The ship's doctor gave the Earl of Sandwich a bottle of ouzo, which he said was ouzo, but in fact you could think of it as a bottle of narcotic potion, which included belladonna and crow, and the Earl of Sandwich felt a sharp pain, but he was still taking a sip of ouzo, and now was not the time to let go of everything and fall into a deep sleep - more and more wounded were being sent to the ship's doctor, some of whom needed to have their limbs amputated, and the ship's doctor's tools were probably taken straight from the galley, saws, Knives and axes, even the freshest traces of blood emit a disgusting smell of filth, like pork that had been laid out for days in Dover in September, and the ship's doctor wore a cowhide apron, and the severed hands or feet of the wounded were dropped under his feet, and there were indescribable things—probably intestines, eyes, and flesh, and anything else could have fallen from the bodies of these poor men.

The Earl of Sandwich looked gloomy past the men, and the hurried stretcher passed him like a school of fish, and he went first to the middle and rear of the upper deck, where there were fourteen 18-pound guns, and they continued to roar, and there was a smell in the cabin that seemed to be hell—smoke + sweat + tears + sulfur, which not only smoked so much that people could not open their eyes, but even breathing was about to become a problem. The gunners and auxiliaries had blood-red eyes and hoarse voices, and it was extremely laborious for these ferocious steel beasts to roar, and they even ignored the Earl of Sandwich, seeing this, the Earl quickly walked past them and came to the lower deck, where there were fourteen 24-pounder guns, that is, heavy guns, but now only twelve of them were able to make sounds, and the other two had irreparable damage.

But it was the stern on the open deck that suffered the most damage, and the Dutchman's shells had not only broken the collarbone and mast of Monsieur Earl, but also lifted half of the stern, and here were all light guns, twelve in all, and they had probably sunk to the bottom of the sea now—the great wound was like a big mouth mocking the British, and the giant had devoured the lives of a dozen or so crew members, and it was here that most of the wounded from the ship's doctor came.

"Mr. Captain!" said one of the crew members, "what is the matter?" asked the Earl of Sandwich. The crew member looked frightened and confused, "Mr. Captain," he said hesitantly, as if he didn't believe it himself, "the Prince Royal is sinking!

The Earl of Sandwich paused: "Nonsense!"

"Really, sir," said the crew mournfully, "behold, it is sinking!"

The Earl of Sandwich turned sharply, raised his binoculars and looked at the place pointed out by the crew, and he saw the "Prince-Royal", a three-deck battleship carrying hundreds of guns and thousands of crews, which was indeed sinking as the crew said - it had suffered more concentrated blows than the "St. James" More violently, and unfortunately, one or more shells hit their ammunition depot directly, and the explosion like the sky was falling apart and the behemoth was broken in two, the flames burned on the sea, the gray-white sails slowly immersed in the glass-blue water, the tan hull pointed into the air, the mast was like the outstretched arm of a dying man, and the British crew in crimson uniforms jumped into the water in a hurry like penguins gathered on the ice about to melt, and the Earl of Sandwichbae was dizzy:" What about Your Highness?" he asked, struggling.

Fortunately, there was a cheer on the other side of the "St. James", and the Earl of Sandwich heard someone chanting the name of the Duke of York, and he immediately ran over, and looked to see that it was the Duke of York and his two retinues in a small boat rowing towards them, and the Earl of Sandwich immediately ordered the crew to put down the boat to protect and greet them, and after a while, the Duke of York grabbed the soft ladder and climbed up, although his description was a little embarrassing, but the spirit was still very high, to be honest, "the Royal Prince" Fate is to blame for the sinking and not for him, the commander, after all, in naval battles, it is not extremely common to be directly hit at an ammunition depot.

"I may have to take command of the St. James. "The Duke of York's first words when he saw the Earl of Sandwich were this.

"It was an honour for me to work with the USS St. James. The Earl of Sandwich said at once, and the Duke of York also noticed the white triangular scarf on his shoulder, "You are a brave man, but since you have been wounded, I should order you to return to your cabin." ”

"Allow me to follow by your side. "As for my wounds, I have only broken a bone, and I have a bottle of ouzo." ”

"Well," said the Duke of York, "as long as you feel you can hold on." ”

The Duke of York, though an ambitious man, was also an outstanding military leader, and after his flagship "Prince Royal" had to abandon ship due to an explosion at an ammunition depot, the "St. James" raised his flag, and the British fleet, although suffering heavy losses under the blows of the Dutch, they were under the command of the Duke of York, desperately braving the enemy's shelling to storm the opponent's array line- On land, this method of fighting was undoubtedly to suppress the enemy's offensive with the body of a soldier, and in this case, small warships, transport ships, and logistical supply ships were used as armor for the capital ships, and his approach suddenly reduced the fleet of nearly 100 ships to less than half - including the "St. James", and the Duke of York changed a flagship.

But these heavy costs are definitely worth paying, if the Dutch fleet is all here, Admiral Reut can completely suppress the British fleet in Sol Bay, but only two-thirds of the fleet under his command is now under command, and in this kind of sea battle with hundreds of ships in battle, the gap left by the third of the fleet, even Reut can not make up for it, he commanded the fleet to turn, intending to continue to intercept the British fleet in the North Sea, but at this time, from the southeast side of the Dutch fleet, there was a thunderous sound of artillery bombardment。

Van Gent couldn't help but take a sip, he couldn't believe that those two fleets would be defeated by the French, who probably couldn't even learn how to swim.

He really blamed his colleagues.

————

Many years later, when people talk about the Battle of Sol Bay, they have to mention the whimsical General Estres, it is true that on the sea, the French could not even compare with the British, or the Portuguese, or the Spaniards, but this General Estrés when facing the menacing Dutch navy- After the two sides began to shell each other, he ordered the crew to pour a large amount of quicklime into the sea, although I don't know why there was so much quicklime on the French warship, but when the quicklime came into contact with the cold seawater, it immediately produced a chemical reaction, and the sea water boiled, and a large amount of water vapor came out, just like the previous battle between Leut and the Duke of York, the French and Dutch warships were already hazy because of the gunpowder smoke from the shelling, and the production of water vapor was even worse, and it was difficult for the lookout on the top of the mast to see through the fog to see the situation belowThe French left a small number of logistical ships and armed merchant ships to deal with the Dutch who had come to maneuver, while their main force circled from the waters of Dunkirk to the North Sea, echoing the British fleet, leaving Dereitt with the enemy, and had to abandon the original plan and retreat to the outer island chain of the Friesland region.

But this was only an explanation that was publicized in front of the eyes of the common people, and in fact, in the end, it was the wizards of Gayola who stayed on the French ships that played a role, and the island of Gayola was the "inner world" chosen by the Italian wizards First, the wizards hid it, and for thousands of years no mortal who had not been allowed to detect its existence, in this case, if they wanted to hide a fleet from being discovered, the wizards could also do it, which is the reason why the French fleet was able to leave no trace in the eyes of the spies before reaching the mouth of the Thames, but it was night, and now it was day, so the wizards still borrowed a cover of gunsmoke and water vapor to achieve the result that General Estress wanted to see。

Because General Reut retreated quickly, although the other two Dutch fleets caught up after discovering that they had been deceived, they wisely chose to avoid the recombination of the two fleets.

What made people even more surprising was that in this naval battle, although the British lost four warships (including two three-deck warships with 100 guns), more than a dozen small warships and logistics ships, and the Dutch also lost two warships and some armed merchant ships, but the casualties of the crew were not very serious, the British lost more than 1,000 people, and the Dutch only lost a few hundred.

And the appearance of the "Holy Golden Lily Flag" was in this naval battle - at the end of the battle, when the sea was in disarray, forced to abandon the ship, and the crew members who could not climb into the boat desperately clung to the planks, statues or whatever floating objects, several of the French three-masted ships lowered their original flags, raised a flag embroidered with a golden lily, and sailed towards those who were desperate, and they shouted loudly for all those who fell into the water to discard the weapons they carried with them— From muskets to daggers, even an awl for tooth picking, and then the boat was lowered and the men climbed onto the boat, and then they fastened the rope that dragged the boat to the three-masted boat, and pulled them all the way back to Sol Bay, and then it was not for the French to worry about whether they would be rewarded or imprisoned and whipped.

The "Golden Lily" symbol continued hundreds of years later, and then spread from the battlefield to the people, and eventually all rescue ships would raise the "Holy Golden Lily Flag", sometimes a golden lily inlaid in a sun pattern, most of which came from France or a French-controlled shipping company.

However, such a follow-up is not something that the current Louis XIV can know, he is now in Narden.

Naarden was so close to Amsterdam that it was as close as a finger on the map, and it was, as Leut said, a free city with solid walls and many fortresses, but General Reut saw only the thick stone walls, but not the fragile human hearts, and as a free city, the citizens here were all very responsible—I mean, a sense of responsibility for individual freedom and personal gain, which they were arguing about when the French had already seized Biceme, which was a stone's throw away, and in France** When the team knocked on the door, the decision to surrender was made quickly.

It must be said that Louis did not want to destroy the small city because of the war, without him, it was so beautiful, from above, the city looked like a blooming snapdragon flower, lip-shaped corolla, with two lobes split at the top and three lobes at the bottom - it was a fortress that jutted out in the middle and in all directions, and beyond the polygonal fortress was a wide moat, so wide that the whole city was like an island floating on the surface of a lake, and between the moat there were embankments and bridges for horse-drawn carriages to walk.

"What a beautiful place it is. "I hope that in the future I can take my wife and daughter here for a while, not thinking about anything, hunting in the forest, rowing on the lake," Philip said. ”

Philip is talking about the origin of the name of Narden, there is a Narden forest, facing a vast lake, the name of the lake is IJssel, it is full of reeds, clumsy walking cormorants and graceful and brutal swans are common here, and when the sunset is reflected on the lake, IJsselllake is like an amber lake or a golden lake.

Perhaps it is precisely because this place is so beautiful that the citizens here are so weak, Louis thought to himself, it seems that at any time, a person with a strong heart can only be born in misery and barrenness - no, maybe ambition, he looked at Philip and smiled: "Is Leopold I finally starting to act?"

"If we don't act," said Philip indifferently, "the Austrians will only have to watch us swallow the whole of Holland." ”

But Louis was so fast that his army went straight in like a knife slicing through the clotted fat, and neither the Viscount of Tyrrenne, nor the Duke of Luxembourg, nor the Prince of Condé, nor did the armies of the three armies go out as their enemies expected. Conspiracy or stubborn resistance from the Dutch stalled somewhere, from the declaration of war by Louis XIV to the fall of Naardon in less than three months, and it is unclear whether Leopold I's allies have raised enough armies – but they must act...... Spain, Austria, Denmark-Norway, Brandenburg, Switzerland...... They must curb the expansion of France, like a hunter facing a lion that has already tasted human flesh......

The lions who have tasted human flesh and blood will take humans as their prey, and the king of France, who has tasted the sweet taste of victory in war, will not easily stop his conquest.