I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 97 The Battle of Dunkirk in 1658

The bishop's plan is not without reason. Although he has vowed to abandon the world, cut off kinship, and serve God wholeheartedly, we all know that even the most devout priests will take care of blood relatives, let alone a bishop like Mazarin. More secular than the secular, Mr. Bishop. What's interesting is that he doesn't care much about his poor family, but he cares about those who helped him when he was still in trouble, such as former financial director Particherry Emery, and even In the Mancini family, where he was about to become famous and decided to invest, he even wanted to introduce the boys of the Mancini family to the court, but as we know, although he did so, poor Felipe was stabbed by the king. Pierced, and two boys, one from previous riots and one from school-school illnesses - only a few people know that he died in a disgraceful murder.

So when Mr. Bishop found that no one could inherit his merits, he decided to hand it over to someone trusted by the king, as Richelieu had done before. In terms of finances, he pre-selected Fouquet, but then he was disappointed to find that , the new Treasurer was not only greedy, but also stupid, and could not see that the king's indulgence in him was trying the noose with his neck; then his eyes fell on Mr. Colbert, but this The candidate is not very suitable, or, in other words, he can only undertake part of the current work of Mr. Bishop.

   Then to whom should he hand over the most important rights in his hands? There is no doubt that this unknown power is a double-edged sword, whether it is against the master or the king, until the king kills Felipe decisively. Of course, the bishop does not want to praise this behavior, after all Felipe's last name was Mancini, but he didn't really like the idiot who was always talking about it - he just didn't have a choice.

After the initial anger had passed, when the bishop was finally able to think of this matter calmly, he suddenly realized that the king's handling at that time seemed reckless, but it was the best. The best way to deal with the impact of this scandal is to die. Of course, the king will not let his younger brother die, so only Mancini will die, and he does it himself, which also ensures that Mr. Bishop will not take anger because of this matter. Anyone - he can never punish a king.

But what made him appreciate more was the concession that the king made to the Mancini family afterwards. Yes, it sounds a little depressing, although Felipe Mancini has done enough to make him both in the world and the table at the same time. The court of the world, but he is also the eldest son of the Mancini family, even if he is really stupid - some young people can't help but complain, full of resentment, the king accepts this matter very calmly, Mr. Bishop noticed , in the past he would complain a few words to Marie, but now he rarely mentions the Mancini family in front of Marie.

In general, Mr. Bishop thinks, there are only two possibilities for him not to mention a name. One is that he thinks the name is trustworthy or important enough to be forgiven in any case; the other is that he thinks the name has no Value, not to mention.

  It was hard for him to think that the king would prefer the first, but whether it was the first or the second, Mr. Bishop decided to leave his most important inheritance to the king rather than others.

  ———

Mr. Bishop's generosity really makes Louis happy. No one can know better than him how important the intelligence network is, but to build an intelligence network, the first thing is money, a lot of money, and the second thing is time. None. It is really nice that Mr. Bishop is willing to gradually transfer the power in his hands to him. He can't help but look forward to the gentleman he will see, but the reason why Mr. Bishop said to wait a few more days may be because of the imminent war. .

  On the eve of the war, any stranger will be regarded as a target to keep an eye on. As a spy, you will not be so reckless when it is not life and death.

It was a fine summer day on the day of the war. The Spanish and French armies were lined up parallel to the coastline. Louis stood at the top of the town, holding the telescope on the bell tower, when the telescope was first invented. It can only see three times as far. After an Italian scholar Galileo Galilei learned the trick, a telescope built a month later could see eight times as far, and a few months later. Twenty times farther, the telescope he made is said to be able to see the uneven surface of the moon - the telescope in Louis's hand is thirty times farther, and here he can see the shoulder straps of the soldiers, and he turns the tube , from the Anglo-French coalition to the Spaniards. From here, we can see that the Spaniards still adopted the customary large square, that is to say, a square of spearmen of about 100 people has four corners of the square. There were nine musketeers in groups, and some scattered musketeers walking in the phalanx—the king roughly estimated that there were 60 groups in this phalanx, which means that the Spanish coalition should have seven or eight thousand here. A soldier, and possibly some cavalry and reserves, but basically the same number as Viscount Turenne has.

He saw that the Viscount Turenne unceremoniously lined up the new British Model Army in front, their bright red coats clearly distinguishing them from the others, who had no topographical advantage because the Spanish had taken the high ground, Although on the beach, this height is only relative, but everyone knows that in combat, no matter how small an advantage is, it can be said that it is almost customary to say that the artillery comes first. At that time, the new model army began to attack. Their courage and experience were indeed not comparable to the current French army. It only took a few minutes for them to close the distance to the point where they started shooting each other.

At this time, the courage of each other is to be tested. People often joke that the shooting of muskets in the seventeenth century is similar to face-to-face suicide, but this is not without reason. First of all, the shooting rate of guns at this time is very poor, so bad Even if a hundred bullets can hit an enemy, even if you are lucky, you can only use a dense formation to ensure the hit rate; secondly, it is impossible to protect yourself by lying down, shielding or other means, because the guns are aimed and charged at this time. They have to stand up, not to mention that when attacking, the soldiers have to follow the drum beat and the team flag to move forward, instead of staying in a fixed place to shoot; finally, also because of the limitations of guns, the range of hot weapons at that time was only six. Ten feet to a hundred feet, such a distance, it often takes only a few seconds to rush to the opponent... Many times, when the ammunition is exhausted or the officer perceives that the distance is too close, they will raise the long knife high With a whimper, all the soldiers will follow him with their knives drawn instead of continuing to stand there stupidly and shoot.

So the smoke only lasted for a few minutes. The king saw the soldiers in red suits climbing up the dunes like violent ants and running towards the Spanish phalanx. The Spanish musketeers immediately hid among the spearmen. , and those spearmen immediately put down their spears. From a distance, it looks like a porcupine suddenly exploded with thorns all over the body. This is the case in all four directions. , Louis is not surprised how the Spaniards have been able to rely on this phalanx to cross Europa for nearly half a century.

But if the previous confrontation was a test of the courage of both sides, then what is now in front of people is the courage of the British New Model Army. They rushed desperately and broke through the front row of spearmen and broke into the phalanx. , so that the phalanx was in chaos, and the soldiers scattered and fled to the bottom of the dunes.

   "Ah!" cried the king nervously.

   "What?" asked Mr. Bishop.

   "Their lines are too long," said the king, handing the binoculars to the bishop. Mr. Bishop watched him clench his fists amusedly, he was a young man after all, he thought, while putting the binoculars in front of him, in just a moment, the situation on the battlefield changed. The attack on the left flank, sweeping the battlefield like a slaughter: "That is... the king's army," Mr. Bishop discerned from the shoulder strap and flag: "The Duke of York's army."

   That's no wonder, those new model army and Wang army are simply enemies of life and death, they even left the Spaniards, only care about entanglement, kill you to the death.

   "Viscount Turenne has sent cavalry to support," said the Bishop again.

The king immediately took back the spyglass, and he saw that the French cavalry with bright red shoulder straps had moved towards the place where the fighting was most intense, while the Spanish cavalry was a step slower - like the great phalanx of the Spaniards, the French The edict knights also galloped in Europa for nearly a hundred years, but in the Battle of Pavia in 1525, although the French edict knights defeated the Spanish heavy cavalry, they suffered a heavy setback in the musketeers of the Spanish phalanx. —The Spanish musketeers at that time were armed with the Musquette musket, a large-caliber musket capable of penetrating heavy armour, which killed and wounded many knights in that battle.

But when the Spanish musketeers had been routed and faced the British and Spanish cavalry, the edict knights were still extremely brave. They routed two cavalry in a row and, as the vanguard, guided the French infantry towards the Spaniards. battle formation attack.

   Now all the colors are mixed together, the king only felt dizzy for a while, and when he put down the telescope, he found that his back was tense and almost hurt.

   "I'll ask Bontang to bring some tea. Let's rest for a while," said the bishop, without persuading the king to leave the tower, not to mention the king, he didn't want to.

Note: Louis was born in 38, so the age of the king's brother Philip was mistaken before. The Queen of Sweden visited was 56 years old, Henrietta was 12 years old, the king's brother was 16 years old, the king was 18 years old, and now it is 58 years old, so There's nothing wrong with the king turning 20.

   Also, when Mr. Bishop mentioned the age of the king, I accidentally typed it wrong... I have corrected it.

   Sorry, sometimes the code is too fast, and it is neglected.

   (end of this chapter)