Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 193 Bishop, I bring the revelation of the new millennium

Hatred is a bitter cup, but revenge is a poison.

[You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." But I tell you, do not resist someone who is evil. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.]

——Matthew 5:38-39
Brother Jesus asks believers to move beyond the retaliatory justice of “an eye for an eye” in the Old Testament and instead pursue a tolerance and mercy that transcends revenge.

He believed that revenge would only bring more pain and violence rather than solve problems.

Through forgiveness, he wants to teach people how to break the vicious cycle and seek reconciliation and peace.

But this does not mean that revenge has disappeared, because the Bible says: "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."

In other words, Christ emphasized that believers should leave the right of revenge to the Heavenly Father, because only the Heavenly Father has perfect justice and wisdom to judge.

But the judgment of Heavenly Father, on the distant Day of Judgment, is still too slow for people in this world.

Therefore, although Gellis also opposed equal retaliation of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," he was even more opposed to endless blood revenge.

But Gaillis does not try to make people forget hatred and let the evil people go free in the world.

Because this is not personal revenge, but a judicial decision made by God through the hands of righteous men and based on the word of God.

The so-called word of God is the judgment of the people.

This is a Dharma.

Just as Garys was explaining the reason to Andre in detail.

There was some movement in the night. It was not just Garys chatting with Andre, but also there were sneaky figures moving around.

Andre couldn't help himself, but Garys stopped him.

Garys told Andre something he had heard in his previous life:
"I once heard a poor man say this: 'The lord feeds us, and the land we grow, the food we eat, and the clothes we wear are all given by them. The reason for being rich or poor is fate. They are rich because they are lucky, and we are poor because we are unlucky. They are rich because they are frugal and know how to live, and we are poor because we are lazy and don't know how to live.'"

"But I say that's bullshit. Some people are rich because they feed on the flesh and blood of their fellow men."

"Don't be impatient. The poisonous snake has not yet bared its fangs, and the wolf among the sheep has not yet shed its sheepskin. If you rush forward to question them, it will only backfire."

When the next day came, the team reorganized, and this time everyone marched south to Elias's hometown.

Andre, who had been paying close attention to the situation, naturally noticed that one person was missing from the third squadron.

But thinking of what Garys said, he didn't rush up to question him.

……

The village of Amir is located south of the Troodos Mountains, on the edge of the mountainous area. In fact, it is only 5 kilometers from here to the sea, which is almost a coastal plain.

Ever since Isaac arrived on the island and usurped power in 1185, life in Amir Village has been deteriorating.

High taxes and the rampant mercenaries brought a lot of oppression to this originally ordinary village.

When Nicholas, as a minor noble, started an uprising, Elias from Amir village also took the lead in responding.

However, Nicholas prepared thousands of men, but these Cypriot Greeks, who were not good at fighting, were defeated as soon as the battle started.

Apart from their bravery, there is nothing else worthy of praise about them.

The news of the massacre in Andre's hometown village had actually spread long before Garys and his friends learned about it.

Today, the Orthodox Church in Cyprus can no longer curb Isaac's brutality.

Those villages that were found to have supported the rebellion were violently attacked by the Turks, and many villages were burned to the ground overnight.

Then, the survivors were dragged to the entrances of other nearby villages, executed in public, and their heads were hung on trees by the roadside, left to be eaten by crows.

Under such circumstances, people's hearts were shaken. Every time the villagers saw the Turks passing by their village, they were worried that the matter would be exposed and the whole village would be massacred.

In fact, many people in Amir's village had already started looking for a way out for themselves.

Among them, Elias' family was the most anxious. After all, his son was more or less a leader in the rebel army.

If the matter is exposed, it is still unclear what will happen to other people, but his family will be severely punished.

For this reason, the Elias family, as a wealthy family in the local area, had already planned a retreat early on.

They sent Elias' sister to the home of a nearby Turkic tribal leader as a concubine and also gave her a considerable dowry.

We just hope that the tribal leader can protect our family.

Then at this juncture, one of his servants ran out from the mountain and told him everything that had happened to Elias in the past few days.

By the way, he also revealed Elias's plan.

Elias's father nodded:

"You can't be a bandit forever!"

"Cyprus is so small! Those Turkic masters are so cunning and hide in the mountains. They will be caught in a few days!"

"No matter how Isaac talks about it, he is also from the Komnenos family. We call this loyalty to the king!"

"As for that guy Nicholas, who is he? Does he have the nerve to rebel?!"

Accompanied by a piece of insults, Elias's old father was delighted that his son was so sensible!

As long as they can catch all of Nicholas's gang of escaped rebels this time, their family will be able to rest easy. If they spend more money and pay more tribute, they may be able to rely on the relationship with Elias's sister to become a tax collector in the surrounding area!
With this in mind, their family took action and sent Elias's younger brother out to contact the in-laws and make arrangements to give a surprise to the rebels who had fallen into the trap!
The letter was sent, but there were some things that the Elias family had not expected.

Accompanied by a series of knocks on the door, Elias's old father opened a small window on his front door and looked outside to inquire about the situation.

Then he saw a man with a bruised face and nose standing outside the door. He looked carefully again and found that it was his son, who was now covered in blood from being beaten.

Then there seemed to be something wrong with the "Turkic uncles" standing next to their sons.

Those people wore helmets with nose guards, and many of them were covered with chain mail tied around their hips with leather belts.

Then the weapons they used seemed to be round shields, long swords or axes.

Of course, the most important thing is, why don’t these “Turkic uncles” ride horses? !

Moreover, judging from his facial features, he doesn't seem to look like a Turk?
The disadvantage of short-sightedness came. Elias' old father did not recognize who the other party was, but seeing that the other party was coming in a threatening manner, he did not dare to open the door. He only dared to ask a few questions with a weak breath.

Then he received an answer in not quite standard Greek.

"Turks? Damn Turks! I'm Varangian!"

Varangian?
When Elias's old father heard this word, he was a little confused. No, this...ah?

When did they have Varangians on the island of Cyprus?

The so-called Varangian, or more precisely the Varangian Guard, was the elite royal guard of the Eastern Empire, composed of foreign warriors such as Nordic Vikings, English, and Russians.

Simply put, they are still mercenaries.

But shouldn’t the Varangian Guard serve the emperor of Constantinople?

How come there are people in Cyprus calling themselves the Varangian Guard?

Elias' family naturally had no idea what was going on.

First of all, the main force of Isaac's army was undoubtedly the several Turkic tribes he found in Asia Minor.

But as a Greek and an Orthodox Christian, even though Isaac sneered at the Orthodox Church, he could not completely trust those Turkic pagans.

What if one day, those Turkic tribes think that Isaac is a waste and simply chop him to pieces, and then become the island master themselves? Wouldn’t Isaac be useless then?
Isaac is just cruel, not really stupid, so it is necessary to introduce more groups to check and balance him.

He found King William II of Sicily and formed an alliance with him, thereby obtaining a group of useful naval allies, and successfully defeated the navy of the Eastern Empire and captured the opponent's commander.

On land, Isaac found the Norman relatives of the King of Sicily - "Vikings", or more precisely, the Rus.

Just as Isaac proclaimed himself emperor on the island of Cyprus, as an emperor, he naturally needed guards that matched his status.

Therefore, those mercenaries who could not clearly tell whether they were Vikings or Russians became "the emperor's axe-wielding barbarians" or "the emperor's alcoholic barbarians" in a legitimate manner.

Considering that the southern part of Cyprus is mountainous and it is not convenient for the Turks to ride horses there, Isaac sent these Russian mercenaries to replace the original Turkish tribes.

The cheap in-laws that Elias's family found just walked away. Why would they stay around to suppress the rebellion?
Therefore, the messenger could only find the fake Varangian emperor.

However, as salary competitors among each other, this group of fake Varangians also had some conflicts with the Turks.

As soon as they heard that there was a rebel named Elias among the Turkic relatives, these fake Varangians didn't care about "enduring humiliation" or colluding with the outside world.

These people came here just to eat up the previous and next customers!

Take it all!

You have to know that the regular Varangian Guard members receive at least 100 gold Baizant a year! And they get much less, so they have to work harder to save money for their retirement.

Knowing that there were rebels in this village, of course, we had to strictly implement the emperor's orders!
Burn them all! Kill them all! Loot them all!

Realizing that he had chosen the wrong mountain, old man Elias could not care about his son's life or death for a while, and hurriedly arranged for his servants to look after the compound.

"If you have the guts to find the Turks, then you can open the door! What a shame to block us outside!"

As he said this, a sturdy "Varangi" man came up and knocked on the door hard, making Elias and his family panic.

They didn't understand why they always went to look for the wrong people when looking for help. What's more important is that for some unknown reason, they offended this group of people.

The reinforcements he had been longing for finally arrived, but they came and surrounded his compound with great aggressiveness.

"We are our own people! We are all our own people! My daughter even married the eldest son of the Turkic chieftain!"

Elias tried to get close to them. In his opinion, these guys outside the door were the "emperor's" guards after all, and maybe they could give the Turkic tribe some face. Then, if they didn't mention the Turkic people, it would be fine. Once they mentioned the Turkic people, they would not knock on the door, but kick it. In other words, the door of Elias's house was quite strong, and ordinary kicks had no effect at all.

Just when the Elias family was trying to hold on, the door suddenly shook.

The servant who was lying on the wall watching the situation outside also shouted, "Oh no, sir! Something terrible has happened! Those masters outside the door have found some wood and are banging on the door!"

As soon as these words fell, there was another dull thud, and many people even heard the creaking and cracking of their door latches.

The sound of banging on the door again and again struck at the hearts of the people in the house, just when they were panicking and at a loss.

With a click, the door bolt broke, and dozens of people rushed in from outside, each holding a shield and an axe or sword in their right hand.

After these "Varangis" broke into the compound, they rushed into every house without saying a word and dragged out everyone, regardless of gender, age or status.

Anyone who dared to resist was chopped off with an axe, and blood splattered on the wall of Elias's house.

At the same time, the groans of the dying, the screams of women, the cries of little ghosts... all came out, and even some houses in the backyard were emitting black smoke.

The fire was burning, but it was not a blazing fire of justice, but a carnival of sinners.

……

Even from a distance, Garys and his team noticed something was wrong.

Before they had completely walked out of the forest, they saw black smoke rising from the direction of Amir Village.

Elias was the most surprised, why did this happen!
Andre and the others were all glaring with anger, as they had witnessed such a tragedy before.

Now, such a tragedy happened right in front of them, how could they just stand by and watch? !
They couldn't take care of the villages that were too far away, but the Amir Village in front of them was in trouble, so of course they would help if they could. What's more, this was the hometown of Elias, their comrade-in-arms!
After a few casual discussions, the leaders of the Liberation Front laid out a battle plan.

Elias's expression was the most complicated. He wanted to object to this battle arrangement, but how could he say it out loud? !

Since no one objects, the first battle of the Liberation Front has actually begun.

Because the area around here is all hilly and the slopes are not very undulating, it provides good cover for the advance of the First Battalion.

This group of about a hundred people reached the woods not far from Amir Village without being discovered by the enemy.

But the next distance became a bit troublesome, although these enemies were busy plundering the wealth of Amir Village.

However, out of basic military literacy, there are still some armored soldiers patrolling key locations outside the village.

But this is just a bit of trouble, after all, there is Garys among them.

Like most villages these days, Amir Village has only a few main roads.

In this battle, Garys and his men did not seek to annihilate the enemy completely, but aimed to save Amir Village.

Therefore, fast and fierce attacks were the tone of this battle.

Under the leadership of Garys, Andre and others, full of anger, followed him recklessly.

Just as Ragnar, the leader of the Rus, was riding on Elias' sister, he vaguely heard people screaming.

He slapped the woman on the butt, leaving a red mark. He ignored the woman's cries, pulled up his pants, put on his mail, drew his sword, and prepared to fight.

However, when he walked out, he noticed something was wrong.

The village, which had been extremely noisy before, seemed inexplicably quiet.

When walking out of Elias's courtyard, Ragnar saw his subordinates, under the arrangement of another commander, forming a shield wall facing the north of the village road.

The soldiers looked extremely nervous and were too close to each other.

Generally speaking, the soldiers in the shield wall would be close to each other, but not too close.

The traditional Varangian shield is round, with a diameter of about 0.9 meters. In a normal shield wall, the distance between two people would be so small that the shields would slightly overlap, which means that each person should occupy a width of about 0.8 meters.

This width will not hinder movement and use of weapons.

However, the width of each person in the shield wall that Ragnar saw was almost less than 0.6 meters.

Some of them hunched over and huddled together, seeking a false sense of security.

"What are you doing! Regroup!"

Ragnar shouted loudly, holding a shield, and squeezed into the shield wall like an ordinary soldier. He came to the center of the first row of the team, and the standard-bearer beside him raised the flag.

Because of Ragnar's behavior and the calmness he displayed, as well as the raised Scarlet Crow flag, the surrounding soldiers calmed down a little and realized that their shield wall was indeed too tight.

If the team is too close together, the people in the front row will not be able to fall to the ground when they die, and the people in the back row will not be able to move forward and use their weapons.

In this case, failure is inevitable.

"What's going on?" Ragnar asked the person next to him. Although these soldiers under his command could not be considered veterans who had survived hundreds of battles, they had at least killed people before and should not be like rookies.

A soldier beside him motioned to Ragnar to take a careful look at the situation in front of the army.

Opposite their group, there was also a shield wall, but relatively speaking, it was much weaker than theirs!
The shields were of different sizes, the weapons were of different makes, and the armor was in a terrible condition.

To be more precise, Ragnar saw the shadow of farmers in the group of people opposite, and this group of people should have just picked up weapons not long ago.

When facing this kind of enemy, just rush over and chop them all off!

However, Ragnar finally noticed something unusual. There was a man standing in front of the shield wall opposite.

He has golden hair that shines particularly brightly in the sun, a young face, but his hair and clothes are unkempt.

The man was not wearing any armor. He was holding a Viking-style long-handled broad axe in his hand. There were four corpses lying beside him.

Judging from the wounds, it seemed that they were all killed by that person.

"Just now, that guy killed four people in an instant!"

Ragnar opened his mouth, a little bit unbelieving for a moment, because among those who fell to the ground was Eric, the bravest warrior under his command.

But no matter what, he needs to defeat the opposing group of people and kill them all!

"Throw the spear, get ready!"

Ragnar gave the order, and some soldiers behind him were already preparing to throw spears.

Then the Frank in his eyes began to walk.

It was not fast at the beginning, but then the speed gradually increased. The heavy two-handed broadsword seemed very light to him?
"Throw the spear, throw it!"

As the command was given, more than a dozen short spears stabbed at the charging Frank.

Subsequently,

The opponent swung the two-handed broadaxe in his hand, leaving countless afterimages in the air!
With a speed that Ragnar had never expected, it swept and chopped with lightning speed, like a windmill in the wind.

To be exact, in just that one breath, the Frank used the heavy broadaxe in his hand to block all the spears!

Those spears failed to hurt the enemy at all!
Ragnar widened his eyes and looked at this scene in disbelief:

"How can this be?"

Before the amazement in his heart had subsided, the Frank rushed to the shield wall like a tiger.

The spearmen tried to fight back, but the two-handed axes seemed to flash and hit the shields first.

There was a deafening crash, wood chips flew everywhere, the basswood shield was broken in half, and the leather covering was powerless to defend.

[Brave warriors break through the wall]

[Shieldbreaker Dances Wildly]

[Weapon Storm is Coming Instantly]

[Warriors sacrifice their enemies’ bodies and drink beer]

[The battle axe brings the sword to sleep]

——Anonymous

For a moment, the two-handed broadaxe was swung violently, like a strong wind sweeping through, and the originally solid shield wall collapsed instantly under the violent attack.

Anyone who stood in his way within six feet would be killed on the spot. Before Ragnar could parry, he was completely knocked down by the first heavy blow of the battle axe.

As he fell, the formation collapsed, and the Frankish soldiers rushed to the front line like wolves and tigers.

The most intense battle between the two sides began.

Spears, swords, and axes clashed wildly in the narrow corridors of Amir Village, and the sharp blades kept stabbing into bodies and shields, with a deafening sound of impact.

The shield was hacked to pieces, and the fake emperor's fake Varangian collapsed instantly in the massacre.

……

Meanwhile, in a sacred and magnificent church on the island of Cyprus.

The Bishop of the Mesaoria Church met someone he had never expected to see - Father Aljos.

"Why are you back? Isaac will kill you if he sees you again!"

"Bishop, I bring the revelation of the new millennium."

　Daily, Deadline Updates

　　
　
(End of this chapter)