Sword of Dawn

Page 200

The upper class holds the right to interpret the classics, and the middle class priests use the ransom money to accumulate massive wealth. The archbishops of the Holy Spirit Plain are full of fat in the land of wealth, but they dictate everything in the difficult southern border. Now something happened, the bishop died, and a large group The knights of the Holy See also died, and the enraged Cecils blocked the entire church, but everyone in the church had to bear the consequences—who would not be angry?

Bishop Fran Bereng had a gloomy face, he rolled up the printed matter in his hand, and burned it to ashes with holy light, while his brain was rapidly calculating——

Although the propaganda materials of the Cecilians are vulgar, the terrible thing is that almost all of them are true.

Anyone who has close contact with the Church of the Holy Light and has a little contact with the circle of priests can see the authenticity of these contents.

These things are spreading secretly, and it shouldn't be able to spread throughout the city in four days... So these things must be stopped immediately from continuing to ferment.

He looked at the priest in front of him: "Immediately notify the Brothers of the Discipline and confiscate all the pamphlets that have been circulated among the churches—in addition, let those exiled knights go to the outer city with the knights of the church and search door to door. Anyone, regardless of Anyone who holds such a book for any reason must turn it in immediately, and if they refuse to hand it over, they will all be treated as heresy.”

"Yes."

"In addition," Fran Bereng added, "if there are those who actively turn in or report hiding people, they will be rewarded with rations."

The Holy See knights of the Luan Cathedral and the exiled knights who defected here quickly launched operations.

The gate of the long-closed church area was opened, and heavily armed knights rushed out of it, and began to search for "evidence of heresy" from house to house. The priest who was guarded by the knights went to the street and shouted with divine magic, warning everyone who hid the propaganda materials civilians, and in the process, the outer city suddenly became more and more chaotic.

It is impossible for those "experienced" knights to break into houses and search for materials without committing any crimes.

Not only did the outer city become chaotic, but the atmosphere in the church district of the inner city immediately became tense.

Discipline monks in black burqas and tattooed scalps silently walked into small churches and began to question all the monks and low-level priests. A large number of brochures were turned out from the corners of those churches or from the priests. , the priest who hid the pamphlet was immediately punished-first uniform confinement, followed by whipping and divine punishment.

The supernatural beings of the church cannot be punished in front of the common people. In order to maintain the decency of the church, all the priests who are punished must continue to be locked in the confinement room after receiving the punishment, and they cannot be released until they have completed a thorough confession.

In just one day, thousands of promotional materials were confiscated from various areas in the city, some were brochures, some were leaflets. Bishop Fran Bereng was extremely astonished after seeing the huge pile of printed materials—he did not expect the amount will be so much.

The printing quality of these prints is so exquisite, the text is clear and the layout is neat, and it is not at all like those poorly crafted wax printing products. so much.

But in any case, these things must be destroyed immediately.

All the confiscated pamphlets were gathered and sent to the large square outside the church quarter for public burning, and orderlies in livery and burqas ran three times around the city, driving all the civilians from their homes Come out and let them go to the square to watch the burning scene.

The large square was crowded with people, and those who were driven to the square were thousands of numb, sallow and emaciated civilians: Due to the lack of food supply, people in the outer city had been half-starved for almost half a month, gnawing at the hunger all the time. In everyone's heart, they actually don't want to come to the square at all-lying on the bed at home may reduce some physical energy consumption, but gathering here... everyone can only become more and more hungry.

But the swords of the knights and the spells of the priests cannot be disobeyed, and they have to come if they don't come.

The wooden platform in the center of the square was set up, and a large number of confiscated brochures were packed and carried by strong soldiers and thrown on the wooden platform. A tall man wearing a priest's robe came to the stage. This tall priest Sweeping across the entire square with a stern gaze, the holy light surged around him, slowly spreading the coercion of the Transcendent.

The civilians in the square were frightened and fell silent immediately, a wordless dead silence permeated the square.

The tall priest looked at the scene in front of him with satisfaction and contempt, and then raised the staff in his hand high: "You confused and stupid people! Without the guidance of the Lord, you would never know that you are slipping into the abyss of danger and evil. !

"The Cecilians were bewitched by the devil, and they spread the power of the devil's bewitching into this city!

"Look at these blasphemous papers—they've been searched from your backyards, from your neighbor's homes, from your own bedrooms! Your eyes aren't bright enough, your wit isn't enough, so you don't even realize I realized that these things are actually the contract signed between Cecil and the devil——

"They sent these contracts to the city to harm you! You were originally favored by the Holy Light, but these devil's contracts polluted you, and the Holy Light will stay away from you.

"Only flames can purify these blasphemous documents. You handed over these documents on your own initiative, and watched the purification ceremony here, so you are still saved—and the most hopeless among you must make a contract with these devils Accept the purification!"

A few more strong soldiers came up and pushed a man who was bound all over to the stage. There was a little commotion in the crowd gathered under the stage, but more people just watched numbly, almost Nothing happens.

The tall priest looked around at the numb crowd below, and then looked at the man who was tied up—it was a man in ragged clothes, and he had been beaten to the point of unconsciousness, his nose was bruised and his face was so swollen that he could barely see his original appearance.

It was just a homeless man who was caught near the city gate. He was arrested because he recklessly bumped into the soldiers, and a brochure was found on him.

The biggest advantage of this kind of tramp is that no one will know him, let alone complain for him.

"This man has hidden a lot of documents from the devil, and he refuses to hand them over!" The priest raised his staff and pointed at the man who had lost consciousness, "He also spread the contents of the documents everywhere to confuse him. People around you, let everyone question the Lord and the church!"

Finally, there was some commotion in the crowd again. It seemed that someone was really frightened by the priest's words, but the bound person suddenly struggled. He stretched his neck hard, as if he wanted to shout something—but the person next to him The soldier immediately punched him in the stomach, and the severe pain made the weak man fall back into a semi-conscious state.

The priest frowned at the accident at this moment, and waved his staff: "Push the blasphemer into those devil's documents!"

The soldiers immediately dragged the bound man to the center of the stage, and then pushed him into the "hill" of promotional materials. Another discipline monk in black robe stepped forward and pushed Yi Burning grease poured over books and men.

There were whispers in the crowd, some people backed away nervously, some prayed in a low voice, and some people showed distorted and excited expressions on their faces, stretching their necks to watch the movement on the stage.

Someone suddenly heard a whisper from behind: "Isn't that Old Sam... Old Sam can't read!"

The person who heard the muttering immediately turned to look for the speaker, wanting to find out more details, but only saw a leaving figure.

Someone next to him became curious and asked in a low voice: "What's wrong?"

"The man above who is going to be burned to death seems to be called Sam, and he can't read."

A few people in plain burlap were shoving and shoving among the crowd. Wherever they passed, whispered discussions gradually began to spread:

"The man on the stage seems to be called Sam—a man who can't read!"

The commotion grew from small to large, and the low-pitched discussion turned into a buzzing rumble. Although the scale was still small, the priest standing on the stage finally noticed these unusual movements, and a strange feeling rose in his heart , In this vague sense of unease, he resolutely gave up the originally planned mission, and immediately raised his hand to summon a ball of holy light.

"Those who violate the will of the Lord should be purified!"

The scorching holy light ignited the grease, the brochures and leaflets that publicized the dark inside story of the Holy Light Church, and Sam who couldn't read.

The bound people writhed in the fire, screaming fiercely, and the crowd onlookers in the square took a step back in front of this terrible scene, and there were voices of discussion from all directions. Wearing a sackcloth bag, a man dressed like a farmer stood at the nearest place to the burning place. He seemed to be frightened by the scene of the burning, and stood there in a daze until the crowd around him began to back away. He staggered and retreated.

The priest standing on the stage had a gloomy face. The scorching smell in the air and the turmoil of the ignorant pariah below made him extremely annoyed when he was already in a bad mood. At this moment, a very, very slight wave of magic power suddenly came from under the stage. passed in a certain direction.

The priest immediately looked over there, but he found nothing except a group of terrified and foolish civilians retreating in a panic.

Maybe it's just an illusion.

The priest waved his hand irritably, then turned around and left here surrounded by attendants and guard knights.

Chapter 0479 Fermentation

Before the thick smoke and flames on the execution ground dissipated completely, the priests and knights of the Holy See who were executing the execution turned around and left—this location filled with acrid smell and watched by a large number of ignorant and foolish people made the priests and knights feel agitated, although On weekdays, they would enjoy staying at the scene, enjoying the awe and panic of the people around them, but now they are obviously not in the mood.

There is still a lot of trouble to be dealt with in the church district, and the impact of the brochures is not limited to the outer city.

The ordinary soldiers in the square also withdrew, and the gathered people also scattered and left. This short-lived fire torture slightly broke the dead atmosphere under the siege state, but it could not cheer up people's mood. On the contrary, the people in the square A conflagration in the United States has only brought fear and doubt to the people -

It was an illiterate tramp who was burned to death... The church just arrested people at random... The essence of heresy trials is intimidation and violence.

Ordinary people may not know whether the things in those pamphlets are true, but now the church at least takes the initiative to admit that some of them are true.

The crowd dispersed, leaving only some servants of the Holy See guarding the burning site standing by the execution ground. They wanted to clean up the ashes here after the fire was completely extinguished, so as to prevent the fire from starting. The civilians were wandering around the edge of the square, but the servants of the Holy See who took care of the scene didn't pay much attention to these wandering crowds—it was just a group of idle fools.

After leaving the square, a few people dressed as farmers and craftsman apprentices got into the nearby narrow alleys, easily ignoring everyone's sight, and gathered in a semi-abandoned hut.

A man with messy hair and sunken eyes spat at the side: "Those bastards... just burned an innocent person to death..."

"They've always been like this," another dark-skinned young man whispered, "It's a pity we couldn't save that poor man..."

The few people gathered in the hut couldn't help sighing softly, and a group of fuzzy and distorted shadows suddenly appeared in the shadows in the corner of the hut. The group of shadows trembled twice in the air, and quickly gathered and condensed into a petite Figure: "We can't save everyone, and our mission doesn't allow risking exposure to save people—the only way we can avoid standing by when things happen is to use the skills we've learned every day, with the help of Every opportunity to spread chaos and division among opponents."

Several people gathered in the hut saw this petite figure that emerged, and immediately stood up and saluted respectfully: "Director!"

"You can't call your position during the mission, even if you confirm the safety of the surrounding area. Next time you commit a crime, everyone will mark it down once—you still have a lot to learn." She looked around, "However, your actions on the square are still qualified."

This is a special operations team of MI, and Amber leads them personally.

Luan City has been blocked, and the last time someone entered and exited the city gate was 20 days ago, but for Amber, who has mastered advanced shadow skills, it is not difficult to send a team and a batch of supplies into Luan City through the Shadow Realm ——Even if Amber, the "Military Intelligence Director", does not take action, the professionally trained officers of the Military Intelligence Bureau still have a lot of professional skills to help them sneak into the city and lurk in the outer city.

The lax attitude of the priests and knights in the cathedral to the outer city gave this team a lot of convenience—obviously, those people in the cathedral had no experience in dealing with spy sabotage at all, or almost everyone in this era faced When dealing with military intelligence operators trained by Cecil, they will appear full of flaws.

The temporary bishop of Luan put most of his attention on maintaining the operation of the church area, and for the outer city where a large number of "useless civilians" gathered, he only arranged a minimum number of soldiers and discipline monks to maintain order. Under the background of this era, there is nothing wrong with it: in terms of the confrontation form of this era, only the extraordinary and the vassal forces around the extraordinary are valuable, and the vast majority of the people at the bottom neither have the power to shake the order nor Without the idea of ​​active resistance, for the civilians at the bottom, using enough force to deter is enough to ensure order-this is the most "cost-effective" idea so far.

However, the operatives of the Military Intelligence Bureau are precisely the experts who started to infiltrate from these lowest-level areas and gradually spread the chaos to the upper levels.

Since five days ago, Amber led this team to lurk in Luan City. According to the orders of the upper echelons, they spread the first batch of promotional materials in the outer city, and kept spreading the situation in Luan City to the outside. The priests of the Ann Cathedral were slower than expected to respond to the promotional materials - they didn't finally notice this until the first batch of materials had been distributed.

What followed was a citywide search and arrest, with looting and violence in the process.

Everything was as expected by Amber—the Holy See knights in Luan City and the exiled knights who fled in have accumulated huge pressure. As long as there is any reason to vent their pressure, their pressure will immediately turn into a shameful atrocity.

And they don't think there's anything wrong with doing so.

Although the situation inside the church district is still unclear, Amber can also guess what will happen inside the walls of the inner city: part of the content in the promotional materials directly points to conflicts of interest within the church, and other content implicitly mentions Cecil Although it is impossible to directly pull the low-level priests in the marginal areas to Cecil's preferential treatment policy with this level of propaganda materials alone, it is enough to cause a certain degree of shaking and confusion.

The city has been blocked for [-] days, and the internal conflicts that should be fermented have already begun to ferment. Any form of fanning the flames at this moment will have unprecedented effects.

And as the atmosphere inside the cathedral becomes tense, those in charge in the Cathedral of Luan will have less energy to pay attention to the outer city-they may even think that the problems in the outer city have been eliminated by their "effective purification ceremony" Give a thorough solution, so as to relax vigilance.

Then the next activities of the officers of the Military Intelligence Bureau will be easier.

Amber stroked her smooth chin—this thoughtful-looking movement was learned from Gao Wen, which can make herself look more majestic: "How is the working status of the magic network terminal? The picture is sent back Is it gone?"

A tall and thin MIB operative patted the black metal box at his feet: "It's in good condition—and the miniaturized Magic Net terminal is much lighter, so it's very convenient to use."

This tall and thin MIB officer was the one who was carrying the sackcloth in the square before.

And the black metal box at his feet is obviously a magical device - one end of it is slightly narrow, and a crystal is inlaid on the front and right above the shell respectively. The size of the entire metal box is less than half a meter, and it is wrapped with straw. It fits nicely into a burlap bag after stuff like that.

In fact, it still has a considerable size and weight, and it is not very portable, but for those who have seen the prototype of the magic net communicator, this device is already an unbelievably small black technology.

"Be careful when you use it—the Mechanicians have spent a lot of effort to make it so small," Amber nodded, "This is the key to defeating those magic sticks. Our purpose is not just to disintegrate Lu Ancheng, not only to drive them out of the cathedral, but more importantly, to drive them out of the 'Southern Territory', and whether we can achieve this goal... depends on our next actions."

The operatives of the Military Intelligence Bureau are gearing up, fighting with high spirits: "Yes!"

"Very good, then assign the next task—Skinny, you and the hound will continue to operate in the outer city, and record all the scenes that are unfavorable to the Church of the Holy Light and send them back to the headquarters; Baoya, you and the mouse will continue to be in the area near the church area." Locally spread the news that Bishop Bremont once said and acted strangely, but pay attention to your own safety. The others will follow me into the Shadow Realm and move things."

The well-trained officers of the Military Intelligence Bureau immediately took action, and a team member who was named by Hu Po into the Shadow Realm asked curiously, "Boss, what are you moving?"

"Leaflets and albums," Amber grinned, "another [-] copies will be delivered later—and more are on the way."

"Wh--" the team members couldn't help blowing a whistle, with a happy smile on their faces, "They don't burn as fast as our printing..."

……

After traveling day and night for more than ten days, the witch Jibri finally returned to this long-lost land.

She still remembers the scene she saw when she passed through the gate of the Rock Fortress in the north a few days ago - the magnificent Rock Fortress seemed to have turned into a huge construction site, with scaffolding and construction machinery everywhere, completely renovating and rebuilding the entire fortress , the workers used steel plates and shock-absorbing frames to reinforce the northern wall of the fort around the clock, and the magic technicians and mechanical soldiers installed large and small magic cannons on the guide rails and gun mounts on the top of the city wall. The grid array and all kinds of magical equipment that had never been seen before filled the sight, almost making Jibri and Pierce who was traveling with him dazzled.

After seeing the scene of the Rock Fortress, the two officers of the Military Intelligence Bureau, who had been on a mission for more than half a year, realized that this return trip was correct: the speed of development in the local area is simply unimaginable, and living in the slow and backward capital of Ansu Here, watching the nobles hold dances and socialize every day, I can’t imagine what my hometown is developing every day. If I really live in the capital for three to five years, I’m afraid even the children will die when I come back. Not as good.

But even with such awareness, when they actually entered Cecil City, the capital of the principality, the two operators still fell into a long period of sluggishness.

This city...not only doubled in size when they left, but even the layout of streets in many places has changed.

The temporarily built workshops and sheds have been moved to the industrial area in the east, and have been perfected into huge factory facilities, while the streets with only a few brick houses and at most a few small brick buildings have become The bustling neighborhoods, full of Ansu style, and practical residential buildings are arranged in various areas like the guards of the city, and between these areas are commercial blocks that are rapidly developing due to the increasingly prosperous economy...

The two officers of the Military Intelligence Bureau probably never imagined that there is a larger new city construction plan on the north bank of the Baishui River that has entered the foundation laying stage-because of the population migration in the southern border and the merging of villages and towns, the population of Cecil City has increased. going to double...

In this way, Jibri and Pierce entered the city with mixed emotions of surprise and pride, and successfully completed the report at the MIB building-thankfully, at least they did not get lost in the military area.

"Director Amber is on a mission," the receptionist of the Military Intelligence Bureau said while registering the two expatriate operators, "but she knows that you will return in the near future, and she has already arranged the next plan for you."

After completing the report registration, the young female clerk who served as the receptionist handed over the new identity certificate and information bag to Jibri and Pierce, then stood up straight, and said solemnly: "Thank you for what you have done to Cecil. The contribution made - hard work!"

Pierce and Jibri were stunned for a moment: they had been away from here for too long, and had missed too many critical stages of perfect organization, so that they didn't know how to react for a while, so they could only smile a little awkwardly and cautiously. The lady receptionist seemed to have expected the reaction of the two seniors in front of her, and also resolved the short-term embarrassment with a smile: "Please don't be reserved, this is your home. Operator Pierce, you can dismiss and rest now. As for Operator Jibri ...There is a special task for you."

Jibri widened her eyes in surprise: "Mission?"

She couldn't help muttering in her heart: Is there no vacation...

"Please relax, you don't need to go out to work, the task is relatively easy," the receptionist lady seemed to see Jibri's thoughts, she showed a slightly mysterious smile, "This task is issued by the lord—you can rest For half a day, please report to the Lord's Mansion on time at four o'clock in the afternoon."

Chapter 0480 Jibri's New Mission

With a slightly nervous and curious mood, Jibri came to the lord's mansion in the center of the southern city of Cecil.

This former "witch" with a healthy dark complexion, a good face, a little understanding of magic skills, and the ability to make a living between adventurers and hooligans with her eloquent tongue and the ability to trick and deceive sat anxiously at the audience. in the living room, guessing what the task assigned by the lord would be—she had met Grand Duke Gawain Cecil before, but it was at the graduation ceremony of the first batch of officers of the Military Intelligence Bureau. She and a large group of contemporaries The trainees stood together on the square and swore allegiance to the Grand Duke on the stage. At that time, she never thought that one day she would sit here and receive orders from the lord one-on-one.

Will it be a very dangerous task?A very difficult task?Or is it a very special task that must be completed by a specific person?

No matter how she thinks about it, Jibri can't imagine that there is any decisive gap between herself and the ordinary officers of the Military Intelligence Bureau-the professional level of the first-stage operators is similar, and because it is a crash course, the first-stage operatives even have many professional skills. It is still not as good as the newcomers trained later, especially since I have been sent abroad for so long, I am seriously out of touch with the local people, and I urgently need to make up lessons...

There was no one else in the room, only the lord's chief maid was here to accompany her, and as a maid, the maid obviously wouldn't casually talk to the guests. In such a slightly uncomfortable atmosphere of silence and embarrassment, Jibri unknowingly Then she drank another cup of tea, and the second she put down the teacup, the sound of pouring water came from the side.

The chief maid was holding a big teapot, filled the empty teacup in one go, and then gave Jibri a dull smile: "Please use it."

"Ah, thank you..." Jibri said subconsciously, and then realized that she drank several cups of tea without noticing, and now she can't drink it at all, but somehow, she just Glancing at the little maid named Betty, she felt a sense of "thought power" for no reason - she was just staring at her blankly, but Jibri had a feeling of "not drinking the tea poured by the other party is crime" feeling.

Weird psychological pressure... really worthy of being the person next to the lord.

Jibri blinked, and subconsciously reached for the teacup next to her, but before she picked it up, the door of the interview room suddenly opened.

The lord appears there.

The witch Jibri, who was about to become another victim of Betty's teapot, hurriedly put down her teacup, stood up and saluted respectfully and neatly: "I salute you, Your Excellency the Duke."

Gao Wenhun waved his hand nonchalantly: "No need to be polite—I'm sorry to keep you waiting, I'm preparing some things. Is the trip to the capital going well?"

Jibril suddenly became a little nervous. She folded her hands on her lower abdomen awkwardly, and lowered her shoulders slightly. This is one of the few "upper-class conversation postures" she learned when she was studying in the Military Intelligence Bureau: "Everything Good luck, my lord, the stronghold of the royal capital has been handed over to the later personnel, and the relevant reports have also been sent up."

Gawain sat down on his own seat. He saw that the "senior operator" who seemed to be about the same age as Hetty was a little nervous, and couldn't help laughing: "Very good - don't be restrained, sit down Speak."

Jibri sat down in front of Gao Wen, and the latter looked the "witch" up and down with scrutiny, and said unhurriedly: "Jibri, who has no surname, was born in the Peipo area, and understands Magic, I used to be a magic apprentice for a short time, but after the mentor died in a vendetta, I fled to Leslie, and I used to make a living by divination and selling amulets, code-named 'witch', right?"