As a priest who traveled the countryside all year round, Mender was also familiar with the so-called "witchcraft", not to mention, he knew better than anyone around him that heresy was more often just a trick by his peers to condemn some people. Of course, because many of the new converts who had apparently chosen to believe in Sardinia often begged for help from some barbaric rituals because of their lack of conviction in their faith, the things that the villagers did were sometimes even more outrageous than those they did during the polytheistic period. For the sake of work, this is the time to discern the relationship between witchcraft. So Mender himself has done something like this, and twice.

In the autumn when he had just become a priest, there was a man who had fled from the East, who said some strange things, such as the rules of nature and the laws of heaven and earth, and strange things about worshiping ghosts and gods, and cutting down fruit trees everywhere, saying that he was going to give lectures to the villagers.

Mende rushed to the Oriental man they called with a few believers, and Mende was not in a hurry to reveal his identity, he just wanted to see what the man was going to say. At first, the man told a lot of things about etiquette, such as "being kind to others" and "men and women's defense", although Mende thought it was weird, but this did not belong to the category of witchcraft, and Mende listened to it with relish, and it was a foreigner's story.

In order to make the villagers listen a little more interestingly, the Oriental talked about the "Four Seasons of Teaching the People", and then talked about how the villagers used human and animal manure to fatten crops in order to increase crop yields. Mender felt that these things were a bit heavy, and that they might be on the verge of "witchcraft", but they didn't seem to be very dangerous, so he could still live with them.

Later, things started to get even more wrong. The man saw Mender coming, but he obviously didn't know who Mender was, but he realized from the eyes of the villagers that this might be a person of status, so he tried to make a fuss.

This time, Mender's mouth couldn't be closed.

This man talked about "learning from things" from the "four times of teaching the people", and said that the increase in crop yield is actually the result of learning from things, and everything in the world makes sense, and these truths require us to understand him through hard work, and finally slowly understand the truth of this world.

In the end, the man also played the "heaven and man induction" with great interest. There was something implicitly about domination in these things, and the Oriental man thought that Mende should give himself a chance to develop. Sure enough, after he said that "Heaven always changes with the behavior of the monarch", Mende couldn't help but walk up to the man.

The man was about to introduce himself implicitly when Mende and a group of angry believers smashed up his mess, especially the branch of the fruit tree he had managed to find.

After the man had left the village with a look of grievance and incomprehension, Mende announced to the villagers: "What the man said is a kind of low-level witchcraft, which will only turn you away from the true faith." ”

After a long time, Mende felt that he was a little sorry for the man, after all, what the man said about "the four times of teaching the people", "the way of heaven is constant", "being kind to others" and other things he still agreed with very much in his heart, and in the long time after his missionary career, Mende would intentionally or unconsciously cover up some doctrines that did not have a great influence, and even used the ideas of the "Ancient Book of Sardinia" to explain these "heretical doctrines" to the villagers.

Later, an incident of "witchcraft" was more serious, and it was only two years ago. Mender remembers coming to that remote place, which had become a hell on earth, where a man sat on an altar that the villagers had built for him, and the villagers gave their best to the man for free to seek the blessing of the "Almighty and All-Knowing Holy Spirit." Men and women dare not speak to each other, and children born do not dare to recognize their parents.

It was the best thing Mende thought he had done as a missionary. He exposed the man's lie in public, telling the villagers that the "Almighty and All-Knowing Holy Spirit" does not exist at all, that Sardinia will only bless your souls in heaven, that those who work hard can follow the families of those heroes to the gardens of Sadinia, and that everything else is just witchcraft or lies. The man's so-called way of displaying his "divine powers" was only by changing the villagers' perception of some pain.

The villagers, under Mender's command, tied the insatiable man to his "shrine" and eventually burned them together into a pile of ashes.

Mender retracted his thoughts slightly, Joyce and Vedia had left the room, and now only William, the son of a merchant, looked a somewhat frizzy young man, probably because of nervousness, the young man just looked at himself and did not say a word.

"William, it's Mr. William," Mender began, "you can begin to tell me what happened to you, and I'll do my best to help you find a way to solve it." ”

The young man was stunned for a moment, then stammered, "Hug, sorry, my lord." I thought you had something else to do, so I didn't say anything. ”

"The witchcraft story begins after I get caught. When the Wiegand people captured me, they didn't put me to death, I told them that I was not a nobleman, and that even if my family had money, they wouldn't let them redeem me, and they didn't pay attention. Until ......"

"What happened next, William. Mender asked solemnly. "At the moment, I haven't found any signs of witchcraft, have they done anything to you?"

"They tied me to a tree, my lord. William replied.

"What? Tied to a tree, this is a precursor to many witchcraft rituals, do you still have any impression of that tree?" Mende chuckled inwardly, but the expression on the surface was more serious and alarmist. "Mayor Mare, as I told me, you're a very observant lad. ”

"Tree ...... I'm sorry, but I can't remember what kind of tree it was. William began to feel more and more ashamed, and since he had woken up from the tree, he had seen Young, and he had no heart to see what was going on with the tree.

"I don't remember, no, I think you've been tied to that tree for quite some time, something must have confused your mind, tell me, little William. Mender leaned forward and said in an unquestioning tone, "In the name of Sardin, answer me, William the Christian." Who the hell have you seen in the Wiegand camp? ”

"I saw a woman, it must have been a shrine maiden, although I didn't realize it at the time, but now that I think about it, she is exactly what we know of a shrine maiden, but I didn't expect that she would be so beautiful in disguise, my lord. William said incoherently.

Mender had already understood by this time that things were going as he had predicted, a very ordinary and unusual story, of a reckless young man who fell in love with a girl in the enemy's camp. This is considered a small trouble in the war, and if it is not handled well, it will become a shadow for the rest of this young man's life. Mender thought to himself that it was time to untie the knot in his heart.

"Has my soul been bewitched, my lord. "Even now, even though I have recognized her for what she really is, with your help, I still feel that some of my senses are influenced by him. ”

Mender tried to keep his tone in such a way that it seemed somewhat gentle: "Young people, we all make mistakes, and even the descendants of heroes will inevitably be lost, and even more so we ordinary people, as long as we do not forget Sardin in our hearts, our Father will give us a revelation to redeem us." Mender reached out and stroked William's forehead lying on the table and asked, "Maybe we can talk a little bit more about this Wiegand girl, like her name?"

Then, as Mender looked more and more surprised, William lay on the table and sobbed as he drank several bowls of mead, intermittently describing the girl's appearance. This made Mende have to admire the young man's ability to observe, in William's account, it was only ten minutes from the time they met and separated, and he could tell himself almost identical for an hour just by describing Young's dress and appearance, and he could even remember a few cracks in the horned helmet that Jan was wearing that day.

It was not until late evening that Mender helped a drunken John out of the mayor's house.

Truth be told, Mender didn't mind if John could have something happen to Young. Unlike the townspeople, Mender had been deeply hurt in the royal court of the North Sea, and although he still had a sense of belonging to the empire, it was not so strong. Judging from John's description of Young, Jan is like a tribal aristocrat on the Wiegand side, and if they can be a couple, although they do not expect to eliminate the conflict between the two peoples, they may also be able to leave another way for the town to live.

Mayor Joyce looked at what was called the "army" in front of him and sighed deeply.

"It's too hasty. Joyce couldn't help but speak. He had served for a time in the royal court of the North Sea, and had seen what a real army was. In particular, the armies of the Tiansen tribe are all fierce characters who have seen blood, and the iron armor rate is as high as thirty percent. Even with such an army, it would be difficult to take advantage of the Wiegand tribe when fighting the Wiegand tribe.

The old man had never been to the south in his life, and he had only heard of the war in the south, so he didn't disbelieve in any of the troops brought out by the Cypriots, but he still felt that he had no confidence in his heart. In the Northlands, the warriors of the Wiegand tribe were the teachers of the Great Prus. Although the qi of these people in front of them is usable, they are a group of recruits who have never seen blood, and their physical fitness is also uneven.

But judging from the armor rate, the troops in the town are far from sufficient. According to John, the Weegand troops who came to harass this time were the elite of the Wiegand people, and the neat leather armor could almost ignore the bows and arrows of the Great Pruss, and the leather armor made in the town was useless under their powerful javelins.

"These forces are really embarrassing. Vidia, who was standing on the side, suddenly took Joyce's words and said, "Most of our people are only wearing some deerskin armor and bear skin armor, although these armors are thicker, but they greatly affect the performance and movement of the soldiers, and they are too bulky. ”

Under Joyce's shocked gaze, Vidia seemed to continue without intention.

"The individual martial arts skills of the soldiers are not enough, and once the Wiegand climb the walls, we don't even have many people who can use swords. Although the farmers are honest, they have never seen blood, and it is impossible for the mercenaries to die for the town. The bow and arrow used by the hunter are so bad that it is okay to shoot a rabbit, but it is too difficult to say that it kills. ”

Looking at this kid whose body had unconsciously grown to the height of his shoulders, Joyce couldn't help but gasp, "Who taught you this, kid?"

Vidia then turned her head away, looked at Joyce, and said in a childish voice, "I heard my father mention it unintentionally. Sometimes he would tell me stories about his war in the South, which were much more interesting than copying the Sardinian Scriptures. Vedia said as she grimaced at Mayor Joyce.

After so many years, in fact, whether it is Mayor Joyce, or José Knight and Mende, they only regard Vedia as a child, and they have always ignored the various talents that Vedia has revealed.

Outside the city, the army led by Thoreau Campbell had slowly advanced to less than five miles from the north gate of the town. In that place, Jan Campbell had done his best to build a forward base for an army of 1,000 men, which happened to be built from the burned ruins of a small village.

Staying in a large and spacious tent, Thoreau's mood did not change like that of ordinary soldiers, on the contrary, he preferred to spend a few days and nights in a small and crowded tent by himself, and then take the town and live in the big house inside. He knew that his daughter would never delay military planes if he could, and he even wondered if it would be possible for his daughter to take the town before his army arrived.