I Am Louis XIV

Manit came in a caravan, and the Bosnians, like the Gypsies or Flaminges or Gypsies (as they are called in various countries), in other places, As soon as people saw them, they thought that this group of thieves, swindlers, and wretches were coming to do evil. Their caravan was stopped when they were still a few leagues from the hunting lodge. There is no way to enter Versailles—and since they came in blatantly, they couldn't help but make the officers and generals feel a little bit afraid. Although the inner world still wears a heavy veil, people in this era admit that there are devils and demons. Demons exist—in addition, these people also insisted that they were hired by the king, and they also reported the name of the king's physician, Varo Vesalius. Vesalius will not appear in the imperial meeting, but he The name Loise has also been heard.

"Oh, I know about it," the king said to his ministers with a smile, "you can arrange them," he thought for a while, "just treat them as a special team of mercenaries, but don't worry Control them, and don't let others disturb them."

In the past, there were also kings or generals who distributed women as trophies or comforts before or after a great battle. The mighty "Mingshu" followed the army until the 20th century. I'm not surprised, but he doesn't quite understand why the king chose a group of bohemian women, yes, for many people, letting bohemian women do this kind of work is too high-profile behavior— — Not to the former, but to the latter, but since the king said so, Luwas has no intention of vetoing it.

After the Bohemian witches came to Versailles, they caused a small wave. Compared with ordinary women, even those wandering in the streets, they are much more beautiful and younger, and the Bohemians Always a sign of indulgence—to be precise, they have their own laws and morals, which are not recognized by non-Bohemians—the king heard after a few days that many soldiers had a Bossy. Mrs. Mia, this kind of marriage that is more like a joke is very simple, as long as the man and woman who like each other come together in front of everyone and announce that they are married, and when they want to separate, they only need to say divorce.

These soldiers were certainly attracted by these beautiful and enthusiastic girls, and these witches were also confused by these soldiers. They had been living in the depths of dense forests such as Confranc or places where there were few people. Needless to say how poor they are, the soldiers here, even the newcomers in Versailles, are well-off because of the king's generous gift, and as we all know, Paris is not far from Versailles, and Paris has almost become a city now. The palace of all nations, here you can see anything you can see elsewhere, and you can also see things you can't see elsewhere. Various fashions and ideas here are constantly being popular from France to every country.

"Mrs. Milady." Lois bowed to the noble lady with charming red lips and eyes as bright as a lake in the middle of the night. This is an unrecognized "Mrs. Madame Lavallière has titles and annuities like that, but this lady also often haunts the king's bedroom, which makes it impossible for others to underestimate this woman who is said to be of a rather poor background.

"Mr. Loise," Milady glanced at the other party with a sly smile. They are not qualified to live in the king's hunting palace, so here is a farmhouse that Milady rented from the residents of Versailles. They said it was a farmhouse. , is also a neat two-story building. Milady is not surprised at all why the people here are so loyal to the king. Ten years ago, they were refugees with nothing but their own body and soul. She stood On the terrace, looking out, under the deep night is the faint white outline of the New Palace—even though the war is imminent, the construction of the Palace of Versailles has not stopped, and countless craftsmen are still busy on the huge construction site, tens of thousands Gauge torches made the plateau look like it was on fire. "Speak, sir," said Milady, "I know you always go to the Three Jewels Hall for nothing."

Such straightforward words made Luwas frown, "I'm for... those Bohemian women."

"What's the matter?" Milady gently shook the fan in her hand, "Did they cause any harm to you?"

"What harm can they do to me?" said Loise. "The problem is that they are marrying soldiers of the king."

"Everyone knows that," said Milady indifferently, "it's just a game."

"Some are, some are not." Angry parents approached the officers and demanded that they deport these bohemian women, because some soldiers were seriously considering baptizing their lover and actually marrying her into the family , If they are still refugees, then forget it, but now the people of Versailles hardly pay attention to people outside Paris, even if the guests come from Lyon or Provence, they will only contemptuously call them provincials, and How could he allow his beloved son to marry a Bohemian.

And the war was about to start, and he was also very worried that these Bosnian women would affect the courage and loyalty of the soldiers.

"Don't worry," Milady said, "these Bohemians are going to the battlefield too, but they won't be on the same battlefield as you." Her eyes and ears are much sharper than Loise's. After being with the soldiers, she also thought about whether to stop it, but it took almost a few minutes before she decided not to interfere. Why, because she remembered what the king had said to her, the king said , in this world, the most beautiful is often the shortest, and because it is the shortest, it is also the most precious, and the thing that can best prove this is love.

The Bohemian witches came here under the coercion of the king, but they never thought of changing themselves. They still maintain the habits and traditions of the Bohemians, among which is the bold and passionate, passionate love. Pursuit—the king also said that a love can only last for ninety days at most, how interesting it is, which is the time that the Battle of Flanders is expected to take...

Lois was puzzled, but luckily the army was going to be fully mobilized today. In this case, the parents who were deeply troubled couldn't catch up. As for the aftermath, let's talk about it later.

He took leave of Madame Milady and went back to his residence. Of course, he couldn't rest too early. After leaving Paris, he was really busy when he left the army's supplies to him and Cole. Corbert, although it is said that there is Colbert, but in fact, Colbert's energy is mainly invested in domestic and foreign countries. The most important job is Loise, Loise and his father, who are now The Minister of War mobilized all the resources and contacts for this purpose. He cleverly marked the place where the king will pass by as points, and then divided them into parts according to the length of the distance and the marching speed of the army. The supplies and equipment needed by the army It is not to prepare together, go all the way to Paris from various places, and then go to Flanders with the king, but go to the scheduled supply point nearby, which can reduce the loss during transportation and will not drag you down army.

Just like this, there are more places to pay attention to, and all kinds of things may happen, heavy rain, fire, theft and robbery, or the actions of the governor or the lord... So Luwas can't finish it every day However, when he focused his attention on the parchment, he still couldn't help sighing -- his father's insinuation was confirmed today, and he couldn't help feeling annoyed. Of course, those monsters hiding in the dark.

I don’t know when it started, it seems that there are more and more things like this—witches, werewolves, and devils, although they appeared occasionally in the past, but most of them are still in people’s mouths, and now...whether it’s France, or Or other places in Europa. Speaking of this, people even made a common look, instead of panicking like ten years ago.

Lois didn't know whether this trend was good or bad—Mrs. Milady's answer made him palpitate. If these Bohemian women were the "extraordinary" soldiers prepared by the king for this war, there were hundreds of them at a glance. There are so many...the number can almost be compared with the king's dragon knight company. Does it mean that there will be such a number of extraordinary people on the Flanders side to participate in this war? Luwas couldn't believe it. Although he knew more and more things as his status rose, this conjecture still gave him chills.

—————

The king knew nothing about Loise's troubles. Compared with the affair of the Bosnian witch, he paid more attention to what Loise proposed. Regarding the configuration and arrangement of the main route of the march and the warehouses and military stations on the border, as the king All the way to the south, soldiers and mercenaries from the provinces also joined in. When they left Paris, their number was about 30,000, and now they number about 50,000. And these 50,000 people were divided into three parts by the king. Thousands of people were led by the Duke of Orleans, using Dunkirk as a stronghold to attack Coudker, and then let Prince Condé lead 12,000 people, and let Prince Condé and his close friend the Duke of Luxembourg attack Luxembourg (although this territory Nominally belonging to the Duke of Luxembourg, but still in the hands of the Spaniards), and then using Luxembourg as a stronghold, he attacked Erron, while he led the rest of the army and marched directly to Lille.

Choosing Flanders as the first battle of his personal expedition, Louis did not think about it. Compared with England, his old enemy, Spain, which is also an enemy although he is an in-law, or Holy Rome, who is destined to become an opponent The empire, although Flanders is nominally ruled by Spain, is separated from Spain by the whole of France. Now Spain is simply unable to mobilize troops to garrison Flanders, and they don’t even know the situation there as well as the French. In the spies' reports, it was rare to mention that Flanders had indestructible fortresses and city walls, so for Louis, Flanders was the best material for him to try his hand at military affairs.

Moreover, Louis did not think that he had any talent in military affairs. He kept Viscount Turenne by his side, and he would not cross Viscount Turenne to interfere with the army's actions. A brilliant banner is used to boost morale and intimidate the enemy, instead of actually running to the battlefield to make one's enemies happy and subordinates annoyed.

In this way, like the shadow cast by thick clouds on the ground, the arrows of the army pointed slowly and steadily to the first city, Charleroi.

At this time, Charleroi was still a small city, just to defend against possible, no, now determined enemies. The Spaniards built a castle here. The castle faced the French border and was located on the Sable River. The castle did not function as expected by the builders. The mayor of Charleroi only climbed onto the city wall and glanced at the soldiers as dense and numerous as the wheat in the field, and his face turned pale. He fainted, and when people finally woke him up with smelling salts and wine, he made the decision everyone expected-surrender to the French.

As I said before, because in the 14th century, the Count of Flanders, who was a vassal, was extremely good at looting. Once the overwhelmed people rioted, he hired or asked the King of France to send troops to suppress it. Therefore, Flanders People don't welcome the French. The problem is, it's not a matter of whether they want to welcome them now. The city walls of Charleroi are low and old, and they can't resist the bombardment of artillery hundreds of years later. The mayor wisely takes He took out the silver key representing the ownership of the city, put it in a velvet tray, opened the city gate, and presented the city to the king.

Because of the lessons learned from Dunkirk, even though Charleroi is a small city, Viscount Turenne still sorted it out several times very carefully. It can be seen that those people who were driven from their homes to the squares and streets Angry, but anger that cannot be transformed into power is as useless as the smoke of flames. When the king's chariot rolled over the stones in the street, the people here still bowed respectfully under the watchful eyes of muskets and swords.

The silver key, the symbol of the city, was not even touched by the king. He was collected by the Viscount Turenne on his behalf and passed on to Bontang. Immediately afterwards, the mayor presented precious gifts-such as silverware and jewelry. These things are also placed elsewhere first, and the king will not see them anyway.

But the king still saw a strange thing. It was a portrait of a saint about one foot square, hanging above the hearth in the castle hall, three people high from the ground, but neither the canvas nor the frame had a trace of smoke and age. Traces, not even cobwebs and rat bites, bright colors, unique style and familiarity--the same Beauschian paintings that the Duke Gaston once brought to France from Flanders.

At the king's insistence, the two monks removed the painting, inspected it, and shook their heads at the king, indicating that no curse had been placed on it.

"Hieronymis Bosch," said the king, without a signature, but no one could have painted such an absurd painting - a seemingly saintly figure, but surrounded by several naked devils, holding a chalice , A poisonous snake flows out of the Holy Grail—although the portrait is small, the devil is still lifelike, as if it will jump out of the picture at any time.

"I don't know, Your Majesty," said the mayor. The king was expressionless. He didn't know what the nobleman was thinking, so he could only be more careful: "This painting has been hanging here for a long time—about two hundred years, because ...Because it was hung very high, no one thought to take it off afterwards.”

The king said nothing, threw the portrait on the ground, and kicked it into the blazing hearth.

————

The wizard stepped back, narrowly avoiding the sudden burst of flames.

The firelight illuminated his face, a square face, with eyebrows and temple hair as black as coal, and a gray complexion that reminded one of pewter or beeswax rather than anything else alive. He stood up , heard a sneer: "Oh," said the visitor, "what made our Mr. Hieronymus Bosch so embarrassed?"

Bosch didn't care about the other party's sarcasm: "I saw him."

"King of France, Louis XIV."