I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 467 Failure and Success

The Duke of Orleans handed the wine to the old man, and he immediately pulled out the cork with trembling hands and started drinking. At the same time acting as an eyeliner for the Catalans, Gemma not only damaged her vocal cords, but also her qualifications as a person.

   Ordinary civilians can't know, but such means are not uncommon among high-ranking people like him. Maybe the priest did not intend to delay, but there is definitely an element of smooth flow. Kinslaying was a shocking crime, but it was nothing to them, and even a duke he knew—after all, he had gone to war, and knew that if a man was wounded—even a strong man could Will be tortured by fever and pain to lose courage and reason, he will not foolishly blame this girl for failing to take good care of her only relatives.

  It was not easy for her to keep herself alive.

But for others to see, such a person is like a devil. No one will consider Gemma's position, and they don't know what it's like to watch their relatives linger in despair. They will only blindly fear Gemma. The viciousness and cruelty... Father Clarice, who is probably similar to the bishops of Richelieu and Mazarin, should not have thought of it, but why did he forgive Gemma's crimes?

   A thread that hangs from heaven to hell, Gemma must hold tightly, and it is easy to get people's conviction, but it is too difficult to make them abandon everything and go with him.

The Duke    didn't know what kind of promise the priest gave Gemma, but he finally knew why Gemma was indifferent to him.

   How could a sinful person find happiness, even just a little bit, Gemma has already lost hope, and all her motivation may be on the road of redemption pointed out to her by the priest.

However, although the Duke of Orleans knew about these things, he remained silent. Gemma was definitely not an ordinary girl to be sent by the priest to him, and now it may not be the time to confront the Catalans - no In a few days, the priest took them to another place. To the surprise of the duke, this time he was also invited to the military conference and qualified to participate in the Catalan anti-Spanish war. .

There were no candles or torches in the room. There were only so many people here with hands and fingers. The duke saw a few familiar faces in the silver-blue moonlight. They were more respectful to the priest than those before. , and the Duke did not see the Tamalet.

   "Tamalet is still in the outer city," said the priest.

   It seems that the war is not going well, he is calm, because as the king's brother of France, he has been to Lorraine and Flanders, and he knows what a riot is. To put it in a bad way, a riot like the Catalans, too many people know about it, too few people in charge or prestige, too long to prepare, too much consideration... Basically, it will always welcome to fail.

But you can't just blame the Catalans. The Catalan Hundreds have many similarities with the Florence Hundreds, but the latter doesn't want to spend too much money on the standing army. They can't , so they could not keep secrets, nor could they build an army that was like an arm and a commander, and the people involved in the riots were all civilians, and they each had their own commanders and supporters.

In the plan of Senator Tamarit and Father Clarice, when the song is played, the Catalans in Roussillon and outside the city will attack the Spaniards together, because they cannot use uniforms to distinguish between enemy and friend , It was late at night again, so I agreed to wrap a white tape around my arm to identify my identity.

But who knew that the plan went wrong at the very beginning—the civilians who were assigned weapons actually forgot about it. When the two teams met unexpectedly, I don’t know which daredevil acted first, and the result was an inexplicable The melee - there suddenly came a group of Spanish mercenaries, who were still laughing and watching the fun, who knew that one of them shouted something like "kill all the Castilians", and they were caught by them heard it.

The Spanish governor also vaguely heard the wind. He immediately dispatched his army and made a oriole. Those who were caught saw that the situation had become like this, and concluded that the riot could not be successful. In order to escape the gallows With the threat of beheading, he shamelessly surrendered to the Spaniards, saying everything he knew.

  So the Spaniards came to the chapel so in time, if the Duke of Orleans never trusted these Catalans, he would be the turtle in the urn.

The duke can also guess what happened after that, and lost the opportunity. The Catalans can only compete with the Spaniards by their numbers. The problem is that the scattered non-military personnel cannot compete with the real army, even if some of them are hired. Fighting against each other, the Spaniards not only controlled the most important positions - castles, water sources, warehouses and stables, etc., but also drove them out of Roussillon.

Roussillon City is an ancient city, which means that it also has thick and towering city walls, and it is condescending and built on a mountain, so it is destined to be difficult to attack it from outside the city. The best way is not to Too much siege, after all, no one can break into the castle from the cliff, and no one can provide for the castle from the cliff, but the Catalans may not be able to hold on for very long - although the priest swears that the Roussillon area will be caught in the wrath of the Catalans.

But wildfires come and go quickly, especially among peasants who raise forks, scythes or flails in a moment of anger... The Catalan Council of Hundreds failed to send enough people to organize them, The duke sighed regretfully in his heart—for some people in later generations to look at it, they would feel confused, because although such riots in history were all dominated by the people at the bottom, the people who led and guided them were either priests or nobles... No Whether the latter is out of selfishness or justice, how can they gain the trust of the former?

The problem is that when basic education is not yet popularized, there are so many that you can only count to twenty (because the sum of your fingers and toes is only twenty). It only means being able to understand the meaning and say it) but it is almost impossible for dozens of civilians to count the number of people, distribute supplies and armaments, read maps, and grasp the time, let alone use tactics and analyze the battle situation.

No, it should be said that those who can do the latter are almost all people like Vauban, Turenne, and Grand Condé, who are either from noble backgrounds or have been passed down from generation to generation. These farmers and craftsmen even have a guide around them. There is no one to go, go anywhere, do anything.

   "So the insurrection failed," said the Duke.

Father    looked a little embarrassed: "Not yet - at least not completely failed."

"What do you want me to do?" asked the Duke of Orléans, who now knows why these Catalans are so arrogant, they—"you want my brother to help." He affirmed Said: "But His Majesty also said that he depends on the sincerity of the Catalans."

   "We have done what His Majesty wants us to do, but..." the priest said with difficulty: "We did make some mistakes."

What's more, the duke said in his heart, you guys are like playing a game... "How long can you besiege the city?" He asked: "Although you have purchased a lot of artillery, the caliber of these artillery is more suitable for use on the battlefield. Instead of bombarding the city walls, the Spanish reinforcements are about to arrive in Roussillon. If I were the archbishop of Toledo, or Patinho, I would abandon those small cities and make sure that Roussillon never loses... Roussillon City Even if you build siege vehicles and ladders, they won't play a big role, and how many Catalans are there outside the city, and how many supplies do you have now?"

The priest turned his head to the side. He was a cleric after all, so the command of this war was handed over to Tamarit at the beginning. Now it seems that he was wrong. Tamarit may not have more military talents than him. How much, but the priest still holds a part of the power, so he knows that as the duke said, the Catalans have hardly achieved any considerable results outside Roussillon, in contrast, thousands of people have water, food and equipment , ammunition has become a deeply frightening thing.

   Even Tamalet had to bow his head and entrust him to plead with the Duke of Orleans, hoping that the French would cross the Pyrenees and drive away the Spaniards in Roussillon.

The Duke    was silent. He knew what his brother meant. If he stood in the king's position, as the father of the King of Spain, Louis XIV would not publicly support the Catalan riots. Tamalet was respectful in Paris and Versailles, but it was true for the Catalans that they did not want to be ruled by either the Spaniards nor the French, they were always seeking independence, and if France rashly Going into the army, but recruiting a group of unruly guys like Brittany and Lorraine for himself, Leopold I really want to laugh.

Louis XIV's request to the Catalans was that, after the Catalans expelled the Spaniards, allegiance to his second son Charles would welcome Carlos III (Char is Carlos in Spanish) Enter Catalonia, the southern gateway to Spain.

   Of course, there is also a war imminent, the kings are eyeing, and France needs to be more cautious in the use of troops.

Since the failure of the Catalans is in the plan of the Duke of Orleans, he is naturally thinking about how to solve the problems in front of him these days. The biggest difficulty is actually that the Catalans are unwilling to let him intervene in them. This issue is no longer a problem, although in the final analysis, they still hope to obtain the military support of the French king through the duke.

   Then, the Duke of Orleans said in his heart that Grande Condé had conquered Roussillon, but as everyone knew—the Roussillons refused to fulfill their promise. In the next few years, the French king will definitely have no time to distract himself in Catalonia, and these Catalans know that, so their current words probably don't have much credibility.

   "But what if we could get Roussillon?" asked the duke.

  ————

The Spanish governor of Roussillon was not very alarmed. He only regretted that he could not catch the Duke of Orleans, the younger brother of the king of France. Of course, he was not crazy enough to be rude to such a nobleman, but it is well known that Louis XIV and his brothers had The relationship is very close, even if it is fake, the Spaniards can make a lot of articles with this hostage.

He paid no attention to the riots of the Catalans. The Catalans had been resisting and struggling since the time of the twin kings, but the results were always the same, as they were in the court of Toledo. Said, a group of despicable idiots, they always thought that they could get rid of Spain and become an independent country, but they never looked at their short limbs and weak body.

To get the Governor to say that the courts of Toledo and Madrid were too generous and merciful to the Catalans, they should learn from Louis XIV and drive these Catalans out of Spain, Or simply detain them in one place, like raising livestock.

   On this morning, he heard good news. The mob outside the city suddenly dispersed, perhaps reinforcements from Pepilion or Barcelona.

A Spanish army of about 1,000 to 2,000 men arrived in Roussillon. Their generals wore black velvet coats and golden shoulder straps, as traditional and solemn as in the time of Philip IV. Not as many as the Governor expected, but well-equipped and in high spirits, and behind them was a long line of carriages, loaded with artillery and provisions, and many horses and cattle, no wonder the Catalans saw them, Frightened and ran away.

They also brought a letter from Duke Don Juan. After the governor checked it, he determined that the paint on it really belonged to the illegitimate duke. Before Carlos II came to power, this lord was the uncrowned king. It seems that after the death of Carlos II , Although the court was controlled by Patinho and Archbishop of Toledo, Duke Don Juan obviously had no intention of letting go.

Although the governor was not so...respectful to the duke, it was all in private. On the surface, he absolutely had to take good care of the duke's confidant, not to mention that the other party did solve the problem of the Catalan people taking him. In case of trouble, he set up a luxurious banquet in the hall of the castle, trying to satisfy the messenger and general.

Of course, the Catalan who betrayed his colleagues was not qualified to have a place at the banquet, but when he was leaning out of the window and looking out, he accidentally glanced at the general. There was a loud cry!

   That is the brother of the King of France, the Duke of Orleans!

   (end of this chapter)