Chapter 56: Turn Britain into India! (Chinese)
The fire that burned down London lasted for three days and three nights before it was extinguished, burning the ancient capital to ashes.
When the last few wisps of choking smoke gradually dispersed from the Thames River, the capital of the Kingdom of England had disappeared between heaven and earth. Only the Tower of London on the north bank of the Thames River remained, standing majestically on the vast scorched earth, overlooking Looking at the ruins covered with ashes all around.
——The unique cold style of the Tower of London in history is integrated with the gloomy and depressive atmosphere around it.
The last two thousand or so citizens of the royal capital of London were hiding in the only remaining Tower of London, watching numbly and desperately as their homes were burned to the ground - in the face of a devastating crisis, Joan, who had just ascended the throne, The queen generously opened her palace to accommodate her remaining subjects.
However, in these gloomy days when death is flying around, the Tower of London as a royal palace is not a good place - the original maids and attendants either died of the plague or fled, and Queen Joan herself lacked servants to serve her. There were not enough knights and guards to carry out patrol duties.
For the personal safety of the nobles, these citizens who fled into the Tower of London were not allowed to enter the palace. They could only huddle unkempt in the courtyard surrounded by high walls, feebly chewing a piece of hard black bread obtained from nowhere, or sharing a few A shriveled apple and onion... unaware that many lice, bed bugs and fleas are making their homes on them, jumping from one person's hair to another...
Due to the overconfidence of the time-travelers in the "magic spells", they forgot to do a good job in personal hygiene and purification of the citizens. Therefore, even though the entire city of London was burned to the ground with the sacrifice of a strong man, the deadly plague was still not far away from these people. Poor medieval Englishmen.
——Amid the falling ashes like light snow in early winter, a staggering figure slowly walked out of the doorway. Judging from his clothing, he should be a middle-aged man from the lower class. He was holding his hands on the wall, his steps were difficult and slow, his breathing was heavy and messy, his long hair stuck with dirt and a hooded cloak haphazardly covered the man's face, making it impossible to see his face clearly. .
But if you look carefully, you can also find that the surface of his bare arm, which he stretched out his clothes, is covered with a dark dry scab. The dry scab is also surrounded by blisters and ulcers like burns, and there is a smell emanating from his body. An unpleasant fishy smell.
"...Oh, it's Conrad! Where have you been in the past two days? The city is full of smoke and fire, and everyone is worried about you... Even if you forget something valuable at home , just consider yourself unlucky! There are already people who will never come back because of something like this..."
An old man squatting against the wall and eating black bread finally saw the man's dress clearly and realized that he seemed to be an old acquaintance, so he greeted him familiarly. However, he was surprised to find that the other man didn't respond at all, just trembling. The ground was shaking in place, as if possessed by some kind of demon
"...You seem to be uncomfortable? Are you okay?" Realizing that something was wrong with Conrad's situation, the old man stood up and patted the other person's back gently. Then he heard the other person cough and hoarsely. He gasped and fell down softly. The old man quickly stretched out his hand to hold his back, and at the same time lifted his hood with the other hand and wiped away his hair... The next moment, a terrifying face appeared in front of the old man - broken blisters Mixed with char-shaped ulcers and rashes, the neck was swollen like a ball, and there were eroded granules at the corners of the mouth!
"...Oh God! This guy is suffering from the plague again!!! Oh - he was obviously cured by an angel just five days ago!"
After being stunned for a few seconds, the old man suddenly let out a scream like a slaughtering pig, and with the strength he didn't know where he came from, he pushed the opponent far away.
"...Heh-heh-help, Uncle John, help me..."
Conrad, who was seriously ill and dying, collapsed on the ground and reached out to his former neighborhood acquaintance, but the voice coming out of his throat was as hoarse as a wild beast, making people feel numb all over and frightening the old man and the nearby people. The others retreated one after another... Then, accompanied by several hysterical screams of panic, the entire crowded courtyard suddenly exploded, as if being hit by an invisible boulder, spreading out in circles of turmoil.
Hearing the sound, more and more people came to watch, but they all carefully kept a distance, for fear that they would be infected by the disease accidentally.
Fortunately, unlike those unlucky ones who were abandoned by their families and relatives because of the Black Death and could only die of hunger and thirst in loneliness, the citizens of England who are now able to hide in the Tower of London are blessed by "angels" ——After another moment, under the gesticulations of several busybodies, Amid the panicked shouts of his feet, this middle-aged man infected with an unknown plague was picked up by several strong nuns wearing masks and dragged through a corridor filled with the smell of bleach and disinfectant. Finally, he was thrown into a hall that was set up as a temporary medical area.
A group of volunteers sent by the Avignon Catholic Church hurriedly stripped off Conrad's clothes, cleaned the patient's charred and eroded skin with disinfectant, and then hurriedly carried him away. Arriving at a stone platform - although these volunteers all wore thick masks and were tightly wrapped in hooded robes from head to toe, you could still see the fearful looks in their eyes, even on their calves. Shivering.
For medieval Europeans with extremely backward medical conditions, when they heard the word plague, the first thing that everyone thought of was to flee quickly. If there was not an omnipotent "angel" supervising the formation this time, they would not be able to escape. There will be many volunteers willing to help.
"...Oh, this guy looks so miserable. His skin is almost burnt. This is probably anthrax!"
Classmate Wang Qiu, who was a guest angel, wore a bright golden ring, walked to the stone platform, looked at the patient, and muttered like this - even though he had fully experienced the zombie apocalypse in Resident Evil before, he was also familiar with it. The burnt black ulcerated skin in front of me made me feel disgusted, so I just hurriedly At a glance, Wang Qiu took out a pamphlet and recited the meowing healing spell: "...Meow! In the name of the sacred cat, bathe in the holy breath and eliminate the body's pain. Bloom the vitality of life, complete healing technique! (Japanese)"
Then, under the influence of the magical prop [Magic Encyclopedia Dictionary], pure white holy light pillars fell from the sky, and the gem-like crystal-clear multi-colored brilliance shimmered and overflowed on his body surface, and soon the symptoms on the surface of the patient's body were greatly alleviated. The coke-like scabs and blisters appear quickly and are visible to the naked eye. disappeared, and the ulcerated wounds on the skin began to return to normal, which made the temporary medical staff around them deeply excited... The patients who were out of danger gradually woke up, felt the warm holy light, and burst into tears with excitement, "...Thank you to the angels , you saved me again..."
"...You can actually cure anthrax so quickly? Your 'complete treatment' really cures all diseases!"
It wasn't until it was confirmed that the anthrax patient had been cured that the paladin Mr. Levi sighed softly and mustered up the courage to come forward - even for modern people whose medical conditions have greatly improved in the 21st century. , "Anthrax" is also a very scary term, even more terrifying than AIDS: at least AIDS is not so easily transmitted... Therefore, when I heard that there were anthrax patients among London citizens, I was originally talking to several British people. Knight Levi subconsciously felt his whole body tingle when the noble lady flirted with him. If it weren't for the fact that he wanted to maintain his image as a "bright and fearless" paladin, he would probably have retreated to his own small manor opposite the [Random Gate] to stay at home.
"...Don't worry, brother Levi, Doraemon has injected us all with the 22nd century's [Super Invincible Universal Vaccine]. We will be immune to all infectious diseases for at least three months, so don't say Anthrax, even if the zombie virus is thrown in front of you, there is no need to be afraid.”
Wang Qiu waved his hands very tiredly, and whispered in a hoarse voice, "...It's a pity that this [Super Invincible Universal Vaccine] is too expensive, and it is not effective for life. We can just use it ourselves, I think. It is absolutely impossible to spread it to every medieval European - unless they can spend tens of billions of yen in medical expenses..."
"...Tens of billions of yen? How is that possible?" Levi rolled his eyes, "...before you shamelessly asked for tens of billions of yen from the Venetians, you already made a fuss, and Venice is still It is now the richest city in Europe. At this time, England is famous for being a remote country. It is only slightly richer than the hometown of the Vikings. How much money can it get?”
——Although since she ascended the throne, Queen Joan has "used all the material resources in London to seek the favor of angels" and donated almost all the gold and silver vessels, jewelry, coins, and furniture made of precious wood collected from the Tower of London. , and the mobile chapel decorated with Byzantine gold coins that was part of her dowry, but the final amount pawned was only a mere 600 million yen.
"...So, if even the burning of London cannot control the epidemic, then we really have nothing to do. After enduring this round of catastrophe, the seven million subjects under the Plantagenet dynasty of England can finally... Surviving a million dollars is already extremely lucky.”
Wang Qiu rubbed his temples with a headache, "...dysentery, influenza, cholera, typhoid, smallpox, yellow fever, anthrax... almost every imaginable plague has appeared, and one day Ebola will appear. The virus isn’t surprising either, I’m almost exhausted from overwork!”
(The population of England during the Hundred Years War has always been a blur. Different historical records can vary by more than double. The main problem is that at that time, the Plantagenet dynasty of England owned a large number of densely populated and fertile territories in France, such as Bordeaux and Normandy. wait etc., there are even some sporadic strongholds in the Netherlands and Ireland. The combined population of these overseas territories is greater than the population of the British Isles. However, these territories cannot be regarded as the kind of colonies in the future - not only the British royal family initially. Originated from France Mandy, as well as a considerable number of British nobles, are also from the European continent. The Bordeaux region of France has been ruled by the Plantagenet Dynasty for hundreds of years, and the locals generally consider themselves to be subjects of the Plantagenet Dynasty. Britain is just a plantagenet. An integral part of the dynasty, not to mention local, even many English kings spent more time in France than in London, and spoke French more fluently than English, so it is difficult for later historians to judge these places. Are these people considered British?
Roughly speaking, if the population of all the Plantagenet lands were added up, then Britain at that time had a population of 7 million. If we only count the population of England, there are less than three million. If you include Ireland and Wales, it's about four million. )
——Because Doraemon had retaliated too hastily before and released a variety of concentrates of plague pathogens on Jerusalem—this group of holy men not only held a religious meeting and wrote a proclamation to attack Doraemon and the pseudo-angels. , and also tried to deceive people into making trouble with the time travellers, which seriously interfered with the The time-travelers were so angry with their fundraising plan that Doraemon went completely dark, and simply carried out a targeted elimination... However, they seriously underestimated the spread ability of the 22nd century plague weapons and the movement of large numbers of people through the [Random Gate]. , leading to a new wave of compound plague outbreaks across Europe.
Those poor Europeans who have not yet struggled through the catastrophe of the Black Death are now suffering a second blow from this menacing new compound plague. Even Marseille, Avignon, Rome, Florence, Venice and other places that the travelers have saved before have once again fallen into the terrifying haze of death... Based on the minimum professional ethics and humanitarian spirit, all travelers We had to split up and move from one city to another. The city was fighting fires everywhere, but the result was that before one kind of plague was extinguished, another kind of plague had broken out. Even with the "complete healing spell" that could cure all diseases as a backing, Wang Qiu and the others were still exhausted. Just chanting the healing spell makes my throat hoarse...
"...According to the current situation, this compound plague is probably like a game of whack-a-mole, with no end in sight. If we don't want all the Europeans in this world to die inexplicably, what countermeasures can we think of? The only way is to open a magic school, teach the healing skills, and then keep the magical item [Magic Encyclopedia Dictionary] as the school's treasure. Then there may be hope of defeating the plague."
Wang Qiu lowered his head and coughed a few times, and said to Li Wei, "...you don't want those concubines who have slept with you to die of the plague as soon as we leave! What a way to die. Ugliness and horror, you just saw it..."
"...It sounds good, but that's for the future. How to solve the labor shortage problem that Europe is facing now? Large fields are abandoned, and the wheat is rotting in the ground, not to mention the winter. How to raise food? No one will cultivate the fields next year.”
Levi shrugged, "...can you use magic to create serfs to fill the estates in England and grow crops for the queen and her nobles?"
"...This is impossible, but we can bring in the population from elsewhere. Haven't those Venetians been planning this a while ago?" A playful smile appeared at the corner of Wang Qiu's mouth, "...Anyway, the floating corpses on the Thames River have already been There are as many as there are on the Ganges. It would be interesting if we could change the racial structure of Great Britain seven hundred years ahead of schedule by vigorously introducing immigrants from the East..."