I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 230 War on Sea and Land (2)

Compared with the unfavorable first battle of the British on the sea, Louis XIV's army was on the ground in Holland. William III was originally the last chance for Holland, but he was in vain in the internal conflict with Prime Minister John de Witte. With only one voice, the Netherlands might be able to organize some forces to seize the power of the prime minister, at least in wartime The noose around the neck was able to survive.

But just like this letter in the hands of Louis, the Orange Belt Party's hatred of the Prime Minister finally broke out after the disappearance of William III. They recklessly incited the mob and killed the last shred of vitality in the Netherlands. Small square, even though the king of France has declared war on the Netherlands, his army has divided into three ways to invade the republic, the parliamentarians of Amsterdam are still concerned about who can become the next big speaker and prime minister, this letter is written to the mayor of Nijmegen The letter was to ask the mayor to support him in subsequent elections, after promising all kinds of benefits.

The mayor of Nijmegen knelt before Louis, not so much that he had utterly succumbed at the feet of the king of France, but that the foolishness of those whom he had given hope, completely destroyed his illusions , before Louis burned the letter, he had read the letter, he read it word by word, even if it mentioned a little bit about armament or defense, or concern about war Yes, but no, even if the letter was sent on the second day after France declared war on the Netherlands... If you only read this letter, everyone would think that the war did not exist, and the Netherlands was still the strong and wealthy one God-given place.

"I've got a lot of keys like this," said Louis, playing with the heavy silver key that was long enough for his arm. The Netherlands deserves to be the Netherlands, even a city, the silver key it gives is weight. It is full, and is inlaid with huge diamonds and gems, but these cannot cover Louis's eyes. He did not come here for mere wealth, or rather, not only for wealth, he wants golden eggs, and he wants that The chicken that lays the golden egg - "I never thought a key could open people's hearts, especially when people in this city were my enemies just a few hours ago."

   This sentence made the mayor of Nijmegen tremble: "Your Majesty..."

While the people of Paris will exclaim how kind and good their king is, the people of Lorraine and Alsace, and the people of Flanders will not, the king has always been able to distinguish clearly Enemies and loyalists - as the mayor of Nijmegen read in pamphlets and newspapers, the young king imprisoned the Duke of Lorraine, forced him to sell Lorraine to himself, and killed him on the battlefield The true heir of Lorraine, his sorcerer spread the plague in Lorraine, summoned the devil, and he drove those poor people infected with the plague into the fire, or exiled them to a place outside Lorraine and Alsace.

And after he captured Flanders, in Flanders, the king implemented a military system. As small as a settlement, a clear number of permanent residents had to be reported, and even a baby had to be registered. Go up, adult males are required to serve the king - building countless fortifications, forts, storehouses, and roads, in which the king's army lives and walks on broad and flat roads, and behind the army, a mighty The swaying army merchants who were responsible for exchanging the army, or the woolen or anything of value that the people had paid for taxes, for food, tents, blankets, and other supplies.

The situation is almost like a tree that Dutch captains saw while sailing in the southeast, its root system is not in the soil, but on another tree, its roots sticking into each other's bark, sucking The sap in it, so that it can grow up, the trees it parasitizes will gradually become weak, but it will be lush and leafy, covering the sky and the sun.

   And Nijmegen, and even the Netherlands as a whole, is about to usher in such a tragic fate.

The king of France, though he praised God in his mouth, was not so at all, he was as hypocritical and greedy as any catholic, and he devoured his wife's father and father for a ridiculous and false reason. The younger brother's territory is Flanders, and even a vast Flanders can't satisfy his greed. Before today, the mayor of Nijmegen would still think that the French king's attempt on the Netherlands would be a dream after all. Even if the Netherlands only has an army of 20,000 people on the ground, how could other countries helplessly watch Did he go on to annex the Netherlands after annexing Flanders? If Flanders were just a herd of sheep that produced wool, Holland was a sturdy cow, and at a small price, an endless stream of snow-white flesh would be squeezed out of it.

He may be right, but it is clear that those countries will not allow Europa to have another Caesar, but this does not mean that they will waste their strength and money for this reason. In fact, only Niamey Mayor Heng knows that Denmark and other countries, united by the Holy Roman Emperor, have already established their borders, but they are just waiting for the opportunity in the whining of the Dutch. They don't like the French, but they don't like the Dutch either. Their Attempts are no different from France.

Louis threw the silver key to the Duke of Orleans beside him. "Take it, brother," he said, and the mayor of Nijmegen could only bow his head more deeply. "Mr. Mayor," he said, "I am Some officials will be sent to help you with the work I need you to do, and I hope they won't be hindered in any way, or cheated, or even murdered - especially the last one, I'm a benevolent man, but I cherish me My people, like to cherish my eyes, if anyone dares to hurt them..." He smiled: "Anyway what I look like in your pamphlet, what kind of French king you will see," he bowed down Lower body, looking into the mayor's eyes, his voice is still as calm as always: "The king's cruelty will not affect his greatness, I think you should know, because this is what you fear, and even murder you for it. hero."

  The mayor of Nijmegen struggled to say something, but in the end he found himself unable to say anything.

  ——

It's not without reason that Louis said this, because some of his officials had been injured in Flanders before. Fortunately, they were protected by vigilant soldiers. After all, they escaped with their lives, and the angry king immediately put the head down. Executions, exiles of entire villages, and idiots who don't think they'll be held accountable - they think their new rulers are stupid Spaniards too, but why does Louis keep so many spies, isn't it? Does it work at this time? Those people were also confiscated all their property and hung up on the stand.

Those shriveled corpses in cages are hanging beside every city gate for everyone to see. There is no doubt about the deterrent effect, but in the Netherlands, Louis does not want to do this again. He knows very well that this kind of free city is just It's like a small country without a king, and the families in the city are the princes who hold the power. The mayor was elected or traded by them. His warning was given to the mayor, and also to the families - they The fact that Louis is so happy to arrange Louis in the pamphlet is also because of a strange cognition - although they don't want to have a king, they think they are a privileged nobleman. Unfortunately, Louis is not like William III spoiled them like that. To Louis, they were no different from those ignorant craftsmen and small merchants. If they could not fulfill the king's request, the king would not hesitate to deal with them.

   "Or, that's all they're worth," the king said to his brother after the mayor of Nijmegen had resigned tremblingly. "But those merchants..." The Duke of Orleans pondered: "Is it the same as in Lorraine?"

"So to speak," said Louis regretfully, "while I hope our merchants will replace them as soon as possible, that will be ten, or twenty years away, and with William III here, he He will not give up the business his grandfather founded."

"As long as the Dutch are willing to accept him," the Duke of Orleans laughed, his face softer than Louis's, but with a grim look: "I really don't know that this is Charles II's own. The idea, there is still someone who advises him, but his act of detaining William III can be described as a miracle, so that even if we have to hand over Utrecht to William III, he wants to re-establish his authority, he will not It's an easy thing..." he said, and then saw his brother take on a weird look.

"Is that why people don't always see their noses?" murmured Louis, before ruthlessly revealing the mystery: "Who else could that man be, Philip, he is Henrietta, the sister of Charles II. , your wife."

  Philip looked really taken aback, "She?"

   "She." The king affirmed: "Don't underestimate any woman, brother, even the devil can't guess what they can do."

"I don't, just," Philip said, remembering that when they were leaving Paris, Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, whose belly had grown up to the expectations, said that when she encouraged her brother to do something about imprisoning a king, their The child was already in her belly. "Damn it." The Duke of Orleans cursed in a low voice: "They all said the child would be a son."

"There's nothing wrong with that," said the King; "I like wise men, not fools." He stood up, took the hat that Bontang brought, and put it on his head, "Come out with me, Philip. "

  ——

Nijmegen is located on the banks of the Waal River, with the Maas River below, and the Waal River is a lower branch of the Rhine River, which connects Nijmegen with Cologne and the Bishopric of Münster, and the Maas River becomes a connection between Nijmegen and the Bishopric of Münster. The passage of France, because this time the envoy of Louis persuaded the archbishop of Cologne - he was one of the electors of the Holy Roman Empire. He allied with France and jointly invaded the Netherlands, so the 120,000 troops of France were divided into three routes. , Viscount Turenne all the way (that is, the army of the king), marched downstream along the left bank of the Rhine; Condé led the army from the Rhine valley, and the Duke of Luxembourg marched towards Groningen.

With the help of the wizards, the king's movement of the other two armies, even if not instantaneous, is much faster than relying on horses and homing pigeons. Speaking of which, the king is more worried than the Dutch resistance army. After the conquest of Holland - apart from the sporadic rebellions and general disobedience in the Flanders region, it was what the Dutch had been expecting, the fear of France from other countries, and what those guys were planning, Louis knew very well. One, because he would do the same - directly hitting the French army of 120,000 people, the damage was too heavy, and the Netherlands, which was saved by this, was less likely to be extorted by them. It is better to wait for France to destroy most of the Netherlands before appearing as a messenger of justice, which can not only directly threaten the French who have consumed a lot of strength, but also force the dying Netherlands to submit to their feet.

   But they certainly never thought that the Dutch would be so stupid, so stupid that they pinned all their hopes on illusory external interference, and the internal struggles are still endless. Now the Netherlands does not even have a unified voice, let alone resistance? In the attack on Nijmegen, the king's army encountered little resistance on a large scale, some scattered by peasants incited by the priests, and some more troublesome by the families of the city who had their own The fortress, hired soldiers and sophisticated weapons, even including artillery, Viscount Turenne really doesn't understand why they would rather put the artillery in the courtyard than move it to the city wall, at least they can stop them for ten minutes...

For the rare sarcasm of Viscount Turenne, Louis could only smile helplessly. This is the problem of letting merchants dominate the country. Merchants will always put their interests first. For the sake of interests, they can sell anything. They can almost only see the benefits, which makes them invincible in the market, but unable to gain a slight advantage on the battlefield. No, it should be said that this is their biggest disadvantage. To make businessmen give up their own interests, it will always be An extremely difficult thing - apart from those merchants at sea, remembering what happened to the British Navy, Louis shook his head, and the Dutch on land even lost the keenness and decisiveness of sea merchants in the face of crisis.

"It's nothing, let them go." The king said to Viscount Turenne. Although the king just wanted to walk along the riverbank in the morning with his younger brother, there were still many ministers and soldiers who followed. The latter was In order to be on guard, the former is because, if they fail to follow the king, these ministers will feel that they have lost the king's favor and feel uneasy.

After the future governors of the three provinces of the Netherlands had been booked, Louis certainly would not let others think that Viscount Turenne had lost his favor. He not only let Viscount Turenne command his new army, but also often asked Viscount Turenne to be with him. Having dinner together, or walking and hunting together, Viscount Turenne seems to have felt something, and he has been showing mixed feelings about this, which is much harder than letting him attack the country of his uncle and teacher.

   (end of this chapter)