I Am Louis XIV

It is certainly not ordinary people who can call each other Christian names with the younger brother of the King of France, the Duke of Orléans.

Remember what I said before that some of the forces that the Catalan people reluctantly handed over were Catalan mercenaries. Please note that it is Catalonia, not Catalonia The mercenaries of the Ronians—the Catalans are not a group of people lacking in courage or force. The saddest thing about this rich and beautiful place is that it has always been used as a battlefield. When the Moors fought against the Franks, The Aragonese fought against the French, and the Castilians fought against the Turks, all of which let the flames of war burn this emerald gem mercilessly.

At the beginning of the thirteenth century, when the king of Aragon was at war with the king of France, a group of Iberian warriors responded. After these people traveled long distances to Catalonia, the king of Aragon talked with the king of France. And, they are useless, and they don’t know where to make up for their losses. Most of these people are shepherds, farmers and craftsmen in the Iberian interior. They are the most sincere and honest people in their hometown. But every once in a while, like a shepherd dog who steals chickens at night, they will take a simple weapon, an iron helmet that has been passed down for decades or even hundreds of years, to fight the pagans Fight wars, get some windfall...

Yes, they are so simple, far more credible than what the priests said, "respond to the call of God, and fight for the Holy Land and the saints".

These people have accumulated a lot of combat experience in this kind of war. When the King of Aragon summoned them to fight the King of France, they went there without hesitation. Who knew that the war would end before they reached the battlefield, so Who will pay them commissions, who will feed them, who will make up for all the losses they have incurred because they left their hometown... Some people even borrowed money from the Jews in their hometown because of this war.

At this time, an Italian saw an opportunity. He took Catalan mercenaries with a number of about 10,000 people, including cavalry and infantry, at an extremely low price. He took them to fight everywhere, From Constantinople, to the Asia Minor peninsula, and from the peninsula to Athens, when the Duke of Athens hired them and violated the agreement and was unwilling to pay them, they actually defeated the duke in a frontal war, the leader of the mercenary army After that, he controlled Athens as regent for decades, until the king of Sicily expelled the Catalan mercenaries from Athens.

After leaving Athens, the Legion temporarily settled on a small island purchased by its leader, but for some reason, the leader finally sold the island to the Venetians, and the Catalan mercenaries were included in their army by the Venetians, and Lost in subsequent wars against the Ottoman Turks.

But before the island was transferred to the Venetians, a group of smart people left the legion. Their leader, Lupo de Benatage, led his subordinates to be active in the Mediterranean until 1462, and finally disappeared.

This Mr. Lupo obviously has the ambition to inherit everything left by that Lupo. His original name should not be Lupo, but he changed his name to Lupo, which means that people consciously associate him with that brave and intelligent man. The chiefs are linked together—although there are many people with the same name in Europa, there are always some people who are willing to let their children inherit the names of their fathers and grandfathers.

The Duke of Orleans valued this man not because of his name. Whether he was the descendant of Lu Po had nothing to do with the Duke. What the Duke cared about was the 3,000 mercenaries he had (although they were a little watery).

At least a thousand of these mercenaries are strong veterans with combat experience. They are called "raiders". , like to fight in groups of three or five, and the weapons used in combat are mostly a spear, four or five short javelins, slings, daggers or knives for close combat.

They are also skirmishers used by the Duke of Orleans when formulating tactics. They will not be afraid of oncoming artillery fire and bullets, and are very sensitive to the enemy's movements, and can easily capture the cracks that break through.

As for Lupo, besides his duke status, he liked nothing more than the generosity of his new master. His legion has become rich and swollen rapidly in just a few months. In addition to spears, the raiders are almost all equipped with a good flintlock, and the captains can also get a bursting gun. Short gun, just like him now, the attendant held the spear for him, the short javelin belt hung from his saddle, the short gun was stuck in his waist, and the shotgun was in his hand.

The mercenaries always smiled when they saw the patron, not to mention that the duke promised that when he returned to Paris, he would not only bring Lupo with him, but also give him a title. Needless to say, what this meant to a mercenary , he got off the horse intimately and respectfully, and made a fancy but absurd courtesy to the Duke, which caused a burst of high and low laughter, but he didn't feel disobedient at all. If the Duke is the kind of vulgar person who cares about the details , he wouldn't be here—who can match Bourbon's mastery of etiquette? Nowadays, most of the ceremonies and rules in the palace, and even supporting buildings such as toilets, are imitating the Palace of Versailles.

The Duke returned the salute, and when Lupo got back on his horse, he saw a gloomy and displeased gaze from the corner of his eyes. He looked sideways, and the figure disappeared for a moment, but the back was enough to remind him who it was—he employer. For a person like Ruby, even without the 3,000-man army, no one would let him go casually. He heard or guessed that the Duke of Orleans was recruiting officers and soldiers, so he half-forced to ask for that. People write letters of recommendation.

Of course the employer was unwilling. In order to keep Lu Po, he was willing to marry his youngest daughter to Lu Po with a dowry of one thousand livres.

Well, Lupo got a diamond ring worth three thousand livres from the duke on his first night of service.

Nothing can impress mercenaries more than real gold and silver, Lu Po thought, as long as there is gold, he can get anything. Even on the political level, a French duke and a prince are more valuable than a city councilor. Value, a good bird chooses a tree to live in, even if the mercenary has never seen this sentence, he will strongly agree with it and practice it.

Although he didn't think that senator could do anything, but in order to protect the high branch, after getting on the horse, Lupo asked his attendants to inform his companions to strengthen their defenses and patrols, while he himself followed the Duke closely, with a pair of Falcon-like eyes are constantly searching for anything unusual.

Different from the hunting that the people of later generations thought, the hunting of the nobles is a thrilling but orderly game-since it is a game, it is impossible for these dignitaries to spend their precious time and energy on long-distance search for prey , all the prey are prepared, kept in cages, and released one by one or in groups according to their size and ferocity.

Among them, there are no dangerous beasts like lions and tigers. The most feared are only bison. After the bison are tall stags and wild boars. After the wild boars are small beasts such as sheep and foxes, and finally groups of rabbits.

As the half-master and the most important guest of this hunt, the Duke of Orleans was of course at the forefront, surrounded by many people, among whom Tamalite Councilor undoubtedly occupied the first place, but the Duke's left hand side was always Occupied tightly by Lupo, some complained in low voices, others scolded loudly, but Lupo remained motionless. He knew that some people maliciously described him as a fly chasing honey—but if you ask him to say, the people around him Are all people gathered around the Duke for pure ideals?

In any case, they have already arrived at today's hunting ground. This woodland was burned by a fire, and the new trees have not yet become an obstacle for people. They were so warm that they almost wanted to sleep. On the contrary, the Duke of Orleans and Lupo were full of energy.

The attendant issued a signal, and the Duke took the shotgun handed by someone else, and a bull quickly ran out from the shadows. The Duke and his party were right in front of it, with dense forests on both sides - bison only like to walk in the forest. Running in an open place, a small place will make him furious. This bull has been locked in the smallest cage for several days. He is already going crazy, and all he can see is one passage.

It rushed towards the Duke, and the Duke raised his shotgun, but at a distance of three hundred paces, the buffalo only needed ten seconds to rush to the Duke's horse, but ten seconds was enough for the Duke to hit it—there was still some on the Duke's shotgun. Sight, he slipped the buffalo's head into the sight effortlessly and squeezed the trigger.

No gunshots, no bullets flying out of the barrel!

Nine seconds!

Without hesitation, the Duke clicked the trigger again, still unable to feel the familiar vibration, he threw off the shotgun and pulled the rein, "Get out of the way!" he shouted loudly, his mount neighing and shaking its neck, Leaping sideways, at the same moment Lupo beside him fired, the bullet whizzing through the air and hitting the bull in the left shoulder, but not lethal, damn not lethal!

Seven seconds!

The pain made the bull go crazy, and it wailed like a bell, and after a moment of pause, it accurately caught the person who hurt it. Panting, it rushed towards the crowd again.

six seconds!

Another shot was fired, and Lupo only had a quick glance. It was the Duke of Orleans. Just now he avoided to the right side, which was an accurate decision. It did not prevent Lupo from firing. Congressman Mallet was already holding a shotgun—although he had no talent in shooting, it should be just for show, this shotgun should have been untouched—the duke gave him an elbow unceremoniously, and seized the shotgun. Passed the shotgun, followed by Lupo firing a shot at the bull.

But because his current position was not good enough, although the shot hit the bull's head, only one horn and some tough skin were blown away.

"Shoot! Shoot!" someone shouted.

Three seconds!

Not all of the accompanying people were purely acting like Tamalit Councilor, but because of etiquette and respect, they pointed their guns to the ground and waited for the Duke to shoot down the bison before proceeding with their hunting—this is It wasn't the first time hunting, and it wasn't the Duke's first time hunting bison. They were just betting whether the Duke would use one bullet or two bullets... Some people couldn't react when the accident happened, and now they heard the shouts, Subconsciously raised the gun.

There was a lot of gunfire, but hell, maybe because of the panic, no one was able to hit the bull's vitals, and he was still running!

one second!

The bull was right in front of his eyes, but suddenly there was nothing under the Duke—others might not know what happened, but the Duke of Orleans, who had been on the battlefield, suddenly realized—someone attacked his horse!

In this case, attacking a horse is easier than attacking a person, and the threat it brings is no less than direct assassination. First of all, a horse will inevitably fall into a frenzy in front of a wounded bull, and the nature of the animal makes the rider unable to control it. Stop them from running and kicking.

The Duke once led the cavalry on the battlefield. Although he had never experienced it, he had seen the enemy or his companions fall off the horse, be dragged by the horse, trampled by the horse's hooves, or crushed by the fallen horse's body—broken bones, internal bleeding, Asphyxiation may have been the cause of their death.

When he was empty, he knew that his horse was falling. The Duke quickly raised his feet, broke free from the stirrups, put his hands on the saddle and jumped away quickly. When he was in the air, he could even feel the heavy and hot body of the horse brushing against his chest The calf, just a little bit, he was about to be crushed by it. Then he fell to the ground. Fortunately, due to the needs of hunting, the place was leveled, without sharp stones and branches. He bulged up violently—the hooves studded with horseshoes were all around them, and they fell on the soft soil. The pitcher is a dimple as deep as a beer mug.

When Lu Po saw the Duke falling from his horse, he yelled frantically, wanting to rescue him, but he didn't know if it was intentional, but a person got in between him and the Duke. Although the latter was also shouting, his voice was full of Taking pleasure in other people's misfortune, Lu Po took a look, isn't this his former employer?

The buffalo rushed into the crowd, and the scene became more and more chaotic. The Duke dodged left and right, and tried to stand up several times (some people dismounted to help him), but they always failed. It was burning, and at this moment his former employer grinned at him, as if to say something, but Lupo had already bent down and drawn a short javelin from the leather bag on the side of the saddle.

He was expressionless, and with a backhand, the javelin pierced the councilor's chest.

The senator collapsed in astonishment, and Lupo rode his horse around the bull—if someone blocked him, he didn't try to guess whether the opponent was on purpose or not—he still had four javelins in his leather bag, which he could use up. When he reached the Duke, he stretched out his hand and pulled the Duke onto his horse.

He and the duke breathed out at the same time.