Chapter 45: The Merchant of Venice (Part II)

Although the Archbishop of Venice rebuked him with great vigour, it was a great pity that for the "pseudo-angels" who should be considered atheists in nature, the so-called "wrath of God" was probably more terrible than the collection of money from debt collection agencies across time and space.

“…… Oh, please stop squeezing us with such feeble words, miserly Venetians, I can generously admit here that we have abused the grace of God, so what? If you really have the ability, go to God and accuse us, not to mention whether you can find a way to fight a lawsuit, the legal fees for the lawsuit alone are more than one million ducats according to the official price, not to mention the routine bribes to the archangels at all levels, and I am afraid that even ten thousand ducats will not be able to fight the ......."

In response to such pale threats and questioning by the Archbishop of Venice, Wang Qiu's face did not change and his heart continued to be full of firewood—there was no real God in his head to supervise him," ...... In fact, in Rome and Avignon, there were many such unobtrusive clergy, who, in the name of the Lord, amassed countless sums of money from the believers, and some often coerced the believers to offer women for their pleasure. But when we turned around, we rebuked us for being poor, for giving, and for not deviating from the Lord's right ways, and even wanted to treat us like slaves in the face of such bastards, so we had to reluctantly send down the divine punishment, and burned them all to ashes with holy thunder and flames, and even a cardinal was punished by God, but His Majesty the Pope could only praise us for killing well and killing well, and killing with a croak."

“…… Are you threatening us? It's too bad for you to be an angel," said the Archbishop of Venice, whose face was so gloomy that it seemed to be dripping, "...... And even if you are the lords of angels, you should not hurt God's servants in such a rash way."

“…… Really? I don't think there's anything wrong with us punishing our servants, but it's a bunch of traitors and usurpers who steal their master's money and refuse to do anything, and even want to send their master upside down. Wang Qiu pursed his lips and replied disdainfully.

- Well, you really take the phrase "faithful servant of God" that the priests often say?

The Venetians rolled their eyes for a moment—although the clergy of the Church always modestly called themselves "servants of God," the credibility of this statement was probably as merely verbal politeness as the self-proclaimed "public servants" of later officials. Since the officials of later generations were able to call themselves public servants while actually claiming to be the masters of the people; Naturally, the medieval priests could also claim to be the servants of God, collecting wealth and power under the banner of God, and at the same time regard themselves as the masters of God in their hearts, and unscrupulously use the brand of the gods to snatch the last copper coin from the old woman's hand.

Of course, such a rebellious thought can only be thought about in their hearts, and they must not be said casually. If there really are gods who come down to earth, it will be their turn to sit on wax - that's why Doraemon had to burn so many hardcore clergy who couldn't turn around when they saved the world as angels and brushed points to raise money to pay off their debts

However, these Venetians, who promised well before, but were reluctant to pay when the time came, are also not a good thing. Seeing that these Venetians who were slamming the door were still struggling at this point, refusing to take out the money happily, Wang Qiu felt that he was becoming more and more impatient, "...... Damn it, why are you happy to pay the Pope a large bribe every year, asking the Pope to do nothing but in exchange for the autonomy of the appointment of the Faculty in Venice; But you are so mean to us, the angels who actually miracle to save your lives? A million ducats, for the future of your city, this deal should be very fair, you misers should really repent of it"

-- The Republic of Venice was a rare secular state in the Middle Ages, relying on the generous bribes and military intimidation of the popes by successive governors, the right to appoint bishops in Venice was transferred to the government of the Republic from the very beginning, and the pope could only sign and posthumously sign the list submitted by the government of the Republic, and even the tax-free privileges and extraterritoriality enjoyed by the Church in various European countries were not feasible in the Republic of Venice. In this regard, Pope Gregory XIII (vrxI11) once lamented: "I am a pope in every country, but Venice is not". Because of this background, Venice gathered many pagans or doorbreakers, and even in the most intense era of religious strife and witch trials in the Middle Ages, there were few burning at the stake for heresy in Venice. The right to freedom of religion was guaranteed until the Republic of Venice was abolished by Napoleon.

“…… So what? It is God's mission to save the world, and you should not ask us for any money in the first place, and it is blasphemy to bribe you," cried a young and vigorous priest, "...... It is you fallen angels who should repent."

“…… Depraved? How dare you, little mortal, say that we are fallen? It's ridiculous, it seems that you are determined to be stubborn, right, hum, well, whatever you want, but the little advantage of the angels is not so easy to take advantage of, and the divine grace that my companions are spreading now can become divine punishment in the next moment, and then you will understand how happy and easy it is to be able to die from the Black Death."

Listening to the young priest's shout, Wang Qiu's face was completely gloomy, and he casually took out a tube of T-virus concentrate from the world of "Resident Evil", took it to the nose of the Archbishop of Venice and shook it, "...... You see, I am using this new plague, far more terrible than the Black Death, to turn the entire inhabitants of Venice into man-eating zombies? Or summon a pile of flaming meteorites and let Venice die in the heavenly fire, just as God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah? Or a tsunami that will engulf your city, like Atlantis, in the rough sea? Hehe, I heard that there is a sea wedding festival in Venice, and you have to marry the sea every year, so you can get what you want and go to the bottom of the sea to serve the sea god......"

He threatened viciously, and at the same time began to think in his mind - should there be a medieval zombie crisis?

“…… Enough Angel, please calm your anger, in fact, we have prepared a sum of money. A million Ducats can't come up in a short period of time, but we've done our best to collect some gold and silver jewelry, precious furs and works of art that we hope will delight you......"

Seeing that the verbal confrontation just now, instead of being able to grasp the handle of this undisciplined angel, almost completely angered this greedy angel who had no mercy, and brought a ruining disaster to Venice, the governor of André Dandoro had no choice but to cough and admit defeat for the time being.

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-- Andrea Dandoro, the fifty-fourth Doge of Venice, who had just taken office, was the first "cultured" Doge in the history of the Republic of Venice. He studied at the University of Padua, a descendant of the "blind Dandoro" governor who led the Fourth Crusade to conquer Constantinople more than 100 years ago.

The first was the powerful earthquake that struck Venice on January 25, 1348, which is said to have destroyed Padua, Giogia, and half of Venice, and was so powerful that it could be felt even as far away as Milan and Rome. Even the Adriatic Sea was flooded with seawater, which once flooded most of Venice, and the city was suddenly full of shipwrecked garbage, drifting debris and refugees running around, plus the swollen floating corpses of people and animals, making the government's quarantine measures for the Black Death completely ineffective, and the whole city was polluted.

Then, of course, there was a vigorous explosion of the Black Death, a cursed Black Death that not only wiped out half of the citizens of Venice, but also in this tragic situation, which was no different from the end of the world, as the market and labor force plummeted, Venice's financial and trade industries were also devastated, and the bank loans that lost their repayments became bad debts in large numbers, and the goods that could not find buyers were piled up in warehouses, and even the merchant ships could not recruit enough sailors to go to sea. The unmanned galleys were abandoned on the shore and left to decay.

In this regard, Governor André was deeply worried, not only fearing that this unprecedented plague would turn Venice into a city of death, but also worried that even if Venice survived the ravages of the plague, it would be crippled by the collapse of the commercial chain, but it was difficult to find an effective countermeasure.

However, these sudden "angels" gave the Doge and his officials not only a glimmer of hope for the salvation of the citizens of Venice, but also a wonderful shortcut to reviving the Venetian economy, if these angels could be directed by the Venetian merchants.

Therefore, the reason why the Venetian governor brought a group of people to mess with Wang Qiuhu and push back on the payment was not that he really wanted to repay the debt, but that he was unwilling to give the money too happily - the Venetians, who were accustomed to spending a small amount of money to take advantage of the big money, deliberately wanted to turn the huge sum of one million ducats that they promised to pay into a carrot hanging in front of these angels, so that they would work hard for the Venetians for this huge bait...... Just as the treacherous Venetian merchants used to manipulate the Christian kings, the Eastern Roman emperors, and the Arab sultans behind the scenes.

-- Later generations of bad bosses who like to use arrears of migrant workers' salaries to control the labor force in order to prevent them from leaving their jobs in the middle of the process are probably the same idea.

Unexpectedly, after more in-depth contact, the Venetian merchants, who thought that they had been very undisciplined, were stunned to realize that these angels seemed to be bright and holy, but in fact they were more devilish than the devil, lacking both mercy and contempt for God, and even more shameless than the most wicked and greedy pope. And it seems that he still has a fiery temper, and when the Venetians are unwilling to pay the bill, this angry angel actually threatens them with a series of disasters that destroy the city of Miè, I really don't know how Heaven has raised such a fellow

What is even more frightening is that they may well actually have the ability to discredit the Venice......

In the face of crushing absolute power, any trickery is meaningless, and will only turn into self-indulgent jokes and burlesque—the proud Venetians are incomparably lost, and their proud and powerful motherland is really just ants to be trampled to death in front of the angels.

It was evident that the original script could no longer be sung, and Governor André had no choice but to admit defeat and give up for the time being the arrears of payment, and first to offer a considerable amount of gold and silver treasure to appease the other party, who seemed to be on the verge of exploding.

Then some 50,000 ducats, more than 100,000 Grosso silver coins, some gold and silver vessels, precious stones and amber, exotic furs, and fine statuettes dating back to Roman and Greek times, were carried to the center of the chapel of St. Mark's Basilica by a group of muscular young men, which had just been urgently raised by the authorities of the Republic of Venice. And Wang Qiu, who was almost furious a moment ago, also snorted coldly and put away the zombie virus, called Doraemon on the radio intercom, and asked him to carry the [automatic pawn machine] over to prepare for the inspection.

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