Riding and Slashing

Chapter 141 Bloody Natural Disaster

Buyulin Village is surrounded by a canal at least three meters wide. This is an overflow canal for irrigation, and the water in it is quite urgent.

The canal surrounds the village like a moat, and it seems that the amount of engineering is quite large. This is probably Dean's contribution a few years ago.

There is a small wooden bridge at the entrance of the village, connecting the road.

A brazier was lit beside the wooden bridge, and several knights were walking back and forth at the entrance of the village, seemingly maintaining law and order.

In the village, some people could be seen sitting leaning against the village, seeming to be moaning softly.

Occasionally, a few coughs could be heard from afar.

Seeing the convoy approaching, the knights at the entrance of the village stopped the carriage.

The lord opened the curtains in the carriage and took a look. They were members of the Knights of the Radiant Cross, and the crosses on their chests were very conspicuous.

Several of the shining knights were wearing pointed helmets—this kind of helmet had a protruding mask at the snout, in the shape of a pointed bird's beak, which looked weird.

Some holes are pierced on the steel beak for ventilation, and the inner layer is filled with cotton fabric filter, which can tightly cover the mouth and nose.

This is not only a helmet, but also a gas mask of this era. It should still have a little protection.

Dean got out of the car with a few plague fighters and went forward.

"What's going on, what happened here?"

Because of Kryon's relationship, Dean is very familiar with the Knights of the Radiant Cross, and Ublin Village is the place where he used to work. He once built a canal to irrigate the fields here, so he is very concerned about the changes here.

The radiant knight approached with a torch, recognized the plague exorcists, then looked at Dean carefully, and pulled off his mask.

"You are... Lord Dean? My lord, don't go into the village, there is a plague in the village!"

This shining knight seemed to know Dean.

After all, his father was the Sergeant Major of the Knights of the Glorious Cross, and many knights knew him.

"plague?!"

The exorcists exclaimed.

Dean was still calm, but he frowned deeply: "Knights, do you need our help?"

"We do need people, but don't go in, it's the Red Death, and it's serious!"

Hearing that it was the Red Death, the lord became nervous.

This severe infectious disease was the direct cause of the collapse of the Ancient Pande Kingdom in a short period of time. It once raged on this continent for seven years.

In those short seven years, the population of Pendor Continent dropped by half.

Especially in those prosperous big cities, social production is basically at a standstill.

The reason why they are called the Red Death and Scarlet Scourge is because the skin of the infected person will gradually fester and fall off, and in the end, only blood-red muscles will be left, and the whole person will be a bloody blood demon.

The sick dead end up looking somewhat similar to the fallen, but by the time the red death gets to the point where the fallen have no skin, they're basically dead.

This is also one of the reasons why people from all over the world will be extremely nervous once they find the Fallen. Many people believe that there is a certain connection between the two.

The doctors of the Knights of the Glorious Cross have always been the pioneers in the fight against the Red Death, and it was precisely because of the ravages of the Red Death that they began to recruit plague exorcists from civilians in order to protect the doctors in their practice.

But what is interesting is that more than 100 years ago, it was not the Knights of the Glorious Cross who were the first to achieve results against the Red Death, but the thief Alfred and the Knights of the Lion who cooperated with him.

After establishing the Sarleon Kingdom and maintaining a brief peace with other countries, probably in order to protect the lives of the upper nobles, Alfred declared that the patients of the Red Death were heretics, and he ordered to kill all the 'heresy apostles'.

All villages where the Red Death is found will be sealed off and no entry will be allowed, and all things related to the infected will be destroyed.

As long as the infected patients are confirmed, they will be treated as heretics-killed and thrown into the fire to burn, and many of them will be burned alive.

Maybe Alfred was just trying to protect himself and the nobles, but his approach inadvertently formed a de facto isolation system, and it was a very effective mandatory isolation.

At that time, Alfred was the first Sarleon King, a dictator, and he always shot and killed those who disobeyed him, so his orders were carried out in place.

Of course, a large number of innocent people were killed by mistake during the period, and some shameless people took this opportunity to massacre and loot, but no matter what, the Sarleon Kingdom did suppress the spread of the Red Death within a short period of time.

Sometimes, a more vicious person can solve the problem. At that time, apart from Alfred, no king would slaughter the villagers in the country like this.

This is not a secret, except for the Lion Kingdom, all countries have records of this incident.

But this period of history is recorded as Alfred's stain - just as he was nicknamed "Kleptocrat" by various countries, he was also considered a tyrant among the people.

After all, his order to kill patients indiscriminately is really cruel.

However, this kind of cruelty actually saved most people...

But the strange thing is that there is no record of the origin of the Red Death, as if it appeared on the mainland overnight, and it was probably destroyed like the records of the half year before and after Alfred became king.

After the Red Death in the Lionland was resolved, other countries also began to use isolation to solve the problem, and it was only seven years later that the entire continent was back on track.

However, other countries did not adopt overly brutal measures to implement mandatory isolation, and the implementation was not thorough enough, and many fish slipped through the net, so this terrible plague could not be completely wiped out.

As a result, in the following 100 years, the Red Death still appeared repeatedly, but it did not form the terrifying scale that covered the continent.

As for the Fierce Lion Realm, it is also the place where the Red Death has been found the least—this is indeed due to the previous killings, which have been cleaned up more thoroughly.

The helmet of the Lion Knights was also the first to be changed to a pointed helmet style, but at the beginning it was not for epidemic prevention, but to avoid stench.

Because most of the people who carried out blockade and killing were members of the Lion Knights. At that time, they changed the traditional helmet into a sharp beak and filled it with cotton fabric or sponge. It stinks.

However, later the knights discovered that wearing a pointed helmet seemed not to be easily infected. The Knights of the Lion had been performing tasks with patients for a long time, but few of them were infected with the Red Death, so many knights also began to follow suit.

Especially the knights who originally belonged to the Ancient Pendor Kingdom, basically all the helmets are pointed beaks.

The Knights of the Glorious Cross were the earliest imitators.

They have more medical knowledge and understand that masks can filter air and play a role in preventing epidemics better than others.

Li Ang jumped out of the carriage and stood beside Dean: "Are you sure it's the Red Death?"

"Sure, I saw a few bloody patients with my own eyes... This plague spreads quickly, and there is no cure. We can only seal off this village. It is too close to Dilingang. If it spreads to big cities, The consequences could be disastrous……"

The shining knight shook his head while sighing.

"Since this is the case, you'd better send someone to find more people. With just a few knights and plague exorcists, I'm afraid the village won't be able to be sealed."

Li Ang looked towards the entrance of the village, and there were only a few knights and seven or eight plague exorcists guarding it.

The knight nodded towards Li Ang and Dean: "I have sent people to summon people around, and someone will come soon. I hope you can help me, stay at this intersection for a while, and wait until people from our knights come over."

Li Ang nodded without hesitation, and shouted to his subordinates: "Come down, let's block this intersection."

"My lord, you'd better not stay here..."

Hearing Li Ang's order, Klose hesitated, but still led the team to get out of the car and formed a row.

Although Klose has never experienced the Red Death, he knows that any plague is extremely terrible, and he doesn't want Leon to face this risk.

"We must help with this kind of thing. If a few infected people come out, it may endanger the entire continent. This is not a matter of a country or a nation, let alone a matter of a knight order. It is a matter of everyone. Anyone get out!"

The lord finished speaking to his subordinates very seriously, and then tore off the curtains in the carriage, tore them into face towels and distributed them to everyone, and asked them to fold them into two layers and tie them on their faces.

The curtains are made of plush and linen, so they probably do something.

A group of people followed Li Ang's example and covered their mouths and noses with cloth.

Li Ang didn't know how the Red Death was spread, but since the pointed helmet can provide protection, then this self-made mask should also be able to.

Although it is impossible to have the filtering ability of modern masks, it is at least a little better than no protection.

People in this era already know the function of breathing and air, and it is understandable to cover their mouth and nose when encountering a plague—this is because of the bloody natural disaster more than 100 years ago, which made people have such common sense.

"Thank you for your selfless help, Your Excellency, may I ask your name?"

The knight saluted Leon and Dean.

Dean began to introduce: "This is Your Excellency Leon, a kind nobleman."

Well, someone actually said that Li Ang was kind again.

But Li Ang shook his head directly: "I'm not a kind nobleman... I just want to protect my own safety. If it's not controlled here, people who are infected may flee to my territory..."

The shining knight frowned and thought for a while: "Your Excellency Li Ang, I seem to have heard this name somewhere..."

But then he shook his head and stopped thinking about it, and put on the beak mask: "You are right, Your Excellency Li Ang, this is for the safety of everyone... Such a thought itself is the greatest kindness. If every noble If you think like you, the Red Death can be eradicated long ago.”

He was about to turn around after speaking in a low voice, but he looked at the carriage behind Li Ang again, and turned around again.

Just as he was talking, there seemed to be a commotion in the village, and a voice could be heard from afar.

"Don't abandon us! Please treat us, please..."

That should be the voice of a middle-aged woman.

"Sorry, we can't…"

Another deep voice came.

The Radiant Knight sighed, apologized, and hurried over with his people.

As soon as he arrived at the entrance of the village, a group of people who looked like farmers ran out in a panic. The farmer in the lead shouted as he ran, "They want to lock us up here! They won't give people medical treatment, they want to We die here..."

Several glorious knights stopped them with shields and pushed them into the village: "You can't leave here! Go back!"

Several plague exorcists also raised their shields and short-handled hammers and rushed forward without saying a word. It seemed that they had seen such a scene before.

But they had too few people, and it was too difficult for a dozen people to completely block hundreds of villagers. The leading farmer struggled desperately to get out of their block.

"Is this the Knights of the Glorious Cross? You just want to kill us! You don't give us medical treatment, and you want us to die here!"

The guy danced and ran out of the village, shouting loudly while running.

Afterwards, all the villagers made a noise and began to charge and besiege desperately.

The members of the Radiant Knights tried their best to stop them, threatening to wave their hammers, but no one hit hard.

The lord frowned, that guy seemed to be instigating the villagers?

He pointed at the guy and said to Amy next to the carriage: "Shoot that guy!"

"A group of sanctimonious liars..."

"Bang!!"

The leading farmer rushed out of the village while shouting. When he was about twenty meters away from the lord, a loud noise made everyone shut up.

Amy was right behind Li Ang's side. Her sword was stuck on the ground, and a musket had been set up on it. A large cloud of smoke almost completely covered her figure.

The sound of musket guns was extremely loud at night, and the entrance of the village became silent for a while.

And the guy who had been instigating the farmer had a hole the size of an egg in his chest by a lead bullet, and he had fallen on his back on the road.

The muskets of this era have this effect - if they are not wearing armor, the lead bullet will deform after hitting the body directly, and will form a frontal wound that is much larger than the caliber. As long as it is hit on the torso, most of them will be killed directly.

And if the armor is worn, the lead bullet will shatter when it hits the armor. If the armor is penetrated, what remains in the body is irregular shrapnel.

Hit after penetrating the armor, because the speed of the bullet is slowed down, it may not be fatal on the spot.

However, the wounds caused by this kind of irregular shrapnel are quite troublesome. In terms of the medical skills of this era, basically it will only increase the pain, and it is still difficult to save people in the end.

But the leading farmer was obviously not wearing armor, and he was shot dead directly.

The lord is obviously much more ruthless than the shining knights. No matter whether this guy is deliberately inciting or not, his behavior has indeed played a role in instigating—then the lord directly asks Amy to kill him, so that he can control it in the fastest way. situation.

Amy fired the shot without hesitation at all. The lord made it so clear that he wanted to shoot that guy to death.

Li Angke had never given her an order before, because she was not Li Ang's subordinate, but a student studying.

Although the relationship is very good, she is actually not in the lord's team list so far.

But now Li Ang gave Amy the order to kill, so Amy naturally understood that this person must be killed.

She has always loaded a round of ammunition in the chamber, and she only needs to light the matchlock to aim and fire.

This is the correct way to prepare for firearms in this era. After all, this is an arquebus.

The matchlock will only be ignited before the battle, and the primer will be poured into the medicine pool only during the battle, but there will always be a round of pre-pressed ammunition in the chamber so that you can quickly enter the battle.

In fact, this is the real reason why the muzzle of the gun is facing up when marching on the back-this habit started from the era of the matchlock gun to prevent the compacted ammunition from loosening and falling out when walking.

Amy waved her hand to fan the smoke, lowered the butt of the gun to raise the barrel, cleaned the chamber with a cleaning rod, tested the temperature of the barrel, and began to reload.

"Back them all! My temper is not as good as those of the Radiant Knights!"

The lord took a few steps forward, walked to the side of the corpse, pulled out his sword and drew a line on the ground.

"As long as someone dares to cross this line, I will kill without hesitation!"

The people of Mettenheim also drew their swords and stood behind the lord, forming a row behind the line.

The corpses on the ground have already proved that this is not a lie. The gleaming sword is right in front of him, and more than a dozen tall and strong men are covered with sackcloth face towels. They look like a group of thugs.

The image of the gangsters was obviously more deterrent, and the villagers retreated into the village in fear.

The Knights of the Glorious Cross also held their shields and slowly retreated outside the line, standing in the front row of the great swordsmen.

The knights obviously agreed with Li Ang's way of cutting the mess quickly. In fact, if it weren't for this shot, their shield wall would have been broken through.

"You should act decisively... I thought you would be more experienced than me."

The lord said to the leading shining knight.

"It's useless for us to attack, it will only cause greater conflict... The deterrent power of the short-handled hammer is not as good as that of muskets and big swords. Thank you for your help, Your Excellency Li Ang, you shot very timely!"

This glorious knight was obviously a sensible person, he nodded towards Li Ang, and raised the mace in his hand.

True, their maces are a threat to knightly plate armor, but commoners have no fear of them...

The loud sound and smoke of the musket, as well as the large and long blade, can intuitively scare ordinary people.

"Are there any other exits from this village?"

Li Ang nodded to express his understanding, and began to think about how to completely seal the village.

"There is an exit behind that mountain. The rest of the place is surrounded by water canals. It is not so easy for people to get out. We have left our hands there."

The Radiant Knight pointed in the other direction.

"Take your knights to patrol the perimeter of the village and load the crossbows of the plague exorcists. If you encounter this situation just now, don't hesitate!"

Li Ang stared seriously into the eyes of the shining knight.

The shining knight nodded, and rode away with several other knights.

Lord Dean looked at the canal and small wooden bridge at the entrance of the village, and said to Li Ang: "I remember that there are more than 3000 people living in this village! If it is completely blocked, they may..."

The lord shook his head with a serious expression: "There is no way, the Red Death has no cure so far, the best way is to blockade and quarantine, we can't let them infect everywhere..."

Dean sighed deeply and began to pray to Goddess Damia.

　The emergence of the pointed helmet (also called the bird's beak helmet) is indeed due to the Black Death in Europe.

　　Thank you for the cherry blossom-colored summer, the late-night zongzi, 1000 million flavors, and the great god who never changes money.

　　Thank you for your monthly tickets.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)