"You are a Saxon, why should I trust you?"
"The Saxons, the Irish, all the Germans hundreds of years ago."
"Don't you stutter? Why do you speak so fluently now?"
"I have been through so much this year. I pray every day, and even in my dreams I shout, 'All glory to the Lord.' It must have been the angels who heard my confession and gave me a healthy body."
"Smuggling is an evil act that violates the law. You are so pious that you still come to me to do such a thing? I will ask the church guards to throw you out right away and put you on the square in less than five days..."
"If you want to throw it away, I can't enter the hall, right? The devout 'Priest of Cologne'."
"Don't be sarcastic, go on to tell me your plan."
"...Every day people come to the church to donate. As the priest who collects these belongings, you have to check your whole body before you walk out of the door. The statues are not checked. We can stuff things inside."
"But these statues are all sealed?"
"All it takes to destroy these things is a fire. As the son of a blacksmith, you know my craftsmanship. I will work hard to get a statue of the right size, and then find an opportunity to transfer it."
"You're crazy, Salz!"
"I'm not crazy, I just want to use the fastest time to accumulate a fortune and rebuild my family.
Follow my grandfather's example and become a sailor, depending on luck to determine the harvest?
I followed my father's example and helped the stingy nobles to blacksmith? But I was often credited by them?
These are all too slow. Maybe it will take ten years to save a shop.
You know, I'm the only one left, everyone has left me, you don't agree with my plan,
After I go out, I will jump off the 'Dublin Port' immediately, and maybe I can see my mother who was persecuted by pirates and buried at sea. "
"What if the plan fails?"
"If you don't do it, the 'County Bishop' will soon know that his most trusted priest secretly used church funds to lend money and smuggle, and due to shipwrecks and robbers, two batches of goods sank to the bottom of the sea. You can't take out these belongings. When the time comes for the accounting, you will be accused of embezzling God’s belongings. Even if you survive, you will never have the chance to help believers in confession.”
Sals knew this because the person who cooperated with the Cologne priests in smuggling and lending was his mother!
Time goes very slowly, so slowly that you can hear your heartbeat.
When the Cologne priest gritted his teeth and said "good".
Sals replied, "Help me prepare the raw materials, an empty house, and find an obedient apprentice. I will handle it immediately. Soon it will be Good Friday on the island. As the largest church in Ireland, There will be so many pilgrims coming to Dublin Port that we can make up for all the losses in one go."
After finishing speaking, "Saers Morgan" walked out of one of the church's worship rooms and came to a cemetery to be in a daze.
The cemetery here is full of Salz's relatives.
The tombstone with the earliest year of establishment is that of his grandfather. The tombstone is very short and reads,
"Born in the sea, buried in the sea, servant of the Lord, Rising Morgan."
Salz shed tears as he touched the words above.
"Grandpa, you always taught me to stay optimistic and live hard, but it's useless. If the robbers take your things and you smile back, they will just stretch out their hands and slap you in the face!"
"Mother, you are a descendant of a declining noble. Your addiction to gold and silver enabled me to count at the age of five. When I was ten, you helped my grandfather buy a fleet and took us around for travel and trade.
But you are blinded by gold and silver, and greed makes you give up your comfortable life to earn profits that do not belong to you.
Traveling through forbidden seas, smuggling luxury goods, and finally being kicked out of the sea by pirates because you didn't hand over the jeweled cross around your neck. What do you get after working hard all your life?"
"Father, you are the person I have admired the most since childhood. Your skills can turn the iron and wood in your hands into lifelike objects, but you are so ignorant!
You believe whatever the priest says. When I was a child, I just didn’t like to talk and I didn’t think like a child.
You don't think that maturity is a good thing, so you and my grandfather forced me to be sent to a monastery, saying that you wanted the priests to exorcise the demons from my body.
I saw a certain priest in the monastery - he insulted the women of peasant families who could not pay the priest's land tax, so he would speak ill of the priest to other apprentices.
But after the news came out, they said I had slandered the priesthood and fed me black-smelling potion for more than ten days, which almost made me mute!
It took me three years to recover and be able to speak!
But I have forgotten the feeling of speaking, and ended up stuttering!
After your mother left, you took the only belongings left at home to the priest, saying that you wanted to atone for the sins of your grandfather and mother. When the belongings went into the pocket of the priest, you lost the value of the conversation and were kicked out.
When you were overly sad, had hallucinations, and went to knock on the church door, the guards said you were crazy and beat you to death. When they asked me to collect the body, they also asked for my coat as payment for damage to the door. You are so stupid...Father!"
"In the end... all that's left is you, my dear wife, the mother of my unborn child... Your father, a landless knight, sold you to my mother in order to raise the cost of buying war horses, but I never looked down on you. , and even declined a baron’s illegitimate daughter who brought her own dowry, just to marry you.
But why are you so stupid! I said I can raise the shipping fee and pay off the debt. I just need to work for the nobles for five years. I will take you back to England!
But in order to prevent me from being so tired, you slept with a nobleman. In the end, he not only lied to you, but also destroyed our children..."
Sals. Morgan muttered to himself, tears streaming down his face, his fingers sinking deeply into the soil until his eyes were dry and his fingers were red...
All his relatives left, which made his stutter heal. The belief in revenge is the driving force for his survival.
This was the last time Sals cried in his life...
The next day, he began to build the icon. With his father's teachings and his mother's fleet traveling to many places and seeing countless churches and statues, he had superb skills and rich imagination, and soon created an amazing statue of the Virgin.
When the Cologne priest arrived and saw the statue, he couldn't help but exclaimed, "What a masterpiece... a masterpiece... I heard that in Eastern Rome, there was a craft that could insert glass sequins into the eye holes. When the sun shines, the pupils will glow." Liang, the whole statue can come alive, can you?"
"I haven't tried it, but as long as you give me something, I will definitely be able to figure it out. But these are not important. I will drive out the two holy statues immediately. If you don't dare to set fire to it, then I can do it. Anyway, I am going to hell. As a human being, this is the only thing you need."
Finally, Sals entered the cathedral one night, sprinkled fire oil on several statues of gods, and then lit them on fire!
In this era, apart from pagans, even the most brutal "lords" or "thieves" would not dare to do such a thing.
But Salz didn't feel any pressure at all.
"Aren't you omnipotent? Look, you can't even protect your icon!" Sars sneered and left.
Good Friday was coming soon, and while the church was catching the thief, it also immediately found craftsmen to make it. At this time, the priest Cologne recommended "Sales", saying that he had earlier started to do it himself in order to atone for his sins and wash away the sins of his father who was possessed by the devil. There may be enough time to make the icon.
When the priest who inspected the icon saw the icon with the same proportions as a real person, he immediately showed great kindness to Sals and asked him to donate the icon on the condition that he would help his parents and wife hold a very noble blessing. present.
"The Holy Word will make your relatives go from hell to heaven. In addition to this one, you only need to help the church make three more holy images."
Salz thanked him "with tears of pain" and the priest left satisfied.
After starting to work quickly, he completed two masterpieces in two months, and the skills of the apprentices who followed him more than tripled.
"Teacher, your craftsmanship is great, and I have learned a lot. I think I will be able to do it on my own soon."
Hearing the apprentice's words, Sals just chuckled.
When Good Friday comes, the whole of Dublin Port is full of people.
When there are too many people, excrement is all over the ground. These people make a long journey to perform pilgrimage, and at the same time they destroy the appearance of the city at will.
Many noble knights chanted sutras during the day, and at night, they entered the hotel, hugged the wine girls, and "sowed seeds" at will.
Sals came to the vicinity of the cathedral and saw this ridiculous scene. He sneered at the apprentices around him and said, "Look at them, running around dodging the mud and feces on the ground, but they don't know that the dirtiest ones are themselves!"
The apprentice did not dare to answer the question and listened silently to the instruction, rolling his eyes. Salz saw all this.
The Son of God suffered for seven days without dying, so the celebration lasted for seven days.
But on the third day, Sals asked the Cologne priest to press the assembled parts of the statue he had sent in beforehand, causing damage. Then Cologne told the bishop that Sals carved two statues to avoid accidents. icon.
Early in the morning, believers were coming from all directions. The bishop didn't have time to think about it and asked Sals to replace it overnight. However, the icon would not be inspected. The broken icon had already been stuffed with gold and silverware by Priest Cologne. Sals Si and his apprentice were empty-handed and successfully accepted the inspection.
After leaving the church, the two carefully carried out the holy statue stuffed with gold and silver. They pushed the cart halfway and entered the alley. The apprentice said, "Teacher, the Cologne priest has arranged the location. Let's push it to..."
Sals nodded and walked for a while, becoming more and more evasive. When he was about to enter a suburb, Sals stopped and said, "There is a sound."
The young apprentice was ordered to look forward. Just after taking a few steps, Sars used the sharp knife used to carve icons to penetrate the apprentice's chest from behind.
One sword, two swords, three swords...
The first time he killed, Sals didn't stop until his excitement overcame his fear.
It turns out that killing people is no big deal. If the knife goes through, the person will die, that's all.
"You are from Cologne. I can't trust you. He won't keep me after the celebration."
These were the last words Sals gave to his apprentice.
That night, Sals disappeared from Dublin Port. Two months later, he boarded a ship heading northeast to Wales in the southern port of Ireland.
Sitting on a sea boat, enjoying the sea breeze, Sals was dressed like a wealthy wool merchant, accompanied by a purchased Irish slave carrying a luggage.
Sals wore a sword and looked very distinguished, and the captain treated him very politely.
In the evening, he was invited to the captain's cabin for a drink.
When the ship arrived at the port, he first went to see the local lord and handed over a letter he had obtained from a small lord in the south of Ireland to forge his identity.
After stamping the noble seal on it, he went to the nearest church to make donations, obtain a pious believer document issued by the church, and get to know the local priest.
He had the sword of the noble and the pen of the priest.
Now, he has transformed into the second son of a baron from southern Ireland and is engaged in commerce and trade.
After another three months, he met more classes of clergy.
In this era, the church owned a large amount of land and was involved in lending money, but dirty businessmen would do this.
Having entered a monastery at a young age, he had a certain level of understanding of the classics.
He can even write "the four ways of writing the Pope".
On different occasions, priests write Apostolic Letters in different ways. They must make precise judgments in order to correctly use the four writing methods. This means that at least four of the "Seven Theological Books" must be read through.
I don’t know how much higher it is than those businessmen who only know how to calculate interest!
As a result, he was introduced to the Archbishop of Wales and became the "lender merchant" of the church.
But if you want to get this title for a long time, it is more important to look at your ability to make money, otherwise it will be useless even if you know "eight ways of writing".
Sals invented different loan profit margins, and could even lend money on the same day, with very little interest.
More and more people are borrowing money from him.
He told his men that as long as they were young and strong, regardless of gender, no collateral was required.
My subordinates asked, what do we earn?
He replied, "As long as their blood is still fresh, they can be sold at a good price."
It took him two years to accumulate enough wealth to help him buy two honorary knighthoods, two mansions, ten servants, a betrothal gift for a noble woman, and two more lovers.
He even came up with the idea of "trading slaves" with the Franks so that he could earn more.
One night, someone showed up at the mansion to assassinate him. He was a member of the ruined knight family who had been forced into debt by him.
"You villain, the devil from hell!"
This man's family was ruined by Sars, he was caught by mistake, and he still kept cursing.
Sals knew that this day would come from the beginning. He didn't say anything, picked up the "carving knife", walked over and made a slash like he was bleeding an animal.
Then, blood spurted out, and he asked the hunting dog at home to lick the blood...
Soon, the second and third revenge came. He was attacked four more times in the past six months due to his overly intense methods of amassing money!
The four male servants around him protect him, but he is still worried. He is not afraid of death, he is afraid that he will not be able to take revenge until he dies!
After he escaped, he sent someone back to Dublin to gather information. Only then did he learn that the Cologne priest destroyed his family's cemetery and was ultimately sentenced to death for embezzling church property, a huge amount, and using false idols.
Sals found that he would never be able to find the cemetery of his relatives again...
He decided to do something big.
Killing only destroys the body, he wants to destroy the soul and make life worse than death.
And the deepest part of the soul - lives faith!
He will destroy the Roman temple, make countless believers cry, turn light into darkness, and make all priests go fucking crazy!
But for such a huge operation, the funds and manpower spent would not be enough even if he lends money to the Archbishop for a lifetime!
Buy and sell wool, double the profit,
When buying and selling grain, there is twice the profit.
Buying and selling weapons can reach three times,
Is there more than these?
Sals thought about it again and again. One day, when he heard the priest talking about how the Viking "Russell" invaded Frankland more than ten years ago, was made a duke, and converted to God, his heart beat so fast. ,So fast.
I'm so excited to come out!
This is it!
Buy and sell items, profit up to ten times,
I am Sals. Morgan--To trade the King!
This king will have the same beliefs as himself, and he will drive priests and burn scriptures at will...the devil!
…
January 1, 865 AD, this day has just entered the New Year.
Relying on the convenience of lending money to the Archbishop of Wales, he was also able to enter the church and read letters from local churches and monasteries in the Seven Kingdoms of England, from which he obtained a lot of information about the lords.
A powerful king does not need his meager funds.
Therefore, the king of Mercia and the king of Wessex are difficult to control and cannot get close to.
The other kings were too far away and close to the east, so it was hard to say whether they could withstand the Viking attack.
The pirates who killed his mother were the Vikings occupying the Irish Sea, so even if she wanted revenge, she would not consider joining the Vikings.
Only a king who is not strong enough and lacks faith will value himself and despise the priests.
After searching around, he found that the "two kings" who entered the civil war in the Northumbria region in the north were quite suitable.
But he was not sure who the two of them were going to support, so he started to observe.
When the song "Beauty Flower" composed by "a certain noble" began to spread widely in the South after the New Year, Sals knew who it was!
How much faith can a king who is "a great treacherous and evil man, even a woman" have?
He began to send people to Northumbria. Within a few months, he got to know Sir William and went to the Second King's Court to meet King Ella.
He personally told King Ella how to make money and how to embezzle the priests' assets in the kingdom, and was praised.
Twenty-five-year-old Sars has gained a new identity - the palace counselor of the Norn family (non-public).
At the end of March, news came that "Olan" had entered Dan City.
As his auxiliary king, he will pay attention to any marriage with any force.
Didn’t the boy from the Baiying family just fall from power some time ago? Why did he not die but still gain so much power?
At noon on April 2, 865 AD, Sars. When Morgan entered Dan Castle,
Already entering the final wedding ceremony, he saw the Archbishop of Kent - this was a good opportunity to get acquainted.
I also saw Olan Vijay, a handsome baron with heroic features, eyebrows like two straight holy swords, and piercing eyes.
If his face wasn't a little pale, Salz himself would have believed it if he said he was an angel.
And when the red-haired man said "I object", the young baron ignored King Ella's order and even passed the red-haired man and said...
After being unable to speak for three years, everyone except his family looked at Sals with fear and disgust, saying that he had been possessed by a demon.
From that moment on, Sals's eyes became extremely sharp, and he could read from the slight movement of other people's lips whether they were discussing him or not...
The hustle and bustle outside the main hall and the noisy church made Olan's words, except for the attendant, the red hair, heard (read out), "The Pope can't protect you even if he comes!"
The moment Sals read the lip language, his red face was filled with excitement...
Son of the devil!
…
Due to the large number of people, after the clearing began, everyone retreated outside and came to the competition square outside the castle. The civilians were driven further to the outside and could only climb to a higher place to take a peek.
As for the rules, after negotiation, four games were divided. The first three games had no bearing on the outcome. Even if Karl lost three games in a row, if they won the fourth game, it would be considered a loss for Oran, and vice versa.
...
...
