Chapter 21 Conspiracy
"What's the date today?"

In the dim tent, the swaying lights slowly lit up.

"It's number six."

The black silhouette of the side face was reflected on the tent under the light.

Inside the tent, there were a few boxes randomly placed among a few piles of hay. Under the light of the flames, one could still see the reflection of the metallic luster of the ball and chain, the flail, and the antler sword.

Within the furry ball of light formed by the candlelight, a bearded face emerged from the darkness.

He had almost dark skin, a big red beard, and hard hair that was so fluffy that it pushed up his hood.

"It's already the sixth and it hasn't rained yet. The water must have receded. I feel like that fat guy Durdafo wants to run away."

"Boss Tangli." The person who spoke was a young man with a face as pale as a corpse. The tip of his nose was upturned and sharp enough to be used as a knife. "What did the Holy Society say?"

"The Great Flood, how can they be connected? But that witch Carrie is in charge of managing our Ruan Party's black market in Upper River County. She can implicate a lot of people."

Tang Li picked up a louse from his beard and threatened viciously: "If something really happens, do you think your Dia can escape? Brother Grampwen, this is not a joke."

Grampven squeezed his wife Dia's hand.

"This is not a solution."

The third man was knocking on the hollow wooden box. He was about fifty years old, with gray hair and a huge red nose on his face, but he was less than 1.5 meters tall.

According to him, this is of dwarven descent.

"Durdafu himself eats delicious food every day, but lets the public book farmers starve to death. The monks are also doing the same. They set up gambling houses privately and tricked the armed farmers into selling their children. Once Durdafu escapes, they will be startled and probably cause trouble."

"Brother Chilvis is right, absolutely right!" Townley said, shaking his head. "These days there are rumors about the Chosen One and Juanno. It will happen sooner or later. Instead of letting them make trouble in vain, we might as well use them for our own benefit."

At this point, Townley and Chilvis looked at each other and smiled knowingly.

You know, the Thousand River Valley is located in the north of the Black Snake Bay, bordering the three kingdoms of Norn, Leia, and Faran.

Black Snake Bay is the headquarters of the secret party in the entire empire.

For the secret party in Black Snake Bay, Thousand River Valley is their largest smuggling channel, so naturally they have fostered a large number of local forces here.

These local powerful churches are difficult to eradicate and often result in losses on both sides.

Later, in order to maintain stability, the Archbishop of the Thousand River Valley Diocese simply disobeyed the Pope's orders.

Out of desperation, this formed an unspoken rule in the church.

In any uprising launched by the secret party, as long as the priests and above were not killed and one or two scapegoats were handed over, the rest would be forgiven.

Therefore, whenever a bishop discovered evidence of the secret party's crimes and was discovered by the secret party, they would launch an uprising, destroy the evidence, and then find a scapegoat to take the blame.

Some bishops would even take the initiative to inform the secret party after receiving evidence of guilt, and ask them to help them settle the accounts.

In this way, the church saves face while the secret party gains benefits.

As for why they don't really suppress it, it's naturally because the benefits and losses are not proportional.

Besides, the common people are timid and easily frightened, and they can easily light a powder keg by accident.

At the beginning, a joke about the selection of the king by Fran became a rumor, which resulted in the famous Bloody Winter Riot, and the capital was besieged by the mob for ten days.

The scene is still vivid in my mind.

We can't investigate everything. What would we do if we found out something?

When the Green Party beat up the Prince of Tumubao, two princes, five earls and three bishops were implicated.

One of the bishops was even a former apprentice of the Pope, and I dare not think about it further.

In the end, the priests and demon hunters who handled this matter were transferred away or died mysteriously. For the old secret parties who are well versed in this principle, false uprising and false surrender are simply essential skills.

Many times, they survived by relying on this technique.

"So, our goal is to build momentum, instigate an uprising, take advantage of the situation to break into the monastery, capture Durdafo alive, and snatch the witch Carrie." Townley drew a route map on the box with ease.

"What about those two lackeys, Danji and Jilo?"

"I've inquired about it. Gilo will go to the nearby area to investigate the traces of the secret party the day after tomorrow. You know that there is a problem with the only remaining Danji." Grampven tapped his temple. "As long as we promise him that we will not harm Durdafo's life and use the lives of the common people as pressure, he will stand on our side."

"Where is the person who took the blame?"

"Let's choose Madeleine."

"Madeleine?"

"Yes." Chilvis nodded. "I heard that the fugitive is a follower of Juano and has a good relationship with the common people. For a man like him, Archbishop Gaobao would definitely want his head."

Madeleine is warm-hearted but impetuous, and is related to Juanno, a thorn in the side of the Archbishop.

It's simply a congenital scapegoat.

"Hasn't the legend of the Chosen One been circulating recently?" Tang Li snapped his fingers. "Brother Grampwen, I'd like to trouble you to spread the legend to the common people these days, so that they can match the Chosen One with Madeline..."

"The Chosen One and Madeleine don't match each other."

"What's so difficult about this? Isn't the Chosen One the Moonlight in the Dark Night? Just take Rainy Night as an example. He was a fugitive who escaped during the rain, isn't that 'Rainy Night'? He led people to revolt, isn't that 'White Light'?"

Townley went on to say, "Isn't the Chosen One the 'Stigmata of Myrcella'? There is a birthmark on his wrist, which is said to be the chain mark of Myrcella."

Seeing that Grampven had suddenly realized something, Chilvis smiled and added, "These people are born stupid and short-sighted. How can they remember those long words? If we slightly modify one or two places, will they react?"

"I'm very familiar with this." Tang Li said carelessly, "Back then, I was at the windmill field and I said a dung pile was a miracle, and even the common people believed it.

The important thing is not to make them believe in miracles themselves, but to make them believe that others believe in them, and then they will make up their own reasons, and the matter will be mostly done. "

"Brother Tang Li, what you said is true. For people in our line of work, the most important thing is to be able to incite.

You can’t incite people just by talking. There have to be people who take over the message, pass it on, and brag. Once the common people are in power, they will believe anything.”

Chilvis patted Grampven on the shoulder and said, "Listen carefully and learn well. How to finish and how to deal with the church are the key."

The two old hands, Chilvis and Townley, began to explain the logic in detail to the newcomer, Grampven.

Townley and others seized the evidence of the witch's crime. Although Archbishop High Castle was angry, he did not dare to kill Townley and others.

He did not have the courage to break the fragile balance between the secret party and the Thousand Valley Diocese.

But it would be easy for the archbishop to torture them or make Townley and others suffer unbearable losses.

Just to award you a "pilgrimage qualification", you would have to spend a lot of money to buy indulgences.

Capturing the witch is a great achievement for the Archbishop of the High Castle. In order to divert the anger and prevent the merit from decreasing, Tang Li and others must increase the "merit".

"Once Durdafo is captured, we will be 'forced' to elect Madeleine as the Pope of the Thousand Valleys according to the ancient election law of the church."

Tang Li snapped his fingers. "How about the gimmick of Juanno's followers pretending to be the Pope's cult? If we sell a few more heads of the common people, there will be a chance to catch such a high-level secret party, and His Eminence the Bishop will basically not be angry anymore."

"Let's think about this carefully. There's no rush."

"So when is the time to take action?"

Tang Li walked around the candle twice: "We will act separately tomorrow, and start the action the night after tomorrow. It just so happens that Gilo is not here."

"Okay, then the night after tomorrow!"

(End of this chapter)