Great time travel

Chapter 7, the chubby God is here
As a pet with a long history of domestication, the status of cats in human society has also experienced ups and downs - sometimes they are held up in the clouds and worshiped as sacred beasts, and sometimes they fall into hell, reduced to be beaten by everyone. Demon.

The status of cats was once very dignified - in ancient Egypt, the first domesticated cat, the ancient Egyptians not only regarded cats as important family members, but also regarded them as specialists in rodent control and high-quality managers of Nile barns.Because the importance of cats to grain hoarding is self-evident, so over time, the ancient Egyptians gradually deified cats and created the cat goddess Bastet with a cat head and a human body. Every spring, the ancient Egyptians A grand sacrificial event will be held, gathering tens of thousands of people to sing the praises of the cat goddess Buster, which can be called the oldest cat girl Cosplay show.

But the problem is that as the Christian forces gradually took control of the European continent, the sacred worship of cats quickly became history in the Western world-some "stupid human beings" began to faintly feel that there was something wrong with cats, and they always brought Be a little evil.Especially in the late Middle Ages, many Europeans began to believe that, according to the "Bible", God created all things to serve and be ruled by people, but cats do not listen to people's commands like dogs or other domestic animals. It is an elusive creature that hovers between the familiar and the strange, and it happens to be a nocturnal animal, so the Christian fanatics at that time connected cats with things like devils and witches .

In the western fantasy cartoons or movies in the modern world, the reason why those evil witches often lie beside them is a black cat, or the witch herself will turn into a black cat.Then engage in all kinds of evil activities in the dark... It was originally a feudal superstition that originated in medieval Europe.

——No matter what the relationship between the two is, witches and cats are both portrayals of Satan, both incarnations of demons, who must be judged and killed!

As a result, the vigorous massacre of cats was staged in medieval European countries with strong religious atmosphere.

Initially, this was just a spontaneous behavior of the people.But about half a century before the Black Death, a certain Pope, who seemed to be possessed by "cat abuser Schrödinger", came out to join in the fun, publicly declaring that cats are a "non-Christian evil animal" and that cats are those terrible witches. All Christians are required to work together to exterminate cats from the land of Europe with the same energy as the Chinese in the future to eradicate the four pests! ! !
So far, the cat slaughter movement has been officially encouraged and has become a de facto legal obligation.According to God's teaching, cats are evil, and anyone - especially a woman - who shows affection for cats is suspected by everyone as a heretic or a witch, and risks being burned alive!
In that frightening era when cat abuse became crazy, if a devout Christian met a kitten when he went out at night, he must use all kinds of cruel methods to kill the cat. If the method is not cruel enough, it is considered disrespectful and disrespectful to Christ Jesus!Many devout Christians will pile up the slaughtered cat carcasses on the walls of buildings to show that they will never be at odds with demons!

In every grand festival, European Christians in the [-]th century would kill cats to death in various weird ways to show that they had successfully killed "Satan/Devil" and increased their mission to God. It also adds joy to the grand festival, and also expresses a high respect for the god in which it believes.What's even more tingling is that in order to please the gods, all kinds of cat abuse techniques have been invented.

For example, some Christians will imitate the execution of heresies, tie the caught cat to a miniature stake, and burn it alive to show their hatred and disgust for "Satan/Devil"; Will prepare a large bowl of water, put the cat in the bowl and drown it alive; some people will disembowel the cat alive and dig out its heart; The complex method of killing cats, they use all kinds of sharp and hard objects to cut open the cat's throat, and then insert iron into the cut throat to block the cat's respiratory tract, and then squeeze the cat's tongue out and then kill the cat. Cut it off, and finally hang the dying cat high, let the tortured cat die slowly and painfully.

——Until the 21st century, there was still a custom of "roasting cats" in some areas of Belgium. Every festival, some cats were burned for fun...

To be honest, basically all of the European Christians in those days were unprecedented cat abusers.When European scholars in the future accused the Mayans and Aztecs of America of the inhumanity of the various techniques of killing and worshiping gods, they forgot that they seemed to have just put all the above-mentioned killing methods on poor cats. I don't know how many times I have practiced it on my body...Of course, a cat's life is always less valuable than a human life.

Closer to home, according to relevant literature records in the European Middle Ages, the number of cats burned to death by the stake alone exceeded 100 million on the eve of the outbreak of the Black Death.And the number of cats who died of other methods of cruelty and killing is even more numerous.Especially when the Black Death broke out in 1348, the performance of the cat slaughter movement had reached its peak, and there were almost no domestic cats in Europe!Only a few areas still have some feral cats surviving.

——On the eve of the plague that devoured all living beings, the dead medieval Europeans wiped out their natural savior with their own hands!
In this case, even if the poor traveler Li Wei wanted to get some cats to catch mice, there was nowhere to buy them in Europe.

In addition to the deadly cat-slaying campaign, medieval Europeans also hated another kind of rodent exterminator—owl, because they come out at night and are also easily associated with evil witches and devils. Hate, often culled.Moreover, owls generally live in the countryside and seldom appear in densely populated medieval cities that lack vegetation. It is impossible to expect them to replace cats.

Although there are other methods of rodent control, it is also very difficult to promote them in this year, such as the spring traps that often appear in the cartoon "Tom and Jerry" ("Tom and Jerry"). The mousetrap, in fact, was not invented until 1899-the blacksmiths in medieval Europe couldn't mass-produce that kind of spring steel at all!

As for the so-called "mousetrap" used by Europeans in the Middle Ages, it was actually a piece of heavy wood that was propped up with a thin branch, and a little food was sprinkled underneath it—just like the kind of trap that Lu Xun played with when he was a child in his novels. Bird thing--when some unlucky mouse comes to steal the bait, if it is clumsy, it may accidentally push off the branch and be crushed to death by the falling log.Of course, this is only a theoretical application effect.As for the actual situation... Well, although such a stupid mouse is rare, at least it has a psychological comforting effect.

There is also a common method of exterminating rats in later generations, which is to sprinkle some poisonous rat poison near the house.But the problem is, now that the Black Death has broken out, there are rotting dead people everywhere, there are unattended food stores everywhere and abandoned kitchens piled up with flour and bacon, you feel that when all kinds of delicious meals are at your fingertips, Will those clever mice still appreciate your poisoned bait?

In Li Wei's view, the more realistic way to eradicate rats at the moment is to mobilize everyone to fight rats by themselves.But this will face another paradox: if you don't tell people the real reason for killing mice, then people who are used to dirty and messy people will probably think that you are mentally ill.But if you find a way to convince them that the rats are the source of the Black Death, and then order them to catch the rats with their own hands... When the Black Death is already rampant, wouldn't it be the same as making people jump on their own initiative? The source of infection to die?Who is willing to sacrifice his own life!
In short, in the absence of specific medicines and the inability to carry out "patriotic health campaigns", even the time travelers are helpless against the Black Death.

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Seeing his uncle's coffin being slowly lowered into the grave, filled with soil, and erected with a cross, Li Wei couldn't help feeling powerless and bewildered.

——How long will this unprecedented plague last?Can my wife and I survive this disaster?

When my uncle died, we were there to attend the funeral.In case when I die, will anyone still be able to arrange the funeral for me?
Unfortunately, it seems that only God can know the answer to these questions.

He stood silently in the cemetery for a long time, until the sun was setting in the west, and then he turned and left, but he did not return directly to the manor, but walked a long way along a cobblestone path, and came to a building that also hung a hospital. Outside the tall stone house with the red octagonal white cross banner of the Knights Order.

Then, under the reminder of his personal servant, Knight Li Wei took out a handkerchief from his pocket, soaked it in the water tank at the door of the stone house, covered his mouth and nose, and then walked in.

After entering the door, Li Wei looked around. The cold iron railings were dragged by the dancing torches to cast shadows constantly. On the stained limestone floor, more than a dozen patients in ragged clothes were sleeping.Fill this otherwise spacious room to the brim.Many people were still dripping with yellow-green pus, and some of the most serious ones had even lost consciousness, lost control of their bladder and bowels, and stinky feces and urine flowed all over the floor.Therefore, the floor of the room is full of pus and blood, phlegm, excrement, vomit and garbage, and a pungent smell of blood and putrefaction can be smelled from a long distance away.

Hearing these groans of pain that seemed to be miserable and wraith-like, even though he was mentally prepared, Knight Li Wei couldn't help shivering.

——This dark stone house filled with the smell of death is the charity hospital opened by the Marseille Office of the Knights Hospitalier.