Chapter 287 The Great Fortune of the Church
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Everyone in Eagle City is looking forward to killing the Insect King to be effective.
The first thing Gordon did when he got up every day was to open the curtains to see if the locusts had subsided.
Fiona always catches a few locusts and dissects them, using the food in their bellies to estimate how long it will take before the swarm leaves. The result every time is "very soon", but every time a new day comes, the number of locusts still does not decrease.
Even Denise, who has always been rational, began to try to delve into divination magic. As a result, she broke several crystal balls but could not get the answer she wanted.
Leaven was full of expectations at first, but slowly he realized that he had been too naive before.
According to the exploration and reports of the flying brigade, Raven discovered that the movements of the insect swarm without the insect king began to become as unpredictable as wild horses and not as orderly as before.
However, this is the only impact.
It was not until the 11th day after the death of the insect king that a new insect king was born in the insect swarm, leading a considerable number of locusts to leave Raven's territory and fly to the bloody highlands in the northwest.
In the next few days, the number of locusts in the territory visibly decreased day by day, and they gradually lost their vitality.
Until the 14th day after the death of the Insect King.
When Raven went out under the protection of a group of guards, many locusts had no strength to fly.
Grabbing a pair of wings and holding the locust in his hands, Raven fiddled with it with a crossbow arrow.
The locust's three pairs of jointed limbs were clinging to the crossbow, but it could no longer be grasped. As soon as Raven let go, it fell to the ground with a pop. After struggling for a few times, it kicked its legs and stopped moving.
"It seems that this locust plague has finally passed." Lei Wen breathed a long sigh of relief: "Immediately issue the order that I made before, collect the locusts, and deal with them centrally."
Lei Wen's new appointment "Hyena" Wheeler, the captain of the guard, swallowed:
"Sir, what are you doing collecting locusts?"
Wheeler is 33 years old this year. He was a veteran who followed Raven to the bloody heights. During the battle, he was slashed on the head with a knife and half of his scalp was shaved off. He was seriously injured and could not afford it. In the end, he struggled to survive. After coming down, Raven also missed the opportunity to promote extraordinary, and a hideous scar with no hair left on his head forever.
Because of this scar and his frenzied vigor in fighting without risking his life, he was nicknamed "Hyena".
Not only him, but also the guards next to him didn't quite understand Raven's order.
Leaven replied casually: "What else can you do, of course, eat."
The hyena's scalp was numb, looking at the struggling locusts on the ground, grinning and saying: "Sir, this thing ...is it really edible? "
"It is somewhat toxic, but it will be much better when cooked," Raven explained: "And it's not for you to eat. The food in the territory is limited. If you don't eat this, will you pay to feed the refugees? ”
The guards, including the hyenas, breathed a long sigh of relief when they heard that they didn't need to eat it themselves. This kind of thing was really hard to swallow.
Leaven waved his hand: "Okay, let's talk about it after we feel emotional. First, pass on the order and let the Eagle Army also move."
"Yes, sir!"
The order to collect locusts spread quickly in Raven's territory.
Having endured hunger and fear for too long, before Raven's order arrived, many of the people who noticed that the locusts were beginning to weaken also came out of the house fully armed and cautiously.
Then the first wave of impact came.
Because as far as the citizens could see, there was nothing but locusts.
There are no shrubs, no flowers, no crops. The big trees have lost their branches and leaves, and have been stripped of their bark. Some are dead, and some are on the road to death.
There are no birds, no rabbits, rats and snakes are all extinct.
The originally green waters and green mountains have turned into a land of dead trees and wasteland, and even the rivers are filled with locust corpses.
It was like coming to a brand new land, a barren land without any life.
The huge impact brought a strong sense of loss and doomsday, so that many people’s first reaction was to yell, kneel on the ground to pray to their ancestors or the Lord of Light, or curse, and then go crazy. Just like beating the locusts on the ground.
However, this chaos did not last long.
Baron Raven's order was issued. For every 50 pounds of locusts collected, 5 pounds of rye can be exchanged.
Although I don’t know why, the Baron’s reputation is well-known, and fear and uneasiness turned into excitement and enthusiasm.
The residents brought their families with them, picked up rakes, shovels, and dustpans, and carried sacks and began to collect locusts.
This thing is everywhere. Although occasionally there are a few that are still energetic and bite people, most of them are just waiting to die. If a family is diligent, they can collect hundreds of pounds in one day.
Large carts carrying rye departed from Eagle City and went to various parts of the territory. The rye was then replaced by locusts, and then transported back to the temporary site outside Eagle City, where they fell with a crackle. Put it into a big pot and boil it.
The weather that has been dry for a whole year has had a good effect. It is mid-September and the sun is still blazing during the day. After boiling the locusts and spreading them out to dry, it only takes about half a day to dry them.
After drying, it is sent directly to the mill, ground into light yellow powder, bagged and delivered to the mouths of the refugees.
If you only look at the nutritional content, then these locust powder is much better than bread, after all, it is meat.
Wheat is mixed with locust powder to make porridge, and a little coarse salt is added. If you don't consider what they look like, it still tastes pretty good.
Of course, you must also ignore the occasional debris of wings, claws and mouthparts inside.
But Raven definitely won’t eat these things. He doesn’t want to do anything stupid like setting an example - it’s just to make himself uncomfortable. If he has that time, there’s nothing better than getting more food for the territory. All strong.
"What a tragedy..." Raven scratched his hair in the study.
Although the locust plague has passed, the challenge has just begun. After all, looking back on the process of fighting locusts, it really cannot be called a success.
Well, to put it bluntly, it failed.
Preliminary preparations were basically in vain, and even a considerable part of the buildings housing refugees were temporarily repaired.
After the locusts arrived, nothing could be done.
Although the insect king was killed, it is difficult to judge whether this action drove away the locusts, or whether the locusts chose to leave because they had reached the end of their lifespan and had eaten up everything in their territory.
After the entire locust plague, including the loss of food, the loss of the factory shutdown, the basic shutdown of the territory, and the loss of natural resources in the territory, the initial estimate is more than 200,000 gold coins.
This does not include the subsequent investment in rebuilding the territory.
If there is any consolation, it is that the population of the territory has not decreased at all, and most of the new refugees are young and strong laborers, who can restore the vegetation in the territory more quickly.
In addition, there are more locusts left on the territory than expected. Tens of thousands of pounds of locust powder are ground every day, which can make up for a considerable part of the food consumption.
However, whether it is restoring vegetation or organizing farming, we have to wait until next spring. The next four or five months will not allow anyone to be idle.
Raven grabbed the quill, cheered up, and began to sign the decree.
In the next few days, everyone in the territory witnessed Raven's abundant energy and flexible thinking. For five consecutive days, more than one decree was issued every day.
Including, but not limited to, organizing manpower from various places to open water canals; cutting down trees on the mountains that have been eaten by locusts; sorting refugees into various professions according to their skills; and releasing previously surviving poultry to deal with the locusts’ remains. The eggs laid...
The most eye-catching thing is the military expansion order.
Leaven ordered to immediately start the selection and recruitment of soldiers to form the second legion of the Eagle Army.
This kind of move is not uncommon in the history of Middles Continent. After a major disaster, integrating unemployed young people into the army and giving them the most basic food, drink and training can not only effectively eliminate unstable factors, but also organize forces to maintain law and order.
But it is unusual to start a legion at once, especially considering the population composition of Raven's territory. After this conscription, the ratio of armies to serfs was almost 1:15.
Some people may think that Raven's move is unwise, but currently not many nobles have time to comment on this.
It’s not like I was tripped by locusts.
Xuefeng County is located on the northwest edge of the Nord province. The passing of the locust plague here means that the entire Nord province is gradually freed from the locust plague.
The reason why they move relatively slowly is because they do not have a large number of air troops like Raven.
After the locust plague is over, the first thing to do is to send someone to confirm how many people are still alive in your territory.
Even Governor Anthony did not issue a new decree immediately.
The one who moves fastest is the Church of Light.
Under the auspices of Archbishop Thomas, almost immediately after the locust plague, he sent his holy knights to contact churches in various counties and began to provide free food to believers everywhere.
The Holy Knights worked non-stop, collecting news from all over the place and feeding it back to Meng'en City.
At this time, Meng’en City Church.
As the oldest and largest church in the province, the statue of the Lord of Light is also quite huge, with its head almost reaching the 12-meter-high dome.
Apollo, the Lord of Light, has three official images.
The first one wears a laurel wreath on his head, wears pebolos, holds the sun and moon in his hands, and steps on the corpse of the dragon lord "Tiamat", which symbolizes the "courage" of the lord of light.
The second one wears a jade crown with precious stones, holds a scepter, and is surrounded by 6 angels with different images. The sun, moon and stars rotate on the chest, symbolizing the "wisdom" of the Lord of Light.
The third type, wearing a ring of thorns on the head, draped in linen on the shoulders, with a stooped figure, holding a wooden staff in the left hand and holding ears of wheat in the right hand to feed the deer, symbolizes the "mercy" of the Lord of Light.
Except for the cathedral in the Papal States, which enshrines three statues at the same time, all churches on the continent of Middles worship one of the images.
The one in Eagle Town Church is the first type, while the one in Mengchen City Church is the third type.
Archbishop Thomas finished a round of prayer, with the corners of his mouth slightly lowered, showing a trace of compassion that resembled the statue of the Lord of Light.
"Alas..."
In the empty hall, Archbishop Thomas sighed.
As far as he knew, many people had died in Meng'en City. Many citizens who once came to pray every day never showed up again after the church reopened.
The avalanche of letters from various places describing the tragic situation after the locust plague shocked him even more.
So much so that the hair that was not much to begin with has now all fallen out.
At this moment, a man in a dark red robe opened the side door and appeared.
He looks less than 40 years old, with eyes like bells, a square face and a broad mouth, with thick hair and a thick beard.
He stretched out his hand and drew an ∞-shaped holy emblem of the Lord of Light on his chest, and he said:
"Your Excellency, Archbishop, why did you call me here?"
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If there were any outsiders present, they would definitely laugh at him, because he clearly looked more like a bear than a human, but his voice was high-pitched and thin, as if he was speaking with a pinched throat on purpose.
But Archbishop Thomas did not laugh. He took out a letter from his arms: "Your Excellency Xiufa, I hope you can deliver it to His Majesty the Pope for me."
Known as Xiufa The man's eyes showed a trace of doubt, and he did not take the letter immediately. , but hesitated and said: "Sir Thomas, you can ask me to send this letter, but you have to tell me what is actually written in the letter."
"As the 7th Blood Wing of the Inquisition, "One of the judges, you can watch it if you want, why bother asking me?" Thomas said.
"I won't watch if I don't want to watch." Xiufa's voice became shriller. He stretched out his hand to touch his throat, with a bit of fear and wariness in his eyes: "The proud voice has been destroyed by others. Destroyed, you don’t want to take off my thick hair again, do you?”
A smile appeared on Thomas' lips: "It has nothing to do with Mr. Crouch."
"Really?" Xiufa frowned.
He was beaten by Crouch just because he opened a private letter sent to the High Priest Crouch. Although he did not lose his life, his voice became as bad as it is now.
The Lord of Light is above, and his previous tenor singing is well-known.
"Of course." Thomas opened the envelope himself and shook out the letter.
Xiufa looked at it and relaxed: "The content is okay, the herbs and so on are fine, but the amount of food is a bit too much."
Thomas did not hide his intentions: “Now that the locust plague has just passed, the entire Nord province and Molinier in the south have The provinces and the eastern provinces of Inna are short of food, and will definitely last for a long time."
"This is an excellent time for the church to expand its influence in the western part of the Keynes Empire."
You don’t need to go into too much detail, you can understand it even if you are familiar with the church’s history of practice.
Ancestral beliefs are deeply rooted in the province of Nord. The church has been taking the upper-level route before, but the results achieved are actually quite limited. The nobles are all coveting the resources of the church, and there are no true believers.
But now the province of Nord is almost turned into a piece of white land by locusts. It is foreseeable that the food shortage will last for a long time, maybe two or three years.
The church can take advantage of this opportunity to attract believers by distributing food.
From the perspective of Xiufa, the people at the bottom are always ignorant. They will follow whoever gives them benefits. Once food is delivered to their mouths, they will naturally be influenced by the church and slowly transform into believer.
The misfortune of the Nord Province is the great fortune of the Church of Light.
This was not done in the past because the nobles were very tight on power and did not want the church to interfere in too many matters in the territory.
But these days are different from the past. They have too much to take care of themselves and it is impossible to refuse someone to help them feed their serfs.
"If there is no problem, please help me submit it to the Pope as soon as possible." Archbishop Thomas said: "Every time you delay a little longer, some of our Lord's future believers will lose their lives, and this time will be wasted. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Xiu Fa did not agree immediately, but talked about a seemingly unrelated topic: "I have a distant nephew who just passed away from Baofeng. He graduated from the Seminary in the city, and as an uncle, I can’t take care of him..."
Thomas suppressed his dissatisfaction: "The bishop of Mansa County is old and frail and is not qualified for the job. I am also planning candidate."
"Oh, that's a pity." A smile appeared on Xiufa's face and he bowed: "Then, Sir Thomas, I will go and perform my duties."
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Although Thomas was one level higher than Xiu Fa in terms of rank, he still returned the favor thoughtfully: "Please."
Xiu Fa turned around and left. Thomas waited until his figure completely disappeared, and then Sighed.
The Inquisition, a humble yet powerful institution, was originally responsible for cleaning up corruption within the church. Now...
At this moment, there was a sound of footsteps, and a young assistant priest came over. :
"Your Excellency, the Archbishop, I have a greeting card for you."
Thomas took it and looked at it, his brows raised slightly:
"Please clear up my schedule for the evening in five days."
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(End of this chapter)
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