I Am Louis XIV

Prince Conti admits that he is a villain who sees the wind and turns the rudder, but as the saying goes, a villain also has its uses. He also knows that the king sent him to Austria not to make him an upright and good person. In this regard, his elder brother, the Prince of Condé, his best friend, the Duke of Luxembourg, and the Viscount of Turenne, don't even try to beat him, but if he had a choice, he would definitely not take the deal. Of course, others I don’t know, but to say that the Emperor Leopold I of the Holy Roman Empire knew nothing about France’s full support for Ottoman Turkey’s attack on Austria, that is what an idiot would say.

Leopold I may not detain or execute Prince Conti, but just like the Marquis of Creckey, as the king's envoy in Rome, will still be besieged by a group of despicable villains. Will people challenge Prince Conti to a duel for a very trivial reason, or directly murder him, so Prince Conti generously complained to the king and obtained a team of musketeers equipped with the latest armament , two monks, these two monks were specially hired by the king to Elliott, if you have not forgotten, Gaston, Duke of Orleans, had traces of summoning the devil, Louis XIII fell from his horse and almost Drowning—the fact that the puddle reached his knees, and the subsequent lingering sickness—was the fault of the former, and those queer tempera paintings that the Duke of Gaston bought from Flanders until he When he died, he was still in his room, and although his confessor and bishop insisted that he had confessed, but as far as the Duchess of Montpensier said, her half-sister slipped the tongue to her lover, Duke Gaston not only did not repent, but at the last moment of his death he was still cursing the king, whether it was the father or the son.

Now France is seeking the Flanders region again, which makes the king have to be vigilant. The preparations for the war are already underway. Once this huge car is started, it is impossible to stop it. Flanders He is bound to win, but the Flanders and the Spaniards definitely hold different opinions. If Prince Conti is assassinated, it will undoubtedly be the best counterattack and humiliation to the King of France. Of course, Louis will not allow this kind of thing It happened that he still had some wizards on hand, but these wizards from Italy were temporarily sent to other places by him.

There is nothing wrong with this sentence, especially in a place like France where rebellions are frequent. This time, Louis intends to conquer by himself. Before he leaves Paris, all heresies and hidden dangers must be eliminated. , even if it is not cleared, it must be guaranteed that they will not dare to act recklessly in the past one or two years-but before Prince Conti leaves Paris, the first thing the king has to do is to hold a grand banquet to make him happy All the famous dignitaries tried their best to crowd the Louvre, from the terrace to the stairs, they were crowded, and if a visitor wanted to salute the king, he had to go through the Hundreds of feet of narrow path - between the gold and silver coat and the wider and wider skirts, and then the people around the king have to look at the identity of the person before giving up their position, or just look at the king Those who are not prominent enough can only look at the king's face like a glimpse, and then they can only look at the backs of gentlemen and ladies or... Not so polite ass anymore.

Prince Conti is of course a special honor. He sits at the head of the king, second only to his brother Philip, and his brother Condé is still below him, because the king needs to be with him in the noisy crowd. say.

"From the bottom of my heart," Prince Conti pulled out his handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead, "The Louvre is really a bit too small." The king also deliberately chose the large gallery in the Louvre. The huge and spacious corridor can be said to be the most spectacular building in the Louvre. Even so, people here still have to rub their shoulders. The candles hanging from the dome and the heat brought by their breath even give it a Turkish bath. The hazy feeling...and suffocation, but as long as the king is here, no matter how unbearable it is, no one will leave first.

The younger brother Philip is also dressed up today. The years in Lorraine have given him the physique of a soldier. He is tall and strong, and he can carry dozens of pounds of lace and clothing. He remains unmoved. He brings a cup for the king. While serving the iced lemonade, that hand was steady, and it was completely invisible that he was wearing several heavy rings.

"This situation will improve soon." Louis took a sip of lemonade and said to them during the audience: "The main building of Versailles is almost completed, and I plan to spend three to five years to decorate and decorate." Decorate, and when that happens, we won't have to be so crowded."

"Oh," said Prince Conti as if unintentionally: "Is it the buildings I saw before? It is indeed very large, Your Majesty, people say that you are going to build a new city there."

"You can also say that." Louis said, the most important thing is that he still wants to move the political center of France to another place. The Louvre is not bad, but it is located in the center of Paris, although the former is also a military building. The castle, but judging from the two Fronde riots, its defense is not even as good as the Bastille. The road ahead for Louis is still bumpy and long, and there will only be more and more enemies. He cannot completely pin his hopes on... You know, on the people.

The new Palace of Versailles has a thousand rooms, surrounded by a newly opened moat and magnificent gardens, and Louis's ambitions do not stop there. The people brought back on the road have settled in Versailles for more than ten years, and their children have grown up. They are not farming or working for the king, or they are building a new palace for the king, and they are also receiving training and education. For Louis, they It is credible, and Louis was credible to them, and it can be said that even when the treasury of France was never filled, the people of Versailles could still get the most preferential treatment-the cheapest rent, the meager Taxes, the most tolerant master... On the contrary, there are also the most stringent laws and the most rigorous audits, not only for outsiders, but also for the Versailles themselves. After all, Louis does not want to see a second Paris.

When the main building of the Palace of Versailles is initially completed, while decorating, the king also plans to create a huge commercial area, with countless rich goods, food, and various novel entertainments, an unforgettable shopping experience. The Golden Grotto - His experiments with the Duke of Lorraine had a satisfactory result, and all he paid for was a bathroom, a heating system and some neat but impractical things, oh, and maybe some delicious Food, as for gambling, singing and dancing, and "famous sisters", these are all things that Paris already has.

Louis didn't have such great expectations, he could use pleasure to paralyze those old and cunning princes, but the Duke of Lorraine also showed him another possibility, yes, he might not be able to convince those old people, but compared with them, Louis is So young, so are their heirs. The old people may be willing to repeat their unchanging life and stick to their castles until they die, but there is no need to say what choices those lively young people will make, and even those lords And the Sir, will also hope that their heirs and other children can find a place beside the king.

Everyone knows that the king likes young people and is willing to reuse them.

While planning for the future, the king looked at the people around him calmly, starting from Philip, Duke of Orleans, to Prince Condé, Duke of Luxembourg, Viscount Turenne, and some veterans from the time of Louis XIII, and then Colbert and some of his friends, followed by the Queen Mother, the noble ladies headed by the Duchess of Orléans and the Duchess of Montpensier, and a group of people centered on Madame La Vallière... There are not many positions in the hands of the king now, but when this war is over, the king will need a large number of officials, governors, priests and scribes, the new palace will need servants, and the city of Versailles will also need more merchants and craftsmen... Also, with the formally established navy and expanded army, by then, there will be thousands of vacancies in the king's hands waiting for people to fill them—ah, the king's request is not too much, after all, what you get, you get Lost, he just needs them to give a little something that originally belonged to the king.

A whole France.

Then the people saw the king sighed deeply, and they wondered in their hearts what the purpose of this was, but probably no one would have guessed that the king was just worried that such a project might last ten, twenty years... stop Well, twenty years is the deadline, and he still has more things to do. He glanced at the eager Prince Conti and guessed his intentions, "Of course there will be a room for you." The king said, "You can even choose from several rooms, for example, you can live with Prince Conti." In the same corridor."

"No." Prince Conti said almost reflexively, in exchange for a stern glance from his brother. He immediately lowered his head, but he was absolutely unwilling to live with Condé. Before the second Fronde uprising, Prince Condé could also be said to be suave and unrestrained—he even tried to make the Queen Mother He was unhappy with Bishop Mazarin and intended to pursue the Duchess of Montpensier, but during those days in Spain and after being captured in the Battle of Dunkirk, he suddenly became more stable or more rigid, maybe It was because he knew very well that he was still a sinner in the heart of the king, so he was extra vigilant and cautious. He expected his younger brother to do well in the job assigned by the king to Prince Conti, and worried that Prince Conti would fail because of his usual frivolity. , even lost his life, and as a general of France, he certainly hoped to reach an alliance with Leopold I.

The good times always seem to be fleeting. On the morning of seeing off Prince Conti, Paris was covered in a rare fog, and everywhere was wet. Even the light of the torches was no longer so dazzling, but the king's kerosene lamp was on the street. The corner of the alley exudes a constant yellow light. Prince Condé also handed over his own team of guards to Prince Conti. He endured the ominous words of "at least he must be able to run back" and watched his brother's carriage. It ran over the blue-gray cement road and disappeared at the end of the street.

When Prince Conti was in Paris, he also turned day and night upside down. Only those who came and went in the Louvre, the Boulevard and a few salons, today he left Paris alone, was interested in looking at the ruined city from the glass window. Twice, the ancient city was revived again from the hands of the king. Although the fog was thick, to the prince, the fog was like curtains covering his eyes layer by layer. He was overjoyed - the road extending from under the wheels to the distance was no longer muddy or dirty; the "stone slab" (cement) hollowed out pattern on the roadside gutter was simple, but With the blessing of quantity, there is also a special sense of beauty; those houses that were once swallowed by flames, smashed by hammers, and pulled down by ropes have now become neat three-story buildings. It is said that there will be several families living in it, but under the king's decree, the appearance of these houses is not messy because of sundries or poles and forks, and some windows are still inlaid with glass. Lin’s glass industry has been greatly developed; there are street signs at the turns or intersections of the streets, pointing north and south, and there are numbers in front of the houses, and even the names of the people living inside. It is said that in order to meet the king’s request, The younger brother Philip and his subordinates in charge of this matter have spent a lot of effort, and even dealt with a group of mobs who were not obedient - but the benefits are obvious. Those thieves, refugees and villains want to rely on the maze-like It is impossible to run away from the streets and alleys and the chaotic living environment.

In addition, Prince Conti opened the car window and breathed the cool but no longer smelly air. The king moved the fish, livestock market and leather workshops to the outskirts of Paris, and arranged sewer pipes in the new district, so Now the Seine is no longer always covered with white foam and floating feces. Although the residents complain that they have to walk a long way to buy food, they are also very happy to see fish in the Seine, or Jumping down for a swim, the water brought in by the canal from the Seine can be drunk with a little filtration without causing plague.

They had passed a cistern before. Like other houses, a kerosene lamp was hung in the cistern according to the king's request. The light illuminated the water waves below, and layers of golden scales were faintly visible in the mist. , Indescribably beautiful.

"How wonderful." Prince Conti said to himself, "I'm a little anxious now." Paris, which suffers from chronic diseases, can become so good, so what about the Palace of Versailles, which was built completely according to the king's wishes? It took four or five years to complete the base and water works, so it must be more perfect and more comfortable.