I Am the Crown Prince in France

Chapter 682 Prelude to Counterattack

Austria's northeastern border city, Nowy Szcz.

Nearly a thousand citizens gathered in the square of the cathedral in the city center, looking at Archbishop Mallu, Mr. Mesmer, standing on the stone steps of the church with pious expressions.

"The new Crusade has begun!" Mesmer exuded a holy light and raised his hand, "All Christians should respond to the call of His Holiness the Pope and head east to the sacred battlefield!

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"The evil heretics will be judged there, and you will also atone all your sins!"

Although the onlookers were not as fanatical as the Poles, they also followed suit and shouted while making the sign of the cross:

"Judge the heretics!"

"Respond to the holy war! "

The bishop of Nowy Songchi Diocese, Borowski, who was standing behind Archbishop Mallu, was pale. The papal envoy had only said that he would convey the pope's instructions, but he didn't expect such intense content.

He wanted to stop it, but he didn't know how to end it in front of everyone.

Mesmer continued: "If the Russian heretics defeat Poland, they will cross the Carpathian Mountains and take this place for themselves!

"And you will be forced to pray with three funny fingers. Your children will be thrown into a water tank for baptism. There will never be a chance to escape the torture of purgatory!

"Do you want this?"

As a professional liar, he naturally knows the importance of exaggeration.

The prayer gestures of the Orthodox Church are not mandatory. And baptism is just to immerse the child in holy water, and no water tank is used. As for purgatory, there is no such thing in the Orthodox Church, and there is no need to atone for sins to avoid the suffering of purgatory.

But the crowd in the square has already erupted in a tsunami-like shout:

"No, never! "

"Heretics, don't even think about coming here!"

"Holy War! Holy War!"

Mesmer nodded with satisfaction: "Then, use your piety to support the warriors fighting against heretics!"

Bishop Borofsky almost fainted, rubbing his forehead desperately, thinking about how to eliminate the influence caused by the special envoy after he left.

Suddenly, his eyes fixed.

No, for such a big thing as calling for a holy war, why didn't the Holy See issue instructions in advance, but directly sent a special envoy?

Just at this moment, Mesmer finished his speech and walked towards him.

Bishop Borofsky had a gloomy face, hurriedly pulled him into the church, and said:

"What do you want to do? This is not the Pope's decree!"

Mesmer was not nervous at all.

He was prepared to be exposed before he came, and the other party didn't even doubt his identity, but only suspected his behavior, which was much easier to solve than the previous times.

He said calmly at the moment: "Although it's not now, it will be soon. "

Bishop Borowski said angrily: "How is it possible? I will expose you to the Holy See!"

"This is your right." Mesmer smiled and said, "By the way, you should have heard that Russia has issued an ultimatum to Poland and will soon go to war."

"So what?"

"All European countries will soon know that the Pope is going to launch a holy war. If Poland does not fight well, the Pope will definitely not deny the existence of the holy war, because that will make the world think that the Holy See is afraid of the Orthodox Church.

"And if the Poles defeat Russia, then the Pope will have a great prestige because he "leads" this holy war. In that case, His Holiness the Pope will even come to Nowy Szczesny in person and call on the Crusaders to go to the East."

Borovsky was startled, it seemed to be true. Everything this papal envoy did was to expand the influence of the Holy See.

Mesmer continued, "If you can promote the holy war in the diocese, I will definitely commend you to the Holy See."

The reason why he was so calm was that even if something unexpected happened, the intelligence agency would rescue him immediately. Oh, and the Polish Freedom and Security Committee assisted him.

That afternoon, Mesmer left Nowy Sącz, sent off by Bishop Borowski, and rushed to Belz, Austria, to continue his holy war speech.

Not long after, pamphlets about the Pope's call for holy war began to appear in Nowy Sącz in large numbers. Citizens were discussing this everywhere.

Then, some religious fanatics really went to Poland to participate in the Crusades.

Although the number of people was not large, only more than a hundred, they basically provided their own weapons and did not need to be paid. Mesmer passed through several cities on the Austrian border and added seven or eight hundred soldiers to Poland for nothing.

Of course, more important than the number of troops, the news soon reached Vienna, and Austrians knew that the Poles were fighting the Crusades with the Russians as the "Spear of God".

As Austria is a Catholic country, people naturally think that it should stand on the side of Poland.

…

The town of Marec.

Janik wiped the flintlock with a rag, calculated silently in his mind, and said to himself:

“7 days.”

This is the seventh day since he came here.

That is to say, the Russian army has been blocked outside the town for a week.

Although there were news of danger on the defense line every day, and the casualties of the soldiers were very serious—the casualties of his company were close to one-third—the defense line was never broken by the enemy.

A little boy came over with a wooden bucket and began to wash the rag on the ground.

Janik looked at him and said:

"Kac, there will be a carriage transporting the wounded back to Warsaw tomorrow. You can go with it."

The little boy was startled and shook his head.

Yannick said:

"Listen, it's dangerous here."

Kachi still shook his head.

"You want to avenge your sister?"

Kachi nodded.

Yannick stretched out his hand and rubbed his head, causing a sharp pain in the wound:

"Hiss - I know, but you are not as tall as a flintlock gun."

"I can fire!" The little boy rarely spoke, but he said these words very hard.

Yannick smiled: "Then you have to go back to Warsaw to study mathematics first, and then you can become a qualified artilleryman. The enemy will not always get to the muzzle of the gun by himself."

He has decided to adopt the child, even though he is only 19 years old.

However, he was officially promoted to sergeant three days ago, and the allowance is almost enough for Kaqi to attend ordinary school, while military school is said to be free.

Kaqi looked at him again, thought for a moment, and nodded seriously:

"Okay then. I'll be back soon!"

Yannick subconsciously wanted to rub his head, but suddenly thought of the wound, he quickly retracted his hand and pointed to his feet:

"I'll hold this place until you learn how to fire.

"Just like Mr. Drasovitz and the others."

The sound of military drums coming from behind interrupted his words.

He turned around and saw a Polish army appearing on the road in the distance.

The soldiers lined up in an extremely orderly queue and walked south to the beat of drums. The number of soldiers was so large that it stretched to the end of sight.

Kachi gave him a questioning look.

Yannick shook his head: "Maybe he came to assist the town's defense, I don't know."

It happened that the second lieutenant from the company came to check the condition of the firearms. Hearing this, he raised his head and pointed to the military flag at the front of the queue:

"That's the King's 3rd Infantry Division, and the one behind seems to be the King's 2nd Cavalry Battalion."