The defenders of the city walls rang the bell like crazy.

Those defenders were now confronted by a dense crowd of soldiers gathered around the city gates, most of whom were led by nobles themselves, well-armoured, and almost all of them had helmets. Each soldier had a spear with an ornate scabbard around his waist, and half of the men had boots, which were expensive and made of calfskin, which had been tanned repeatedly. @

The nobles armed the peasants and beggars of the realm and sent them to the Varankov front, while in their castles and estates, they left behind the most astute and capable soldiers. These soldiers were either of aristocratic blood and were illegitimate children of aristocratic families, or they were veterans of wars who knew how to survive on the battlefield.

Three hours earlier, the first battering ram had approached the walls and was striking them violently every few minutes. On top of the battering ram car, covered with a fireproof leather shell, the defenders dropped many torches, but they were still unable to ignite the battering ram car. At the top of the wall, the mud-clad stones had begun to displace, and cracks began to appear in the wall. If this continues, in a few hours, the walls will collapse. The other ram redirected and slowly approached the position of the first car, which would collapse faster if both rams hit a wall at the same time.

Innocent clearly did not have Giovanni's foresight, and the walls he built were used for the general defense of monasteries: they could be used to defend against thieves, but they could not stop the soldiers. If he had spent a few weeks before, thickening the walls at both ends of the walls, so that the outer walls formed a steep slope. Then these battering ram carts will be useless. If you add a lot more wedge-shaped protrusions, even if these noble soldiers use powder kegs. It is also difficult to shake the walls here.

It is said that this morning, a team of longboats full of noble soldiers tried to seize the wharf of the monastery from the river. But being routed by the combined efforts of craftsmen and soldiers on the docks, several soldiers who were unfamiliar with the nature of the water were thrown into the water and then carried to the bottom of the river by armor. This has caused panic among the population, with many refugees even planning to flee the city to escape the disaster. If there is still a hint of resistance among the inhabitants, there is almost nothing but a sense of depression among the refugees, who have come here to endure the plague and famine, and who only want to spend the most difficult moments here. I was taken care of, and then when things got better, I went back to my hometown. Faced with the besieged settlements, the refugees felt nothing but frustration and no fighting spirit.

Before the nuns and friars came out, the settlement guards, numbering one and a half hundred people, had already opened the small arms depot at the strong request of the inhabitants. The strongest men in the settlement have been given weapons, but they are poorly armed. A man is often only given a blunt knife, or a short spear. Some were given a shield with a cut mouth, while others were given a bow with a crooked back. The men rummaged through the settlement, and all sharp instruments were found: hoes, short sickles, long sickles, plowshares, large scissors, hammers, the guardrails of the Triumvirate. As long as there was anything that could be taken away, people dismantled it. Now in the settlement, there are only the 150 guards. The gear looks decent, they're all Innocent babies. Everyone has boots, and almost everyone has leather armor. A small number of people also have chainmail jackets. Most of the Guards' weapons consisted of shields and short spears, but since the Guards had a surplus of rations, they usually sold their rations in exchange for a short-handled weapon or two, which they had equipped themselves. Residents other than the members of the guard, more than two hundred people had obtained simple weapons at this time, although these people were worried about their combat strength, but when they stood together with spears upright, they still looked very imposing. Most of the men wore coarse cloth coats, and some of the more affluent residents wore a layer of leather armor over a linen coat, or a piece of chain mail full of notches. Many of these inhabitants were former farmers, with their scythes pinned to their waists and ropes around their arms, and when they were in the estate, they fought with the minions of the tax collectors, and they had their own methods of warfare.

The weapons were soon running out, and even the javelins for throwing were used as short spears. The craftsmen of the blacksmith shop still had more than a hundred wooden spears there, but there were only about forty iron spearheads. The improvised spear was not strong, but now, these craftsmen could not care so much, one craftsman carefully aimed the bottom of the iron spearhead at the spear shaft, slowly pushed the long pole, and after the spear head was stable, the other craftsman would immediately nail into a thick iron nail and fix the spearhead. After the spearhead is fixed, a third craftsman will carefully hammer the bottom of the spearhead with a small hammer so that the spearhead wraps tightly around the shaft. He had just finished making a spear when the townspeople snatched it and ran around the guards, waiting to be dispatched.

When the owner of the Big Three Hotel found that his fence had been torn down, he had a hunch that his wine stock would be looted again. So he made a quick decision and announced that all the wine would be given away for free to the residents who were willing to go to war. He found dozens of wooden cups, and asked his newly married fat wife to pour wine for him, and he took the wine in the barrel one by one, ale wine, fruit wine, sheared wolf hair, mare's milk wine, wine, honey wine, and Salander rice wine, as long as the residents asked for it, he immediately satisfied. Hundreds of people gathered outside the Triumvirate, and when the outermost people drank all the wine from the wooden cups, they gave them to the people around him who had not yet drunk them, and this person would say to the people in front of him, 'I want a glass of fruit wine,' and the inhabitants in front of him would take the cup and pass the cup and the request to the people in front of him. The cups passed over the heads of the crowded residents into the Big Three Hotel, and soon after, the full glasses came out one after the other. However, during the passing, almost half of the wine was spilled, and some were secretly taken by the residents halfway through. There are also many residents who do not get the drinks they ask for at all: they ask for wolf hair, but they are handed out a glass of water with honey; What was asked was mead, but what was sent was a mixture of fruit wine and rice wine; I asked for mare's milk wine, but it turned out to be a large corset of the hotel hostess. I don't know what kind of mistakes went wrong in the process of spreading the demands of the drinkers.

While the crowd was in a commotion, a group of guards went to the place where the crowd had gathered. All people are required to meet on the square and not to linger in any place. It turned out that it was the nuns and the friars who ended the dispute. It's time to come out and lead the inhabitants to defend the settlement. I suspect a little that there are secret sentinels planted by the nobles among the monks or nuns to create chaos when the nobles attack the city, otherwise there is no reason why the timing of this dispute is so coincidental that it almost kills the possibility of the settlement to protect itself. If it weren't for the abbot's timely reminder, it is estimated that at this time, all the monks and nuns would still be arguing with each other.

Most of the monks were dressed in gray clothes, like a flock of dirty geese. The nuns were much more elaborate, most of them wore black smocks, and their hair wraps were sewn from muslin.

Innocent, on the other hand, accompanied the dean, and followed the knight of Tyvi to the high platform in the middle, where the stone of the sword in the stone was still placed, and every day people came to kiss it and regarded it as a holy object, and on several occasions, someone tried to smash it with a hammer. Think of it as an evil stone.

When the dean was discovered, the crowds that had been scattered in the square and the streets immediately gathered around, and even the refugees came to see what was going on. The large number of residents who had gathered around the Big Three Hotel ran away for a while. There were only a few drunkards left, who were still standing in the crowd and walking away. They were like a few worms, lying in the clearing. The owner of the Big Three was comforting his weeping wife: the group of drinkers just now suddenly put their hands into her arms. snatched the corset and frightened her. The boss almost thought that these drunken guys were going to make a mess. As a result, after these people snatched the corset, they just passed it out, and then continued to beg for wine, and did not mess around, which is really strange.

The square was not as good as the hall of the council, and it could not be quiet at all, so Innocent could only let the Tavi knight stand beside him.

After seeing the Angel Sword, the crowd was clearly encouraged and began to rejoice.

I was standing at the bottom of the platform, and a soldier from the city wall panicked and said that the second battering ram had arrived under the city wall, and the city wall was about to break. Lothar shut up the young man, then carried his sword over his shoulders and hurried away with a group of soldiers in the direction of the city walls.

Dean Innocent arranged for six young men to stand in different places, and whenever he spoke, the six men passed his words over and over again.

"Many days ago, right before you, on this platform beside me, an angel descended a stone, and a sword in a stone." After Innocent finished speaking, his words were repeated by six different voices.

"The insensitive think it's a pointless thing; The cowardly and cowardly think that this is a thing that is implicitly dangerous; Ill-intentioned people think it's a hoax, and the Tavi Knight, who draws his sword, is the culprit. ”

The knight was calm, he knew that he was innocent, so he didn't care about criticism at all.

But do angels, in keeping with the Lord's commandment, do things that have no purpose? No, you know, he knows and sees, and his wisdom surpasses all things, and all his miracles are justified. ”

"Doesn't this make sense? Is it now, when you are under siege, there is no point in having an angelic knight by your side to protect you? I don't think so. ”

"Is there a danger in this? Not so, if you think that giving in will bring safety, and holding a sword will lead to disaster, you are very wrong. Among the nobles outside the city is the Baron Fourier, who plundered us just a few months ago, and we succumbed then, and we have been safe? No, we were attacked again. ”

"Is this a hoax? Tavi Knight, you now swear to God, under the watchful eyes of all, that you created the deception about the sword in the stone? ”

Everyone was watching the expression of the Tavi Knight.

"I swear to God Almighty, that if the sword in the stone were a deception of my making, I would be burned in hell forever, my soul would be punished forever, I would taste every torture ever heard of and every torture I had never heard of, I would eat fiery nails, I would wear lava-woven garments, and I would suffer in the fire forever." ”

The frank but resolute oath of the Tavi Knight amazed the citizens. It looks like Knight Tevi wasn't lying.

"This is undoubtedly a miracle," Innocent declared. "Some of you say that not a single bishop has sent a messenger to acknowledge this miracle. Some of you say that the Church has not sent messengers to congratulate you on your glory, and others say that some bishops have even declared in their monasteries that this is a complete deception. ”

"How long will you be insensitive?"

"There are quite a few people living here who have lived in the surrounding villages many years ago. What was the monastery like at that time, have you forgotten? At that time, there were no acres. At that time, there were no workshops, at that time, no one built high walls, and at that time, not a single merchant arrived at our market. Do you remember what it was like when there was no pier? At that time, the Nords sold grain at three times as high a price, and today the grain is piled up on the docks; At that time. At night, the place is silent, but today the market is lit up until dawn. The noise of noise lasted all night; At that time, in the face of thieves, the inhabitants of the monastery were terrified. And now, hundreds of soldiers are standing by your side. You still have to be obsessed. Think none of this is a sign of God? ”

"How long are you going to be insensitive? Until the Sword of the Stone and the Angel Knight are born before your eyes, you still have to doubt? Why do you not believe in the signs of the angels? But expect the mortals of the earth to tell you that this is true? Why did you leave your diocese and come here? Could it be that the abbots of the monasteries have not insulted you and robbed you of your property? Did the bishops not oppress you and exchange your property for his majesty? Could it be that those fat-bellied clergymen have not ruined the reputation of your wife and daughter, so that you have to be on guard at all times? And now, in order to gain their approval, you are chattering about the real miracles? ”

Innocent then said angrily, "But the way it is, some follow the Lord's way, and some people are forever insensitive. Before the end of the world, there will be trials through which some people will ascend to heaven and others will go to hell. Now, when the sword in the stone beckons you, you will take it as a test: follow it and go to cast out the cruelty; Or do you close your eyes and listen here, waiting for the nobles to execute them arbitrarily? It's all up to you. ”

The guards of the monastery took out the large and small chests in the large arsenal and opened them all, and inside were stacked weapons and armor: daggers, short swords, short knives, iron rods, helmets, shields, armor. Dozens of bundles of arrows were stacked vertically in the bow workshop, and a bow maker and his apprentices were holding all sorts of bows, waiting for people to pick them up.

The sound of collisions outside the walls continued, and the sound of alarm bells and horns continued to fall.

"The angelic knight has been ordered to turn the prayer room into a hospital, and all the monks and nuns have accepted such a decision. The wounded of you will be properly healed, and the unfortunate will be glorious to our Lord. Now that the weapon is in front of you, this is the key to heaven, and you can choose your destiny! ”

After the nuns had finished speaking at Innocent, the abbot began to sing hymns. The monks also began to sing in chorus, in harmony with the nun's singing.

The roar of the walls continued, making the singing of the monks and nuns seem weak and small, but it undoubtedly made it seem more holy.

This chant was written by a Rhodoc and was produced in the mountains many years ago. After the massacre of the Rhodoks, the land of mountains was filled with sorrow and strength. It was with this song that the Rhodoks drove the Swadians back to their homeland, and now this hymn will once again inspire the humiliated.

"Long live the Angel Sword!"

"Long live the Angel Sword!"

"Slaughter this beast Fourier!"

"Give me a weapon!"

"Bow and arrow, give me both, I'm the best hunter in my hometown!"

"Kill Fourier! He's a man who draws demon symbols! ”

The roar of the battering rams did not drown out the chants, and the chants did not drown out the angry cries of the crowd.

Half an hour later, the square was crowded with boiling and angry citizens armed with weapons, all armed and rushing towards the city gates. The power of the shouts sends chills down people's spines.

There were several long horns from the other side of the wall: the wall had collapsed.

Looking at the black roaring crowd, like an iron snake covered in spikes, surging towards the city wall, Innocent's brow tightened.

"It won't be long before we know the winner."

"The winner is clear." I said to Innocent.

"Why?"

"How can three hundred proud soldiers resist a thousand righteous men who regard death as their home. It's a pity that you don't have more cavalry, otherwise none of the people outside will be able to escape. ”

Innocent turned to the Tywi Knight and said, "Lord Knight, Victor is questioning your boys. ”

"He's right, I don't have enough riders." Tevi's tone became grim, "But, Lord Innocent, when I return, I'll have the sword in the stone covered in blood." ”

Innocent nodded, "Go ahead." ”

The knight of Tevi gathered several dozen of his cavalry, walked through the square, and ran towards the city gates.

The sound of battle has been heard.

The dean looked into the distance worriedly, "I don't know how the battle between us and the nobles will end after the battle." ”

"I'm thinking about that, too," Innocent said, "but there's always a way." The more people believe in this miracle, the safer we will be. ”

I listened to the sound of the battle and thought about Innocent's words. I think this is my last chance.

"Lord Innocent," I said to the Dean, "perhaps I know of a place where all the nobles and soldiers of East Vekia can know about this miracle. ”