I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 506 San Diego (3)

  Everyone listened and agreed.

   "But there is also the problem," said the young priest. "Even if we know about this kind of thing, it's hard to figure out how to deal with it."

Leon, and later Uclès, or how cities flourished from the Holy City of Jerusalem along the Pyrenees and along the French-Spanish Endless pilgrims follow this road to visit the tomb of St. James. These people are all over the entire Europa, most of them are Spaniards and French. Now Spain's anti-French alliance has pushed the former Knights of Santiago to the front, which is In order to use the power of religion against the mighty French.

   Because the French army also has a surprising number of Catholics.

As for Leon's miracles, it's just a gimmick to attract pilgrims to come, not to mention the priests, even little Eugen knows how many ways to make it - a statue of a saint crying, a cross glowing, or a gathering of birds and beasts Somewhere in the wonderful sights, some still require non-human beings who are truly different from mortals, such as wizards, and some only require simple mathematics or alchemy knowledge.

   But for those foolish believers, will they listen to your explanation? All pilgrims have to put down their work, prepare food on the road, buy expensive travel permits, endure all kinds of hardships in the long journey, face the threat of bandits and beasts... Generally speaking, purely for their own sake. There are not many people who believe in pilgrimages. Most of them are in the quagmire of pain that they cannot get rid of, so they hope to obtain God’s care and peace of mind through pilgrimage.

The "Knights" of the Knights of Santiago faked the holy relics and welcomed so many people, just to use them to form pressure on the French. After all, no one who decides to die in war will show mercy to the enemy, but if they meet What about a group of old people, women, children, and sick people? To make matters worse, they may have been bewitched by the priests in the city of Leon to form a "Holy Army" against Louis XIV's army.

The Roman Church still has tens of millions of believers, including Louis XIV's relatives, friends, generals and ministers. Once the conflict here is rendered as a "religious war" by the church and the anti-French alliance, France will Forced to take the stand of "unrighteousness". Although the church did not force Louis XIV to walk barefoot and without a hat to the place where the Pope was stationed to plead guilty, as in the humiliation of Canossa, there was bound to be a turmoil in France.

   "Let's think about it carefully," said little Eugen, and everyone left the conference hall together and went back to their rooms.

It must be said that when the Duke of Luxembourg handed Leon over to Eugen, others thought he was too gullible and overestimated this young nobleman, but for Eugen, Leon City was not a problem—it It is too old, and the Spaniards have not regarded it as an important fortress to repair and renovate. Although its walls are tall, it is still designed to resist ladders, battering rams and inefficient artillery, as it was in the period of the two kings. It was built, and now all the artillery of the French is fully capable of defeating it, penetrating it.

The army in Leon is not the standing army set up by Carlos II and his ministers following the example of France, but the private army and mercenary of the princes and lords of Galicia, and the knights of Santiago who do not know when they will appear. ...should be inseparable from the local church, their fighting power is not strong, not to mention those unscrupulous mercenaries, those privately owned armies, although the soldiers also have money and land (they are generally tenant farmers The shackles of birth), but it is equally impossible for them to fight with their lives for the sake of their masters. As for those San Diego Knights, that's purely cosmetic.

   It turns out that the problem is here.

   At this time he heard someone knocking on the door - their meeting place was in a small room outside Little Eugen's bedroom, and no one would be too particular during the war.

The person who came was the vice-captain of the grenadier company under the command of little Eugen. He was a tall and strong young man. Of course, all grenadiers were tall and strong, otherwise they could not throw the grenade far enough. There is a traditional Huguenot name called Corini, the same name as the admiral who was tragically killed in the massacre of St. Bartholomew.

"Mr. Colonel." As soon as he entered the door, he bowed to little Eugen in a proper manner. Unlike other company captains, this vice-captain has maintained 120,000 respect for little Eugen from the very beginning. Even if someone laughed at him for being too servile to the nobles from Paris, he didn't care at all - so now, little Eugene is still very close to him when he has made people bow his head with his uninterrupted victories.

   "It's almost dinner time." Little Eugen said, "Want to dine with me?"

   "It's my pleasure," Colini said.

   Dinner at the barracks was also simple, with potatoes, pork or beef topped with sauces and some available vegetables, but little Eugen, as the head of the legion, had good wine here.

Colini took the place of the attendant and served little Eugen diligently with a glass of wine. Little Eugen signaled that he could dine on his own. Eugen said: "Mr. Colonel, I have some thoughts about Leon, I hope you can listen to it."

   "All right," said little Eugen, "I was just about to hear your opinion."

"I think if the Knights of Santiago in Leon faked the holy sign, then can we also imitate their method and let the holy sign appear in other places and attract people to that place." Colini Said: "The problem we are encountering now is that there are a large number of pilgrims in the city of Leon who come to worship the holy signs. If there are holy signs in other places, they may leave Leon and go elsewhere."

Little Eugen thought for a while, "This is what I have thought of, but people who came out of the city said that Leon City was not allowed to enter and leave at will a few days ago, especially those who want to go out. In addition, even if How can we make a holy miracle in people's ears? Soldiers roaming the city can put suspicious people in jail without any trial."

  Corrini was visibly stunned. "Oh," he said, "I thought you would accuse me of making a holy miracle."

   He was a Calvinist—what so-called Protestants call Huguenots in France.

There are many differences between Protestants and Catholics, one of which is that the Catholic Church pays homage to saints, including: the Virgin, Angels, Saints, St. After **** Christ completed the great work of atonement on behalf of mankind, he returned to heaven and carved the image of **** on the cross. Instead, he violated the commandment of "no idolatry" in the Bible.

   So he said that there was not much hindrance in his heart when he said that the miracles were forged, but unlike Corigny, little Eugen was a Catholic.

The people in the Palace of Versailles are all Catholics without exception. In addition to the issue of belief, it is the good deed done by the Queen Mother from the Medici family - the original St. Bartholomew massacre, but Catholics Huguenots, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, slaughtered from night to dawn, and the streets and rivers were littered with dead bodies (people in those days would not sleep at night in precious clothes), blood spreads like the sun--those mad believers have spared even children and pregnant women.

   It is conceivable that the Huguenots will have a huge hatred for the French royal family. Of course, the Palace of Versailles and the Louvre cannot accommodate these dangerous heretics.

   "What the red princes of the Church of Rome are doing," asked little Eugen strangely, "why can't we do it?" Or else? Where in the world do so many sacred objects come from? Even if the bones of a saint can be split apart, there are only 206 bones in a person, and the Virgin Mary has only one hair, but look at it, it seems that anyone who walks by on the street can be removed from the body. Take out a reliquary containing a saint's bone or a Virgin's hair...

   We also mentioned how many believers there are in the Church of Rome.

   "That's really disappointing," Corini said, but by the looks of it, his words probably didn't have much to do with his heart, maybe because he had another way.

   "So what if we disguised as pilgrims, sneaked into Leon, and managed to open the city gates?"

"It's an old method," said little Eugen, "but it's not feasible. How many people can you walk in? There are fifteen thousand soldiers in Leon. Also, even if you open the gate, they are the same. Pilgrims can be driven to stop us."

   "We'll try to cause some disturbance," said Corrini. "Then, sir, please let the Protestants in the army lead the way."

   Little Eugen was stunned: "Sorry?"

"The reason why you are embarrassed is that Catholics cannot kill each other. This is the doctrine and the principle you abide by, but..." He smiled slightly: "Protestants are not the case, my lord, Protestants are to Catholics, Catholics Christians are infidels to Protestants and each other, and they will not have any hesitations or complaints."

   Little Eugen glanced at him with doubts in his eyes: "But you are still His Majesty's soldiers."

   "We can leave the army." Corini said cheerfully: "Neither the Spaniards, nor the pilgrims of Leon, nor the priests of the Roman Church, none of them would want to accuse our majesty."

   "Then you can go by yourself," said little Eugen. "You should need something that no one can give you but me."

   "It does," Corini said. "Some of the latest grenades."

   "I see," said little Eugen, "but I still don't understand that I can't give credit to you if you're not in the army."

   "Can't we just go back to the army?" Colini said, "When you've grown up, it won't be a big problem if you want to get one or two out."

   (end of this chapter)