What would the king care about, in fact, before Louis XIV's royal chauffeur left Paris, the dignitaries of Paris and Versailles had already bought the answer from Madame de Montespan, and then transferred it to one or a few good prices—this was acquiesced by the king, and there were always and everywhere the king's greed for ink and yang, but if they knew what the king cared about, they would do their best to do part of the work, even if it was for the sake of whitewashing...... Otherwise, Louis would not have hanged them one by one on a gas lamppost.

It will take another 20 years to train a group of officials who truly have professional ethics and love for the people. Louis thought in his heart, fortunately, the recommended person of the mayor of Saint-Germain-en-Laye is Colbert, and Colbert may also have a lot of deficiencies, but he still has a lot of loyalty and understanding of the king, and the people he recommends are also some very interesting guys- The mayor of Saint-Germain-en-Laye was able to answer almost all the questions raised by the king: the universalization of primary education, the establishment of workhouses, the repair and maintenance of water and sewerage works, etc., if not a few treasures, without stammering and gibberish, and even with complete data and time.

Although it was very unconventional or deceitful, none of those present could change the king's mind, and they turned a corner a few hundred feet from the palace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and walked mightily past the place where the school and workhouse were. Saint-Germain-en-Laye, like all cities, was invisibly divided into the upper and lower towns, the upper towns were the mansions and apartments closest to the king's palaces and monasteries, and the lower towns were the low shacks that clinged to the city walls, because the buildings near the city walls were the most vulnerable, and they could also be demolished for fortifications and throwing objects during the defense of the city, so only the poor would live there.

Even if there are almost no stone bullets used in siege and defense warfare, the lower town is still not a place where nobles will set foot in, and the school is better, it is an extension of a small chapel, because it is newly built, even if it looks very rough (almost no decoration), but because of the glass windows and painted chalk, it still looks neat and beautiful, and the children of the low-level residents who are studying in it are stewards, servants, millers, Goldsmiths, etc., they are richer than the real poor, but to let their children study, it is not so easy for the king to advocate universal primary education, especially girls, because boys can be sent to monasteries to be educated from priests, but girls, only girls from noble families can study in women's convents.

Now that the children had had the opportunity to learn, they were driven out in droves, and when they saluted the nobles at the command of the teacher, they were not too clumsy, and Louis observed their clothes attentively, unlike the adult men and women who crowded the streets and shouted to him, most of them were dressed in bright satins and velvets, and the children wore almost all the same gray linen jackets, trousers, or skirts, and some of the boys wore aprons around their waists like the girls, apparently fearing that they would be too naughty and that they would wear their clothes dirty。 But the faces were round, if not as good-looking as the roses, at least they were round and red, their shoes fit well, and their hair was neat enough—thanks to the spittle that the teachers were spitting into the palms of their hands and smearing them on the children's heads.

"How many students are here?" Louis asked.

"Three hundred and fifty boys, one hundred and twenty girls. The mayor replied respectfully.

Louis gently asked questions of the older children, who were about to graduate from school, who were able to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division within 10,000, who could copy and read simple texts, and who could sing hymns, which was, without exaggeration, enough to free them from simple and repetitive manual work and do some easier work than their parents—and two or three of the best children had been sure to be recommended to the bishop by the teachers. Judges or lawyers can go to Paris or similar city universities for further education.

The king encouraged them with great appreciation, as the teachers had expected, and gave each of them a reward of gold louis, not only spiritually, but also quite realistically, and the children were amazed and delighted, and their teachers were almost fainting with excitement.

According to the king's orders, the schools were almost all built by canals or wells for the collection of water, and equipped with complete sanitary facilities, so that the children could develop a good habit of cleanliness from an early age - this canal extended from the school to the lower town, which was of course not in good condition as the upper part of the city through which the king's party had passed, and where part of the wall was covered with planks, and the ground was not flat enough, and the mayor said with some annoyance, because someone always stole the cement blocks, which made people now sound strange, who would want cement blocks? But in fact, in this era, the people in the shacks did not have the money to lay wooden floors or marble tiles, and when they saw that the concrete roads were so good, they thought about breaking them up and digging them back and laying them in their houses.

"But by next year, or the third year, we'll have enough money to complete the downtown. The mayor said.

Louis didn't think he was lying, because Saint-Germain-en-Laye was once the place where the king stayed for several years, just like Paris and Versailles were prosperous because of Louis XIV, and many people came to Saint-Germain-en-Laye to visit the great Sun King's former residence, although the palace could not be entered, they could also taste the food that the king had "praised" and patronized the king's "custom" The tailor's shop for clothes, as well as the fat shop for the king's royal wife, the famous Duchess of Colonna, the blacksmith shop for the king and his loyal musketeers to make horseshoes, and even the claim that he once served the king on the road - he was a "waiter" who always carried two large wooden barrels and a large shawl, two barrels with water at one end and one for personal problems, and he said that he had the privilege of seeing the king's buttocks...... This is nonsense, of course, but some people believe it, because everyone knows that their king loves cleanliness and will not just crouch down and release him in a corner like those poor people......

Who knows, when Saint-Germain-en-Laye has already built a communal toilet, there will still be tourists who are willing to pay a small eju to enjoy the same price as the king......

Although some people say that this is simply rumors and slander, but under the strong ability of the "Sun King" to carry goods, Saint-Germain en-Laye, which has little output, has indeed achieved a break-even or even a slight surplus - the mayor said this, also because the first stop of the King's Parade is at Saint-Germain -en-Laye, and he has already thought of emulating the path of a particular location - let tourists follow the route of the King's Parade to Saint-Germain En-Laye, of course, there will be a lot of places that will require their generosity on this journey. As to whether the king really tasted the food, supplies, or had any wonderful affairs, can tourists still run to the Palace of Versailles to ask?

This may indeed be a bit ...... It was too reckless, but the mayor was worthy of being recommended by Colbert, and he knew very well that the king cared more about the implementation of his will and decrees than the so-called royal prestige, and he also had some thoughts that he should not have, but in the end he suppressed his desires - he could even proudly say that at least a third of Saint-Germain-en-Laye's income was really used by him.

As for the other two-thirds, let's not talk about it...... This is because neither the Bishop nor the Inspector of Saint-Germain-en-Laye are too greedy people...... No. 3 Chinese Network

Speaking of the bishop of the abbey of St. Germain-en-Laye, he was not a bad man, at least he presided over the construction of the workhouse, a new building, using the latest building materials, that is, cement bricks, with three courtyards, arranged in a zigzag arrangement, and in the middle of which was the church, where the poorest people lived - mainly the outcasts and beggars, and then the sick, the bishop who had been in the procession to greet the king, but as soon as he heard that the king was going to visit the workhouse, he immediately ran to the workhouse to clean up.

"How many people can fit here?"

"About three thousand. The bishop of the abbey of Saint-Germain-en-Laye graciously replied, and the mayor hesitated, of course he was willing to continue to be the king's guide, but ...... In France, the appointment and dismissal of the high clergy is in the hands of the king, not the pope, and the bishop also needs to show his ability and loyalty to the king, so the mayor took two steps back after thinking about it for a while, and gave up the stage to his colleagues.

It can be seen that the workhouse has been hastily cleaned, the roads are wet, and there are no noisy children or rude women in the courtyard, and through the wiped windows, you can see that everyone is working earnestly and busily— Although the workhouse was a charitable enterprise, everyone had to work, the men were responsible for grinding the bones collected from all over the place, and the flour that was milled into powder would eventually become fertilizer in the fields, and the women were doing the work of weaving and weaving, and the children would sometimes help them and sometimes pick the down.

There was a great deal of silence in every room, not because of the king's presence, but because of the rules of the workhouse, and in some places the workhouse did not allow the inmates to speak, even in the courtyard and sleeping quarters, and they had to be silent to show their humility.

Walking through the corridor that connects the three places, at the back of the church, there is the hospital, so to speak, because the number of doctors and nurses in the medical school is not yet luxurious enough to be delegated to these places - only nuns and monks are responsible for the care of the sick, but now they can only pray to God: "We provide sugar, boiling water, and herbs." The bishop said, "And clean beds." ”

Indeed, it is surprising that the beds here are so clean, for the king's visit to the workhouse was a complete whim, and it can be said that the snow-white sheets and fluffy drapery were not all superficial, "and there were only a few mild patients here." The bishop complimented: "Your people are pious, rich and healthy, and Saint-Germain-en-Laye has not had plagues and deformities for a long time. ”

"That's a good thing. Louis said that there was not a single sick person, or the tradition of a room for several sick people, about one hundred and eighty beds, and all the sick were in one hall, separated by a curtain, but since the bishop said that there were no contagious people here, it was bearable, and although there was a sour smell in the air, it was inevitable, and the king stayed for a while, and then departed, after all, there were too many attachés with him, and it was not good for them to stay here.

Interestingly, the great lord who had always been with the king, as well as the noble young men such as Ferdinand and Frederick, could not help but open their eyes wide, but I am afraid that this is the first time they have seen these things with their own eyes, after all, as the lord of the county, the son and prince of the Grand Duke, not Louis XIV, who would dare to take them into a place like a workhouse? and the workhouse elsewhere will only be worse and more chaotic.

"I just saw someone gnawing on a bone. The Grand Princesse whispered.

"Well, not strange. Louis also whispered that the lord must have seen the men in charge of grinding the bones secretly gnawing on the bones, which was a common occurrence in the workhouse, after all, it was impossible for the people here to eat meat very often, and some of the bones were still fresh, with minced meat, and there was bone marrow remaining, so they would inevitably nibble on two bites...... So the job was very oily, and in some of the harsh workhouses, there would be people fighting over a fat bone—something he didn't know until a long time after he became in power.

"So before making any decision," Louis said to the Grand Lord, "it would be best to know as much as you can about the ins and outs of the matter, and all aspects of it." ”

Sometimes good intentions do bad things for this reason, as they see now, and there may be good Samaritans who think that this kind of hard work should not be done by the people in the workhouse, but they don't know that without this job these men will have to lose the last bit of comfort in their lives, and they will only feel anger and disappointment, and no one knows what will happen in the end.

After seeing the workhouse, and looking at the lower town in general, the king was finally willing to return to his Saint-Germain-en-Laye palace, much to the relief of many, and the king was walking around the lower town unsafe and unsafe (for anyone), but fortunately His Majesty seemed satisfied, and promised to have a feast and an audience on the third day.

That's what a king should do.