Great time travel

Chapter 52. Dead Wine Country

In 1348, when the haze of the Black Death swept across the European continent, England, an isolated island country overseas, was in the glory of its heyday of martial arts.

In the past two years, under the wise leadership of King Edward III, the English army of the Plantagenet Dynasty, which seemed to have opened a golden finger, first crossed the English Channel to invade France, and miraculously defeated Crecy with fewer troops. The battle, at a very small cost, almost wiped out the entire field force of France.Then, the British, who were blessed by the God of War, played another triumphant song on the island of Great Britain. With the [-] miscellaneous troops left behind in their country, they fought the Battle of Neville's Cross with the Scots who took advantage of the situation and went south. Less wins more, smashing the [-] Scottish troops who invaded the south, and even captured King David of Scotland, thus completely eliminating the troubles in the north of England.

Next, after a full eleven months of arduous siege, the British army finally captured the port of Calais, which guarded the important point of the English Channel, and laid a solid marching base on the French coast, thus firmly grasping the The initiative of the Hundred Years' War between Britain and France.

So far, in this big game between Britain and France, the French, who initially had a good hand and allies to help out, have lost a complete defeat.But the United Kingdom, which is fighting alone, is lucky, moving from one glorious victory to another even more glorious victory.Finally, the bruised and bruised Gallic Chicken finally lowered its haughty head, knelt down to the former courtier John Bull, and exchanged a one-year peace agreement at a heavy price.

——Break the strong bandits, capture the enemy chiefs, pull out the strong city, and make the two old enemies of the North and the South bow their knees at the same time... After a series of such rare and outstanding military exploits, the proud Edward III returned triumphantly under the flattery of his officials The country plans to use the peace time stipulated in the armistice agreement to plan an unprecedented grand wedding—send his daughter, Princess Joan, across the sea to marry Spain, and the groom is Prince Pedro of the Kingdom of Castile in Spain.

(At that time, the Spanish peninsula was still divided among various countries and had not yet been unified. Castile was the core plate that would form the Kingdom of Spain in the future.)
Although it was a political marriage, Edward III obviously still loved his daughter very much. In order for Princess Joan to marry in a decent manner, Edward III, who had just received rich spoils and indemnities from France, was not stingy with money: the dowry prepared by the king for Princess Joan, From gowns, jewelry to furniture, it was full of a big boat. Her silk wedding dress alone was 150 meters long, and all kinds of gorgeous jewelry and costumes were even more dizzying.An incense burner used by the princess, if the market price at that time is converted into RMB, it is about 350 million.On her voyages across the ocean, she also brought a portable private chapel with her.The chapel is magnificent, with extravagant couches.The couch is decorated with a circle of golden vines, all made of Byzantine gold coins.The altar is covered with gorgeous silk, surrounded by vines, embroidered with an angry battle dragon.

And Prince Pedro of the Kingdom of Castile was obviously very satisfied with this marriage. In order to please his fiancée, he even sent a famous Spanish singer to the British court to play the harp for Princess Joan. To relieve boredom, by the way, praise the handsomeness and demeanor of Prince Pedro, as well as the great martial arts of the Moorish pagans in the Iberian Peninsula, and strive to create an image of a handsome and combative Prince Charming.

So, when the land of France was swallowed by death, a fleet from England sailed to Bordeaux, an important seaport in southwest France.On the largest flagship, Joan Plantagenet, a 13-year-old British princess, was on board.She was going to Spain to marry the prince via Bordeaux.

Little Princess Joan Plantagenet brought a huge retinue: knights, clerks, ladies-in-waiting, priests, and the Spanish singer.The leader of the entourage was England Secretary of State Bushel.His deputy, Wuerfude, is a doctor of laws from Oxford University and an experienced diplomat.They not only have to take care of little princess Joan? A future son will take the throne: King Edward III has big plans.He wanted to form an alliance with Castile and encircle France on both sides.His daughter will become the queen of a nation, and later will be the mother of a nation.Decades later, with his grandson ruling Castile and his grandson England, France would fall prey to the Plantagenet iron grip.

Of course, the little princess, who is only 13 years old, can't think of such a long-term future. She only knows that she will go to sea to get married.And now, she wants to enjoy the last free time before marriage - the whole journey is filled with wine and music, youth and joy.The water of the Atlantic pats the side of the ship, seagulls fly between the water and the sky, and the afterglow of the setting sun burns on the water.Not far away is the dark continent of Europe.At this moment, there, millions of corpses are lying in the mud and slowly rotting... But due to the lag in information transmission, everyone in this wedding fleet still has no idea of ​​the disaster ahead.

——Even if they had learned the words and phrases of the plague outbreak in Sicily before they set off, with the knowledge of medieval Europeans, who would have imagined that this plague could span the entire Europe from south to north, from So what about the distant place spreading all the way to your side?

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

In August 1348, the fleet of Princess Joan Plantagenet arrived in Port of Bordeaux, planning to take a rest here before going to Spain to get married.

Although Bordeaux was located in France at that time, it was a hereditary territory loyal to the Plantagenet royal family of England.Since the Middle Ages, Bordeaux has been a famous wine capital and the largest port on the west coast of France.The cool sea breeze blows it, and the dense grape vines wind around it.The scenery is beautiful and pleasant everywhere.Moreover, the local residents are generally close to the United Kingdom-at the end of the Hundred Years' War, when the French army regained this place, the citizens of Bordeaux launched an armed uprising, expelled the garrison from Paris, and welcomed the return of the British army, thus breaking out the last battle of the Hundred Years' War .

Unfortunately, when Princess Joan Plantagenet and her party arrived, it happened to be the darkest summer in Bordeaux's history.

So, Princess Joan Plantagenet sees a dying city.There was no welcome crowd, no colorful flags and flowers, and the fleet sailed into the pier quietly.The mayor of Bordeaux greeted the mission on the pier without an accompanying entourage.And he himself had a gloomy face and red eyes.The whole person looks like a ghost.Watching the British fleet dock, the mayor gave the princess a sad smile, and weakly recited a welcome speech.

All the English nobles in the fleet were very dissatisfied with this.They had hoped for a grand ceremony: all the citizens lined up to greet them, flowers lay on the ground, colorful flags fluttered, and a band played.But now there is only a mayor who is as weak as a sick donkey, and even looks like he will fall to the ground and die at any time.

To make matters worse, after the pleasantries, the mayor of Bordeaux changed the subject and announced a shocking news to the visitors: a super plague came from the south and was spreading rapidly throughout the Bordeaux area.Although the city of Bordeaux adopted the strictest isolation measures and prohibited any patients from entering the city, it still failed to stop the invasion of the plague.Right now, the citizens and business travelers here are dying in large numbers.The death rate was unbelievably high.

The most terrible thing is that this plague seems to be incurable. The doctors in Bordeaux tried all kinds of methods, but they couldn't cure even one patient.Although they had already heard that there was a miracle in the Holy See in Avignon, and the Bordeaux City Hall also sent envoys to ask the Holy See for help, but they have not received any reply yet.Therefore, before finding a way to curb the plague, for the sake of safety, the mayor suggested that the princess should not stay on the shore, but should leave Bordeaux as soon as possible, and return to England to take refuge.

——This suggestion is very reasonable and timely, but Princess Joan Plantagenet and her party rejected it.No one knows why they made such choices.Maybe it was because the situation of the fleet and the weather conditions did not allow immediate return, maybe it was because the marriage between the two countries was too important to be interrupted; maybe they thought it was a trick and thought the mayor was just trying to save money. Fei, maybe it's just out of British arrogance... In short, the whole delegation of the wedding mission scoffed at the words of the mayor of Bordeaux, left the crooked old guy, and drove straight to the royal castle of Bordeaux. The property of His Majesty the King is tall and majestic, luxurious and rich, spacious and comfortable.The entire mission can live comfortably in it - Her Royal Highness's wedding trip, of course, it is impossible to stay in those ordinary hotels, only staying in the royal castle is the safest.

At first glance, this arrangement is indeed very reasonable, but it has a small oversight, that is, the location of the royal castle of Bordeaux:

The Royal Castle of Bordeaux is located on a cliff near the estuary, close to the pier, overlooking the street view of the city and the magnificent scenery of the Atlantic Ocean.The Gironde River flows from the foot of the castle, pours into the bay, and finally flows into the Atlantic Ocean, where it forms a huge pier.Like all docks, it is low and humid.Numerous ships shuttled back and forth in the river, they brought in mountains of cloth from overseas, and sold thousands of barrels of wine overseas.This is Bordeaux's golden waterway. Even in 1348, this trade route was not completely cut off. Although the number of trades in cloth and wine decreased, they were still transported in the river.In the cloths and barrels there are the little guests: the rats and their fleas—the rats are densest around the quays in all of Bordeaux.The humid and warm climate here is also particularly suitable for their large-scale reproduction.

That is to say, although the Royal Castle has fresh air and beautiful scenery, it is located directly above the most dangerous epidemic area in Bordeaux!And mice can not only burrow and dig holes, but also climb mountains - from the pier to the castle, the straight-line distance is only about 200 meters!Under the lure of the rich food scraps in the castle kitchen, there must have been many little guys covered in germs who sneaked in from under the cliff in the dark...

But at that time, Princess Joan Plantagenet and none of them knew this. They strode into this luxurious death castle, singing and laughing all day long, without even noticing that the god of death was wandering in the corridors of the castle.A few days later, the Minister of State Bucher suddenly vomited blood and died violently, with abscesses and black spots all over his body... Then, with the fall of the first victim, the death game in this castle officially began.

What happened next was exactly like Agatha Christie's detective novels, or the scene of the death case in the comics of "Kindaichi Boy Detective Case Book"-the members of the mission who lived in the royal castle of Bordeaux began to get sick one after another. Death, the music, the drinking parties and the dances all stopped, and no one played or sang Spanish songs anymore.At night, all kinds of hysterical screams can be heard endlessly, and blood and vomit are everywhere in the room and corridors.Someone was screaming in the dark, someone was shaking and crying in the quilt... Now this castle has become too unsafe, it is not like a luxurious palace, but like a slaughterhouse, where death is always on the move. Walking around with a scythe!
But they didn't dare to escape from the castle, because outside the castle, death was devouring the whole of Bordeaux with a more ferocious momentum... It was the midsummer season of the year, and the epidemic seemed to be rising with the temperature. In just a few days, the situation in Bordeaux has been completely out of control, and the plague called the Black Death has completely engulfed it. Leaving aside the situation in the countryside, the situation in the city has become appallingly terrifying. There are no clergy who can preside over funerals, and the streets are littered with carrion corpses that have not been cleaned up.The desperate city hall even ordered the fire to burn down the street market that generations of hard work had built.Looking down from the balcony of the royal castle, one side is the sea water reflected red by the golden sunset, and the other side is the burning city of Bordeaux.The raging flames lit up the sky, and the huge pillar of fire could be clearly seen dozens of miles away.

The members of the embassy in the royal castle were like animals trapped in a cage, running around in a hurry.Princess Joan Plantagenet, who is still a delicate little girl, was so frightened that she was in a trance and cried all day long, worrying that she would never be able to wear the 150-meter-long luxurious wedding dress until she died.

So the desperate members of the mission set about arranging a voyage, desperate to escape Bordeaux as quickly as possible, either to Spain or back to England.But the problem is that most of the sailors have died of illness and escaped, and they have to wait for the right current and wind direction before sailing.

Seeing that the fleet was unable to go to sea for a while, Princess Joan Plantagenet, who had a nervous breakdown, decided to escape from this cursed castle and evacuate Bordeaux, even if she moved to the nearby countryside to camp.It was a very wise decision—it was just too late.

Just when they were about to transfer, Princess Joan Plantagenet also fell ill suddenly, and her young life entered a countdown...

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

At the same time, the fifth batch of rescue messengers from Bordeaux finally completed a [-]-kilometer journey and successfully arrived in Avignon, where the Holy See is stationed.
——The first few groups of people either fell ill during the journey, or were robbed by bandits, in short, they all died on the way.But in the face of the envoy's cry and the pleading letter written by Princess Joan Plantagenet, Paladin Li Wei had no choice but to spread his hands, expressing his helplessness—although Doraemon left him the book before leaving. [Encyclopedia of Magic], but Li Wei can't speak Japanese, and can't read the Japanese spells written on it... But the [Automatic Medical Box], which can basically cure all diseases, was taken away by Doraemon. Stay... well, that sounds like a sad story...

"...So, you plan to send me to Bordeaux to perform 'miracles' to save people? By the way, change history and earn points?"

Looking at the [Magic Encyclopedia Dictionary] handed over by Li Wei with both hands, Wang Qiu couldn't help but roll his eyes, "...The problem is, the other party is the princess and minister of the enemy England?! Have you ever thought that you have participated in the Magic Encyclopedia before? In the Battle of Crecy, I fought with the British army with swords and guns, and I am still a knight of the Kingdom of France! Don’t forget, we are still on the land of the Kingdom of France.”

"...the knights of the Countes of Provence to be precise. According to the medieval feudal rule, 'The vassals of my vassals are not my vassals', as long as Queen Joanna of Provence has no problem with this matter, the King of France has no reason to What are you talking about. Her Majesty Queen Joanna seems to be hoping to establish a relationship with the future Queen of Castile so that she can get some cheap pagan slaves from Spain to resume production..."

Li Wei waved his hand and corrected, "...What's more, do you think I will care about this knight title? After collecting [-] reward points, I will leave forever this terrible world where there is nothing worth reminiscing about except women. , to enjoy the wonderful life in the modern world again. Of course, before leaving here, I have to find a way to raise some money for milk powder for my wife and children... By the way, how many points do I have now?"

"...Hey, I remember it was more than 8000 points." Wang Qiu sighed, opened the "Book of Time Traveling", and then suddenly widened his eyes, "...Huh? There are new bonus points? King Ying Edward III and the 'Black Prince' Edward died early, and received [-] reward points? Hiss—"

He couldn't help taking a breath, and at the same time looked up at Li Wei in surprise, "...Hey, it seems that before we take any further action, the historical trajectory of this world seems to have been ruined even more ..."