubble around his mouth.

Although in the windmill area, the risks Armand experienced were no less than those in the Thousand River Valley.

His main task was to develop the Holy Fathers' worship on both sides of the Nauan River and in the towns of Leafarran.

During these four years, the situation he faced was more complicated than that of Horn.

After all, after Horn drove away the Leia people, it was like painting on a blank sheet of paper, and the Thousand River Valley itself had the foundation of the Juano faction.

But what Armand had to do was to develop the power of the Holy Fathers in the enemy's base camp.

During this period, they encountered countless betrayals, assassinations, sieges, and breakouts, but the organization led by Armand still survived and continued to grow and develop.

Currently, on the bounty lists of towns across Leia and France, clues to the name "Richelieu" alone are worth hundreds of gold pounds.

"You've done a great job this time." Horn said with emotion, "It's a pity that I can't give you a title anymore. You're already a cardinal."

Armand's body visibly tensed up: "You are joking, I am not worthy of this cardinal position, I rely entirely on your transcendent promotion.

We have more and more Catholics in France, and we also have food and supplies from the Holy League. I am not even qualified to be a cardinal now."

"That's not right. You earned your cardinalship by yourself. Besides, old Cosset entrusted you to me. If you do this, I'm afraid he will blame me for not taking good care of you."

Knowing that his casual remark had made Armand nervous, Horn quickly tried to make up for it.

Things are different now than before. Every word he says would be chewed three times by the people around him, then regurgitated and chewed three more times.

There is a group of people around me who are trying to "guess the Holy Will".

The Holy Fathers Society is now indeed famous on both sides of the Nauan River, especially in the Laiya area on the north bank.

Armand's struggle strategy is also different from Horn's.

The situation in Qianhe Valley at that time was such that a power vacuum emerged due to the tug of war among various parties.

In addition, since Red Maple Township was weak internally at the time, Horn was able to rely on the advantage of firearms to win big with a small force and slowly snowball from this breakthrough point.

But it's different in Leia. The church and the lord have very strict management in the countryside.

The yield per mu in the Golden Plains is not low, and the products are abundant. The upper limit of farmers' lives is low, but the lower limit is high. On the contrary, there is no urgent need for an uprising like in the Thousand River Valley.

So Armand's strategy was to organize the guild's helpers, the urban poor, and the suburban refugees to form a brotherhood.

They help each other fight against guilds, knights, and city halls. If something happens, the Holy Father will help send them to the Holy Alliance for settlement.

A large number of helpers and craftsmen within the Holy Union came to the Holy Union through Armand's underground organization of the Holy Fathers.

On both sides of the Nauan River, there are basically underground organizations of the Holy Fathers in county seats and major towns, and under these organizations there are various chaotic brotherhoods.

Compared to the icon-like Horn, they certainly prefer Armand.

This is also why Armand is nervous.

With so much power and so many people around him, if Horn had any suspicion, countless people would have come to punish him.

The reason why his organization was able to grow so large was largely due to the Holy Alliance's supply of food, weapons, medicines, and Holy Seeds.

In the final analysis, it's about becoming bigger rather than stronger.

"Why don't I see Rufair? Didn't she keep saying she wanted to come?"

"I'm pregnant with my second child and I'm staying in my hometown in France to take care of the baby."

"Oh oh oh." Glancing at Catherine's gloomy gaze behind him, Horn didn't dare to continue on this topic.

"Catherine, long time no see."

(End of this chapter)