I Am Louis XIV

  Chapter 536 Viscount Turenne's Sea Gala (Part 2)

  Without the guilds and chambers of commerce, those who once held power are like tigers whose minions have been pulled out, and they no longer have the energy to do whatever they want.

  The guilds and chambers of commerce in France were gradually replaced by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Industry set up by the king. That is because the French guilds have not yet reached the point where they can control politics, but the two "guilds" in the Netherlands are different. Most of their chambers of commerce and guild leaders are city councillors and provincial councillors, and then they become members of the parliament. The officials and councillors from the prime minister, even if they are not businessmen, are their spokespersons. Their forces are intertwined with the national fortune of the Netherlands. , just like the parasitic vines that climb the big tree, but unfortunately, while absorbing the sunshine from the heights, they strangled their foundation without hesitation - until the big tree in Holland fell, they regretted it.

  So, De Boer despised Schön, and Schön also despised De Boer.

De Boer despised Schön because the merchants represented by Schön were ruthless and mercenary, and Schön looked down on De Boer because from the beginning of the Netherlands, businessmen were the real masters of the country, such as Reuter. Such generals, or rebels like De Boer, are weapons or tools in their hands. You may think a certain tool is easy enough, but will you worship or cherish it because of this? of course not.

   But because of the French, they may be temporarily united.

  Schoen snorted in his heart, but as a businessman, he has always been able to conceal his true thoughts very well. He did not look at De Boer and walked towards today's protagonist, Viscount Turenne, with a smile on his face.

As the owner of a shoe-making workshop, Schön is not qualified to be close to the governor, but the people surrounding Viscount Turenne are probably those who once had a place in Amsterdam's city hall. Venom is brewing in their hearts, and their faces She didn't reveal a single trace, and she spoke sweet words without refusing to refuse. If they changed anyone with a slightly frivolous temperament, they would be flattered to the point that they would lose control over themselves, and would not know what to say or do absurd things.

   But who is Viscount Turenne? His journey has not been smooth. As the weak second son, he was assigned to the army under his uncle when he was an adult. The title and territory of the Duke of Sedan had nothing to do with him. Fortunately, his uncle Prince Maurice loved him. Plus, with diligent teaching, he was able to gain the favor of Da Kongdai.

In the second Foliage movement, he was not unexpectedly on the side of Grand Condé. Before the battle of the old city, he also believed that if Grand Condé became the king of France, he would not be able to govern until 1989. The teenage king was good — of course, he quickly changed his mind, but the king could have imprisoned, exiled, or even executed him just because he had fought the king.

  Louis XIV did not do that, but reused him, and he fought for the king instead, to this day.

  During this process, the attitude of the people in the French court towards him changed several times, if not three times a day. To this day, Viscount Turenne has heard countless flattery and scorned eyes, and has long been unshakable because of anything or his attitude. After listening to his compliments calmly, he nodded to the crowd in front of him. .

   "My worthy gentlemen and ladies," he said, "what do you think of today's meal?"

"great!"

   "Impossible!"

   "What about today's drinks?"

   "Very luscious!"

   "What about music?"

"Like the holy voice of heaven!" This sentence is not against his heart, because Louis XIV let his sons and daughters establish three art academies like temples, those with talents but not talents, those who are popular and those who are not popular, Young and old artists come to Paris like a river to the sea, where they communicate with each other, learn from each other, and perform. No matter how elegant they are on the surface, they are like bloodthirsty fighters on the inside. That madness—the characters who can show their prominence in this terrifying Shura field are certainly not ordinary people.

   Even if the musicians sent to Viscount Turenne were not the best, they were the second best. Even if someone didn't like the governor, he had to admit that he brought many wonderful movements to the Netherlands.

"But it's not the best." Viscount Turenne was not the kind of person who was good at speech and incitement. He raised a glass to the crowd, and after drinking the red wine inside, he turned to look at The big curtain behind the band: "Everyone, I have a grand show to dedicate to you."

  People look there subconsciously, but nothing can be seen behind the big curtain, and what could be behind it? There are many people who have been to the City Hall, and even stayed here for a long time, and know that there should be black iron checkered glass windows on one side.

The palace is located on the dam, like all the Baroque buildings in this period. This building was completed in 1955. The rooms in the building are opposite each other through a corridor. There are hundreds of windows on the wall. From the central hall, people can see not only the vast Dam Square, but also the busy port and the vast sea.

   Viscount Turenne motioned them to look at the side facing the sea, that is, the North Sea.

The tightly covered curtains were slowly pulled away by the servants. The first thing that caught people's eyes was the pitch-black sky, scattered with shimmering light. The ships in the port were like continuous hills, only showing a gentle slope, and their masts were just like the mountains. Like a jagged tree. Looking further into the distance, there is a sea of ​​soft light, as if within reach and far away in the sky.

After a moment of trance, Schoen broke free from this beautiful scene. He remembered that the glass here was not so big or so transparent, as if it didn't exist, but then he remembered that the hall had been opened not long ago. It has been renovated, and the glass industry is also one of the most valuable industries under the French king. He lamented the wealth of Louis XIV - this palace is destined not to be the king's permanent residence, and he is willing to use glass so extravagantly. . On the one hand, there was also a strong heart of jealousy and dissatisfaction.

  Why bother with us when you are already so rich?

While the kings and lords in other parts of Europa were still cooperating with the merchants to coerce and oppress the commoners, Louis XIV took a different approach and started his own rule by restricting the merchants and treating the commoners kindly. It stands to reason that this kind of behavior should lead to The anger of the beneficiaries made him end up like the former Charles I. But Louis XIV was a knight king who went to the battlefield, had countless loyal soldiers and generals, and was deeply loved by the people. Before such honor and merit, any conspiracy is like the dew under the sun, and it is shattered before it takes shape. .

  Schoen didn't expect their conspiracy to affect that His Majesty's rule. He only hoped that before the Sun King made a decision, he would be able to... He means, just a little bit, and consider it on the side of the merchant.

   That's what he thought. As for the poor people who were pushed out by them, he didn't care at all, no, it should be said, he didn't think about it at all.

The night scene outside is beautiful, but no matter how beautiful it is, it can't be turned into a real show... People are whispering, they dare not question Viscount Turenne, they can only think of all kinds of praise words - they can Describing Viscount Turenne, a thin old man, as a stalwart **** like Poseidon, can of course compose a sonnet to their usual scene.

Schoen took out a small notebook from his pocket, which contained poems he had bought from a scholar. Well, it wasn't very good, but it definitely fit his identity. He was also the object of flattery, and I knew that sometimes he He doesn't care what other people say, he just likes others to bow before him. He coughed softly, tidied up his coat, raised his head and looked out the window, ready to dedicate a little poem to Viscount Turenne in praise of Amsterdam—that is, under the rule of the king of France and the rule of Viscount Turenne , becoming more prosperous and beautiful Amsterdam…

   Then he froze.

  Black has always been the best background color for many scenes. Its deep nature can easily highlight even the subtlest bright colors. Therefore, Schoen saw the gold and red bursting out of the distant sea - the colors of fire and explosion. There was moonlight, there was starlight, there were faint lights dotted with ships and piers - but it couldn't be affected or obstructed in the slightest. It is also possible that they are not fleeting, but are constantly expanding and erupting, one after the other.

People like Schon occupied the majority. Viscount Turenne swept the entire hall with his sharp eyes like a falcon. Some people became nervous or angry. What surprised him was that De Boer was among them. It seems that idealists sometimes compromise with reality.

   "That's... what?" After a long time, someone asked with a trembling voice.

Viscount Turenne asked the servants to open all the long windows further - this was only after the renovation, so that not only the light, but also the faint roar of thunder could be heard, and the night was silent and people Even if you want to deceive yourself, you can't deny that this frequent and irregular loud noise cannot be a gift from God.

"It's just a small battle." Viscount Turenne walked to the window calmly, enjoying the smell of the sea breeze, as if he could smell the familiar smell of sulfur and blood, "By the loser, the conspirators , and a fleet organized by stupid innocent children..." He smiled, "Although I don't know if I should say that, after all, they don't even have an ironclad ship, and they are all former defeated soldiers, but I Guess there must be a lot of people here who think they can win - after an infamous sneak attack."

   Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that someone wanted to speak impulsively, but was caught by the people around him.

"Whether this is the case, you should understand in your heart, and I will not repeat it," said Viscount Turenne, "and please watch this grand show quietly here, I don't think it will delay you too long. !"

   Having said that, he sat down by the window, watching the battle in the distance, and sipping slowly the sweet red wine of Lysalis. The production of ancient Lysalis wine is not high this year, but the king specially sent him a dozen.

He was undoubtedly quite happy tonight. Even if someone wanted to leave, or even had a conflict with the servants and soldiers, he just watched with a smile. There were not many such people—although the scene was pale after the curtain was drawn. There are not a few people who are blue, livid or crimson - they have been planning to sell Amsterdam to Britain, or France's enemy, Viscount Turenne, for various reasons, and they are in the arms of these guys.

They can be said to be in urgent contact with the British-Danish forces and the Dutch government in exile, and their fleet will be brought into the port of Amsterdam in the middle of the night, and then the number of soldiers will be overwhelming - for the French army in the Netherlands. They will storm the city and drive the French out.

Even if someone suggested that this might be the plot of Viscount Turenne, they couldn't care less. Seeing that Louis XIV and the Italians had reached an agreement with the new sultan of Ottoman Turkey, the French fleet would withdraw from the Mediterranean Sea and return to the In the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, if they delay and hesitate, they will miss the opportunity.

Well, taking 10,000 steps back, even with the old Viscount Turenne, young generals such as Jean Barr and Joseph, who had emerged in the Battle of Double Bay, were still by Louis XIV’s good time. If they didn't take Amsterdam in one fell swoop, it still belonged to the French, and they wouldn't do any harm, and it was possible to let the French king know that Holland was not his France - as long as they wanted to make trouble, the sea city should not be peaceful.

Holding such a fantasy, while regretting the money that he has invested in vain, he is thinking about how to flatter the French and avoid this crisis. In this way, under the compulsion of Viscount Turenne, he stood abruptly. After half the night (only the ladies were allowed to rest in one room), the din was finally heard from outside until it was getting dark.

They were relieved at first, and even a few people couldn't hold it anymore and fell on the carpet, and then they were at a loss with Zhang Huang, because it was no one else who walked in, but the young man they often saw around Viscount Turenne. Man, Chaud-Louis Hector de Villar.

Seeing him, the conspirators knew they had failed, the dying struggle of the British, the last stand of the Danes, and the luck of the Dutch government-in-exile had all turned into vain. The young general took out a letter, claiming that it recorded the names of all the "spies" who had dealings with the British, and read them out one by one.

   Every time a name was uttered, a person was caught, and then… immediately sent to Dam Square and hung on the gallows that was erected at an unknown time.

  Schoen was also one of them, and he shouted in horror, "This is fake, this is a frame!"

   "I don't think so," Villar paused for a moment, then said with a smile: "This list was read and approved by the esteemed Duke of York himself."

   He turned the stationery so that everyone could see the signature on it.

   (end of this chapter)