I Am Louis XIV

Barras, if anyone still remembers him, was once the Grand Inquisitor of the Paris Inquisition, but during the first Fronde riot, because of the conflict between the Roman Church and the French King, he accepted a bribe from the Church and embraced With the idea of ​​becoming a bishop or even an archbishop or even a cardinal, he betrayed the king and Bishop Mazarin and came to Rome. It can be said that without the preparation of Bishop Mazarin, without the young but decisive Elario, without the brave little witch Mary, without those loyal musketeers, this article would have ended abruptly in the first chapter.

But after coming to Rome, this gentleman did not get what he was promised. How much effort did the Roman Church spend to expel the extraordinary people from their ranks? How could they easily let a great judge become their colleague? ? The pope at that time was Urban VIII, and then four popes were replaced in succession, but he was still forgotten, living on the ground floor of Castel Sant'Angelo with the monks in Rome, eating dry bread and drinking Qing Shui either prays or trains every day, just waiting for a call - the monks who have been tamed by the church for a long time are certainly willing to endure such driving, how can Barras accept such a cruel fact?

He was certainly a powerful monk, but so what? The servants of the devil, that is, wizards, are not as rampant as they were hundreds of years ago. The church - it does not necessarily have to be them, or more directly - him. What they have in their hands are monks and wizards. Speaking of which, the difference between the two It's not very big... Barras was already over forty when he left Paris, and now he is almost seventy. He has been desperate, cursed, and finally numb.

The person who saved him was none other than the Cardinal. When he was summoned by this gentleman, he was very surprised because he couldn't figure out why this gentleman wanted to see him. Of course, he had to thank this gentleman because it was right. It was this gentleman who released him from a cage that never saw the light of day and gave him the position of a bishop. Although this bishop did not have a diocese, he was still extremely excited. This was what he expected, calm. , without any troubles, a rich and fulfilling life, every priest can enjoy, something that he and his colleagues in the Inquisition can never touch the people of the other world.

Of course, this gentleman is not so tolerant as to waste a bishop's position. Barras soon learned that the cardinal leader, the person closest to the papal throne, was not happy with the current Pope Clement X. , even to the point where he was about to fall out. As soon as he saw Barras, he asked him how many extraordinary people he could conquer for himself. After being silent for a while, Barras told him that those stubborn and ignorant monks could hardly be conquered. ——Before being driven out, Barras calmly said the best solution-since it can’t be conquered, then don’t conquer it.

Incidentally, by that time he had already been to Nancy and met Elario, who was mad with jealousy at the favor he had received from the King of France.

Thinking about it now, maybe he was indeed crazy.

Barras was indeed slightly stronger than Ella in one thing. As soon as he returned, he immediately poisoned the twenty-seven monks who were staying at the Castel Sant'Angelo. Then he returned to the Sun Islands where his people lived, and quickly destroyed the entire Sun Islands. They were all sold to the cardinal leader. It is difficult to say whether the cardinal leader had such an intention from the beginning, but Barras finally got the reward this time and finally put on the bishop's shawl.

But he probably didn't expect that he would hear this sentence after only a few years of peace - "Barras, go back to Paris."

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Fortunately, this time Barras did not need to return to Paris as a bereaved dog. The cardinal leader gave him the identity of an envoy of the church. He sailed around Sardinia from the Tyrrhenian Sea, crossed half of the Mediterranean by boat, and landed in Marseille. Then go overland to Paris.

Of course, Barras was unwilling to go to Paris, not to mention that the whole of France had become a taboo of the Sun King. The bishop of Rome had no power in Paris, and the cardinal leader also intended to let him serve Louis XIV - he guessed that Your Excellency must have had some secret deal with this king, but this was not a choice he could make. He had almost no way out. He just wanted him to return to Paris at such an age and status, and to return to the King of France. He himself felt embarrassed. Ann, especially he knew that the Sun King was very generous to Elario.

Caiola Island, where the Elario tribe is located, is now the fiefdom of the Duke of Colonna, the illegitimate son of Louis XIV. Elario has also completely surrendered to Louis XIV. He once deserted Louis XIV. In his most critical time , His Majesty almost died before he could grow up, could he still take away his favor from Elario?

But this is probably what the cardinal leader wants to see. He will not send a monk or bishop who may be bribed by Louis XIV, but Barras, even if the Sun King says to forget about it, he will naively believe and accept it. ?

Thinking of this, Bishop Barras couldn't help but feel sad. His journey on the sea was uneventful. He hoped to encounter storms or pirates to delay his meeting with Louis XIV. Unfortunately, the Mediterranean Sea is approximately half an inland sea. , hurricanes that delay sailing rarely occur. As for pirates, after Louis XIV re-established the French navy, what else could they use to sharpen their swords besides pirates? Whether they were British, Italian, or Ottoman Turks, they either fled or danced a dance of death on the gallows among the rocks - Barras saw some of them.

As the papal envoy, he was naturally warmly welcomed by the mayor of Marseille and the citizens, which made him feel much better, but the difference was that the city might have never been so clean as he remembered - he suspected that people It was to welcome him to clean the streets all night long. Later he learned that Marseille had set up a sanitation department ten years ago in accordance with the latest laws designated by the king. They were responsible for recruiting workers to transport garbage and clean the streets, and they had the power to punish those who In addition to people defecating and littering, even Marseille's most famous fish market and slaughterhouse have been moved outside the city, and the city is also connected to water supply and drainage.

"This will cost a lot of money." Barras couldn't help but ask, and this Department of Health...if it really wants to operate for a long time, it will also need a lot of money.

This question briefly confused the mayor of Marseille. Yes, in France, the types of taxes have always been uncertain. Because of the Hundred Years War with England, the French king obtained the power to formulate tax laws from Parliament and the courts. But basically there are mainly the following types of taxes - military service tax, poll tax and nianyi tax, as well as road construction corvee tax and salt tax. Among the above taxes, the poll tax was originally paid by each class, but Later, because the church used a sum of money to buy out the tax payment, the nobles followed suit, and the only people who needed to pay taxes were still commoners.

So the first thought that came to Barras's mind was whether the king set up such a department to increase the types of taxes. But after he mentioned this, the mayor said that the king did not increase taxes because of this, "Our Majesty Very rich." The gentleman said proudly: "Not only did he not increase taxes, he also reduced the national poll tax for one year." This made the farmers and workers who were almost breathless before extremely grateful.

As for the Department of Health - "Those are the king's officials," the mayor said matter-of-factly: "Of course the king is responsible for paying them."

Barras could hardly believe that, let alone the king of France, as far as the families he saw in Rome were concerned, once they fought, the first people to suffer would definitely be the craftsmen and farmers who had to rely on them for a living, because they needed more soldiers. , muskets and cannonballs, but what about the money? It doesn't fall from the sky.

If they lose in the battle, the ransom of the leader and the knight will be extracted from the common people. What if they win? Then the nobles will build a villa for themselves, or hold a grand banquet and martial arts tournament, prepare dowries for their daughters, etc., but what will they do for the people? God, they were born to serve the superiors. They are lucky enough to have food and clothing. Do they still want to take a spoonful from the master's plate?

Barras didn't understand why the king would care about Marseille's health issues. It was obviously far away from Paris or Versailles. Even if he felt that the poor people smelled too bad, he could have driven them to a place where they would not affect him. . He fell asleep with such thoughts, and was awakened at three or four in the morning. He opened the window and looked outside. In the rolling sea fog, he saw a group of people holding brooms. For a moment, he thought I saw a group of wizards, but they soon put down their brooms and started cleaning the streets.

They not only clean the streets, but also wash them with water. By the way, the streets and alleys of Marseille are no longer covered in dust and mud. They are now gray-black mortar roads, flat and neat, with sewers on both sides. There should be sewers on the sewers. Barras did not look carefully at the molded grating, but he could tell that the water was going down very quickly. He thought that when Marseilles had another heavy rain, the people here would be safe from flooding.

These people moved extremely skillfully and quickly. Some of them got ahead of the sweepers, drew out their cowhide bows, and hit the small fruits one by one on the window. Barras didn't understand at first. But soon, he heard the voices in the room urging the husband or children to get up. It turned out that they were also doing the job of waking up the morning people at the same time. The fruit fell from the window to the ground and was swept away immediately.

Barras also noticed that many people in Marseille actually used glass windows. He also saw many mansions in Rome that had glass windows replaced, and even several churches had stained glass windows. It is said that they were all replaced with glass windows. French glass, is the price of glass so low? Can even these ordinary civilians afford it?

He had no intention of continuing to sleep, so he lit a candle - the candles here all had glass lampshades, which were exquisite and bright, no worse than those in Rome. He took out a piece of parchment and wrote a few lines on it. , this is still a habit he developed in Rome. He has to write down something every day, even if it is just trivial things. But he only wrote a few words today when he heard a loud noise outside. He endured it for a while and finally sent the priest next to him to ask who was yelling outside.

It soon became quiet outside, and the priest came back and said that a group of Huguenots were preparing to leave Marseilles.

"Leaving Marseille?" Barras asked in surprise: "Are they leaving France?"

"Perhaps," said the priest gloatingly: "But Louis XIV has issued a decree that does not allow the Huguenots to leave France easily. They are prohibited from boarding the ship and are now being escorted to Orleans."

Because of this incident, Barras went to ask the mayor of Marseille again. Because Marseille is a big port, these things do happen constantly. The mayor of Marseille said angrily that he really didn't understand what these Huguenots were like. They are so wolf-hearted that they are unwilling to accept the king's kindness. To be honest, Catholics don't like to see Huguenots, and Huguenots don't like to see Catholics. Now the king has prepared a good place for them. Why don't you want to move there?

Of course it was because of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, Barras said to himself.

The massacre of St. Bartholomew also used the wedding of a princess and a king as an excuse. Louis XIV did not even have such an excuse. It is no wonder that these Huguenots were worried that once they moved to the Orleans area, The king's army would pounce on them like a vicious wolf and devour them clean.

But it is difficult for the current Sun King to fail to do anything he wants to do. When Barras's motorcade went to Paris, he saw the group of Huguenots on the flat avenue. It was estimated that the mayor of Marseille had requisitioned There were many carriages. They included old people, children, and women. They walked on their own feet. I didn’t know how long it would take to get to Orleans. It was obvious that they all had a small fortune and could still buy things from nearby villages. Food and water.

Barras did not think that Louis XIV only asked them to move to Orleans in order to execute these heretics. If that was the case, these people could be directly sunk into the sea in Marseille, but since not, then the king must have other intentions. He guessed for a while and couldn't help but slowly closed his eyes. He was woken up very early yesterday, and then he presided over a mass (at the mayor's request), and he was already at this age... If it was the original The road was overgrown with weeds and full of potholes, so he had not fallen asleep easily yet, but now the road was like an unfolding ribbon, and the slight and regular shaking of the carriage made him feel a little more sleepy.

But there always seemed to be something that was bothering Barras. He was half asleep when he heard a sharp noise.