"I, the Holy Roman Empire, blessed by God, Augustus forever,
All Rome, Italy, Spain, Sicily, and Naples, King of all, by order of Charles V,
According to the Carolina Penal Code, your Protestant religion is a crime.
In the name of the Almighty and Most High God, and in the name of Charles V,
I now order you not to resist and open the city gates! Otherwise we will continue to attack. ”①
A messenger sent by Duke Maurice shouted outside the city of Magdeburg.
This was the forty-second day of the siege of Magdeburg.
Magdeburg is located on an endless plain, backed by the Labe River. Henry I began to build fortifications in Magdeburg in 919 to keep out the Magyars and Slavs. After years of construction, the fortress of Magdeburg has become indestructible. In addition, the wide field of vision on the plain allows the enemy's movements to be observed at any time. Magdeburg has become a strategic location with a geographical advantage and is easy to defend but difficult to attack.
The people in Magdeburg were dismissive of the envoys' attempts to surrender; they all understood how the Carolina Code, issued under a harsh and tyrannical regime, treated pagans, and burning at the stake, quartering, and hanging were all normal things.
Magdeburg also sent a man who began to insult Duke Maurice's envoy. The two of them engaged in a verbal battle, with all kinds of filthy and obscene language pouring out of their mouths.
Both of them stared with their eyes wide open, sweating all over and their faces flushed, looking very funny, but they eventually returned to their respective armies.
The army of Duke Maurice formed a long snake formation on the open plain, which could effectively avoid attacks from rolling stones and wooden beams.
The soldiers of Magdeburg occupied the advantageous position on the fortress. At the command, they pulled the bowstring to its full extent and pointed it upward at forty-five degrees. This angle allowed the arrows to fly the farthest distance.
Soldiers from both sides held their breath in front of the battle line, the battle was ready to break out at any moment.
At this time, a strong wind blew in the sky, accompanied by the sound of war drums, raising sand and blinding everyone's eyes.
After the sandstorm, Duke Maurice's men blew the horn in preparation for the charge.
"Moo!"
The knights tried to mount their horses, but the horses began to struggle.
One of the horses stood up and ran away, leaving its owner behind. The rest of the horses followed the leader and after a chaos, the rider was left stunned.
Suddenly, the earth shook and three suns appeared in the sky.
Duke Maurice was speechless at the sight, rubbed his eyes, and asked the servants around him,
"Oh my god, is God trying to stop us? I actually saw three suns. Did you see them too?"
The servants nodded their heads in agreement. Maurice slumped in his chair and said, "All troops retreat. No more fighting, no more fighting."
At this moment, Maurice's army was no better than a group of scattered soldiers. They had completely lost their will to fight, abandoned their baggage and food, and fled in panic.
At this moment, everyone in Magdeburg was looking at the three suns in the sky in horror.
No one expected such a strange phenomenon to occur. The people in the city fell to their knees and cried, "Is this the punishment for believing in the New Life Society?"
Many extreme Magdeburgers chose to hang themselves overnight. They believed that this was a punishment for believing in the New Life Society and that it was the wrath from the Almighty Creator.
People in the city were in a panic. Food and daily necessities were bought up overnight by the crazy crowd. Duke Maurice, who had been besieging Magdeburg for forty-two days, was on the verge of collapse overnight.
Aitina and Silas escaped from Magdeburg, which was no longer peaceful. The people here became irrational and crazy. Some people even started shouting, "This is all the work of witches! Witches did it! It's the witches who made us no longer be blessed by the Holy Light!"
The inferiority of human nature was fully revealed at this moment, and the scene in the city was like Sodom before its destruction.
The lustful ones were doing whatever they wanted in the streets, the murderers were slaughtering the innocent poor people, and the robbers were breaking into the treasuries of the nobles at will.
But they all claimed to be victims and blamed it all on the witches. It was the witches who bewitched them and made them do such things.
The city's dazed and empty eyes found an excuse to vent, and a dangerous game called "witch hunt" began.
People could not explain the three suns in the sky, nor were they willing to admit that God had given up on them, so they easily attributed their fear of the unknown and their fear of witchcraft to witches.
People hold a book called "The Mallet of Witches" and blindly believe that it is the most authoritative witch hunting manual.
The book claimed that "witchcraft comes from carnal desires, which can never be satisfied in women. The devil knows that women love physical pleasures, so he uses that kind of pleasure to induce them to be loyal", so those crazy people set their sights on beautiful girls.
"The prettier the girl, the more likely she is a witch!"
This absurd idea became the mainstream thought in Magdeburg and gradually spread throughout Europe.
People hysterically insulted these young and beautiful girls in various ways, hurting their hearts with sharp words, and then made them hold red-hot irons or walk blindfolded across red-hot plowshares. Those ignorant people believed that such behavior could identify real witches.
This absurd behavior led to more and more versions of it, or lynching, spread through rumors.
If a person was considered a witch, her property would be confiscated. Some greedy judges colluded with corrupt officials to take the lives of hundreds of girls.
The cold moonlight illuminated the earth, and Silas put his coat on the sleeping Aetina.
They have been holed up for months in a remote cabin that was an abandoned stable.
The clever Adina wove the straw stalks in the stable into a thin mat and laid it on the ground.
The two lived a very frugal life during these days. Silas chopped some firewood with a rusty axe and lit a bonfire to warm the ragged beauty.
Silas just wanted to spend the rest of his life peacefully with Aitina in this small stable. After all, people outside were like crazy, and the whole society seemed to have become a melting pot.
"There are footprints on the ground! This way!"
They were a group of villagers holding torches high.
Each of them hid a copy of "The Mallet of Witches" in their arms, and they were looking for traces of witches everywhere;
Their eyes were like a group of hungry beasts looking for prey.
Note 1: Charles V has so many titles that I could write hundreds of words about them. Friends who are interested can go to Wikipedia to search for them. The Carolina Penal Code is the most stringent and terrible criminal code in the history of the West. I will not go into details. You can refer to stitutio alis a Wikipedia
Note 2: Baidu Encyclopedia - Chronicle of Events in 1551
Note 3: The hunt for witches or wizards began in the Middle Ages, which led to a large number of lynchings and legends.
Note 4: Mallevs Maleficarum, published by Catholic monks Cramé and Sprunge in 1486, intensified people's fear and persecution of witches.