Great time travel

Chapter 36. Death Comes Like a Tsunami
It has been said before that in medieval Europe, theocracy was supreme.Christian thought has thoroughly penetrated into every corner of social life, dominating everyone's thinking and behavior.The omnipotent God is the starting point of all the thinking and behavior of believers.

In this way, when encountering an irresistible disaster, the first thought of European Christians is naturally to ask the gods for help.

Therefore, in the early days of the outbreak of the Black Death, there were crying people everywhere in the entire Papal State in central Italy, and even in places a little further away, carrying patients who moaned in pain to the eternal city of Rome, kneeling Pray to God for salvation in front of St. Peter's Cathedral or some other famous church.There are even many believers who are not sick, but just heard the bad news that a severe plague is approaching, they rushed to the cathedral in Rome to pray for their families, hoping that God would bless themselves and their relatives and friends to escape this catastrophe.

—According to the common sense these days, sickness is God's punishment for sinful people, and anyone who is sick or disabled, such as blind, deaf, lame, dumb, hunchbacked, etc., is due to sin reason.Salvation can be obtained through sincere prayer and repentance, without the need for medicine.And the most devout way of penitence is to leave home and go on pilgrimage, from cathedral to cathedral, with generous donations, to see the relics and remains of the saints, and, if possible, the best It is a long journey to Jerusalem... Only in this way can it be possible to win God's mercy and forgiveness, let his old man appear, and make these pilgrims heal without medicine.

If anyone does get better without medicine, it's a God-given miracle, and the church will trumpet it for prestige.If there is still no effect, it means that the patient has committed a serious sin and needs to go through more ascetic practices, go to a more distant place to practice and repent...

As for many unlucky pious believers, they have wandered on the endless pilgrimage road for decades without encountering any miracles, or encountered various bad luck and died unfortunately after not walking far... Well, this shows that your The attitude is not pious enough, you deserve to die, you can't blame God for a little bit.

——Don't say that these medieval European Christians are too stupid. Even in the east where the religious atmosphere is not so strong, it seems that there are countless devout Buddhists turning the prayer wheel, kowtow every three steps, and travel thousands of miles to Lhasa every year. Go to pay homage to the human skin drums and human bone artifacts of the lamas!
Closer to home, due to the theory that the above-mentioned theory is to help the church defraud money, thousands of pilgrims travel from all over Europe to Rome, the eternal city with many holy relics, for various purposes every year.

Although the number of pilgrims in Rome has been decreasing since the Holy See moved to Avignon, France, at least the clergy in Rome have been doing this kind of money-making routine for hundreds of years, and they are all very familiar with it. It is even more common for patients and family members to come to pray and send money—so, in Rome, where the incense has been deserted for a long time, seeing countless patients and pilgrims visiting the city with tumors and black spots, priests and nuns from various churches People are all smiling, thinking that they have ushered in a long-awaited new round of travel boom.

But the problem is that they don't understand the horror of the Black Death—with the medical and health conditions in medieval Europe, it is almost impossible for patients to recover once they contract the Black Death; the speed of transmission is extremely fast, and it seems that one person is enough Infect the whole world, let alone a single city.

As a result, this sudden wave of tourism quickly turned into a horrific death tsunami—as we all know, a large-scale floating population is synonymous with trouble and chaos no matter what era it is.Accompanied by the pilgrims carrying patients to Rome for pilgrimage to pray, all kinds of pathogens immediately poured into the densely populated Rome like a tsunami, and then ushered in a super outbreak that seemed to ignite an ammunition depot!
By the time the bishops in charge of the city and the local nobles realized that the situation was wrong and wanted to take control, it was too late!

——In just a few days, the terrible Black Death swept across the city and silently penetrated every street and alley in Rome.Every day you can hear that a certain family has died, and you can see people falling down in the street at any time.Many handsome gentlemen, beautiful girls, and lively young men have snacks with their relatives and friends in the morning, and at night they have gone to dinner with their ancestors in another world!

Then, the cars full of corpses flooded into various churches in Rome.Churches and monasteries became safe havens for all living beings to seek relief.People can't understand the vicissitudes of life, they can only come to the church and seek spiritual support and comfort from the pastor.

However, in the face of this epidemic that seems to be able to swallow the world, the church organizations and municipal authorities in Rome have no countermeasures at all. Thousands of patients have already poured into the city, and issuing orders prohibiting patients from entering the city will not help at all. It is equally impossible to drive them out.Doctors' bloodletting knives, potions and emetics are useless against this plague, and the prayers of priests and nuns lack confidence even in themselves.

The terrified people quickly lost their reason and compassion, and began to drive the infected people who were still alive into the house, nailed all the doors and windows with wooden boards, and finally let them die of thirst and starvation inside, and even set them on fire. Burned down with the houses...but still to no avail, people still died one by one.Every morning, everyone sat at the dining table looking at each other, and no one knew whose turn would be next.

——In fact, if they had adopted such cruel methods from the beginning, as the citizens of Milan did, then there might still be a faint hope of defeating the Black Death and keeping death out of the door, but by the time the plague had spread By the time the city has arrived, it's already too late.

At the beginning, people tried all kinds of unimaginable methods, hoping to drive away the plague.After a while, everyone gave up.Everyone can only sit in despair, waiting for the next draw of the god of death.Soon, the city's functioning mechanism was completely paralyzed, the streets were full of rotting corpses, and the administrators and judicial personnel almost disappeared, because like everyone else, they either died or fell ill, or simply closed themselves and their families. Arise, and completely relinquish their duty.Many others abandoned their homes and possessions and fled to the countryside alone.However, mountains and villages are not blessed places. Stories of uninhabited villages are also spread everywhere outside the city walls. The whole of Italy is full of desolation and corpses everywhere... People's actions from rationality to almost madness have not stopped the plague from raging. The specter of the Black Death still laughs in the dark.Panic continued to spread among the survivors.

When the hysterical fear swelled to the extreme and crushed the last string in people's minds, the collapse and riots began...

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There is an old saying in this world, "The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment".

Faced with the black death, which was raging and unstoppable by manpower, devout Christians from all over the country, with their last hope, came to the holy city of Rome with their children to pray for salvation. In the city, the epidemic of the Black Death is actually worse than in the countryside!

As a result, hope turned into disappointment, disappointment turned into despair, and despair turned into madness, and finally turned into a hysterical vent... Seeing familiar people fall down without warning, coughing Like a bellows, even the most conscientious and good people were tortured by the fear of death to the point of mental breakdown. In order to relieve the pressure, they released the tyrannical factors in their bones one after another, and started burning, killing and looting everywhere.

And the city security guards who were able to stop these thugs... well, now they are either dead or sick, or simply collapsed like crazy.

All of a sudden, the holy city of Rome became full of smoke and flames, as if it was being plundered by pagans or barbarians. The ground was full of all kinds of waste and rubbish, as well as suspicious blood.Amid the cries and pleadings of women, the screams and roars of men, the doors and windows of shops, churches and mansions were broken from time to time, the loud noise of smashing things and all kinds of crazy cheers, as well as the crowds of people The rioting crowd rushing and roaring past merged into a huge sound wave that almost overturned the ancient city.And the few citizens who were lucky enough not to die from the plague and tried to defend their homes were soon beaten to pieces by the crazy mob because of their weakness.

As for the women, the fate is even worse. There are women and young ladies in disheveled clothes everywhere, dragged out of the house, shredded clothes, twisting and struggling with bloated or young bodies, being grabbed by hair or feet, pulled Entering the depths of the back alleys where the sewage flows and pits are deep, to fully experience the "greetings" from the lower class people-they have no hypocrisy of pity, and it didn't take long for a large white floating corpse to appear on the Tiber River.

Even though some experienced women have blackened their faces with soot, messed up their hair, and even donned ill-fitting men's clothes, they were dragged out of their hiding places one by one in front of these hormonal thugs , stripped naked and chased and frolicked in the street, and then was caught by some lucky guy, and was thrown down on the dirty street as a trophy... Even some slender and handsome choir boys were brutally murdered...

However, the long-awaited "savior" that these Romans had been waiting for in their hearts had arrived at this time.

——When the traveler and Pope Clement VI walked through the [Freedom Gate] and came to Rome with a team of volunteers, there was such a riot scene full of smoke and purgatory.So much so that Wang Qiu thought that he had stepped into a certain battlefield unknowingly...

So, after a moment of astonishment and bewilderment, the Pope's guard in bright armor subconsciously raised their banners and shields, took out their swords and spears, and prepared to start street fighting with these unidentified thugs.And the traversers even activated the [Angel suit], spread their white wings and flew into the sky, while playing the solemn song as the background music of the battle, they prepared to throw lightning on the ground and carry out a suppressive bombing.

However, just when a scuffle or massacre was about to break out, there was a scene that made the traversers even more dumbfounded.

—Those thugs who were still burning, killing, looting, and doing all kinds of crimes just knelt down with tears streaming down their faces, just like the purest children.

"...Oh! It's an angel! Good God! Have you finally sent an angel to save us humble mortals?"

"...Uh...hell, did the angel really come? (Looking back at the scene of fire left and right) What did we sinners do just now?"

"...The triple crown? And that flag... Is that old man the Pope? Damn it, was I possessed by the devil just now?"

"...Oh! I am guilty! I am guilty! Please punish us severely! But my wife and children are innocent, please save them!"

……

Seeing these vicious thugs, they turned into the most pious and docile lambs in the blink of an eye, dropped the torches and murder weapons in their hands, and knelt down respectfully to worship.Even those women who were violated a moment ago, regardless of their own nakedness, still struggled to get up and kowtow to themselves... All the "angels" could not help but sigh deeply, fully feeling the devout atmosphere of faith in this era , the religious forces are deeply rooted.

——But no matter what, things are always going in a good direction, aren't they?