When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#436 - Rapid City People's Congress (Part 1)

Imperial Calendar, August 2nd, 1445.

Ten days had passed since the Battle of Rapid Falls City, and the ruins of the entire city were slowly being cleaned up.

The bloodstains on the streets were washed away, the rubble on the main streets was cleared, and the corpses lying on the streets were dragged away.

As the rogue gangsters who tried to take advantage of the fire were captured, some blocks gradually returned to their former order.

Every morning, some small markets in the vicinity began to appear again. Vegetable farmers pushed small carts to the sheds at the street corners, placing fresh cabbages, peas, and radishes on the dirty, single-layer wooden shelves.

On the secondary streets, the shops and taverns that had previously closed down reopened their doors after washing away the traces of smoke.

Walking in the shade of the trees under the scorching sun, some citizens even had the illusion of returning to the old days.

It was just a pity that the corpses of rogues and betrayers still fluttered on the flagpoles, and Salvation Army soldiers patrolled back and forth at every street corner.

Under the overlapping eaves, you could still see the food distribution sheds and the refugee tents in the ruins.

But today, the people who were originally idle or cleaning up the ruins all walked out of their homes and headed towards the Fountain Grand Plaza at the intersection in the sunset.

This was not to celebrate any festival, but because the new lord of this city, the Lord of the Salvation Army, the divinely chosen Holy Grandson Pope Hohen, was going to hold a meeting of believers.

In the early days, there were not many believers in the Messianic Church. There might be only a few dozen or hundreds in one area, so it was naturally simple to hold a believers' meeting.

But now there are thousands or tens of thousands of believers in any given area, so it is rare to do this again.

For the citizens, in the past, during Catherine's rule, they all held small meetings within their respective blocks and guilds, and then sent representatives to the city council to hold large meetings.

To call so many people to the venue at one time can only be said to be the retro style of the Salvation Papal State.

Monks wearing the Salvation Army's unique half-cape clergy robes had already taken iron-skinned loudspeakers two days ago and notified the citizens of this news along the way.

Under the leadership of prestigious people and councilors in various street districts, people gathered into a mighty river, heading towards the Fountain Plaza at the intersection.

Since the believers' meeting only summoned adult believers, some teenagers, disgruntled at being locked at home, climbed onto the roof to watch the excitement.

As far as the eye could see, the intersection of the cross street was crowded with people, and the waves composed of shoulders and heads even swept over the eaves and statues, converging into the irregular octagonal square like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea.

A three-meter-high wooden platform was set up in front of the square, and bonfires were lit in front of the fountain in advance.

Footsteps trampled, linen and woolen cloth rubbed against each other, and the shouts and laughter of nearly ten thousand people chaotically impacted people's eardrums.

However, this chaos did not last long, and black-clothed soldiers holding clubs, shields, and long forks rushed into the chaotic crowd.

There were even Holy Musket cavalrymen with holy muskets inserted in their boots entering the square to maintain order. In the sound of clubs hitting the human body, the noise and chaos of the crowd finally subsided a little.

In addition to maintaining order, these black-clothed soldiers were carrying a small basket, handing a red-lacquered soybean to each person, and asking them to keep it safe.

The citizens looked at the soybeans in their hands, but did not find anything unusual, just put them in their pockets or held them in their palms.

"Doo, doo doo doo doo doo——"

In the symphony of trumpets and organs, the crowd quieted down, watching the figure appearing behind the high platform.

Walking in the first place, the wheat-skinned youth with a smile on his face, was the leader of the Salvation Army, the farmer Holy Grandson Hohen.

He wore an exquisitely crafted holy robe and a high hat without a triple crown, and walked leisurely to the center of the high platform.

Behind him were dozens of city councilors and heads of various guilds, etc.

They wore rolled hats with hanging tassels and robes of whirlpool-patterned brocade. Some were energetic, while others seemed very listless, probably having been imprisoned by Hohen for a long time.

Before the believers' meeting began, Hohen had used various means to win over this group of opinion leaders.

His coming to Rapid Falls City was essentially to provide aid according to the alliance, but his current behavior of staying put was to annex this commercial hub.

It was certainly feasible to annex it by force, but obviously, the Salvation Army's military force had not yet become so strong as to have great scholars defend its actions.

In order to unite more people and not want to give up Rapid Falls City, Hohen had to put up a facade.

Therefore, when liquidating the betrayers of Rapid Falls City, Hohen deliberately confused some concepts and included many city councilors who were suspected or had engaged in unscrupulous merchant activities.

In order to protect their personal safety and assets, these city councilors bowed their heads to Hohen and became new collaborators in a certain sense.

Standing in the center of the high platform, a dozen or so transmission monks brought from Jeanne d'Arc Fort stood in several corners of the high platform, opening their arms and aiming at the crowd in front of them.

"Everyone, this may be the first time we have met. Let me introduce myself, sinner Hohen, is the true Pope of the current empire, the divinely chosen Holy True Grandson..."

This introduction was only because the Holy Father of Thousand River Valley had too many distant relatives. In order to distinguish himself from them, Hohen could only add the title "True·" to himself.

He babbled and routinely popularized the origin of the Salvation Army and the great goals of the Salvation Army to the citizens. As the citizens began to feel more and more drowsy, he finally got to the key point:

"...Therefore, I have come to Rapid Falls City to do only three things!

The first thing we will do next, and I believe it is also what you are concerned about - is to lift the military control of Rapid Falls City!"

Hearing this, the citizens' expressions lifted.

Some Salvation Army soldiers (mainly Black Hat Army) often extorted shops, rudely disturbed the people, and occupied ownerless property, but this kind of military discipline was a moral model among most imperial infantry.

The existence of the black-clothed soldiers did not cause too much harm to the citizens, but they still felt uncomfortable, and that feeling of trepidation and lack of freedom was really unbearable.

This news was undoubtedly great news for them.

"In the next month, we will gradually withdraw the legions from Rapid Falls City, leaving only one legion stationed in the Uffizi Palace and one legion stationed in the port area.

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At the same time, the Salvation Papal State will discuss the current refugee resettlement and reconstruction issues in Rapid Falls City with various city councilors.

After all, as an ally, the Salvation Papal State has an obligation to help and support Rapid Falls City."

"Holy Trinity, we praise your greatness."

"You are simply Sinnatus redivivus!"

The citizens' praises immediately poured out, and they all compared Hohen to Sinnatus, a famous statesman during the Seven Hills Kingdom period.

Hearing such praise, Hohen couldn't help but laugh after a little thought.

He had to admit that these citizens were of a high level, and they were not praising them, and the person they chose was quite accurate.

Sinnatus was a temporary dictator during the Seven Hills Kingdom period, rescued the Elven army besieged by barbarians, and returned to his hometown after the victory, only serving as dictator for 17 days.

They compared themselves to the Elven army besieged by barbarians, and praised Hohen as a Sinnatus who did not love fame and fortune, trying to lure Hohen to hand over power.

I really don't know how long they rummaged through the old papers to find such a vivid analogy.

But unfortunately, their desire to regain power is probably going to fail.

Hohen pressed his hands in the air and said with a smile:

"...The second thing is also simple, that is, given the current situation in Rapid Falls City, it cannot independently cope with external affairs.

Therefore, after a unanimous decision by the city councilors, Rapid Falls City will join the Salvation Papal State as a papal vassal directly administered city!

This means that in addition to Rapid Falls City itself and its suburbs, the surrounding rural areas and small towns will become part of the Salvation Army's rule and jurisdiction."

The crowd was silent for a moment, and then began to discuss again, but compared to the last time, this time the attitude was obviously much more negative.

Some unscrupulous people even said words like "inviting wolves into the house" and "sure enough, they came with a purpose".

The city councilors who already knew about this immediately comforted the believers in the crowd: "Don't be afraid, everyone, vassalage is a high-level form of alliance!"

"We should do what we should do, will there be any changes from before?"

"If the Salvation Army leaves, and the knights attack again, who can help us? Continue to expect Catherine to govern?"

After being suppressed by the city councilors, although the citizens were still discussing, after a fluster of these opinion leaders, the opposition was much smaller.

Hohen's fingers tapped the podium unconsciously, his eyes burning as he scanned the many citizens in front of him:

"Then the third thing, the last thing, is about the current executive of Rapid Falls City, Catherine."

All the believers present looked a little unnatural, they all knew that the main event was coming.