The continuous sound of cannons outside the city continued to enter St. Peter's Basilica, and the glazed decorations in the hall trembled slightly from time to time because of the sound of cannons. The priests in the hall turned pale one by one, and some of the young priests were even more frightened, pricking up their ears to listen to the movement outside the window, as if they were ready to flee at any time.

Pope Alexander VII stood in front of the statue of Jesus, his body trembling.

It was now the end of March 1657, and after the defeat of the European coalition in Lisbon at the end of last year, the Tiger Army pursued the victory, and in only one and a half months it recovered the whole territory of Portugal and routed all the one million European coalition troops. In February, the Tiger Army occupied all of Spain. At the beginning of March, the Tiger Army invaded French territory.

Under the attack of the Tiger Army, the European army fell into disarray. The Spanish also organized two reluctant resistances, but the only result was a massacre of the army by the Tiger Army. More than 500,000 Spanish troops were slaughtered like chickens by 100,000 tigers, and the river in the southern suburbs of Madrid was blocked by machine-gun corpses.

When the news of the Spanish war reached France, the French completely lost the will to fight and were completely unable to fight back.

The nobles fled, and the commoners surrendered.

At the end of March, two days earlier, 20,000 tigers had landed in Rome, Italy, from the Mediterranean, to the Holy See in Rome. The mercenaries of the Holy See and the private army of the nobles under their command totaled 70,000, but they were completely defeated within an hour. The soldiers and horses defending the Holy See had to retreat to the inner city for street fighting.

The artillery of the Tiger Army was set up in the outer city of Rome and began to bombard the Holy See army in the city.

The Tiger Army is very ferocious.

In the face of European civilians, the Tiger Army did not have the slightest sympathy. The remnants of the Holy See hid in the streets of the civilians and engaged in street fighting, and the grenade shotguns of the Tiger Army greeted the houses with shells. Those shrapnel even smashed directly into the houses of civilians and exploded, and a single shell could blow up a house.

The city of Rome at this time did not pay as much attention to tourism as later Rome, and did not restore various ancient buildings from ancient times. In fact, although the city of Rome is the seat of the Holy See, under the rule of the Holy See for hundreds of years, Rome is a relatively poor and backward region in Italy. The people of the city were poor, and their dwellings were shabby and dilapidated.

Therefore, in Li Zhi's eyes, Rome in this era had no artistic and cultural value. His order to the Tiger Army was to minimize the casualties of the Tiger Army, and if the Holy See did not surrender, blow up the inner city of Rome.

Two hundred rear-loading guns rained down on the streets of Rome. After three rounds of bombardment, the civilians understood the cruelty of the yellow race, and fled outside the city with valuables. After the Tiger cannon exploded for a while, there were basically no civilians in the city.

The papal defenders, who were hiding in the alleys, soon discovered that they were the only ones left in the entire inner city of Rome.

Liu's army followed an infantry fighting vehicle and attacked the core of the Holy See.

Liu Jun held a shotgun in his hand, which had been modified and equipped with a magazine. Therefore, this shotgun can complete a shot every three seconds, and the firepower in street battles is very powerful. Liu Jun also had thirteen infantry by his side, and Liu Jun believed that his fourteen shotguns could defeat hundreds of Holy See defenders.

Of course, it would be bloody if the street fighting relied on infantry close-quarters shooting, and it was fifteen heavy infantry fighting vehicles that really took on the main task. Infantry fighting vehicles slowly made their way through the narrow streets of Rome, their terrifying Gatling guns pointed at all Italian soldiers who tried to resist.

After walking for a while, Liu Jun suddenly noticed that there were people in front of him, and it seemed that some Italians were hiding in the alley in front of him.

He frowned and tightened his grip on the shotgun.

In fact, Liu Jun doesn't want to die now, and after the big victory in Lisbon, he finds the blonde girl who sent him a dagger. The girl was so enthusiastic about the Han hero who defended Lisbon that she pulled Liu Jun directly to her bed. Liu Jun has been thinking about staying in Lisbon and marrying this blonde girl lately.

It was rumored in the army that every soldier of the Tiger Army who was willing to stay in Europe could be made a knight and assigned a large farm to manage about fifty European peasants.

Liu Jun swallowed his saliva, a little worried that the Italians in front of him would shoot cold guns from the alleyway. After all, Liu Jun is about to have everything now, and he doesn't want to fight with these white Europeans who are about to lose everything. Liu Jun is a man who wears shoes, where is he willing to fight with these barefoot people?

But things went more smoothly than Liu Jun thought.

The Gatling guns opened fire heavily, spewing out a constant burst of flame, firing at the area where the Italians were hiding in front. The large-caliber machine gun bullets pierced the thin Roman dwellings, and Liu Jun heard a scream, and then all the Italians there raised their white flags.

The soldiers of the Holy See were not as strong as they had imagined, and they were clearly afraid of death.

Liu Jun smiled and went up to collect the weapons of the Holy See soldiers.

After tying more than forty Roman soldiers hand and foot, Liu's army continued in the direction of St. Peter's Basilica. Along the way, the Italians surrendered, with only sporadic fighting taking place in a few areas. By the afternoon, the Tiger Army had taken control of St. Peter's Basilica.

The moment the Tiger soldiers entered the main hall, the priests in the church let out a panicked scream, and fled in all directions, in chaos. Unceremoniously, the Tiger soldiers took aim and shot at the fleeing priests.

The situation was quickly brought under control.

Pope Alexander VII trembled and was controlled by two Han Chinese soldiers. The soldiers did not hold the European religious leader down, but pointed their guns at him and told him not to move.

One hour, after the area around the main hall was completely controlled, Li Zhi entered the main hall in the center of the city of Rome.

The emperor of the Han people sat in a military four-wheel drive jeep, escorted by two jeeps in front and behind. The convoy of five cars slowly drove into the originally extremely sacred St. Peter's Basilica, and Zhong Feng sat in a car in front of Li Zhi to clear the way for Li Zhi.

In order for the jeep to enter the church smoothly, many of the statues and seats in the church were violently kicked away by the Tiger Ben soldiers and moved away, forcing a road of sufficient width in the middle of the church.

When a senior priest saw the jeep entering the temple, he shouted with red eyes: "This is St. Peter's Basilica, and the pagan witchcraft cart cannot enter." ”

The other priests looked at the priest in horror, not understanding why he was so brave.

They were responded to by the gunfire of the Tiger Army soldiers, and only a snap was heard, and the head of the "brave" priest blossomed. The shotgun fired at close range knocked the priest's head into the paste, and he fell to the marble floor with a muffled grunt.

The other clergy were silent.

The dense and intricate religious decoration inside St. Peter's Basilica attracted Li Zhi's attention. The reason why Li Zhi came to Rome in person was to see with his own eyes what the Holy See was like and what Catholicism, which had been passed down for more than 1,600 years.

The car slowly drove forward, and Li Zhi kept looking around all the way, but his face was expressionless.

If it were an ordinary person, he might be shocked by the grandeur and solemnity of St. Peter's Basilica, but after all, Li Zhi was a time-traveler from later generations, and he was used to seeing high-rise buildings with more than ten floors or dozens of floors in later generations, so he would not be frightened by this church.

The Pope saw the jeep approaching and his body trembled like chaff. He never expected Asians to enter St. Peter's Basilica in such a way.

The jeep drove to the middle of the main hall, and Zhong Feng jumped out of the car and looked left and right at the surrounding furnishings. Li Zhi didn't get out of the car, but just glanced at the Pope in the car.

The Pope was seen by Li Zhi's gaze and his legs went limp, and he fell to the ground with a plop.

Zhong Feng raised his chin, looked down at the Pope on the ground, and said coldly: "When you see the Son of Heaven of China, don't you bow down?" ”

Alexander VII fell limply to the ground, his body shaking. He moved, but he couldn't control his body at all, and finally he was still paralyzed there.

Li Zhi stepped out of the car and walked to a marble sculpture of Michelangelo in the middle of the main hall to take a look.

After looking at it for a long time, Li Zhi nodded and praised: "The carving is good." ”

After looking around, Li Zhi turned around and walked in front of the Pope.

Zhong Feng looked at Li Zhi's face and said loudly to the Pope: "Barbarian! If you know each other, you can call on all civilians in Europe to give up resistance. ”

The Portuguese soldiers, who could speak Latin, immediately told the Pope what Zhong Feng had said.

The Pope collapsed on the ground and asked weakly: "Catholicism... Can Catholicism continue to preach? ”

Zhong Feng smiled and said, "Catholicism can exist, but the priests in the whole of Europe must be controlled within fifteen, and there can only be one church. The redundant clergy all took off their robes and became peasants. Churches in various places were immediately transformed into Chinese-style Taoist temples, preaching ancient Chinese myths and Taoist classics of Lao Zhuang. ”

Hearing this, all the priests in the hall opened their mouths wide, and none of them could speak, and none of them dared to speak. They secretly looked at the Chinese emperor, but saw Li Zhi with no expression on his face, and was holding his hands behind his back, faintly looking at the statue of Jesus in front of the main hall.

Alexander VII felt only darkness in front of him, and fainted in the center of the main hall on the spot.