Unlike another country in the Far East, if their generals, or even kings, were killed or captured in battle, the rest of the people would be scattered, and few would clamor for revenge, or rather, this was the power of the heirs, and they could not move on until they re-elected the heirs. So even a brave king like Richard the Lionheart had to endure the humiliation of being imprisoned and extorted for ransom, and the saints, like Alexander or King Arthur, had no choice but to fall apart after their deaths, not to mention the fact that the kings and generals were now almost always accompanied by princes and mercenaries, the former only recognizing their vassal obligations, the latter only to see who could give them money, and once their masters and mercenaries died, they would immediately abandon everything and go home.

The situation of the Ottomans was slightly better, but if the Grand Vizier Ahmet was really captured or killed, the army that had lost its sole commander would have to return to Istanbul, and now it was the Grand Imam who died, which can only be said to be good news, because the Grand Imam was a spiritual leader, and his death would only provoke the anger of all the Ottomans.

Later, when the monks of Kamnicor recorded this battle, they surprisingly only had a few numbers, and did not recount them at length— From that day on, he said, the Ottomans attacked in a frenzy, and there was no longer day or night, and they were constantly attacking and destroying the caravans that tried to transport supplies to Kamniko, and the defenders of Kamniko sealed all the gates, as they had done for centuries, pouring stones and cement over each gate to make it a solid scale.

But no one could have imagined that the king of France would store so much gunpowder, grease and white phosphorus bombs in the city, a wealth enough to buy a city or more, and the flames that rose when they burned the enemy made the walls red, and the smoke connected the heavens and the earth like a torrential rain, and even so, the defenders were still terrible - on several occasions the Ottomans climbed the walls, their white hats swaying in the wind like a chilling banner— Soldiers with such hats belonged to the Janissary Legion, and it stands to reason that they should have been put in at the end.

Everyone thought that the Grand Vizier Ahmet was crazy, perhaps, he was almost doomed, and even if he could take Kamnikol, the remnants of the material would not support him to go to Vienna, and the great deeds of Muhammad IV that surpassed his ancestor Suleiman I had come to naught, and Ahmed was doomed to be torn apart by five horses on the Grand Bazaar Square. Not only did the Ottomans whisper in this way, the Grand Imam had gone to heaven, and the first anger had turned to exhaustion, and even the most stupid Tatars knew that it was impossible to take the city.

- That terrible thing happened on the night of the eleventh day of the siege. So writes the monk.

At that time, he heard a strange sound that seemed to overflow from hell, countless ****, countless wails, countless squeaks and countless silk-lala, he put on his clothes, held up his candles, and went out of the door—his little monastery was not far from the city gates, and he was one of the few monks who did not leave with the kings—he was familiar with the situation here, because during the day, he worked with the craftsmen, carrying grease, shells, and arrows for the defenders.

He walked up to the movable slope that connected to the wall—a patchwork of planks, very steep, and he expected to see a group of weary soldiers, and perhaps an anxious officer, but to his astonishment, it was a bishop standing on the wall, and he could swear to Our Lady that he was absolutely not mistaken, that it was a bishop! Although he was dressed in his regular clothes, the purple-red belt around his waist stood out under the torches, and there were no soldiers on the walls, only monks in brown robes and priests in black robes.

The bishop was a little surprised when he saw the monk, but as if something important had come, he had no time to care about a small mortal, he only waved his hand, and the monk walked back to the room in a daze, but his will remained a little clear, and he almost crawled out of the window of the room, but before he could think of falling from the small room in the bell tower to the ground thirty feet from him, he saw a black tide rising from outside the walls.

Look at it again, what kind of tide is it, it is simply the devil who crawled out of hell, no, even if it is the devil, it will not be more terrible than them, the devil at least has skin, eyes, mouth, these bodies burned by white phosphorus bombs and fire oil are like grains stuck together...... Charcoal, people often hang a pot in the fireplace in the winter, cook soup in it, or put a roasting fork on the rack, and grill the meat, but even the most seasoned chef has a time when they miss it, once these things fall into the charcoal, they will immediately burn rapidly, emit smoke, and then roll up, and finally stick tightly to the charcoal.

This was what the monk saw, their bodies still glowing with a dark red light, some without heads, some without hands and feet, but they were all glued together, and all the monk had heard before was the sound of these things moving - black smoke and debris falling continuously, and countless stumps, half-cooked entrails— The monk thought he should have prayed aloud, but he also admitted that he might have wept or trembled in horror, and he could not remember how he had crawled back into his room, and he did not even dare to put his head out to look at it.

More likely, the prayer he heard was not his own, but the saint.

His little cloister was so close to the walls that half of it had been torn down and several rooms had been torn down to seal the gates, but the demons he feared had never been able to climb the tower, tear him apart, and devour him as he had imagined.

The monk finally got up with difficulty when he saw the sunlight pouring into the window, and looked out of the window, which was full of black ash as far as the eye could see, and he tried not to think about what they were, but thankfully he saw a line of footprints walking from the walls into the city.

Later, the monk's notes were left in the small monastery, and around 1997, several historians discovered it occasionally while studying the Battle of Camnico, although they always believed that the so-called devil was just a conjecture of the monks, which was common on the battlefield - and like other "anomalous" documents and materials, this record was quickly found and collected by the Church of Rome, and never saw the light of day.

————

Bishop Barras had mixed feelings, believing that Louis XIV would vent his hatred in this battle. He was offered as a sacrifice to the king by the head of the cardinals, who had abandoned him and France and nearly killed him when he was still a young man, and he had now become a behemoth that the Church had to avoid, while Baras was still a dog, a bishopric who had left a piece of bread before he hanged himself, lest he go mad in his hunger.

He also knew that the king had asked the Church of Rome for him and the clergy around him, intending to treat them as shields and outcasts, and that Barras was not very resentful, and that although he was blind and ungrateful, he still had a little dignity of his own, and he would not beg a victim to give up the right to revenge - but Louis XIV gave up his original plan at the last moment, indeed at the last moment.

He gave Barras information (which he really didn't want to know where this information came from), more monks and priests, and a few relics. This allows them to defeat the enemy and see the sun the next day.

When Louis XIV heard the news that Barras had repelled the enemy, he clapped his hands happily, and ordered Hood to go and release the last insurance, which we will leave at a later date, while waiting for Barras to come before him, and Monsieur Bishop would certainly come first.

Ballas had thought a lot along the way, from the Inquisition to the wizards, from the wizards to the Huguenots, and from the Huguenots to the Roman Church, and he thought about how the king would be willing to forgive him, and what was there for him...... But he didn't have to think about it for long, because a few minutes later, Louis XIV revealed the mystery straightforwardly: "I intended to let Elihos go to Rome, what do you think?"

Barras could barely control his jealousy, the meaning of Elelo's visit to Rome was completely different from the meaning of his visit, and behind him stood the Sun King, the richest and most powerful king, and he found that his throat could barely make a sound when he spoke: "But I am only a bishop, Your Majesty, and there are so many bishops in Rome." ”

"Well," Louis said with an interesting look, "do I wish you could surprise us in any way?, sir, you must be staying in Paris," he said, "I hope you will be as dutiful and faithful as you are now," said Barras, who could not help but bow his head, "if you can do it," said Louis, "Mr. Bishop La Rivière is seventy years old, sir," he nodded at Ballas, who could not hide his astonishment: " I'll get you a cardinal's shawl, and a house in Paris, and if you feel the need, then the Palace of Versailles will have a place for you. ”

Barras was completely confused, he could not understand how powerful the cardinal of Paris could be if the king said that he had left him a place ......in the Bastille, but the cardinal? or the cardinal of France? That's better than being a lonely little bishop in Rome countless times over!

"But what can I do for you? No, no, no, no, your majesty, you can do whatever you want me to do, even if it is to fetch water in hell!" Baras cried out eagerly and excitedly, after making sure that he was not dreaming and not being played, and his hands clenched tightly on the cross on his chest, and he kneeled over and kissed Louis's shoes without hesitation.

"What I want you to do is not complicated. Louis said, "Give me whatever you give to the church." ”

Barras jerked his head up, gasping for breath, his eyes rolling uneasily: "But I'm ......"

"I will give these to Elarius," said Louis, "and I will know what the people of the church will do to you, and by you and Elarius—they are safer in the hands of Elelius than in the hands of the church." ”

Barras remained silent unwillingly, indeed, if he was one of the people he betrayed to the Church, he would have been willing to follow Elelius rather than a harsh and vicious mortal.

The bishops, the priests, the monks, all those who knew the inside story regarded them as the followers of the devil, not very different from the shamans, they used them like the Ottoman Sultan used them as slave soldiers, they did the most dangerous things, but they always got a little leftovers.

"I'm not going back to Rome?" he asked.

"Not going back to Rome. Louis said: "Now I have appointed all the priesthood in France." ”

"I don't know ......"

"Elarius will know," Louis laughed, "I have always thought that a man should be allowed to do what he is good at—Elarius has never bothered me with the things of the monks, and I think you can too, or rather, Elarius of Rome and you in Paris, will be able to live up to my expectations...... I don't think you'll have any back-up, and now, I want you to give it to Elarius, and then you can spend the rest of your peaceful days in Paris. ”

The king of France tapped his cross with his toe: "What you wanted thirty years ago, sir, you can get now." ”

——————

Bontang walked in after Ballas left, Louis looked up and saw that there was only a cup of tea in the silver tray, it seemed that Bontang did not think that the king would be willing to keep Ballas for a cup of tea, and there was no need for this, in a way, Louis liked this kind of person, as long as the bait was enough, he would pounce.

"Did you really decide to hand over Paris to this man?"

"I need someone like this to oversee Paris for me. Louis said, a shadow running over his face, "Maybe I'm too forgiving." "Not long after he left France, the careerists were ready to move again.

"Isn't the gallows erected by Madame de Montspan in Paris enough?" said Bontang.

"Bishop La Rivière was not a good student at the seminary, and he is indeed running out of energy now," said Louis, "and I need a cardinal who is absolutely on my side." ”

"Ballas?"

"He's the right age and experience, and no one can afford to pay a higher price. "If it was Ballas twenty years ago, Louis would not have considered it at all, but now Ballas has lost all faith and he will hold on tightly to the life-saving rope that Louis XIV has dropped.

(Tomorrow morning, this chapter will be updated with 1,000 words!)