I Am Louis XIV

  Chapter 368 The Unexpected Little Eugen

   Even Louis XIV was a little surprised when he saw the latest battle report.

Louis XIV did not use the heavy weapons in his hands when deciding who to settle the rebellion, and even recalled the Viscount Turenne against Versailles, a contemptuous attitude that was completely different from the two Frond rebellions he encountered as a boy. No, but his enemies must also admit that they rode the waves and undercurrents of Louis XIV's expedition, which had already shown signs of weakness when the king overcame the Ottoman Turks - although the kings of Europa never Happy to criticize each other, but in fact, the centuries-old tradition of jihad is still firmly rooted in people's hearts, even the last emperor of Constantinople, Constantine XI, still has people to this day. Will believe that the angel turned him into a marble statue and buried him in an unknown place, and when the time appointed by God comes, he will leap up from the soil, wielding a sword, wearing a purple robe, carrying The Christians re-entered the Golden Gate and recaptured Constantinople—still a loser, but Louis XIV was an outright victor.

If Louis XIV was in a panic and sighed, his enemies would be proud, but it's a pity that Louis XIV didn't take them seriously - why the new territories acquired by the kings of Europa will always be constantly resisted Upsurge, it has something to do with their stubborn feudal ideology, kings are also great feudal lords, they might be more lenient if it was just territory acquired through inheritance and marriage, but for what they got from war, they would always wrongly continue to The people in that place are treated as enemies. Will you be warm and tolerant and benevolent towards the enemy? Of course not, so when they treat the new territory, they always focus on endless exploitation and extortion. If anyone is dissatisfied, they will kill them.

But Louis XIV had considered it from the very beginning. Since he first bought Lorraine with a lot of money, and then took down Flanders and Holland with all his might, he would not let it go in fifty or a hundred years. They were given names other than Bourbon, and he did not treat the rebellious people as French, nor as slaves, in fact, whether it was Flanders, or Holland, or Lorraine , as long as the people there are willing to accept the rule of Louis XIV, even if the tax is three times that of the French, the money they have accumulated in their hands is enough for them to settle down - of course, if they still have any complaints, then Louis XIV will not force it. They continue to be his people.

Judging from the secret letter sent by Lorraine-Alsace before, the Count of Soissons is indeed as he promised to the king and as usual, a person who works hard, but can also use ruthless means when necessary. The lines of numbers on the letter were his return to the king—he was not as gifted as Viscount Turenne, or General Vauban, but he was steady and dependable, but he probably didn't expect that he would be the first to settle Lorraine. It was not himself, nor Louis Joseph de Bourbon, who had been in the army for several years and had a veteran as his grandfather, but Eugene Savoy the Younger who shone in the rebellion.

This boy, who is only a grown-up, seems to be born on the battlefield. If the conspiracy in the village will be discovered by two young people, and it is a little unexpected, then he and the mercenaries in Austria and Saxony. Directly confronted, that is a miracle among the unexpected - because the spy's return is mostly learned from the captives and villagers, with a little confusion and exaggeration, then the return of the Count of Soissons is with the usual straightforwardness of soldiers. style.

The Count of Soissons said that when little Eugen led a ten-man patrol to a field outside King's Town that day, he was accidentally attacked by a group of refugees. They easily defeated and captured them, but among them A prisoner caught the attention of little Eugen, who swore in Austrian as he fell—a sentence that made little one aware that the Austrians were bribing, directing, and using the Lorraine-Alsatians to start a riot. Eugen suddenly went back in time—when he was sitting on his mother's or Leopold's lap, and the slang-like swearing sounded familiar to him.

After they carefully examined this man, they found that his hands, feet, facial skin and teeth did not look like they belonged to a refugee. He should be an Austrian mercenary. At the beginning, he was still lying and begging. The clumsy means escaped death, perhaps because the leader of this patrol turned out to be a child.

  —Do you know how quickly Mr. Eugen got his confession? The Count of Soissons wrote in his letter that he said that the Austrian would die in the manner of the Crimean Tatars of Kamnik.

Seeing this, Louis XIV couldn't help but smile. Before the battle of Kamnica, the little prince Louis also accidentally encountered a group of refugees and Crimean Tatars who were investigating military information for the Ottomans. They intended to attack Dauphin-Louis is not the kind of person who is bloodthirsty and cruel, but when he is among the wild beasts, he will be despised if he does not touch blood, so under his instigation, the Polish Tatars who joined him used the old The technique of Vlad III, the Archduke of Wallachia, inserted the captives alive on the wooden stakes—like roasting sheep, running through the entire body from bottom to top.

   "But that would take a lot of time," murmured Louis XIV.

Of course, little Eugen didn't waste so much time - if he did, then there would be no big victory after that. He just erected a slide gun, the wooden handle was buried in the soil, and the bayonet stood up. Sure enough, this terrible torture made the Austrian sell his companion without hesitation - he was unfortunately separated from his team because he was chased by a giant bear who had just woken up, and their team consisted of a thousand people. Five hundred people are heading to King Town.

  The former inhabitants of this place knew a road that the French did not know, but if he told him, he could not tell where the road was. Little Eugen fulfilled his promise and gave him a happy death, and then Pegasus returned to the Count of Soissons. The Count of Soissons was not afraid to fight those Austrians, and King Town said that it was a town, but in fact it was a town with walls and walls. The fortress, the new city of fortifications, it is almost impossible for fifteen hundred men to be taken down except by surprise.

But little Eugen was not content to stick to it. Although the Austrian did not know where the road was, he and Joseph searched the map for a while and estimated that there might be three or four places where the Lorraines belonged. Know the secret way - but the Count of Soissons does not allow them to leave Kingstown, because according to previous estimates, the army should not be far from them, and if the scouting team happens to bump into them head-on, they may not be captured Chance.

But little Eugen had other ideas. The Sun King was always nice to his soldiers. Soldiers were in the army three days a week, they could eat meat, the other two days were eggs and milk, and one day and fasting days were fish. So their eyes are not like the commoners, who can't see clearly at night - they asked the valet of the Count of Soissons, the older squire who also fought for the Austrians, in his recollection, the Austrians Most of the mercenaries still have a hard time seeing things at night, but they don't know whether they are pure mercenaries or mixed with some Austrian officers. Leopold I imitated Louis XIV to build his own standing army. It's been a while, and he certainly won't be stingy with his officers.

Joseph negotiated with little Eugen (this was later asked by the Count of Soissons), and they felt that these people should be more mercenaries. After all, it was only after Louis XIV that Leopold I was relieved of the siege. If The Austrians were caught by the French and did such despicable and shameless things. Leopold I and the Roman Church as an intermediary would not be very good-looking, not to mention other allies.

The Count of Soissons has only three daughters, and his youngest son is still in swaddling clothes. He doesn't have many opportunities to deal with such a young man (even if there is, he would never dare to violate the law), which made him negligent, and he rejected the little Eugen With Joseph, he turned around contentedly to do the pre-war arrangement work. Who knows, as soon as his sight left, the two big boys slipped out with a few attendants.

Perhaps by fate, these two daring children did find a secret passage—not even a secret passage, a narrow valley unknown to the French, like a ripped shirt, from which Looking at the other side of the exit, it looks like a huge date pit, and it's surprisingly close to Kingstown - it's too late to think about whether people in the neighboring villages know about this secret passage, Outside the mouth of the valley is a slightly undulating dense forest, and outside the dense forest is a wide, artificially trimmed flat with low protective walls and bunkers, and behind them is the city wall of King Town.

Little Eugen can no longer be said to be bold at this time, but should be said to be fearless. He handed over the horse to Joseph, and started to climb up with only his attendants. In the dark blue night, he was like a Solitary goats climbed and fell between the crevices of the rocks, nearly falling from the cliffs several times (this is what the frightened attendants said), and sometimes even the faint light of the sky disappeared, and they seemed to be in Walking in nightmares.

Fortunately, they finally reached a high point. From here, you can see a few firelights. The mercenary leader who was entrusted by Leopold I was not a mediocre person - don't forget that Marshal Schumberg was also an Austrian. With the mercenary chief—the chief restrained his soldiers from lighting with torches and bonfires, to keep warm, and to drive away wild beasts, more than a thousand people sat and lay together with great discipline, with only slight snoring and chatter, little Eugen saw There were also carriages in their ranks, and although he couldn't check the depth of the ruts, he guessed it—it should be artillery.

  The city wall of King Town adopts the design of General Vauban, made of cement and heavy stone bricks, but it is still an industrial town after all, not a real military fortress, and its city walls may not be able to withstand the bombardment of artillery.

Little Eugen may have had an idea at this time. When he and Joseph returned to Kingstown, they were undoubtedly reprimanded by the Count of Soissons. According to military law, they had to be punished, but little Eugen. At this time, he came up with an idea that shocked him.

The idea of ​​little Eugen is still the same as before. He is not willing to stay within the city wall, waiting for the enemy to attack. They are so close to the enemy, and the enemy has not yet expected that they have noticed, so they should take this advantage. Good use - little Eugen's original idea was to lead the army to ambush, but now he has good attention, the valley is narrow and high, because the peaks on both sides **** towards the middle, so it is difficult for people below Look up to see the situation above.

  The Count of Savasson wrote: At that time, I asked him what plans he had, and he said, isn't there a lot of black oil in the glass factory?

Of course, Louis XIV knew about black oil. Black oil is also a kind of oil extracted from coal by wizards. Its output is not high, but it can have a higher and more stable temperature than coal, and the glass produced is purer. Now the king The palace with the princes (not limited to France) does not have large and bright glass windows and glass full-length mirrors, but people will laugh at them secretly for a long time. This is also one of the important incomes of Louis XIV. Those thugs thought of destroying them for the first time. No surprise here.

   But to say that the output is not high, it is also said to coal and steel, there are at least 2,000 pounds of coal tar in stock.

Little Eugene didn't need too many people. In the army of the Count of Soissons, he could easily carry fifty pounds on his back, and then there were not a few grenadiers who ran from Paris to Versailles. They used water bags to carry them. Coal tar, followed little Eugen, Joseph, and climbed the nameless mountain in the dark night - it is said that before they set off, little Eugen tied each soldier's mouth with a cloth, so that even if they stumbled It doesn't even cry when it falls.

They don't even have to climb to the top, it's just that it's almost four o'clock, and everything around them is no longer gray and black and white, but like faded tempera, but once they reach the right place - little Eugen even long ago Marked with broken branches, the rest of the work was simple, the grenadiers silently swung the water bladders and threw them from the raised rocks to the bottom of the valley, they were found, but it was too late, Such an inward sloping mountain wall is destined to be difficult for people at the bottom of the valley to climb up.

   A few grenadiers untied their grenades after dropping their water bladders.

  The grenade exploded in the crowd, and the flames, fragments of iron, and projectiles splashed in all directions, igniting the coal tar.

Although there is not much vegetation on the mountain wall, the bottom of the valley must be overgrown with vines and lush vegetation, and the flames have swept the entire valley. In the thick smoke and fire, it is difficult for the mercenaries to follow the command of the leader. They either run backward or forward. Rush, trample each other, howling and cursing sound like they came from hell.

   I will start adding more tomorrow.

   (end of this chapter)