I Am Louis XIV

  Chapter 560 The Duke of Harlebull and the Duke of Montreal (Part 2)

"I said this, you can understand." Louis looked at the two children gently: "I know that when you were very young, someone would tell you that you are the king's child, and you will become a king in the future. Yes, but ... it's not what I'm trying to achieve, whether it's Holland or America."

"I don't understand," said August sadly, "I don't want to be king," I was a sinner's child, he didn't say it, but everyone there understood: "But why can't you be that country? What about the king of the king? Your brilliance can shine thousands of miles away."

"Yes," said Louie, "but the sun is going to set and I will die, so what will be left for those people?" He said slowly: "It is because of the consideration of those who love me and trust I, my worshippers, I can't be the king of America - think about it, a place that big, a new place, of course I can shape them as I want, but when I leave this What about after this world? No matter how dearly I hold them in my hands, it will only fall apart."

   "You can leave them to someone you trust," Baptiste said.

"I thought so," Louis looked at them, "before you came to Paris, I had only Auguste in my original plan, and now I have you because I am also greedy and hope that Bourbon His surname can shine on the New World for a long time." He looked at Baptiste lovingly: "Halebur is too small, and America has wastelands where tens of millions of bison run, and high mountains soaring into the clouds, Like a lake like the sea, there is your final destination."

   "You are willing to let my brother Baptiste and I go to America to be the governor, but you don't want to be the king of America because you think America cannot be one in the end?" August asked suddenly.

  Louis gave him a look of encouragement and affirmation: "Yes."

   "You didn't even try it."

"You can try it," said Louie, despite the surprised expressions of the two children: "You too, Baptiste. If I were twenty years younger, I would try it too, but I am now," he said. Compared to the pool table: "I have to stay here, I have enough problems to deal with, and America is so far away."

   "Will your army and people still betray you?"

"I went through two Frond rebellions before I reached adulthood," Louis said flatly. "I've learned from then on that nothing is taken for granted, no innate loyalty, no logical acquisition, There is also no persistent connection. A twenty-year-old person who looks at his eighty-year-old self will feel like a rotten coffin, and an eighty-year-old person who looks at his twenty-year-old self will feel that he is reckless. Little pig, let alone one person to another person?

In far-flung places, facing unfamiliar natives and animals, different climates, and desolate fields, they defeated the enemy, built their homes, planted and harvested crops with their own hands, and hunted countless furs. , was about to rest comfortably when someone they didn't know at all came up to take their property - for they were to pay taxes to His Majesty the King whom they saw only on the front of the coin, children, in all fairness , will they be willing? "

   "You can..." Baptiste stopped halfway through, of course...

Louis laughed, "Yeah, I can pay no taxes, or enforce the laws of France on that land, and I can recruit new blood in the army instead of conscription, but in that case, why should I care? How about holding on to the scepter? Knowing it's almost useless."

   "But you have always cared about that continent very much."

"Because if France doesn't intervene," said Louis, "it will be the basis for the British economy to take off again." I hope America can nourish France, but I will not be as cruel and inhuman as those Ansarians - and it turns out that peace and friendship are not necessarily stumbling blocks to development."

"You're right." Baptiste nodded. There are Indians in Brussels now, and people are used to getting along with people with reddish-brown skin. Anyway, as long as they get Indians, they have been baptized - except Rome. The church has been muttering that the beliefs of these Indians are only superficial, because they still do not know the difference between Protestantism and Catholicism - and this is also because Louis has always been the most wary of religious wars.

In the domain of Louis XIV, you can be Catholic, or Protestant (Huguenot), or even a wizard, you can roll your eyes at each other, spit on each other, two or three people agree to fight together, or occasionally Yes, but if things got to a gang fight, or a public procession of more than ten people, the king's police and army would come to intervene.

Many Huguenots migrated to America. Maybe they thought that when they got there, they could do whatever they wanted. After all, the king's agent there was the Protestant Marshal Schumberg. What they didn't expect was that Schaum Marshal Berg has long since been broken by His Majesty the King - he doesn't like the Roman Church, but it doesn't prevent him from hating the villains who make things through faith...

In this kind of atmosphere, the Indians should not be deeply influenced by them. Their original beliefs were quite primitive. They simply combined the three beliefs and became a kind of "New Protestant", whether Catholic or Protestant, or the primitive beliefs of the Indians, traces can be found in it... But they sincerely think that they are pious of believers.

   "You should also pay attention to this when you get there," Louis reminded.

   "You just said that if we want, we can try it." Baptiste couldn't help but said: "You mean, we can strive to become the masters of that country?"

"I didn't take your ambitions away, boy," said Louie. "I'm standing here and relinquishing Amelica's authority because I know that if I get it, it won't turn out well—unless I, or My heir goes to New Amsterdam or Montreal, and a king cannot leave his country." He looked at Baptiste: "But you, unlike August, have an innate advantage—that I give Your support, although I don't think... well, don't be angry, I don't underestimate you, but... it's still like that, what a vast place it is."

Baptiste really thought about it for a while, then he shook his head: "Probably not," he said to August: "The most prestigious in America now should be General Schumberg, to the Indians. It's 'the bull's horns', and when we go to Montreal or other places, it's hard to build credibility."

   "Dad also established his authority through war," said August, "and America has no war."

"There is another way to enrich the lives of the people." Baptiste's words made August laugh: "Yes, the same as our father." He paused, "but Your Majesty has said before that no matter what we do - we are the ones who collect taxes from the people and they can't need us - unless we can give them what they can't get."

"What do they need and can't get?" Baptiste said, thinking of Brussels, which had a very prosperous dyeing and weaving industry, and commerce was extremely developed, when his mother was canonized as the Duchess of Brussels After that, she naturally became the one who held the mouthpieces of these businessmen and craftsmen. As her son, Baptiste took care of these things for his mother carefully even if he didn't like it.

Brussels is undoubtedly a place that can quickly feed France, but as the discoveries and inventions of the king's scholars and wizards are applied to reality, Brussels' merchants have begun to rely on French steel, fuel, and textile machines. Exports, and America, is a hundred times more desolate than Brussels, although the Indians are not the savage animals they first thought, but they only began to touch modern science five years ago. It is impossible to catch up with the French ship.

   "At least twenty years, maybe even thirty years," Baptiste said, his eyes gleaming: "This is our chance," he said.

August listened, but hesitated a little: "It sounds like this will be a very important thing," he said: "I don't know if I can do it well, maybe..." Let the king choose a capable minister in the past. better?

"Father said this," said Baptiste, "because of the fact that France and America must maintain a moderate and friendly relationship for the next fifty years." Although some people make such wild claims that this world does not need a king, but This is pure nonsense - when Louis XIV dies, the future King of France will be their half-brother, Louis XV, without this blood relationship - for example, Marshal Schumberg, who I am afraid that it will be difficult for the initiative and initiatives of the 1st to pass through the court of Versailles as it is now - because he is not a Bourbon, and there must be people who either sincerely or pretend to think that he intends to be king by himself.

   This kind of thing has not happened before. The most famous example is the Archduke of Milan, Sforza, a humble mercenary who left a legacy that continues to this day. But if it's Bourbon, it's different. If nothing else, just look at Prince Condé in Poland and Luciano, Duke of Colonna in Italy. They are both relatives of the king, so people are willing to accept their rule.

If Baptiste and Auguste were the bridges between America and France, for the people of Versailles, it would be like the way Alfonso V gave Naples to his illegitimate sons, they would also be willing to accept..." Your Majesty doesn't seem to think that we can succeed." August said thoughtfully, "Why don't you worry about us fighting?"

"The world is advancing," said Louie, "and children, America is a new land, but precisely because it is a new land, like a dry sponge, it will frantically absorb every knowledge of the outside world, so it is progress even faster than Paris and Versailles—especially since it was originally without kings and churches."

He put down his club and walked to the window, "I know someone gave a speech in a cafe not long ago, saying that France should inherit the heritage from ancient Greece and Rome, restore the republic, and abandon the monarchy. As a result, he was pulled from the high platform. dragged into the street and beat him."

   "But this is impossible," said August subconsciously: "Look at France now, without you, it would have declined and even divided."

"That's because people don't have such power now." Louis said something that was enough to make Viscount Turenne, Prince Conti, or any of his courtiers faint: "I wanted to popularize education, Mazarin. The bishop said to me, if I open the eyes of the people, they will not be willing to continue to be bound to the heavy stone mill. They will first think, then they will ask questions, and then they will resist. "

  Baptiste's eyes widened, "But you did it anyway."

"Yeah, because I said, I don't want to be king to a bunch of monkeys," said Louis. "If it were three hundred years ago, no, even a hundred years ago, I would have tried to put you on the throne, but today , I don't want to do that because..." he said, "I can see the crown fall, the only difference is whether or not the head falls with it."

   "But you are so great..." August murmured.

   "Maybe there are people who will be honored for thousands of years," said Louis, "but I'm certainly not one of them."

  ———

No one knew what His Majesty the King said to the two young dukes that day. The two dukes were tight-lipped, but they didn't look very good, but people could not be sure whether it was because His Majesty intended to send them to the New World as governors. for the sake of.

Now that the Netherlands is bound to become a major province in France is beyond doubt, Louis XIV is not even willing to let his illegitimate son stay in Brussels - but the title of the duke does not need to be changed, he renamed a city in the New World For Brussels, the new Brussels.

Then, His Majesty the King specially sent Prince Conti as an envoy to take back Viscount Turenne. The situation in the Netherlands was settled, but the next thing was very labor-intensive. His Majesty left these things to General Villar, so that the Viscount Turenne was able to spend the last time peacefully.

   (end of this chapter)