Chapter 478: Siege

A long siege is the biggest blow to morale and cohesion, and this is no exception to anyone, even church priests who originally believed and stood firm.

When the situation is stable and there are no major differences of interests, the church can still maintain balance and unity. Although there are many factions inside and outside the cathedral, priests and priests at all levels have large or small interests entangled in conflict points. But at least everyone will see that maintaining superficial unity for the sake of the church compatriots is simply to give the Holy Light a face. If you have any contradictions, try not to bring it to the table, so as not to affect the overall interests of the church.

However, after the church has no profit, and even the church itself has become the cause of the threat, the apparent unity can be divided from the inside out.

Not everyone supports the order from the Holy Spirit Plain. Although the former Southern Bishop Lemont has the highest authority in the Luan Cathedral, he cannot make all the Holy Light priests monolithic as a parish on the border of the kingdom, the Southern Church. From the outset there was a lot of potential for internal divisions.

The local priests have always resisted the instructions from the Holy Spirit Plain. In the past two years, the young priests who were newly promoted in order to expand the influence of the diocese have frictions with the elders in the cathedral. With more autonomy in the land, the upper-level priests are always worried about those "barbaric, rude, and uncivilized" country priests preaching at will and tampering with the scriptures. Among them, there are even more conscience priests. The past two years The increasingly bad behavior is full of resistance...

Under the situation of many contradictions, the former southern bishop Lemont took almost all the top forces in the church to participate in the war against the Cecil family, which was actually a helpless move.

If the oldest family in this land can be defeated in this war and a higher prestige can be achieved among the combined forces of more than forty nobles, then Bishop Lemont will undoubtedly greatly consolidate his position in this diocese. Status, most of the undercurrents in Luan Cathedral will be quelled. If it weren't for Cecil, where there are a bunch of immortal players, his success rate is still very high.

Unfortunately, he failed.

His failure even caused the entire southern church to stand on the opposite side of the Principality of Cecil, and the Holy Light faith was in danger of being forcibly eradicated from this land.

The priests who didn't support Bishop Remont's adventurous move were naturally resentful, and because Remont was born in the Holy Spirit Plain, a large number of local priests were also shaken. Since then, as the situation in Lu'an City got worse and worse, the supplies of materials were insufficient. The haze began to emerge, the order in the outer city became worse day by day, and a large number of low-level priests also accumulated huge grievances: they could not bring their families to the inner city like those high-level priests, and even they themselves lived in Henan. In the "Church District" adjacent to the outer city, the chaos in the outer city has inevitably affected them, and it is getting worse...

The fact that the leaflets that were circulating into the city at this juncture undoubtedly exacerbated all the deterioration of the situation.

Almost everyone can think of this as a Cecil "conspiracy" but so what? Is it true what the flyer says?

The upper level holds the right to interpret the classics, the middle-level priests amass massive wealth with redemption money, the archbishops of the Holy Spirit Plain are full of fat in the rich land, but they are pointing fingers at the difficult southern border. Now something has happened, the bishop is dead, a large group The Holy See knight also died, and the enraged Cecil blocked the entire church, but the consequences had to be shared by everyone in the church. Who is not angry?

Bishop Frambérand had a gloomy face, clumped the printed matter in his hand, and burned it to ashes with holy light, while his brain was quickly calculating.

Although these Cecil propaganda materials are vulgar, almost all of them are true.

As long as they have close contact with the Church of the Holy Light and have a little contact with the priesthood circle, they can see the authenticity of these contents.

These things are spreading secretly, and it shouldn't be able to spread all over the city in four days... So these things must be stopped from fermenting immediately.

He looked at the priest in front of him: "Go immediately to inform the monks of the discipline, confiscate all the pamphlets that have been circulated between the churches, and let the exiled knights and the knights of the church go to the outer city together, and search from house to house. Anyone, no matter what If you have any reason to hold this kind of booklet, you must turn it over immediately, and if you refuse to hand it over, it will be dealt with as a heresy.”

"Yes."

"In addition," added Frambérand, "if there are those who actively turn in them, or report the hiders, they will be rewarded with rations."

The Holy See knights of Luan Cathedral and the exiled knights who defected to this place moved quickly.

The doors of the church district, which had been closed for a long time, opened, and knights in full armor rushed out and began to search from house to house for "evidence of heresy". The priest, who was guarded by the knight, walked into the street, shouted with magic techniques, and warned all hiding propaganda materials. civilians, and in the process, the outer city suddenly became more and more chaotic.

It is impossible for those "experienced" knights to break into houses and search for materials without committing any crimes.

Not only did the outer city become chaotic, but the atmosphere immediately became tense in the church district of the inner city.

Disciplinary monks in black burqas and tattooed on their scalps walked silently into the chapels and began to question all the monks and low-ranking priests. A large number of brochures were turned out from the corners of the churches or from the priests. , the priests who concealed the pamphlets were also immediately punished first by uniform confinement, followed by whipping and divine punishment.

The supernatural beings of the church cannot be punished in front of the common people. In order to maintain the decency of the church, all the punished priests must continue to be locked in the solitary cell after receiving the punishment, and they will not be released until they complete a thorough repentance.

In just one day, thousands of copies of propaganda materials were confiscated from various areas in the city, some were pamphlets, some were leaflets. Bishop Frambérand was stunned after seeing the pile of printed materials. He did not expect such a large number. .

The quality of these prints is so fine, the text is clear, the layout is neat, and it is not at all like the products of those poor stencil prints, and he can't imagine how the Cecilians can print so beautifully and print so many.

But anyway, these things must be destroyed immediately.

All the confiscated pamphlets were gathered together and sent to the large square outside the church quarter for public burning. Heralds in livery burqas ran three laps around the city and drove all the civilians from their homes. Come out and let them go to the square to watch the burning scene.

The large square is crowded with people, and thousands of numb-looking, yellow-faced and thin-faced civilians are driven to the square. Due to the lack of food supply, people in the outer city have been in a state of semi-starvation for almost half a month. In the hearts of everyone, they actually don't want to come to the square and lie on the bed at home. Maybe they can reduce some physical consumption, but gathering here... everyone can only get more and more hungry.

But the swords of the knights and the spells of the priests were invincible, and they had to come if they didn't come.

The wooden platform in the center of the square was erected, and a large number of collected brochures were packed and carried by strong soldiers and threw on the wooden platform. A tall man in a priest's robe came to the front of the platform. Sweeping the entire square with a stern gaze, the holy light surged beside him, slowly spreading the pressure of the extraordinary.

The civilians in the square were shocked, and they fell silent for a while, and a silent death filled the square.

The high priest looked at the scene in front of him with satisfaction and contempt, and then raised his staff aloft: "You confused and stupid people! Without the guidance of the Lord, you have no idea that you are slipping into the abyss of danger and sin. !

"The Cecilians were bewitched by the devil, and they also spread the power of the devil's bewitching into this city!

"Look at these blasphemous documents. They've been searched from your backyard, from your neighbor's house, from your own bedroom! Your eyes aren't bright enough, your wit isn't enough, so you don't even realize it, These things are actually the contract between Cecil and the devil.

"They sent these contracts to the city, but they are actually harming you! You were originally favored by the Holy Light, but these devil's contracts have polluted you, and the Holy Light will stay away from you.

"Only flames can purify these blasphemous documents. You take the initiative to hand over these documents and watch the purification ceremony here, so you are still saved and the most hopeless among you must be purified with these devil contracts. !"

A few more strong soldiers came up and pushed a person who was tied up on the stage. There was a little commotion in the crowd gathered under the stage, but more people just watched numbly, almost numb. Nothing happens.

The tall priest looked around at the numb crowd below, and then looked at the tied man. It was a man in ragged clothes, and he had been beaten to the point of unconsciousness.

It was just a homeless man who was caught near the city gate. He was arrested because he recklessly ran into the soldier and found a brochure on his body.

The biggest advantage of this type of tramp is that no one will know him, and no one will seek justice for him.

"This person has hidden a lot of the devil's documents, and he refuses to hand them over!" The priest raised his staff and pointed at the man who had lost consciousness in a trance, "He also advertised the contents of the documents to confuse him. People around you, let everyone question the Lord and the church!"

There was finally some commotion in the crowd. It seemed that some people were really frightened by the words of the priest, but the person who was bound suddenly struggled. He tried to stretch his neck and seemed to want to shout something. A punch hit him in the stomach, and the severe pain suddenly made the weak man fall back into a semi-conscious state.

The priest frowned at the sudden accident and waved his staff: "Push the blasphemer into those devil's documents!"

The soldiers immediately dragged the tied man to the center of the stage, and then pushed him into the "hill" of propaganda materials. Another discipline monk in a black robe stepped forward and dragged Yi. Burning grease poured over the stack of books and the man.

There were whispers in the crowd, some people stepped back nervously, some whispered prayers, and some people had a twisted and excited look on their faces, craned their necks to watch the movement on the stage.

Someone suddenly heard a whisper behind him: "Isn't that old Sam...Old Sam can't read!"

The person who heard the murmur immediately turned to look for the person who was speaking, and wanted to inquire about more details, but only saw a leaving back.

Someone next to him became curious and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"

"The man upstairs to be burned seems to be called Sam, he can't read."

A few people in ordinary burlap were shoving and shoving in the crowd. Wherever they passed, whispered discussions gradually began to spread:

"The guy on the stage seems to be an illiterate named Sam!"

The commotion grew from small to large, and the low-pitched discussion turned into a buzzing sound. Although the scale was still small, the priest standing on the stage finally noticed these unusual movements, and a strange feeling rose in his heart. , In this vague sense of unease, he decisively gave up the mission that he had planned, and immediately raised his hand to summon a group of holy light.

"Those who go against the will of the Lord should be purified!"

The scorching Light ignited the grease, ignited the pamphlets and leaflets promoting the dark inside of the Church of the Holy Light, and ignited the illiterate Sam.

The bound people were writhing in the fire, screaming terribly, and the crowd watching in the square took a step back in unison in front of this terrifying scene, and there was a sound of discussion from all directions, carrying one shoulder. Wearing a sackcloth bag, a man dressed as a farmer stood closest to the burning site. He seemed to be frightened by the sight of the burning. He stood there in a daze, until the nearby crowd began to retreat, and he was a little bit more. He staggered backwards.

The priest standing on the platform had a gloomy face. The smell of burning in the air and the commotion of the ignorant pariahs below made him particularly annoyed, who was already in a bad mood. At this moment, a very, very slight wave of magic power suddenly appeared from under the platform. passed in a certain direction.

The priest immediately looked over there, but he found nothing except for a group of frightened and ridiculously ignorant civilians who were backing back in a panic.

Maybe just an illusion.

The priest waved his hand irritably, and, surrounded by the attendants and guard knights, turned around and left.

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