Chapter Twenty-Three: The Coming of the Magical Age (I)

In the Middle Ages in Europe, where the religious atmosphere was extremely strong, the power of faith was staggering.

When the "angels" wearing cat ears publicly pronounced the "Oracle of God" in the square in front of the church, Marseille, the second largest city in France, quickly bowed down and surrendered before the travelers—without further coercion, the town hall, the courthouse, and the church were all open to the "saint" Levy, and the citizens of the city obeyed with all respect.

However, due to the plague, the city's governing institutions had completely collapsed, and Levi had to bring the people from his manor house to the city, and together with the few remaining public officials, he could barely build a government agency.

During this period, there was actually a mindless little nobleman who listened to the rumors and brought his own private soldiers to find trouble, wanting to expel Levi, a "heretical usurper who uses witchcraft...... Fortunately, after being struck by the angels with lightning over a few fools, the rest of the people are honest.

Then, thanks to the latest information gathered in Guò, the travelers were informed of the tragic state of the port of Marseille.

-- According to Levi's original prediction, this prosperous city, which had a population of 80,000 in January, should still be able to survive even if it suffers heavy losses. But in fact, in February, 57,000 corpses were brought out of the city of Marseille, or about 60 percent of the city's population. Another 10,000 Maasai residents were killed in March. Counting those who fled in a hurry, there are only about 8,000 people left in the city, and more than 1,000 of them have already suffered from the Black Death, and if they are not treated quickly, most of them will probably not survive for a week.

With such a horrific death rate, the military and administrative bodies of Marseille have all collapsed.

Marseille's city guard originally had 200 standing troops, that is, mercenaries who signed long-term contracts and received military salaries every month, which was not small in Europe at that time. However, due to the dense living conditions in the barracks and the very unsanitary environment, these strong professional soldiers were the first to suffer under the attack of the Black Death, and before March, they were all dead.

The courts and government in Marseille were no better, with the last judge in the city having just died from his hospital bed on the morning of Knight Levi's burning, and the last lawyer had died the previous week. By the time Levi took over with his men, there was only a deaf old janitor left in the entire city's law enforcement agencies, and all the case files and official documents had been reduced to ashes in a fire.

As a medieval free city, Marseille was governed by a municipal council of ten to fifteen people. In those days, career bureaucrats and career politicians were not very popular in Europe, so the mayor of Marseille (in fact, the seat members) and other members of the committee were generally held by the most prominent local merchants, gentlemen (most of them were the leaders of a certain guild) and nobles (the land belonged to them), and occasionally there were out-of-town guys who were "parachuted" with royal appointments. But before the "angel came", all the members of the entire city council had either been summoned to heaven by the Lord, or they had abandoned their posts and fled in a hurry, and there were only a few miscellaneous clerks left in the town hall, all of them sick......

Well, on the plus side, Knight Levi doesn't have to worry about anyone coming to fight him for power, at least for the time being.

The only relatively complete official institution in the city is the church at the moment. In the years since the collapse of the town hall, it was entirely a guard subordinate to the church, and a small number of dutiful clergy who maintained the minimum order in the city...... But even the church, having lost about three-quarters of its men during the Black Death, was barely able to control a small part of the city near the church, leaving the rest in complete anarchy.

This is still the case with the powerful officials, and the situation among the people is even more miserable. At this time, the city of Marseille was already disintegrating, except for those herbs that could only act as placebos, which were sold at sky-high prices, all the other shops were closed, and all the qiē trading business came to a halt. The quays were full of "ships of the dead" with no owners and sailors, and no ships entered or left for forty days - Marseille became a dead port

However, it is surprising that, despite the closure of all the shops, the remnants of the citizens were able to live without the risk of hunger and cold for a short time - the food stock that had supplied 80,000 people was enough to fill the stomachs of 7,000 people. Don't have money to buy food at home? What money do you need at this time? Most of the people in the city died or fled anyway, and their food, wine, and firewood were left unowned. Anyone who is hungry can go to the house of a neighbor who has become a dead house and "move" some food...... Until he himself died of the plague in black and festering.

There are even quite a few citizens who usually have a hard time, simply give up on themselves, take advantage of this opportunity of the collapse of law and order, try their best to satisfy their own qiē**, as if they are dying to seek pleasure, day and night to indulge in indulgence, drunk like mud, on a whim, arbitrarily break into other people's houses, do whatever they want, take whatever they like, and no one will stop them - because everyone lives today and can't keep tomorrow, where can they care about what property or not property? As a result, most of the dwellings in the city, whether they were magnificent palaces or cramped huts, were almost public property, and any passer-by could break into them in a big way, as if they were his own home.

Of course, these "carnivals on the eve of ruin" are just the frenzied reactions of the citizens of Marseille at the end of the world. After the miraculous "angel came" and promised their salvation, those crazy creatures immediately became law-abiding citizens again for the survival of themselves and their families, and enthusiastically cooperated with the implementation of any decree issued by Knight Levi.

Even Levi's public request for "donations" when he felt a little embarrassed to have citizens bring their belongings to the church to express their piety and repentance miraculously did not cause much resistance—not to mention how strong the religious atmosphere was in this era, even in later generations, there were very few people like Grandet who wanted money and died. When a person is dying of life, he must look at property very lightly.

Not to mention that so many people have died in the city recently, and countless wealthy families are all dead, as long as the property of those dead people is donated, it will probably be able to satisfy the appetite of the angels...... The citizens who had emptied their neighbors' property and came to borrow flowers to offer Buddha thought very optimistically.

Unfortunately, they seem to have slightly underestimated Doraemon's billionaire "loser", his greed and thirst for money......

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

“…… Florentine woollen wool, Flemish blankets, sheepskins from the Alps, pewter, bronze and jewellery from Aquitaine, local Provençal cheeses, fish and natural soaps, natural gems from Eastern Europe and Western Asia, champagne and Bordeaux wines...... Even in the modern world, these things should be considered good things, why is the price of the [automatic pawn machine] so low? Of course, those natural gemstones were sold for a good price, but unfortunately the quantity was too small to make up for 1.5 billion yen......"

In the large cobblestone square in front of the main entrance of the church, all kinds of "tributes" are piled up, including luxurious and gorgeous gold and silver utensils, precious stones and coins, as well as relatively simple wine barrels, blankets and cloths and other miscellaneous items, as well as "large items" such as horse-drawn carriages. Minami Rika and Doraemon are taking turns stuffing them into the [automatic pawn machine], and at the same time putting away the stacks of yen bills that the machine keeps spitting out.

It's a pity that the price of these tributes assessed by the [automatic pawn machine] is far less than Nan Lixiang's minimum psychological expectations, which makes her complain about it.

“…… What's the solution? These things were all found in the house where the plague patients died, and there were no number of germs on them, and the pawn shop had to disinfect them before they could be sold, so the price was naturally very low. The cat sighed helplessly and explained.

However, these "bacteriological weapons" are not the most deceitful. In contrast, the "tribute" that made people feel cheated were the Oriental porcelain, silk and spices that were considered priceless in the eyes of medieval Europeans...... In this era, a single colored porcelain vase could sell for thousands of gold coins in Western Europe, but it was not as valuable as a gold coin for an automatic pawn machine evaluated according to the market price in modern Japan. Not to mention the silk and spices - in any case, it is more profitable to trade spices and silk from the modern world

As a result, when all kinds of tributes sent by the citizens of Marseille that seemed to be piled up were thrown into the [automatic pawn machine], they were only sold for a low price of 200 million yen. Not to mention the principal amount of 15 billion yen, even the monthly interest of 1.5 billion yen is far from the same.

Fortunately, religious sites have always amassed the greatest amount and variety of wealth in places of obscurity and devotion to religion, whether it was churches in medieval Europe or Tibetan lamas' temples before liberation...... After scrambling the cathedral of the port of Marseille, the two main monasteries, and the villa of the bishop of Marseille, the cat finally found something that seemed to sell for a high price—first, a small bronze statue of a half-naked muscular man, rusted on the surface, with many signs of bump damage, said to be an antique from the Roman Empire. In this way, even if it is only 1348 now, this thing should have a historical value of thousands of years, and it should be able to sell for a large price no matter how you calculate it...... However, the final result was very disappointing for the cat," ...... What the? Just pawned 10,000 yen? Hell, this thing must be a fake and it's new."

(As early as the Renaissance, there were many professional dealers selling fake antiques in Europe.) At least a few dozen of the holy spears that stabbed Jesus to death were sold, while St. Peter's skulls were large enough to be bowled, and the shroud of Jesus could be used as a sail...... ）

Nan Lixiang, on the other hand, found a cheesy cloisonné enamel goblet decorated with rose and vanilla motifs and a crystal handle. Although the cloisonné enamel is fancy, it actually appeared quite early, at least in ancient Roman times, it was already known to Westerners, and after it was introduced to China, it was called cloisonné. Copper wires are coiled on the surface of the objects into shapes, and then the enamel material is filled into them, and finally a variety of bright and pleasing colors such as red, green, and blue are fired. The wine glass in Nan Lixiang's hand is in the ancient Roman style, and it is embossed with the Roman Colosseum...... Because the color of this thing is still very bright, and the craftsmanship is also very exquisite, it does not look like it has faded for a long time, Nan Lixiang did not treat it as an antique at first, and it was not until she put it in the [Automatic Pawn Machine] that she was taken aback by the offer, "...... Scare? I sold it for 50 million yen, but I didn't expect it to be a real artifact."

Comparing the crudely medieval gold and silver vessels next to her, she had to admit that medieval Europe seemed to be regressive in many ways.

However, in the antique collections of the Marseille Church and the wealthy, fakes still account for many times, and the real thing is not necessarily very valuable. Desperate to raise money, the cat even disregarded the clergyman's eyebrows and fainting, and even removed the Renaissance-style frescoes on the church walls, but because they were not masterpieces, they still failed to sell for a few bucks. On the other hand, the altar used for preaching in the church, as well as the carved bed where the bishop sleeps, are actually made of precious mahogany, and after being dismantled by the machine and thrown into the [automatic pawn machine], it was exchanged for more than 20 million yen......

Of course, Doraemon did not just dismantle it and not take care of the aftermath, but pasted a modern three-dimensional painting with a Christian theme on the wall, and took out a fiberglass pulpit and placed it on the altar, which immediately made these short-sighted priests look surprised and delighted, and even called out miracles.

But even so, the imminent payment of 1.5 billion yen in monthly interest has not been sufficient, and it is no longer time to go door-to-door, tear down walls and dig in the ground to find the inheritance of those wealthy citizens...... So, the cat's eye, which was about to go crazy, turned his mind to the port - as a maritime trading city that has flourished since the sixth century B.C., Marseille naturally has many warehouses full of goods by the docks, and now they are all ownerless because of the death of the shipper's family. Now it's all dedicated to the "angels" to confiscate and save the emergency.

-- Wheat, wool, ore, timber, olive oil...... Every ownerless warehouse was swept away, no matter what goods were stuffed inside, and even many ownered warehouses were requisitioned for free after being slapped by the machine. In the end, he even frantically didn't let go of the ships in the harbor full of dead people, and used the [shrinking lamp] to make them the size of a palm and threw them all into the [automatic pawn machine], which can be said to be three feet high.

In short, after such a brutal and ruthless search, after sweeping most of the city, the machine finally made up enough loan interest that should be paid this month. This shows the poverty of productive capacity and wealth accumulation in medieval Europe......

On the other hand, when the red-eyed cat is scavenging everywhere and collecting money frantically, in the chapel of the Cathedral of Marseille, Shizuka Jukawa, a female school doctor with golden breasts ♀ spreading angel wings, fully waved her medical worker professionalism, with a look of compassion (natural stay?). The holy smile of every plague patient and healthy person who is worried about the disease who comes to ask for help, gives grace and salvation from heaven.

“…… Don't worry, don't be afraid, the power of God will soothe your physical pain. (French or Italian) Meow Ya bathes in the holy breath of holiness, removes physical ailments, blooms the vitality of life, and completely heals Meow (Japanese)"

Tips: The new domain name "biquge.info" has been launched by Biquge, and the original domain name is about to be discontinued. Please tell each other, thank you!