Chapter 435 Rapid City Faithful Assembly (Part 2) (4k)
“Some people are saying recently that we are going to execute Catherine, the former ruler of Rapid City.” Horn said word by word, “This is completely It’s just a rumor!”
Everyone in the audience was obviously relieved. After all, if Catherine is killed by them, even if she is a witch, people in Rapid City will lose some of their rights to be respected when they go out.
In this era where reputation is a guarantee, if the reputation of Rapid City people is ruined, it means that business will be affected to some extent.
“But it does reflect part of the public opinion.”
Horn left the podium, walked to the front of the high platform, and looked at the believers in front of him: "So I decided to leave it to the Holy Father to decide whether to expel or retain the former ruling Catherine."
The so-called The Holy Father’s ruling is the same as the one used to elect the Pope. “Although we are elected, this reflects the Holy Father’s will.”
The Pope in the Holy See can use it, so why can't Horn use the same method?
“We, the Salvation Army, have always believed that we should restore the holy way and respect the people and reject differences.” Horn leaned his elbows on both sides of the podium. “So, according to the ancient believer assembly, each person holds a The grains of wheat are thrown into the basket representing expulsion and retention, and look at the ruling of the Holy Father.”
In the early assembly of believers, the early Messiah Church often used this method to achieve internal agreement within the church. .
Because the wheat grains were too small and the error was large, Horn changed them to relatively larger beans to facilitate weighing calculations.
For these ordinary civilians, this method is novel enough.
"Where are my beans? No, where are my beans?"
"I told you earlier, I have eaten all my beans."
"No, buddy, here are the beans There is a layer of paint, aren’t you afraid of being poisoned?”
"It's not fair. People who pay more taxes should get more beans!"
"Buy beans, one dinar apiece, buy, buy... Hey, what are you going to do? Ah, Stop fighting, stop fighting.”
Looking at the soldiers in black knocking down those who bought beans and those who tried to bring beans from the store, and dragged them out.
The city councilors could only climb down from the wooden platform and go everywhere to maintain order, telling them that the Salvation Army only recognizes beans dyed with red paint and stop trying to cheat.
Led by prestigious village elders such as black-clad soldiers and congressmen, these citizens finally began to drop red-painted beans into the baskets in an orderly manner.
There were two rattan baskets placed next to each bonfire. Under the guidance of the MPs and soldiers in black, they lined up and threw the beans into the baskets one by one.
This voting method is naturally quite crude. Some beans roll out of the basket, and some are stained with dust and saliva.
But as long as the number of voters is large enough, this error will not have a great impact on the final result.
Looking at the chaotic voters who were voting, and looking at Catherine wearing a hood and holding an umbrella on a hot day, Sissi couldn’t help but walked to Armand’s side:
“This is really true. Can Lady Catherine’s witch identity code be cleared?”
Armand said confidently: "Don't worry, Your Majesty can't really let them exile Catherine. I have made arrangements. It depends on how these citizens decide."
In fact, Horn's The purpose was quite simple. After thinking about it, he decided to give the citizens of Rapid City a chance.
At the same time, it also gives Catherine a chance to see what these citizens are like.
If the citizens could overcome the church's ideological stamp and leave Catherine in power, then Horn was willing to give them more freedom in their courageous stance.
For example, giving them a status similar to a special economic zone only takes away part of their sovereignty and leaves them with part of their financial rights.
But if they are still influenced by the church’s dualistic narrative of “witch-church”, then don’t blame Horn for using the invisible hand of the Holy Father and the visible hand of the Holy Son.
Let the public see what it means to grasp with both hands and be strong with both hands.
The soldiers in black ran back and forth carrying baskets full of beans, pouring baskets of red lacquer beans into wooden buckets prepared in advance.
The round beans fell into the wooden bucket with a clatter, and the people around them fixed their eyes on the large scale that was as long as one person.
When the last basket of red lacquer beans was poured into the wooden bucket, the balance, which was expected to tilt, actually maintained a strange balance.
The bronze pointer swayed left and right on the vertical line, causing everyone's hearts to rise and fall with anxiety.
One second, two seconds, three seconds... time gradually passed.
As the balance gradually returned to balance, under the frustrated and angry gazes of Mittern, Karl and others, the pointer still tilted slightly toward exile.
Although there is only a slight angle, it points to exile after all.
Standing by the scales and counting, Miterny's heart sank. After measuring the angle, he spoke with difficulty: "Partial, partial to exile."
In other words, the groups in the city that expelled Catherine and those that retained Catherine each accounted for about 50%, but there were only slightly more people who held the opinion of exiling.
For a witch that everyone wants to beat, 50% support is pretty good.
Catherine's face under the shadow of the hood became a little darker, and she actually had a hint of expectation, which was really ridiculous.
"I just said that no one wanted her to stay."
"I asked for a re-election. The previous one was irregular and had too many errors."
"Yes, and for such a big thing, more than two-thirds should count."
"That's almost it. Are we electing the pope? Everyone is not going to eat or sleep. We will stay here with you slowly. Vote? "
The exile faction and the retention faction began to quarrel. Some demanded re-election, some demanded that the original verdict be upheld, and some wanted to go home for dinner.
Looking at the noisy citizens, Horn let out a long sigh. Even though it was just a hint, the citizens of Rapid City had already made their choice.
“Aaaahhhhhh——”
The loud shouts coming from the stage dispersed as the sound transmission monks dispersed, and the echoing old shouts dispersed like waves.
Citizens raised their heads from the quarrel and looked toward the high platform, only to see Horn trembling all over, his eyes and mouth closed, and his arms constantly moving forward in the air.
Of course, he didn’t have the twitching whole body and ferocious face in the performance. First, the citizens couldn’t see it. Second, the citizens had a high level of aesthetics and didn’t need to create a scary atmosphere like that.
This is it? Saint Sun’s so-called “Holy Father descends to earth”?
Many citizens showed unnatural looks on their faces, even with a hint of contempt. This method is good for deceiving village workers, but you still want to deceive them?
But following Horn's trembling and arms movements, the surrounding Salvation Army began to fire cannons, and most people present sang hymns along with it, and things changed.
The labor refugees were all led to sing together. Instead, they, citizens who relied on their rationality and intelligence, froze in place and became aliens.
As the song reached its climax, Horn's body stopped trembling. He put his hands behind his back and drew out the nasolabial folds on his face again.
“Why don’t you worship me when you see me?” Standing at the corner of the high platform, Horn looked at the empty space in front of him and shouted in a long tone.
After the sound, the soldiers in black all knelt down half-kneeling, while the other workers imitated the posture of worshiping the Holy Father monks and knelt down with their five bodies prostrate to the ground.
Only those citizens were neither standing nor kneeling, and they still stared at Horn uncomfortably.
Horn did not force them, because they would kneel down on their own after a while.
"Believer Idelman, did you have sex with your dog yesterday?!" "I, I didn't." In the eyes of everyone, Idelman subconsciously retorted.
"I don't know if you have any?" Horn put his hands behind his back, his voice was hoarse and old, "Isn't that dog yellow and black? It's called Kalasha. This is the dog you gave me. It’s a nickname.”
The sound was not loud, but it was like thunder. The believer Idelman knelt on the ground with a thud, sweat pouring down his back at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The people around him immediately took a few steps back in disgust, trying to distance themselves from Idelman.
Horn squinted his eyes and did not look at the believers in the audience, but he could accurately point to one of them: "Believers are Zig, you are communicating with the devil, do you think I don't know?"
"Believer Bresol, you..."
After calling seven or eight names in succession, the soldiers in black appeared quickly and took away three to five of them. They were directly killed in public. He put the holy blunderbuss against his head and exploded.
Broken skulls and brains fell to the ground, and the citizens finally understood the current situation.
In this case, you have to believe it even if you don’t believe it.
This time, no matter which direction Horn turned his head, a large number of people immediately fell to their knees. They did not want their little secret to be revealed in public.
Of course this information was not provided by the Cheka. They had only been here a few days, so of course they did not have such strong intelligence capabilities.
This is provided by the Megdi Chamber of Commerce.
"Hey, why are you here? Your soul should not be in the body!" The Holy Father's majestic voice echoed over the square, as if the words were really coming from the sky.
“You deserved to be stabbed in the heart by a knight! But you are still alive. Who saved you?”
“You deserved to be shot through the head with an arrow, but you are still alive. Who saved you? "
The torches were swaying, the war flags were flying, and the melodious ringing of bells came from the Rapid City bell tower in the distance, mixed with the last red light of the setting sun.
The light slanted across Horn's face, and his angry eyes made many citizens' bodies feel strangely itchy.
"Who saved you!?"
The stern reprimands, mixed with the evening breeze, made many citizens lower their heads unconsciously like a storm.
They knew very well about Catherine's achievements, and they even knew very well about the identity of the great grandson of Horn.
But they were not able to resist. The only one who was able to resist was standing in the shadow behind Horn wearing a cloak.
The citizens finally realized how important Catherine was.
"Myrcella thinks that you can see through the devil's tricks and distinguish who is the devil and who is the saint. It's a pity, it's a pity, he loves you so much that he guessed wrong." Horn made a majestic look, "Since If you want to vote, I will vote too!"
As he said this, Horn strode to the wooden bucket, pinched a grain of sand from the ground, and threw it lightly into the conservative wooden bucket! middle.
"Creak-" The sound of broken wood chips came.
When everyone suddenly raised their heads and focused their attention on the scale, amidst the exclamations one after another, the scale miraculously tilted towards the reservationists in the next second.
But Horn just threw a grain of sand into the preserved wooden bucket.
The wooden bucket on the scale fell like a meteor, broke the lever, and hit the ground heavily.
The dust and smoke from the wooden bucket hitting the ground dissipated, and he stared coldly at the people in front of him. Horn mumbled in his mouth, and suppressed his voice to be majestic and distant: "This is the vote I cast, Catherine, Not guilty. "
The wooden bucket crashed to the ground, hitting the hearts of everyone in the square. They looked at the infinitely majestic Horn, and then looked at the unkind-looking soldiers in black around them.
Immediately they felt something was wrong, but none of them dared to stand up and point it out. After all, the current situation was that most of the citizen laborers and craftsmen present were on their knees.
But those city councilors were still hunched over, whispering little by little: "Her Excellency Catherine has been exiled. Who can put pressure on our grandson who is protected by the Holy Father?"
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"Shout Catherine, shout quickly."
The strange silence lasted for a short time, and under the leadership of the monks from the Order of the Holy Father, someone shouted again.
“A grain of sand from the Holy Father is a mountain!”
“Praise the Holy Father!”
“Kathryn, sinless.”
With waves of connected mountains and tsunamis, the originally depressing atmosphere finally became solemn and solemn.
The Holy Father monks in the crowd immediately began to sing carols loudly, and the city councilors knelt on the hard floor tiles and sang loudly.
This song seemed to be contagious, passed down one after another. Within a few minutes, nearly 10,000 believers present sang carols in unison.
Carols surrounded the square for seven or eight minutes, but strange "bang bang" sounds came from the rooftops on both sides.
A peculiar floral fragrance accompanied by the gentle wind blew across her cheeks. Catherine suddenly felt her ears itching. She stretched out her hand and touched it, but it was a petal.
Looking up, she was stunned for a moment. Dozens of petals spread out and slowly fell from the sky.
Yellow, white, and red petals fell from the sky, falling on people's heads, shoulders, and ears.
Some citizens even forgot to think and stared blankly at the rain of flowers falling in front of them.
Amid the carols, the trumpet song of victory suddenly sounded, and together with the petals, they fell like a waterfall on everyone's ears.
It seemed that until this moment, people were cheering and celebrating their war hero, the "witch" Catherine who protected the whole city.
Just as Catherine was looking at the petals in her palm, a rough but slender hand covered it. She raised her head, but could only see the back of Horn's head.
Held by this rough hand, Catherine even stumbled to the high platform.
Before Catherine could react, Horn took her hand and raised it high.
“From now on, there will be no Witch Catherine, only Saint Catherine!”
“Saint Catherine!”
"Yes, Saint, we love you."
"Catherine! Catherine!"
Holding Horn's hand, Catherine did not respond to the cheers from the audience.
She just stared blankly at Horn's cheeks that were shaking like an electric shock.
(End of this chapter)