I Am Louis XIV

When the night came, Louis went to the queen mother's room on purpose, not only to thank her (for the potatoes), but also to apologize to her, after all, his stubbornness during the previous quarrel hurt the queen mother's heart.

But just like the past and the future, a mother will never hate her child. The Queen Mother Anne had a dispute with the king because she just didn't want to see her child in danger, not for power or anything else. Louis 1 Kneeling on her knees and leaning into her arms, her heart melted and heated up like ice and snow that had encountered fire—Louis hadn't done this for several years before, after all, there was a body in his body. The soul of an adult, and people at this time have little concept of childhood, everything depends on the mother or the child's own thoughts.

"Mr. Bishop sent me a letter," Anne said, "Fortunately, we have found a place to stay here, Louis, you are about to grow up, my dear, I want to hold a grand ceremony and banquet for you."

Louis raised his head from his mother's lap, and then suddenly remembered that he was indeed going to be fourteen years old, but the current situation was really nothing to be concerned about. According to the arrangement of Mr. Bishop, he would not intervene until he was at least twenty years old and mature enough Political affairs, and he himself is not in a hurry to seize power—he has not even been able to establish his own court, and the people around him may not be trustworthy, and the inhuman creatures that haunt the dark are even entering and leaving the palace like no one— —Being a king is not a reason for not dying. It is also a good thing for him that everyone's eyes are on the Queen Mother and Bishop Mazaran.

"I'd rather have a victory," Louis murmured, "Come and celebrate my coming-of-age ceremony."

"Then what's the problem?" The queen mother immediately said generously: "I will directly order General Schomberg to fight when I encounter the enemy."

"I'm afraid I have already encountered it." The king said: "I met a messenger on the way to you. He told me that an army led by Viscount Turenne is not far away from us."

This sentence immediately made the queen mother's eyes widen, which is why the king didn't tell her the news as soon as he entered the door. Even so, she took out the smelling salts with trembling hands, and sniffed her nose a few times vigorously. There was a strong smell of ammonia mixed with the smell of spices. Even Mary, who was standing next to the queen mother, couldn't help making a face. The king pressed the queen mother's hand, "I told you not to use this too much, "He said in an intimate reproach: "This kind of thing is very harmful to health."

"But without it," said the Queen Mother, "I would faint." She put the smelling salts back into the pouch on her belt: "Vicomte Turenne, well, I know this man, and what to do to him It’s not surprising that such a crime occurred.”

"I haven't heard of it," Louis asked. "What kind of a man is he?"

"He is the second son of the Duke of Sedan. According to tradition, his elder brother inherited the title and territory. He served the king in the army."

"Then he should be loyal to us."

"It used to be," the queen mother said angrily: "in 1642, his elder brother, the Duke of Sedan, was thrown into prison for opposing Richelieu. In order to redeem his name and honor, he handed over the Duke of Sedan As his younger brother, the Viscount Turenne certainly got involved in the Dukedom, but right after you ascended the throne, Bishop Mazaran still granted him the marshal scepter and valued him in order to ease the relationship between us A reward of ten thousand livres."

Louis did not refute, this is the so-called superior thinking, but in France, at least for the Viscount Turenne, this attitude did not play its due role, and then he thought of a possibility: "He and Condé How is the prince's relationship?"

The Queen Mother looked reluctant, but said anyway: "He served in the army with the Prince of Condé."

That's right, Louis thought, there is nothing more worthy of respect and trust than a friend who has fought side by side. The Viscount Turenne chose to stand in the camp of Prince Condé, except for the fact that the Duke of Sedan was taken back by the royal family. , His friendship with Prince Condé is the heaviest weight. "If I can meet this general," Louis said, "I will talk to him, maybe he will change his original mind."

This sentence made the Queen Mother laugh. After all, Louis is still a child. He doesn't understand politics. Yours." After she finished speaking, she kissed Louis on the face and sent him out of her room. As soon as Louis left, the Queen Mother summoned Schaumberg. General Schaumberg was surprised by the king's attendants at first. Why did Bangtang send himself such a message? When he met the queen mother, he would understand. He respectfully accepted the queen mother's order. Of course, he put it aside afterwards. After all, the king's will is Before—as a general, he didn't think it was right to blindly obey the Queen Mother's orders.

At least he won't command the army to rush out to fight Viscount Turenne.

Interestingly, before the war, Viscount Turenne's envoy also came to meet the queen mother and the king, and handed over a letter from Viscount Turenne, earnestly requesting them to surrender in order to avoid unexpected misfortune. The viscount is willing to guarantee their safety and treat them as a king and queen mother should. Of course, the letter was burned by the queen mother, and the king said to the emissary kindly that if Viscount Turenne was willing to surrender, he would give him the treatment he deserved as a viscount.

This sentimental veil, which may not be entirely hypocritical, was torn apart by the real battle at dawn the next day.

The old city of Hetel was originally a solid military fortress. After entering the era of hot weapons, it also had six cannons on its walls, but the Viscount Turenne had twelve. He ordered the engineers to build a high mound , Push the artillery up the hill to reach the point where it can shoot at the artillery on the city wall.

The artillery roared and the smoke was transpiring. Schaumberg was superior in the thick and condescending city walls, while Turenne was superior in both the number of soldiers and the artillery. Under the almost continuous bombardment of twelve artillery pieces, the ancient city walls were finally exposed. Out of the weak inner - the city was founded in 940 AD, there was no such thing as artillery at that time, as time went by, the layers of peeling walls finally collapsed completely, revealing a gap, the soldiers of Turenne They cheered, but the commanders on both sides knew that this was the beginning of the real battle.

Schaumberg commanded the soldiers to set up fortifications behind the city wall - this was the king's suggestion, perhaps out of the child's innocence, he asked the craftsmen to make something similar to a wooden horse, with wheels underneath, which could be pushed Let’s go, Schaumberg said, it’s a bit like an ancient hammer car, because it is also a triangular prism, and there are bags full of soil under the planks. Even after two or three hundred years, this kind of rough fortification, It can also act as a shield against machine guns that are several times more powerful, not to mention the crude matchlock guns now.

The king's army hid behind such fortifications and shot at the rebels. The rebels fought back, but they had little success, but they themselves suffered a fatal blow. Knowing that he was pointing his gun at their king, Viscount Turenne also realized this, but at this point, he could not retreat, he could only order the soldiers to continue forward, so as to tear apart the opponent's defense line with his own flesh and blood .

At this time (about two or three o'clock in the afternoon) two three-masted ships were disembarked from the upper Aisne. The three-masted ships all have muzzles. They are warships. Each ship has twelve muzzles.

Without waiting for others to notice, the dense flames that can only be seen in purgatory rose from the black hole muzzles, and they did indeed lead people to hell. Flesh and blood flew all over the place, and the soldiers screamed and ran around, hoping to get rid of this screeching net. Although the officers tried their best to maintain order, they soon became powerless. When everyone in the village was feeling desperate, the shelling stopped suddenly.

The battlefield suddenly fell silent. There were one or two musket shots at first, but they disappeared after a few minutes. Only the wounded soldiers were still crying and groaning miserably. But it was as if God had reached out and told them to stop, and they all stopped, turning from beasts back into men.

Then Viscount Turenne saw an officer coming out of the fortifications only a hundred feet away from him. He raised his hand to prevent his soldiers from going off due to nervousness. He didn't know this person, but he should be younger than him. Some, even in the face of hundreds of muskets, did not show a look of fear.

He walked towards Viscount Turenne, and Viscount Turenne also walked towards him. Although they did not know each other, as soon as they met, they knew that the other party was their opponent.

"Nice meeting!" cried the younger of them, Schaumberg, taking off his hat, waving it, and bowing to the Viscount Turenne.

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Viscount Turenne said. Although his army was hit like a catastrophe because of this man, he still maintained the demeanor and mind that a duke's son should have. Anger was burning in his eyes, but Did not spill over into his words and actions.

"Friedrich Schaumberg," said the visitor.

"It's not a French name," said the Viscount Turenne. "You are a foreigner."

"Yes, a foreigner is defending the king of the French, and a Frenchman is attacking the king's army," Schaumberg said.

"That's because the king has done something wrong," said Viscount Turenne, "and I have come to ask him to correct this mistake."

"With cannon and muskets?"

"If the king is willing to listen to other methods of advice." Viscount Turenne said stiffly.

Such words undoubtedly made General Schomberg angry. Although he has not been in contact with Louis for so long, if you want him to say that the young king has tried his best to do what he can do now, "then you know it is Did someone order me to stop the shelling?"

Viscount Turenne was unwilling to answer, but he also knew that this kind of struggle was useless, so he said, "It's Your Majesty."

"Your Majesty the King of France," said Schomberg, saluting respectfully, "he asked me to ask you if you would surrender."

"I'm not at the point of no return yet," said the Viscount Turenne.

"But the king is not willing to see another Frenchman die," said Schomberg. "Whichever it is, he said, are his people, and God has appointed him to rule over them, so he cherishes their lives." , just like looking at your own children."

Viscount Turenne didn't speak. Schaumberg glanced at him and walked back.

Only the Viscount Turenne knew that he had already lost, completely defeated.

Viscount Turenne's army camped on the river bank after retreating, not caring that the two three-masted ships were only half a river away from them. Viscount Turenne sat on a large rock, staring at the dark river in a daze One day, an officer deeply trusted by him brought him a cup of hot tea. He held it in his hand and didn't drink it: "What are the soldiers talking about?"

The officer did not answer him.

Viscount Turenne has found the answer from the silence.

—————

Early the next morning, Viscount Turenne came to the city gate and surrendered to the king.