I Am Louis XIV

Because of this idea, after leaving Paris, Prince Conti boldly violated Prince Condé's instructions and secretly ran to Versailles, but to his disappointment, the current Versailles is more like a military fortress, because the whole The cement concrete structure looks gray, without marble, gold leaf, exquisite carvings and graceful drapery, but the garden and courtyard have already taken shape, mainly because the king has a great demand for water, so it is almost from In 52, when he was still a young man, the refugees who followed the king here began to dig aqueducts and reservoirs for the king, which became their first job to earn a living.

The closest water source to Versailles is the Seine River, and the distance between Versailles and the Seine River even exceeds that of Paris. Fortunately, the Paris area was originally a basin, and Versailles is full of swamps. There is no need to erect aerial canals like Toledo in Spain for water diversion, but Conte The Grand Canal that the prince saw was jaw-dropping enough. This river was almost no different from the one God gave to mankind. There have always been rumors in the court that the king had made a deal with the devil and hired hundreds of wizards Playing for him now seems possible.

A boat with small white sails slipped leisurely in front of the Prince of Conti, and the people on it had time to take off their hats to salute the prince, followed by gray seabirds that may have flown from the distant Strait of Amandche or the Strait of Calais Prince Conti didn't understand why at first, but the officials of Versailles told them that these ships were set up by the king for this canal. Coming from the port of Le Havre, because Le Havre has been a huge port city since the early sixteenth century, so many goods can be transported directly to Versailles, and there are a lot of fish caught, all of which are rewarded by the king The artisans here are specially allocated funds.

As for why there are so many seabirds following the boat, it is because some merchants once sent rotten sea fish. After vomiting and diarrhea, Mr. Colbert investigated thoroughly immediately. The businessman and the officials responsible for the matter were arrested, and then the king personally signed the death sentence. So since then, merchants would rather throw away even half-dead fish, but also ensure that the catch sent to Versailles is clean and fresh.

"Aren't they afraid..." In this era, it is not uncommon to shoddy and shoddy, but this is the first time that Prince Conti has heard that because the food ingredients are not fresh, they will lose their lives. Anyway, these Food is for the lower classes, not for the palace.

"The king paid a big crown for a barrel, but on the seashore, these fish are so cheap that they cost almost nothing."

"Oh," Prince Conti couldn't help exclaiming: "Even so, the king is too kind to these craftsmen." "Isn't it?" They train in the morning and evening like soldiers. They can not only eat fish, but also chicken and fish. Their bodies become extremely strong with adequate nutrition, regular life, and continuous exercise. They have smart minds and loyal temperaments. They are the real pedestals of Versailles, and now they are just hidden by the king in a huge project.

"How many people are there?" the Prince asked looking at the dense crowd on the high platform.

Fifty thousand people, the official said in his heart, "about 27,000 people." He said that he was not at all worried about being exposed by Prince Conti because the craftsmen here worked in shifts.

"A great project." Prince Conti said that the Versailles area is also located in the Paris Basin. Speaking of it, it is lower than Paris. It used to be forests and swamps, but now he sees a high platform that needs to be looked up to see the whole picture. , he couldn't help asking: "I remember that this place should have been a moss field?"

"This was built at the request of the king," said the official. "All the soil dug up when the canal was dug is piled here."

Although the building itself is still very rough, with smoke and dust everywhere you can see, and the places where you can walk are all paths for craftsmen to walk or low bridges built with wooden boards, Prince Conti's irresistible curiosity still drove him to go up. , the king's new palace is actually located on a man-made hill, overlooking it from above, it is a step-by-step ladder shape, the main body of the palace is on the top floor, there is no doubt, but there are square buildings on the second and third floors Group, Prince Conti looked around and guessed his room... Oh, of course it should be on the top floor, if not, he would rather stay in Paris or go back to his fief than Versailles.

But the rooms on the top floor are undoubtedly the fewest, maybe only... three hundred rooms or less, Prince Conte calculated in his mind, because the main body is supported by a concrete column with an astonishing diameter, so the space here is extraordinarily huge , Prince Conti even felt that it surpassed the hall of a church or a monastery. He stood between a dozen gray-black concrete columns and looked down. What he saw was a courtyard extending thousands of feet from the foot of the base. , the border of the courtyard is the shimmering moat. On the center line of his vision, there is a maze of holly trees that has shown a lush state. The two sides of the maze are the roads. One end of the road is closed in front of the suspension bridge in front of the moat. , and the other end is divided into three strands, leading to the lowest palace and the middle ladder.

From the bottom to the top, there are a total of more than 300 steps. Prince Conti was a little out of breath after climbing up, but the scenery on the top is indeed incomparable, but I don’t know how many people will work hard to climb up for it in the future .

As he thought this way, he looked at the garden at the back. The back garden has a wider area than the front garden, especially a square lake connected to the Grand Canal. If it is really necessary to defend here, the prince probably won't be able to do anything about it By the time the water runs out here, even the food is unlikely, he has already seen the ripples left by the fish swimming past in the lake.

If it is said that when leaving Paris, Prince Conti asked the king for a room just to prove that he was honored and favored, but now he really longs to live here.

The officials sent Prince Conti away respectfully. On that night, the records about Prince Conti in Versailles were sorted out and placed on the king's desk. The king's thoughts were just as Prince Conti guessed. He recruited At the beginning, the designer Louis Le Vau just started from the hunting lodge left by Louis XIII according to the usual practice, and expanded and rebuilt it. However, Louis had different ideas. He did not intend to touch the legacy of Louis XIII. , not only to miss his father, but also to prevent his new palace from having too many historical remnants.

He didn't just want a new palace, he wanted a sanctuary, an unforgettable and forsaken Garden of Eden, an earthly paradise—although it's a bit presumptuous to say so.

With this in mind, and referring to some rumors from the far east, the new palace expected by the king finally evolved into what Prince Conti saw. Le Vau originally expected to complete the project in twenty years, because there were With the help of cement and wizards, the time was shortened by nearly two-thirds, and now the king asked them to shorten the time for interior and exterior decoration to two years... "I really hope that I can celebrate my thirtieth birthday in the New Palace .”

If it weren't for His Majesty the King, Le Vau and another designer Dorbe would definitely have something to say, but now they can only argue with reason, "This is impossible, Your Majesty." Le Vau said, "Even if it is placed The marble statues in the alcoves also took many months to complete."

"Well," said the king innocently, "can't we make a mold out of plaster and pour it out with cement?" Not only does it save time, but it also saves money.

Le Vow was obviously stuck, and turned his eyes to the king's royal painter LeBron for help. LeBron was used to the king's extraordinarily thrifty in some aspects, or in other words, His Majesty sometimes felt that it was for nothing for people's praise. It is meaningless to spend a lot of money, because: "I am the king." When His Majesty refused to customize luxurious jewelry for himself, he said: "They will always praise me." If a king has a powerful army in his hands, And the navy, not only his ministers and generals, but also the monarchs and popes of other countries would come to flatter him, Louis could see this clearly.

Moreover, the king said boldly that if he needed to show the honor of the French king in front of his envoys, he could borrow jewelry and clothes from his younger brother Philip. There was nothing to shy away from attire, too, and his clothes were often the same as those of the king, with frequent use of royal blue, lamé and lily patterns.

In order to defend their dignity as architects and artists, Le Vau, Dorbe, and LeBron spent a lot of effort to convince His Majesty the King that he should never use cement to pour statues, and wanted to To use prints to fill the picture frames in the corridor, the latter LeBron vowed that he would go back to Italy immediately to find a painter for the king, and create the paintings at the same time as the project was in progress, so that there would be no delay, and he also promised , he will strive for the lowest price.

As for the statues, the king told Dorbe (who was chiefly in charge of the decorations) that he too could find a suitable batch elsewhere.

From there, of course, from Gayola Island, the territory of the Mancini family, or the Duke of Colonna.

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Prince Conti knew nothing about the verbal lawsuit between the king and the architect and designer of the Palace of Versailles. He got on the carriage full of anticipation, and finally arrived at the Hofburg in Vienna, Austria after more than ten days of ups and downs. .

He went all the way to the east. As I said before, he was the governor of Guienne, and later the governor of Languedoc. Except that these two places are sometimes a little chaotic, but because they are rich in wine and wheat, So it is still quite rich, but when you walk along the line of Charolais, Lyon and Avignon from here, there are more places to grow potatoes, and the scenery outside the car window gradually becomes monotonous, while the colors on people's bodies and faces Even so, the accompanying official also said that he should thank God and the king for the potatoes and sweet potatoes, otherwise he would not see so many people now.

This situation became clear when Prince Conti was about to cross the border between Switzerland and France. It seemed that in an instant, the fields dried up, the rivers became dirty, the population was sparse, and bandits were rampant. Fortunately, these were not so much bandits. Rather, the vagrants didn't even need musketeers, the Prince of Conti's own guards could easily cut them down, and the Prince mercifully hanged those who were wounded and surrendered from trees--anyway, their final outcome would not be the same. in this way.

However, it was not the wilderness that made Prince Conti feel most uncomfortable, but the town. Although it was only a few years ago, His Highness had already gotten used to the clean streets, the floor without feces and urine traces, warm and secretive Clean and clean toilets, as well as abundant hot water and comfortable bathtubs at all times, have become very popular in France, although some princes still criticize the king, thinking that caring too much about these things is not worthy of a monarch, or They are not pious enough, but they say so, but they have meticulously rebuilt their houses and castles according to the fashion of Paris, and they have followed suit. In some relatively prosperous places, even hotels have corresponding bathroom facilities. It is not a problem to go to the toilet and take a bath properly.

When he left France and entered Switzerland, the Prince of Conti could bear it, because the Swiss fought with France and reconciled, but it was not until the peace of Westphalia was signed that it got rid of Austrian rule , so comparing the two, Switzerland is obviously more accepting of the French, and is willing to learn some good things from France, but when Prince Conti crossed Switzerland and entered the territory of Austria, his test came.

The Austrians hated the French as a matter of course, from top to bottom, without exception, but it can almost be said that Prince Conti, who entered Austria with a small army, still had some guarantees for his own safety. He was troubled Yes, because Leopold I and his court declared that they would never accept anything from France, so there was no trace of French fashion in Austria - muddy and smelly streets, crowded and messy houses, ragged and dirty people, There are also urinals and toilets everywhere, and if people are not willing to pay to solve their problems under someone else's cloak, then any wall is their toilet.

Even though Prince Conti chose the best hotel on the way, he was bitten by bedbugs and fleas, and no matter how much perfume he put on, it was useless. The little vampire who jumped off the mouse came to Vienna, where the Hofburg is located, in such misery.