All they saw was the king suddenly rising from his seat, and they looked at each other, not knowing what was happening, only the Marquis de Lois suddenly realized—for of all those present, the king was the only one with a telescope that could clearly see beneath the city of Lille, and the others could only guess or wait for the herald's return—the king's hands clenched into fists, and a suppressed cry made his lips tense, and he pressed the gilded brass pipe against his eye sockets, staring at the smoke-filled battlefield for a moment.

Under the new tactics of the French, almost all of the first to die were those veterans who had been on the battlefield, of course, no one would easily put the newcomers in front of the array, they did not know how to face the enemy, nor did they know how to avoid their companions, to put it simply, they may not even be able to escape well, they needed someone to lead and inspire, but the incident happened suddenly, even the officers had a moment of consternation, they watched the French knock down the soldiers in front with three times the firepower, and then moved the musket from above the shoulder to below the chest- Of course, they also saw the cold light flickering on the barrels of those muskets, and at first they didn't care about it, but the length of the infantry muskets at this time was about four feet, and with the bayonets on the casing, they would not exceed six feet, at most the height of an adult male, and whether it was a halberd or a spear, it was more than seven feet, and this distance could make the difference between life and death.

The problem is that a large part of these spearmen and halberders are newcomers, and by this time the French have already run, a distance of more than a hundred feet, which is a distance that can be reached quickly for musketeers who do not need to wear heavy armor, and the spears are not even completely lowered, and even the veterans who have passed through the battlefield can't help but instinctively want to dodge when they are pointed at the muzzles of the black holes, and they may have to remember after a while that these people's bullets have run out— But in an instant, the royal blue torrent rushed into the array of Lille's army.

In fact, although Lille's army was hit hard, the Spaniards also used to dominate the whole of Europa with military strength and tactics, if Lille's commander could make a decision immediately, whether it was to order the army to retreat, or to fight forward, there was no shortage of corresponding methods, but even he hesitated- The soldiers could not be instructed, so some were still fighting, some were already retreating, and some were desperately looking for their commanders, and even then, until this moment, the Lilleites did not necessarily have no chance of counterattacking, but at this time, with a loud trumpet, the king's guards calmly entered from both sides, and after increasing the rifling, the bullets of the muskets had become more powerful, and they did not even approach the battle formations of halberds and spears easily, but only wandered around them to shoot— In each case, several halberders and spearmen fell, and the Mongols had used this to tremble the proud Christians centuries earlier, and now the king's guards replaced bows and arrows with muskets that could tear off vast swaths of flesh from their enemies.

The king sighed softly and put down his binoculars, even though he had tens of thousands of troops and such excellent generals as Viscount Tirrene and Captain Vauban as he was, wars, especially those of this era, were often more like fate playing tricks on mankind, and it was not uncommon for him to have an advantage but suddenly suffered a defeat due to various accidents, and there were not a few kings who died on the battlefield, otherwise there would be no famous "I am willing to exchange the crown for a horse!" For Louis XIV, he needed not only victory, but also an unquestionable and irrefutable victory in order to finally establish his pedestal as a hero.

The fall of Lille was a foregone conclusion before the appearance of the King's Guard, and when the Lilleites eagerly closed the gates— It was a bold move to lock the scattered soldiers outside, and the grenadiers came on horseback, across a moat, and threw the clay pots at the gates, because there were still soldiers running on the walls, and they could be hit by arrows and bullets, or they could be killed by the roar of artillery, but perhaps the Lilleites also realized that any resistance they had had no effect but to provoke the enemy, and that no one made a threatening move.

"Wait until the battle is over," Louis XIV said to the Marquis de loiss, "remind me that I will give each soldier a large egu, and then a golden louis to these grenadiers." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty. The Marquis de Lois bowed happily to the King, who had just handed him the binoculars, and not to any one present, and it was evident that this was the reward that the Marquis de Lois and his father, now the Minister of War, wanted most of all—he did not hesitate to follow the King as he marched forward, while everyone else had to be one step behind.

Louis Fangcai's behavior was indeed deliberate, the Marquis de lois was not a man who was good at fighting, before leaving Paris, the evidence that he left an impression on the king was the improvement of the casing bayonet, after leaving Paris, he was in charge of three large armies, a total of nearly 50,000 soldiers, there was no mistake, and the king would not be stingy with his favors, if he could do it this time, then he would also let the people around him who had made meritorious deeds get their wish - the Marquis de Lois should want to take over his father, Minister of War.

Louis thought so, and stood at the edge of the high mound, behind him a huge tent of milky white, with the royal banner of the golden lily on a blue background, and a private flag embroidered with the coat of arms of the sun in gold thread hunting beside him, and the ministers gathered around him respectfully, and it was dusk, and the night was coming, but those who saw the king thought that they had seen a rising sun.

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The mayor of Lille, a Flemish, stood on the city wall at great risk, looking into the distance—he also held a telescope, which was originally a product of the Netherlands— In 1604, from the hands of an spectacle merchant, the first crude telescope was born, even if it could only enlarge the object five times, people still flocked to it, and later the Italian Galileo Galilei managed to improve it, so that the telescope could be brought closer to a distance of about five miles, but the best craftsmen to make telescopes were in the Netherlands, like the telescope in the hands of the mayor, and it was no worse than in the hands of the king of France.

He also saw the king, a young, ambitious king, whose heart fell like a man who had stepped into the air, and he had heard of how the new king of Spain, Carlos II, was a useless and weak man, and he would have rejoiced at that time, because it undoubtedly meant that Spain would not be able to continue to control the Flanders with great power, but he should not forget that in Europa, if one lion is weakened, then another lion must take his place.

Flanders were just a herd of antelopes, and the antelopes couldn't decide to be eaten by the lion.

"Where's the commander?" he asked.

The mayor thought that he would not get an answer immediately, but he did not expect that the people around him would answer him immediately: "He is dead." ”

The commander of the Spaniards was unfortunately killed by a grenade thrown by the French in front of the city gates, the porcelain shard cut his throat, the blood could not be stopped, and when they carried him to the mayor, the blood congealed, and he looked as if he was wearing a thick black armor.

The guy was not a good man, but the mayor went to a priest anyway and gave him the final sacraments.

Next, it's time for those who are still alive to worry.

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Louis and his courtiers, or any Frenchman, didn't care what the mayor of Lille was thinking, and the king smiled only a little when he finally lowered a white flag at the gates of Lille.

"Do you know?" said the King, on the way to Lille, with great interest, a question to the Marquis de Loiss: "Why do people fly a white flag when they admit defeat?"

"As far as I know," said the Marquis de loiss, careful not to let his horse's head pass the king, and kept the distance from which he could talk to the king without shouting, "it must be because such a flag is snow-white, which means that the losing side has nothing left and has lost all combat capability." He carefully observed the king's expression: "And that's what, Your Majesty, it also means that they allowed the victor to depict his coat of arms on it as a new representation of the city." ”

This sentence made the king smile, "Maybe it's just because it's the easiest cloth to get." He said.

Then he stopped before the open gate, and under the fearful gaze of the people of Lille, he raised his whip and pointed to the gate, which had three openings, the largest in the middle and smaller symmetrical on both sides, and which had a Spanish name, but: "From this day forward," said Louis, "this is the Porte de Paris." ”

Rather than painting his coat of arms on a white cloth, he would rather remember his victory today, the flag can be changed at any time, but he will always remember this Porte de Paris, the first triumphal arch of the Sun King, but not the last.

The mayor of Lille raised his head slightly, but said nothing, and it would be self-inflicted to say anything, and he had heard that the king of France was a pious and benevolent man, and that perhaps his rule would be more moderate than that of the Spaniards.

Louis was indeed mild, and indeed kind, but his kindness and gentleness were to his people, those who were willing to be loyal to him, who paid him taxes, who provided for him, and who were willing to give their lives for him, not the Lorraine, or the Alsatians, or the Lilletes, and the people of today are not as docile as later generations think, even if they are lambs, they have fangs, and even the French will murder the king of France, let alone these Flemishers?

How the Duke of Gaston got those Bosch paintings from Flanders, even Madame Milady's information is not credible, but Louis would not believe that the Flemish had nothing to do with it.

After accepting the silver key from the mayor of Lille, Louis issued a ban, only the French were able to walk the streets after the vespers, and during the day, only a few people were allowed to leave the house, and the prosperous city of Lille seemed to be a dead city ravaged by the plague, and the people were terrified, but such measures did drive out a lot of hidden rats- The posture of these people dangling on the gallows and wheels should have given many people a wake-up call, and sure enough, there were also nobles and magnates of Lille who pleaded with the king to revoke the ban, and when the first man was hanged, no one tried or whispered again.

The soldiers who had surrendered to the French, both Spanish and Lilleaue, were driven to build the broken walls and gates, and the new fortifications that Captain Vauban was eager to try, and the heavy labour knocked down many at once, and along with the walls and fortifications stood the graves of the captives.

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"It seems that the King of France is not a benevolent monarch as rumored to be?"

In the shadows invisible to mortals, two wizards were watching all this, one of them was particularly leisurely, "Do you feel better about this?

"A king is not something we can judge. Rubens said.

"A king, but also a mortal. Jeromenes said that he was a man of arrogance by nature, and that even ordinary wizards were only materials and sacrifices in his eyes, let alone a mortal, even if he was the king of France, and he had killed a French king, he could have killed a second and he did not even know who killed him. "Maybe you're still thinking about your God. "I didn't," he said bitterly, "I didn't," Rubens immediately denied, and at the same time felt a bitterness in his heart, unlike Peter, the elder of Bosch, who had been a nobleman, had been a boy in the Countess's childhood, and had gained the Duke's admiration, and had risen through the ranks, not only as a painter but also as a foreign secretary, but also with inhumane suffering, first, he was a wizard, and secondly, his teacher (unknown to the Countess at the time) was Jeromenes Bosch. A deranged dark wizard.

In fact, Bose is not only a dark wizard, but perhaps many people will not believe that he was once an assistant priest, and he is only one step away from a real clergyman, which also makes his paintings more of a sacred and compassionate scene to people in addition to absurd, which is one of the reasons why the Church of Rome has listed his paintings as forbidden, to be honest, if it is just stupid, there are so many stupid paintings, it is Bose who reveals some terrible truth to people, he will be so intolerable - But now Bosch doesn't care about that, he is more interested in using his paintings to create a living hell for people, especially for those dignitaries.

It feels wonderful to be able to hold the fate of these illustrious men, wise men, and outstanding men in his hands, he muttered to himself.

With that, he took Rubens back to his workshop to continue the creation of the Saint-Denis triptych.