"What do you think about the Xiulians?"
"The real commander should be Prince Arthur." Archbishop Rodriguez said, unfolding a map, "They have a lot of firearms, but they don't actually use many in the battle between the two armies. Weaknesses are very clear. One of Prince Arthur's men is called 'Peresque' - an out-and-out villain who was exiled for theft and treason, but who is also a rare military Engineer. He was responsible for the construction of castles from the Rhône to Merdyson Castle, and it is very likely that he has some of the drawings of the Rhone."
"Some of the Xiulers returned to the grassland with their loot, and the remaining main army is now concentrated in the Rhone area."
"It doesn't seem to care about the captured cities." The Queen's gaze passed over the captured locations marked on the map.
"In this regard, Siul is indeed notorious." Archbishop Rodri replied, "They have always been called 'dismemberers of civilization'."
War looting is the norm, and it occurs in almost every country.
It is difficult for the vast majority of people to make military achievements in the war and rise to the top, and the military salary - thank God if they can not be in arrears. That being the case, what do kings and generals do to attract people to join the army? Then there is only looting left. After the war, the victor will always loot the city and the surrounding countryside, which is also an important way to make money through war. Brutal and bloody, but realistic.
Against this background, the policies that the Xiul people have consistently implemented in the war still make people feel creepy and unacceptable.
They not only plundered wealth but also massacred residents. After looting a place, they often burned it. They beheaded the dead and stuck them on the longhairs and flagpoles as trophies and signs of glory. If massacres are carried out, they will also strip off the clothes of the dead and pile the corpses into a city wall as a deterrent.
They are outright destroyers, dismembering civilizations in the most primitive and barbaric ways.
This is also doomed that they don't care about the cities that have been captured.
The Xiul people never left troops to occupy the city, so the army can always maintain a high level in terms of numbers and morale. Having gained enough wealth, they retreat as quickly as they came.
Furthermore, the Sioulians were pagans and had no respect for churches and monasteries. In ordinary wars, according to the custom of not shedding blood in the church, both sides will not kill the clergy in the church and the ordinary people who fled to the church to seek refuge to a certain extent. Pagans, however, have no such taboo at all—on the contrary, churches and monasteries, because of their wealth, tend to be more often the target of looting by the Siulites.
That's why the cardinals of the holy city were scared out of their wits after the Xiulers officially launched an attack, and they desperately wanted to escape in advance.
—Once the holy city is captured, they will definitely become the primary targets of looting and killing by the Xiulers.
But obviously, these honorable cardinals never thought about how desperate the ordinary people who were abandoned after they escaped would be.
Or, it's not that they haven't thought about it, but they don't care at all.
"Since they are so unwilling to stay in the holy city," said the queen coldly, "let's stay in Arcana for the rest of their lives."
…………………
The cardinals certainly thought about the civilians and ordinary monks who were left behind.
After all, these people helped them delay the pace of the heretics. The sacrifice of these people is honorable, and they will be redeemed by it. Isn't that enough? You must know that if a person with no savings wants to ascend to the kingdom of heaven after death, he will not be able to buy enough indulgences, and then he will fall into purgatory!
What's more, they didn't do nothing before leaving the holy city.
"Do you want to go to hell?" Bishop Bernard threatened the guarding monks with a stern voice, "Who gave you the power to restrict the actions of the cardinals? You will be sentenced to excommunication!"
The monks in charge of guarding the College of Cardinals were all dressed in black cassocks, cold and indifferent.
"Sounds pretty good," a monk unceremoniously pushed Bishop Bernard and slammed the door shut, "You know we were going to be burned before."
Bishop Bernard's expression changed slightly, realizing that these guards were all members of the Bezarda faction previously called "heretics".
He returned to the house of confinement in embarrassment, scolding in his heart that St. Trefus II was dead, and he would leave a mess.
—He had forgotten that he had been positive when it came to arresting "heretics." Especially when searching the property of heretics, and St. Trefus II did not order the confiscation of the property of heretics and their families at all.
Someone lit a candle.
Pampered cardinals sat sullenly in the room.
They didn't expect Archbishop Rodri to be so vicious and shameless. After the signing of the "Arkana Roland Treaty", Archbishop Rodri should change his attitude if he has any ambitions to become Pope—at least give them what a distinguished guest deserves. treatment. As a result, their guards not only did not relax, but became even stricter!
Originally, they planned to find an opportunity to leave Arcana as soon as possible, and the farther away from the Holy City the better.
"Arkana is still too close to Rona."
Someone said with a pale face, with some regret in his words.
Bernard's expression was particularly gloomy and uncertain.
"Are those things really useful?" A cardinal asked hopefully, "Will they fail?"
"What nonsense are you talking about!" someone yelled immediately, and after getting a sinister look from Bernard, his voice was lowered immediately, "Everyone knows that everything touched by those people will be cursed by the devil, whether it's a blanket Or pillows... Everyone knows..."
The air became stagnant.
"And... those things were all mixed into the sacristy of the cathedral. Do you think the Siulians will let the sacristy go?" The man continued, "Once the first one appears, it will be quickly There will be a second, a tenth... a hundred..."
"Oh my God!" The cardinal who asked the question had his psychological defenses shattered. He stood up and shouted in a broken voice, "No, we must tell them! We must tell them! Otherwise we will die too! !!"
The monk guarding outside heard him yelling, frowned and knocked on the door: "Do you have anything to say?"
It was silent for a while.
"No!" After a while, someone roared angrily.
The monk sneered, these dignitaries who are usually honored and used to have been unable to accept the current situation, and every now and then, there are people who make all kinds of troubles and threats.
He ignored it and returned to his original position.
In the room, Bishop Bernard strangled the cardinal's throat with his arms, so strong that the man rolled his eyes. No one in the room made a sound for a while. After hearing the people outside leave, Bishop Bernard slowly let go of his hand.
The cardinal fell down on the chair all of a sudden, scratching his neck and panting heavily.
The others exchanged glances with each other, tensed their nerves calmly, and vaguely appeared in a state of alert.
"You guys have to think about it," Bishop Bernard looked around coldly, "How are you going to tell those people about this? Do you think they will appreciate our reminder or will they cut us to pieces?"
"There were already patients infected with smallpox in the Rhône, and we are reminding them."
"Oh, reminder? I stayed in Arcana and watched the reminder that the Roland people went to the holy city?" Bernard sneered, "Do you think Rodri is an idiot or Queen Roland is an idiot?"
"If you don't tell them, sooner or later that thing will come, and we will all die if we stay here."
"After all, there is still a long distance between Arcana and Rona. Before it comes, the news will spread. These guys outside can't control us. There is still time to leave. And, at that time, who knows Did we do it? Don’t forget, even if St. Trefus II had ordered those guys to be sealed off for isolation, the failure of isolation is also common.”
The atmosphere in the room slowly eased, and many people showed shaken expressions.
Even the cardinal who had just shouted fiercely sat up straight again.
"Isn't this very good? Isn't this what we discussed at the beginning—" Bishop Bernard showed a chilling smile, "God is angry, and He severely punishes His enemies with disasters, and punishes all who forget themselves duty, who have ruthlessly and shamefully allowed holy places to be desecrated."
The candlelight cast a terrible shadow on all the faces.
"Let those arrogant monarchs kneel on the ground to repent, and let the thieves who used the holy light fall into the dust."
"They all have to pay the price."
…………………
A letter came from the people of Siul.
The letter was written by General Moussa, and proposed that the two parties resolve the current matter through negotiation. Considering that the original intention of the Xiulites to besiege the holy city was blackmail, and the end of the combat season, this proposal is not surprising and even reasonable-if the real commander of the Xiulites at this moment is Prince Arthur.
Neither Dalton nor Archbishop Rodriguez really wanted to agree with the Queen's agreement to negotiate.
—You don’t need to think about it, but the one who really wants to see the Queen is Prince Arthur.
But just like what General Musa said in his letter, a settlement through negotiation is beneficial to both Roland and Sioul. …I think the queen is not so devout to the Holy Father and the church that she insists on letting her soldiers shed blood in vain. To be more realistic, the Lute army in the name of intercepting heretics is eyeing the north, waiting for Roland and Siul When the fish died and the net was broken, he intervened horizontally.
As long as the holy city can be taken back, the purpose of the queen's expedition will be accomplished. It doesn't matter whether it is taken back by force or negotiated.
The only question is what terms the parties are willing to accept.
And this obviously can only be negotiated through meetings.
The Queen agreed to General Musa's proposal.
The negotiation site was set at the midpoint between Rhone and Tours, on a gently rolling plain with a wide field of vision, and even part of the outline of the city of Rhone could be seen on sunny days. In this terrain, no one can ambush.
Accompanying the Queen to the negotiation site was Dalton. With him here, even if the people of Xiul suddenly turned against each other, they could guarantee the Queen's safe return. Archbishop Rodri remained in Tours and was responsible for arranging the army and material management. If the negotiations broke down, force would still be resorted to. A large-scale battle is often a cycle of "peace talks, peace talks fail, use force, continue peace talks, break down again, and continue fighting".
The queen and her party set off in the morning.
In the evening, Archbishop Rodri received a secret letter.
Unscrewing the letter box, pouring out the scroll and unfolding it, Archbishop Rodri's expression changed after just one glance.
"What's wrong?"
His abnormality was so obvious that Mrs. Kelly noticed it immediately. The queen intended her to take over part of Archbishop Rodri's intelligence network, so she also stayed.
The archbishop didn't speak, he stood up abruptly.
A terrible premonition suddenly swept over, and Mrs. Kelly unconsciously clenched her fingers tightly together. She suddenly felt that her throat was extremely dry, and she immediately asked again: "What happened?"
"A plague has broken out in the holy city."
Mrs. Kelly suddenly felt dizzy.