In the late winter of 1176 in the Empire, Pope Nathaniel Salome, the Supreme God Cult, in the name of the gods, declared that the [Holy Light Cult] established in the territory of Leo was a false god religion and all the Holy Light believers were blasphemers, and called on all believers to support and follow the church to wage a holy war

On the same day, His Majesty Bernadotte II, the new Emperor of the Empire, issued a formal decree to all the nobles of the Empire, first confirming the legitimacy of the Church War, and then, as a devout believer, proclaiming the royal family to join the war, and ordering all the nobles of the Empire to provide all aid to this just war

On the day of the announcement, the members of the church and the pro-royal nobles all over the empire territory also began to spread the documents and edicts that had already copied the same content, and for a while, there was a great chaos in the land of the empire, which had been quiet for hundreds of years, and countless commoners and unwitting nobles watched everything happen in amazement, but they had no ability to stop it

Within a week, as if they had been prepared, an army of 100,000 men on both sides and several times as many people sailed out of the imperial capital under the personal leadership of Rolf and Nathaniel

As they marched northward, they gradually joined up with the rest of the noble coalition that had arrived one after another, and when they finally set foot in the central region, the number of soldiers and peasants reached a terrifying number of nearly 300,000, a kind of expedition that had only been seen a few times before the unification of the empire......

In this conflict, which was recognized as "divine punishment" by later historians who sympathized with the royal family and the supreme divine religion, and called the "Great Patriotic War" in the mouths of the descendants of the principality and orthodox scholars, the opposing side of the church Leo was not to be outdone, and two days later, they made a righteous claim in the name of the principality and the Holy Light Cult

In Professor Pericles' own handwriting, Leo and the Duchy of Pande are completely victims, whether it is the identity document of the original House of Lords or the canonization of the previous emperor, it shows that Leo is an orthodox and loyal nobleman to the Empire

Since such nobles can be conscripted on trumped-up charges, then, the professor writes at the end, what will Rolf, who himself insists on curtailing the power of the nobility after Leo's defeat, treat the other nobles? Will the butcher knife be raised again

I have to say that the professor did not refute this question from the front, it just touched the sore spot that all the nobles were most concerned about, although it has not had an effect for the time being, but after that, with Leo's insistence, the Duchy of Pande has gained more and more sympathy and support from the nobles openly and secretly, of course, these are all later words......

As for Kane Hugh Lancelot, who temporarily led the Holy Light Cult, he was even more scornful of the accusations of false gods or cults in the church, and he used his own experience in the church to list all kinds of bad deeds of the Supreme God Cult with detailed data

From the oppression of ordinary civilians to the murder of upright nobles in disguise by the Templars, from the extravagant life of the Church's elite to the horrific Inquisition, the nascent Cult of Light is the true face of the benevolent gods

Of course, in the atmosphere of increasing disturbance on the mainland, while the two sides blamed each other in a war of words, military actions became more intense, after all, everyone knew that the final decision on this ridiculous "justice" still depended on the army and the war in their hands, and even the most devout religious person could not veto it......

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If you can look down from the sky, you can see several huge streams of people on the silver-white earth, like tiny black ant colonies, lined up in a long line against the wind and snow and slowly moving towards the north of the empire......

After leaving the central or warm south, the closer they got to the north of the empire, the cold weather made the soldiers and nobles extremely uncomfortable, goose-feathered snow flakes and fine ice particles mixed together by the northwest wind to blow to the people's bodies, taking away the body temperature and rustling the metal armor that could be hit

Reluctantly raised his head to meet the lead-colored clouds and dim light, and judged the time a little, Saru, whose face was red from the cold, let out a long white mist, stiffly raised his right hand, shouted a few words from the knights of the guards beside him, and watched a few horses gallop to the front of the team to give orders, and then rushed to the car of Rolf in the center of the team with the reins of his mount......

Sixteen snow-white, tall, and sturdy pure-blooded warrior horses pulled the golden chariot, the wide carriage was all covered by a thick velvet blanket, and several brass braziers were built inside, but even so, Rolf, who was wrapped in several layers of cotton clothes, still couldn't feel the slightest heat, and held a glass of red wine in his cold hand, but he couldn't send it to his lips that were also blue

The three seductive young women endured the cold and discomfort, clinging to his arms in thin clothes, and although their bumpy bodies constantly rubbed against their sensitivity, they could not make their Emperor His Majesty react in the slightest

"Knock knock!"

There was a soft knock on the outside of the carriage, and then the sound of Saru's somewhat out of voice rang out from outside

"Your Majesty, we are already close to the territory of the Northern Territory, and the soldiers have been on the road for more than 6 hours in this weather, should we stop and rest, get some hot soup to warm up before moving on?"

Trembling as he brought the golden cup to his lips and drank the wine, Rolf felt a slight warmth, and after hearing his confidant's proposal, he nodded his head in agreement without thinking

"I didn't ...... No problem, press your ...... What do you mean...... Go ahead, my dear friend...... Friend, by the way, inform Nathaniel, we ...... Let's rest here for a while! ”

Rolf's intermittent and phlegm-filled answer made Saru frown deeply, and he was also a little helpless in his heart about the stubbornness of his admired and loyal majesty, before the original expedition, countless people persuaded him but failed to stop Rolf's insistent pro-campaign, but before the war started, his body had been tortured by the weather

Looking at the jungle like a man-eating monster on both sides of the road, and the road ahead that seemed blurred under the wind and snow, Saru's heart suddenly throbbed with an ominous throbbing, shook his head and smiled self-deprecatingly, after instructing the servants to take care of the emperor, he rode back to his place again, it was definitely not an easy matter for such a large team to stop completely......

While Saru was busy commanding the army, in the equally spacious but very modest carriage slightly behind, His Majesty the crown of Nathaniel, dressed in a gold-trimmed red robe, was also talking with one of his confidants, the most favored cardinal Archbishop Ilya Bunian

"Dear Elijah, perhaps many people are right, we have prepared for this holy war in a little too hasty, and we have underestimated the effects of bad weather, and I feel deeply remorseful to see these Lambs of God trek through this weather."

With a bit of melancholy in his tone, the Pope's eyes looked through the curtain of the car at the army walking like a walking corpse and sighed

Ilya, who didn't dare to sit down and maintained an extremely awkward posture in the carriage, heard this, and hurriedly explained

"Your Majesty, Your mercy will greatly favor all the Lambs who hear these words, the justice of this holy war is beyond doubt, I believe that the temporary hardship is only a test for the believers of the Great Supreme God, I firmly believe that we will be victorious, and the glory of the Most High God will be completely sprinkled throughout the continent under your correct leadership!"

Rarely without accepting his horses and flattering, Nathaniel closed the window and sighed imperceptibly in the somewhat dimly lit carriage, as if talking to the cardinal in front of him, as if talking to himself

"Is it bound to be victorious? Before we could see the enemy, we had already lost hundreds or more of our fighters along the way...... I curse this damned place, the north is as disgusting as its master! ”

……

The soldiers walking the road may never know what the big men are talking about, and they are like marionettes of Muna, who keep going north, north, and north, until ......

"Bang"

One of the soldiers in the queue fell to the ground without warning, his stiff body sinking deep into the thick snow, and it was surprising that none of his companions around him showed any abnormality, and the nearest few people surrounded him, and there was a look of longing on his face

After waiting for a while, a knight who was maintaining the team around rushed over, frowned, dismounted, briefly checked the fallen soldiers, and then remounted his horse with a blank face, leaving only this sentence in the cold wind

"It's hopeless, take his belongings and keep going!"

As the words fell, the surrounding soldiers rushed forward like crazy, stripped all the clothes from the soldier, who might still be alive, and took everything that could keep out the cold......

The person who snatched the robe or cotton robe didn't care about the joy and put it on himself as quickly as possible, while the other slow people could only curse a few times unwillingly, and then looked at the other companions with wandering eyes, wrapped in the light clothes on their bodies, and waited for the next unlucky person to appear

The team continued to move forward like an ant colony, but the naked and stiff corpse left in the snow was so glaring and mocking, and the wind and snow became more violent......

(To be continued.) Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ)