Chapter 52, The Wine Country of Death
In 1348, when the haze of the Black Death swept across the European continent, the isolated island country of England was in the glory of its martial arts.
In the past two years, under the wise leadership of King Edward III, the English army of the Plantagenet Dynasty, which seemed to have a golden finger, first crossed the English Channel to invade France, and miraculously defeated Crécy with a small number. The battle, at a very small cost, almost wiped out the entire French field force. Then, the British, blessed by the God of War, performed another triumphant song on the island of Great Britain. With the 3,000 miscellaneous troops staying in their country, they started the Battle of Neville's Crossing with the Scots who took advantage of the situation and went south, and once again miraculously won the battle of Neville's Cross. With less and more, the 12,000 Scottish troops who invaded the south were defeated, and even captured King David of Scotland, thus completely eliminating the troubles in the north of England.
Next, after a full eleven months of arduous siege, the British army finally captured the Port of Calais, which guarded the English Channel, and established a solid marching stronghold on the French coast, thereby firmly grasping the took the initiative in the Hundred Years War between England and France.
So far, in this great game between Britain and France, the French, who initially had good cards and the support of their allies, have completely lost. However, Britain, which was fighting alone, was lucky enough to move from one brilliant victory to another even more brilliant victory. Finally, the bruised Gallic chicken finally lowered its proud head, knelt down to the former courtier John Bull and sued for peace, and exchanged a one-year peace agreement at a heavy price.
——Destroyed the powerful invaders, captured the enemy chiefs, fortified the city, and brought the two old enemies of the north and the south to their knees at the same time... After achieving a series of such outstanding military exploits that were rarely seen in the world, the proud Edward III returned in triumph under the flattery of his ministers. country, preparing to use the peace time stipulated in the armistice agreement to plan an unprecedented grand wedding - sending his daughter Princess Joan across the sea to marry in Spain. The groom is Prince Pedro of the Kingdom of Castile in Spain.
(At that time, the Spanish peninsula was still divided among various countries and had not yet been unified. Castile was the core block that would form the Kingdom of Spain in the future.)
Although it was a political marriage, Edward III obviously still loved his daughter very much. In order for Princess Joan to marry in a dignified manner, Edward III, who had just received rich spoils and compensation from France, was not stingy with money: the dowry the king prepared for Princess Joan, From robes, jewelry to furniture, it was enough to fill a large ship. Her silk wedding dress alone was 150 meters long, and the various gorgeous jewelry and clothing were even more dizzying. If the market price at that time was converted into RMB, the price of an incense burner used by the princess would be about 3.5 million. On her voyage across the sea, she also took a portable private chapel with her. This chapel is magnificent, with luxurious couches inside. The couch is decorated with a circle of golden vines, all made of Byzantine gold coins. The altar was covered with gorgeous silk and embroidered with an angry war dragon surrounded by vines.
Prince Pedro of the Kingdom of Castile was obviously very satisfied with the marriage. In order to please his fiancée, he even sent a famous Spanish singer to the British court to play the harp and entertain Princess Joan. To relieve boredom, he eulogized Prince Pedro's handsomeness and grace, as well as his illustrious martial arts in fighting the Moorish pagans in the Iberian Peninsula, trying to create an image of a dashing and warlike Prince Charming.
So, just as the land of France was being swallowed by death, a fleet from Britain sailed to Bordeaux, an important seaport in southwestern France. The largest flagship carried the thirteen-year-old British Princess Joan Plantagenet. She was going to Spain via Bordeaux to marry the prince.
The little princess Joan Plantagenet brought a huge entourage: knights, civil servants, maids, priests and the Spanish singer. The leader of the entourage was Bushell, the English Secretary of State. His deputy Ulfoed is a doctor of law from Oxford University and an experienced diplomat. Not only did they have to take care of the little princess Joan Plantagenet along the way, but they also shouldered an important diplomatic mission. Before the official marriage, Bushell had to finalize a treaty with the King of Castile to ensure that the princess and Pedro A future son will inherit the throne: King Edward III has big plans. He wanted to form an alliance with Castile and encircle France from both sides. His daughter will become the queen of a nation, and in the future she will become the mother of a nation. A few decades later, his grandson ruled Castile, his grandson ruled England, and France would become prey in the Plantagenet trap.
Of course, the little princess, who was only thirteen years old, could not imagine such a long-term future. She only knew that she would go to sea to get married. And now, she wants to enjoy the last free time before marriage - the whole journey is filled with wine and music, youth and joy. The water of the Atlantic Ocean laps at the side of the ship, seagulls fly between the water and the sky, and the afterglow of the setting sun burns brightly on the water. Not far away is the dark continent of Europe. At this moment, millions of corpses were lying in the mud slowly rotting... But due to the lag in information transmission, everyone in this wedding fleet was still ignorant of the disaster ahead.
——Even if they had learned a few words about the plague in Sicily before setting off, with the knowledge of medieval Europeans, who could have imagined that this plague could actually span the entire Europe from south to north, from So what about distant places spreading all the way to your side?
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In August 1348, the fleet of Princess Joan Plantagenet arrived at the Port of Bordeaux, planning to rest here for a while before heading to Spain to get married.
Although Bordeaux was located in France at that time, it was a hereditary dependency loyal to the Plantagenet royal family of England. Since the Middle Ages, Bordeaux has been a famous wine capital and the largest port on the west coast of France. The refreshing sea breeze blows on it, and dense grape vines wrap around it. The scenery is beautiful and pleasant everywhere. And the local residents are generally close to the British - at the end of the Hundred Years' War, when the French army regained this place, the citizens of Bordeaux launched an armed uprising, expelled the garrison from Paris, and welcomed the return of the British army, thus erupting the last battle of the Hundred Years' War. .
But unfortunately, when Princess Joan Plantagenet and her party arrived, it was the darkest summer in the history of the city of Bordeaux.
So what Joan Plantagenet saw was a dying city. There was no welcoming crowd, no colorful flags or flowers, and the fleet quietly sailed into the dock. The mayor of Bordeaux met the embassy on the quay, without a single entourage. And he himself also had a gloomy face and red eyes. The whole person looked like a ghost. Watching the British fleet dock, the mayor smiled miserably at the princess and weakly recited a welcome speech.
All the English nobles in the fleet were very dissatisfied with this. They were expecting a grand ceremony: all the citizens lined up to greet them, flowers were laid on the ground, colorful flags were waved, and bands played. But now there is only a mayor who is as weak as a sick donkey and even looks like he will fall to the ground and die at any time.
To make matters worse, after the pleasantries, the mayor of Bordeaux changed his subject and announced a shocking news to the guests: a super plague came from the south and was spreading rapidly throughout the Bordeaux region. Although the city of Bordeaux adopted the strictest isolation measures and prohibited any patients from entering the city, it still failed to stop the invasion of the plague. Right now, citizens and business travelers here are dying in large numbers. The death rate is unbelievably high.
The most terrible thing is that this plague seems to be incurable. The doctors in Bordeaux tried all kinds of methods, but they could not cure even a single patient. Instead, they even suffered from the plague and went to see God. Although they have heard that there are miracles at the Holy See in Avignon, and the Bordeaux City Hall has also sent envoys to ask for help from the Holy See, they have not received any response yet. Therefore, until a method was found to curb the plague, for the sake of safety, the mayor advised the princess not to stay on shore, but to leave Bordeaux as soon as possible and return to England for safety.
——This suggestion was very reasonable and timely, but Princess Joan Plantagenet and her party rejected it. No one knows why they made this choice. Perhaps it was because the fleet's situation and weather conditions did not allow for an immediate return, perhaps because the marriage between the two countries was of great importance and could not be interrupted; perhaps they thought it was a trick and thought the mayor just wanted to save money on the reception. fee, maybe just out of British arrogance... In short, everyone in the wedding mission scorned the Mayor of Bordeaux's words, left the sick old guy behind, and drove straight to the Royal Castle in Bordeaux, which is the property of His Majesty the King of England. Tall and majestic, luxurious, spacious and comfortable. The entire delegation can live comfortably there - Her Royal Highness the Princess's wedding trip, of course, cannot stay in ordinary hotels, only staying in the royal castle is the safest.
At first glance, this arrangement is indeed very reasonable, but there is a small oversight, which is the location of the Royal Chateau of Bordeaux:
The Royal Chateau of Bordeaux is located on a cliff near the mouth of the river, close to the pier, overlooking the city's streetscape and the magnificent scenery of the Atlantic Ocean. The Gironde River flows at the foot of the castle, pours into the bay, and finally flows into the Atlantic Ocean, forming a huge quay here. Like all docks, it's low and the air is humid. Countless ships plied the river, bringing in mountains of cloth from overseas and selling thousands of barrels of wine overseas. This is Bordeaux's golden waterway. Even in 1348, this trade route was not completely cut off. Although the volume of cloth and wine traded was reduced, it was still transported in the river. Hidden in the cloth and wine barrels are some tiny guests: rats and the fleas on their bodies - in the whole of Bordeaux, rats are most densely populated around the docks. The humid and warm climate here is also particularly suitable for them to reproduce on a large scale.
In other words, although the Royal Chateau has fresh air and beautiful scenery, it is located directly above the most dangerous epidemic area in Bordeaux! Rats can not only burrow into the ground and burrow, but they can also climb mountains - the straight-line distance from the pier to the castle is only about two hundred meters! Under the temptation of the rich food scraps in the castle kitchen, there must have been many little guys full of germs sneaking in from under the cliff at night...
But at that time, none of Princess Joan Plantagenet knew this. They strode into this luxurious castle of death, singing and laughing all day long without noticing that the God of Death was wandering in the corridors of the castle. Until a few days later, Minister of State Bushell suddenly vomited blood and died suddenly, with abscesses and black spots all over his body... Then, with the fall of the first victim, the death game in this castle officially began.
What happened next was very similar to the death case scenes in Agatha Christie's detective novels or the manga "Kindaichi Boy's Detective Book" - the members of the mission who lived in the Royal Chateau of Bordeaux began to fall ill one after another. After death, the music, the drinking parties, and the dancing all ceased, and Spanish songs were no longer played or sung. At night, all kinds of hysterical screams could be heard endlessly, and the room and corridors were filled with blood and vomit. Some people collapsed and screamed in the dark, and some were trembling and crying under the quilt... Now this castle has become too unsafe. It is not like a luxurious palace, but like a slaughterhouse, and death can strike at any time. Wandering around with a scythe!
But they did not dare to escape from the castle, because outside the castle, death was devouring the entire Bordeaux with more ferocity... It was the midsummer season of the year, and the epidemic seemed to be rising with the temperature. It spread rapidly and rapidly. In just a few days, the situation in Bordeaux was completely out of control. The plague called the Black Death completely engulfed it. Let’s not mention the situation in the countryside for the time being. The situation in the city was already horrifying. In the church, There are no clergy left to conduct funerals, and the streets are littered with uncollected corpses. The desperate city hall actually ordered a fire, burning down the street market that had been built with hard work for generations. Looking down from the balcony of the Royal Castle, one side is the sea water reflected by the golden sunset, and the other side is the burning city of Bordeaux. The blazing flames lit up the sky, and the huge pillar of fire could be clearly seen dozens of miles away.
The members of the envoy in the Wang family's castle were like animals trapped in a cage, spinning around anxiously. Princess Joan Plantagenet, who is now a delicate little girl, is so scared that she is in a daze and cries all day long, worried that she will never be able to wear the 150-meter-long luxurious wedding dress until she dies.
As a result, the desperate members of the mission began to make arrangements to go to sea, desperate to escape Bordeaux as soon as possible, whether it was to Spain or back to England. But the problem is that most of the sailors have died of illness and fled, and they have to wait for the right current and wind direction before they can sail.
Seeing that the fleet could not go to sea for a while, Princess Joan Plantagenet, who had a mental breakdown, decided to escape from this cursed castle and evacuate the city of Bordeaux at all costs, even if she moved to the nearby countryside to camp. It was a wise decision - it was just too late.
Just as they were preparing to move, Princess Joan Plantagenet suddenly fell ill and fell, and her young life entered a countdown...
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At the same time, the fifth batch of messengers from the city of Bordeaux finally completed a journey of 400 kilometers and successfully arrived in Avignon, where the Holy See is stationed
——The first few groups of people either fell ill during the journey or were robbed by bandits. In short, they all died on the way. But in the face of the messenger's cries and the letter for help written by Princess Joan Plantagenet, Paladin Levi had no choice but to spread his hands and express his helplessness - although Doraemon left him the book before leaving. [Magic Encyclopedia Dictionary], Ke Levi But he doesn't know Japanese and can't read the Japanese spells written on it... And the [Automatic Medical Kit], which can basically cure all diseases, was taken away by Doraemon and was not left behind... Okay, this sounds like it What a sad story...
"...So, you are going to send me to Bordeaux to perform a 'miracle' to save people? At the same time, change history and increase points?"
Looking at the [Magic Encyclopedia Dictionary] handed over by Li Wei with both hands, Wang Qiu couldn't help rolling his eyes, "...The problem is that the other party is the princess and minister of the enemy country England?! Have you ever thought about it, you have participated in it before? In the Battle of Crecy, we fought a real battle with the British army, and we are still knights of the Kingdom of France! Don’t forget, we are still on the soil of the Kingdom of France.”
"... to be precise, a knight of the County of Provence. According to medieval feudal rules, 'the vassal of my vassal is not my vassal', and as long as Queen Joanna of Provence had no problem with it, the King of France had no reason to." What to say. And now Her Majesty Queen Joanna seems to be hoping to establish a relationship with the future Queen of Castile so that she can bring back some cheap pagan slaves from Spain to resume production..."
Levi waved his hand and corrected, "...Moreover, do you think I will care about this knight title? After I collect 50,000 reward points, I will leave forever this terrible world where there is nothing worth remembering except women. , to enjoy the wonderful life in the modern world again. Of course, before I leave here, I have to find a way to raise some money for milk powder for my wife and children... By the way, how many points do I have now?”
"...Hey, remember it's more than 38,000 points." Wang Qiu sighed, opened the "Book of Time Travel", and then his eyes suddenly widened, "...Huh? There are new extra points? King Edward III of England and Edward the 'Black Prince' died of illness early and received a reward of 1,500 Point? Hiss—" He couldn't help but take a breath, and at the same time looked up at Levi in surprise, "...Hey, it seems that the historical trajectory of this world has been changed before we can take any further action. It made it even more broken..."