Berserk, Total War: Second Son of Nobles

The heavy door of the Padua Court was open, and the sunlight shone on the stone steps in front of the door, but it could not dispel the tension and depression in the air.

William stood at the door of the court, rubbing the corners of his clothes with his hands, his eyes wandering around anxiously. He paced back and forth on the stone steps, and the sound of his leather shoes hitting the stone slabs was particularly harsh in front of the silent court.

The court session was about to begin, but Min Caier had not yet appeared. William's brows were tightly knitted into a "川" shape, and his face was full of irritability.

He even began to think that Min Caier did not dare to face the trial and might have already escaped.

As time passed, William became more and more anxious.

Just when he was about to lose his patience, the sound of crisp horse hooves came from afar.

William looked up and saw an open carriage slowly approaching.

He saw Minzer sitting in the carriage at a glance. Besides him, the only other person in the carriage was the coachman driving in front.

The carriage stopped in front of the court. After getting off, Min Ze'er walked calmly to the coachman, took out a few coins from his pocket and handed them to the coachman.

After paying the taxi fare, he straightened his clothes, walked up the stairs with firm steps and arrived at the door of the court.

His eyes were calm and firm, as if he was not affected at all by the tense atmosphere around him.

Then he glanced at William standing at the door and walked straight into the court without saying a word.

William was completely infuriated by Minzer's indifferent attitude. His face turned red and his fists were clenched so tightly that the knuckles turned white.

He secretly swore in his heart that he would make Min Caier pay the price for his arrogance.

However, when he thought about the fact that he had already communicated with the court, William calmed down again.

Originally, he had thought of having the city council arrest Minzer and bring him here for trial immediately after he arrived in Padua, or to directly issue an arrest warrant for him if Minzer did not come after the deadline.

But those in the city council thought that it was not decent to send troops to arrest a clergyman, and it would be more considerate of their reputation to wait until the trial was over before arresting him.

William took a deep breath, tried to calm himself down, and then followed Minzer into the court.

As soon as he entered the court, Min Ze'er keenly noticed that the atmosphere around him was a little strange.

He saw that in addition to the plaintiff William, there were several members of the city council and the Bishop of Padua sitting in the gallery. Surrounding them were soldiers of the Padua city defense force, all of them fully armed and seemingly coming for him.

A hint of vigilance flashed across Min Caier's eyes, but he quickly regained his composure.

At this time, the judge walked up to the bench, knocked the oak gavel and said:

"The court is now in session, and the plaintiff will make his statement."

William immediately jumped up, waving his arms like an enraged rooster:

"Your Honor, this Min Caier incited the people to riot. Yesterday, he dared to instigate the mob to attack me outside the mine! They were holding pickaxes and shovels, and it was clear that they were trying to murder the nobles!"

The judge turned to Münzer:

"Defendant, is what the plaintiff said true?"

Min Caier straightened the front of his wrinkled coat and spoke in a low but clear voice:

"The miners just wanted to increase their wages to a level where they could survive, and William was too greedy. If William had been hurt during this period, he would not be able to stand here like this."

"The miners only asked for a monthly salary of five silver coins. Now a bag of flour has risen to one silver coin, and a bundle of firewood that can burn for a day also costs ten copper coins. If a family of three lives on only two silver coins a month, it is impossible to survive."

At this point, his eyes revealed a trace of grief and anger, and his voice became more passionate:

"If William doesn't raise wages, when winter comes, the fate waiting for these miners will be freezing to death or starving to death in the cold wind."

The judge frowned as he listened to Minzer talking endlessly about the miserable lives of the miners.

He didn't care about the lives of these miners. Before the trial, he and his boss had already discussed with William that they would keep asking Minzer whether he organized the riot. If he admitted it, he would be immediately convicted and arrested.

The judge cleared his throat and interrupted Minzer:

"Defendant Min Caier, please do not say anything that is irrelevant to this case. I want to ask you..."

Just as the judge was about to ask Minzer whether he had organized a strike, a guard suddenly came over from the back door and whispered a few words to the audience.

Then the judge saw several members of parliament frowning, and he realized that something seemed to have happened.

But just as he was about to announce the adjournment of the trial, a member of parliament signaled him to continue presiding, so he had to continue questioning Minzer.

Outside the court, a large number of people were constantly pouring into the square outside the court.

Compared with the citizens living in Padua, these people were like country people. They were dressed simply and held various farm tools in their hands.

But as more and more people came, the square was soon full of people, and even soldiers from the city defense army came to maintain the situation.

Such a large gathering of people naturally attracted the attention of the citizens. Noisy discussions were heard from the crowd from time to time. In contrast, no one spoke among the people gathered in the square. No matter how the city defense troops drove them away or scolded them, they refused to leave. The atmosphere became very tense.

"The accused, Minzer,"

Inside the court, the judge tried to remain calm.

"I am asking you, did you incite the miners to riot?"

Min Caier turned to face the audience, the setting sun stretched his shadow very long:

"Everyone! All we ask for is the right to live!"

He said passionately:

“Even if William gave them enough salary to get through the winter, they would not go on strike. Because this is not a simple strike, but a struggle for survival.”

"This kind of thing is everywhere in the Yoda Empire. The nobles, officials, and clergy are endlessly exploiting the lower classes. The estate owners are exploiting the peasants, the officials are exploiting the citizens, and the clergy are exploiting the believers. If this continues, strikes like this will never stop."

If Min Caier had only provoked William before, then his words now directly angered everyone in the audience.

The first to be affected was the Bishop of Padua. Fugger had bought an indulgence, but now he was sentenced to death by hanging because of Münzer, which proved to people that buying his indulgence was useless, resulting in no one buying indulgences recently.

The Bishop of Padua flushed crimson, stood up suddenly, pointed at Münzer and shouted:

"How outrageous! Everyone has his place. Taxes are being temporarily raised because of the border war. If people go on strike because of a little difficulty, as you said, then according to the Bible, these people will never be able to go to heaven."

"Oh, really?"

Münzer looked directly at the Bishop of Padua and continued fearlessly:

"You mean, if a poor person works hard, he can go to heaven, right?"

"Right, that is it."

The Bishop of Padua said noncommittally, with a hint of arrogance in his eyes.

Minzer continued to ask:

"Then may I ask you, are the poor the majority of the world's people, or are the rich the majority of the world's people?"

"Of course they are poor, so they have to work hard so that they can eliminate their sins and go to heaven to enjoy the afterlife."

The Bishop of Padua answered without hesitation.

"so good."

After hearing this, Min Caier said something that shocked everyone:

"You said heaven is for the poor, so why not make an exchange? Give some of your wealth to the poor, and in exchange the poor will promise to give you half of their land in heaven."

Seeing everyone's surprised expressions, Min Caier asked them directly:

"Am I wrong? Don't people all hope to go to heaven in the future? Or to put it the other way around, don't these poor people deserve a share of the wealth of the Yoda Empire?"

"They only want a little bit of your wealth, and then they'll give you a piece of land in heaven!"