I Am Louis XIV

  Chapter 329 Ljubljana with Flesh Rolling (3)

As the powder keg buried under the castle exploded one after the other, and even the Sava rippled with uneasy ripples, and Vauban watched the Crimean Tatars chasing them from the shore and fell because their horses were frightened. On the ground, he crossed his chest on one side—he was not praying for the Ottomans, who were not a god, but their enemy.

He is praying for the king's purse - compared to others, Vauban may be the least worried about the irreversible harm and danger that the Dauphin will encounter in Ljubljana, because according to the king's arrangement and struggle, They had little responsibility - mainly to delay the progress of the Ottoman army without clinging to Ljubljana, where they lost even fewer men than they lost at Flanders.

Of course, in order to keep others speechless, King Louis XIV of France, who was unwilling to go out, had to pay, cement, gunpowder, and barbed wire. Even if the factory had been built, the price was still not cheap. It was a considerable expense to transport them all the way here, money that Louis XIV never asked for from Leopold I, who could not blame Vauban or any French people.

In this battle, Louis XIV dispatched a hundred cannons, equipped with 5,000 shells, and 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 of burying a thousand pounds of gunpowder - the energy that the gunpowder burst out in an instant lifted the entire castle into the air, and the people in the castle did not need many, almost no How many people survived - in fact half of Castle Hill collapsed. Thankfully for Grand Vizier Ahmed, he didn't see it as a triumph to boast, so he didn't rush into the castle, his tent still standing on the edge of the city.

When the explosion happened, the whole city was shaking, and even without binoculars, they could see that Ljubljana Castle had been turned into a mausoleum, where tens of thousands of Ottomans were buried, pouring down like a torrential rain The stone bricks and broken rocks caused a lot of additional damage. Ahmed stubbornly mounted his horse. When he went to check the situation, the injured people were crying and crying along the way. Bloodstains and stumps, corpses covered with grayish-white dust - unlike Louis XIV's army, the Ottomans had no systematic doctors, and their generals and the doctors around the Grand Vizier did not condescend to be a common man. They 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 **** sounds came one after another, and Ahmed, who was distracted by them, made a silent gesture, and a guard beside him immediately walked away knowingly, and soon another group of soldiers came over, They carefully looked at each wounded, and if they felt that the other party was worthless, they would slit their throats with a knife. After all, the current army did not have enough time and food for these wounded people to waste. Fortunately, they rushed in first. The castles are filled with Azap infantry or low-level cavalry, and dealing with them won't cause much confusion.

   A man suddenly drove his horse to Ahmed's side. There is only one person in the army who has the right and qualification to do so, and that is the Grand Master, "Why did you kill Yasha?"

   Ahmed was well prepared for the question of the Grand Master - Yasha was the boy whose brother served by the Grand Master: "He walked into my tent without authorization."

Yasha's behavior is actually between the two. You can say that he is hiding a conspiracy, or you can say that he is too reckless, but even if there is no reason, Ahmed, as the Grand Vizier, will not kill a maid. Being punished, it was just that the Grand Master suspected that Yasha had indeed seen something. "I heard some rumors," the Grand Master said, "Ahmed, I will not take other people's words lightly, thinking 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 the other side's city walls, and then buried gunpowder and detonated them until the city walls collapsed. 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 your betrayal of the most merciful Lord." The Grand Master said: "I will expel those devils and their believers, you must keep your faith."

   "I will," said Ahmed.

  ———

It's hard to say whether   Ahmed has a firm belief in himself, but he definitely helped others strengthen their beliefs.

Perhaps because of the empty cities, the shrinking food supply, or the explosion in Ljubljana, the first to be shaken are the servants and slave soldiers of the Ottoman Turks, the Tatars and Christians, who have not Faith support is also excluded from the real lineage - even if the Grand Vizier allows them to loot wantonly, they still can't get a satisfactory return as expected - they have a lot of slaves in their hands, but I heard that , because the big explosion took away nearly 10,000 Azap infantry, so these young male slaves have to be recruited to fill the vacancies... When these slaves are dead and wounded, they will be next, if it is like before, they will be Even if they are injured or dead, there is still a loot to keep their families safe and sound, but this time the coalition forces have made their waists shriveled and shriveled.

   This gave them the idea of ​​running away again.

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

In the dark, torches were thrown at the feet of the Crimean Tatars, or the Kurds, or the Mamluks, or the Christians, or at the hoofs of the horses, and then there was the roar of bullets or The humming of the bowstring, according to the order of the Grand Vizier, whether it was a musket or a bow and arrow, they were fired three times in a row. After three times, there were almost no people or horses who could continue to stand. Courage, only dare to turn around.

There was no shouting, it was frighteningly quiet, the majesty of the Grand Vizier rose up again, and the next day he gave plenty of meat—to everyone, even the humblest of Tatars .

   "Where did he get so much mutton from?" the servant of the Grand Master, Asha's brother, couldn't help but ask.

The Grand Master gave him a stern look, "Asha has returned to the true God," he said, "The Grand Vizier is not something you can blame." Of course he knew—in so many steaming cauldrons, Not only mutton, but this is not the time to care about personal grievances and morals.

Yasha's brother kept his mouth shut, Yasha did enter the tent without permission, and the Grand Vizier had more enemies than his friends - but Yasha could be executed, but not by the Grand Vizier himself When he started, he could only say that he must have seen something, and the Grand Vizier didn't even dare to let him say even a single word.

Once again, the wolves were fed and appeased, and the army left Ljubljana, which was like a chicken rib, and set off towards the north bank of the Sava River. There was not even a single soldier left by the Grand Vizier in this empty city. Leaving any way out for himself, the Grand Master looked at it, and his heart became more and more heavy.

When Grand Vizier Ahmed passed through Ljubljana with a blank expression on the machete at his waist, no one could notice his strangeness - before the siege, he accidentally used the machete Killed Yasha - the man who handed him the machete, once said that he should never let it taste fresh blood unless he made a decision.

   He made a big mistake.

Now, although this machete is still separated from him by clothes and flesh, it seems to have tentacle-like blood vessels that are intimately connected to his heart. The horse will take a step forward and it will become heavier. , a little colder, and his heartbeat would be slower and harder—there were times when Ahmed almost asked the Grand Master for help, but another legend about the machete, let him He closed his mouth involuntarily.

  If it's not true, Ahmed thought, ask the Grand Master to lift the curse for himself.

  ———

  When the prince-dauphin came back to Camnico, he must first go to see Louis XIV. He was the commander-in-chief, king and father of the young Louis.

When little Louis ran eagerly into the room, he was surprised to find that there was another person in the room, a person he didn't know at all - and from the seat, posture and eyes, this His Royal Highness actually maintained a close relationship with Louis XIV. on an equal footing—but he is not a king, nor an emperor.

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

   "You're really..." Theoderic said helplessly, "A man who does whatever he wants and does what he wants."

Theoderic is different from Prince Amon of Zmich. Although Louis XIV is about to make his son the king of the world, Theoderic will never appear in front of the king unless he has to, let alone other A member of the royal family, but no matter how hard he tries to cut the relationship between the inner world and the outer world, this willful His Majesty just pulls it easily and easily shortens the distance he pulled away to almost nothing.

Still in a way that is hard to refuse, if Louis XIV showed the attitude towards Amon to Theoderic, the Prince of Vanderbilt could justly maintain an indifferent and distant distance. After all, Theoderic's The Merovingian Dynasty and the Bourbon Dynasty of Louis XIV were separated by several dynasties, and it was even more irrelevant in terms of blood relationship, but any... blood family, when a king asked his heir to treat him like his uncle. When I was myself, I was still a little moved.

   Theoderic died in his twenties and had no children.

   "Uncle Theoderic." 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 Theoderic.

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

Little Louis widened his eyes in surprise. He knew that there were always some wizards around his father, such as Varo Vesalius, and his brother's mother. His brother was also a wizard, but because he was born when he was born , Louis has already figured out what to do with those wizards and the inner world, so the crown prince's view of the inner world is an enclave that belongs to France, but is so far away that he may never be able to go. What about the wizards, that is, flying The French people on the ground, although he can't manage it himself, his brother will do his best, and it is not much different from the Viscount Turenne who manages the three provinces of the Netherlands - there must be a difference, that is, his brother and he will be. will help each other.

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

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

  Catboy is one of the most important amulets that Louis left to little Louis. In case of any accident, little Louis can at least escape alone.

Theoderic suddenly had the urge to turn into a bat and fly away, but the window of the room was closed, although it would not be a big problem for him to pass through or smash the window, but... He glanced at Louis beside him, this His Majesty was smiling all over, the Prince of Vanderbilt didn't want to think about how much of it was rude, he just lowered his head and coughed softly: "I'll leave it with you for the time being, Your Highness. "

   He added dissatisfiedly: "Until the war is over, I'm afraid it will not be very peaceful here. Of course, this is all thanks to your father."

  Louis just smiled.

   (end of this chapter)