Chapter 1583: Uprising

"General Douglas!" the Archbishop shouted aloud.

Hearing the sound of hooves coming from afar, the refugees grew restless.

The refugees on the outermost edge saw a troop of the Holy Cross Army riding toward them; they were about to draw near, yet showed no intention of stopping at all.

Seeing the Holy Cross Army drawing ever closer, the refugees on the outermost edge dodged repeatedly out of fear.

However, the refugees behind could not see the Holy Cross Army; they could only hear the chaotic sounds from outside—some people calling for help, some cursing in anger, and some wailing.

These refugees grew restless one after another, and everyone was filled with panic.

Seeing the uncontrollable scene, Teresa, who was standing before the Holy See, had no idea what was happening.

She vaguely heard the sound of hooves trampling.

In the end, the Holy Cross Army crashed into the refugees blocking the way, forcibly carving out a path of blood.

Douglas rode up to the Archbishop, the blood on his hooves still wet.

This blood looked exceptionally jarring against the holy colors of the church.

The refugees looked at Douglas and his blood-stained Crusaders, fear rising in their hearts.

Douglas's charge just now, which disregarded the lives of the refugees, had terrified many; some refugees began to flee directly.

Teresa did not stop him, but instead stared coldly at the Holy Cross Army Commander Douglas, who acted as if nothing had happened, and gritted her teeth: "Is this how the Holy Cross Army treats the believers of the Lord?"

Douglas ignored Teresa and first bowed respectfully to the Archbishop.

"Bishop, I apologize for being late."

The Archbishop did not offer a shred of reproach, nor did he offer any comfort for the refugees who had just died, merely saying: "You have worked hard. I will leave this place to you; I am taking my leave."

The voice was not loud, but the nearby refugees and Teresa heard it all.

Liu Zheng was currently hiding in the shadows, watching the development of the situation before him.

He looked at Douglas, whose feet were still stained with wet blood, yet who wore a smile on his face, and turned his head to look at Teresa.

Looking at her moving beauty, his heart beat violently twice.

A frivolous expression appeared on his face.

"This beautiful lady, if you can accompany me tonight, I will consider helping you."

As he spoke, Douglas reached out a dirty hand to touch Teresa's cheek.

Teresa slapped his palm away and said coldly: "The Holy Cross Army must be held responsible for this!"

Douglas shook his palm as if in great pain, and he looked at Teresa.

"For this small matter, what responsibility do you need our Holy Cross Army to take?"

"Those are merely some refugees, not believers of the Lord at all; we of the Holy Cross Army only protect the believers of the Lord."

Teresa was cold as frost, her fists clenched until they turned white; she wanted very much to finish off this guy in front of her.

But right now, she could not do it.

Upon hearing this, the faces of those refugees turned even more terrifyingly cold, and their fists were clenched tight without them realizing it.

At this moment, they actually felt a desire to resist the Holy Cross Army.

And at this time, the Musket in Liu Zheng's hand was already loaded.

Although he did not know what Douglas was saying, that did not hinder his thought of wanting to finish him off.

Douglas waved his hand, and the Holy Cross Army immediately surrounded these refugees.

"This lady, do you really want to refuse me?" Douglas said softly.

"If you refuse me, then I don't mind killing these refugees."

Teresa said coldly: "I will not let you kill another single refugee!"

Douglas's expression faltered, then he laughed out loud: "Lady, I should be able to take this as a refusal."

He waved his hand and issued a military order.

Finish off those refugees.

Bang!

A gunshot rang out, and the Holy Cross soldier who was about to act died.

The corpse fell to the ground.

Seeing this scene, the refugees erupted into terrified screams, and the already chaotic scene became even more chaotic.

Seeing this, Douglas's eyes turned cold.

Musketeers were lying in ambush here.

By the time he reacted, he discovered that Teresa had already fled.

Douglas was suddenly overcome with a sense of humiliation, and he immediately roared: "Leave none alive, kill all these refugees!"

The Priest on the side could not bear to watch and reminded him: "General, these are all refugees; doing this is smearing the reputation of our Catholicism."

Douglas snorted coldly and retorted: "If these refugees are all dead, who will know it was us? Are you going to tell people about this?"

The Priest's expression stiffened; at that moment, he felt that Douglas was like a complete madman.

But the Priest did not stop him either, perhaps feeling that what this madman Douglas said had some truth to it.

The Holy Cross Army soon began to act against the refugees.

However, Liu Zheng had long been prepared for this; he had long since ambushed the Dragon Flame Army among these refugees.

In this riot, these refugees not only suffered few casualties.

On the contrary, the Holy Cross Army side suffered relatively heavy casualties.

Liu Zheng also took this opportunity to pull the trigger.

But Douglas seemed to have sensed it long ago, and by rolling repeatedly, he actually dodged it.

However, he still took a bullet in the leg, and blood flowed continuously.

Having missed his shot, Liu Zheng did not fire a second time.

Right now, inside the main city of Prague, it was not suitable to have too large a conflict with Douglas.

At Liu Zheng's command.

Those Longyan troops disguised as refugees retreated in an orderly fashion.

Liu Zheng took one look at the wailing Douglas, then withdrew as well.

……

At this time, on the other side of Europe.

Ling Chen, in Hanover, organized a force of nearly ten thousand men to launch an Expeditionary Force.

The first target they set out to suppress was a group of bandits supported by France.

This group of bandits occupied the largest smelting plant within Prussia, which produced nearly half of Prussia's iron, silver, and other metal output.

Ever since the Prusso-Austrian War broke out and the Franco-Austrian Allied Army arrived here, France had supported many bandit groups in this area.

Now, the scale of this bandit group had reached nearly twenty thousand men, all of whom were equipped with uniform French weapons.

France had even been unsparing in supplying them with heavy weapons like Cannon.

Ling Chen looked at the map of Prussia; the location of this bandit group on the map was in the southern part of Hanover.

It was the bandit gathering point closest to Ling Chen.

Having such a large-scale bandit group entrenched in his own territory greatly restricted Ling Chen's subsequent operations.

Therefore, Ling Chen decided to eliminate this bandit group first.

Ling Chen looked at the map of Hanover; these bandits were hiding in the mountains in the southern part of Hanover.

This mountain was not high, but it was extremely difficult to conduct military operations there.

Furthermore, it was currently winter, and the temperature on the mountain was extremely low.

These bandits had stockpiled a large amount of supplies on the mountain; as long as they did not leave their stronghold, they would not have any major problems for the entire winter.

Moreover, they were on the mountain, making them easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Added to that was the recent bad weather; it had just snowed, and there was likely still snow on the mountain, so the roads were estimated to be very slippery, and a moment of carelessness could mean an abyss.