I Am Louis XIV

Brussels is the largest city in Flanders. It used to belong to the French, the Spaniards and the Netherlands, and because of its critical geographical location, it has been scrambled by many forces. Every contender will do their best He tried to put a layer of armor on it, so that when Louis could see it, he saw a majestic fortified city, with double walls, jutting bastions, and bulges between the bastions, There are also crude fortifications surrounding the city wall. Although it can be seen that these fortifications were made hastily, as long as they are still made of stone and mortar, they can still cause a little trouble to the French army.

But the Viscount Turenne and Captain Vauban never thought of wasting the lives of the soldiers in vain from the very beginning. Speaking of which, the Viscount Turenne was a little bit complicated, because His Majesty the King said before the battle, whether it was a joke or not, If they can avoid the casualties of soldiers as much as possible in the next battle, the king will discount the pension under the number of casualties of soldiers that may usually be consumed as their reward—soldiers and ministers in this era would not think that It is a shame for a king to speak in gold and silver. On the contrary, a king who is too lip-serviced will be despised, and even considered to deceive his courtiers, such as diamond brooches, embroidered coats, horses and guns, except for the last one. In this way, what the king rewards his ministers is similar to what he bestows on the royal wife.

It is not surprising that the king has such an order. Their king has always been so merciful, so on the battlefield, Viscount Turenne gave in to Captain Vauban. After all, Captain Vauban's tactics are the ones that suffer the least damage, which is progress It must be very slow, but who will come to the rescue? The people in Brussels must be expecting that Leopold I, who is also of the Habsburg line, will send his army, or the Dutch with cold lips and teeth, but they I don't know that the Dutch are now being dragged to the sea by the British, and even if they can rescue them, their army is far inferior to their navy. As for Leopold I, in that document that proved his greed and Before the stupid documents were destroyed, he didn't dare to act rashly - the king was still too young. If he had been Philip IV or Ferdinand III, he wouldn't care what kind of agreement he had signed with France before. At this time, they will definitely send troops brazenly to kill Louis XIV's ambition in the cradle.

Leopold I may still be hesitating, even though Sweden has made an alliance with France, but he still has Denmark, Switzerland and... the British Parliament, and the Roman Church, what has been lost in fraud and force, can be taken from the negotiating table It may be brought back—but all of this must wait until the dust settles. When the French are exhausted and the coalition forces hold the line, France will inevitably make concessions—under such an idea, it is impossible for Brussels to get reinforcements of.

When Louis repeatedly considered the operation after seizing Brussels—it is not difficult to seize Flanders, but the difficulty lies in the subsequent rule and management, the Netherlands, the Holy Roman Empire and Switzerland, and the princes of Italy will definitely reach out... No matter To curb the development of France, or to cut off a piece of this fat and good meat - if Louis is willing to compromise, then even Leopold I will leave Spain's cries and entreaties behind, but if in Before seizing Lille, Louis was not very sure, so now he is unwilling to give up even an inch of land! Here will be the sound of the French Flandres Majesty, and the French attack begins.

However, as if to deny the description of Viscount Turenne and the king in the carriage, what the king and ministers saw in the tent was not exciting. and stone parapets, and then began to dig longitudinal trenches under the parapets. In order to ensure that the trenches would not collapse, there were people behind them holding wooden cubes to support them—and the engineer was carrying a huge basket behind him, which was used to hold the excavated soil. After the ditch passed the parapet, they used flat baskets filled with mud as shields, and the stone bullets whizzing down from the city wall rolled and splashed the dust, but they still couldn't hurt the people below. .

"How do I feel that I have returned to Versailles." The king murmured.

"The civil engineering work at Versailles is over." Another courtier replied that he had supervised this huge project in Versailles, but if he had to say, the scene is almost the same as Versailles now.

"These may be more spectacular than Versailles." The king said, because before the king's arrival, Captain Vauban also mobilized a lot of equipment needed for construction projects, such as piles of wood, thatch, and horse-drawn carts. Picks, shovels, axes and mallets, rows of wooden stakes were driven into the soil by sappers, and ropes were intertwined with each other to form a loose but long line of defense. Outside the line of defense was a vigilant cavalry team. When the defenders attack, they must also beware of the arrival of reinforcements.

Brussels is divided into an upper and lower city. The upper city is the royal palace and castle, and the lower city is the residence of commoners and merchants. Outside is an endless plain. Today, this wilderness like a green forest has been destroyed, with a width of twelve feet. Even the trenches that can bring in twenty-four-pound cannons are constantly and slowly approaching the gates of Brussels. Of course, the Brussels people will not just sit still. They first used trebuchets and artillery. After it didn't work, the city gate opened and the defenders of Brussels rushed out, but the king's guards immediately went up to them. Brussels had cavalry, but they couldn't compare with the guards in terms of horses and firepower. After the gunshots, shouts, and faint smoke disappeared, the defenders of Brussels retreated back to the city, but the Guards did not pursue them-the so-called pursuit of victory, straight into the city gate, only the heavy cavalry with strong armor and thick armor dared to attack. Try, even if it is the city wall of Lille, there are caves for hiding soldiers on both sides, and there are organs on the top that can drop short spears and stones, like Brussels, and there may be a pipe for pouring fire oil at the top of the long passage, only wearing a chest A's guards, the result of rash intrusion is only one death.

But their duty was to drive away the defenders who might hinder the penetration of the trench, and wear them down. They quickly returned to their positions, and no one was injured. The king raised his hand and waved his hat to them, and they did the same. Do—then this happened two or three more times, until another dawn came, and the French trenches continued unshakably to a second parallel trench, the first about two thousand feet from the walls of Brussels, to the second The second ditch was only six hundred feet away, and at this point Captain Vauban ordered the artillery into position. There were twenty twenty-four-pounder guns here, and eight three-guns that the Marquis of Loise had managed to bring all the way from Orleans. Thirteen-pound guns, a total of twenty-eight black muzzles aimed directly at the city wall of Brussels, could not help but feel dissatisfied and desperate, but these stubborn Brussels people did not decide to surrender. The king's envoy came back and said that they only hoped that the French The king was merciful enough to allow their women and children to leave the city that was about to be covered in smoke and shells, and Louis agreed.

So when the sun was most abundant, the city gates of Brussels opened, and carriages came out one after another. Inside were the wives and sisters of the dignitaries, as well as their daughters, mothers, and underage children. Together, led by only two knights, their caravan was followed by terrified commoner women whose husbands, fathers and sons, either voluntarily or conscripted, remained in Brussels.

After these people left, the artillery finally let out the first heavy roar. At this time, the women and children were not far from Brussels. When they heard it, they cried loudly. "Arrange them to go to Waterloo," said Louis. , For defense purposes, all the buildings near Brussels were burned and demolished outside the city walls. Without mercenaries, only the team of women and children could not go far. "They will be grateful to you." Loise The Marquis said it was not entirely a compliment.

"I don't care about these," the king leaned on the armrest of the seat: "It doesn't matter whether you are cursing or being grateful, how can you sit on the throne without such awareness." When you need to consider more and more things, you have to simplify many things into data. Every decision he makes will affect the fate of tens of thousands of people. Personal sorrows and joys will always be as small as one in the ocean. Grains of sand—or in other words, when you stand at a high level, it is very difficult for you, and you rarely care about the thoughts of the people at the bottom. Louis has exhausted himself to ensure that his people will not suffer With the last bit of strength, how could he pay attention to the enemy? He said that only because they were right in front of him.

With such an order, the king refocused his attention on the battlefield. Under Vauban's order, the heavy artillery focused on shooting at the three fortresses, first the stones, then the soil layer, and the gravel. The coat of Brussels was thus destroyed. Peeling off bit by bit, it was the King and the Marquis of Loise who sustained this consumption, and the Marquis, who had brought in large quantities of shells, cannon, and other ammunition, that Captain Vauban could keep firing—even if the barrels were red, He also just ordered the soldiers to pour water on it, and the bombardment continued all night. When another dawn came, the distance between the French army and the defenders was narrowed again. At this time, Captain Vauban replaced the heavy artillery with mortars.

Some of these mortars were transported from France, and some were confiscated from cities such as Lille. This mortar originated in the 13th century and used stone bullets. Its shape is much more interesting than the artillery seen by the king. Now, if the king's artillery is a tall and tall adult, then the mortar is a baby or a young child. Their caliber and length of the gun body are only about 1:12. They look stubby and silly, but Don't think that they are useless because they are old and small. Although they have a short range, they are very powerful and have a great angle of fire. Captain Vauban used this kind of artillery to attack the defenders hiding behind the hidden wall-the mortar muzzle is raised, and the shells It crossed the inclined embankment and the parapet in a parabola, and directly hit the personnel and artillery inside-there were more than 30 mortars from the original French army and the collected mortars, and the shells kept falling on the defenders like hail. As soon as the soldiers on the ladders and wooden towers saw that the bastion was weakened, they would immediately report loudly, and Captain Vauban would adjust the frequency and intensity of the shelling accordingly.

At this time, it was time for the infantry to charge, and this was the time when they suffered the most losses. Captain Vauban took the lead and climbed up the inclined embankment in a few steps, climbed over the parapet, and fell into the moat below. The moat of Brussels is very Unfortunately because of the accident there was only a few feet of water, which soaked tights and boots, but had little effect on the battle. Hundreds of soldiers followed Captain Vauban, grenadiers waving With the ropes inside, the gunpowder cans were thrown into the bastion and the salient fort. With the tragic screams, several defenders were killed.

The battles that followed were the real test for these soldiers. Death was completely different from poetry and drama. In an instant, the life left them, the night before, people who were still telling jokes with you, grabbing jerky, and discussing which bohemian woman was more beautiful just went straight down, and their souls left The body, the body will rot, stink, and eventually turn into a pile of black soil.

It's just that at this time, no one can think of so much for the time being. The rigorous training that lasted for several years played a role at this time. They rushed forward bravely and calmly, without even paying attention to the people around them. Even whether they were hit or not, killing the enemy became the only thought in their minds, "Fight for the king!" they shouted.

The flames rose at this moment, and Captain Vauban saw the two boys fall down.

The forts on both sides of the bastion found that the bastion had fallen, so the defenders inside turned their guns and fired at it without hesitation. Fortunately, Viscount Turenne had commanded the follow-up artillery to follow up.

After obtaining a bastion, Captain Vauban immediately ordered the mortars to be transported up. The distance between each bastion was only 200 feet to ensure that the firing surface (guns) was covered. This distance was just right for the mortars. Several gaps were punched in the adjacent bastion, and more French soldiers climbed up like a colony of ants. Although the defenders also tried to raise their muskets to stop them, there were also French soldiers on the occupied bastion. The soldiers were shooting at them, while the French artillery continued to roar.