Chapter 99 Hope Blue Diamond (XVI)
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"… Later scholars have different views on the establishment of the Kingdom of God on Earth, but everyone has a common understanding that the first existence that can truly be called the 'Kingdom of God on Earth' should be the great unified empire established by Saint Sistine I in the early eleventh century. In 1082, the Assyrian Queen Amenra died in battle, and the triangle alliance that was originally based on interests and marriage vows began to crumble. As the true life of Saint Sistine I was exposed and the queen's will was made public, the fragile triangle alliance completely collapsed. Francis IV publicly announced his ambition for Assyria, which was completely contrary to the Papal State's pursuit, and the hostility between the two began from then on."
"But with the deepening of relevant research and the continuous excavation of historical materials, especially the Vatican's release of part of the manuscript of Saint Sistine I to the academic community in 2017, which included some content that had never been recorded in public publications, we were pleasantly surprised to find that Ms. Bianchi seemed to have hinted to everyone in a very obscure way that the signs of bad relations between Saint Sistine I and Francis IV had already appeared - before the war of the Kingdom of God on earth, or even earlier. However, the reason? No one can explain exactly why the conflict between these two equally ambitious and talented monarchs arose.
"Some people speculate that they have long known about the life experience of Saint Sistine I, and Francis IV has long been coveting Assyria, which is the origin of their conflict - who would have no grudges against their rival for the throne? However, before the Queen's will was announced, their conflict could only be "unfounded" dislike for each other. To this, opponents put forward a solid and powerful rebuttal. Until 1085, Francis IV insisted on sending Florence the annual gift dedicated to the Pope, as well as many other personal gifts. From the gift list still preserved by the royal family of Calais, it can be seen that those expensive gifts were by no means perfunctory.
"We will discuss the relevant content in more detail in the next section. Now let's get back to the main topic. Regarding the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth, there is no doubt that this is the dream that all believers have longed for for more than a thousand years. Since the Holy Lord descended on the barren land and laid the foundation of Florence with a piece of stone, the establishment of an independent country 'belonging to God and the Holy' has been the ultimate goal of the Church and even all believers. The prototype of this goal is the Papal States.
"But it is obvious that the Papal States cannot be completely an independent country. The unique principle of religious supremacy means that the politics and military of the Papal States are controlled by the Pope... In the feudal lord era with a developed manor economy, the characteristics of the times tending towards centralization made such a model only applicable in the Papal States. The supreme ruler did not have legitimate political and military ruling power. Looking at the whole world, this is a unique and special system. Facts have proved that such a system also violates the laws of the times. However, due to the restrictions of doctrine, these powers do not belong to the Pope in name, which will cause a problem...
“When the pope is strong enough, such as during the reign of Saint Vitalian III or even Saint Sistine I, they can easily control all the power of the Papal States and make the country’s politics run smoothly and orderly under their personal will. However, even in the place blessed by the Holy Lord, the Holy City is not so lucky to always have a good enough pope. After the death of Saint Vitalian III, Ryan VI, who succeeded him, was undoubtedly an extremely bad pope. His inaction caused the lords under the Papal flag to act on their own, and the military power, administrative power and even the economy were completely dispersed. The Papal Palace completely lost its power as the leader of the Papal States.
"This kind of power dispersion is in line with the requirements of the doctrine, which puts the successor in an extremely bad situation. We should be thankful that the person who took over this mess was Saint Sistine I, not the second Lion VI. The special system, coupled with the limited area of the Papal States, which cannot accommodate enough people, the realization of the 'Kingdom of God on Earth' is undoubtedly a dream fantasy. Therefore, when this term was solemnly mentioned on the terrace of the Cathedral of the Holy Thorn in Florence in 1082 and people could truly see the feasibility, it is no wonder that believers set off a great march 'towards Florence'.
"How could anyone refuse a kingdom of God on earth where everyone is equal, rich and abundant, where people can live and work in peace and contentment, away from the exploitation of lords and nobles, and live peacefully and happily under the protection of the Holy Lord? The nobles yearn for the wealth that Assyria can bring to them, while the poor only desire the blessed land promised to them in the Bible. From the very beginning, this war laid the foundation for its inevitable victory."⑥
——Alex Portia, The Great Transformation of the Medieval Church, Volume 2
When Redrick stepped on the solid soil of Assyria, he thanked the Holy Lord so sincerely for the first time.
He had never known that the land was so nostalgic. The fragrance of the grass and the smell of the soil were all endearing. Even the bedbugs crawling around became much cuter in his eyes.
Before these rich thoughts could escape the Duke's rarely sentimental mind, he bent over and vomited violently.
Unfortunately, living on the ship for many days left his stomach empty, and he could only vomit out some of the white water he drank in the morning, which was mixed with honey and therefore appeared slightly yellow.
In order to reach Assyria as quickly as possible, the Papal ships were running at maximum power from beginning to end. The soldiers shoveling coal in the bottom hold worked in shifts day and night, their skin reddened and blistered by the heat from the boilers, and the ropes and gears transporting the coal were covered with fine coal ash, which could easily get stuck in the capstan. In the past, they had to stop and clean them every two days, but this time, even if they made a creaking groan, Redrick did not allow the captain to stop the boilers.
The consequence of this was that the ship arrived three days earlier than expected, and some of the seasick people, led by Redrick, lay in the cabin from head to toe, vomiting until they were almost dying.
"I'm so glad that I didn't report the battle losses to Your Majesty before setting foot in Assyria." The captain said with a hint of sarcasm, stroking his curly beard.
Redrick, who was ridiculed by him, rolled his eyes vigorously, bent over and continued to empty his pitiful stomach, trying to turn it upside down and shake and twist it.
"Oh, sir, you don't look well," the captain said again.
Frederick glared at him angrily out of the corner of his eye, and the sturdy old sailor burst into laughter, happily raised his big hand like a palm leaf fan, and patted his shoulder hard, almost slapping Frederick to death.
"Good boy! May God bless you!" The lively and optimistic old captain winked at him, took off his hat and waved it twice, "I wish you a safe journey! I'm going back to pick up the next batch of soldiers!"
Redrick shook his hand at him unhappily, signaling him to get out of his sight, which in turn earned him another strong slap from the old sailor.
The place where they landed was a small bay. The dock had long been rotten and decayed after being abandoned for a long time. The soldiers jumped into the sea by grabbing the ropes from the bow, swam to the shore, built a plank bridge, and transported supplies and people down. Redrick was the last to get off the ship. When he got off, the soldiers in front of him had already begun to build simple tents.
The narrow port could not accommodate too many ships, and other ships were still anchored in the outer harbor waiting. Redrick urged them to speed up the construction of the camp while sending out sentinels to investigate the situation nearby.
Now Assyria has completely turned into a pot of chaotic porridge. After the death of Queen Amenra, the Sargon dynasty completely collapsed.
The people were also involved in the melee, and the Pilgrim Alliance in the north began to cautiously shrink its power under the joint threat of Calais and the Papal States. Every day, a new lord declared that he had established an independent kingdom, and then disappeared under the attack of other lords the next day.
This once glorious and vast empire has completely lost its beautiful glory. It was once able to compete with Calais and Roman, but now it has been shattered into dust in the long river of history, and anyone can take away her plump skin and flesh from her body.
The sentinels sent out by Redrick have not returned yet, but someone has already arrived here and reported the surrounding situation to him. These are the remaining soldiers left by Amenra, who followed the queen wholeheartedly and obeyed Ashur's orders after the queen's death. Now they have naturally become Raphael's men, but most of them have died in the purges of various parties, and there are not many people left. Those who can survive to this day are all skilled fighters.
The ships of the Papal States chose to land in this desolate and abandoned port because of their instructions. The nearby towns had been deserted, and the people living there had fled to various places. The houses in the town were dilapidated and desolate, and the geographical location was superior, making it most suitable for them to assemble troops.
Redrick did not idle away his time in the Knights Templar. The Knights Templar advocated justice and equality, and no matter whether you were a duke or a commoner, you were treated equally here. The only privilege he received was that he was allowed to use his own exclusive tableware when dining, and have the family emblem engraved on it - provided that the tableware had to be the same silver as others and could not have any patterns.
This privilege only added to Redrick's troubles, as he had to find his own portion of tableware among a pile of identical tableware before the meal, especially that damn fork! This step greatly increased his meal time, so he soon voluntarily gave up this privilege and happily became one of the group of rough guys.
To sum up, Duke Luxen is already quite "social".
The Papal States' conscription work has just begun, and the second batch of troops is still gathering. As a member of the advance team, Rederic's mission is to find out the current situation and main terrain of Assyria and pave the way for the subsequent large army.
Adhering to this principle, he led his two thousand men to choose a marching mode of hiding during the day and moving at night, exploring outward with the stronghold as the center, and at the same time setting up sentries at regular intervals.
Their number was neither too many nor too few, and it was impossible to expect that no one would discover them. The Assyrian civilians had long since worked out their own set of survival rules in the long-term war. They huddled among the broken walls and weeds, wrapped their bodies in tattered sheepskins and linen, and looked at the passing soldiers vigilantly and carefully, like a pack of wolves ambushing in the jungle, except that they were more silent and timid than the wolves.
At first, when they met Redrick's army, they would run away from it, and then cautiously return to their own place after the army passed. Later, they found that this group of soldiers did not seem to slaughter and kill them ferociously, so the distance between the two sides began to narrow slowly, and finally reached the point where they no longer fled at the sight of the army.
After Redrick's military doctor saved an Assyrian girl with a fever, the refugees even began to occasionally provide Redrick with information - including which lords were nearby, how many people they had, and who they had conflicts with... This information was something that Redrick's spies could not find out in a short period of time.
Thus, a strange harmonious tacit understanding was reached between the two parties. The Assyrians did not seem to have much resentment towards this "invading army". Years of chaos had long eroded their concept of "country". They just urgently wanted a quiet and peaceful life. As for who owned Assyria - they didn't care that much.
But this is the view of young people. For older people who grew up in the late period of the unified Sargon dynasty, they still have deep feelings for Sargon's monarch, so they still look forward to the arrival of an Assyrian monarch, preferably one with the blood of the Sargon dynasty.
So the queen's death undoubtedly dealt them a huge blow, but the will she left behind ignited new hope for them.
But this hope was soon extinguished by another voice.
The lords who opposed Raphael taking over the Assyrian crown unanimously used his status as Pope as a weapon to attack him. How could a pagan pope become the monarch of Assyria? Will he force the Assyrian people to convert, or even destroy the Assyrian faith? Worse still, although he was half Assyrian, he had never set foot on Assyrian soil. How could he shoulder the burden of this free, wild and independent country?
All the civilians who supported the Sargon family hesitated because of this issue. Most of them were the survivors who had benefited from the Sargon dynasty and were thinking about the glory of this last dynasty. But at the same time, they were the most stubborn believers of the native religion. Asking them to abandon their beliefs and convert to an unfamiliar religion was more difficult than killing them.
In fact, this is why Raphael insisted on introducing the religious freedom bill.
Without resolving this problem, he could not truly be the monarch of this stubborn and untamed country.
In Florence, the religious freedom treaty he proposed was still a secret not known to many people. He was discussing the relevant terms and content with Julius intensively, and he would not make it public until it was fully mature and implemented.
Once the Holy See learns of the content of this treaty, it will surely cause an uproar. The reason why the Holy See spared no effort to support the Pope's military expedition to Assyria is precisely because Raphael proposed the "Kingdom of God on Earth" plan to spread the glory of the Holy See and the Holy Lord to Assyria. If freedom of religion is proposed and implemented, then the "Kingdom of God on Earth" will be a thing in name only, and they will eventually find that the only beneficiary is Raphael.
But Raphael would never back down on this issue.
He wants to build the kingdom of God on earth and promote freedom of religion.
What he wanted was a centralized, unified country, not a Papal State like that, where the Pope had no legitimate right to rule and could only be a beautiful puppet of faith. Only when the people's faith was inconsistent could he strike a balance and become a true monarch, rather than allowing the Holy See to dominate and continue to replicate a Papal State in Assyria.
The battle report sent from Assyria briefly reported the situation of the advance troops. They had not encountered any large-scale battles, but only some small groups of fleeing bandits. These mobs were no match for the regular army of the Papal States. Redrick did not even bother to write them as a result of the battle in the battle report. It was the Holy Crow accompanying the army who reported this in the supplementary report.
Raphael quickly finished reading the Assyrian war report, rubbed his brows tiredly, and continued to ponder the relevant clauses of the bill. This was not an easy task. To compile a bill from scratch, it was necessary to take into account all possible situations, not to mention that the content of this bill involved issues of faith - this was a very sensitive and acute issue. In this era when the king would be excommunicated by the Pope if he converted to Islam, and civilians who converted might even be executed by their lords, many wars were caused by faith. There were more than a dozen large-scale battles launched on the grounds of "conquering pagans" alone.
Raphael could imagine what a terrible wave this bill would set off after it was promulgated. The monarch of the Holy See wrote the permission of "freedom of religion" with his own hands, which was equivalent to shaking the foundation of his own rule. Not only the Holy See, but even ordinary believers would feel that they had been betrayed.
So he had to carefully plan his sentences, making every word and every sentence as appropriate and perfect as possible. He didn't want to see a "bill war". Enough people had died in the chaos over the years.
Julius sat behind the desk to his right. In order to keep it secret, they added a new desk in the Pope's study. Julius had not gone to the secretariat to work recently. He spent most of his time here discussing the contents of the bill with Raphael, which made Ferrante so angry that his eyes were blazing but he was helpless.
There was a slight "click" sound, and the scene in front of Raphael suddenly became bright. He realized that it was already dark outside. Julius opened the gas valve, and the gas lamps in the room started to burn. The gas lamps in the Papal Palace were originally lit day and night. After Raphael came to power, he promoted frugality and piety, and took the lead in reducing the Pope's expenses, including stopping the burning of gas lamps during the day to save money. In order to echo the Pope's slogan, the Holy See also began to save money. No matter how extravagant the bishops were in private, such behavior at least made the Holy See's external image much better.
Raphael was loved and respected by his believers through small things like these. He never ignored these details. He had done all these things in his previous life, but the history books at that time did not show him any sympathy for his behavior.
Now Raphael doesn't care about fame or not. He has too many things to do and has no time to think about how future generations will evaluate him.
Julius came over and stood behind Raphael, leaning over to look at the messy parchment on his desk. There were many words densely written and crossed out on it. Next to each word were other corresponding synonyms, some of which were circled, some were erased, and some were highlighted.
Julius took a look and casually picked up a pen to underline one of the words. Raphael thought for two seconds and happily filled in the blank.
Julius lowered his eyes and saw the perfectly restored Portia family ring on Raphael's right thumb. He pursed his lips and pulled up a slight smile. He said in a gentle tone: "Let's eat first. There is a cardinal meeting tomorrow."
Raphael paused while rubbing his neck, a trace of annoyance flashed in his eyes. The Cardinals' Meeting, as the name suggests,
Julius saw through his resistance, his deep purple eyes curved slightly, his iron-gray hair slid down from his shoulders, a few strands of hair brushed against Raphael's cheek coolly: "If you don't want to go, just say you're busy with official business."
Raphael hesitated for a moment and sighed, "Forget it. There has been a lot of activity in the Papal States as they are recruiting soldiers recently. I should go and see what they are doing."
Julius looked at him for a while, with a complicated smile, and said, "You have become a qualified monarch."
The author has something to say:
I have a bag of mung beans that I forgot about in the refrigerator for more than two months. I suddenly remembered it recently, so I planned to cook them all and separate them, then wash and soak them in water. I forgot about them again, and when I remembered them, they had already sprouted... more than one kilogram and almost two kilograms of mung beans! ! Sprouts! ! I can't even find a pot that big enough to grow them! ! But I really want to eat mung bean soup, I really want to eat it!
I decided to grow them all, and when they grow small mung beans, I will have mung bean soup to drink! 【Vicious】【It's never too late for a foodie to take revenge】
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