I Am Louis XIV

When the gunpowder barrels buried under the castle exploded one after another, even ripples of uneasiness were set off on the Sava River. Vauban watched the Crimean Tatars chasing them on the bank fall because their horses were frightened. On the ground, he made a cross on his chest - he was not praying for the Ottomans. They did not believe in a god and they were their enemies.

He was praying for the king's purse - compared to others, Vauban was probably the least worried about the irreversible harm and danger the prince would encounter in Ljubljana, because according to the king's arrangements and efforts , their responsibility was very small - mainly to delay the progress of the Ottoman army without having to stick to Ljubljana, where they lost even fewer people than in Flanders.

Of course, in order to make others have nothing to say, the French King Louis XIV, who was unwilling to help others, had to pay, cement, gunpowder, and barbed wire. Even if the factory had been built, the price was still not cheap, and the businessman They traveled thousands of miles to transport them here, which cost a considerable amount of money. Louis XIV never asked Leopold I for this money, and Leopold I could not blame Vauban or anyone in France. people.

In this battle, Louis XIV mobilized one hundred cannons, equipped with 5,000 shells, 20,000 metal grenades for throwing, guns and bullets, countless tools, and half a million pounds Under the Ljubljana Castle, General Vauban had the honor to bury a thousand pounds of gunpowder - the energy of the gunpowder burst out in an instant and lifted the entire castle into the air. The people in the castle did not need much, almost Not many people survived - in fact half of Castle Hill collapsed. Fortunately for Grand Vizier Ahmed, he did not consider this a victory worth bragging about, so he did not rush into the castle. His tent still stood on the edge of the city.

When the explosion occurred, the whole city was shaking. Even without a telescope, they could see that the Ljubljana Castle had been turned into a mausoleum, with tens of thousands of Ottomans buried inside, pouring like a torrential rain. The stone bricks and broken rocks caused a lot of additional damage. Ahmed stubbornly mounted his horse and went to check the situation. Along the way, there were injured people wailing and crying everywhere. Blood stains and mutilated limbs, the corpses covered with gray-white dust - unlike Louis XIV's army, the Ottoman army did not have a systematic doctor, and their generals and the doctors around the Grand Vizier did not condescend to be the same. Ordinary soldiers serve, and they need to rely more on their brothers and friends, but almost all of their brothers and friends have died or been seriously injured in the previous catastrophe.

Their cries kept coming, and Ahmed, who was upset by them, made a silent gesture. A guard next to him immediately walked away knowingly, and soon another group of soldiers came over, They looked at each injured person carefully. If they felt that the other person had no value at all, they would slit their throats with a knife. After all, the current army did not have enough time and food for these injured people to waste. Fortunately, they rushed in first. The people in the castle are all Azap infantry or low-level cavalry, and dealing with them will not cause too much chaos.

A man suddenly rode up to Ahmed. There was only one person in the army who had the right and qualification to do this, and that was the Grand Imam. "Why did you kill Yasha?"

Ahmed was well prepared for the Grand Imam's doubts - Yasha was the young man whose brother served beside the Grand Imam: "He walked into my tent without authorization."

In fact, Yasha's behavior is between two extremes. You can say that he has a hidden conspiracy, or you can say that he is too reckless. But even if there is no reason, Ahmed, as the Grand Vizier, would not kill a page boy. He was punished, but the Grand Imam suspected that Yasha had indeed seen something. "I heard some rumors," the Grand Imam said, "Ahmad, I will not believe others' words and think that you are an ungodly person." , but I hope you don’t go to the devil at any time.”

"But our enemies are serving the devil." Ahmed said that the Ottoman Turks also used gunpowder. During siege battles, they often dug trenches until under the opponent's city wall, then buried the gunpowder and detonated it until the wall collapsed. However, All the gunpowder in their army may not add up to as much as the gunpowder in this big explosion.

"This is not the reason for you to betray the Most Benevolent Lord." The Grand Priest said, "I will expel those devils and their followers. You must stick to your faith."

"I will," Ahmed said.

——————

It’s hard to say whether Ahmed was strong in his own beliefs, but he definitely helped others strengthen theirs.

Perhaps because of the empty cities, the dwindling food supply, or the big explosion in Ljubljana, the first people to be shaken were the servants and slave soldiers of the Ottoman Turks, the Tatars and Christians. Supported by faith, they were also excluded from the true direct lineage - even if the Grand Vizier allowed them to plunder as much as they wanted, they still could not get the satisfactory returns as expected - they did have a lot of slaves, but I heard that because the big explosion took away nearly 10,000 Azap infantrymen, these young male slaves have to be recruited to fill the vacancies... When these slaves are all dead and injured, they will be next. If it is like before In that way, even if they were injured or dead, they would still have the proceeds from plunder to ensure that their families were safe and sound. However, this time the coalition forces' strong walls and clearing the country left their pockets still ugly and dry.

This gave them the idea of ​​​​escape again.

Quite ironically, the three legions surrounding the Grand Vizier were dispatched for the first time, and their swords, arrows, and muskets were aimed at their own people.

In the dark night, torches were thrown at the feet of the Crimean Tatars, Kurds, Mamluks, and Christians, or beside the horses' hooves, and then there was the whistling sound of bullets or The buzzing sound of bow strings, according to the order of the Grand Vizier, whether it was a musket or a bow and arrow, were fired three times. After three times, there were almost no people or horses who could continue to stand. Even if they were, they had lost the ability to rush forward. With so much courage, I only dared to turn around.

No one yelled during the whole process, and it was so quiet that it was scary. The majesty of the Grand Vizier stood up again. The next day, he rewarded a lot of meat - to everyone, even the humblest Tatar. There are also.

"Where did he get so much mutton?" the patriarch's servant, Yasha's brother, couldn't help but ask.

The Grand Priest gave him a stern look, "Yasha has returned to the true God," he said, "The Grand Vizier is not something you can blame." Of course he knew - so many mouthfuls of steaming hot pots , not just mutton, but this is not the time to care about personal grudges and morality.

Yasha's brother kept his mouth shut. Yasha walked into the tent without authorization. It was indeed his instruction. The Grand Vizier had more enemies than his friends - but Yasha could be executed, but not by the Grand Vizier. If he did it himself, he could only say that he must have seen something. The grand vizier did not even dare to let him say even a word.

After feeding again and appeasing the wolves under his command, the army abandoned Ljubljana, which was like a worthless city, and marched towards the north bank of the Sava River. There was not even a single soldier left by the Grand Vizier in this empty city. He had no Leaving no escape route for himself, the Grand Priest looked at it and felt increasingly heavy.

When the Grand Vizier Ahmed walked through Ljubljana expressionlessly holding the scimitar at his waist, no one could notice that he was strange. Before attacking the city, he accidentally used the scimitar on his waist. The knife killed Yasha - the man who gave him the scimitar once said that unless he made a decision, he would never let it taste fresh blood.

He made a big mistake.

Now, although this scimitar is still separated from him by clothes and flesh, it seems to have stretched out tentacle-like blood vessels and is intimately connected to his heart. If the horse takes a step forward, it will become heavier. , the colder it gets, his heartbeat will become slower and harder - several times, Ahmed almost asked the Grand Imam for help, but another legend about this scimitar still made him He closed his mouth involuntarily.

If it is not true, Ahmed thought, just ask the Grand Imam to lift this curse from him.

——————

As soon as the crown prince Louis Jr. returned to Camnico, he must first go to see Louis XIV. He was the commander-in-chief, king and father of Louis XIV.

When little Louis rushed into the room eagerly, he was surprised to find that there was another person in the room. This person was completely unknown to him - and judging from his seat, posture and eyes, this His Highness actually kept the same distance as Louis XIV. Almost equal status - but he is not a king or an emperor.

"He was a king." And he was the king of France. Louis XIV added in his mind, and then looked at Theodric: "Can I ask little Louis to call you uncle?"

"You are really..." Theodric said helplessly: "A person who does whatever you want and does whatever you want."

Theodric is different from Prince Ammon of Zmich. Although Louis XIV is about to make his son the king of the other world, Theodric will not appear in front of the king unless necessary, let alone others. A member of the royal family, no matter how hard he tried to cut off the relationship between the inner world and the outer world, this wayward majesty just pulled him and easily shortened the distance to almost nothing.

Still in a way that is difficult to refuse, if Louis XIV treats Theodric with the same attitude as he treats Amon, the prince of Vanjou can justifiably maintain a cold and distant distance. After all, Theodric's The Merovingian dynasty and the Bourbon dynasty of Louis XIV are separated by several dynasties, and they are even more unrelated when it comes to blood relations, but any... blood family, when a king demands his heir as he treats his uncle, When treating myself, I still feel a little moved.

Theodric was only in his twenties when he died, childless.

"Uncle Theodric." Little Louis was always willing to listen to his father's words, so although he was full of doubts, he immediately stepped forward and took off his hat to salute Theodric.

"You may feel a little strange," Louis pointed to his coat pocket, "but he has always protected me and you, my son, that cat boy."

Little Louis opened his eyes wide in surprise. He knew that there were always some wizards around his father, such as Varro Vesalius, and his brother's mother. His brother was also a wizard, but because of the time when he was born , Louis has already thought about how to deal with those wizards and the other world, so the crown prince’s view of the other world is an enclave that belongs to France, but is so far away that he may never be able to go. What about those wizards? Although he cannot personally manage the French people in the enclave, his brother will fulfill his duties, which is not much different from Viscount Turenne who manages the three provinces of the Netherlands - if there is any difference, it is that his brother and He will help each other.

The inner world and the outer world should not be mutually exclusive, but should complement each other.

He had also heard that his father had two vampire princes working for him, but... he couldn't help but dig into his pocket and took out a chubby blue-gray cat.

Catboy is one of the most important talismans that Louis left to little Louis. If anything happens, little Louis can at least escape alone.

Theodric suddenly had the urge to turn into a bat and fly away, but the window in the room was closed. Although it wouldn't be a big problem for him to pass through or smash the window, but... ... He glanced at Louis next to him. His Majesty was smiling broadly. Prince Vanzhuo didn't want to consider how much of this was censorious. He just lowered his head and coughed lightly: "I'll leave it with you for the time being, Your Highness." .”

He added dissatisfiedly: "Until the end of the war, I'm afraid there will be no peace here. Of course, this is all thanks to your father."

Louis just smiled.