Nijmegen ......

The mention of this word makes my heart ache like a pinprick, the land that has been given so many beautiful meanings, the most important emotional symbol is also the most simple Nijmegen, the land where I live and where my descendants were born, even if it is scorched earth, it cannot be erased from my heart.

"We'll go back."

I clenched my fists and accentuated my tone: "We must go back, and in the manner of liberators, punish the enemy severely!" ”

The next day, the Vatican, the Church of the Virgin Mary.

Located halfway up the mountain, the Church of the Virgin Mary, far from the center of the Vatican, does not have the graceful and luxurious demeanor and strong symbolism of St. Peter's Church, it is exquisite and miniaturized, all made of ordinary granite from the Apennine Mountains, after years of vicissitudes of life, let here accumulate a heavy historical texture, hidden in the layers of autumn flowers, hidden in the layers of autumn flowers, exceptionally simple and fresh.

Bishop Bendenik's choice to celebrate the Holy Prayer Mass here obviously has a deep meaning, the location of the church is lower than that of the Vatican, which shows that the bishop is not proud of his special status, but more and more humble and courteous, and the simplicity of the Church of the Virgin Mary is different from the richly decorated Vatican, which is where he strives to show people that the Eastern Church is different from the Orthodox Church, although the two are the same and equally extravagant, and it is well known that the different attitudes towards the recognition of the Virgin Mary are the tip of the iceberg of the deep-rooted contradictions between the two churches. Holding a dispersal in this church named after Our Lady is regarded as his efforts to cater to the Vatican and make up for the gap between the two sides, and it is impossible for the dignitaries of the Holy See not to give face.

Surrounded by the crowd, Bishop Bendenik presided over the whole Mass of Holy Prayer according to the custom of the Eastern Church, the atmosphere was quite holy and touching, and the newly elected Pope John XVII was quite useful, and this fellow brother from Constantinople respected himself, not only personally recited a hymn from the Bible, but also consecrated the spiritual instrument on his behalf, and the scene of the guests and hosts made the congregation cheer and rejoice, as if they saw the day when the two churches finally eliminated the misunderstanding and became one, only a few people who understood knew it in their hearts, The two sides have become more and more compatible, and it is difficult to come together.

Immediately after the Holy Prayer Mass, a grand feast was held, and the unfamiliar Bishop of Bendenik certainly couldn't afford so much money to manage, and the object of burning money was replaced by the wealthy Vatican Holy See, and post-war Rome really needed such a banquet to boost confidence, so both in terms of the scale of the reception and the richness of the dishes, it was first-class.

The Bishop of Bendinique, who was the protagonist of the dinner, of course, became the object of compliments and toasts from the crowd, and after the attack in turn, the bishop who was overwhelmed by the wine raised his hand in embarrassment, and the Pope, who was in great spirit, stopped the other nobles who were eager to try it, and instructed the attendants to send the bishop back to his room to rest, and take care of this very happy guest.

The Duke of Nijmegen was naturally among the invitations to the banquet, and the bishops and nobles who had come to offer their hospitality flocked to me, but I politely declined their kind gestures to toast, and the Patriarch of Chuzara, who was sitting beside him, knowingly helped me to promote many enthusiastic suitors.

"Your excuse is really bad, Lord Duke, and your back injury is not healed? It's not like you haven't seen you drink wildly. "The old bishop finally got amused and made fun of me.

"I remember that the precepts of the church did not allow the clergy to drink alcohol, but what do you have in your glass?" Unwilling to admit defeat, I immediately ridiculed each other.

The old bishop shrugged nonchalantly: "Have you forgotten that this is the Vatican, the residence of God's servants, and these people can be forgiven for doing anything out of the ordinary." ”

He took a sip of scarlet wine, and his shriveled lips seemed to be smeared with blood: "Besides, this is not the wine that leads to depravity, but the blood of Christ shed for the world, and we are repenting......"

The old bishop raised an eyebrow and added: "Happy confession!" ”

I leaned my neck and drank the remaining half of the wine, then took two breaths and put my palm on my hand to smell it and felt that it was almost there, and then I stumbled away and pushed the chair and stood up: "Then you continue to be happy, I will go to find a corner to make it convenient, if someone asks......"

"The Duke is so drunk that I'm afraid I've collapsed and suffocated in my vomit."

The old bishop looked at me playfully: "How? ”

I had black lines all over my head: "You shouldn't talk like that when you're so respected......"

Avoiding a few drunks who were overly excited, I staggered up the stairs, my steps messy.

"Why are you really dizzy when you're pretending to be drunk?"

I rubbed my eyelids hard to make sure I was in the right direction, and through several dark corridors, a priest in a black robe was waiting for the entrance.

Bishop Bendinic sat in a chair near the fireplace with his back to the door, threw the burnt wood into the blazing fire, and said without looking back: "This way of meeting reminds me of the days when I was frightened in Constantinople, and the memories were not very good. ”

The room was warm, even a little stuffy, and the handkerchief-sized glass window was covered with a thin white frost, which was caused by the huge temperature difference between the inside and the outside, and the priest who brought me in lit a candle and silently withdrew, accompanied by the beeping of burning wood, and the only breathing could be heard in the room.

"Believe me, Bishop, everyone has bad memories, and in this respect I am much more miserable than you." Pulling over a chair and sitting down facing each other, I rubbed my somewhat hot cheeks.

His typical Greek chin is always proudly raised, so that people can only see two large slender nostrils: "I'm not here to listen to your story, Lord Duke, I deliberately drank so much wine to make myself look like a drunkard, time is precious, please pick up the important ones." ”

I licked my lips, stared into Bendenik's bottomless eyes, and said slowly, "I need your help, Lord Bishop......"

"Help?"

He asked rhetorically: "Is there anything you can't do in Rome now, and you need the help of me, an outsider?" ”

"No kidding, sir."

I didn't have time to tell if the other person was joking or really stupid, and my heart was beating out of my throat: "Maybe you haven't heard, maybe you're pretending to be confused, but please listen carefully to me and swear to keep it a secret, can you do it?" ”

Bishop Bendenik pondered for a moment and replied in the affirmative: "I would like to hear about it." ”

"I received information from my family that Nijmegen had been attacked by an enemy led by King Robert of France, and that he had fallen into the hands of the enemy, that my wife had been killed, and that my son had been missing......

Feeling tears welling up, I immediately turned my head towards the fireplace, and the flames of the fire faded into a blur: "They burned the harvest fields to the ground, destroyed entire cities and fortresses, slaughtered my people, enslaved their sisters and children, and turned Nijmegen into a name that existed only on the map." ”

At this I composed, tears dried up by the fire of vengeance in my breast, and the eyes that stared at Bishop Bendinic became more and more determined.

"I will take revenge and pay the bloody debt of the evil enemy!"

The bishop drew a cross on his chest: "O God, bless the souls of innocent people to ascend to heaven, Amen!" ”

He frowned, confused and compassionate, and said, "Countering violence with violence is not the fundamental solution to the problem, doing so will only allow hatred to pass on from generation to generation, think of those poor examples, but I am your personal friend, Randy, anyone can inevitably be manipulated by anger when this kind of thing happens, sometimes anger is not a tool of the devil to enslave our weak will, but a weapon to help mankind hold on to the faith." ”

He put one hand on mine and the other on my forehead: "Do what a man should do, my friend, and I'm at my disposal." ”

"Thank you, Your Excellency, for your kindness I will never forget."

I bowed my head and kissed his huge ruby ring, tears of gratitude: "A clipper, I need the fastest ship, whether it is a Roman naval warship or a merchant ship that runs trade, as long as it can get me to ****** without being seen." ”

Bishop Bendenik nodded, then shook his head again: "It's easy to find a boat, but how do you hide it?" All the Romans are staring at you! ”

I raised my head and said the plan I had already thought of: "Tomorrow morning, the news that the rebels are approaching Rome will spread throughout the city, for the safety of the Vatican, I will lead the army to the battle, naturally I can avoid the eyes of everyone in a grand manner, and the clipper boat you arranged can be claimed to be carrying the ancestral bishop of Chuzara, once I leave Rome by boat, my lord, the next thing has nothing to do with you, and no one will suspect you." ”

"Despicable Randy, this name is indeed worthy of the name."

The bishop agreed, reaching out to me and giving me a high-five: "May God bless you, my friend!" ”

The next morning, before the morning fog characteristic of the hilly region had lifted, and the city gates had just been opened, and the citizens who were ready to make a living for the day had just stepped out of their homes, a few panicked scouts broke the laziness of the Roman morning:

"Enemy attack, enemy attack! The rebels in the mountains of Corno have captured the forward fortress of Calsoli, and they are about to reach Rome. The brutal mountain people are coming to rob! ”

Bad news, like wings, is always easier to spread than good news, and in less than a meal, even the blind man begging for food on the flea street can describe to the people around him how the mountain people broke the iron gate of the fortress of Karsoli with only one hand, as if he had seen it with his own eyes.

"Those Corno mongrels are as tall as the porch of St. Peter's Church, and can eat a whole full-grown bull in one bite, and they have devil's horns and fire-breathing eyes, and they love to torment unmarried virgins and beautiful boys, run for your life, the sooner the better! Legend has it that one of King Solomon's Seventy-Two Pillars of Demon Gods, Sburnac, a warrior on a pale horse, skilled in driving poisonous insects and killing people...... It's Satan's curse! He tried in vain to attack the dwelling place of God's servants! ”

The brainless listeners were all frightened by such emotional descriptions, especially the housewives with long hair and short knowledge who loved to chew the root of their tongues, and even more so who were crying wolves and howling flowers, and crowded and shoved and fled home at the speed of light, leaving behind a mess of broken shoes and gowns, and blind men who were still dancing and making up stories.

"It's a little too much......"

I asked Rollo with a pout, but the latter was speechless, and we continued to walk side by side, and His Majesty the Pope heard the news of the rebel invasion, and sent someone to summon me to the Vatican to discuss countermeasures, and walked down the street just to witness the exaggerated scene just now.

St. Peter's Church was in turmoil, everyone was in a panic like a frightened bird, and the cardinals in red were sitting with sad faces and weeping, and I looked coldly at this group of cowards who had been looking at the world with the strength of wine yesterday, and my heart was full of contempt.

"Lord Duke, you can count it on, we are all waiting for you!"

His Majesty the Pope grabbed my arm like a life-saving straw, and prayed in a trembling voice: "It is rumored that the mountain people of Korno in the city have the help of the demon gods, that is, the devils who helped King Solomon to expand his territory, God, it is terrible, they peel their skins and cramps, eat human flesh raw, and go to hell ...... no grass grows."

Me: "......"

This rumor is really a three-person tiger, and the more it spreads, the more outrageous it becomes.

"Now there is only the army that depends on Nijmegen, Lord Duke, please save the Vatican once again!"

His Majesty the Pope, or Bishop Odoses back then, wept and wiped tears on my arm, like a prostitute who was played by a benefactor and didn't pay, I smacked the corners of my mouth, I couldn't taste anything, should I be glad to have a puppet at the mercy of such a person, or should I worry that he would be easier to let the ill-intentioned villains control?

"Rest assured, Nijmegen's sword is at your disposal!"

I caught a glimpse of the calm Bishop Chuzara next to me, and he saw through this trick to fool the child.

"I'll go back and pack up my troops and horses, and go out of the city to meet the enemy before dark, and I'll be in charge myself, and Rome will be safe!"

——————————

"Raise the warning flag and ask the other party for their identity!"

The octopus calmly issued the order, without the slightest panic, and the lookout raised the red pennant representing the battle signal, which was a kind of warning, but also to ask the identity of the other party, if they were not malicious, they would immediately raise the white flag to indicate peace.

As the minutes ticked by, I stared nervously at the approaching enemy ships, my heart beating my throat, and the octopus jumped back on deck, waiting for the blazing eagle eyes to look ahead.

"It's not good......"

He pinched his waist and stood in the wind, his hair was rubbed into a mess, and his greasy hair color shone with a unique style!

"The other party didn't respond!"

The lookout ripped open his throat and yelled, "Wait...... They raised the strange green flag, which had never been seen at sea, wait! It's a pirate! ”

"Sure enough, it was raised by this group of bitches, and there has been no trace of them in this sea area for a long time."

The octopus yells at the lookout, "Report the enemy's configuration!" ”

"One big Dromone, two small clippers, and the remaining two are offshore flats!"

The lookout replied, "It's only 1,500 yards!" ”

(End of chapter)