Chapter 475: Dark Clouds Cover Lu'an City

The light and heat brought by the huge sun are fading day by day, the time of direct sunlight on the earth is shortening every day, and the night is quietly lengthening. When the harvest festival is over, a sudden rain ends the heat of the past few days, and it is cool. At night, the white-pointed star, gradually moving westward, reminds astronomical scholars and farmers that summer is coming to an end.

The frost moon is approaching, and although autumn has not yet arrived, as a northern kingdom, most of Anzu will turn cool in the week before the frost moon, even the southern borders are no exception.

In the past, this would be the last "golden hour" for the residents of various towns - the grain harvested in the harvest month was stored in the cellars and granaries of every household, and there was no need to worry about food issues for the time being. The weather is getting cooler and fewer, and the annoying mosquitoes are starting to disappear. It will take some time before the weather is completely cold. Before the winter fog comes, people don't have to worry about the threat of survival brought by the cold winter, they can take advantage of this last resort. Continue to hoard food for a period of time when activities are suitable, or repair the house, store firewood...

In theory, this short "Autumn of Ansu" is the last bustling day of the year for various towns.

However, in Luan City, the prosperity ended at the beginning of the harvest month.

Today is the fifty-fourth day of the lockdown, and the atmosphere in the city is still deteriorating.

There were hardly any pedestrians on the street, and the doors and windows of every household were closed. Occasionally, a hurrying figure flashed past the street corner. Apart from the Crusader soldiers on patrol, there were only priests or clerks who came out to inquire about the news. It was noon now, and the whole city was as lifeless and lifeless as night.

Few people would associate such a city full of repressed tension and lifeless atmosphere with the holy place of the Church of the Holy Light in the South.

However, this atmosphere is justified - the news of the change of ownership of the southern border and the revival of the Duchy of Cecil has already spread throughout the region, and everyone knows that a new ruler has come to the land, but the bad thing is that this new ruler The relationship between the ruler and the Church of the Holy Light does not seem to be harmonious: in the amazing war more than a month ago, the Church of the Holy Light made a not-so-good choice, an elite crusade led by the bishop of the south Stepping into the battlefield, and on the opposite side of Cecil...

The war started with great momentum, but it ended so quickly that it was unbelievable. In that short battle, the bishop was defeated and the most powerful Holy See knights in the southern region were wiped out.

He even got on board with all the high-ranking knights from the Holy Spirit Plain.

Then Luan City was blocked.

Blockade, rather than attack, put more pressure on Luan City.

If after the war, the Duke of Southland came directly to raise his army to ask for his guilt,

Or simply send troops to the city, the priests of Lu'an City will feel more at ease - at least that proves a clear attitude, and as long as the attitude is clear, it will be much easier to deal with.

Luan City can sincerely apologize, agree to a series of compensation conditions, and give up some church land or even a part of religious immunity in exchange for the anger of the new lord to subside, in exchange for the opportunity to continue to survive and preach on this land, even if the situation It is really out of control. The Duke of Southland insists on solving the problem by force, and the defenders of Luan City will not be afraid: the fanatical knights of the Holy See have long been ready for martyrdom, and the priests and priests are not afraid of swords and demonic fire. The clergy who preached in this barren land of the southern border have always been the most stubborn and unafraid of challenges in the Church of the Holy Light.

However, the new ruler of the duchy chose the most difficult and unpredictable action: a silent blockade.

He did not send a single soldier to Luan City, but only blocked all the levels connecting the entire city to the outside world. The heavily armed Cecil soldiers and their fortifications were blocked outside Luan City like a stopper on a wooden barrel. On every path of the monarchy, both the movement of people and the dissemination of news are strictly prohibited—the reason the duke used was to maintain order after the war and to investigate intelligence, but anyone with a discerning eye could see that he had placed the entire southern church under house arrest.

All the priests of the Holy Light who preached in the southern region were driven into the city, and the communication channel with the Holy Spirit Plain was completely blocked. Whether it was a caravan or scattered adventurers and mercenaries, they were forbidden to approach this area. At the beginning, since the Cecil blockade had not been closed, there were still sporadic knights in exile running into the city through the path. But soon, all the loopholes were filled, all channels of information to the outside world were cut off, and the city was completely blindfolded, ears covered—and mouths gagged.

The residents of the city quickly became uneasy, and the nominal city managers sent by the Ansu royal family ran away before the blockade was closed. It is said that half of them have already Take refuge with the Cecil.

In this atmosphere, this year's harvest festival was spent in silence - no one organized the celebration, and no one dared to waste food. The priests directed the farmers to harvest the last crops in the farmland close to the city wall. Then they put these treasures, which may be the last food, into the granary, and began to impose the strictest curfew and rationing system on the civilians.

It seems that everything is at its worst, but in fact, in St. Luan Cathedral, the firm faith still supports the last clergy who stayed here.

Fran Bertrand, who was temporarily selected as "Bishop of Luan", ended his morning prayer. He stood up in silence in front of the holy image of the God of Light, and let the attendant come forward to sort out his still-glossy robe. The expression on his face was calm.

The icon of the God of Light stood quietly in this prayer room, a layer of clear brilliance shrouded the icon, just like the past hundred years, without the slightest bleak, in Fran? The dazzling icon represents the Luan Cathedral at this moment: no matter how bad the situation outside, no matter how rampant the dark and heresy beliefs are, the great God of Light will always shelter here, and his light will never dissipate, It means that all external challenges are temporary.

After letting the attendants retreat, the tall black-haired bishop left the prayer room. In the rest room outside, he saw several people in clergy robes gathered here.

Delicate dim sum and fragrant black tea are set on round tables in the lounge, and some have apparently been enjoyed.

Food rationing is going on in the city, and civilians can only receive food that is only enough to survive. In order to avoid consuming physical strength, most civilians now choose to stay at home all day long. However, the priests of the cathedral are not "rational restrictions". Within the range - as the messengers of God, priests can't starve like the pariahs, which not only humiliates the majesty of the God of Light, but also seriously affects the combat effectiveness of the priests.

It was a reasonable arrangement, so Fran Berenger just glanced at the snacks and tea, and came to the priests with a blank face: "How is the situation in the city?"

A priest stood up: "There is no chaos, the Crusaders and the exiled knights who have come to us are patrolling, and the civilians are basically staying at home."

Fran nodded and turned to another priest: "What about Cecil's movement?"

"Nothing has changed, they are still locking down the city, but nothing further."

"That stupid and arrogant 'duke' who took refuge in the devil..." A middle-aged priest couldn't help but said angrily, "...His behavior is simply unreasonable! Treating the Church of Holy Light like this, he thought that the entire Ansu would be destroyed. Is there only one St. Luan's Cathedral?"

"Perhaps the bishops of the Holy Spirit Plain and the Royal Capital will come to help us, but at least at this stage, we are still controlled by others," Fran Berenger glanced at the indignant middle-aged bishop, shook his head slightly, and said, "Gawain Serena Searle does act like a fellow devil, but he's a powerful devil."

The priest who was the first to speak had a trace of sadness on his face: "Bishop, what do you think that Gawain Cecil wants to do?"

Fran Berenger pondered for a while, and then said unhurriedly: "He wants to drive us out completely, which is obvious."

Then he added: "Neither attacking nor retreating, maintaining a blockade situation, waiting for Luan City to collapse, his purpose is very clear, that is, he hopes that we will voluntarily surrender - let us, the servants of the Lord, leave this place by ourselves. A city that he can take over logically, completely banishing the faith of the Holy Light, without fear of being morally criticized. This is a typical malevolent trick, full of cunning and no honor, as we first judged: On the surface, the great and glorious founding hero is actually just a dogmatic and greedy person, all he wants is absolute power, which was completely exposed when he used tricks to destroy all the nobles in the southern border."

"We are the servants of the Lord, how can we surrender to such a person!" the grumpy middle-aged priest immediately shouted, "He can only use his energy in vain - he does not understand the power of piety!"

"Those powerful magical weapons clouded his judgment. He thought that conquering Luan Cathedral would be as easy as conquering the rock fortress," Fran Berand shook his head, but then his tone was also a little dignified, "It's not too high. Vin Cecil is still a very cunning man...he didn't attack Luan Cathedral directly, which shows that he at least understood that he was at a moral disadvantage."

An elderly priest who had never spoken, nodded slightly, with a hint of pride and restraint in his tone: "That's right, he at least realized one thing - attacking Luan Cathedral directly will only bring us down. Become a martyred saint and lose the support of the people himself."

"That's right, his opposition to the church can only push him to an unrighteous position, especially at this moment," Fran Berand said solemnly, his eyes swept over everyone in the scene, although the language was flat , but conveyed a firm idea, "Our persistence is the biggest counterattack against him-his blockade of Lu'an City cannot last forever, and those poor excuses he used will soon be unsustainable, and As long as we stick to the cathedral, the questioning of Gawain Cecil from the people of the Holy Light will gradually overwhelm him...

"We may make some sacrifices in this process, and this process may be longer and more difficult than we imagined, but I believe that everyone present must be prepared, even ready to be martyred.

"The God of Light will witness our piety and courage, and we will use facts to prove that Gawain Cecil's apostasy and blasphemy are unjust, we will never withdraw, and we will never let the God of Light be caught Shame, maybe we'll go down eventually, but we'll be saints when we go down, and Gawain Cecil might finally step in here - but we swear he can only be an executioner and a blasphemer Step here!"

Fran Berand's voice was powerful and powerful, and it strongly infected everyone present. They thought of Bishop Lemont who had been martyred, thought of the critical situation Luan City was facing at the moment, and thought of the glory of devoting himself to the Lord. Everyone stood up and followed the voice of the interim bishop:

"We swear!" "We swear!"