The width of the Channel between Britain and France meant that there was little secret between Dover and Dunkirk.

On a sunny day, when the wind is calm, the two can look at each other from a distance, and if you hope for the blessing of the telescope, it is not difficult to see what the other party is doing.

The keeper of the tower stationed at the White Cliff Lighthouse in Dover saw the French fleet, and the sound of the cannon soon attracted the soldiers and officers, who ran to the lighthouse, holding binoculars, and saw much more than the French, a young, sharp-eyed and good painter of the officer described as much as he could, and then synthesized the descriptions of the others, and put them together into a detailed piece of information, which was sent to Hampton Court Palace in London.

Charles II, the "Merry King", had not held a single banquet or ball that day, and when the Lord of the Admiralty and the Chancellor of the Exchequer had been summoned to him, the attendants outside the door heard Charles II's hoarse and twisted scolding, and in a short time the two adults ran out with their heads covered and their faces covered, and Charles II was silent in his room for a long time, not even eating dinner—and when night fell he left Hampton Court Palace with two priests.

People didn't know where he had gone at first, but the next day they did, because they saw the Duke of York.

The Duke of York was captured by Louis XIV and thrown into the Bastille for his attempted assassination of the Duchess of Orleans in France.

There were always some people with a keen sense of smell who heard the news of the naval exercises at Dunkirk, and they immediately linked the two events, and it seems that Charles II was not touched by brotherhood, but had to release the Duke of York, a French navy strong, but still immature, if they waited until they sharpened their swords with pirates and the Dutch government-in-exile...... Having lost its land superiority over France, Britain was about to lose its maritime superiority over France.

He must recall the Duke of York.

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Now, let's turn back a little to the time when Louis and the Duke of Orleans said they were going to Rennes on a ship.

Rennes is the Duchy of Brittany, of course, now Brittany, and its lord is the Dauphin of France, and the title of Little Louis is the Duke of Brittany, because François I married Princess Claude (daughter of Louis XII and the Duchess of Brittany) and succeeded in taking Brittany into his arms while inheriting the throne of France.

This is in 1518, that is to say, from now, it is only a hundred years, more than a hundred years, long enough for a person, but very short for a country, the relationship between Brittany and France is like a wolf and a hunter, sometimes the giant wolf can bite the throat of the hunter, sometimes the hunter can split the head of the giant wolf, and now this beast, although temporarily shackled, is still a big problem for France and Louis XIV.

The previous rebellion without Brittany's involvement was a bit puzzling, but by the time the king whispered the word "Rennes," the Duke of Orleans and the people around him couldn't help but change color.

Speaking of which, the relationship between Brittany and France was no simpler than that between Britain and France. The origins of the Bretons are quite complex, some are descendants of the original Gauls, and some are the Welsh and Cornish people who migrated south due to the invasion of the two Germanic tribes of Anglo and Saxon, and crossed the Channel to Brittany.

After the complete collapse of the Roman Empire, the Bretons faced the Germanic-Frankish attack, and the Franks fought with the Bretons for many years, but they were still unable to conquer the region, and finally had to recognize the independence of the Duchy of Brittany - the subsequent French kings had repeatedly used marriage to seek Brittany, but Brittany also rebelled and regained independence more than once, and there was no Brittany in this rebellion, which was originally very abnormal, and everyone felt that there must be a conspiracy.

Rennes of Brittany was not originally on the list of the Grand Parade, unlike Nantes, although Nantes has a castle of the Duke of Brittany, but it was originally built by the Duke of Brittany (the father of Duchess Anne), and because Nantes was once a concentration of Huguenots, after several bloody grate combs, it was more stable, and then because the king intended to rebuild ironclad ships here, an army of tens of thousands of people was stationed here, and the reliability was stronger.

But what is Rennes? It has been guarding the gates of Brittany since the first century B.C., during Roman rule, and in 510 A.D. Brittany became a duchy, it was the capital of the duchy, and successive dukes of Brittany had to hold their coronation ceremonies in the cathedral of Saint-Pierre, and they had to accept the mayor's key at the city gate, and swore to protect Brittany. It was a sacred place for supporters of Brittany's independence, and one of the most entrenched anti-French cities, where the king's parade was to stop, and his ministers and generals absolutely disagreed.

"I know what you're worried about. "But Brittany is unlike any other, the people here are warriors, not even Charlemagne has conquered them, but only strength and fearlessness can bring them to their knees," said Louis, "and have you seen in Paris or in Versailles those who have the right to represent Brittany?" he replied on his behalf: "They are strong-willed and clear-headed, and if the Grand Parade gives way to Brittany, they will only despise Bourbon more and more, and will not regard themselves as Frenchmen - Because the French were defeated by the Bretons. ”

"I'm going to destroy them. The king said, "Then we will have Brittany." ”

The people who were qualified to enter this room looked at each other, they did not think that there was any possibility of convincing the king, they looked at the Duke of Orleans, and now only the Duke could persuade the king to change his mind, the Duke of Orleans coughed softly, and the ministers saw the opportunity to leave, leaving space for the noble brothers.

"Let's have dinner first. The Duke of Orleans said that soon a sumptuous dinner was served, and Louis had been modestly in the evening, but to-day their lunch had been done with only one or two "king's breads", and now Louis was indeed hungry, and he sat down first, and then the duke—in the days of Louis XIII, the brother and the duke were required to carry lamps for the king, and Louis was not interested in this red tape— If this brainwashing worked, Louis XIII would not have to worry about the Duke of Vendôme and the Duke of Gaston, and for a dignified man, it would have motivated him to work hard to seize power, and for the royal brother, there would be only one way to climb the throne.

The Duke of Orleans was also accustomed to dining with the king, he took off his coat, sat down with him, washed his hands with warm water with lemon, and came up with hot fish soup and clam soup, eating seafood by the sea is of course the most pleasant, fresh food brings delicious taste and mellow taste, the Duke of Orleans drank the soup in small sips, and said: "What are you going to do with those Bretons?"

"I will first see their attitudes and thoughts," said the king, "whether they are for personal self-interest or for the sake of the people of Brittany." ”

"I think it's the latter," said the Duke of Orleans, "otherwise we would have been able to see the Bretons at Versailles." "Like the Duke of Lorraine, they would be happy to sell Brittany for a good price, but in the same way, the man who raised the banner of justice at any time would be a man of great power—like William Orange. This is not surprising, because whether it is politics or war, the leader needs to have enough knowledge and experience, or at least receive an orthodox and complete education, otherwise he will be silently lost in the long river of history, as most riots do.

This is not contempt, it is not a lie, and if you have not forgotten what we mentioned earlier, the Shoe Society revolt - the ignorant man confessed everything honestly when he confessed to the priest, and even if he did not, how could an illiterate and illiterate peasant read a map, write letters, and calculate troops and supplies?

"If it's the latter," said the Duke of Orleans, "what are you going to do?"

"I am a peace-loving man," Louis said, "and I want to negotiate with them first." ”

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Before today, the Duke of Saint-Simon had laughed at the Duke of Vendôme for having to be a junior, even if he was appointed by the King of France to bow down to his former enemies, but what he didn't expect was that he would soon follow in the footsteps of the Duke of Vendôme.

The king asked him to negotiate with several of the rulers of Brittany, but the Duke of Saint-Simon came to see it as a threat to negotiate writing, but he thought about it, if he was a Brittany, it would be difficult to find any room for maneuver or gain, and there was no doubt that on land, Louis XIV would never lose like the giant Antey (note 1), and with this large fleet, especially thirty ironclad ships, in time, neither Spain nor England would have to resort to holly.

Louis XIV did not come to Brittany as Charles VIII did, and in fact he seemed to desire peace as he said he did, for which the Duke of Saint-Simon maintained his personal opinion. But what is to be said here is that the king is probably going to make two laws, one is the law of the sea and the other is the law of slaughter.

Two laws that are directly relevant to Brittany.

Open the map, you will find that Brittany is a peninsula stretching out to the sea, surrounded by the sea on three sides, one side facing the interior of France, it is no wonder that the people here are so fierce, they can be said to have no way out, but no matter how brave the warrior, they need to eat, drink, dress, need all kinds of utensils and weapons...... The two largest crops in Brittany are seafood and livestock.

With such a fleet, the King of France could calmly blockade the French coast, and all fishing boats would undoubtedly be kept in the hands of the King's officials, although the specific laws had not yet been promulgated, but as far as the Duke of Saint-Simon had learned a little, these two laws must have included something like a permit, and in short, no ship was allowed to sail without the permission of the King— At this time, there was no accepted concept of territorial waters, whether it was the shipping route or the surface of the sea, depending on the naval strength of the countries, and the place where the artillery reached was the king's domain - this would work just as well at sea, but if it did, the law of the sea alone would starve a third of the population of Brittany.

As for the revolt...... The Duke of Saint-Simon did not think that the wrecked little fishing boats could stand up to the king's fleet.

As for the slaughter law, this law was already under consideration by the king, because if the slaughter, storage and feeding were not done properly, it could cause a plague, and the slaughter laws had already begun to be implemented in Paris and Versailles, as well as Orleans and Blois. Mutton and chickens and ducks soon gained the favor of ladies and cooks, and in this era, if food poisoning is not a casual cure, many people, especially the elderly and children, can vomit and diarrhea to kill them.

But the Duke of Saint-Simon's spies had also reported accordingly, and the Duke of Saint-Simon was keenly aware that this was also one of the methods used by the king to choke the throat of the lord, when the output of the domain had to pass through the hands of the king's officials before it could be converted into jingling coins...... Even if you stick to your own territory, it doesn't matter if you don't set foot in Paris or Versailles - that's why he accepted a bribe from Leopold I in a fool's mind, which is Louis XIV's fault, of course.

I think the Bretons would have the same idea, the king might not have conquered Brittany, but if the two major outputs of Brittany were restricted by the king's law, even if they went to sea secretly, the king's law made it clear that neither meat nor fish could be sold openly without inspection, and if it caused poisoning and pestilence, the sellers would be hung one by one on the lamp poles.

Most irritatingly, the law is also popular with the populace, who are presumably fed up with muddy ducks, chalk bread and oiled raw meat (which looks fresh).

In fact, in addition to these two, Brittany also had a good production, which was the pottery of Compe, but since the king fired the beautiful porcelain in Lorraine, the pottery of Compe has never been sold for a good price.

The king's meaning was clear, he might not be reckless, but if the Bretons resolutely refused to accept the rule of the French king, he would slowly trap Brittany.

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"In fact, there is a great deal to be said about Brittany," said the king. ”

"What's the question?" said the Duke of Orleans.

"Ever heard of King Arthur?"

Note 1: Antey is the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea, and Gaia, the mother god of the earth. He never gets tired, and his body absorbs the power of the earth as soon as it touches it