The Via Emilia is an avenue built by the Romans from Rome to northern Italy, and as we have mentioned, Imola, Faenza and Forlì are like three pearls set on this broad ribbon, but now two of them have been seized by Borgia, and even worse, their new owners do not cherish them, in order to reduce military expenses and gain the loyalty of the mercenaries, Caesar. Borgia promised them that they could do whatever they wanted in the city as long as they captured the castle.

And they did, and almost overnight the two thriving towns were empty nests, and only a few nobles who were still naively expecting to regain their status and honor after the signing of the peace pact still lingered in their solid mansions, enduring the never-ending extortion of the French and Borgia - but the civilians, small merchants, and tenant farmers who had no soldiers to protect them were either killed by the mercenaries or fled from Imola and Forlì with their children in tow— They did not know where to go, and in an age when people had never had pity or sympathy for the unfortunate who had suffered from the ambitions of those who had fallen victim to the superiors, who had lost their homes and lands, and who had to wander from place to place, and whose stomachs were shriveled up, some officials claimed that it was these abominable slackers who brought about crime, evil, and pestilence. In the case of the stern lords, they are hanged, in the case of the tolerant lords, they are banished, and the best treatment for the exiles is to get a "begging permit" for a long or short period of time, with which they can beg in the city, but generally speaking, this only happens when the ruler of the city wants to repent of his sins or ask God for a son.

The outcasts of Imola and Forlì did not have such good fortune, and they did not dare to go into the wastes and forests, where wild beasts were there, and if the lord's soldiers caught them poaching without permission, they would be hanged as well; They can only walk along the Emilian Avenue, and in a few weeks the Holy Year will come, where there will be a benevolent benefactor willing to give them some food, or a place to live, or, even if they pass through the Holy Gate before they die, their souls will be rested and ascended to heaven to be with the saints, where there will be no war, no hunger, no cold.

"But mother," asked an ignorant child, "isn't it necessary to give a great sum of money to pass through the Holy Gate?" ”

His mother immediately covered his mouth, but there was already a fierce look cast at him.

The last thing that cannot be broken now is expectations, and if there is expectation, you can still insist on maintaining humanity without expectations......

In Forlì's time, the child's father was a goldsmith, and he was most proud of the fact that he had made a very beautiful dinner plate and a pin for a bishop - the goldsmith's identity allowed their family to have no worries about food and clothing, and they also had a considerable status in the city, at least when they were doing Mass, they could stand in the first few columns, but this identity also made them suffer a catastrophe when the combined forces of Borgia and the French invaded Forlì, and the mercenaries who knew how to plunder were the first to look for the nobles and rich men after entering the city. The second time he was looking for the goldsmith - there were always precious stones, gold and silver in their workshops and homes, but these were the patrons, and if they were robbed, the goldsmith would not be able to repay them anyway, so he just stepped forward in fear and said a word...... God! The goldsmith knew that when some men were plotting to give in to Borgia and the French, and to betray the lord of Forlì, the goldsmith was not only aware of it, but he was also quite happy, and what was it, according to him, that a woman riding on her husband's head was to put on a "witch's bridle" (note 1) and parade through the streets with a rope, but before he could see what he wanted to see, he was pierced through the throat because he wanted to leave a little gold.

Fortunately, his wife was ordered to stay in the kitchen, and she was indeed a silent and timid woman, and she was not so enthusiastic about her husband, who always beat her, and when she heard his wailing, she did not even have the courage to look at him, so she immediately picked up her son, and fled through the back door, taking with her all the bacon and bread she could, and taking the donkey of the family. These things have kept her and her son going until now, but from this day on, they will be looking for food in the wilderness.

After a few days, the children had no strength to speak, and they first scooped up the weeds from the ditch, and dug up the roots of the thorns, and then they saw the finer soil, and put it in their mouths—and in this way, their steps became slower, and their vision became more and more blurred, and they felt that they could not even breathe. In the evening, a man came up and beckoned to the woman, and she walked over.

In a barely sheltered place, the woman took a piece of bread mixed with a lot of chalk, which she immediately put in her mouth and swallowed without chewing, allowing the man to lift her skirt...... The matter was soon over, and when she lowered her skirt and was anxious to get back to the child, she was hit hard with a stick.

In her vague consciousness, she heard someone laughing, someone crying, her clothes being stripped naked, and when someone was holding a sharp stone ready to cut off her breasts, she woke up and cried, and immediately someone came with a stick, and then and again, and again.

"I think she had a son." When the woman's flesh made a sizzling sound on the fire, a man said.

"It's not our turn." Another said.

They feasted on it by the fire, and wasted a great deal of it, and the smell of sin spread far and wide, attracting a group of knights.

"What are you eating?" The knight at the head asked, he had come all the way from Lucca, as his present master had commanded, and the more he matched the march of Borgia and the French, the more desolate it became, and near the Apennines he could buy chickens and pigs, and where even bread was rare, and if he had not been a knight, he could hunt in the forests and fields (he did not mind compensation, for his master was very rich and generous), and they were afraid that they would have to go home halfway.

After a long time, the knights began to get impatient, and at last one of the people sitting around the fire stood up tremblingly, "...... Old...... Lord, knight," he said in a trembling voice, "we ...... Eating rabbits......"

"Rabbit?"

"One...... Rotten rabbit," seeing that the knight's attitude was not as bad and dangerous as they had encountered before, the man became a little bolder: "Rotten, my lord, we have absolutely no poaching." ”

The knight frowned, and rode his horse forward two steps, "What rabbit has such a big bone?" Did you eat a wild boar or a deer? ”

An arquebusier sat on his horse, looking at the men, and he always felt that something was wrong, and his eyes shifted to the pile of charred bones, which were shattered by everything that could be put into his mouth, but there were still a few large bones, half black and half white, and he twisted his head and looked at them for a long time, and then suddenly he took the reins of his horse, and stepped back and shouted.

"It's not an animal!" He screamed! "It's human!"

The men who were hiding in the woods immediately threw down their clubs and fled, and the people by the fire immediately got up and fled in all directions, but they were confronted not only by well-trained knights, but also by horses, most of whom were caught or killed, and only two or three men ran far away and were immediately able to enter the forest. The arquebusiers immediately raised their muskets, and after a short fuse burned, the fleeing murderers were hit, and their howls startled a large flock of birds, and the crackling of their wings resounded through the sky.

"Spare us." The man who spoke to the knight first pleaded, "We are too hungry, sir, we have not eaten for a long time!" And when we met her, she was starving to death, a corpse! ”

"She was burned while she was alive," an arquebusier fiddled with the pile of bones, "a woman." ”

The knights at the head no longer listened to the wails and justifications, and the dead devils threw themselves into the fire, and the living devils broke their limbs and threw themselves into the fire, and they watched the flames rag and swallowed up all the sins before leaving.

It took a long time for the knight leader to let out the sullen breath in his heart, "How do you know if it's a person, or if it's been killed alive?" ”

"The pelvis," said the arquebusier, "is so obvious that the human pelvis is like a narrowed bow, and the deer and the boar are much larger, and it is a woman, like a cylinder, and a man's like a funnel." Also, what kind of hunger would make a person's skull shatter like an egg falling to the ground? Besides, those ...... The part that was thrown away is yellowish and shiny, and adult, it only has such a color if it is burned while alive. ”

"How do you know that...... Have you ever been an executioner? Or did you serve the old men of the Inquisition? ”

The arquebusier shook his head: "These are what the monks who taught us told us. ”

"Sounds like the devil is talking."

"That's knowledge," said the arquebusier, a little angrily, "and knowledge is useful." ”

"I apologize to you, young man, and count me as a loner." The knights of the Spanish general Gonzalo twisted their beards, Spain was at peace for the time being, they might have to stay in Lucca for a few months, in that case, shouldn't his knights also be allowed to attend the lessons?

Now the arquebusier was embarrassed, after all, he was a lord, and he respectfully thanked the knight for his leniency, and went back to his companions.

As they continued along the Via Emilia, resting in a half-abandoned inn, the knights were once again in a bad mood when they found the skulls of three or four babies in their master's pot, and after setting up a few fresh torches outside the inn, they began to worry about whether they would be able to complete the task assigned by Archbishop Lucca on this outing.