An army is marching through the mountains and forests of the Ardennes!

It was a fairly large and modern army, with marching columns of infantry in white uniforms, cavalry in cuirassiers and helmets, artillery in tow 6-pounder field guns, and baggage men driving heavy wagons. It is so vast that you can't see the end of the end, and there are tens of thousands of people and horses. The front army had approached the small town of La Roche in the middle of the Ardennes, while the rear army had just left the border town of Sedan in eastern France.

The Prince of Condé, who was supposed to attend the wedding of Charles II and the Lady of Mancini at the Royal Palace of Turin in Savoy, was in the procession. Riding an Arab horse, wearing the white tweed uniform of the French New Army, wearing a tricorne hat, and not wearing any armor to protect himself.

Prince Condé was not the only one who did not wear armor, the adjutants and staff who followed him, and all the officers and soldiers who advanced on foot, were not equipped with protective armor, but were replaced by a uniform white tweed uniform.

The new French army, trained by the Prince of Condé, had a very low armor rate, with only the heavy cavalry in charge of the charge being equipped with cuirasses and helmets, and all others, including light cavalry and dragoons, were unarmoured.

While the armor rate was greatly reduced, the equipment rate of firearms was greatly increased, and the ratio of flintlock pistols to pikemen was increased to 5 to 1, that is, only 5 flintlock pikemen were matched with 1 pikeman. Moreover, this pikeman no longer belonged to an independent pikemen company, but was mixed with the flintlock musketeers to participate in the "queue shooting".

The reason for this arrangement is that Prince Kong found in the fierce Ming and Qing wars that when the smoke of gunpowder on the battlefield was too strong, the cavalry could rely on the cover of gunsmoke to maneuver on the battlefield, so as to achieve the effect of a surprise attack.

In this case, the flintlock pikemen simply did not have time to seek the protection of the pikemen - if they were not mixed! So they could only stick bayonets into the flintlock pistols, and then form a phalanx and resist desperately!

Of course, the desperate resistance of the flintlock pikemen often worked, but what did the pikemen do in this situation?

Watching the flintlock pikemen, who take less money than them, go to a bloody battle with the enemy's cavalry?

So the Prince of Condé wanted to abolish the pikemen at one point, and it was only because of Durenny's opposition that the pikemen were retained in the new French army.

Another great change that Prince Condé brought to the new French army was the replacement of the arquebus with flintlock pistols – a very expensive change! But it's definitely worth the money, because in the Ming and Qing wars, the flintlock units were always able to hang the arquebus.

The drastic reduction in the armor rate was to save the limited military expenditure and use it for flintlock pistols and sleeve bayonets......

After completing the evolution of equipment, the tactics of the French Army infantry have also been comprehensively upgraded. Dense four-column formations formed the most basic form of engagement, while flintlock firing and bayonet assault became the most common means of engagement for infantry.

However, the evolution of equipment and tactics was not the biggest gain that Prince Condé gained in the Ming and Qing wars...... His biggest gain is that his campaign organization level has been greatly improved!

Before participating in the Ming and Qing wars, Prince Kong had never commanded a battle to destroy the country, nor had he commanded a campaign with more than 50,000 participants, let alone a long-distance campaign with a very wide battlefield.

At that time, the Prince of Condé only knew how to use the terrain to arrange troops, and use 20,000 men to defeat 30,000. They didn't know how to command all the French armies to win a war in which many European military powers participated!

And now, Prince Condé already knows what to do!

He already knew that the cities and fortresses of the Spanish Netherlands were simply vulnerable to the new flowering bombs and parallel siege trenches!

So the seizure of cities and fortresses was not the key to France's victory in the war – the key to France's victory was to force the Dutch Republic to submit as soon as possible......

In order to achieve this strategic goal, the French army had to invade the Netherlands at the beginning of the war, and to approach Amsterdam!

It is unlikely that the only way to rush to Amsterdam through the fortress-strewn northern part of the Netherlands and the western part of the United Republic of the Netherlands is to make a great detour, passing through the desolate and remote Ardennes Plateau into the territory of the Archbishop of Cologne, which has been bought by France, and then through the territory of the Archbishop of Münster into the province of Gelderland in the Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands.

That's right, through the Ardennes! The same route as the German armored forces in World War II in history...... It's just that the direction is reversed, this time it is the French who pass through the Ardennes Forest, and then borrow the two episcopal states of moral will to attack the Netherlands with lightning speed!

According to estimates, this great detour will take about 100 miles, that is, about 800 miles, and it will take 16 days to march 50 miles a day, and 10 days if you can reach 80 miles.

And these 10-16 days are the key time window that will determine the fate of France, and even the whole of Europe.

In order to gain as much time as possible, Louis XIV spent a huge amount of money to arrange a lavish wedding in Turin for Charles II and Countess Mancini.

Now all of Europe thought that Louis XIV and the Prince of Condé were in Turin, and that war would not break out for the time being...... In fact, both of them are already on the front line!

The 150,000 French troops and nearly 20,000 French cavalry were divided into three lines. The 60,000-strong Northern Route Army, commanded by Durenny, Viscount of Tyrrenne, attacked from Calais and Amiens into the northern part of the Spanish Netherlands, a French army designed to attract the attention of the Spanish and Dutch in the Spanish Netherlands.

The French king Louis XIV personally led an army of 40,000 to attack the Duchy of Lorraine and Frans-Comté, cutting off the passage between the Duchy of Lorraine and Frans-Comté, and at the same time assuming the posture of attacking Frans-Comté in an all-out way, and at the same time coercing the Duchy of Lorraine to remain neutral.

The 70,000-strong army commanded by Prince Condé would pass through the forested Ardennes plateau...... How the national fortunes of France are, it depends on the path of the Prince of Condé!

If his 70,000-strong army could reach Amsterdam and The Hague before the Dutch could complete their mobilization, then the Grand Council of the Dutch would have to accept the arrangement of "France dominates Europe and the Netherlands dominates the seas" - this is not empty words, the Dutch must tear down the fortress complex in the west and open the door to the French army forever!

Of course, France will also guarantee the security of the Netherlands on land! If the Netherlands and England went to war again, France would side with the Dutch......

Once the Netherlands succumbed, the Spanish Netherlands and Française Comté would not be a problem, and at most they would have to be taken by France in a month or two.

If Austria wanted to enter the war at that time, it would have played into the hands of France, and the French army that had gone south from the Netherlands and from Frans-Comté to the north had just eaten the Duchy of Lorraine and Luxembourg, and the era of French domination of Europe had really arrived!

Just as the Prince of Condé was thinking about how to fight Austria again after defeating the Dutch, the sound of horses' hooves was heard from far and near.

When the Prince of Condé looked up, he saw a herald cavalry galloping towards him, and found the marching column where the Prince of Condé was, and one of the Prince's lieutenants stepped forward, inquired about the situation, and then turned back to the Prince of Condé, and reported in a loud voice: "Your Royal Highness, the forward troops have taken the Château de La Roche!" The road to the Episcopal State of Cologne is clear! ”

Thank God!

The Prince of Condé drew a cross on his chest – the Spaniards placed a small number of defenders on the Ardennes, half of them in Bouillon, on the border with France, and half in La Roche, in the middle of the Ardennes.

Previously, in Bouillon, the French army caught the Spaniards by surprise with sneak attacks and night attacks, and took the Spaniards' castle in one night. Now that La Roche has easily won again, it shows that the Spaniards in the Spanish Netherlands were not ready for war at all.

Now it's up to the Dutch to prepare?