I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 359 Entering the urn

"Allow me to introduce you, Mr. Barr," said the Duke of Vendome with a smile. "This is Mr. William Payne. You may have heard of his name at school. After all, his father, old William Payne. He is now the admiral of Charles II, or the commander of the fleet."

Barr involuntarily showed a look of surprise. The information collected by the king's spies would also be sorted and distributed to the military academy. Some of their teachers and classmates even got along, worked with, or were hostile to him, old William Pei said. En is quite talented and also a royalist, the problem is that the only time he independently commanded the fleet in combat, because of an infighting with the army commander, which led to failure and disgrace, so he was not famous.

But his name is also familiar to the students and teachers of the Royal Military Academy of France, because after the Duke of York was imprisoned in the Tower of London, his henchmen were affected and suspected, which made old William stand out. He was originally York. The captain of the Duke's fleet also participated in the previous war against the Netherlands, and it is entirely possible that he took over the authority of the Duke of York.

   But this little Mr. William...

   "But they all say he's been here for over a decade," Barr said.

"Well, I think he went incognito to become a soldier in Cromwell's army." The Duke of Vendôme said that in this era when military exploits can be equally prominent and rising, nobles The family's children also rejected the arrangement of their parents and went to the army to be an ordinary soldier, and at this time they can become a soldier as long as they are fourteen years old. In this way, this little Mr. William may have been at the age of sixteen. It was time to come to Dunkirk, but he probably didn't expect things to turn out that way - Cromwell, the protector of the country, died first, then Charles II restored it, and then Charles II brought Dunkirk to life. sold to King Louis XIV of France.

"I heard that an Englishman came to him." Barr analyzed: "You should have been able to go back to London with your family," Old William should not be unable to pay the ransom: "But you refused - just for today , sir, you are a spy." This charge is far greater than that of thugs or enemies, whether English or French, who catch spies and hang them from trees to dry.

Jack, no, it should be said that Mr. William's expression changed slightly, but soon he straightened his back and showed a fearless expression: "I am an Englishman," he said: "and I Companions of yours—as long as it wasn't a bastard, your king should have killed us, or exiled us, instead of keeping us in Dunkirk."

"It is not surprising to me that some ungrateful people fail to appreciate what kind of tolerance they have received," said the Duke of Vendome, who had opposed Louis XIII and the Bishop of Richelieu, who had no respect for the king. This kind of creature can't understand it any more. If you want him to say, Louis XIV may not be a good man, but he is really a good king. As long as you are willing to be loyal to him, you don't even need to be loyal to him. You only need to be willing to obey his laws and rules. Under the brilliance of the Sun King, he lived a peaceful life - those British people who were unwilling to participate in the riots also had such an idea. What they had obtained from the Lord Protector, the Sun King can also give, "Just like you Sprinkle holy water on an angel and he will laugh, but if you sprinkle it on a devil, he will jump with pain."

   "Don't talk about the devil or anything," said William Payne Jr. sarcastically, "don't you know that your king is called the second Solomon?"

   "We regard this as an honour," said the Duke of Vendôme; "but the name of the Sun King will eventually shine in the history books as the great King did."

"It's a pity that your king doesn't seem to be as wise as King Solomon," Little William showed a hint of pleasure: "We destroyed Dunkirk's warehouses, docks, docks and roads, and you are now an isolated city. already."

The Duke of Vendôme smiled. "Okay." He said to Barr: "I know you have doubts about many of my actions, young man, and I am glad that you have maintained your loyalty to the king and the vigilance that a soldier should have. , you have also shown your talent, and besides, the time has come, at least it's almost there, now," he patted the armrest of the chair and stood up slowly, "let's go up to the tower."

The Duke of Vendome is talking about the second huge building built by the king in Dunkirk after the Dockyard. It is named after it, or called the King's Tower, but Louis XIV said that there are already many strange things such as "King's Bread", "King's Road", "King's Hair", "King's Underwear"... The title, this tower is honestly named after the location, so it is called Dunkirk Tower, because the main structure is made of cement bricks, people also call him the gray tower.

It is three hundred feet high, which is almost equal to the current 30-story building. It is almost impossible for a man of the age of the Duke of Vendôme to climb up on his legs. Mr. William Jr. is full of suspicion. There is no way for a person to approach this lighthouse, and it is the first time he has seen the interior of this magnificent building - the bottom of the lighthouse is like a medieval fortress, except for the regular rotating escalator, there is almost nothing else...etc Wait, he was taken to the door of a small room, which he had thought was reserved for the tower keeper, but the Duke of Vendôme went in first, followed by William the young and the two officers who were watching him, and finally the Barr.

   At this moment, it was almost impossible to turn around in the small room, Baal reached out his hand, grabbed the knocker of the small door, pulled the door shut, and bolted it tightly.

   The Duke of Vendôme sat on the only chair in the room, grabbed the rope hanging from a corner, and pulled it, and a bell rang from outside. Then, something happened that shocked Mr. William Jr., the little house shook, and then, although he didn't know what was going on, he could still feel...

   "Is it rising!?" he shouted.

   "Very keen," the Duke of Vendôme paused his cane, "it's just a small device, don't worry about it too much." It was impossible to see that the first time he rode, his back was tense to the point of almost spraining.

  This simplest lift, like many of the equipment in the Nantes shipyard, is powered by steam. The steam room is on the side of the lighthouse, but few people notice it, after all, there is usually such a storage room next to the lighthouse. It allows people to get up and down the lighthouse quickly, as well as to serve old people like the Duke of Vendôme, or frail scholars.

Mr. William Jr. pressed his body tightly to the wall like many people who took the lift for the first time. He was like an animal in a cage. His hair was disheveled and his face was gray. No survival, luckily the elevator wasn't very slow, and after a few minutes, with a terrible shaking, it stopped and Baal opened the door.

They were in a sealed space before they stepped into the elevator, only the high windows cast light, but here, as soon as Barr opened the door, the bright light stinged Mr. William's defenseless eyes, and his tears were uncontrollable. Out, he raised his hands to cover his face, feeling a raging wind rush towards him like an invisible bull, nearly pushing him back into the hut.

   An arm caught him just in time, and he said thank you and lowered his arm.

   He saw a pale turquoise blue, and below it was a rich indigo, which was the English Channel, which the French called the Strait of La Manche.

It is about forty nautical miles from here to the British mainland. From here, you can see a snow-white coastline, because from Dover to Plymouth, the coast is covered with chalk, which is why Mr. William and other Englishmen The coveted white coast.

  Seeing this scene—in the past ten years, William Payne Jr, who deliberately did not remind himself of his friends and relatives in his home country, couldn’t help but take two steps forward.

Barr also walked to the front of the wall. The sea breeze was fierce, but it brought cold and fresh air. He couldn't help but take a deep breath. The young man was also shaken by the scenery in front of him, but his focus was similar to that of Mr. William Jr. The difference - he instinctively looked towards the port on the opposite bank - of course it was impossible to see with human eyes, but his face suddenly changed: "What is that?!" he shouted.

As a descendant of pirates, Baal was all too familiar with ships, whether it was large or small, passing by or still in his sight, he saw it at a glance—the Duke of Vendôme watched anxiously When he came over, he took out the telescope beside him and handed it to him. He immediately put the telescope on his face, while Mr. William, who was standing beside him, smiled with relief and anticipation.

   "Do you want to see too? Mr. William?" To his surprise, the Duke of Vendôme said, so the officer beside him took out a telescope and gave it to William.

As soon as William got his hands on it, he knew that this kind of telescope was not the kind that could be circulated among the people. It was about a foot and a half to two feet in diameter, and the lens diameter was about two inches. When he got it in his hand for debugging, he estimated that there were at least five lenses embedded in it. When he pointed it at his eyes, he felt uncomfortable for a moment, because it pulled the scene directly in front of him in an instant, and he squinted his eyes. Adjust carefully.

Looking through the spyglasses of William Jr. and Barr, he could see the fleet passing through the English Channel. Barr quickly counted them, no matter the tonnage, they were more than the fingers of two hands, although they were suspended from the masts. It wears a tricolor - orange, white and blue - the so-called Prince of Orange flag. But Barr immediately took a sip in his heart. Everyone knew that the Dutch fleet was torn apart after losing their last commander. They were either seized by the merchants or reduced to privateers. Or it was seized by the Dutch government in exile, but the latter may only have four or five ships, after all, there are not many stupid people.

A total of twelve ships, the Dutch, or the House of Orange could not possibly come up with it anyway, only to say, as Louis XIV estimated, their old enemies, temporary allies, those damned The British finally took off their mask and went to war with France again!

Little William never concealed his proud smile at all. He refused to leave Dunkirk just to be able to see this day, although he did not expect this moment to come so late, he was watching the beautiful ships for a while. After the three-deck battleship, he began to move the telescope. The Duke of Vendôme's attitude made him uneasy, and he wanted to see if things would change unexpectedly?

He saw a little tawny dot on the right hand side, oh, he saw it, that direction might be Calais, it seems that the French are not stupid enough to not be alert. But he played a little trick - at a time when wizards' ravens were about to become common in the army, Mr. William Jr. was not surprised how they knew, but asked him to say, no, it was over, their naval commander Don't know how to fight at sea at all, the wind is now in favor of the British navy, not the French navy, they have no way to seize the T-head position, and their failure has already revealed signs.

Barr also noticed that if he were to take command, in order to jump out of the current unfavorable situation, he might order the fleet to detour to see if he could go around and kick the British ass, but this would expose Dunkirk. Under the fire of the enemy, there is also the fact that the British can send another fleet to attack the previous fleet - there is also a problem, that there are still bloated Calais among these ships from the direction of Calais. ferry.

This made him frown suddenly, he remembered... These Calais ships should also come from England, and the shameless Charles II, because he couldn't afford the dowry of Princess Henrietta (Duchess of Orleans), had the audacity to take out the thirty who had almost been eliminated A Calais ship was sent to France as the bulk of the dowry, and then the thirty gigantic ships fell silent like rocks into the sea, and he had heard his uncles laugh at the young king—of course , they don't deny that he is still a good king, but he knows too little about the sea and ships, or has a wrong perception. Anyway, these ships are almost eliminated. Unless the king sends them Go to the colony as a merchant ship.

   At that time, Barr also guessed that Louis XIV did this, but now, he has seen at least five Calais ships in the French fleet - their size is too obvious! Frustrated, he kept going back, hoping to see some miracles.

   But Baal soon found out that something was wrong, because the Calais were actually passing the battleships that were supposed to be far faster than them!

He suppressed a shout of excitement in his throat, pressed the binoculars desperately to his eye sockets, pressed his brow and cheekbones so much that he would not let go, even when the Duke of Vendôme came to him, he held them together I don't even know how to watch with a telescope.

   is getting closer! Getting closer! They are all galloping as hard as they can, fighting for the most important position!

It may be difficult for ordinary people to understand what the T-head position is. As the name suggests, if you draw the two sides of the naval battle on a plan, you will see a pattern similar to the big T, because at that time and even after a long time, the gun muzzles of ships were all The horizontal arrangement or the horizontal arrangement of the enemy is conducive to the stability of the launch, so the fleet can be blocked in front of the enemy before the enemy. , because it can only be lined up in a straight line, only the leading ship can fire artillery shells, and the following ships need time to slowly move away from each other before joining the battle-in fierce naval battles, this time is often quite fatal.

   That's why the huge Calais ship is being phased out, it's too slow.

But the Calais ship they saw now seemed to be loaded with wings by Mercury (the ancient Roman **** of transportation and commerce), running so fast, it was like flying on the sea, they made Barr think The giant whale, although its body is huge, its speed is astonishing. The thought of such a huge ship galloping on the waves at a speed of at least 6 knots makes Barr's whole body stand up. A rocky mountain that people rolled over, it does not even need weapons, and the gravity brought by speed alone can pose a deadly threat to the enemy!

But what he can discover, the British can also discover, perhaps as the Duke of Vendôme expected, it was the old William Payne who commanded the fleet. Trick - After reckoning that their fleet might not be able to overtake the French, old William made a bold decision.

From the map, the British fleet most likely departed from the port of Dover, while Calais was below Dunkirk, and the two fleets formed an acute angle in the narrow English Channel. When the last ship arrived first, the British fleet's lead ship course began to turn northwest, and the ships behind it were lined up in a counterclockwise direction. That is to say, even if the French fleet inserts their original line of advance, parallel to the Calais-Dunkirk line, the British fleet maintains a lateral position against the English coastline, so that although they have no advantage, they definitely have no advantage. disadvantage.

Barr didn't know who was in command of the French fleet now, but he saw that in the narrowest stretch of sea, the two fleets were almost exactly aligned horizontally. As for who fired first, there was no need to ask more. Everyone knows that there is bound to be such a battle - the enmity and ambition of the British and the French are like two lions bound in a small cage, and will not rest until a winner is decided.

   The addition is complete.

   (end of this chapter)