Chapter 23, The Coming of the Magical Era (Part 1)
In the European Middle Ages, which had an extremely religious atmosphere, the power of faith was astonishing.
When the "angels" wearing cat ears publicly announced the "Oracle of God" in the square in front of the church, Marseille, the second largest city in France, quickly bowed its head and surrendered in front of the travelers - -Without any further coercion, the city hall, courts, and churches all opened their doors to "Saint" Livy, and the citizens of the city obeyed his orders respectfully.
However, due to the invasion of the plague, the city's management structure had completely collapsed. Li Wei had to bring the gang of people from his own manor to the city, plus a few remaining public officials, and finally managed to set up a It has become a government agency.
During this period, there was actually a brainless little noble who listened to the rumors and came with his private soldiers to cause trouble, hoping to expel Li Wei, the "heretic usurper who uses witchcraft"... Fortunately, after being struck by lightning by the angels, After turning over a few fools, the rest of them became honest.
Then, through the newly collected intelligence data, the travelers learned with numbness the current pitiable situation of Marseille Port.
——According to Li Wei's original estimate, this prosperous city with a population of 80,000 in January should still have at least 10,000 people left, no matter how heavy the losses were. But in fact, the city of Marseille carried out 57,000 corpses in February, which is about 60% of the city's population. In March more than 10,000 Marseille residents died. After counting those who fled in a hurry, there are currently only about 8,000 people left in the city, and more than 1,000 of them have already contracted the Black Death. If they are not treated quickly, most of them will probably not survive more than a week. .
Under such a horrific death rate, Marseille's military power and administrative agencies have completely collapsed.
Marseille's city defense guard force originally had 200 standing troops, that is, mercenaries who had signed long-term contracts and received military pay every month. The size of such a standing force was not small in Europe at that time. However, because the living conditions in the military camps were too dense and the environment was very unhygienic, these strong professional soldiers were the first to be hit by the Black Death, and not one of them was left alive before March.
The courts and government in Marseille were not much better. On the morning when the Chevalier Levi was burned at the stake, the last judge in the city had just died in his bed, and the last lawyer had died the previous week. By the time Levi and his men took over, the entire city's law enforcement agencies were left with only one old janitor who was blind and deaf, and all the case files and official documents were reduced to ashes in a fire.
As a medieval free city, Marseille was governed by a municipal council of ten to fifteen people. Professional bureaucrats and professional politicians were not very popular in Europe these days, so the mayor of Marseille (actually the chief committee member) and other committee members were generally made up of the most prestigious local businessmen and gentlemen (mostly the leaders of a certain guild) ) and nobles (the land belongs to them). Occasionally, there are also foreigners who "airborne" with royal appointment certificates. But before the "angel came", all the members of the entire city committee had either been called by the Lord to go to heaven, or they had abandoned their positions and fled in haste. There were only a few handyman clerks left in the city hall, and all of them were sick...
Well, on the bright side, Knight Levi doesn't have to worry about anyone coming to compete with him for the time being at least.
The only relatively complete official institution in the city is currently the church. In the time after the collapse of the city hall, it was entirely dependent on a guard under the church and a few dedicated clergy to maintain the minimum order in the city... But even the church suffered losses in the Black Death. With about three-quarters of the manpower, they could barely control a small area of the city near the church, and the rest of the city was in a state of complete anarchy.
This is true for the powerful officials, but the situation among the people is even more appalling. At this time, the city of Marseille was already disintegrating. Except for those medicinal herbs that could only be used as placebos, which were sold at sky-high prices, all other shops were closed and all trade business came to a standstill. The pier was full of "dead ships" whose owners and sailors could not be found. No ships came in or out for forty days - Marseille turned into a dead port!
However, what is surprising is that although all the shops have been closed, the lives of the remaining citizens are still getting along, and there is no fear of hunger or cold in a short period of time - the food stocks originally provided for 80,000 people are not enough. Seven thousand people filled their bellies. Don’t have money to buy food at home? What more money do you need at this time? Anyway, most of the people in the city died or fled, and the food, wine and firewood in their homes became ownerless. As long as anyone is hungry, he can "bring" some food back to his neighbor's house who has become an extinct household... until he himself dies of the plague, covered in black sores.
There are even many citizens who usually have a hard time, simply giving up on themselves, taking advantage of this opportunity of the collapse of law and order to satisfy all their desires, as if they are on the verge of death seeking pleasure, drinking to their heart's content day and night, and getting drunk. They break into other people's houses at will and do whatever they want, and take whatever they like, and no one comes to stop them - because everyone is alive today and cannot protect tomorrow, so how can they care about any property or property? Woolen cloth? Therefore, most of the residences in this city, whether they are magnificent palaces or narrow and humble huts, have almost become public property. Any passerby can break in and occupy them as if they are their own home. .
Of course, these "carnivals on the eve of destruction" mentioned above are just the crazy reactions of the citizens of Marseille when the end is approaching. After the miraculous "angel came" and personally promised to save them, those crazy guys immediately became good law-abiding citizens again for the survival of themselves and their families, and enthusiastically cooperated with the implementation Any decree issued by the knight Levi.
Even when Li Wei felt a little embarrassed, he publicly asked for "donations": asking citizens to bring their belongings to the church to express their piety and repentance, miraculously it did not arouse much resistance-not to mention The religious atmosphere of this era was so strong that even in later generations, there were very few guys like Grandet who insisted on money rather than their lives. When a person is about to lose his life, he must take property very lightly.
Not to mention that so many people have died in the city recently, and countless rich and wealthy families have died. As long as the properties of those dead people are donated, it can probably satisfy the appetites of all the angels... those who have been evacuated The citizens who came over to borrow flowers from their neighbors' properties and offer them to Buddha thought very optimistically.
Unfortunately, they seem to have slightly underestimated the greed and thirst for money of Doraemon, a billionaire...
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“…Floor from Florence, blankets from Flanders, sheepskins from the Alps, tinware, copperware and jewelry from Aquitaine, local cheese, dried fish and natural soap from Provence, natural gemstones from Eastern Europe and West Asia, And champagne and Bordeaux...that stuff Even in the modern world, they should be considered good things! Why is the price given by the [automatic pawn machine] so low? Of course, those natural gems are still sold at a good price, but the quantity is too small, how can I get it together? Not enough 1.5 billion yen..."
In the large cobbled square in front of the church's main entrance, all kinds of "tributes" are piled up, including luxurious and gorgeous gold and silver vessels, gemstones, coins, and relatively simple wine barrels, blankets, cloths and other sundries. There are also "big items" such as horse-drawn carriages. Minami Rika and Doraemon were taking turns stuffing them into the [automatic pawn machine], and at the same time putting away the stacks of Japanese yen bills that the machine kept spitting out.
Unfortunately, the [automatic pawn machine] estimated the price of these tributes to be far less than Nan Lixiang's lowest psychological expectation, which made her quite critical of it.
"...What can I do? These things were all found in the house where the plague patients died. They are stained with unknown numbers of germs. The pawn shop has to disinfect them before they can be sold. The price given is natural. Very low." Doraemon sighed helplessly and explained.
But these “bacterial weapons” mentioned above are not the most deceptive. Compared with this, the "tributes" that are even more deceptive are those oriental porcelain, silk and spices that were considered priceless in the eyes of medieval Europeans... In this era, a mere colorful porcelain vase was worth a lot of money in Western Europe. Thousands of gold coins can be sold, but for the [automatic pawn machine] evaluated according to the modern Japanese market price, it is not as valuable as one gold coin. Not to mention those silks and spices - no matter how you calculate it, it is more profitable to traffic spices and silks from the modern world!
Therefore, when all kinds of tributes that seemed to be piled up voluntarily from the citizens of Marseille were thrown into the [automatic pawn machine], they were only sold for a very low price of 200 million yen. Not to mention the 1.5 billion principal amount of the debt, even the monthly interest of 1.5 billion yen is far behind.
Fortunately, in any land of pious and ignorant people, religious places always gather the greatest quantity and variety of wealth, whether it is churches in medieval Europe or Tibetan lamasery before liberation... After carefully plundering the port of Marseille, Cathedral, two main monasteries After visiting the official residence of the Bishop of Marseille, Doraemon finally found some good things that seemed to be able to sell for a high price - first of all, it was a small bronze statue of a semi-naked muscular man, with rust on the surface and many signs of damage. , said to be an antique from the Roman Empire era. Based on this calculation, even if it is only 1348, this thing should have a historical value of thousands of years, and it should be sold for a big price no matter how you calculate it... However, the final result made Doraemon very disappointed, "... What? Just pawned 10,000 yen? Damn it, this thing must be fake!”
(As early as the Renaissance, there were already many professional businessmen selling fake antiques in Europe. At least dozens of the holy lances used to stab Jesus to death were sold, and there were so many skulls of St. Peter that you could bowl. , the shroud of Jesus can be used as a sail when put together...)
On the contrary, Nan Lixiang found a gaudy-colored cloisonné enamel wine glass, decorated with patterns of roses and vanilla, and with a crystal handle. Although filigree enamel is fancy, it actually appeared quite early. It has been known to Westerners at least since ancient Rome. After being introduced to China, it was called cloisonné. The craftsman coils the copper wire into a shape on the surface of the object, then fills it with enamel raw materials, and finally burns it into various bright and pleasing colors such as red, green and blue. The wine glass in Nan Lixiang's hand is in ancient Roman style, with the Roman Colosseum embossed on it... Because the color of this thing is still very bright and the craftsmanship is very exquisite. It doesn't look like it has faded for a long time. Nan Lixiang did not regard it as an antique at first. It wasn’t until I put it in the [automatic pawn machine] that I was shocked by the price, “...Scared? It sold for 50 million yen!! I didn’t expect it to be a real cultural relic!”
Comparing the rough medieval gold and silver vessels next to them, she had to admit that medieval Europe seemed to be regressing in many aspects.
However, among the antique collections of the Marseille Church and wealthy people, fakes still account for many times, and genuine items may not be very valuable. Doraemon, who was eager to raise money, even took down the Renaissance-style murals on the church walls despite the priests' eyebrows twitching and almost fainting. However, because it was not a masterpiece by a famous artist, it still failed to sell for a few bucks. On the contrary, the altar used for preaching in the church and the large carved bed where the bishop sleeps are actually made of precious mahogany. After being dismantled by Doraemon and thrown into the [automatic pawn machine], they were replaced with two pieces. More than ten million yen......
Of course, Doraemon did not just dismantle it without taking care of the aftermath. Instead, he pasted a modern three-dimensional painting with a Christian theme on the wall, took out a fiberglass podium and placed it in place of the altar, and then let these short-sighted priests They were surprised and delighted to see it, and even exclaimed a miracle.
But even so, the monthly interest of 1.5 billion yen that was about to be paid was still not enough, and now it was too late to go door-to-door, tear down walls and dig in the ground to find the inheritance of those wealthy citizens... So, the machine, which was about to go crazy, The cat's eyes rolled, and then The idea was to go to the port - as a maritime trading city that has been prosperous since the sixth century BC, there are naturally many warehouses full of goods at the docks of Marseille. Now, because of the death of the cargo owners and their families, they have all become... A thing without an owner. Now it happens that everything is dedicated to the "angels" for confiscation and emergency relief.
——Wheat, wool, ore, wood, olive oil... Every unowned warehouse was swept away, no matter what goods were stuffed inside, even many owned warehouses were issued receipts by Doraemon. Requisitioned without compensation. In the end, he was even so frantic that he didn't even let go of the ships filled with dead people in the port. He used a [shrinking lamp] to make them the size of a palm and threw them all into the [automatic pawn machine].
In short, after such an inhuman and ruthless search, and after sweeping across most of the city, Doraemon finally collected the loan interest that should be paid this month. This shows that the production capacity and wealth accumulation in medieval Europe were poor...
On the other hand, while the red-eyed Doraemon is plundering everywhere and amassing money like crazy, in the chapel of Marseille Cathedral, the blond and busty female school doctor Marikawa Shizuka, with angel wings spread out, gives full play to her The professional quality of medical workers, with a compassionate (naturally stupid?) holy smile, provides grace and salvation from heaven to every plague patient who comes for help and to healthy people who are worried about the disease. "...Don't worry, don't be afraid, the power of God will heal your physical pain. (French or Italian) Meow! In the name of the sacred cat, bathe in the holy breath, eliminate the physical pain, and bloom the beauty of life Vitality, Complete Healing Technique Meow! (Japanese)"