I Am Louis XIV

  Chapter 349 Lively Rebellion

  The French King Louis XIV and the Dauphin Prince Louis left Florence the day before the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, four days earlier than expected. This change came from several secret letters received by the king.

On the return journey, the Dauphin the little Louis rode with his father in a carriage, about two hundred and thirty miles from Florence to Paris, and the daily journey of the carriage was about fifty miles a day—of course, if the road was smooth, every If you change your horses when you get to an inn, and run around day and night, the daily trip can be doubled or tripled - but Louis XIV seems to have no intention of doing this. When I opened the car curtains and watched the scenery outside, I even felt a little comfortable. This puzzled and comforted the crown prince, Louis, who knew a little about the contents of the secret letter.

  If my father didn't appear very anxious, then it should be... not a big problem.

  ——

  Let's advance the time a little bit, about the time Louis XIV was entering Florence and before the wedding of the Duke of Colonna and the daughter of Cosimo III took place.

Although Amsterdam is close to the sea, the air is very humid, but in August, the temperature is quite comfortable, it is cool from morning to afternoon, and it is only a bit chilly at night - so when the Dutch governor, Viscount Turenne's office arrives The fireplace was lit in the evening, and the rising flames quickly dispelled the mist in the air, drying the room, and Viscount Turenne stretched his legs in comfort. He was also an old man of sixty-six years old. It is inevitable to eat and sleep in the open air, and joint problems are the pain of almost every general and soldier. Therefore, when remodeling the city government—that is, the future residence and office of Viscount Turenne, the king specially ordered that every large room needs to be equipped with additional sanitary facilities. Amenities with fireplace.

But no matter how good the fireplace is, it is not as good as the plumbing room that Viscount Turenne tried in Nantes - there is a steam boiler room behind the apartment, the steam is driving the mechanical work, the residual hot water or something, anyway. Viscount Turenne didn't quite understand either, and sent it to each room through pipes pre-buried in the walls and floors, so that the room was always warm...just before the king's steam-driven ironclad battleship left the Bay of Biscay. , this technology can not be promoted on a large scale for the time being.

  Regardless of regret, Viscount Turenne couldn't help but feel refreshed. His body after working all day seemed to be infused with energy. He shook the bell on the table: "Coffee!"

A moment later, his personal servant brought him... a glass of milk, "Sir," said the servant who had followed him for more than thirty years: "Monsieur Bontang will not allow us to serve you coffee in the evening." Turena The Viscount couldn't help but glared at him, saying that the dignitaries looked up and looked up to Louis XIV, and their servants looked up and looked up to Louis XIV... Mr. Bontang beside them, they eagerly recorded Mr. Bontang's Every word and deed, he tried his best to get closer to him, so that although many officials from other places failed to develop the good habit of bathing and changing clothes for a while, their servants would help them develop it.

   After all, in this day and age, the words of the hostess may not be as useful as the words of the male host's personal servant or the butler.

This is what Viscount Turenne is facing now. His old servant has obviously decided to stand with M. Bontang at all times. How did Viscount Turenne obey Louis XIV for Mr. Bontang's orders. , that's how he obeys M. Bontang, like the fireplace, the coat, the milk, the sugar... wait, by the way, and the vegetables that Viscount Turenne hates the most - don't say grown-ups can't pick your mouth, Thirteen Viscount Reina, like most nobles, believes that vegetables are something that women and children, even the poor, will eat. At a banquet, meat is always the protagonist, all kinds of meat, vegetables are just decorations, and there are many It's all beans.

But since their king didn't know where and when he got a lot of vegetable seeds and promoted them vigorously, the French began to be keen on eating vegetables, but Viscount Turenne still stubbornly refused to eat sweet potatoes in addition to beans and potatoes. Other vegetables, the only vegetables that can enter his mouth are because the first two have a meaty taste after being stewed with meat, and sweet potatoes are sweet.

But he was sixty-six years old, let me repeat, sixty-six years old, and Louis XIV knew very well that the complicated situation in Holland would exhaust a strong young man, but he really could not find a better A more suitable candidate for Viscount Turenne, he could only send Viscount Turenne to the Netherlands, but at the same time, although Viscount Turenne, who had followed Prince Condé's second slinger rebellion, and even became the enemy of the king, in the After the Battle of the Old City, he was always loyal to the king. He fought bravely and had a keen eye. Even if he had to face the Prince Condé, who he used to be loyal to, he did not hesitate in the Battle of Dunkirk, only after returning to Paris. , he did beg the younger brother and the queen dowager because of the relationship between Prince Kong Dai and him before.

Therefore, Louis still valued him very much, and Louis, who attached great importance to his feelings, must have loved this older friend and courtier very much. To a certain extent, Mr. Bontang was indeed the king's tongue. The respect of the Viscount, even if Viscount Turenne was hundreds of miles away in Amsterdam, no one dared to slander in front of the king.

This kind of life makes Viscount Turenne happy. Although he sometimes dreams of returning to the battlefield, he also knows that this is the king's arrangement, and it is also the best arrangement for him. After he stabilized the situation of the three Dutch provinces for the king In other words, after France has completely annexed the Netherlands, he can take a marquis or duke's title back to the fief or a manor near Paris to recuperate. The king also promised that Versailles will always have One of his rooms, he'd be a little old man covered in glory.

What better ending    for the second-grandson of a landless duke whose grandfather, the duke of Sedan, had lost his lands and title because of his involvement in a rebellion against the Bishop of Richelieu?

   Obviously, some people think that there is.

As the Viscount Turenne took up his cup and drank bitterly the milk without sugar or honey, his old servant gave a sudden snort and went to the fireplace, which, for safety's sake, was filled with iron. The fence, and the king requested that the iron fence be in a U-shaped shape, three inches higher than the fireplace mouth, it can be moved, it can be opened when it needs to add charcoal fire, and after the charcoal fire is added, it must be closed and secured with a latch— It's not that the king is doing nothing but that a terrible accident has happened before - because the dresses that the ladies of the court wear, with hem and skirt, have grown so large that at some point they don't have With the help of others, they can't get in the carriage, go out or look back, and sometimes they sit by the fireplace, and their skirts will fall into the fire unknowingly, and then those beautiful ribbons, lace and satin... imagine You know, how fast they burn, so fast that you can't take your skirt off before you're burned to death.

The victim of this accident was only a kitchen maid, but as soon as he heard this, the king immediately gave an order that in January, all the fireplaces in Versailles were equipped with such iron fences, although not very beautiful, but It really made many people relieved - when the Queen Mother and the Queen insisted on gilding and silvering these fences, the final objection disappeared.

The fireplace fence in Viscount Turenne's room was just an ordinary black iron fence, which more than once effectively prevented the dozing Viscount Turenne from sticking his head or legs into the fireplace. The top of the fence showed a beautiful golden lily. The flower pattern, what the old servant saw was a silver necklace hanging from the neck of the flower bud.

The pendant of the silver necklace was a horn. Viscount Turenne immediately became more awake when he saw it. He took the necklace and squeezed the horn in his hand, "Take it out, old Bath, remember that you didn't see anything, know nothing."

   "Master..." Bain has been by Viscount Turenne's side for more than 30 years, how could he not know that the horn is the coat of arms of the Orange family?

   "Don't worry, I know what to do." Viscount Turenne said lightly, even with a hint of humor.

The    old servant sighed, "You are so old..." He shook his head, looked at the empty milk glass, put it back on the tray, and walked out.

Although he drank milk, for Viscount Turenne, under the catalysis of the horn necklace, this cup of milk was almost the same as coffee. He held the pendant and fiddled with his fingernails a few times, and the pendant opened with a snap. Now, this pendant is as long as the **** of an adult man, and as wide as two to three fingers, enough to put down a small piece of paper. Viscount Turenne opened it and read it, and the content on it did not exceed his expectations: "I am old indeed," he said to himself, "but there are still people who are still young."

  ——

   In the evening of the second day, Viscount Turenne changed his clothes, put on a cloak, hat and mask, and went to St. Nicholas Church in Amsterdam according to the time and place written on the note.

St. Nicholas Church was originally a Catholic church built in the thirteenth century, but in the sixteenth century, after the Protestant power in the Netherlands surpassed the original Catholic power, it was converted into a Protestant church, which was originally displayed in the niche. Statues were removed and icons were painted over, so that the whole church looked much simpler.

But from beginning to end, two things have not changed, and that is the wooden ceiling - the dome of the church made of shipbuilding wood and craftsmanship, it looks like a capsized ship, pressing on everyone's heart; and It is the stone floor under people's feet - the dense handwriting shows that these rectangular stone bricks were originally tombstones, and the Church of St. Nicholas stands on a cemetery. We have no way to trace what the original builders thought, but This feeling of being silently watched by thousands of dead people will indeed make people more expecting to be freed from the heavy burden of life.

   Entering the church should not continue to wear a hat and mask, Viscount Turenne took the mask in his hand, tucked the hat under his elbow, and walked to one of the people sitting in the row of seats.

   "Long time no see, William."

   "Long time no see, Henry."

After greeting, the two cousins, who were very different in age, were silent. William III was born in 50 years, and Viscount Turenne was born in 11 years. When William III was born, Viscount Turenne had already returned to France to serve as Prince Condé. They could have met on the battlefield, but William III's reckless actions got him imprisoned by Charles II of England for a long time, and he was released after the dust settled, and he got Utrecht, but this film The narrow land was not so much his domain as it was a buffer of British and French power.

He has no army. In order to "help" his nephew to govern Utrecht, Charles II has no shame in sending more than a dozen Englishmen to fill the court and government of Utrecht. William III is just one of them. A puppet at the mercy. To make matters worse, the people of the Netherlands had neither trust nor respect for the prince. First of all, William III disappeared without a trace when they resisted the French and British invasions, and after the partition of the Netherlands, he became a prince. After the Prince of Utrecht, it is hard not to think that he had betrayed the Netherlands by betraying the British King Charles II before.

William III had no way of defending this. Charles II would not publicly declare that he had imprisoned the Dutch government. He would only say that he entertained his nephew and lived in the Tower of London for a period of time. Although everyone knew that the Tower of London was a prison, But another unquestioned identity of the Tower of London is the palace of the Tudor royal family—with little to blame.

   In addition, the British were violent in Utrecht, but the documents had the signature and seal of William III. Although some Dutch people knew that this was not William III's original intention, they were also full of hatred for him.

To expel these British people one by one, to bring back the loyal subordinates who were exiled and imprisoned one by one, and to re-gather the scattered people bit by bit. This is what William III has done in the past few years. Things, Viscount Turenne has always been watching - based on the king's orders, and the mercy of blood relatives, as long as William III does not directly threaten the rule of France, Viscount Turenne will not do anything.

For once William III's rule was secured, it was England, not France, who was most affected - he was originally England's agent in Holland, just as Viscount Turenne was France's agent, but like his ancestors Like the silent William, William III was obviously unwilling to be just a rubber stamp. His actions in the Netherlands had seriously affected the authority of Charles II, and all South Holland and Zeeland in England continued to set off one after another. Riot - It's hard to say that this was William III's order, but Utrecht, Zeeland and South Holland are exactly the part of the Netherlands that Britain got, and no country will be tolerant of colonies, new territories, in Utrecht How could Zeeland and South Holland continue to endure the exploitation and oppression of the British when the people of China could not be oppressed by harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes?

In comparison, the North Holland, Groningen and Friesland owned by France are much calmer. It is not that the taxes of Louis XIV are not heavy, but from the very beginning, Louis XIV has formulated a stepped tax law. To put it simply, although the taxation of the three provinces of North Holland is much heavier than that of France, it is similar to the previous taxation - subtly, we mentioned earlier, this is because the previous Dutch taxation included naval shipbuilding and Maintenance costs, after the conquest of Holland, the fleet ceased to exist, this tax was of course exempted - and then every Dutchman can see that the tax they have to pay is not always so much, only ten years, In ten years the tax will be reduced to half of what it was before, and in twenty years it will be a quarter—that is, the tax that the French pay, that is, if you see the notice now for young and middle-aged People, even those who are just entering old age, can see themselves as equals with the French in their lifetime.

But there are still many details to be adjusted in the French tax code. The punishment is as huge as the reward. For example, if there is a riot in one place, then the nearby villages and towns within three days will be held accountable, and the main culprit is the lowest. The punishment is also exile - the king of France does not need thugs and rioters! Accomplices and affected villages had to pay heavier taxes, as well as pay extra for the French to quell the riots.

   On the other hand, if someone is willing to inform, or prevent, or even eliminate - as a priest with a holy name does, then they can make a request to the king of France.

Even some good people with noble nature and no desires are hard to refuse, because in an occupied area, the local people will inevitably suffer all kinds of hardships, even if Louis XIV was not an extremely greedy person - There will inevitably be some unavoidable tragedies,

Riots can't solve all problems, or rather, they can only lead to bigger problems, but asking the king - this is equivalent to having a direct appeal channel to heaven, and having such a person, as long as he retains this desire , no Frenchman, not even Viscount Turenne, could stop him from speaking - and they had to restrain themselves.

   After all, everyone knows that the Sun King's spies are as numerous as the birds in the wasteland and the city.

Don't say that the common people who don't want to resist are too ignorant and cowardly - they want to take back what has been taken away. Compared with those nobles and giants of the past, the ordinary people of the Netherlands are under the rule of the French, not to mention the past. Well, it can't be said to be worse than before, and if you have shipbuilding and other excellent craftsmanship, it's not impossible to live better - France has always had only one voice, and that's the king, and all the clichés before Holland are in him. It is like dust in front of him. As long as the ordinary people are willing to work hard, they can get enough money to support him and his family. Maybe they can add a piece of meat to the dinner plate and tie it around the neck of his wife or daughter. A beautiful lace ribbon.

There are thousands of people like this, they are the real Holland, and although they will sigh for the ill-fated Orange family, the weight of this sigh will definitely not be overwhelmed by their newly born youngest son, or Old father's cane - they would never let themselves be easily involved in a riot.

   The addition is complete.

   (end of this chapter)