Chapter 434 Rapid City Faithful Assembly (Part 1)
August 2, 1445 in the Imperial Calendar.
Ten days have passed since the Battle of Rapid City, and the ruins of the entire Rapid City have been cleared away bit by bit.
The blood stains on the streets were washed away, the rubble on the main streets was cleared, and the bodies that died on the streets were dragged away.
As the gangsters who tried to take advantage of the situation were arrested, some neighborhoods gradually returned to their former order.
Every morning, some small markets began to appear nearby. Vegetable farmers pushed carts to the sheds at the street corners and placed fresh cabbage, peas and radishes on dirty single-layer wooden shelves.
On the secondary streets, the shops and taverns that had been closed opened their doors again after cleaning away the traces of smoke.
Walking under the shade of the scorching sun, some citizens even have the illusion of returning to the past.
It’s a pity that the dead bodies of scoundrels and betrayers are still floating on the flagpole, and Salvation Army soldiers patrolling back and forth are still standing at every street entrance.
Under the stacked eaves, you can still see food sheds and refugee tents in the ruins.
But today, people who had nothing to do or were cleaning up the rubble walked out of their homes in unison and headed towards the Cross Street Fountain Square under the setting sun.
This is not celebrating a festival, but the city’s new lord, the Lord of the Salvation Army and the chosen grandson, Pope Horn, is going to hold a meeting of believers.
In the early days, there were not many believers in the Messiah religion. There might be dozens or even hundreds in one area. It was naturally simple to hold a believer conference.
But now there are tens of millions of believers in any area, so it is relatively rare to do this again.
For the citizens, in the past during Catherine's reign, they held small meetings within each neighborhood and guild, and then sent representatives to the city council to hold a general meeting.
Calling so many people to the scene at once can only be said to be the retro style of the Redeemer Kingdom.
Monks wearing the unique half-shawl robes of the Salvation Army had already announced the news to the citizens along the road with tin trumpets two days ago.
Led by prestigious people and councilors from various blocks, people formed a mighty river and headed towards the Cross Street Fountain Square.
Since the Believers’ Assembly only convened adult believers, some teenagers were unhappy with being locked up at home and climbed up to the roof to watch the fun.
As far as the eye can see, the cross streets are crowded with people. The waves of shoulders and heads even pass over the eaves and statues, and merge into the irregular octagonal square like hundreds of rivers flowing into the sea.
A three-meter-high wooden platform was erected in front of the square, and a bonfire was lit in advance in front of the fountain.
Footsteps stepped on, linen and wool rubbed against each other, and the shouts and laughter of nearly ten thousand people hit people's eardrums in a chaotic manner.
However, the chaos did not last long. Soldiers in black armed with clubs, shields and long forks rushed into the chaotic crowd.
There were even holy gun cavalrymen with holy guns stuck in their boots who entered the square to maintain order. Amidst the sound of sticks hitting human bodies, the noise and chaos of the crowd finally stopped a little.
In addition to maintaining order, these black-clad soldiers carried a small basket and handed each red-painted soybean to everyone's hands and asked them to keep it safe.
Citizens looked at the soybeans in their hands, but found nothing unusual. They just put them in their pockets or held them in their hands.
"Dudu, dudu, dusk, dusk -"
Amidst the symphony of trumpets and organs, the crowd fell silent and looked at the figure appearing behind the high platform.
The young man walking first, with a wheat complexion and a smiling face, was the leader of the Salvation Army, the farmer Saint Sunhorn.
Wearing an exquisitely crafted holy garment and a triple-crown high hat without a triple crown, Shi Shiran walked to the center of the high platform.
Behind him were dozens of city councilors and heads of various guilds.
They wore tasseled curly hats and robes made of floral brocade. Some were in high spirits, while others looked particularly depressed. They must have been imprisoned by Horn for a long time.
Before the Believers’ Conference began, Horn used various means to get rid of these opinion leaders.
The essence of his coming to Rapids City was to rescue through the alliance, and the reason he refused to leave now was to annex this important commercial town.
Forced annexation by force is of course feasible, but obviously, the Salvation Army’s current force is not strong enough to have a great scholar argue for it.
In order to unite more people without giving up Rapid City, Horn had no choice but to erect an archway.
So when liquidating the traitors in Rapid City, Horn deliberately confused some concepts and included many city councilors who were suspected or had engaged in profiteer behavior.
In order to protect their personal safety and assets, these city councilors bowed their heads to Horn and became the new leading party in a certain sense. Standing in the center of the high platform, a dozen sound transmission monks brought from Fort Joan of Arc stood in several corners of the high platform, opening their arms and pointing at the crowd in front of them.
"Everyone, this may be the first time we have met. Let me introduce myself. Sinner Horn is the true pope of the current empire, the chosen holy grandson..."
This introduction was just because there were too many seven aunts and eight aunts in the Holy Father of Qianhe River Valley. In order to distinguish himself from them, Horn could only give himself the name "True...".
After he talked to the citizens about the origin of the Salvation Army and the great goal of the Salvation Army, as the citizens became more and more sleepy, he finally came to the key point:
"...So, I came to Rapid City to do only three things!
The first thing we do next, I believe is what everyone is paying attention to - is to lift the military control status of Rapid City! ”
Hearing this, the citizens’ expressions perked up.
A portion of the Salvation Army (mainly the Black Hats) often extort shops, rudely disturb residents, and seize ownerless property, but this kind of military discipline is a moral model among most Imperial infantry.
The presence of the black-clad soldiers did not cause much harm to the citizens, but they still felt uncomfortable. The feeling of fear and lack of freedom was really unbearable.
This news is undoubtedly great news for them.
“In the next month, we will gradually withdraw from the legions in Rapides, leaving only one legion stationed in the Uffizi Palace and one legion stationed in the port area.
At the same time, the Salvation Papal Congress discussed with various city councilors the current refugee resettlement and reconstruction in Rapid City
After all, the Redeemer Papal State, as an ally, has the obligation to help and support Rapid City. ”
“Holy Trinity, we praise your greatness. ”
“You are simply the reincarnation of Sinatraus! ”
The citizens’ praises immediately filled their ears, and they all compared Horn to Sinatraus, a famous politician during the Kingdom of the Seven Hills.
Hearing such praise, Huo En Enlue couldn't help but laugh when he thought about it.
He had to admit that the level of these citizens was high. He was not just praising them, but the people he picked were quite accurate.
Cinnatus was the temporary dictator during the Kingdom of the Seven Hills. He rescued the Aiel army that was besieged by the barbarians. After the victory, he was disarmed and returned to his field. He only served as dictator for 17 days.
They compared themselves to the Ayr army that was besieged by the barbarians, and promoted Horn as a Sinatraus who did not care about fame and wealth, trying to lure Horn to return the power.
I really don’t know how long they searched through old papers before they found such a vivid metaphor.
But unfortunately, their attempt to regain power is probably going to fail.
Horn pressed his hands together and said with a smile:
"...The second thing is quite simple. Due to the current situation in Rapid City, it is impossible to deal with external affairs independently.
Therefore, after the unanimous decision of the city councilors, Rapids City will join the Papal Kingdom of Salvation as a vassal municipality of the Pope!
This means that in addition to Rapids City itself and its suburbs, the surrounding rural areas and small towns will become A part of the Salvation Army’s jurisdiction.”
The crowd was silent at first, and then started talking again, but compared with the last time, the attitude this time was obviously much more negative.
Some of them even said things like "lure the wolf into the house" and "really had a purpose" without any conscience.
The city councilors who knew about this matter immediately comforted the believers in the crowd: "Don't be afraid, everyone, vassalage is an advanced form of alliance!"
"Let's Just do whatever you have to do, will there be any change from before? "
"The Salvation Army is gone, and the knights come back, who can still count on Catherine to govern?"
After being suppressed by the city councilors, although the citizens were still talking about it, after being fooled by these opinion leaders, the opposition was much smaller.
Horn's fingers knocked on the podium unconsciously, and his eyes scanned the many citizens in front of him:
"Then the third and last thing is about the issue of Catherine, the current ruler of Rapid City."
All the believers present looked a little unnatural. They all knew that this was a show.
(End of this chapter)