Chapter 30

"The black star is already in the main palace, just connected with the power and prestige of the Twilight star, and the scythe of death is coming in the horizontal human form. If they meet together, the dead fish will drown the land they shine on" [1] the devil read such a strange passage.

This reminds the king of the young man he met in the negotiation of Yuehe fortress.

According to the oath knight, it was an astrologer.

"Yes, your majesty." The devil guessed the king's thought, "this is really the prophecy of the astrologers. It predicts an impending disaster You know what it is

"Come in four months."

The king pondered for a moment and made his judgment in a declarative tone.

The devil wanted to clap for the king from the bottom of his heart and see how keen he was on all conspiracies.

However, it is not difficult for the king to judge.

Because in the original line of fate, purland was hanged in front of mernta four months after the assassination, and the original sentence was exile. Although pullan is indeed a tyrant, he should be more inclined to imprison the former king in order to show his magnanimity.

This was confirmed by the initial exile sentence.

A former tyrant who has no power to live has a lot of political significance for the new ruler. He can elevate his position in people's minds by constantly comparing himself with the former tyrant. When the end is almost there, the former tyrant will be able to leave quietly.

One month is not enough time for Lord Grice to set up his image.

But what if there's a terrible plague that people can't help?

Is there anything better than a violent former king to be the target of this remorse?

"Besides you, can astrologers predict the black death?" The king seized on the point. "Who do astrologers work for?"

"Yes, your majesty." The devil said to himself in time, "do you remember that poor astrologer? He once tried to spy on your destiny, and then he planned to tell his tutor that as your loyal knight, I have solved this little trouble for you - otherwise by this time, dozens of friars of the judgment house would have arrived like flies smelling blood. "

"They serve the Holy See."

The king made a judgment.

He pondered for a moment.

In general, astrologers should be heretical and antagonistic to the holy court. In his memory, from the 11th century to the 13th century, the Holy See launched a vigorous campaign to persecute astrologers on a scale almost comparable to the hunting of witches. But in the middle of the 14th century, the movement subsided.

From the devil's words, it seems that most astrologers choose to play for the holy see in order to survive.

That's not good news.

If the new Pope on the other side of the abyss is not mindless, he will seize this opportunity to improve the status of theocracy. In the black death, a large-scale plague that people can hardly resist at this time, the most easily breeding is nothing more than religious belief and all kinds of remorse theory.

The latest black death in Legrand occurred in the fourth century.

Before that, the rule of the rose family was stronger than it is now, and the west continent became the most gloomy area of Shenhui. But the Black Death changed the political landscape. Nearly one in nine people died in the plague, and the royal family was unable to stop it. The holy court is taking advantage of this opportunity to publicize, it is precisely because the rose family does not fear the Lord, the Lord of sin in this.

"God is a righteous judge and a God who is angry with the wicked every day. If anyone does not turn back, his sword will be sharpened, his bow will be bent and ready. He has also prepared the equipment to kill. What he shoots is a rocket. " [2]

the king slowly read out the words that the rose family must remember.

The black death is God's judgment, and all sins originate from the contempt of the Lord.

As the death spread, the accusation eventually became a riot, known as the "holy spirit return movement". Under the instigation of the Holy See, people began to build churches spontaneously. Finally, the kingdom of God on the other side of the abyss channel expanded to Legrand.

From then on, the king of the rose family needed to be crowned by the Holy See.

The hatred of nearly a thousand years came from this.

The king gave a sneer.

No wonder the Pope will change his previous state and suddenly send someone to intervene in the battle of Legrand's throne. It turned out that they had already anticipated the disaster.

They seem to want to take this opportunity to play the fourth century cliches again on the land of Legrand. Lord Glasgow is just a puppet of them.

But damn it, the black death is deadly.

With less than four months to go before the outbreak of the black death, the king did not think that these four months of preparation could resolve a disaster that could not be solved in this era.

"Hell is happy to solve this problem for you, your majesty."The devil bowed gracefully to the king.

"But it depends on whether your majesty dares to dance with hell."

The king looked at the devil with a smile on his face.

"What about the terms?"

"No conditions. What conditions do you need to serve your monarch? "

"I'm not going to go to hell with you now." The king refused.

"You misunderstood me." The devil said so, but with a clear sigh, "well Well, a small condition, it's not hard for you to do. "

The king waited for the devil's words.

"Do you mind more knights from hell? My dear majesty. "

………………

The devil has a clear identity, he became a member of the king's oath knight.

However, the devil seemed to have other things to do. After he got the king's promise, he left again in a hurry.

After the devil left, the former templar came in quietly.

"Your Majesty, you devil are very dangerous. I don't know why he is so humble to you, but his breath reminds me of the past. At that time, I was on the march with the temple. The expedition team met a historic site, in which I felt a similar atmosphere. "

The long face of the former Templar was unusually serious.

"How was it then?"

"Disaster. Your majesty. "

The former Knights Templar replied, in a tone of unspeakable pain.

"A mortal disaster."

………………

The devil is gone.

The king did not intend to place all his hopes on a dangerous devil of unknown origin and purpose. He began to prepare himself.

These two days, the king's chancellor of the exchequer sorted out the Royal financial files the king wanted. Heavy and complicated, even the full-time staff of the Ministry of finance are not willing to read them.

The king frowned, endured the bad way of recording and the troublesome monetary unit, read the part he cared about most, and then realized one thing deeply -

the royal family was poor.

The king's annual income is about 27000 pounds. On the surface, it is a huge sum of money. Because in today's Legrand, a person can earn 20 pounds a year is considered rich, even the Earl's annual income is rarely more than 5000 pounds. [3]

but the king's income will be used to maintain the expenses of the whole royal family and the operation of the whole king.

This is also the normal state of the royal family in most countries today.

They are always living beyond their means.

The construction of military castles also belongs to the king's financial expenditure. The Royal castles of Newcastle in the north and nordorf in the West started to be built at the end of last year. It takes a long time to build the castles. However, it is conservatively estimated that the total construction cost of Newcastle alone is 27000 pounds. [4]

the Duke of Buckingham is now taken for granted as having no family.

Anyone who wants to maintain such a huge expenditure stall will end up in poverty.

When the king finished reading the archives, it was just in time that the nobles of the new royalist party carefully submitted the first Ransom - the value of their heads made them write down the amount that they could do their best to get out, so they had to submit it in batches.

At this juncture, the king looked at the sum of money and thought that he might as well kill all the people.

Confiscate all the territory's money at one time, so it's easy.

The nobles who paid did not know why they always felt their necks cold.

The amount of ransom is usually several thousand pounds, which adds up to a considerable amount. By the time the nobles had paid their first ransom and the inheritance tax, the king had almost enough money to redeem General John, the son of the Duke of Buckingham.

At this time, the missing negotiating mission also had news.

"We talk as we walk? You have been in the room long enough, your majesty The Duke of Buckingham, with his robe on his arm, saw how many files the king had read during his time. "Maybe you would like to take a walk with me?"

"Of course, I'd love to."

The king looked at the Duke in surprise and put down his quill.

It's October now, and the snow is beginning to cover the ground. The king and the Duke of Buckingham walked along the long corridors and saw the trees of the castle begin to be covered with crystal clear glaze ice. The sun shines on the magnificent dream.

"Stuck in tru castle."

After listening to the story of the Duke of Buckingham, the king felt thoughtful.

"Baron Hearn? He does have some courage, and he is not too stupid

While they were talking, they had already passed most of the palace. Duke Buckingham stopped and looked out from the corridor. He looked at the stone pavilion on the left side of the tower not far ahead and said, "there was no Pavilion there before. Your father built it later."

The king also looked at the stone pavilion winding with roses and vines.Can imagine, wait until flowering, countless strong red rose will decorate it into a beautiful scenery.

"Go and have a look?"

The king agreed.

They went through the cold wind and into the snow. The black tower stood not far away. The snow fell on the tower and soon fell down again.

Heita was silent.

It seems to be looking at all this.

The author has something to say: [1] the original poem is "if anyone knows" created by the Prague court poet Heinrich von Mugen in about 1349-1355, which is slightly modified according to the world background.

This is one of the "literary disasters" in the period of the "second pandemic" of the black death.

[2] The data quoted from Psalm 7:11-13

[3] refers to Edward I's current situation of monetary economy

[4] it is actually the construction cost of Carnarvon Castle

in fact