I Am Louis XIV

Chapter 324 Before the war (6)

Seeing the stoat being grabbed by someone, the leader of the musketeers breathed a sigh of relief. He only glanced at it briefly, guessing that these people might just be herdsmen, forest guards or loggers. He put his hand into his pocket. When he was about to grab a small silver coin, he heard a cry that was faster and sharper than that of a ferret. A short ax flew past his cheek and directly hit the man who stood up. face.

The thing happened so suddenly that the musketeer couldn't react for a while, but he immediately drew his musket - and saw the Tatars quickly coming out from behind them, like hunting wild beasts, they didn't hesitate. The musketeers defended the crown prince and retreated while detaching some of their men to fight against the people rushing out of the forest.

These savages were even shabbier than the Tatars they saw. Many of them didn't even have fur robes on them, only cumbersome strips of cloth piled together - their heads and limbs protruded from the dirty strips, like Fierce mops, armed with spears, crude swords, sticks and stones, they came out in droves like frightened owls - this battle came out of nowhere, and Extremely cool.

Although the crown prince Louis has never been to the battlefield, he has a half-brother Luciano, also known as the Duke of Colonna. Although they have been secretly competing for their father's love, there is also some true love between the brothers. Cologne The Duke of Narcissus was Louis' first-born son, and he was very much like an eldest brother. Whether he was in Versailles, Paris, Calais, or Nantes, he always took good care of his younger siblings.

As the first child brought to the battlefield by Louis XIV, the Duke of Colonna has of course described the battlefield scenes more than once with little Louis, little Eugen and even the eldest princess and the eldest princess. Of course, alone with the boys When they were together, his words were much more direct - in the era when muskets and artillery were prevalent, the casualties caused by war were already very terrible. Even if the bullets of muskets were not as powerful as the bullets of later generations, they would still cause a lot of bloody injuries. Wounds; when the artillery is still using stone bullets, it can already break bones and bones. After replacing the iron bullets and shotgun shells, it will plow a bloody path directly through the team like a plow of death. roads; and those gunpowder cans thrown into the fort by grenadiers. If it is really unfortunate, the enemy in the fort may not even be able to leave a complete corpse.

Such a scene, even through the Duke of Colonna's dry retelling, was enough to frighten the Crown Prince. He even had several nightmares. However, considering his grandmother and mother's fear of the Duke of Colonna, he did not let anyone Know the source of nightmares.

Little Louis felt that he should be ready. He would bravely face any pain and death, even if it was directed at himself.

But he never thought that a real battle would be like this - as the Duke of Colonna said, in the smoke of gunpowder, under the towering fortress, in the sound of drums, in front of the orderly queue, the soldiers Wearing neat uniforms and walking to the enemy with a solemn expression and stepping to the beat - the same is true for their enemies. Even if someone will be injured and someone will die, it will be solemn and orderly - it may be as displayed by Mr. LeBlanc A masterpiece in the great gallery of Versailles, or a grand and majestic tragedy by M. Corneille.

But what he saw were human beings who were like wild beasts.

The king's musketeers instinctively wanted to distance themselves, which was a good move. This encounter was beyond their expectations, but their weapons and horses occupied the vast majority of the space to deal with these thugs who were worse than the Tatars. Advantage, but just like on a real battlefield, fighting close to a group of barbarians in such a dense forest is definitely not the right strategy - but as soon as they retreated, the Tatars behind them rushed forward.

Once the Tatars got entangled with these people, the situation became even more chaotic. They were like a group of well-trained hounds meeting a group of hungry wolves - yes, at the beginning, the Tatars The Tartars' sudden attack hit all the thugs who were standing by the fire, but as more and more enemies poured out of the forest, spears and long-handled axes stood upright like forest trees, and the horses under them fell into pieces. A burden.

A musketeer pulled the reins of the crown prince. He was Count d'Artagnan's cousin Pierre. This taciturn and good gentleman had served the king even longer than Count d'Artagnan. He was an old man in his fifties, but after the king asked him if he wanted to be granted a small territory and spend the rest of his life peacefully and happily in his hometown, he, like Count d'Artagnan, refused without hesitation - he He even said that he would rather be hit in the chest by a cannonball on the battlefield than lie in bed and return to God's feet with women crying.

Because of his loyalty, courage and experience - in this battle, the king sent him to the side of the crown prince. This was an important and glorious task. Of course, Mr. Pierre had to be extremely cautious. But the Crown Prince immediately put his hand on his forearm: "Who are those?"

"I don't know," said Monsieur Pierre.

"But they are attacking my father's subordinates," said the Dauphin. "I order you to help them."

"I want to ensure your safety first," Pierre took stock of the situation. "Let's go to the hill where we were just now. Your Highness, you can watch this battle from there." He waved and called. A musketeer came to convey the order of the crown prince, and then, together with some other attendants, escorted the crown prince and rode up the hill. When the crown prince stood still, he saw another musketeer riding his horse towards the garrison. direction to go.

This is also just in case. Of course, the safest way is to send the Crown Prince back to the castle. However, Mr. Pierre roughly estimated the number of enemies. If there are only Tatars here, the situation may change, but There are also the crown prince's attendants and musketeers here - rather than rashly returning to Camnico when the situation is unclear, it is better to wait for reinforcements to arrive here. The garrison is closer to here than the castle.

As soon as the crown prince little Louis climbed up the hill, he could see the entire battlefield more clearly. The musketeers and French attendants were exiting the dense forest in an orderly manner. The Tatars were entangled with the thugs, but they were slowly retreating. Retreating, he couldn't see Anwo's face here, and he didn't quite understand why Anwo suddenly launched an attack, but the crown prince felt that he was regretting it now.

Is Anwo regretting it? Not necessarily, the French crown prince cannot understand the thoughts of the Tatars. They are not good at herding, not good at growing wheat, and not good at doing business. They also have no land or houses. The Tatars from one tribe after another are like They are like rolling grass blown by the wind, and they can only survive by selling their own force - they are used to fighting at any time.

While the Dauphin's musketeers were still considering whether to give the man who caught the stoat a small silver coin or a large silver coin, Anwo had already recognized at a glance that these people were also Tatars - Crimea The sub-Tatars are the lowest-level slave soldiers, which can be said to be expendable. How they sneaked in here is unknown, but these people are simple-minded but have a keen sense of smell, just like when you encounter a You should never turn around like that when you are a beast. Anwo threw the battle ax in his hand without thinking.

There are more people hiding in the dense forest than Anwo thought. Although they have crude weapons, they have an advantage in numbers. Looking down from the horse, they are all arms stretched out. The horses cannot speed up in the dense forest, and the enemy is not safe. Wo's pressure also increased with the number. At this time, a torch held tightly by a withered hand slammed on the back of Anwo's mount. The horse felt pain and suddenly rushed forward, rushing directly towards several people. A spear stood upright. Seeing that the situation was not good, Anwo immediately slipped out his boots from the stirrups and jumped from the horse to the ground. As soon as he landed, at least three weapons stabbed at him. Anwo identified one. The short spear of the goat's jaw, let it hit itself - as all the Tartars complained, the short and narrow mandible of the goat only tore Anvor's leather robe, on his shoulders A wound was left, which looked terrible but was not serious.

Anwo stretched out his hand and grabbed the tip of the short spear. He was between a boy and a young man, but as the leader's son, sufficient meat ensured that he had the strength to rival an adult, especially the enemy he chose. Although fierce but very weak, Anwo pulled him into his arms, killed him with a short knife, then raised him with his shoulders, as if holding a shield, and rushed towards the other two enemies. ——His enemies howled, one of them swung a stone hammer, which caused his "shield" to slip off his shoulder, and the other enemy swung a wooden club and hit him on the head.

But at this time Anwo had already grabbed a tomahawk. He didn't know whether it was his or the enemy's. But he was as good at using a tomahawk as the Italians are good at using knives and forks. While driving the menacing stick, he cut the "Stone Hammer"'s leg with a backhand. He did not make up for it with another blow. He jumped over the fallen stone hammer and closed the distance between himself and the "stick" to only one foot. Arm, and then he waved his arm as a matter of course, and the "stick" expression finally solidified in panic.

But at this moment, a Crimean Tatar who climbed up a tree shot him an arrow. He fell to the ground, surrounded by a mess of horse hooves and boots. In this case, he could be discovered and rescued by his companions. The chance was pitifully low. Anwo gritted his teeth and was about to jump up when a hammer hit his back. He didn't know if it was another "stone hammer", but this one seemed to have taken away all his of strength.

As a horse's hoof trampled his body, the young Tatar's ears, mouth, nose and eyes were bleeding. Of course he was unwilling to give in. His father told him that he was going to serve the eldest son of the French Sultan. He would most likely become a noble, a lord, like the lord they had been - this would not have been possible had he not been of the same age as the crown prince, his brother being stronger and braver.

————

Although the crown prince asked them to rescue the Tatars, Pierre still watched coldly as the Tatars were destroyed by almost half, and almost all of the strangely dressed thugs and refugees had left the dense forest before letting the retainers and musketeers line up. Formation shooting - these strange Tatars didn't seem to know much about the new muskets. They kept rushing forward, thinking that they could offset the threat of hot weapons with their speed and numbers.

Of course this can only be described as a ridiculous delusion.

Just when these thugs began to hesitate and hesitate, the French army also arrived. General Vauban personally led the army. He finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the crown prince. The next thing would be much simpler. , those thugs didn't even have a chance to escape, Vauban had already surrounded the entire dense forest with his army.

The crown prince was immediately escorted back to the castle, and it was not until the next day that he learned that although Anwo had survived by chance, his sister Medo and other young Tatars had died.

Information about this matter was also sent to Louis XIV. Of course, a group of Crimean Tatars, the vanguards and spies of the Ottoman Turks suddenly crossed the Sava River and sneaked as far away as Kamni The close proximity is really surprising and worrying.

"May I know how they got here?" Louis asked.

"They got help from the herdsmen in the Velika Plani Highlands." Marquis Lovas replied: "These herdsmen often use sheepskin airbags to cross the Sava River. This time they may have obtained hundreds of sheepskin airbags at once. , brought a group of Crimean Tatars into the Kamnik area.”

"Wait a minute..." Little Louis on the side asked in surprise: "Who are you talking about? Aren't those herders Slovenians?"

"Yes," said the Marquis of Lovas, "they are Slovenians, so to speak."

"Then how could they..." The Crown Prince thought for a while and didn't know how to express it: "How could they help our enemies?"

"That's right," Louis said: "Our enemies are not their enemies." Slovenia is only controlled by the Habsburgs of the Holy Roman Empire, but it does not belong to the Habsburgs... "For those who As far as herders are concerned, there is no difference between us and the Ottoman Turks. They also have to pay taxes and serve. No, it should be said that they hate us more because we took away their property and homes."

The crown prince, Little Louis, suddenly opened his mouth - he thought they were just, those herdsmen, those Slovenians should support them from the bottom of their hearts like the people of Jerusalem, Tripoli, and Damascus during the Crusades!

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like