chsdbacks #392 - Defend his life
#392 - Defend his life
By the time Haljin arrived at Joan Castle in a flustered state, it was already dusk.
Although it wasn't quite night yet, the newly built low walls of the eastern city were fully lit with torches, and the Protectorate soldiers hurried about, their boots colliding with the stone slabs, producing a crisp but hurried sound.
The merchants along the avenue packed up their stalls, rolling the last few items into worn-out cloth bags, and hastily returned home, driven by the night watchmen.
Haljin could see that prominent figures from various districts of Joan Castle, such as the representatives of the people and the heads of guilds, were appearing on the streets.
They were in a hurry, escorted by the night watchmen, heading towards the Holy Advent Hall.
"What's going on?" Haljin saw a representative of the people from Colton District and grabbed his arm to ask.
The representative, upon seeing him, was surprised instead: "Aren't you in the Holy Forging Department? You should have been the first to arrive, right?"
"I was on official business in Gray Furnace Town and got delayed," Haljin's short legs moved quickly, chasing after the representative towards the front.
The representative looked at the brightly lit Holy Advent Hall, scratched his head, and said, "His Holiness the Pope returned to Joan Castle this afternoon, with only a few dozen cavalry guards. Although I don't know what happened, it must be something major."
"Then where are you all going?"
"The Pope convened a meeting of the faithful as soon as he returned. We're all going to the meeting."
The sudden appearance of Pope Horn, the supreme commander of the army, in Joan Castle, leaving more than six thousand troops on the front lines of Black Mountain Fortress, was already an unusual matter.
Could it be that the Ibe Knights had launched a counterattack?
Or had something happened in Dog Fox Village, and the church was attacking?
The peaceful scene he had just seen in the fields was instantly covered with a layer of gray haze in Haljin's heart.
If it wasn't for something particularly urgent, how could the great and esteemed Pope Horn have returned with so few guards?
Suppressing his uneasy thoughts, Haljin walked past the Sphinx Hogo statue and stepped onto the marble platform.
The four-petal flower-shaped glass windows reflected the dim light of the setting sun and the flickering flames of the torches onto the ground.
Hundreds of seats and benches were placed in the hall on the first floor, with men and women, young and old, of all kinds, some wearing linen robes, others wearing silk gowns and linen shirts.
On the high platform on the second floor of the hall, the huge sun gear triangular banner hung like a waterfall below the platform.
Regardless of their status, they were all sitting equally on long benches, anxiously waiting for Horn's speech.
Not only had the representatives of Joan Castle, big and small, arrived, but even the three administrative towns had sent representatives or even the town mayors themselves.
Haljin, needing to file the list of craftsmen, arrived at the hall a bit later than others, just in time for the most important part.
"...The Ibe Knights have already surrendered to the great Holy Father and offered their loyalty to our Savior Papal State!" Standing on the high platform covered with a gold-threaded carpet, Horn looked down at the crowd with a solemn expression.
Before the crowd's cheers could end, Horn's voice quickly spread to everyone's ears with the help of the nature priests.
"But I have to tell you two bad news. The first is that the nobles sent by the church in Kasha County have united and launched an attack on Smallpool City, an important city of the Juano sect.
The second is that Rapidstream City has suffered heavy casualties due to a fire and is currently facing a fierce attack from the church army, and I'm afraid it won't last long."
The original cheers came to an abrupt halt, turning into successive exclamations of surprise.
They knew the urgency of the news, but they didn't understand what Horn meant by saying this at this time.
The representatives either whispered to each other or suddenly looked up to observe Horn's expression.
Horn didn't say anything more but gave them some time to digest the information.
"I must inform everyone," When the noise gradually subsided, Horn took a deep breath, and unlike his usual frivolousness, solemnly said slowly, "Rapidstream City, we must save, Smallpool City, we must also save."
"Save Smallpool City?" Many people showed surprised expressions on their faces.
Everyone could understand rescuing Rapidstream City, but the decision to rescue Smallpool City caused the representatives and public officials of all ranks present to whisper to each other.
"Why should we rescue Smallpool City?" Horn's stern voice echoed under the dome of the Holy Lord's Demon-Slaying Chart, "First, Smallpool City is our trade ally and provides us with food aid. Smallpool City is a believer of the Juano sect and even more so our brothers in faith.
Out of moral considerations, we must rescue Smallpool City.
Second, if Smallpool City is captured, the noble coalition is very likely to attack our Golden River Village through the King's Road.
Now that the Ibe Knights have just surrendered and there are still internal conflicts, if they attack, we are very likely to face a two-pronged attack by them and the church army of Dog Fox Village.
Out of military considerations, we must rescue Smallpool City.
Third, Dog Fox Village is heavily guarded and has solid castles. By the time we break through Dog Fox Village, Rapidstream City will probably have been massacred three times over.
Out of political considerations, we must first rescue Smallpool City."
"But what does this have to do with us?" A citizen representative couldn't help but raise his hand and ask.
"Yes, the Ibe Knights took the initiative to attack us, so we fought back," someone shouted from below.
"Rapidstream City has something to do with us, I admit, but the noble coalition besieging Smallpool City is not hostile to us, there's no need to provoke them, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Hey, why don't we discuss it with them and ask for a passage."
"If you ask me..."
"Quiet, quiet—" Seeing the scene gradually becoming noisy, the night watchmen and Protectorate soldiers led by Duvaron roared in unison, even firing their guns as a warning, which suppressed the arguing.
Stepping on the soft carpet, Horn surveyed the stage, but felt a deep sense of helplessness.
Most of these representatives of the people and middle-level officials of the Papal State had the vision of paramecia.
The farmer representatives drooped their heads and dozed off, indifferently picking their noses.
As for the citizen representatives, they were very active, but the direction of their activity was to take the opportunity to go south and grab more church property and real estate in Golden River Village and Ibe Village.
They had no idea how urgent this war was. As long as their lives were good, who cared if other families lived in darkness?
There was nothing that could be done. To ensure the combat effectiveness of the army, anyone with a bit of faith and ideals had been thrown into the Savior Army by Horn.
Most of the people who appeared here were purely living-for-the-day types, with extremely low concern and participation in politics, even less than the people of Smallpool City who had a personal stake in the matter.
"Let me ask this question, what will happen if the church army invades?" Horn changed his approach, asking as if in mockery, "What will happen to the 'Labor Law' and the 'Runaway Slave Law'?"
Those farmers who hadn't cared before suddenly raised their heads, and cold sweat slid down their foreheads.
Needless to say, the simplest thing was that the 'Labor Law' and the 'Runaway Slave Law' would be fully restored, and the distributed farmland would be taken back, and the farmers would once again be confined to the land.
Not to mention those laborers, they would once again live the miserable life of vagrants.
If they had never lived this kind of free and prosperous life, the past days were not impossible to live.
But now they were like Eve and Adam who had tasted the fruit of wisdom, and they could never go back.
Many farmer and laborer representatives began to tremble, only after walking out of the fiery hell did they realize that they had previously lived in a fiery hell.
"What about those church properties and noble estates? What will happen?" In the silence, before the farmer representatives could fully understand, Horn asked again.
"Clang—" After a few seconds of silence, a citizen's cane fell to the ground, and their faces turned pale.
Those church properties, at least half of them, had fallen into the hands of various citizens, armed farmers, and craftsmen.
After all, only they had the money to buy Holy War bonds, and only they had the willingness and ability to buy these church properties.
If the church came back, these assets and properties would inevitably be forcibly taken back.
These assets had just been obtained, and they hadn't even had time to earn back the capital, then most of the citizens and craftsmen present would go bankrupt.
They seemed to be able to see the guards going door-to-door extorting and coercing them to withdraw from the workshops or real estate.
Among the small groups composed of citizens and craftsmen, they began to whisper to each other, and the sound of sobbing, swallowing saliva, occasionally began to sound.
Most of the people who could be happy for the return of the church had been hanged in Victory Square at the beginning of the year.
The remaining people then realized that in the past six months, the entire 200,000 people in the Kush Territory had been firmly tied to the Savior Army and the Papal State.
The destruction of the Papal State was bound to be their destruction. At this time, it was too late to even get out.
"We are like drowning people who have just surfaced half of their heads and only breathed a breath of air with the tips of our noses," Horn pointed to the direction of Flyingstream Fortress, "We are clearly doing the right thing, but why does the Thousand River Valley Church still suppress us so much?
If I were the Pope, these things would never happen. I would let Prince Condé withdraw his troops and let the people of Thousand River Valley live freely and equally!"
"I previously petitioned the Pope to make me the Pope, but he refused, why?" Pointing to the sky above his head, Horn shouted with grief and indignation, "The position of Pope was originally promised to me by Ama herself. The old Pope is dead, why can't I be enthroned in the Holy See City?
You are all innocent believers, why does Prince Condé, why does Barnifus want to oppress us so much?"
"There are demons in the church, and the number is far more than we imagined!"
"The name of a demon is already clear, and that is Prince Condé—Charles!"
Some Protectorate soldiers immediately followed suit and shouted loudly.
Yes, they were clearly the righteous side, so why did the church want to suppress them, and why did Prince Condé want to kill them arbitrarily?
This was not a holy church at all, it was clearly an evil demon!
For the fields in their homes, for the assets and real estate they had just acquired, even if they were not demons, they were demons!
After reacting, the situation on the field quickly changed. The farmers gnashed their teeth and cursed Prince Condé, while the citizens shouted loudly.
"Then what can we do? What should we do?" Horn said as if roaring, "You tell me! What to do?"
"Kill the unfair!"
"Expel the demons! Judge the heretics!"
"Expel the demons! Judge the heretics!"
The original chaotic shouts gradually turned into a neat "Expel the demons! Judge the heretics!" under the leadership of the Protectorate soldiers.
The raised fists were like waves, and the lights were constantly swaying in the wind caused by the shouts and waving fists.
Horn knew that they were not fighting for fellow believers, the representatives of the people and public officials who had abandoned their high-minded interests were only fighting to protect their own lives.
But that was enough. Horn needed them to be able to maintain the normal operation of the Papal State when he was away and to be able to resist the possible attack from Dog Fox Village.
As long as he was not caught off guard, Horn's rescue operation would have no worries.
"I announce—" In the midst of this orderly shouting, Horn raised his right hand high and shouted frantically, "A Great Judgment Holy War against Smallpool City and Lower River County!"