At dusk, the Holy Bell rang,
The believers in the nearby villages,
Came to the church, travel-worn,
Sat on the wooden bench,
From time to time, they poked their heads out to talk to their neighbors,
And waited to listen to the sermon.
The bearded deacon stood on the steps, reeking of alcohol, and drew a sacrament under the statue of God,
A loud voice sounded,
The noisy church immediately quieted down. "The sermon begins!"
After digging for a while,
Deacon George took out a crumpled book from his bosom and cleared his throat.
"This year,
Two brothers who grew up together have grown up. Their father is not the same father, and their mother is not the same mother,
But their hearts are always together … "
These days, many priests held the same divine bible when they preached to illiterate believers in the countryside,
And even the same paragraph,
The content could be worlds apart.
Especially George, who was always drunk, the content of his sermon,
People loved to hear it,
Because he was always talking about some magical story about helping the weak and getting rid of the strong. The hero in the story was always the poor,
God was always quiet,
The bad people who bullied the good people were always punished by the smart poor people with their own means.
Therefore, the believers were surprised,
Whispering to each other, "This scripture seems different from the one before." But they still listened quietly.
"Sam sweats and works with the land all year round,
William always walks around with an umbrella on his back. "
The intimate identity made many believers involuntarily turn sideways to listen.
Sam and William were a pair of good friends who grew up together in the countryside. Sam was a farmer, and William was born into a family of traveling merchants.
At the beginning of the story, Sam's wife fell ill because of overwork, and the medicinal herbs she needed were extremely expensive in the local area.
Illness, the beginning of the unfortunate life of a poor person in many stories.
When the believers heard this, they knew that Sam would face an unfortunate fate.
Sure enough, Sam sold most of his property. He, who was an honest person, sold all the food he had worked hard to save, hoping to save his wife's life.
However, the food he had worked hard to grow was sold at an extremely low price by the merchants who came to buy it.
"Just one more copper, just one more copper and I'll sell it!" He picked up the heavy grain and begged the merchant who always bought it.
As long as it was one copper per catty, the total price would be higher and he could buy more medicine for his wife.
In the end, even after the merchants left, Sam's grain was still not sold – they were not even willing to pay a copper coin more.
"Ah, so it's like this." A farmer among the believers who worked all year round sighed. "These black-hearted merchants."
"Bullshit! Who said we are black-hearted? "Some of the well-dressed traveling merchants and merchants among the believers were dissatisfied.
George reached out his hand and pressed down.
His usual majesty made the crowd quiet down again.
In desperation, Sam asked his most trusted friend, the knowledgeable and intelligent William, to purchase the food and bring it to the origin of the medicine — a big city to sell it. After deducting the cost and necessary profits, William would buy the medicine for him.
After all, the place of origin was always cheaper.
William sympathized with his brother very much, so he agreed without hesitation.
He took Sam's grain and rushed to the big city from afar and encountered many obstacles. Greedy priests and nobles found excuses to collect taxes along the way. There were also knights disguised as bandits who blocked the road and robbed them. The real bandits had already occupied the road.
George was thirsty from the story, but the audience listened without blinking. Seeing that he was looking for water to drink, they hurriedly brought him water and urged him to continue.
He was very eloquent and told the story of William's battle of wits and courage with a cadence of cadence. The ups and downs, the legendary story, deeply attracted the believers.
When it came to the most exciting part of the story, William dealt with the real and fake "bandits" forces, cleverly using the arrogance of both sides to provoke conflict between the real bandits and the fake bandits disguised as knights, tricking both sides into a bloody fight. He then leisurely dragged the grain and left.
The believers almost forgot that they were in a church and that they were listening to a sermon.
Their cheers were so loud that they lifted the roof. Among them, the cheers of the merchants were the loudest.
But the story did not end there.
Although he successfully used his wisdom to get out of trouble many times, in order to escape, William had to pay the price again and again.
In the middle of the story, William's heart was beating like a drum. He wanted to go home, but the kind him thought of his brother Sam and decided to grit his teeth and endure.
When he reached the city, the moment he entered the city, the guild came to his door to collect protection fees.
William was almost out of money. In order to recoup his costs, he could only raise the price of the grain again and again.
When he reached the city, the price of the grain had increased by more than ten times.
The high price of the grain caused no one to buy it. The nearby residents all thought that he was a black-hearted merchant.
William tried to sell the grain day after day. On the third day, he opened the bag of grain and sat on the ground, staring blankly. It was over: After a long journey, the grain had been delayed by the layers of checkpoints on the road. It had started to mold and could not be sold.
He could only sell it cheaply. But selling it cheaply, he did not even have enough money to buy medicine.
Because of this act of charity, William went bankrupt. In despair, William untied his belt and hanged himself.
At this point in the story, the church was silent.
The smart and brave William was not defeated by the priests. He deceived the nobles and fought against the real and fake robbers, but he completely fell here.
People thought that it would be a normal story of "the smart and kind poor person defeated the rich and evil person and lived a happy life". They did not expect the story to take such a sudden turn.
At the same time, Sam was waiting for William's return in his hometown.
His wife's illness became worse and worse until she died.
"This woman accompanied him through spring and autumn. She used to be so strong, but now, she was not much heavier than a cat.
Even when she was at her hungriest, she would share half of her food with him.
Now, she could not get up, but the house was already sold out. Even the tattered blanket that covered her could not be found.
One day, when Sam returned home, even she could not be found. People found her in the river. She walked unsteadily. She could not bear to be a burden to Sam, so she decided to go back to see God. "
The next day.
Hearing this, at the bottom of the church steps, a dirty little girl suddenly cried, "Mom! Mom! "
Her thin and weak father held her hand and could only wipe away his tears sadly.
She did not have a mother. He did not have a wife.
With this cry, the entire church became a sea of tears.
George's heart was sad.
In the entire church, there was not a single complete family.
Every household was crippled. Siblings without parents, widowers without wives, old people without children, widows without husbands.
Illness, hunger, being whipped. They belonged to the poor.
A complete and abundant family did not belong to the poor.
After a long while, someone asked George, "Pastor, why? Why? "
George shook his head, could only sigh and continue the story.
He was only waiting for William to bring back money to buy medicine, and learned from others that William had already arrived in that city. But he could not wait for hope until his wife died of illness. Sam could not help but be extremely resentful.
Hatred wrapped around the farmer. He traveled thousands of miles, ate and slept in the open, and went to the big city to find William for a duel for revenge.
By the time he finally found William after going through untold hardships and following the clues from the people in his hometown, he found out that William had already committed suicide, leaving behind only the four walls of his home.
In front of William's grave, Sam asked blankly, "Who should I duel with?"
This duel ended without a result.
And the local medicine in this city that could cure Sam's wife was actually sold very cheaply.
Even Sam at the beginning could afford it.
But his wife was already dead, and so was William.
The honest farmer could only commit suicide in front of William's grave in the end.
At the end of the story, the church was unusually quiet. Only the wind could be heard whistling through the window, and George's reading voice could be heard.
"He asked the crow that was flying on the top of the church and could see the furthest, 'Who should I duel with?' The crow did not answer.
He asked the knowledgeable stream that had flowed through rich and poor, 'Who should I duel with?' The stream did not answer.
He asked the sun that overlooked everything in the world, 'Who should I duel with?' The sun also did not answer.
Thus, he knew that in this world, there were no enemies.
In this world, there were enemies everywhere.
Crow, thou hast eaten my friend.
Little brook, you have eaten my wife.
Sun, under your sun, everywhere is my graveyard. "
*
"Sun, under your sun, everywhere is my graveyard."
The emperor closed the book in his hand. He sighed and knocked on the armrest, saying to Hathaway, "It's a pity that such a talent is difficult for me to use."
"Your Majesty, the envoys from the east are still waiting."
The emperor pondered for a moment, "Forget it, let them wait for a few more months."
*
June, summer.
The emperor ordered the abolition of the domestic customs and tax system.
The feudal nobles rebelled.
Allan I sent troops.
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