Chapter 342 Who performs a play without wearing a helmet?
Jinhe Township, near Moncruz Estate.

On the flat ground for threshing wheat, surrounded by countless golden wheat fields and rice and nut fields, a wooden platform more than one meter high was erected.

After three days of heavy rain, a rare sunny day finally arrived with the arrival of the drama troupe.

The hot wind blew, causing beads of sweat to flow down the foreheads of many villagers under the awning.

But they didn't wipe it. Instead, they concentrated on watching the stage, afraid of missing anything.

On the stage, the bishop, played by Grampven, stood on the wooden frame of a fake monastery, holding a long sword and pointing it at the unknown monk who was blocking the road.

The rage on that face mixed with the fear in his voice was portrayed vividly by Grampven.

"Damn it, why?"

The nameless monk raised the pitchfork in his hand and said, "Why? I've been thinking about this as well. Maybe it's just because they are too young. Or maybe I'm too old to hear children crying."

"Get out of the way!"

"impossible."

"Then you will die!"

The plot is that after the nameless monk let the orphans run away, he stood alone on the mountain road to stop the bishop from chasing him.

After seeing this scene, Jourdan immediately whispered to the black hat soldiers who were maintaining order around him: "Get ready, it's about to begin."

Although the performances of these actors were too vulgar and embarrassing for the aristocrats who had appreciated high-level drama.

But for these villagers who have never left the village in their lives, it is an incomparable appeal, especially when the previous plot has already made them involved in it.

“Ah!”

The wooden, silver-painted sword collided with the pitchfork, and after several rounds of slow-motion clumsy fighting, the nameless monk was knocked to the ground by the bishop.

"Attention!" Jourdan immediately led the guarding war monks to the front of the stage.

As expected, the moment the nameless monk fell to the ground, the villagers immediately became excited, and many of them screamed in panic.

Seeing the long sword piercing the chest of the nameless monk, the villagers could not help but stand up, roaring, picking up stones and throwing them at the bishop.

In an instant, dozens of stones of different sizes were thrown towards the bishop on the stage, and several of them even hit Grampven.

Fortunately, Grampven was well prepared. There were iron plates in his bishop's hat, and a thin set of iron armor under his wide robe.

After all, he had been beaten up for several times in a row, and two male actors had been injured before, so he naturally had to be fully armed.

"We're just acting, don't smash it!"

"Those who are disrupting the order, get out!"

The Black Caps held up the shields seized from the knights, blocked the stones, and shouted at the young and strong villagers who were throwing stones.

Upon hearing that they might be expelled, the villagers quietly sat back in their seats and nervously looked at the scene on the stage.

Perhaps the stones they threw really worked, for the moment the bishop swung his sword, the unknown monk stabbed him in the heart with a pitchfork.

Both died, and the orphans managed to escape.

Although they were sad about the death of the nameless monk, the villagers in the pavilion below the stage immediately cheered.

But at this time, the staff behind the scenes knocked on the wooden barrel, making a "thump thump" sound of hooves, and a knight riding a pulley wooden horse appeared.

As the rockery, wooden boards and forest on the stage background continued to recede, even though the orphans played by the child soldiers were just stomping their feet in place, they still created a sense of pursuit.

Amid the anxious cries of the farmers and their wives under the awning, the orphans were caught one by one or hacked to death on the spot.

Every time an orphan was hacked to death, in the eyes of the farmers and farm women, it was as if their lost children had been hacked to death.

At the climax, the orphans were almost slaughtered, leaving only the most pitiful Tess, kneeling on the ground, praying desperately for the coming of God the Father.

"Unclean, the Holy Father will never forgive you!" The actor who played the knight roared and rushed towards the little girl.

"Leave her where she came from!"

"Go away!"

Seven or eight farmers with red eyes rushed out of the shed, followed by twenty or thirty other villagers who were a step slower.

They were so fast that they broke through the Black Hat Army's defense line. An old farmer even jumped onto the stage at a speed that no one had expected.

The knight was so frightened that he immediately prepared to dismount and flee, but the old farmer was too fast. His eyes were about to burst with anger, and tears flowed down his eyes.

"I will never forgive you!"

He shouted and punched the knight actor on the nose. The poor actor's nose was broken. He screamed and almost fell off the fake horse.

The villagers below cheered loudly, and Grampven and the actor who played the nameless monk, who had just taken off his hat and washed off his makeup behind the scenes, had to return to the stage again.

They put on fake monks' clothes, stepped forward and grabbed the old farmer's arm to stop him from continuing the attack.

Seeing that the situation was out of control, the bard next to him suddenly had an idea and started to save the situation, reading out loud the improvised narration: "... Seeing that the knight was about to kill Tess, a passing villager could not bear it and stepped forward to give the knight a heavy punch...

However, the knight was not someone to be trifled with. He immediately called two temple knights to hold down the brave villager who was passing by...

Are they going to die here? Poor Tess, poor farmer... Oh, look, what is that? The Salvation Army is coming! Joan of Arc is coming!"

The staff behind the scenes immediately used the friction of leather to simulate the sound of lightning. The saint named Joan of Arc in the play finally arrived. After making a declaration of judgment, lightning struck the knight to death.

At the same time, two black hat soldiers climbed onto the stage and pretended to fire at the two actors who stopped the old farmer.

"Boom!"

There were two knocks simulating the firing of a clockwork gun, and Grampven tactfully fell heavily to the ground, crushing the red paint in his hand.

The villagers immediately cheered, and the old farmer was asked to leave the stage by the other Salvation Army soldiers.

More than a dozen actors and behind-the-scenes staff all came on stage, bowed amid the cheers of the villagers, and then left in an orderly manner.

Next, the stage will be handed over to this fanatical priest of the Holy Fathers, followed by several knights and butlers, one of whom is Deklama.

According to the process, after watching the play, complaining, having a public trial, and offering sacrifices to the heavens with the knight's head, it is the final step - dividing the land.

I have to say that this method of pre-rendering the story, then the monks revealing the truth, and finally taking advantage of the heat of the moment to kill people and divide the land is quite effective.

Even though some villagers may feel regretful later, since people have been publicly tried and killed by the public outrage, they have no choice but to follow the Salvation Army all the way to the end.

Most of the villagers came to their senses, especially some of the most bullied villagers, who began to fanatically follow the Salvation Army converts.

The Holy Trinity they mentioned was no longer the Holy Father, the Holy Tree, and the Holy Lord, but the Holy Father, the Holy Grandson, and the Holy Daughter. After all, they are relatives of different generations.

In the big family of Mount Paradise, the order of whoever the Holy Father likes is the order of their status on earth, isn’t it?
In this way, the status of the Holy Grandson is far higher than that of the Pope. It is good enough that he chose to overthrow the Thousand Valley Church instead of killing the Pope.

However, because the saint's final appearance was too explosive, the local villagers of Jinhe Township still worship Joan of Arc more.

In the makeup removal tent backstage, Futseva, who played Tess, changed out of her tattered clothes and put on her usual slim-fitting long top and trousers.

Unlike the nobles of that era who preferred loose clothing, under Horn's promotion, the Salvation Army generally preferred more close-fitting clothing because it was more convenient for movement.

Futseva was originally a member of the Children's Army, but her personality did not fit the atmosphere of Lubyanka.

So under René's arrangement, she changed her job to become an actor, and took seven or eight other children who were also unable to adapt to the Lubyanka as extras in the play Blue Blood Orphanage.

After washing off the makeup on her face with the clean water in the basin, Futseva looked at her reflection in the water. It was a delicate and well-behaved face.

Few people would remain indifferent when seeing this well-behaved face suffer.

But at this moment, there was a hint of imperceptible confusion on the face in the reflection.

Compared with René and his colleagues who actually eliminated the enemies of the Papal States, could what I did really be considered a contribution to the Papal States?

Before she could figure out a solution, the delicate face in the reflection suddenly became serious.

Futseva turned sideways, pulled out a dagger from the table, and shouted at the door: "Who is it?"

Although Futseva switched from being a child soldier to becoming an actress, this cannot in any way conceal her training.

The door curtain was lifted, and an old farmer with wrinkled face stood awkwardly at the door, pressing his hat to his chest in a tangled manner: "Miss Tess, hello, I am Soter, the public accountant Soter."

Futseva recognized him and relaxed her guard a little: "Are you the one who rushed onto the stage earlier?"

The old farmer Sote lowered his head in shame: "I don't know, I didn't react at the time..."

"It's okay. They get beaten up wherever they go. We're used to it." Futseva sat on the chair and looked at him with a smile. "What do you want from me?"

At this time, Futseva still held the dagger in her hand.

The old peasant looked at Futseva, his eyes revealing memories and longing: "Miss Tess, are there really orphans who escaped from the monastery?"

Futseva was stunned for a second. She looked at the old farmer Sote's hopeful and eager eyes and spoke with difficulty: "Based on our investigation, I have to tell you... there should be."

"..." After a full ten seconds of silence, Salter put on his hat again, "I'm sorry to bother you, Miss Tess."

With his head lowered, Soter walked from behind the scenes to the front of the stage, then to the awning where the crying was deafening, and sat silently beside his sobbing wife Shikori.

"Soter, where have you been?"

"Hickory, I'm going to join the army."

"You? Joining the army? You're almost forty!" Shikori exclaimed.

Old farmer Sote raised his head, but Shikori's words of persuasion were blocked on her lips. She had never seen Sote like this.

This old farmer, who had been a coward all his life, revealed a murderous look in his eyes twenty years after losing his only daughter.

"The truth is clear to me now!"

(End of this chapter)