Great time travel

Chapter 26, The Coming of the Magic Age (Continued)

What's more terrible is that even if the poisonous gas is released frantically to eliminate all living organisms in the polluted epidemic area, it is still far from enough.

Because Yersinia pestis is a very tenacious thing, judging from the medical level of the Middle Ages, it is almost immortal!It is very resistant to low temperatures and can survive for months to years in the freezer; it can sleep for decades in the furniture and clothes of the deceased; it can be found in rooms, cellars, suitcases, handkerchiefs and waste paper piles Patiently lurking and waiting until the ashes rise again after whole generations!
Therefore, in the European countryside in the Middle Ages and modern times, there are often such horror legends - a running boy finds a frozen corpse in the wild in the ice and snow, and picks out a piece of expensive luxury jewelry from the corpse , so excitedly took the booty home... Then, the disease that had disappeared for a long time crawled out of the corpse, revived, and devoured this hapless village bit by bit...

During the spread of the Black Death in 1348, a similar situation also appeared-most ordinary people naturally avoided the houses and items left by the dead.But there are also quite a few daring desperadoes, such as thieves and mercenaries, who will quietly sneak into these abandoned and empty houses, steal all kinds of valuables inside, and then use the black market for selling stolen goods in any era to sell them. These ill-gotten things were resold... So, these blankets, clothes, and utensils stained with plague bacilli were circulated in markets all over the continent, passing through the hands of countless merchants, and finally put the horrible black dead to death. The disease spread to every market town and village.

(Those who have watched the American drama "The Borgia Family" should know that assassinating political opponents with plague-stained letterheads or gifts is a common strategy used by medieval European figures to assassinate each other, so the enemy's letters should not be read casually Yes, maybe you will die after reading it.)
Of course, Yersinia pestis is by no means an invincible killer. It has very weak resistance to dryness, heat or ultraviolet rays. It can be killed by boiling for 1 minute. Common disinfectants such as cresol, bleach and ethanol can also kill Yersinia pestis.But the problem is that in Marseille, nine out of ten rooms are empty, and there is no one out of ten residents in the city. The traversers simply cannot organize so much manpower and material resources to fully sterilize and clean such a huge slum.

Moreover, for at least ten years, no one would want to live in these dilapidated thatched huts... The more decent houses are still vacant!
"...Ah, judging from the current situation, I'm afraid we can only use the simplest and most brutal method to burn this place down!"

Pointing to the slums at his feet, Wang Qiu shrugged helplessly and sighed, "...that's the only way to get rid of everything...it's just too violent!"

"... Violence is a small problem! The problem is that it is easy to set fire in the city, but it will be miserable if it gets out of control!"

Looking at these extremely flammable thatched cottages, Ma Tong rolled his eyes and rubbed his forehead, "...What if it becomes a fire that burns the city?!"

"...That's right, so before setting fire to the house, you have to pre-set the fire barrier...There just happens to be a good spell here."

Wang Qiu nodded, then turned the "magic book" in his hand to a certain page, and began to recite aloud: "... Dusk よりも晚きもの, Bloodの流れより红きもの, 时の流れれに仙もれし, greatness Your name ni お い て, I こ こ に dark ni swear れん, I wait が が に 立ちおがりし, す べ て の 儿かなるものに, I と の お お い て, I と く が い を, えんことを!ドラグ．スレイブ!

(Something darker than dusk, something redder than blood, emerge from the stream of time, and in your great name, I swear in this darkness, that all foolish things that stand in our way , Gather your strength and give them equal destruction! Dragon Breaker!)

——The heroine of "Sorcerer Show" and "Buster of Thieves" Lena.Imbas's classic ultimate move "Dragon Breaking Slash" is here to launch!

"...Boom--"

In an instant, a dazzling ray of light split the sky and the earth, and all the houses, streets and city walls along the way were reduced to ashes. The huge thunderous sound shook people to and fro, and the scalding heat waves rushed in all directions... Especially in this destructive light At the end, a huge mushroom cloud rose into the sky.Looking down from a high altitude, the scenery is really spectacular, even Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August [-], I am afraid it is no more than this!
All the citizens and villagers who saw this horrific scene were frightened to the point of despair, knelt down tremblingly, closed their eyes and begged for mercy—they all couldn't help but think of the "Bible", Horrible chapters of God's fire from heaven destroying Sodom and Gomorrah...

And Wang Qiu and Ma Tong, who were flying in mid-air, also opened their mouths wide in a daze—although they had watched the cartoon "Xiu Dou Sorcerer", they still underestimated the power of Long Po Zhan, and Not to mention that all the houses that were directly hit were wiped out, and even the shock wave and hurricane caused by the explosion swept across a small half of Marseille Port. Thousands of houses were like tofu dregs, either overturned and collapsed or became dangerous.

But in any case, a separation belt that seemed to be run over by a giant was successfully created, completely separating the slums from the main city.

"...The demolition efficiency... is really amazing! I don't think you will be an urban management officer in the future, and you may have a better future in the demolition team."

After being stunned for a while, Ma Tong finally calmed down, and said jokingly, "...Okay, let me do the arson! Woo meow! Red partner, please let the world feel your majesty and dye the sky red , give meow a sea of ​​fire! Meteor fire rain meow! (Japanese)"

Boom-boom-boom-

With the sound of the final "meow", hundreds of fireballs instantly appeared in the air, falling like a torrential rain, just like the strategic bombing of the World War II era, quickly burning this abandoned block into a sea of ​​flames ...

Li Wei, who had just been revered as a "saint", stood in front of his office window, watching this unscientific and grand scene of destruction, and couldn't help but sigh, "... he uses magic to cure diseases, use magic to demolish houses, and use magic to set fires. Meow, could it be that this world is really about to enter the age of magic?"

However, after sighing, he sat down at the table again, staring at the map of Provence on the table, frowning and thinking hard.

Right now, Levi has moved his base camp to Fort Saint-Jean, a Fortress in the port of Marseilles, which used to be the site of the headquarters of the Knights of St. John's Hospital in Jerusalem in the last century, but this castle is not a glorious relic. , but a hideout for cowards: the Knights of the Hospitaller at that time were expelled from the holy land of Palestine by the pagans, and they were also shattered by the failures. But in the end, the Knights Hospitaller returned to Rhodes Island in Asia Minor to continue fulfilling their mission as knights, and Fort Saint-Jean was naturally vacated again.Now being reactivated by Li Wei, the "Knight from the East", it can barely be regarded as returning to the original owner.

Opposite Fort Saint-Jean, across the fish-smelling pier, is the rectangular Saint-Victor Church, the busiest place in the city, and the official residence of the Bishop of Marseille is also nearby.Right now, Ju Chuan Shizuka and Professor Guo are stationed in this church, giving treatment and vaccination to citizens seeking medical treatment to save all living beings.Not far away is the Notre-Dame de La Garde, built in the eighth century, where the Knights of the Hospitaller distribute relief food every day.

In short, after the angel came, the situation in Marseille quickly stabilized.But the oil and water in the city have also been looted.

"...The remaining wealth in the port of Marseilles has almost been searched by the robot cat. Next, we need to get money from other places... I really don't know how the robot cat owed so many debts—— The interest is 15 billion yen per month, which is equivalent to 15 ducats in this era!" Li Wei rubbed his head with a headache, "...who should be the next step...No, it is What about fundraising?"

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Marseille, the southern port of the Kingdom of France, sits in the middle of a depression surrounded by hills.It is located at the westernmost end of the characteristic rocky coastline of the North Mediterranean Sea and is a natural harbor.Further to the west, on the other side of the large tidal lake called Lake Bercher, the coastline gradually becomes straight, and the Camargue dunes in the Bay of Foss and the Rhone River Delta appear. Medieval sailing ships are easily stranded in these areas. Daunting sailors.

At present, although Li Wei has initially taken control of the city, he can only spread his influence as far as he can see.As for the entire Provence area centered on Marseille, there are still many doubts about him—but they are temporarily covered under the haze of the plague.

The place name Provence used to mean the whole of southern France from the Alps in the north to the Pyrenees in the south in Roman times.Today's Provence County, although its territory has shrunk a lot, it still covers most of the Mediterranean coastline of France in the future.

However, Provence at the moment is only a part of France in name, and is composed of members of the French royal family, to be precise, by the Anjou family (this family produced many kings in the Middle Ages, such as England. Jou dynasty), a member of the nobles, as a count of Provence.What's even more sad is that the gold content of this earl is very low, probably similar to that of the Japanese emperor in the shogunate era. He is regarded as the lord of a country in name, but in fact, even the capital Marseille is not under his control. Large and small feudal princes are entrenched, they don't pay much attention to the so-called Provence counts, each has its own fiefs and soldiers, and castles large and small occupy every dangerous place.And the Earl of Provence who ruled them in name, without the acquiescence of these small princes, I am afraid that it would be difficult to even step into Provence.

The Bacon family that Li Wei belonged to was originally a member of these rebellious feudal princes, and it was also one of them who was more aggressive in the streets. They had to embrace the thighs of the Knights of the Hospital to survive... But, unfortunately It's just such a guy who can't stand up and down, but he entered the capital city of Marseilles in a big way, and climbed on the heads of all the princes!How can such a reversal of respect and inferiority convince them?

——With the ability to disseminate information in the Middle Ages, it is difficult to convince these powerful factions that the miracles in Marseilles are true.

In fact, after the miracle of the "angel came" spread, there were almost as many powerful local factions who came to inquire about their sins as there were pilgrims who came to the Hajj.What's more, even if the living "angels" stood in front of them, some guys with stubborn minds like granite insisted that they were devils, and called on everyone to tie up these "bird people" and burn them...Of course , the result can only be that they themselves were burned by the panicked people.

But this kind of situation only happened near Marseille. If it was a little farther from the urban area, where the "angels" could not be seen soaring, the appeal of Li Wei, a "sage", would not be very bright.For example, in the past few days, some priests in the city who were grateful for being cured of the plague spontaneously went to nearby villages and towns to preach the miracles of Marseilles, calling on people to go to the city to pay tribute and cure diseases.As a result, they were scoffed at by the local princes and country priests, and were even regarded as heretics. At the least, these priests were expelled, and at worst, they were sent to arrest them, and they were charged with "spreading heresies" and tied to the stake... Lords and priests have died of illness or fled, and the ruling order has completely collapsed. Only some villagers listened to the persuasion of the "propaganda team", brought their savings, and carried patients to the city for pilgrimage and seeking help.

And the dispatched medical team of nuns was even worse—after Li Wei took control of Marseille, Sister Teresa, who had just learned some modern medical techniques, volunteered to organize a medical team of nuns, bringing antibiotic tablets, Syringes and plague vaccines, go to the nearby port of Toulon to treat diseases and save lives, so that more patients can feel the "grace of God", and collect donations by the way (these guys can't speak Japanese, so naturally they can't cast healing).

Unexpectedly, this warm-hearted Sister Teresa led a team to Toulon to settle down, and after she began to practice medicine, she obviously succeeded in curing some people, but the Bishop of Toulon who got the news came to the door with a few monks, and couldn't help but say Just reprimand her for "pricking needles into the skin and pouring unclean liquid into the human body" as blasphemous witchcraft!The reason was "Because the plague was created by the devil, so only the devil knows how to treat it"...So a large number of citizens were incited to smash these precious modern medical supplies, and they all shouted "For the sake of pure faith, destroy these devils evil thing"!
What made Mother Teresa even more sad and devastated was that some patients who had just taken antibiotic pills and their condition had obviously improved also listened to the deception of the bishop and others, shouting, "We have been helped by the devil, and now we can no longer I’m going to heaven! I can only fight to the death to apologize to the devil!” Got up and fought with the nun who was taking care of them a moment ago, and even killed several people... Finally, it was the robot cat who saw it on the monitoring screen of the reconnaissance satellite. The situation was wrong, so I quickly took the time to fly to Toulon, and personally cast lightning to kill the bishop of Toulon, scaring away the gang of thugs who would avenge their kindness, and then rescued the rest of the medical team. It was everyone's head was broken and bloody, and they were in extreme embarrassment.

From then on, Li Wei decided not to care about the life and death of the citizens of Toulon, and let them fend for themselves-he is not a submissive virgin!
In short, it can be seen that even if he concocted the miracle of "angel descending", Li Wei could not make people from all over Provence bow to him and offer their property and belongings respectfully.If you take the "angels" around and "reasonable" from family to family, it's too much trouble, and you can't squeeze out too much oil and water—except for a few decent cities, the rest of the poor villages are terrible. Can't raise much money.

Therefore, at this moment, Knight Levi, who was looking at the map at his desk, moved his gaze to the other end of the Alps: Italy.

In the dark medieval Europe, Italy retained the most ancient Roman civilization heritage.In the dawn of the Renaissance era, the Italian peninsula had the most prosperous urban agglomeration in Europe: Venice, Milan, Florence, Genoa, Naples, Pisa, Siena... and the great Eternal City Rome.In the [-]th century, they were not only famous artistic cities with a gathering of talents, but also financial centers where wealth gathered!Before being replaced by the Dutch, they owned Wall Street, Ginza and Lujiazui Financial City of this era!If you want to get a lot of money as soon as possible, the wealthy cities in the Italian peninsula are obviously a better choice than the idyllic countryside of France.

But the question is, what kind of banner should I use to enter Italy?
The title of a mere French baron is obviously not enough.The name of the Knights of the Hospital may not be very useful there.Playing the banner of "saint" and leading a group of "angels" to perform "miracles" in every city?This is not impossible, but it seems that there is still a need to go through the "organizational procedures"-after all, in this era of strong church power, self-proclaimed "saints" are not as popular as genuine saints!
So, he naturally set his sights on a place northwest of Marseille...

Then, when everyone worked together in the city of Marseille and worked continuously for several days, Wang Qiu's "Book of Time Traveling" finally had a reminder "...to end the Black Death epidemic in Marseille ahead of schedule and get 500 reward points", Levy Knight also took advantage of the situation to propose the next action plan.

"...What? Go to pay homage to the Pope first?" Wang Qiu blinked, "...Why?"

"...It's very simple, in order to go to Italy to raise money!" Li Wei replied calmly, "...the current Doraemon needs a lot of money to repay the debt, and the monthly interest alone is equivalent to 15 coins. Ducat or florin gold coins (the value of both is the same, but the minted city-states are different). The principal is as high as 150 million gold coins! It is difficult for us to raise so much money in France-Marseille is already the largest commercial city in France. It is a well-developed place, but we only managed to collect 15 gold coins by digging three feet and searching the whole city. And Britain's financial situation is not as good as that of France!
Now there is only one place in Europe that can provide so much wealth, and that is Italy!However, before entering Italy, we must obtain a title or position that is fair enough, reasonable and legal, and a leader who is prominent enough and knows the inside story of the Italian political situation, so that we can act there..." He said He explained, "...and these two things, the Pope can just provide... Only after the above conditions are met, can our trip to Italy be more secure. "

"...But, if you want to make a pilgrimage to the Pope, don't you have to cross half of Italy and enter the city of Rome?" Ma Tong blinked in confusion, "...Are you going to make a big circle, Going back? It feels like a waste of time!"

"...No way! The pope is not in Rome these days, but has moved to France!" Li Wei waved his hand, "...To be exact, the Pope's residence is now in the city of Avignon in the north of Provence. It's very close, only 80 kilometers away, and it takes about two days to get there..."