Augustine is recognized as the greatest political thinker of the era from Aristotle to Aquinas. He systematically and sorted out the so-called "just war thought" passed down from ancient Athenian times. Augustine emphasized that when the country faces the dilemma of "covenant" and survival, it is reasonable to fight for survival. Although war inevitably brings about power and the depravity of man, it can punish evil deeds after all.

...

He also pointed out that war is both the result of sin and a remedy for the result of sin. What is really evil is not the war itself, but the violent tendency in the war, cruel revenge, stubborn hostility, barbaric resistance and the desire for power. Therefore, if war is inevitable, war must also be carried out with kindness and not excessively cruel.

...

Andrew obviously read Augustine's Theory of Justice in War. Although it was not described in words, the yellow-skinned commander's every move in the Spanish war revolved around this argument full of so-called "war of human nature".

Andrew emphasized that the purpose of the war he was to support the "war for the throne" of the Grand Princess Sofia to take office, reshape the authority of the Roman Catholic Church in Madrid, and punish the Spanish Governor's wanton massacre of his compatriots on Luzon. These three extremely powerful excuses to promote the rationality of the war, making the world feel that this war was nothing more than running to the Iberis Peninsula to "punish evil deeds", so as to win the public sympathy of countries in the European continent and the Roman Catholic Church, thus causing the Spanish royal family to fall into an embarrassing isolation.

In order to "conduct wars with kindness and not be too cruel", Andrew did not hesitate to abandon his mentality of massacre and revenge. He had previously intimidated Duke Sanchez's adjutant, Major Rock, and even Andrew himself had long forgotten. Before and after the army set out, the commander tirelessly strictly regulated military discipline. He treated ordinary Spanish residents well like French citizens, strengthening the supervision function of the military to restrain the possible violent incidents against Spanish civilians or prisoners of war in the army.

Of course, these are just superficial articles, or flatterers. To put it nicely, they can be called "high-sounding" and "image engineering"; while applying the Chinese people's arguments is "Even if you are a bitch, you will also have a archway!"

A war without interests is never what the war initiator wants to do. Andrew wants to get the huge wealth that Spain has gathered for centuries, and after that, he must ensure a solid and reliable ally.

Wealth needs to be plundered. The brilliant victory of a series of battles only defeated the resistance of the Spanish regular army, but the lost wealthy miser still refused to hand over all their property. Since Andrew promoted the "argument of war justice", he naturally would not let the soldiers wave bayonets and force the nobles and the rich to spit out money, which was to shoot himself in the foot. So Andrew instigated the "Fifth Column" to do it, hid in the dark corner, and excitedly counted the bloody spoils.

The "Fifth Column", a spy synonym created by Franco in the 1930s, appeared in Spain in 1794. This "honorable title" was first given to the poor self-defense force led by Torrance, who robbed the city of Barcelona. Of course, the ending of spies is also sad once they lose their function or cause serious harm to the interests of their masters.

...

From July 15th to 16th, a whole day and night, the beautiful Barcelona became the hell on earth written by Dante's "Divine Comedy", all kinds of crimes on earth are constantly being staged in this harbor city.

The thugs rushed into the homes of the nobles or the shops of the rich. While killing all the male members, they also opened treasure chests, warehouses, and cellars to take out the valuable things inside. Even the silver-plated cross of Jesus was broken down and resisted on their shoulders. They were dressed in colorful and gorgeous clothes, drinking high-quality sherry, eating Spanish ham that only the rich could enjoy, speaking unpleasant slang and local dialect, and lined up to "take care of" the nobles' wives and daughters.

A mob who received confession later described the scene to his priest:

“…

The demons in our hearts drive us to vent our hearts throughout the day and night. There are the begging for mercy by the nobles, the crying of the women, and our cheers... Even the 12-year-old girl is not spared.

...

The purses on our clothes were no longer enough to carry all kinds of valuable items, so we had to find a batch of large pockets, but they were filled again not long after, because all the houses of wealthy families and their shops were opened to us, and all the things inside were moved out.

...

Some of us snatched too many things and threw them on the road, so that the streets were filled with expensive clothes, and some even dropped expensive silverware because they were too heavy…”

This is a carnival for the poor and a disaster day for the nobles. The nobles who were directly killed by the mobs are lucky. They no longer witness the miserable situation of their families, listen to the excited shouts of the thugs, and endure the inhuman torture imposed on themselves.

The ancient castle of Montsch is surrounded by one of the main gathering places for nobles and rich people. On the night of July 15, countless poor people lit torches and rushed in. While performing the usual "program", the winners held a "unique" death game with a large number of captured nobles.

On one side of the Montsch Castle, on the clearing ground facing the seaside cliff, the mobs held up wooden sticks and hammers, and stood densely in two rows of opposite sides. A strip of only one person was left in the middle of the crowd for one person to cross the narrow 30-meter passage. One end of the passage directly leads to the cliff, and the other end is the entrance of the prisoners.

The game begins!

The nobles were driven into the passage one by one, and the mobs on both sides swung wooden sticks, hammers and all the heavy objects in their hands, and hit the nobles hard on the head, back, or legs. Under the bloody weapon, the nobles' painful moans usually lasted only about 20 meters, and the remaining 10 meters of work was completed. They carried the dying nobles and threw the almost dead guy on their shoulders into the abyss of the crowd...

(Note: The above death game is not imagined by the author, but it is true, and it also happened in Spain. Let me explain that these chapters may be a bit bloody and violent. The author did not want to write them, but in early June, I just looked up historical materials and saw the various atrocities against Chinese by the Spanish and the Dutch in the South China colony over hundreds of years. The bloody and cruelty in the middle is even better than the description of this book.)

Just when the mobs were in a state of madness, the French army outside the city did not sit and wait in vain. Dawu sent dozens of Spanish-speaking squads to dress up in civilians, carrying rifles, short guns and daggers, and secretly sneaked into Barcelona. Their mission was not to save any nobles, nor to support the mobs' crimes. Their mission was to hide in dark corners, guard some important buildings, and strictly prevent the mobs from setting fires arbitrarily.

After all, Commander Andrew could tolerate, acquiesce, or even condone any massacres in the city, but he would never allow the destruction of the city to occur, especially the fire, which turned countless treasures that had already been obtained into ashes. In this regard, General Dawu repeatedly warned Torrance and his comrades in advance.

At the beginning, Torrance did make the mob pay more attention. But in the second half of the night, when such crazy actions were no longer subject to any restrictions, the extreme wildness and long-buried resentment made it difficult for the mob to control their behavior. In many places, the mobs put the torches in their hands into the manors and shops, and wanted to set fire to the entire city. Faced with the crowds, the squads could not implement strong suppression and effectively control the situation. They could only release fireworks to request assistance from the army outside the city.

Just five minutes later, thousands of French soldiers were ready to go and rushed into Barcelona. Facing more than 20,000 thugs, they were not ruthless. The cavalry waved their sabers and slashed the gathering mobs one by one; the infantry behind killed all the mobs holding torches in front of them with dense guns; under the protection of the cavalry and infantry, the engineers carried out firefighting operations step by step; the military police were doing the finishing work, and they rode high-headed horses back and forth, and when they encountered nobles or mobs who survived, they were stabbed and ended their pain as soon as possible.

When the dawn of the new day comes, more than 2,000 mob corpses appeared in the streets and alleys where wisps of smoke were emitting. After only 10 hours of happiness, they fell in a pool of blood like the nobles who were killed by themselves.

Human life is always so fragile, and the development of things is so dramatic. When the noble superiors fell together with the lowly inferiors, the French behind the scenes eventually dominated everything in Barcelona and became the master of the city. Under the deliberate creation of the interested person, the only nobleman rescued by French soldiers from the mobs, a 3-year-old girl, became the focus of all European newspapers and magazines, and for a considerable period of time it was widely publicized for "human care".

When he learned that his soldiers had "successfully" rescued the only little girl in Barcelona, ​​Andrew happily ordered General Dawu to send a company guard soldiers to carefully send her to the commander's base camp. There, Commander Andrew personally picked up the little noble and looked around, plus whispering care and care. On the side were more than a dozen urgently dispatched French or Spanish painters, who were creating oil paintings with the theme of "benevolence".

The oil painting continues. At the same time, outside Barcelona, ​​the French military police were tied up with more than 100 mob leaders, all of whom Torrence and his comrades. Until now, these people finally realized that they had become the scapegoats of the French. No matter how regretful and angry they were, they could not make any sound in their mouths, and along the street were spitting out by others and rotten vegetables thrown up. At the end of the road, they were greeted by teams of neatly arranged execution squads.

The truth of history is always easy to be concealed, because those who write history are often winners, and winners are not condemned.

The whole Europe was unanimously condemning the evil behavior of the Barcelona thugs and sympathizing with the tragic experiences of the city aristocrats. The French, who were originally the invaders, became the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva who saved the sufferings of the Spanish. Whether it was the Spanish, the Roman Catholic Church, or the ordinary people of other European countries, they were singing the kindness and greatness of Commander Andrew and his commanding army. In fact, there was no shortage of people who doubted the truth of the entire incident, but they could not seek verification under the glittering bayonets of the French; even if possible, all the mob leaders who planned the riots and the persecution died one after another, leaving only a 3-year-old girl who was scared to death for life, and in desperation, she had no choice but to accept the established facts.

The Spanish were mourning, the Europeans were condemning, but the French were admiring and auctioning trophy.

Countless treasures in the city of Barcelona were taken from the waists of the mobs, taken out from the pockets beside the bodies, or directly from the homes of the martyrs. They were towed by French soldiers in chariots to the barracks outside the city by carriages and horses, and handed over to the military officers for registration. Not far from the barracks, a circular area wrapped in green cloth was filled with noise and rustling noises kept coming from the heavily guarded area, and a lively auction was underway.

...

"Please note, what we are showing you is a precious oil painting called "The Confessional Madalene". This oil painting was originally a great masterpiece by Nicholas Renier, a talented French court painter in 1625. Later, he was given to the Spanish royal family as a gift for thanks to Louis 14, the Kingdom of France, and his Majesty the King of the Sun as a gift for thanks to the Spanish royal family. After several exhibitions, he fell into the hands of the nobles in Barcelona.

The whole picture depicts a scene where a prostitute, Madalena, was rescued because of his firm belief in God. The prostitute in the painting is very touching by the painter: his face is full of longing and infinite grief, he strokes his hands and waits for God to come and save him. The whole picture uses black, white and gray as the main colors, black background, gray table, Bible, skeletons and white Madalena's body, which makes Madalena's confessional belief prominent, making people feel that the pious spiritual belief is unshakable..."

On the rostrum, a tall and thin host jumping back and forth was facing an oil painting, and vividly introduced the history and classics of oil painting to hundreds of merchants below. Perhaps it was too excited that the auctioneer obviously had too much nonsense, which also caused general dissatisfaction among the crowd. The profiteers who had long been salivating about art began to roar impatiently.

"Damn bastard, have you finished speaking!"

"Yes, hurry up and quote, the dead monkey on the stage!"

"Haha, God is about to send me to kiss the bitch in the oil painting!"

...

Seeing that the public was outraged, the host immediately stopped and turned the topic to the greedy and unscrupulous businessman.

"Okay, don't talk nonsense, now the bidding starts, starting at 50 gold coins!"

As soon as the host on the stage finished speaking, a fierce quotation sounded from the audience.

"I'll give out 60 gold coins!"

"I'll give out 80 gold coins!"

"I'll give out 200 gold coins!"

...

"Damn bastards, now I'm giving out 800 gold coins, who dares to compete with me!"

Five minutes later, a short and fat Italian businessman from Sicily offered a sky-high price for this oil painting, and this determined person was the vulgar guy who just claimed to be "kissing the bitch in the oil painting".

"800 gold coins, the first time!" The host was happy again. This was another good price, at least much higher than the prices of several oil paintings before. So he couldn't help but waved the hammer and began to shout impatiently.

“800 gold coins, the second time!”

“800 gold coins, the third time!”

"Pong"

As the sound of the wooden hammer hitting the table ended, the tall and thin guys on the rostrum were preparing to start the auction of another trophy. At the farthest from the rostrum, two young businessmen gathered together and whispered in the corner of the wall.

"Damn Jewish, he actually bought the holy 'Madalina' for only 800 gold coins. You should know that this is the treasure of the Viscount Leon family. It is priceless. It can be sold at least 2,500 gold coins in Rome or Vienna." The young businessman cursed with extreme complaint.

"That's the problem, Barcelona is so wonderful that there are so many artistic treasures. I saw with my own eyes that hundreds of carriages were transported to the auction site with trophys. The thick wheels pressed out traces of the bluestone slabs, and there were still undry blood printed under the traces." The older businessman was obviously knowledgeable and told the facts he had seen.

"This is a waste of art. The French can transport it to the palace to collect it. Why let these ordinary people insult the masterpieces of the master!" the young man continued.

"No, haha, Commander Andrew needs a lot of money to satisfy his extremely perverted selfish desires..."

Before the older merchant finished speaking, a low voice came from them: "You two Austrian bastards, don't want to survive anymore, are talking nonsense here and slandering Commander Andrew, and are not afraid that the French army military police will catch you and have coffee!"

As soon as they heard the words of the military police, the two men who were extremely arrogant immediately received the noise and looked around nervously, but could not find the person they were talking just now. At this time, the host's loud voice sounded again on the auction stand.

"I've been waiting for you for a long time. Now I'll show you a treasure of native Spanish art. This is after the great "restoration goddess" Queen Isabel successfully drove the Moors out of the Iberis Peninsula. She used a set of sterling silver tableware in the city of Granada in the mid-to-late 15th century AD...

The auction in the field continued amid the fanatical shouts of the supporters. Outside the field, the Andrew's Legion's quarconian was in charge of confiscating the spoils, and was having a fierce argument with the two soldiers. It's really coincidental that these two soldiers were Levanna and Denadi, two subordinates and friends of Sergeant Chavet. The cause of the whole thing was very simple, just because the soldiers were not convinced of the quarconian in front of him, and were still deliberately reducing the registration price of the spoils.

Levanna and Denadi participated in the sweeping operation in Barcelona last night. Like other soldiers, while completing the mission, the officers acquiesced to plunder the treasures on the ground, in the bodies, or from the nobles' families. They rushed into a noble manor with the platoon leader Sergeant Chavet and drove away all the mobs and began to harvest the spoils.

I don't know what kind of vision they were, but two fools, like donkeys, actually fell in love with the heavy silver-plated cross that was lying on the fence at the same time. The two worked hard to lift the cross onto the carriage. When they turned around and cleaned up the other treasures, they had already been swept away by their companions in the platoon. The two fool brothers who regretted only found some worthless gadgets and hoped that the solid guys on the carriage could be sold at a good price. They just had a conversation with the military officer, but ruthlessly dispelled their beautiful fantasies.

"Brother of Quartermasters, let's see this big guy in sterling silver, it's worth a lot of money!" After winking with Levana, Denadi shouted at the young Quartermasters of the same year.

"Sorry! My poor brothers, what did you carry?" The Quartermaster was a Jew. Although he was not old, his Jewish shrewdness made him know at a glance that the things in front of him were just silver-plated crosses, full of brass, which were not worth a few dollars at all.

When the quartermaster told the truth, Levana and Denadi obviously did not believe the quartermaster's words. They pulled out the bayonet and poked it hard on the cross, and it turned out that the color of brass was revealed inside.

"Damn the bastard, you actually used brass to deceive us!" The roaring Denadi seemed to be shouting at the dead noble. When he saw the Runner in front of him, he lost his mind and kicked him without thinking, but he squatted on the ground in pain and grinned for a long time.

"Okay, a silver-plated cross is estimated to be 6 silver coins. By the way, do you have any other spoils that need to be registered?" The quarantine officer looked at the funny performance and tried his best to hold back his smile. He ordered the clerk beside him to register the item in the warehouse. Because it was approaching dusk, there were not many soldiers who sent the spoils, and the Jews did not urge them to finish the matter quickly.

"Yes, of course there is!" Levana didn't care to comfort her companions and quickly took out a small thing from her arms. It was a real sterling silver product. The exquisite and compact snuff bottle was only one-third the size of a slap. Originally, Levana wanted to take it back and honor her parents, but the family letter I just received yesterday told him to send more money back because his parents were looking for a daughter-in-law for his son who was in the army. In desperation, Levana had to take it out and register it.

"Haha, it's very delicate, it's pure silver. The clerk can register. A delicate snuff bottle is made of sterling silver. The price is estimated, yes, only 15 silver coins are ready." The quarantine officer put the snuff bottle in his palm, weighed it for a while, and casually quoted a price.

"Slowly, hide it!" Levana snatched back the snuff bottle and shouted to the quartermaster: "Damn it, you can see clearly. This is sterling silver, why is there only 15 silver coins!"

"Of course, if it weren't for something silver, I'm afraid I wouldn't even have a silver coin!" The quarantine replied with a smile.

"Bastard, a few days ago, Sergeant Chavet had 35 silver coins registered with the same snuff bottle, but now my price is not as high as his. Are you bullying? Damn Jewish, do you think I am a soldier and deliberately lower my price?" Levana was really angry. As he said that, he wanted to hit people. However, Denadi climbed up very cleverly and struggled to put Levana aside. The quarantine was not angry either, but just shrugged and wanted to turn around and work on other things.

"What happened?" A majestic voice sounded in everyone's ears. When he looked up, he saw that it was Colonel Xiade who had arrived on a horse.

Since the end of the Battle of Manresa, the colonel has been running to the martial arts regiment to inspect the work of the military police. He accidentally saw what happened just now. Although he had already learned about the whole story, Colonel Xia De still deliberately asked the quarantine officer.

"Report to the colonel, there is nothing wrong. It's just that everyone has misunderstood the price of the item registration." The quarantine erected his chest and replied seriously.

"What misunderstanding?"

“So far, I have received hundreds of such snuff bottles, whose prices have dropped a lot, and are now worth only 15 silver coins.”

"Well, just let's make it clear. But I seem to hear someone calling you a 'damn Jew!' Is there such a thing?"

"No, Colonel, you heard it wrong. No one said that!" The quarantine officer was very kind and did not take the opportunity to take revenge on the Levanna Private.

Xia De nodded, looked at Levana intentionally or unintentionally, and continued, "Maybe it is. But don't let me hear it. The soldiers who insulted the Jews in their mouths need to be confined to 8 hours according to the military rules set by the commander!" As soon as he finished speaking, he left.

After waiting until Colonel Xiade ran away, the two soldiers who were scared to the point of being frightened just now asked to move their bodies to the quarantine officer, and thanked the Jewish quarantine officer for their righteousness over and over again. Levana even wanted to give the snuff bottle generously to the quarantine officer, but the Jews refused to agree.
Chapter completed!