I Am Louis XIV

Along with this man came candlelight - wizards and scholars made many strange things out of asphalt, and paraffin was one of them, because at one stage it was shaped like ointment or ointment. It was beeswax, and some scholars wondered whether it could be used to make candles. This successful product allowed the scholar and his wizard assistant to obtain a set of precious glass test vessels and a bonus of one thousand livres. He was also allowed to enter the Palace of Versailles to meet the king - Louis XIV was never stingy with his scholars and wizards. They became more and more bold and discovered and invented more and more things, many of which immediately became famous The best tool to raise money for Louis XIV.

Since paraffin was extracted and produced on a large scale, the price of candles has also dropped rapidly. The behavior of nobles showing off their financial resources by having all-night banquets has gradually become a thing of the past. After all, businessmen with a little wealth can light it in their rooms. Four or six candles are lit.

Because of the factories and laboratories established by the king in Lorraine, even commoners were considered wealthy. It would not be surprising to have a candle, but little Eugen smelled a strange aroma, which indicated that this candle The candle is not an ordinary paraffin candle, but a spermaceti candle. The candle is made from the wax oil of spermaceti wax, which has the effect of stimulating love after being lit.

The person holding it was a young woman. Her hair and skin were a little damp, but it wasn't because of the rain - she had just bathed and applied ointment. Her face, chest and arms were soaked with moisture and oil, and they were swollen. And it's so elastic that just looking at it makes people want to reach out and touch it - when she walked along, many people did so.

She put the candle on the small table next to the window sill and walked towards little Eugen, with a trace of imperceptible regret in her eyes. "I will serve you, my lord." She said straightforwardly.

Little Eugen sat up and looked at her.

She paused for a moment, knelt down and leaned against the bedpost, then grabbed little Eugen's hand and placed it on the pile of soft things. "How was it?" she asked teasingly.

"Not so good," said little Eugen. "I stopped using a wet nurse ten years ago."

…

The woman made a slight noise in the darkness: "Child!" she said, not very angry. She stood up, rearranged her clothes, took the candle, and walked out.

Little Eugen lay back on the bed speechlessly. In addition to the moist smell, there was a layer of balm in the room. This balm was different from what he smelled in Paris and Versailles. The noble ladies of Versailles had already smelled it. He was used to rose and jasmine balm, and people here still used myrrh and sandalwood powder to make balm - wait, he suddenly felt something was wrong, if a spermaceti candle could be a wandering girl They bought stolen goods from somewhere, but no wandering girl would wear such expensive ointment - spermaceti candles are expensive, but if they are only lit for a short period of time, they will not be too damaged. It’s amazing, the smell of the balm is so strong, you have to apply a sufficient amount!

Therefore, it might not be bad to grow up surrounded by noble ladies in the Palace of Versailles. Little Eugen quickly estimated how many gold coins the wandering girl had wiped off her body - it was not enough for her to spend the night. Get out of bed, dress neatly, and have your weapons ready.

Because the residents of the village did not build multi-story small apartment buildings like the Parisians, their houses were still the same as before, more like a huge warehouse, and then separated by wooden boards. Such a large room also has a hall and There were not many rooms in the kitchen, so the officers were spread out. Little Eugen hesitated because he didn't know if Joseph, who lived with him, had already indulged in the gentle country, but he heard a sound With a slight click, he tightened his grip on the short-handled musket and turned around. He saw Joseph standing behind him. He looked at Joseph. Joseph made a gesture. From the door that was not closed, little Ou came out. Gen saw a woman lying on the bed, her throat was opened wide, and the sheets were soaked with blood. Joseph stepped back and pulled the sheets over her, not because of the last pity and kindness, but to prevent others from looking at her. Something is wrong.

Little Eugen suppressed the uneasiness rising in his chest, and followed the woman with Joseph - she seemed to be just an ordinary wandering girl. Unsurprisingly, they watched her go straight to the village chief's house, where she and a The people argued in a low voice, like "child" or something like that - Joseph bumped little Eugen with his elbow, showing a joking expression. At this moment, they heard a suppressed shout, in the dark blue In the pale sky and silver-white rain, several black shadows swayed, and one shadow collapsed and never rose again.

Two of them separated from these shadows and went to the place where little Eugen and Joseph were temporarily staying. They thought of the seemingly dull people in the family who didn't even dare to raise their heads - there were three people in this family. As for the young lad.

Joseph glanced at little Eugen, and the two raised their short guns in tacit agreement.

Gunfire rang out.

Three or four of the black figures wandering around the village chief's house were knocked down. The two people who were coming to Little Eugen were the first to bear the brunt. They fell to the ground, not dead for a while, but in pain. The wailing, gunshots and shouts that could no longer be covered up by the rain were like the beginning of a piece of music, and then a wave of riots started from all over the village - little Eugen and Joseph were in the dark, without saying a word, As the grandson of the Duke of Vendôme and the descendant of the Prince of Savoy, their weapons and equipment have always been the best. They also have the short-fire short rifle used by King Ludwig I of Poland when he fought against the Grand Vizier of the Ottomans. , and more than one handle.

They ran to the Count of Soissons' room, and when they met him, several thugs had fallen in the place they passed. The plans and plans of the rebels cannot be said to be completely wrong. Starting from the twelfth century, Whenever there is a war, there will be many wandering girls and famous ladies following the army. Sometimes their number will even exceed that of the customers. When there is no war, soldiers and officers are also happy to enjoy their comfort.

"But the skills of the wandering girls I met are too good," Joseph said with a smile: "I wouldn't be surprised to meet such a girl in the Boulogne woods, but where is this place? Besides carpenters, they are ironworkers, or they are Hunter, are they here to do charity?" He turned to little Eugen: "You should kill that woman, otherwise we can be more calm."

The Count of Soissons patted little Eugen on the shoulder. Unlike Joseph, little Eugen, who had been immersed in Versailles for many years, did not have the same contempt for human life as those descendants of nobles with fiefdoms. The Duke of Vendôme had never been a good man. Because he didn't like his indecisive son, this grandson was taken by his side and raised by him single-handedly. It was not surprising at all to have such an idea.

The count didn't know which thought was right, but he must say that he felt a sense of comfort in seeing little Eugen not far from his mother's imagination.

"Our army doctors are very strict about what comes at the entrance. They couldn't find any chance to drug the drinks and food, so they could only use wandering girls to paralyze us." Count Soissons said, and the damage was reported quickly. Coming up, there were thirty-two officers staying overnight in the village, including them, as well as their guards, which totaled about a hundred people. Fortunately, except for one who was too brave, he ran into a furious Except for the bull and the officer who was almost trampled into dough, everyone else only suffered some minor injuries.

The village chief knelt on the ground, his already stooped back even more bent. His hands were tied behind his back, and he could only raise his head to plead. Of course, in his words, he and the villagers were innocent. He was just coerced by the mob: "You can leave at any time, but sir," he shouted, "we can't leave here. They said they would take revenge on us, kill our children, and sell our women. They are Real soldiers, that’s right, sir! They are just like you, they are strong lions, we are just a group of lambs, how dare we go against their will!?”

Joseph on the side heard it, lowered his head and sneered: "You didn't act like a bunch of lambs when you stabbed that wandering girl to death."

"I don't think you care much about your village." Count Soissons said: "You prepared wine with aconite and datura, but because our doctor knows that all food and wine must be After inspection, you didn't dare to take it out, so you threw out those women again... They said they were invited here a few days ago and you are waiting for us."

"And those wood, grease, paraffin and felt." Joseph kicked the seemingly inconspicuous barrels and wooden boxes in the corner of the room. "You want to wait for us to sleep, set the house on fire, and kill us, the wandering girls and Let’s burn the houses together.” But they were far more alert than the thugs imagined.

The village chief was silent for a while: "They gave us some money." He said dejectedly.

Little Eugen was also in the audience. He did not interrupt without permission - mainly because his heart was still beating fast, his eyebrows were tightly knitted together, and his face was already very mediocre. Therefore, he looked even more serious and mature - he always felt that there was something he hadn't thought of. When the soldiers poured the gold coins they found on the table, he suddenly felt cold all over. He thought that he had missed something. !

Soldier!

They brought thousands of soldiers with them! They were stationed on the rocky ground only a few hundred feet away from the village. They were condescending. Once they saw the village on fire, they would immediately come over to reinforce it. In such a dark night and rainy day, it was absolutely impossible for human feet to outrun the horses. Even if The same thing happened when he started tracking at dawn the next day. He jumped up from his chair: "Soldiers! Our soldiers!"

As soon as he shouted, Count Soissons also immediately discovered this huge loophole. As soon as he stood up, he saw the village chief, who had always been very cowardly and incompetent, suddenly jumped up from the ground. His mouth was wide open and covered with dirt. His teeth almost bit into little Eugen's throat - if little Eugen hadn't pulled out his dagger in time, the dagger crossed the village chief's face, almost splitting it in two. Joseph rushed out from the side, He gave the village chief a kick and knocked him over.

The village chief wailed: "When... when you killed me, Bell, Maya, my daughter, my mother... mother, my... child...!"

Joseph kicked him again: "I don't care who you kill, tell me what you want to do!"

"Go! Go to hell, French!" the village chief shouted with hatred: "You brought... brought the plague! But you dared us to leave! I'm going to kill... kill you!"

"Ask someone else," Joseph said. "This guy has too many typos in his words."

"It doesn't have to be so troublesome," said little Eugen: "They can't tamper with the food, and they can't have a regular army, so they can only use the existing terrain." When he said this, he shook his head slightly. , because he thought of his mother. When the Countess of Soissons set out to return to Paris, the incident occurred while passing through a canyon.

The rain, the night, everything is so familiar.

"I know what they are going to do!" Little Eugen shouted: "Let our soldiers get down from that rocky ground immediately!"

Fortunately, the rain was no longer as heavy as it was in the middle of the night. The soldiers were awakened from their sleep. The Count of Soissons did not even want a tent. They quickly moved from the rocky ground to the woods below, and the torches were They lit up one by one, illuminating the unknown faces. They rubbed their cheeks and looked for the enemy in confusion. "What's wrong?" they asked.

Just when there were still one or two hundred people on the rocky ground, they suddenly felt a strange trembling under their feet, as if a giant was about to wake up. Also, the frantic shouting of his companions came from the woods, but before they could understand the meaning, their bodies tilted to one side uncontrollably - a soldier watched the scenery in front of him change rapidly. , he was clearly not sitting on a horse or staying in a carriage, but he was moving at a fast speed. Everyone around him was swaying and falling, desperately trying to grab something to stabilize their bodies. .

He heard the howling wind, and suddenly he understood - it was not them who were moving, but the ground beneath their feet that was moving!

Together with the mountain, they fell directly into the deep valley.

——————

There were a total of ninety-eight people's lives, and even the wizards could not save them. Their corpses were all incomplete. Facing the bloodstains and unnatural bumps on the white linen, Count Soissons turned his head and looked at it. Village chief, "You must be prepared."

This rock is like a tongue sticking out, which is not uncommon in the mountains. Sometimes the place where it is connected to the mountain is very strong, and sometimes it is very fragile. I don’t know if the people in the village got the gunpowder, or if its lifespan has really expired. At the end, it was set up as a murder trap - the villagers supported a huge log under the rock, but like some city gate stone latches, the lower end of this log was sharpened and would fall if hit. If the rock loses its support and adds extra weight, it will collapse as before.

Even if they can't kill all the soldiers, the thugs will get a chance to escape.

Needless to say what happened next, the dead soldiers turned to ashes in the flames - they would not be happy to stay in this strange and hostile place. The priest accompanying the army gave the last sacraments to the deceased, hoping that they would ascend to heaven as soon as possible and sit side by side with angels and saints. As for the villagers, in order to paralyze the French, some women and children were left among them. Count Soissons stared at the children for a while - there were no babies among them, and most of the children had already remembered. He looked around , this village is located on the river, but there are no boats. But even if there were, the children would not know how to drive a boat - at this time, all technical professions were passed down from father to son, and from son to grandson. Not to mention driving a boat, even if they were walking to deliver messages, they would have a dedicated messenger instead of something else. Anyone can do it casually.

He brought out the guides, village chiefs, and the men who participated in the riot, and executed them for treason—that is, cutting off their limbs and then hanging them. In the blood and wailing, all the villagers, as well as the wandering women, , except for the children, they were hanged on the trees one by one. Their children bit their fingers numbly and watched them kicking their feet. The priest wrote their crimes on the wooden board and hung the wooden board on the deceased. neck, this is also a warning and threat.

For these children... "It depends on whether God is willing to forgive you." Count Soissons said that this village is very small and very hidden. Without a map and guide, they may not be able to find it. It depends on the situation. There was very little communication with the outside world. Those good things like wandering girls and wine were all brought by those with ulterior motives. But after tortured a few people, they went to the agreed place, where people had already gone upstairs. Sora, it seems that these villagers are just used and discarded chess pieces.

Without adults, boats, and horses, it is not easy for these children, who are no more than ten years old, to walk to the next village on their own. At this time, it is different from hundreds of years later, and only people like the Count of Soissons Only an army under command can trek long distances in the wilderness. There are wild animals in the woods, fast currents in the rivers, and people. People are sometimes more dangerous than the first two.

Of course they can continue to stay here, but since the villagers have decided to abandon their village, why should the French pity them? Count Soissons glanced at the group of children for the last time, nodded, and some soldiers rode out. , set the house on fire.

They continued to walk downstream, and soon left the charred villages and the pairs of resentful eyes behind. This is the price that every powerful country must pay, but the Count of Soissons became more careful. Fortunately, after that, the more and more As they approached their destination, they could clearly feel that the air was no longer so tight or weird - the villagers were either attentive or wary, but they all showed "Although I don't like you, but I am still willing to flatter you or deal with you."

"Because the closer you get to King's Town," it was a town that developed rapidly because of the glass industry. The superintendent who managed the place named it after King's Town without thinking too much, "the people who receive the favor and protection there will be." The more,” Joseph said.

Little Eugen looked silently at the town where he could vaguely see its shadow. It was said to be a town, but it was more like a new city. It was hidden among the mountain peaks, with tall chimneys standing there, even higher than the city wall. It is said that, The population there has exceeded 5,000 people. The food, drink, entertainment and daily necessities of 5,000 people are enough to support the industries of surrounding villages and towns, not to mention that they still need nearby people to do some piecemeal and tedious work for them.

"But there were people here who were expelled or died because of that incident."

"Are you talking about the great rebellion that the Duke of Orleans encountered in Lorraine?" Joseph said. He is the grandson of the Duke of Vendôme. Of course, the Duke of Vendôme will tell him about this matter in detail. After all, if not in the future, Unexpectedly, Joseph, as a member of the Bourbon family and a person with a closer bloodline to the king, may also be sent to the newly occupied territory or colony to be the governor, so he may know more than the Duchess of Montpensier and others. There are even more women: "Of course the plague was not brought by the Duke of Orleans."

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Little Eugen glared at him. Lorraine was not conquered by military force, but sold to Louis XIV by the Duke of Lorraine at the time. The Duke of Orleans did not need to use this method to weaken the power of the locals: "They should have been self-defeating - the plague was directed at The Duke of Orleans, he is the victim."

"But there are always people who believe these lies," Joseph said: "Moreover, the Duke of Orleans was the first to discover that something was wrong and took timely measures. He and his soldiers were able to return to Paris safely solely because he was willing to believe in medicine and science."

"Don't those people believe it?"

"They thought that the Duke of Orleans had a holy object that could protect him from the plague, so they gathered in front of his castle. They were the sinners who brought the plague to the innocent and healthy people, but at that time they only thought that the king "My brother was cursing them, and the plague would become more serious, but," Joseph gestured in a big circle, "at that time, there were probably tens of thousands of people gathered together. They drank water, bathed and defecated in a stream, and ate in a pot. How come sleeping in a blanket won't cause epidemics? Maybe someone will warn them and dissuade them, but they wholeheartedly believe that as long as they have holy objects, even people who are about to rot can be alive and kicking in an instant. .”

"Some people say that the Duke of Orleans later drove these people into the Holy Roman Empire just to retaliate against them."

"This is really a bit embarrassing," Joseph said with his face in his hands: "While swearing that the French brought the plague, he also said that the Duke's behavior was revenge. Only the victim can say it was revenge."

"Many people cursed him." Little Eugen recalled that when he was still on his mother's knee, he also heard Leopold I curse the Duke of Orleans. At that time, he did not know who it was. At that time, the plague swept through several cities. Although it was still some distance from Austria, the Elector of Saxony had a dispute with Leopold I for a long time - of course, he was not completely innocent, and there was no such thing as the Elector's Granted, how could the plague suddenly break out in Lorraine for no apparent reason?

Lorraine is not a port city, nor is it a central area. Because it is mountainous and forested, the population is not dense. A sudden outbreak of an epidemic is really unreasonable.

"Then what are you thinking about? Are you thinking that the Duke of Orleans shouldn't do this?" Joseph asked. He was not angry. Compared with him, little Eugen was the first person to go to the battlefield. He had been in the palace before - Su Having grown up in Vashon and Versailles, the Dauphin is very gentle. It is not surprising that he would feel compassion for the hatred that has lasted for twenty years.

"No," said little Eugen: "If it were me, I would do the same. If these people infected with the plague continue to stay in Lorraine, it will only spread the disease further. The tax agreed by the king and the Duke of Lorraine is Fixed, even if Lorraine becomes a dead land, the king will still pay the same amount to the Duke of Lorraine every year. If Lorraine does not pay enough taxes, the royal family may be overwhelmed by this huge number, and things will eventually become It's hard to say what it will look like. Maybe when the Duke of Lorraine's brother comes back, our army will be unable to resist at all - it will be all in vain. Moreover," said little Eugen, "they hate the wrong person." He paused Dun: "But maybe they don't care whether their hatred is right or not. As long as they resist the French, they can get money, just like the people here." He looked around: "They live on the French, so they don't Will break his own plate."

"That's right," said Joseph, "that's it, my good sir, the dead can never compare to the living."

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