Maximilian sat down across the table, and he examined the man with unkempt hair, seeing that his nails were long and the inner cuticle was dark with dirt.

"Folson, you haven't taken a shower in a long time." The Pope lifted his eyelids and looked towards the shower behind the man, where the wall was fitted with a shower head that could release hot water with the flip of a switch.

This is a special prison. Three meals a day, paper, pen and ink, clothing, and various household items, including candles for lighting, were delivered by the supervisors through special windows above the steel doors.

The man named Folsom subconsciously retracted his hand on the table. He cowered in his chair, his hands clasped between his legs, as if he could avoid the Pope's gaze. He explained with a wry smile: "I ...... I've been very busy during this time......"

This is not the focus of Maximilian's attention. He slowly combed his beard with his upper lip: "How's the food here?" Still used to it? ”

Folsen instinctively licked his lips: "It's a good meal." White bread is served at almost every meal. The goulash with potatoes tasted very good, with fish and cake on Sundays...... By the way, yesterday they brought me a foie gras and a small bottle of red wine, which tasted great. ”

"It seems that you are doing well here, so I am relieved." Maximilian nodded slightly, his gaze away from Folsen's thin face and onto the papers on the other's desk.

"What are you writing about?" The Pope asked lightly.

Maybe it was the low volume that Folsen didn't hear. Or maybe the focus of his inner desire had nothing to do with the papal question itself. Folsom swallowed hard in his throat and said, "Your Majesty...... I, I've been here for almost twenty years, and I want to ...... I...... I think...... One thing, please. ”

Maximilian raised his eyelids, with the majesty of his superior, and calmly asked: "You want to go out?" ”

"Yes!" Folsen's answer was completely reflexive, and the reaction speed was comparable to that of an electric shock. His next tone was full of pleading: "I miss my wife and children so much. ”

Maximilian looked at him with pity and slowly shook his head: "Folsen, the crimes you committed back then were too serious. The Plantagenet Kingdom has ranked you as the highest-ranking wanted criminal from that time. If it weren't for the blessing of the Holy Lord, you wouldn't be alive now. ”

Hearing these words, Faulson's already curled up body trembled suddenly, and a look of fear appeared on his face.

Nineteen years ago, Folsom killed a man.

It seemed to him a complete accident———— Folsen was wealthy and owned his own private carriage. While going out, he knocked down a lady who was crossing the road, and the horse was frightened and trampled the poor woman to death on the spot.

If it is just an ordinary homicide case, as long as sufficient compensation is paid, the family of the deceased is forgiven, and the two parties reach an agreement, they can avoid the law and settle it privately.

The crux of the matter is that the deceased was the sister of the reigning king of the Plantagenet dynasty at the time, a real princess.

"If you want to go, I can let you out now." Maximilian caressed the diamond ring on the middle finger of his left hand, and he liked the special texture and luster of this gemstone: "But I can't guarantee that you will be alive after you walk out of this door." ”

The Pope then added: "Honesty is a virtue, and those who lie will be tormented forever in hell." ”

Folsen's understanding of this was skewed. His expression became nervous, and at the same time, he felt that his throat was a little blocked, paused for a moment, and asked tremblingly, "...... You mean, I'm going to implicate Marlena and Tom? ”

Maximilian spread his hands, his deep gaze implicitly cunning and sarcasm, but from Folsen's point of view, it was calm, even with an element of divine kindness: "I have already said that the Plantagenet dynasty has been wanted by you. Here you can be blessed by the Holy Lord. Once you leave, whatever the consequences, it's your choice. ”

The Pope has a deep knowledge of psychology. Not going to give Folsen time to think, he continued with his previous question, reached over the table, and tapped twice on the pages: "What are you writing?" ”

Pulled back to reality from his dazed and anticipatory aura, Folsen followed the direction of Maximilian's finger to see and explain the patterns he had drawn on the paper and the words he had written: "This is a new device that greatly increases the rate of bullet fire. ”

If Tianhao was present, he would definitely feel that these simple structural drawings on the paper were very familiar. It was a pistol that produced a pushing effect between the ram and the medicine rope, and by pulling the trigger, the effect of turning the circular magazine was achieved.

An inferior revolver with bullet and firing patterns that remained stuck in the arquebus era. But it's a commendable whimsy and a practical one.

Things stand out against a contrasting background! Maximilian thought silently, his cold face softening into a gentle smile: "Keep doing what you have to do, don't think too much." The Lord will take care of every devout believer, including you and me. ”

Starting with his forehead, he tapped his fingers eight times in a clockwise direction along his shoulders and chest, forming a circle: "God loves the world." ”

Folsom hurriedly made the same move, following the pope's rhythm of speech and whispering a prayer: "God loves the world." ”

Maximilian left the cell with the guards and closed the door. The Captain of the Holy Guard took out the key again, twisting it in reverse to lock the heavy steel door.

The deep corridors were very clean, and from time to time you could see priests in black robes. They are either responsible for delivering the necessary items to the prisoners they are holding here, or they are keeping a surveillance on the prisoners.

The city of Gabriel was held underground by as many as a thousand special prisoners like Folson.

In the case of Falson, he was a man with a lot of experience in firearms, having worked as a senior technician in a military factory related to the Plantagenet dynasty.

The fatal incident of a carriage crashing into a person was actually planned by the Holy See behind the scenes. According to a secret order issued by the Inquisition, the clergyman in charge of the matter bribed Folsen's coachman. The identity of the woman who was killed is not false, she is indeed a princess of the Plantagenet Dynasty, but her status is not too high, and she is on the edge of the royal family.

Maximilian had no interest in men. The reason why Folsen was framed was because he was working on rifling at the time, and he had already made significant progress.

For crude arquebuses, the significance of rifling is self-evident. It's no exaggeration to say that this is a milestone in changing the power, accuracy, and range of thermal weapons. Starting from the ordinary rifling of guns, it can be extended to the rifling of cannon shots, and there are many more related ordnance research sub-items.

All these inventions are contrary to the plans drawn up by the Holy See many years ago, and they are completely on the opposite side.

The current pattern of the mainland is not in the interests of the Holy See. For a long time, because of the blockade of the dragon pass, the northern issue was not considered for the time being, and the focus of the attention of the Holy See Gaozen has always been on the southern part of the mainland. There are also differences of opinion within the Holy See on the way in which power and interests should be directed. In general, there was a tendency to guide the faith of kings and nobles. As long as everyone becomes a believer in the Holy Lord, then the next thing will be logical, and the believers will take the initiative to offer rich gifts.

The program has been around for a long time and has been implemented for hundreds of years. Countless missionaries have worked hard and even with their lives to finally deliver the Gospel of the Lord to all corners of the southern continent. Now, in addition to the country that is stubborn and worships the so-called "Lord", the other four kingdoms have the Holy Episcopal sect as their state religion. From kings to commoners, they all carried sacred rice racks with them.

It turned out that the top of the Holy See underestimated the IQ of the king and the nobility. They are not fools who can be easily led by faith in their imagination, but in turn use the Holy Lord to strengthen the rule of the people, and in the name of religion, mentally anesthetize the minds of the common people, so as to achieve the goal of stable rule within the kingdom.

The damned kings and nobles were in favor of "tithing" with both hands. However, only a small part of this money went to the Holy See, and most of it went into the pockets of the kingdom's magnates.

The veneration of the Holy See by civilians of various countries must also be reviewed, and only after being peeled off can they enter the control of the Holy See. To take the simplest example, if a person worships a gold pound, if he goes through the normal procedure, that is, does not go through the local church and priest set up by the church, and directly gives the service to the local government of the kingdom, then when the gold pound finally flows into the inner treasury of the Holy See, there will only be about five pennies left, and no more than sevenpence at most.

The top brass of the Holy See was well aware of these things, but could not punish the kings for legitimate and justifiable reasons. After all, everyone is shouting the slogan "The Holy Lord is above" and wearing the same rice-shaped uniform, which will not be able to get back the part of the benefits that belong to the Holy See in the way of war.

The relationship between the Five Kingdoms and the Holy See is, to put it bluntly, to use each other, to guard against each other, always vigilant whether the other party will pounce on them and bite them, or see the opportunity to fight back and tear off a large piece of flesh from each other's body.

Peace and stability are only superficial, because there is a common enemy of the northern giants.

Under such a premise, the Holy See can and must suppress the development and use of science and technology in the strictest possible way.

The Holy See holds many secrets, and Gabriel is the heart of the secrets. It's a sprawling base from the age of civilization to the present day. Despite the destruction of civilization caused by the asteroid's impact on Earth, the founders of the Holy See still found some biological weapons that were far more powerful than their time in the course of their initial discovery and in-depth exploration of the base's interior.

For example, number four, and number six.

The Holy See spent a lot of resources to mass-produce Biochemical Form 4 and form the Holy Cult Army. However, the number of the Holy Cult Army is too small to form a scale, especially with the arquebus fully deployed among the five kingdoms, the weaknesses of the traditional cold weapons are clearly visible, and the position of the Holy Cult Army, which has an advantage in physical strength, is awkward.

Luckily, the modified Quad is intelligent, and while they are not very intelligent, they are impeccable in carrying out orders. With a short period of training, they are also proficient in the use of arquebuses.

A primary musket, plus a front-loading gun that fires solid shells. These two weapons have been used on the southern continent for a long time, and there has been no breakthrough in either technology or power.

This is the result of covert manipulation by the Holy See.

The results of previous wars show that Suolong Pass is not an insurmountable natural hazard. As long as the army is large and has a large number of artillery, not to mention a few passes made of masonry, even a huge mountain range can be flattened.

The key is in the patron saint. The savage, uncivilized giants of the north always summon the gods when the battle is at its most dangerous. That giant metal monster was a disaster for the Kingdom Alliance. No weapon could stop its massive iron feet, especially the red light released from its chest, and there was no second terrifying weapon to match.

The more battles we fought, the more familiar they became to each other. The Holy See gradually figured out the law of the summoning of the patron saint, and the high-ranking personnel, including the Pope, knew very well that this was not a god, but a prehistoric creation left over from ancient humans. As long as you have enough patience, even if you stay south of the Lock Dragon Pass forever and do nothing, time will help you completely destroy that metal guardian god.

The technology of the Northern Giants has remained unchanged for hundreds of years. What's more, the Battle of Suolong Pass was fought many times before and after, and each time it ended with the barbarians winning and the kingdom coalition retreating in defeat. The giants have captured a large number of guns, but they have never seen them use similar weapons on the battlefield.

The Holy See is very concerned about this. The two popes before and after paid enough patience for this, they sent a large number of people to buy giant captives from various countries, racked their brains to find out the situation, and finally came to a completely unexpected conclusion———— comprehensive intelligence analysis of all parties, the northern continent has a high probability of no sulfur, resulting in the giants unable to use muskets, which means that the technology tree in terms of thermal weapons has been cut off and can never be lit.

It was then that the Holy See began to adjust its strategy, targeting the kings and the nobility, while covering a large civilian class.

The emergence of a new weapon can change the whole world.

In fact, Folsen was not the inventor of rifling at all. More than fifty years ago, a commoner in the Kingdom of the Rhine discovered the precise guiding effect of rifling on bullets. He was gifted with mathematics and worked with a local craftsman to create the first rifled arquebus in the history of a new civilization.

He was thrilled that all the data from the test results showed that the gun performed well, far surpassing the current firearms in terms of power, range, and accuracy.