I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 505 San Diego (2)

  The history of the Knights of Santiago is even older than Spain, and it existed when the land was still called Castile.

And Leon and the Knights of Santiago have an inseparable relationship, because at the earliest, that is, in 1151, the Kingdom of Leon still existed, but when it was jointly ruled by King Ferdinando III of Castile, there were ten The two knights repented of their past sins and decided to dedicate themselves to Christ to guard the tomb of Saint Santiago - Santiago is Saint James in Spanish (Saint James is the patron saint of the Iberian region). Known as the Knights of Cáceres, or the Knights of the Virgin Mary of the Sword Castle, it was later officially renamed the "Knights of Santiago".

Compared with the once mighty Knights Templar, the prestige of the Knights of Santiago may only be revered in the Iberian Peninsula, but their development trajectory is subtly the same as the former - they also protect the pilgrims who make their pilgrimage to the Mausoleum of Santiago. , and the territories around the mausoleum accumulated the first funds, and then, as we all know, with swords and knighthood in their hands, they took out loans, and over time, the accumulated wealth rolled over to make them was able to buy a large territory, the size of any bishopric.

The chief leader of the knights is also equivalent to an archbishop, a grand duke or a marquis. He is the uncrowned king in this sacred land. The members of the knights swear to the portraits of the saints at the inauguration ceremony to follow the leader's instructions. Command, better than anyone.

   Please note that this is the most crucial point, here, all the authority of the chief of the knights is undoubtedly more than that of the king.

Just like the Knights Templar in France, after the Knights lost their most important role in expelling the infidels from the Iberian Peninsula, both the king and the church felt that they should be contained or banned. Unlike the Knights Templar Yes, the last great chief of the Knights of Santiago was "lucky" to die in a battle in 1491. Under the judgment of the Pope, the position of the chief of the Knights, the land and money of the Knights, and the Knights and The soldiers, all attributed to the husband of the then Queen Juana, with whom she ruled the beautiful man Philip I of Spain.

After Philip I took the position of the chief leader of the Knights of Santiago, he began to dismember and consume the Knights of Santiago. The thirteen knights of the Knights of Santiago, similar to councillors and princes, even had the power to depose the chief, were replaced by them one by one. Or put to death. Later, he simply cancelled the system, so as early as a hundred years ago, the Thirteen Knights and the Knights of Santiago became a legend.

   But tonight, the people of Leon saw the Thirteen Knights of the Knights of Santiago again.

As the people say, they are mighty, tall and in high spirits. They wear white cloaks depicting the holy sword of Christ on the silver scales, and they wear old and beautiful ship helmets, which is a kind of two-sided helmet. Helmets raised as high as the heads and tails of boats, broad-bladed swords that are now less common under the cloaks, and heavy boots underfoot—to Pippin's point of view, these beautiful Arabian horses in Leon The knights roaming in this old town are more like actors than warriors.

  Perhaps he had been staring for too long. A knight turned to look at him. Pippin shuddered and hurriedly avoided the side alley.

   "Who is that?" asked the knight's companion.

   "A commoner," said the knight.

   "I don't think so," said the knight's companion. "His eyes are uncomfortable. A commoner should not have the courage to look at a knight. Derig, you are here, and I will arrest him."

   "Don't make such a fuss," said the knight called Derig, but he turned his mount and did as his companion said.

Although Pippin saw the knight riding his horse towards him, he immediately turned and fled, but how could a man's legs run over a horse? A staff or light flail, one of the knights' regular weapons.

He guessed right that the knight was using the scepter beside him - the scepter here is not the kind of scepter we are familiar with, just like the flail is not the kind of flail we think it is, it is a kind of very similar to a mace, But with a weapon that is more slender than a mace, the knight didn't intend to kill him just like that. Maybe he wanted to torture him, so he just knocked it lightly, but such a knock also made him faint immediately.

When his consciousness recovered a little, he couldn't understand what was going on for a few seconds, until the squires of the knights raided him at the request of the master, and he lay on the cold and damp ground, tossed and turned. He kept reporting what he was carrying: "Three pistols! Seventeen rials! Fifty-three pesos! (gold, silver and copper "A small dagger!" Flint, a bag of salt!" "A pair of socks!" "A handful!" "Some powder! Your lord!"

   "Wait," said the suspicious knight, Derig's friend, at once, "Let me see that powder."

The powder was quickly handed to the knight. The knight took it and smelled it. Under the light of the torch, he carefully observed the bottle. The outside of the bottle was wrapped in paper, and the name of the drug and the name of the drug were marked with small but clear text on it. Usage - so the squires knew it was powder: "It's the powder of the French."

"It wouldn't be surprising if he was a businessman," Derig said. "There are a lot of businessmen now who always have French powder." What he didn't say was that in the armies of various countries, whether standing or mercenary, there is also Will try to keep some French powder around - there's nothing like that powder to stop bleeding, promote wound healing and prevent fever, sometimes it's a life, more often it can save you from losing an arm or a fever. is a leg.

Although the clergy and officials of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, or any country opposed to Louis XIV, would have proclaimed that the medicinal powder was effective because it came from the hands of the French who dealt with the devil, including not limited but included There are toad skins, maggot mucus, placenta, ashes of dead babies, secretions left behind after a man and a witch exchange, devil's toes, fragments of an upside-down cross...all sorts of blasphemous and filthy things. What made them helpless and annoyed was that people listened to their sermons and thought that the drug must be extremely effective. Not only did it fail to prevent the French from accumulating a considerable amount of wealth on it, but they also seemed to guarantee it. generally.

Merchants are the people who need this powder the most after mercenaries. This powder can be used externally to heal wounds left by swords and bullets, or taken internally to prevent fever caused by cold and humidity. In an emergency, merchants can also Sell ​​it for money, or for a chance to escape.

But the other knight just looked at the medicine powder in his hand, opened the cork and smelled it, made sure it came from the same place as the medicine in his bag, and asked the squires to throw the merchant or whatever, into the prison Go inside: "Maybe he is a little merchant." He said to Derig: "But that doesn't prevent us from being more careful. The French are known to have as many spies as crows perched on branches."

   But he said, and stuffed Pippin's medicine bottle into his arms.

There were so many people like Pippin that the prison could hardly be closed. They were crowded into caves where the sun did not see the light of day. Not to mention standing, they even had difficulty breathing. The strong climbed to the weak. On the human body, the body and the head stick out, the body and the body are stacked together terribly, and soon the bottom person will die silently, because there are so many people in the prison that the jailer does not even want to come in and kill the dead. dragged out, and they stink and rot with feces, urine.

Pippin was lucky because he came later, he was chained by the passage like a tired dog, but he could breathe, he didn't know if he could live, he wasn't too upset, he just cursed The two Santiago knights, he saw, he wasn't discovered - they didn't know he was a French spy. But they dealt with him casually, like crushing a little bug, without caring about his life or death.

   He had never been so eager for the French to win, though he should have been a Castilian.

Although Pippin was captured, there were still many "birds" like Pippin. Some of them were more alert than Pippin, and some were more cautious than Pippin. People can enter the city, but it will be very difficult to get out, but some people still find a gap. They drilled out of Leon City, ran to the French station overnight, and reported to them the abnormal situation in Leon City.

   "I can probably guess what they want to do," said little Eugen. "Please come here, the priests."

In a country with Catholicism as the main belief, the king's standing army legion, just like the army nurses and doctors, must also be equipped with army priests in each legion, and they will serve every soldier who died after the war. Doing the sacrament of the last death, but also comforting the suffering wounded and exhausted medical staff in the wounded barracks, they also have to pray for artillery and guns, and pray for the soldiers. It can be said that they are quite busy.

What little Eugen has now is a complete legion. In this legion, the king is compassionately equipped with four priests, each with several assistants, and little Eugen has a personal priest by his side, so that when he wants to repent, he will No need to worry about leaking information—of course, these priests are good men loyal to God as well as to the king. And everyone is sober and strong.

As soon as I heard that there were saints appearing in the city of Leon, and the thirteen knights of the Knights of Santiago who had not seen for more than a hundred years, the youngest and the most authoritative (because he was the personal priest of Eugen) The priest just pondered for a while and then understood what they were about to face.

"At first the saint James had preached in this region for twenty years, then he went to the holy city of Jerusalem, where he was martyred, and his disciples transported him from Jerusalem all the way back to Galicia, where he had preached, and buried him there. "The young priest said: "The Knights of Santiago was established and maintained in the name of 'protecting the Mausoleum of St. James', but since their chief leader was concurrently served by Philip I of Habsburg, The Knights have become the property of the royal family, and then they can only be said to exist in name only. Now they are brought up to the dust and put in front of everyone, but they are just using St. James to force us to retreat or negotiate."

   (end of this chapter)