Louis the Younger would have felt frustrated and worried, but Louis and the others would not have been - there were monks and wizards around Louis the Younger, who could guarantee the absolute personal safety of the Crown Prince, and there were not many Crimean Tatars who had infiltrated the area, and in this era, it was almost impossible to completely separate the battlefield from the rear, and a commander had to deal with a lot of things - such as endless procrastination, defection, and betrayal, which was never new, not to mention that they were not even fighting on French soil now.

With the Marquis de Loiss's explanation, the Dauphin was surprised to learn that with the arrival of the allied army in Kamnikol, the first half of Slovenia that had spread out from Kamniko was a catastrophe from the Holy Roman Empire, a monarchy, and its allies - according to tradition and agreement, Leopold I had to provide a large part of the supply of the horses that came to his aid, and that Austria alone could not afford it- Then Slovenia, as a vassal and servant of the Habsburgs, had to take on this heavy responsibility.

Kamni is a big city, but how many of its original inhabitants are there? And the herders of the Velicaprani Plateau, who graze here, and tens of millions of cattle and sheep have now been replaced by dense soldiers, none of whom have left their tents and houses of their own free will, and many of them are empty-handed and full of despair. The Marquis de Loiss, at the behest of Louis XIV, could only ensure that the French would not rob the herdsmen's cattle and sheep or the belongings of the inhabitants like bandits, and that their wives and children would be preserved, but neither Louis XIV nor Louis could interfere in the armies of the Spaniards, Austrians, or other princes of the Holy Roman Empire.

As I have described, in addition to the salary paid by the employer, there are two main benefits for mercenaries, one is the assets of civilians in the battlefield and the cities and villages near the battlefield, and the other is the "inheritance" stripped from the dead. Because the Habsburgs have not yet fully acquired Slovenia, they still wear that kind mask when facing the lords of Slovenia, but those ordinary people are like bleating lambs to them, and they will not consider how much damage these mercenaries will cause to Kamnik, even if these citizens and herdsmen who were driven and plundered are all dead, as long as the city still exists, then there will still be people who continue to move in and multiply, and they, as well as the lords and nobles here, and even the wealthy merchants, will not suffer any serious losses。

But for the inhabitants of Kamnico, as well as for the herders of the highlands, they have suffered a catastrophe – imagine a child looking forward to the berries in the woods on a quiet and warm night, a husband estimating the harvest in the wheat field or a newborn lamb, a wife thinking about the new cheese, and a young man and woman thinking about their lovers...... The old man knelt before the icon or the cross and prayed in a low voice...... They may have heard that the infidel army was approaching the Sava and that war was imminent, but like every man who had a little luck, they stayed because they were too poor to endure the torment of displacement.

And then they were driven away.

If they are lucky enough to meet a Frenchman, then they can still get a little compensation, but if it is someone else...... The herdsmen of the highlands, who were a little more savage and ferocious than the citizens of Kamnikol, were not surprising that they decided to defect to the Ottoman Turks at once after being expelled and plundered—the Tatars they brought in numbered only a hundred, so they did not attract the attention of the garrison.

Realizing that the real army might not be as impartial as he thought it would be, the Dauphin fell into a rare silence, and when he had somehow freed himself from this horror, Louis asked him to register the dead and wounded soldiers with the subordinates of the Marquis de Loiss, Monsieur Pierre's coldness did not cause much damage to the French around the Dauphin, but there were still dead or wounded, and when Pierre said the figure of three dead and eleven wounded, it didn't sound shocking at all, but when he named them one by one, the vague image immediately became clear in the Dauphin's consciousness, his eyes couldn't help but fill with tears, "Really? Antoine, Barre and Gabriel......" he choked up: "They ......"

"It is a pity," said Pierre, "Your Highness, but it is a matter of honor and honour that they died for you." ”

The Dauphin shook his head sadly, for he, like his father, Louis XIV, knew very well that there was no glory in death...... Louis had always tried to reduce the number of casualties among his soldiers and officers as much as possible, but death was inevitable in war—the Dauphin remembered that when he left Versailles, his father was ordering Le Vau to design a cathedral, and it was said that the names of all the heroes who died for him, for the Bourbons, and for France would be inscribed on the walls of the church, so that every descendant could learn about their heroic deeds.

Speaking of which, when the Sun King decided to erect a statue of the playwright in the Grand Theater, the people of Paris thought it was a good thing to celebrate, but when the king intended to build a cathedral for ordinary soldiers and officers, people began to talk about it, and they did not understand why the king did it - there were marshals and generals who were favored by the king before and were allowed to hang portraits on the walls of the royal palace or be buried in designated cathedrals, but those soldiers from humble backgrounds? Even Cardinal La Rivière, who has always been unpretentious, has inquired about the Dauphin's intentions on this matter......

It was only now that the Dauphin realized his father's intentions, and he remembered the three men: Antoine was a merry seed, the second son of a baron, who was better dressed than any noblewoman the prince had ever seen; Barre, a dark-skinned Marseille who was supposed to serve in the naval fleet but came to him because his father had climbed into the Marquis de Loiss; and Gabriel...... He was not much older than the crown prince and shy by nature, but he was very good at taking care of horses......

A monk performed a deathbed sacrament for three men, and they lay side by side on the bed made up of two tables, and the first sight of the Dauphin was Gabriel, the young musketeer, who, judging by his exposed body outside the sheets, was not hurt much, as if he had fallen asleep, but with a pale face, blue lips, and a silk scarf around his neck to cover his throat, and it is said that his horse had fallen while retreating, and he fell from his horse, and for a moment he could not pull out the foot that was pressing under the horse, and a Tatar man pounced on him and cut his neck neatly- Barre's body had more wounds than he had, the fatal wound was a hole in his chest, and his dark skin reminded the Dauphin of the silks that had faded from washing and drying many times, crumpled and gray--Antoine's face was covered with his favorite hat, the ostrich feathers on which were dyed bright red, broken and hanging down the brim of the hat, and when the Dauphin stepped forward to uncover it, the monk stopped him: " Don't, Your Highness," he said, "his face was trampled on." ”

The crown prince silently withdrew his hand, he knew what the monk was talking about, the real battle was completely different from what he imagined, and the playwright and painter described, the people were biting together like wild beasts, they had no sharp fangs, but they had swords and muskets—and horses' hooves with iron palms, and if you fall off your horse in the melee, no one will see you.

"Would you like to see the wounded soldiers?" asked Pierre.

"How are they?"

"Thank God," said Pierre, "that two men will have their arms cut off and three will have their feet cut off, but they will all live." He said vaguely that these five men would have died before His Majesty had the audacity to introduce wizards into the army, but now that they were missing two hands and two feet, they could return to Paris or Versailles— Whoever was wounded in battle for the king, regardless of his origin, received a small fief in the Paris basin, a handsome annuity, which ensured him and his family the rest of their lives in good prosper, and his children were eligible to go to school and join the army, and they were given special privileges if they wanted to enter the church or enter the public service.

So in the French army, even in the camp for the wounded soldiers or in the dormitory, it will not be lifeless, and when the Dauphin walks into the room, the unfortunate people are still asleep because of the narcotics of the wizards, and they will have a hard time, but they will always calm down— As for the other wounded, they were only broken bones or flesh wounds, so when the crown prince came, they were sitting around playing cards, and there were some shiny little things spread out on the table, and the prince deliberately looked away, giving them time to sweep the coins on the table into his pockets.

Unlike the active musketeers, the Polish Tatars, Anvo was placed in a separate room, and he was lucky, although he was trampled by the horse's hooves and broke several ribs and wounded his internal organs, but these injuries were not a big deal for the wizard - this battle, even Louis did not know whether to blame the young man, he deliberately wanted to show his dexterity and force in front of the crown prince, but he did not expect that a small temptation would attract so many enemies.

When he saw the Crown Prince, he was silent for a moment, then jumped down from the bed, knelt in front of him, and touched the Prince's feet with his forehead, and little Louis subconsciously took a step back, "Don't be like this, Anwo," he said, "I don't blame you." ”

"Then you still want me. Anwo said sadly.

"I still want you, but you can't be so reckless in the future. "The crown prince said that the Tatar chief had indeed mentioned that he had several sons, but that they were all now at war outside—and that no man like that, neither Louis nor Ludwig I, would let them serve the crown prince— First, this is a waste, and to be honest, no one expected that the first battle would happen to the Dauphin of France, and secondly, the sons of the older Tatar chieftains will only be more cunning and changeable than Anwo, and he should not be accompanied by such strangers until the prince's heart is mature.

The crown prince's answer gave Anwo a look of surprise, but it was only a little, Meadow was his half-sister and had a deep relationship with him, and even if a daughter was far less valuable to the Tatars than a son, Medo's death would still make them sad.

At this moment, a mournful cry came from afar, "Who is that?" asked the crown prince.

"Those highland herders. Pierre said without changing his face.

"Are they going to be put to death?"

"It's not just about executions, we're in Slovenia right now," Pierre said, "and we have to act according to the traditions and laws here." ”

Yes, in Paris and Versailles, all kinds of torture still existed, especially against those who dared to hurt and assassinate the king and members of the royal family, but the most brutal ones, such as sawing, rat punishment and iron virgins, were largely abolished, but the Assassins were still cut off their hands or their fingers pinched off with pincers before they were beheaded or hanged - these people were doomed to death when they attacked the crown prince, but the Crimean Tatars died in a different way than the herdsmen.

The Tatars were torn apart alive by horses - before that, the Tatar leader who prostrated himself at Louis XIV had deliberately cut the joints of their limbs, otherwise it would be difficult for the horses to actually tear off human limbs - unlike the French merciful five horses (neck, limbs), the Tatar chief, who was grieving the death of his daughter and nephew, used only four horses, and when the Crimean Tatars fell to the ground, he erected them on sharpened wooden poles - that is what Ahmet did to the Christians.

This is because the Crimean Tatars were strong cavalrymen, and as for the herdsmen, who were whipped and wept and peeled bark, sharpened wooden poles, prepared torture instruments for themselves, how could they endure their grief when they saw the bloody bodies around them?

These poles would have been like Vlad III had done to the Ottoman Turks, from the garrison of the French to the king's castle, forming a bloody road, which Louis XIV or his generals would not have been happy to see, and if they did not do so, they would have been looked down upon by the Tatars or the Slovenes, and the highland herdsmen would not be grateful, but would have felt that the French were weak and deceitful. Speaking of which, did these herdsmen already have such an idea that they hid the Crimean Tatars in the woodlands closest to the French garrison?

No matter what they thought, by the time the two hundred or so people were put on wooden poles one by one, the whole city of Camnico became much quieter, and even the small clashes that came and went suddenly disappeared- The French had been provoked by many provocations before, and the mercenaries who were accustomed to misbehaving were not ashamed of the tolerance and generosity of the French, they only thought that these French were really stupid and cowardly, and some even said that the French had won their previous victories not because they were brave, but because their weapons were new enough and their ammunition was abundant.

Now they know that the French will not mind treating you like a sheep to be roasted, and that you will have to dispose of the instrument of torture that runs through you yourself—though they must have been polite and gentle throughout the process.