I Am Louis XIV

People only saw the king standing up from his seat suddenly. They looked at each other, not knowing what happened. Only the Marquis of Lois suddenly realized—because among all the people present, only the king had a clear enough to see Lille. The telescope below the city, others can only guess or wait for the return of the herald officer - the king's hand clenched into a fist, a suppressed shout made his lips tighten, and he pressed the gilt brass pipe tightly In the eye sockets, he watched the battlefield filled with smoke and dust for a moment.

Under the new tactics of the French, the first to die are almost all veterans who have been to the battlefield. Of course, no one will easily put newcomers at the front of the formation. They don't know how to face the enemy, and they don't know how to avoid their companions To put it simply, they may not even be able to escape well. They need someone to lead and encourage them, but when the incident happened suddenly, even the officers were stunned for a moment. After the firepower knocked down the soldiers in the front line, they moved the muskets from above the shoulders to below the chest—of course, they also saw the cold light flickering on the barrels of those muskets, and at first they didn't care about it at all. The length is about four feet, including the bayonet on the casing, it will not exceed six feet, at most it will not exceed the height of an adult male, and whether it is a halberd or a spear, it exceeds seven feet. Feet of distance can make the difference between life and death.

The problem is that a large part of these spearmen and halberds are newcomers, and at this time the French have already started running, and the distance of more than a hundred feet is a long distance for musketeers who do not need to wear heavy armor. The distance that can be reached in a short time, the long spears have not even been put down completely. What's worse, even the veterans who have passed the battlefield will instinctively want to dodge when they are pointed at by the black muzzle. It might take a while to remember that these men were out of bullets—but in that moment, the torrent of royal blue rushed into the ranks of Lille's army.

In fact, although Lille's army was hit hard before, the Spaniards once dominated the entire Europa with their military strength and tactics. If the commander of Lille can make a decisive decision, whether it is to order the army to retreat, or to fight forward , there is no lack of a corresponding method, but even he is hesitating-the soldiers can't get instructions, so some people are still fighting, some people have retreated, and some people are desperately looking for their chief, even so, Until this moment, the Lille people might not have no chance to fight back, but at this time, with a loud trumpet, the king's guards calmly entered from both sides. After adding rifling, the bullets of the muskets had Even more powerful, they don't even approach the battle formation of halberds and spears easily, they just walk around and shoot around them-every time, several halberds and spearmen will fall down, hundreds of years ago The Mongols used to make the proud Christians tremble. Now the king's guards have replaced bows and arrows with muskets, which can also tear off large pieces of flesh and blood from the enemy.

The king sighed softly, and put down the binoculars. Even though he has tens of thousands of troops and such outstanding generals as Viscount Turenne and Captain Vauban, wars, especially wars in this era, are often more difficult. It's like fate playing tricks on human beings. It's not uncommon for people to be defeated suddenly due to various accidents when they clearly have an advantage. There are not a few kings who died on the battlefield, otherwise there would be no famous saying "I am willing to use the crown Change a horse!" was his last words, and for Louis XIV, he needed not only a victory, but also an unquestionable, irrefutable and brilliant victory in order to finally establish his foundation as a hero.

The fall of Lille was a foregone conclusion before the appearance of the King's Guards, and when the Lilleans eagerly closed the city gates-and shut out the scattered soldiers of their own, the grenadiers came on horseback. A moat, throwing clay pots at the city gate, this is a bold move, because there are still soldiers running on the city wall, they may be hit by arrow bullets, or they may lose their lives in the roar of artillery, but maybe The Lille people also realized that any resistance they had would have no effect except to anger the enemy, and no one made any threatening moves.

"Wait until the battle is over," said Louis XIV to the Marquis of Loise, "remind me that I will give each soldier a grand crown, and these grenadiers a louis d'or."

"Yes, Your Majesty." The Marquis of Loise happily bowed to the king. Just now the king handed him the telescope, not anyone present. Obviously, this reward is the Marquis of Loise and his father. What the Secretary of State for War wanted most of all—that when the King stepped forward, he followed without hesitation, while everyone else had to be a step behind.

The behavior of Louis just now was indeed intentional. The Marquis of Lois is not a person who is good at fighting. Before leaving Paris, the credential he impressed the king was the improvement of the casing bayonet. A large army, with a total of nearly 50,000 military supplies, has not made any mistakes, and the king will not be stingy with his favor. If he can achieve his wish this time, then he will also let those who have made great achievements around him. Lu The Marquis of Vaz should want to take over the position of his father, the Minister of War.

As Louis thought this way, he stood still on the edge of a high mound, behind him was a huge milky white tent, the king's banner with a golden lily on a blue background, and a private banner with a sun coat of arms embroidered with gold thread fluttered beside him. With a sound, the ministers surrounded him respectfully. It was dusk at this time, and night was coming, but anyone who saw the king thought that he had seen a rising sun.

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The mayor of Lille was a Flemish man, and he stood on the city wall at great peril, looking into the distance—he also held a telescope in his hand, which was originally a product of the Netherlands— In 1604, from the hands of a spectacle merchant, the first rough telescope was born. Even though it can only magnify the object five times, people still flock to it. Later, the Italian Galileo managed to improve it, so the telescope can The distance of fifty miles is shortened to about five miles, but the best craftsman for making telescopes is still in the Netherlands—for example, the telescope in the hands of the mayor is no worse than that in the hands of the King of France.

He also saw the king, a young and ambitious king, his heart fell like a man who stepped into the air, and he had heard about the new king of Spain, Carlos II, what kind of A useless and weak person, he will still be happy at that time, because it undoubtedly means that Spain will no longer be able to control the Flanders region with power, but he really should not forget that in the land of Europa, if a lion is weak Then there must be another lion to take its place.

And Flanders is just a herd of antelopes, and the antelopes don't decide to be eaten by the lion.

"Where's the commander?" he asked.

The mayor thought he wouldn't get an answer right away, but he didn't expect the people around him to answer him right away: "He's dead."

Unfortunately, the Spanish commander was killed by a grenade thrown by the French in front of the city gate. The porcelain slice cut his throat, and the blood could not be stopped at all. When people carried him to the mayor, the blood stained Condensed, he looked like he was wearing a thick black armor.

The guy wasn't a good guy, but the mayor went to a priest anyway and gave him the last sacrament.

Next, there are things that people who are still alive have to worry about.

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Neither Louis nor his courtiers, nor any Frenchman, cared what the mayor of Lille was thinking, and the king only smiled a little when a white banner was finally lowered in front of the gates of Lille.

"Do you know?" On the way being escorted to Lille, the king asked the Marquis of Loise with great interest: "Why do people always raise a white flag when they admit defeat?"

"As far as I know," the Marquis of Loise carefully kept his horse's head from passing the king, and kept a distance where he could talk to the king without shouting: "It should be because such a white flag represents failure." The other side has nothing and has lost all combat capabilities.” He carefully observed the king’s expression: “What’s more, Your Majesty, this also means that they allow the victor to paint his coat of arms on it, as the city’s emblem. new representation."

This sentence really made the king smile, "Maybe it's just because this is the easiest cloth to get." He said.

Then he stopped in front of the open city gate, and under the fearful sight of the people of Lille, he raised his whip and pointed to the gate-the gate of Lille had three openings, the largest in the middle, and the two sides. Less symmetrical, it originally had a Spanish name, but: "From today," said Louis, "this is the Porte de Paris."

Rather than painting his own coat of arms on white cloth, he would rather remember his victory today in this way. The flag can be changed at any time, but he will let people in the future always remember this Paris Gate, which is the home of the Sun King. The first triumphal arch, but it won't be the last.

The mayor of Lille raised his head slightly, but said nothing. Whatever he said at this time would be self-defeating. Moreover, he had also heard that the King of France was a pious and kind man. Perhaps his The rule will be a little softer than the Spaniards.

Louis is indeed gentle and kind, but his kindness and gentleness are for his people, those who are willing to be loyal to him, pay taxes to him, support him, and give their lives for him, and Not Lorraine, Alsace, or Lille, and the people of today are not as docile as people in later generations think, even if they are lambs, they have fangs in their mouths, and even the French will murder France King, let alone these Flanders?

How the Duke of Gaston obtained those paintings of Bosch from Flanders, until now, even Lady Milady has no credible information, but if it is said that the Flanders have nothing to do with it, Louis I won't believe it.

After accepting the silver key from the mayor of Lille, Louis issued a ban. Only the French can walk on the streets after evening prayers. During the day, only a few people are allowed to leave the house. Prosperous The city of Lille seems to have become a dead city ravaged by the plague, and people are in a state of panic, but such measures have indeed driven out a lot of hidden rats—the figure of these people dangling on the gallows and the wheels can impress many people. Just to remind you, sure enough, some wealthy nobles from Lille wanted to plead with the king to revoke the ban. When the first person was hanged, no one tried or whispered anymore.

Those soldiers who surrendered to the French, whether they were Spaniards or Lille, were driven to repair the damaged city walls and gates, as well as the new fortifications that Captain Vauban was eager to try. The heavy labor knocked down many people at once. , Standing together with the walls and fortifications are the graves of the captives.

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"It seems that the King of France is not a benevolent monarch as rumored?"

In the shadows that mortals cannot see, two wizards are watching all this, one of them is particularly leisurely, "Do you feel better like this? My dearest disciple?"

"A king is not something we can judge." Rubens said.

"A king is also a mortal." Jeromenes said that he was arrogant by nature, and even ordinary wizards were just materials and sacrifices in his eyes, let alone a mortal, even if he was the king of France, he once Killed one French king, could kill a second without him even knowing who killed him. "Perhaps you're still talking about your God," he said sharply. "I don't!" Rubens immediately denied, with a bitterness in his heart. Unlike Bosch's first student Peter Sr., Rubens After being an aristocrat, he worked as a page boy for a countess since he was a child, and later he was appreciated by a duke. The wizard, and secondly, his teacher (unbeknownst to the Countess at the time) was Jeromenes Bosch. A mad dark wizard.

In fact, Bosch is not only a dark wizard, but what may make many people unbelievable is that he was once a deacon, only one step away from a real priest, which also makes his paintings more absurd. It presents a sacred and compassionate scene to people, which is one of the reasons why the Church of Rome banned his paintings. To be honest, if it is just stupid, there are too many stupid paintings. Yes, it was Bosch who revealed some terrible truth to people, and he would be so intolerable-but now Bosch doesn't care about these, he is more keen to use his paintings as people to create a living life. hell, especially for those dignitaries.

It feels great to be able to hold the fate of these eminent people, wise people, and outstanding people in his hands, he murmured to himself.

After speaking, he took Rubens back to his workshop to continue the creation of the Saint-Denis triptych.

There is another chapter tonight, it will be very late, you can read it tomorrow morning.