Chapter 25, The Coming of the Magical Era (Part 2)
When Doraemon scraped the floor in the dock warehouse and played a guest role as a bandit cat, and Marikawa Shizuka saved all sentient beings and pretended to be a saint in the church, Wang Qiu and Ma Tong also wore wings and cat ears and temporarily acted as urban management team members. and mobile medical teams patrolling the sparsely populated and abandoned neighborhoods of the Port of Marseille from the air.
——It’s not that they don’t want to be down-to-earth and close to the people, it’s really because it’s hard to find a place for people to stay in this city!
Although medieval European cities during the Renaissance era of the 14th century had made slight progress compared with the previous Dark Ages, in terms of city appearance, they still could not escape the category of "dirty and messy" - absolutely Most of the houses are thatched, and only in the most prosperous neighborhoods can you see wooden tiles and terracotta tiles. The only thing that is better than thatched houses in the countryside is that the walls are painted with snow-white lime. As for the luxurious marble villas in the ancient Roman style, I couldn't find a few in the whole city. Religious places such as monasteries and churches are the neatest and most luxurious places in the city.
What makes modern people even more unaccustomed is that there is almost no greenery in this city, there are very few trees, and there are no lawns at all. Even the rich may not have the leisure and leisure to build gardens, but only plant some flowers on the windowsills of some houses. , but very rare. The entire city is more like a jungle of buildings, or the slums of modern India, with a shockingly high population density. Apart from the church, there is little to see in the city.
If the houses were just simple, it would be nothing more than a folk village equivalent to the modern world. But the problem is that the horrors of medieval European cities are far more than that. Even the most wealthy families can live in luxurious-looking marble villas, but if you want to open the windows and look out at the street view, you must cover your nose in advance. To prevent odors - even in the city walled neighborhoods, most people are accustomed to living under the same roof as their livestock, and can often You can see pigs and geese walking grandly on the streets, and the ground is covered with the feces of cows, sheep, chickens and ducks; pedestrians on the streets will become covered with mud as they walk, and mud will be dumped from the upstairs of each house. Excrement and fresh garbage make the mud on the streets across the city never dry, forcing those who love cleanliness to walk on stilts to prevent their pants and skirts from being stained by feces and water.
Due to the sewers left over from the ancient Roman Empire, they have long been abandoned and disrepaired after thousands of years of wind and rain. Residential areas in Marseille are generally surrounded by feces and various wastes; the buzzing mosquitoes and flies will only temporarily disappear in the coldest winter. When it rains, the air is always filled with all kinds of rotten stench; the narrow and winding streets are often blocked by various debris including horse dung, and when the weather is clear, they will become new ones. Fire hazard. Now the ground is covered with rotting corpses... Although gravediggers from the church try their best to collect the corpses, some are often left behind.
Therefore, after leaving the vicinity of the cathedral, which was the only place with cobblestone paving, Wang Qiu and Ma Tong quickly lost interest in wandering around this disgusting garbage dump. They were even more concerned about the bad road where their legs would be covered with mud and urine as long as they took a few steps. I was so disgusted that I just flew around and never landed again.
In fact, today's Marseille Port has not yet entered its dirtiest era. The Black Death had just broken out at this time, and European quack doctors had not yet attributed the cause of the disease to bathing. Marseille was one of the most famous soap producing areas in Western Europe at the time. Bathing costs were relatively low, and there were many large and small bathing establishments in the city. Small public bathhouses - although they have been closed one after another due to too many deaths, all wealthy people who have the conditions will take a bath and wipe themselves at home every once in a while. Although the poor people were still quite dirty, at least the smell on the wealthy citizens was not too strong, preventing the travelers from being fainted as soon as they got close. However, just those dirty streets filled with human and animal excrement were really enough for Wang Qiu and the others.
——Before the Black Death, Europeans’ bodies were at least cleaner than their houses; after the Black Death, Europeans who didn’t bathe were dirtier than their houses.
It is conceivable that in such a dirty, humid and unsanitary environment, regular outbreaks of plague are a normal thing. What's even more frightening is that even if you escape from this purgatory and run to the seemingly beautiful countryside outside, the Black Death will still spread wantonly there. Desperate people suffering from the Black Death could only huddle in their filthy homes, waiting silently for death or salvation... According to the original history, most of them would die in obscurity. Fortunately, in this time and space changed by the time traveler, what they are waiting for is salvation - the salvation of "angels"!
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
"...Dear angels, all the sick citizens in this neighborhood who can still breathe have been gathered here according to your instructions. There are about two hundred people in total. There may be some patients left behind. It’s at home, but we’re not familiar with the roads and can’t search from house to house.”
A handyman who was riding a horse to guide them on the ground pulled the reins in front of a simple hotel that had been requisitioned as a temporary hospital, stopped, then raised his head respectfully, and said to Wang Qiu and Ma Tong in mid-air. , "...I wonder what the next instructions are?"
"...Alas, are there only so few living people left? This place looks like it can live in at least tens of thousands of people! Forget it, let's rescue those who can be saved first!"
Ma Tong could not help but sigh as he looked down at the surrounding area of crowded thatched huts and shacks, as well as a handful of dotted brick and tile houses. Then, she took out a small notebook from her arms and recited a Japanese curse that was copied from the [Magic Encyclopedia Dictionary] and could be called malicious and cute.
"...Meow! Something more dazzling than the sun, something cuter than a holy cat, please appear in the flow of time. In your great name, I swear in this light, to these things Lambs who believe in the Lord, grant equal salvation, Meow! (Japanese)"
As a result, a warm white light fell from the sky like a waterfall, pouring into the hotel that housed a large number of patients, bringing light, warmth and vitality, instantly eliminating the germs on everyone's body and curing their rotten internal organs and skin. , replenishing their energy and physical strength...
Bathed in this brilliant holy white light, the family members and volunteers who took care of the patients day and night suddenly felt energetic and their bodies were filled with inexhaustible vitality; the dying patients, who were covered in ulcers, were surprised to find that their whole bodies All the abscesses and tumors, big and small, up and down Healing at a speed that can be clearly seen with the naked eye... Even the horse-riding servant who led the "angel" felt waves of warm current pouring directly into his internal organs, so comfortable that he almost moaned, and his ears felt like The beautiful Sanskrit sounds from heaven came...
When the warm white light finally dissipated, looking at the recovered bodies of themselves or their relatives, the vast majority of survivors in the temporary hospital felt the sincere excitement and joy of being able to survive, and rushed out of the room or leaned out the window to look into the air. The angels gave their warmest thanks and cheers.
However, Ma Tong, who was soaring in mid-air, did not pay attention to the cheers and thanks of the people on the ground. Instead, he looked at his hands and frowned in confusion: "...It's really strange, such a big magic has been cast. , except that the spell is a bit shameful, why is there no sequelae such as weakness, fatigue or physical exhaustion? I feel like it won’t be a problem even if I cast another hundred ‘Group Healing Techniques’!”
"...Because this 'group healing technique' is entirely the work of [Magic Encyclopedia Dictionary] and has nothing to do with you personally."
Wang Qiu, who was hovering next to her, curled his lips and replied, "...just like Nobi Nobita, no matter how many times he has followed Doraemon into the sky and into the earth, fighting gods and demons, and going down to the bottom of the sea to explore the universe. , he is still just a clumsy inferior student who got zero points in the exam..."
"...Well...I can't refute it...Although it sounds very self-esteem-breaking, it seems to be the truth..."
Ma Tong sighed slightly frustrated, and then changed the topic, "...Well, speaking of it, I remember that the magicians in most Japanese cartoons are obviously Japanese, but they always like to talk in a pretentious way. We can cast spells in German or English, but now we are doing it the other way around, casting spells in Japanese... It feels a bit weird!"< br>
"...There's no other way! After all, the entry threshold for our magic is too low. No qualifications or other prerequisites are required. You can learn it as soon as you get started! As long as you recite the right spell, no matter it's an old man or a young man, Loli, even a parrot can rub fireballs and cast magic!”
Wang Qiu shrugged his shoulders, "...if we record the spells in European languages, and then cast spells to save people in public, some European with keen hearing and extraordinary memory secretly learns them, or someone steals them. If you take away the small book that records the spells, wouldn't it mean that there will be a proliferation of healing magic? How can we raise money by treating plagues when a lot of people are skilled in healing? Huh? Tear out the pages of [Magic Encyclopedia] and rewrite them? How many pieces of paper can withstand such waste? ”
"...This statement seems to make sense, but..." Ma Tong nodded and rolled his eyes, "...why not use Chinese?"
"...First, Marikawa Shizuka, the best person to play the role of an angel, is Japanese; second, this [Magic Encyclopedia Dictionary] is also Japanese and may not support other language systems; third, in order to prevent misremembering, we I must get a book to write down the spells..."
Wang Qiu raised his arm and raised the small book in his hand, "...but in this way, the book recording the spells may be lost or stolen. And in the European Catholic world these days, there is no one who can read Chinese characters. Maybe there really are some, such as Marco Polo who wrote "Oriental Sights" and those Jewish merchants who walked the Silk Road, but there are guys who understand Japanese... Haha, I will definitely not find them..."
——Before the Age of Discovery, Europeans who could understand Japanese and the Japanese language were basically the only ones in fantasy novels...
Therefore, the Japanese "magic book" that all "angels" have in their hands is indeed one of the best choices for confidentiality in this era.
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
Once trapped in a situation where there is no life or death, those desperate people will easily do many crazy and terrible things, but by the same token, as long as people see enough hope, they will also change their minds in an instant for the sake of a glimmer of hope. .
After performing a "miracle" in public and instantly curing them of the Black Death, both family members and patients were grateful to the two omnipotent angels and obeyed... Then, under Wang Qiu's command, , these people began to work separately, searching house to house in the entire block. Finally, they found all the remaining patients from the houses one by one and concentrated them in the open space. Senior Sister Ma Tong performed another group healing technique.
As a result, all the patients recovered, but in this slum where tens of thousands of people once lived, only less than 400 people survived.
Next, considering that the sanitary environment here was really terrible, Wang Qiu mobilized these survivors to pack up their meager possessions and move to wealthy areas with slightly better sanitary conditions - too many people had died recently. , even in wealthy areas there are many vacant houses.
After the last few hundred survivors had emptied their houses, Wang Qiu looked down from the air at this abandoned slum that was "dirty and messy", filled with the smell of corpses, infested with insects and rats, and seriously contaminated by Yersinia pestis. The two "pseudo angels" Ma Tong couldn't help but scratch their heads for a while.
It is absolutely impossible not to deal with such a source of Black Death pollution, but how to deal with it specifically?
"...It's very simple. The Black Death is spread by rats. In order to eliminate the rats here, the only way is to introduce cats!"
Senior Ma Tong said without thinking, "...So, we have to organize a group of cats from the modern world to help come here as soon as possible! Whether they are short-tailed cats, short-haired cats, tabby cats, tiger cats, Xibei cats, Cat, blue cat, hell cat... in short, any breed will do, but it must be fast! ”
...Hey, hey, is there something weird mixed in? Senior sister, you can't be so malicious and cute regardless of the occasion!
Wang Qiu couldn't help rolling his eyes, complaining silently in his heart, and then patiently dismissed this unfeasible proposition.
——Although cats are indeed traditional mouse-catchers, and today’s Marseille citizens have learned a lesson and will never kill cats stupidly, but Doraemon, who has learned a lesson from the previous cat abuse tragedy, is already "bitten by a snake once" "I have been afraid of well ropes for ten years." He sent most of his stray cat friends back early. He no longer dares to let these old friends come to adventure in this cruel world. Only a few two or three cats are still with him. Just by his side.
In this way, Wang Qiu can only buy cats from pet stores. However, in the modern world, those pet cats that have been pampered since childhood and fed with milk, canned cat food and vitamin nutritional pills have already greatly degraded their mouse-catching ability. The combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners disciples in the late Qing Dynasty was comparable...
"...Then what did Doraemon do when searching the dock warehouse? There should be a lot of mice there!" Ma Tong asked strangely.
——As we all know, due to the psychological shadow left by having his ears bitten off by a rat, Doraemon has always had a serious phobia towards any rats. Once he encounters a rat, he will faint from exhaustion or pull out a nuclear bomb. He was clamoring to destroy the world... but it was absolutely impossible to remain calm.
"...It's very simple. He took out the [Evolution & Degeneration Light Generator], pointed it at a bunch of mouse traps for a while, and turned the batch of mouse traps into dozens of twenty-second century [automatic traps]. [Mouse Machine], under the control of artificial intelligence, these machines will quickly burn all the mice in every dock warehouse to ashes, and then Doraemon can move things." Wang Qiu shrugged. Shoulders, replied Ma Tong. Ma Tong immediately asked to do the same and used the "Evolution & Degeneration Light Generator" to create a bunch of "Automatic Mousetraps" to replace the cats to eliminate the rat infestation. Therefore, Wang Qiu explained to Ma Tong the second difficulty in cleaning up this polluted neighborhood: after the Black Death has broken out and spread, simply eliminating rats is not enough! Because the direct host that actually carries Yersinia pestis and spreads the Black Death to humans is not rats, but fleas that parasitize on rats. However, fleas can parasitize on many animals... so in areas where the Black Death has broken out, all mammals with long hair, including cats, dogs, donkeys, horses, pigs, sheep, etc., and even humans Itself, it is also a mobile source of infection of the Black Death!