Abolition of the Free City

Under the gloomy clouds, the Mainz City Hall appeared particularly dark and oppressive. The surviving councilors sat around a long table, the atmosphere so heavy it felt like water could be wrung from it.

Mainz's governing body was the Twenty-Four-Man Council, but only six councilors were present now.

They didn't even need to ask to guess what had happened to the remaining councilors; many bodies still hung on the city walls of Mainz.

Adolf strode into the hall, a team of fully armed soldiers following closely behind him, blocking the entrance.

At this moment, the soldiers already in the hall, who had been controlling the councilors, also brandished their weapons.

The clanging of metal and Adolf's heavy footsteps were like the drumbeats of death, striking the hearts of the councilors one after another.

Adolf slowly walked to the head seat, looking down at everyone with an undeniable cold glint in his eyes.

"You don't have to be so afraid," Adolf's voice was deep with a hidden hint of triumph, echoing through the soldier-filled hall, "You are still alive because you are smart enough to understand the situation."

With that, he gestured, and his scribe immediately placed a resolution in front of the councilors.

"Dieter has failed, and Mainz should pay the price for resisting the Empire," Adolf said coldly, "Mainz has been free for too long, so much so that people have forgotten that the city's status as a free city was due to the Archbishop's grace.

You dared to support the traitor Dieter and oppose me, the true Archbishop of Mainz!

Gentlemen, today, Mainz's status as a free city will become history. Now, this city is once again under the rule of the Archbishop!"

The councilors turned pale upon hearing Adolf's strong declaration.

An old councilor tremblingly stood up and tried to persuade him: "Archbishop, Mainz has had a tradition of freedom for centuries, and we were forced to help the rebels under duress from Dieter.

Is it not inappropriate for you to now declare the deprivation of our status as a free city…?"

"Inappropriate?" Adolf's lips curled into a sneer, "Don't think I don't know what kind of people the Mainz City Council truly is, and don't try to bargain with me here.

In the face of absolute power, everything else is meaningless. Look out the window, gentlemen."

The councilors followed his gesture and looked out the window, only to see soldiers on the streets, holding sharp blades, chasing and slaughtering fleeing civilians, all of whom were identified as Dieter's supporters.

Screams and cries were incessant, echoing throughout the city.

"Archbishop, force cannot bring the people to submission."

Another councilor earnestly tried to persuade him, attempting to make Adolf change his mind.

"The people?" Adolf sneered, "The people are like a lost flock of sheep; they are always misled and incited by ill-intentioned individuals, making wrong choices.

But their power is so immense that it often leads to catastrophic outcomes.

Therefore, they need to be guided by the right person, someone with unwavering faith and strong military power—that is me!

When the flock is disobedient, as long as your whip is strong enough, they will become docile.

And you, gentlemen councilors, will you choose to sign this resolution and become my sheepdogs, or will you feed the fish in the Rhine River?"

The councilors looked at each other, falling into a painful silence. They had thought that secretly colluding with Adolf would bring them more benefits, but instead, it brought disaster to Mainz.

Some lowered their heads, staring at their hands as if they were stained with sin; others looked out the window, their eyes vacant, wondering what they were thinking; still others looked ghastly pale, despairing for the future of Mainz.

Finally, it was Deacon Albert, who had personally opened the Mainz city gate for Adolf, who was the first to sign the resolution.

This was like flipping a switch; the councilors came forward one by one, signing the despair-inducing paper.

Each signature was like adding a heavy slab to the tombstone of Mainz's freedom.

When the last councilor signed, Adolf picked up the document, stamped it with the Archbishop's seal, and smiled triumphantly: "Alright, no need to be so pessimistic.

From now on, Mainz will march towards glory under my rule!"

After speaking, he no longer paid attention to the dispirited councilors in the City Hall, leading his subordinates towards the Mainz Electorate Mansion.

The history of Mainz as a free city thus came to an end.

Adolf, of course, had not forgotten that his mortal enemy, the Elector Palatine, had not yet been defeated.

He had already sent people to the various fiefdoms of the Archbishop of Mainz to demand their submission.

At the same time, Adolf also made contact with the Count of Nassau, his brother, who was stationed on the opposite bank of the Rhine River.

By surprising Mainz and capturing Dieter, half of this war had already been won.

Next, he still needed to defeat the Palatinate and rescue the Margrave of Baden for the war to be a complete victory.

Considering that the Elector Palatine, who was currently fighting the Archbishop of Trier, could turn his spearhead directly towards Mainz at any time, Adolf had already mentally prepared to temporarily abandon Mainz.

Of course, before leaving Mainz, he had to make a fortune here, preferably repay all the debts he owed, and then replenish his private coffers.

Adolf was calculating how to extort more money from Mainz when he suddenly saw a few of his subordinates in front of him jointly lifting a strange machine and slowly moving it towards the Mainz Electorate Mansion.

Behind them, two soldiers were escorting six captives, their hands tied with ropes, forming a single line.

One of the captives looked very old; the few strong young men following him must have been apprentices, and the last captive in the line looked like a foreigner.

Adolf then spurred his horse to the side of this group of soldiers. Seeing him approach, they immediately put down what they were holding and saluted the Archbishop.

Adolf, however, ignored them and carefully scrutinized the tattered old man among the captives.

"Are you… Gutenberg?" he asked somewhat uncertainly.

"My Lord, do you recognize me?" A glimmer of light appeared in the old man's cloudy eyes, and he looked at Adolf with some disbelief.

Adolf frowned slightly, turned to the squad leader, and asked, "Why did you capture him? Didn't he lose a lawsuit a few years ago and become destitute?"

According to Adolf, in a famous lawsuit in 1456, Gutenberg and his partner Fust went to court over a profit dispute.

The Mainz court awarded the entire printing press to his partner, which led to Gutenberg, then nearly sixty years old, losing almost everything.

From the current situation, this ingenious craftsman seemed to have found an opportunity to resume his old trade and engage in printing work again.

The squad leader looked at Gutenberg with some surprise, not expecting the Archbishop to know this fellow.

He immediately replied respectfully, "Your Grace, this fellow is not as poor as you say; on the contrary, he can even be called wealthy.

His re-established workshop has made a lot of money, and someone reported that he paid a lot of taxes to Dieter, and that his factory also harbored spies from France.

According to the rules you set, he should either be hanged or exiled.

However, the brothers don't know how to operate this peculiar contraption.

We found several machines like this in his workshop, and there are many such things in another larger factory, but the artisans who knew how to use them have long since fled, and we only caught a few.

So I thought of bringing them back to await your disposal."

Adolf first turned to look at the last captive in the line, who was the French spy the soldier mentioned.

No wonder he looked strange.

He then looked at the printing press in front of him, beginning to consider in his heart how to deal with this thing.

"Your Grace, we can offer the printing press and these people to the Emperor.

This will not only offset some of the debt, but perhaps also win the Emperor's favor."

Hearing his subordinate's suggestion, Adolf nodded slightly. This was indeed a good idea, but he didn't know if the Emperor would be interested in such a thing.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him, and his gaze towards Gutenberg became eager.

Gutenberg was terrified by his gaze. He had heard people say that whenever Archbishop Adolf looked at someone like that, that person was usually about to die.

As soon as he thought of such rumors, Gutenberg's already exhausted heart sank even further.

He didn't understand why his life had been so full of misfortune. The first book he printed after improving the printing press was the Bible, yet God always seemed to play jokes on him.

Counting this time's looting by Adolf's army, this was already the third time he had gone bankrupt in his life.

"Gutenberg, I have long heard of your deeds and greatly admire your talent," Adolf said, unusually gently, to appease him. "I intend to recommend you to the Emperor. As for whether you can gain the Emperor's appreciation, that will depend entirely on your ability."

Gutenberg looked at Adolf blankly, his mind a complete blank.

The Emperor? He also had a chance to meet the Emperor? The master of this Empire, a greater figure than the Archbishop of Mainz?

In his heart, there was fear of the unknown, and confusion about the future, but no joy.

His entire life had been spent wandering, from Mainz to Strasbourg, and then to other places, sometimes for business opportunities, sometimes to escape creditors.

Now he was nearing the end of his life, and he had finally managed to settle down again in his hometown of Mainz.

As a result, this civil war in Mainz once again destroyed his life.

Now the Archbishop said he wanted to introduce him to the Emperor. He knew where the Emperor was, in Vienna, far to the east.

He heard that from Vienna eastward, all the way to the great sea at the end, was the Emperor's territory. Could he really gain the appreciation of this powerful monarch?

While he was still agonizing, the soldier had already untied his ropes, but his apprentices and the apprentice from France were still tied, to prevent them from escaping.

Adolf continued, "However, you did indeed support Dieter in the past, and I cannot let you off so easily."

Hearing this, Gutenberg's expression immediately tensed. Why did this Archbishop speak with such dramatic pauses, making his heart pound nervously?

Just as he was about to ask, Adolf preemptively said, "I want you to do something for me.

For a period of time, I want you and your apprentices to quickly print indulgences for me. Print as many as you can. I will send people to monitor you.

I know your old trade was this. I even sold indulgences produced by Forster Printing Factory. Those were your work, weren't they?"

"Yes, Your Grace."

Gutenberg felt a pang of sadness upon hearing the heartbreaking name, Forster Printing Factory.

Adolf didn't care what Gutenberg was thinking. He immediately ordered the soldiers to carry the printing press back to Gutenberg's workshop and escort Gutenberg and his apprentices back to the workshop to begin printing.

After all, printing work doesn't just require a printing press; it can only be done efficiently in a workshop.

Afterward, he assigned one of his clergymen to supervise Gutenberg's work.

Once these people had left, Adolf turned to his subordinate and said, "From last night until today, many people have been expelled from Mainz. Although many of them supported Dieter, they are not unforgivable.

Immediately spread the word that anyone willing to purchase the indulgences I issue will receive salvation,

and be allowed to return to live in Mainz.

At the same time, people in the city must also purchase indulgences. They can buy fewer, but they cannot not buy them, otherwise they will all be considered accomplices of Dieter, understood?"

"Archbishop, I will attend to it immediately."

Adolf's subordinate was no stranger to such methods of accumulating wealth. This was not the first time they had done this; everything was so familiar.

At this moment, Adolf suddenly remembered the news he had heard earlier in Vienna about the Grand Duke Conference.

He heard that the Pope actually advocated abolishing indulgences. In his view, such a reform was utterly foolish.

It already cost a large sum of money to run for Archbishop. If they weren't allowed to sell indulgences, then how would they accumulate wealth to repay debts and maintain a good quality of life after being elected Archbishop?

He had heard that the Emperor also supported this reform, and he could only say that the Emperor did not understand the Church's difficulties.

If he didn't sell indulgences, then he would have to heavily levy tithes; in any case, it would ultimately be the common people who suffered, and filling the debt hole was the most important thing.

Raising taxes would cause discontent among farmers and could very likely lead to farmer rebellions, but indulgences were much more brilliant.

Not only could they extract the last penny from the pockets of those ignorant believers, but these believers would also have to thank the merciful Archbishop for forgiving and pardoning their sins on behalf of God, allowing them to ascend to Heaven after death.

Thinking of this, Adolf's mood became even more pleasant; he was not peddling indulgences for wealth, but to pardon those misguided sinners who had supported Dieter, allowing them to turn back from their wrong path and return to live in Mainz.

This would not only bring back Mainz's population but also earn him the gratitude of the citizens for his benevolence, truly achieving multiple benefits.

On the other side, Gutenberg, having returned to the printing workshop, did not dare to delay for a moment, immediately leading his workers to begin typesetting and then mass-producing indulgences.

In just one day, they printed over 500 indulgences, a speed that left the supervising priest speechless.

He thought of the days when he used to write indulgences by hand late into the night, and he couldn't help but marvel at the magic of this printing press; now, this machine looked more and more pleasing to his eyes.

Besides the printing press in this workshop, there was also another large printing factory in the city, Forster Printing Factory, which had more printing presses and workers than here.

Forster Printing Factory incorporated Gutenberg's many years of painstaking effort, but it was instantly taken by the investor Forster due to an unfair lawsuit.

However, that printing factory had also been seized by Archbishop Adolf's army, and its printing presses and other equipment were sold to the Imperial Bank to repay loans.

These printing equipments were loaded onto carriages, destined to be transported in batches to Vienna.

Forster himself was also raided by Archbishop Adolf's army for supporting Dieter, and a large amount of his assets all went into the pockets of the Archbishop and his subordinates.

As for Gutenberg's small workshop, Adolf planned to offer their printing press and Gutenberg himself as gifts to the Emperor.

After all, after he sought help in Vienna, the Emperor provided him with countless assistance, and this was a good opportunity to repay him.

Mainz after the war was in ruins, with crumbling walls casting long shadows under the setting sun, and a cold wind howled through, raising clouds of dust.

Adolf's soldiers once again received orders from the Archbishop; they rampaged through the streets, driving people out of their homes.

A crowd of frightened, haggard citizens quickly gathered in the square.

A tall soldier with a scarred face stood on a high platform, waving a stack of rough papers, and shouted loudly: "Listen! These are indulgences! As long as you spend a few groschen to buy them, your sins will be forgiven, and God will protect you! The Archbishop's army will also protect good citizens who buy indulgences, as for those who are unwilling to buy, humph…"

His voice was hoarse and fierce, echoing in the empty square.

"We can't even afford food, where do we have money to buy this!" a thin middle-aged man muttered softly.

No sooner had he spoken than a soldier heard him; the soldier rushed over in a few steps and kicked him in the back of the knee,

The man fell to his knees with a thud.

"No money? You sinners who resist the Empire, if you don't atone, just wait to go to hell!" the soldier said fiercely.

At this moment, a black-robed man, appearing to be a priest, stepped forward, cleared his throat, and said in a feigned compassionate tone: "Everyone, the suffering of war is God's punishment for us, and buying indulgences is our way of repenting to the Lord.

As long as you offer your money, the Lord will forgive our mistakes and restore peace to our lives."

However, his eyes revealed greed, scanning the crowd as if appraising a flock of lambs to be slaughtered.

The common people whispered among themselves, looking distressed.

But the soldiers didn't care; they began to search the pockets of the common people one by one, and any resistance would result in a brutal beating.

They stuffed the money they found into a worn-out box, while the so-called indulgences were carelessly thrown to the people.

An old man trembling took the indulgence, looking at the worthless paper in his hand, tears streaming down his face: "This is not an indulgence at all, it's clearly a death warrant—"

The same scene also occurred in the centers of various districts in Mainz and at the city gates.

Those citizens who had been cruelly expelled obediently emptied their pockets, received a small piece of paper called an indulgence, which was actually a pass, and finally managed to return to Mainz, to their homes.

Those who couldn't afford indulgences, or who didn't get one, could only spend the cold night in the open space outside the city.

With the power of the printing press and the military coercion of the army, Adolf quickly amassed enough money to repay his debts, and even had extra funds to serve as military expenses.

Laszlo, far away in Innsbruck, remained silent for a long time after hearing of Adolf's actions; he now finally understood what Adolf's characteristics of "insatiable greed" and "brutality" were all about.

Perhaps, supporting him was an unfortunate event for the people of Mainz, but Laszlo knew that Adolf was the loyal dog he needed, so he chose to ignore all of it.