Great time travel

Chapter 45. As expected of the Merchant of Venice
Although the Archbishop of Venice reprimanded them loudly and loudly, it is a pity that for the "false angels" who should be regarded as atheists in essence, the so-called "God's wrath" may not be as powerful as the debt collection company's reminders from across time and space. horrible.

"...Hehe, please don't use such weak words to squeeze us anymore, stingy Venetians! I can freely admit here that we have abused God's grace, so what? You If you really have the ability, go to God and sue us! Not to mention whether you can find a way to file a lawsuit, the legal fee for the lawsuit alone is more than 100 million ducats according to the official price, let alone There are routine bribes given to the archangels at all levels, and I'm afraid that even ten million ducats can't be beat..."

Facing such feeble threats and questioning from the Archbishop of Venice, Wang Qiu continued to talk nonsense without changing his expression—he didn’t have a real God over his head to supervise him, “…in fact, in Rome and Avignon Weng, there are also many such incomprehensible priests. Under the banner of the Lord, they have amassed countless money from believers, and some often coerce believers to sacrifice women for their enjoyment. But when they turned around, they plausibly scolded us for wanting Strictly abide by poverty, be content with devotion, don't deviate from the righteous way of the Lord, and even want to treat us like slaves! Facing such bastards who can't speak at all, we have no choice but to send divine punishment to them with divine thunder and flames. They were all burned to ashes, and even a cardinal was punished by God, but His Majesty the Pope can only praise us for a good kill! A wonderful kill, a croaking kill!"

"...Are you threatening us? This is too disrespectful of your dignity as an angel!" The archbishop of Venice's face was so gloomy that it seemed that water could drip, "...and, even if you are the king of angels, You shouldn’t have hurt God’s servants so hastily!”

"...Is that so? I don't think it's inappropriate for us to punish our servants. What's more, it's a group of traitors and usurpers who steal the master's money, refuse to do things, and even try to send the master the other way around." Wang Qiu curled his lips and replied disdainfully.

——Well, you really took the phrase "faithful servant of God" that priests often say as the truth!
You Venetians rolled your eyes for a moment—although the clergy of the church always modestly call themselves "servants of God", the credibility of this statement is probably the same as that of "public servants" called "public servants" by officials in later generations. It is purely polite That's all.Since the officials of later generations could call themselves public servants, they actually regarded themselves as the masters of the people; the priests of the Middle Ages could also call themselves the servants of God, amassing wealth and power in the name of God, while at the same time regarded themselves as the masters of God in their hearts, and unscrupulously Using the god's sign to steal the last copper coin from the old woman.

Of course, such a rebellious idea can only be thought about in their hearts, and they must not say it casually.If gods really come down to earth, it's their turn to sit on the wax—so, Doraemon and the others had to burn so many brains when they saved the world as angels, collected points and raised money to pay off debts. Die-hard priests here: These conceited bastards really dare to use angels as servants!
However, these Venetians who had promised well before, but when things came to an end but refused to give up money, they were also not good things.Seeing that these stingy Venetians are still hesitating and refusing to take out the money, Wang Qiu felt that he was becoming more and more impatient, "...Damn it, why are you so willing to pay tribute every year? Give the pope a big bribe, ask the pope to do nothing, just in exchange for the autonomy of the appointment of priests in Venice; but treat us angels who really perform miracles and save your lives so meanly? 100 million ducats for you For the future of a city, this transaction should be fair, you miser should really repent!"

——The Republic of Venice was a rare country that separated church and state in the Middle Ages. Relying on the generous bribes and force intimidation of the popes by successive governors, the right to appoint bishops in Venice was brought back to the government of the republic from the very beginning, and the pope could only make decisions on the list submitted by the government of the republic. It is only ratified by signature, and even the tax-free privileges and extraterritorial rights enjoyed by the church in European countries are not available in the Republic of Venice.In this regard, Pope Gregory XIII once sighed: "I am the Pope in any country, but Venice is not".Because of this background, Venice gathered many heretics or door-breakers. Even in the era of the most intense religious disputes and witch trials in the Middle Ages, Venice rarely burned heresy.Guarantees of rights in terms of religious liberty persisted until the Republic of Venice was annihilated by Napoleon.

"...So what? Saving the world is a mission entrusted to you by God. You shouldn't ask us for any money. Bribing you is blasphemy!" A young and energetic priest shouted, "... It is you fallen angels who should repent!"

"...Degenerate? You little mortal dare to say that we are degenerate?! It's ridiculous! It seems that you are determined to never get rid of it, right! Heh heh, well, do whatever you want, but the angel's little advantage is worth it. It’s not so easy to take advantage of! The divine favor that my companions spread now can become divine punishment in the next moment! At that time, you will understand how happy and easy it is to be able to die of the Black Death! "

Hearing the young priest's yelling, Wang Qiu's face was completely gloomy. He casually took out a tube of T-virus concentrate from the world of "Resident Evil" and shook it in front of the nose of the Archbishop of Venice, "... You see, do I use this new type of plague that is far more terrifying than the Black Death to turn all the residents of Venice into human-eating zombies? Or summon a bunch of burning meteorites, like God destroying Sodom and moths Like Mora, let Venice be buried in the fire? Or set off a tsunami, let your city be swallowed up by the rough sea like Atlantis? Haha, I heard that Venice has a sea wedding festival every year Marry the sea, now you can get your wish, go to the bottom of the sea to serve the sea god..."

As he threatened viciously, he had already started to think in his heart-whether to launch a medieval zombie crisis?
"... Enough! My lord angel, please calm down. In fact, we have already prepared a sum of money. It is really impossible to make up 100 million Ducat gold coins in a short time, but we still tried our best to collect some gold, silver, jewelry, Valuable furs and works of art, I hope it pleases you..."

Seeing the verbal confrontation just now, not only failed to grasp the handle of this unscrupulous angel, but almost completely angered this greedy angel with no mercy, bringing devastating disasters to Venice, Andrea.Governor Dandolo had no choice but to cough dryly and admit defeat for the time being.

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——Andrea, the fourth-generation Governor of Venice who just took office.Dandolo was the first "literate" doge in the history of the Republic of Venice.He once studied at the University of Padua. He is a descendant of the "Blind Dandolo" governor who led the Fourth Crusade to change course and conquer Constantinople more than 100 years ago. Unfortunately, as soon as he took office, the situation changed, and natural disasters followed one after another.

The first is the strong earthquake that occurred in Venice on January 1348, 25. It is said that this earthquake destroyed Padua, Giorgia, and half of Venice.Even the Adriatic Sea experienced a rare influx of seawater, causing most of the city of Venice to be submerged by seawater for a time. The city was filled with shipwreck garbage, drifting debris, and refugees running around. The floating corpses of humans and animals made the government's isolation measures against the Black Death completely ineffective, and the whole city was polluted.

Next, of course, was the outbreak of the vigorous Black Death—this cursed Black Death not only wiped out half of the citizens of Venice, but also in this tragic situation that was no different from the end of the world, as the market With the sharp drop in labor force, Venice’s financial and trading industries have also suffered a devastating blow. A large number of bank loans without repayers have become bad debts, while goods that cannot find buyers are piled up in warehouses, and even merchant ships are in danger. Not enough sailors could be raised to go to sea, and the unmanned galleys were left to rot on the shore.

Governor Andre was deeply worried about this. He was worried that this unprecedented plague would turn Venice into a city of death, and also worried that even if Venice survived the plague, it would fall into a slump due to the collapse of the commercial chain. However, it is difficult to find an effective countermeasure.

However, these "angels" who came suddenly gave the Governor and his officials not only a ray of hope to save the citizens of Venice, but also a wonderful shortcut to revitalize the Venice economy - if these angels can be taken The Merchant of Venice instigated moving words.

Therefore, the reason why the Governor of Venice brought a group of people to mess with Wang Qiu and push back on the payment was not because he really wanted to renege on the debt, but because he was unwilling to give the money too happily—the Venetians who are used to spending a small amount of money to get a big advantage, He deliberately wanted to turn the huge sum of 100 million Ducat gold coins that he promised to pay into a carrot hanging in front of these angels, making them work hard for the Venetians for this huge bait... Just like the cunning Venetian merchant The same way we used to manipulate Christian kings, Eastern Roman emperors, and Arab sultans behind the scenes.

——Those bad bosses in later generations who like to use wage arrears to migrant workers to control the labor force to prevent them from resigning midway probably have similar ideas.

Unexpectedly, after a relatively in-depth contact, all of you Venetian merchants who thought they were already very unscrupulous found out that these angels looked upright and holy, but in fact they were even more devils than devils. They lacked mercy, And contempt for God is simply more shameless than the most vicious and greedy Pope.And it seems that he still has a hot temper. When the Venetians hesitated to pay the bill, this angry angel actually threatened them with a series of disasters that destroyed the city. I don't know how heaven cultivated such a guy!

What is even more frightening is that they may really have the ability to easily destroy Venice...

In the face of the crushing absolute power, any tricks are meaningless, and will only become jokes and farces beyond self-control. In front of the angel, I am afraid that there are really just ants that can be trampled to death at will.

——Obviously, the original set of scripts could no longer be sung, Governor Andre had no choice but to admit defeat decisively, temporarily give up the plan of delaying the remuneration, and first took out a considerable amount of gold and silver treasures, to appease the other party seems to be on the verge of Explosion of anger.

Next, about [-] Ducat gold coins, more than [-] Grosso silver coins, some gold and silver utensils, gemstone amber, rare furs, and some exquisite ancient Roman and ancient Greek eras were urgently raised by the authorities of the Republic of Venice. The figurines were packed in large sturdy wooden boxes, and carried to the center of the chapel of St. Mark's Basilica by a group of muscular young men like flowing water.And Wang Qiu, who was almost blown up a moment ago, also snorted and put away the zombie virus, called Doraemon through the radio, and asked him to carry the [Automatic Pawn Machine] to come over for inspection.