The pedestal that Captain Vauban had built for the king was not so high, and he was not mad enough to erect the king as a conspicuous target, but it was enough for Louis to look down from above on the three wide trenches, and the level ground in front of them, and beyond that was the glittering moat, over which the drawbridge had been raised high, showing Lille's hostility resolutely and clearly.

Although the city of Lille is not as old as Brussels or Paris, it is not as old as people think, at least its defense system, should have been made a major adjustment in the fifteenth or sixteenth century, the reason why I say this is because before the fourteenth century, artillery was not widespread enough, and the power was not strong enough, so the city walls at that time were mainly to defend the enemy from attacking the city, always built as high as possible, of course, we all know that the higher the city wall, the more difficult it is to make it thick, because its own weight will make the foundation collapse, or the city wall will fall, so the city wall at that time was generally thirty to fifty feet, and the thickness was about ten to fifteen feetBut when the artillery was more widely used, and the power became more and more powerful, the towering city walls would always give in powerlessly in the roar of artillery and smoke, so people quickly made a relative feedback, that is, the height of the city wall was lowered, and then the city wall was thickened, at this time the city wall was generally made of gravel and earth inside, and bricks or stones outside, the thickness could reach twenty-five feet or more, and there was an oblique angle, so that the kinetic energy of the cannonballs would not all act on the city wall.

But this thickness also caused a problem, that is, when the soldiers were entrenched on the wall, it was difficult to see what the enemy under the wall was doing, and it was impossible to defend against those who shook the base of the wall—so the original wall that was either square or round underwent some changes, that is, the addition of the Half Moon Fort, As the name suggests, the Half Moon Fort is a semi-circular fortress protruding outwards from the city wall, the bastion is a sharp triangular fortress, and the convex fort is like a short finger sticking out of the city wall, there is more than one such fortress, the same height as the city wall, and sometimes a small platform is added in the middle of the fortress to enhance firepower or as a lookout. So if you can look down from the sky, you can often see that these cities are like flowers blooming on them, or a five-pointed or six-pointed star.

Lille is one such star, and these edges and corners that stick out in all directions are like the fangs of the city, and if an enemy comes to attack, then soldiers can strike a full blow on every line of the edges— Captain Vauban raised his binoculars and looked at it for a while, then put it down confidently, although the battle had not yet begun, but based on the information he had received before and what he saw, the defense line of Lille's fortress was not complete, and the attack range had dead ends, although there were some obviously newly created skewer forts, but they were too low to pose a great threat.

But neither he nor Viscount Tyrrenne were foolish enough to cost the lives of their soldiers in vain, and the wars of the seventeenth century, whether on an open battlefield or a difficult siege battle, began with the sudden roar of artillery—the metal beasts that had been rubbed by the king were pushed up, the pedestals of the cannons were already ready, and the brackets were quickly installed—this was medium and large artillery, and the small guns were ready to go by removing the axles from the trolleys— The king sat on his throne and watched as the soldiers in the three trenches moved like water in the ditches.

The third, the closest to the king and the farthest from the enemy, with its bullets, muskets and artillery, and boxes of gunpowder, existed as an open-air arsenal of armaments, a distance that would ensure that the enemy's artillery, even if it had the blessing of God or the curse of the devil, would not attempt to hit it, but that between it and the second trench, the first, was connected by a zigzag, and the second trench was used to house the forts, and it should be mentioned that Louis had been persistently recruiting scholars, opening up the way and rewarding themMatching the king's artillery is its extraordinary range and safety— Vauban did not have to worry at all about the round shells not landing on the walls of Lille, and the first trench was used to house the soldiers who were about to be thrown into battle, most of them musketeers, who were inspecting their guns when the king looked over, and these rifled guns certainly increased the speed and accuracy of the bullets, but when loading gunpowder and bullets, it was not as convenient as the unrifled guns, so Louis had to make a concession, and there were only four rifling in each barrel, which could not be compared with the smoothbore guns with more than a hundred rifled wires in later generations。

But for the soldiers, this change was just right, and Condé, Viscount Tyrrenne and other generals also changed their original tactics under the feedback of themselves and the soldiers. In short, the biggest change is the musketeers' short-handled muskets, because the barrels of short-handled muskets are short enough, and neither gunpowder nor bullets will get stuck in the middle of the process, so they can have eight or ten riflings, which is almost the limit, because at this time the barrel rifling can only be made of iron bars with hooks, which is very slow and inefficient, and the scrap rate is also very high.

The king's ability to complete the musket for this campaign is due to the sorcerers of Gayora, who are able to work day and night like a resurrected corpse because of the king's gold.

Vauban placed only ten cannons in the second trench, and when they roared like dragons, even the ground under the king's feet shook, and the cannons on the walls of Lille roared, but they sounded so weak that the shells fell to the ground before they even reached the first trench, and did not do any harm to the French army, and the soldiers laughed, and some brave men jumped out of the trenches, ran out to pick up an iron cannonball, and then returned to their positions, to a burst of applause and cheers。

Such an act would have been unthinkable in the armies of later generations, but in this era it was undoubtedly a testament to courage, and at least the soldiers who saw it were greatly encouraged, and the round cannonball was soon delivered to the king, and Louis took it as hot as it was, "This is perhaps the best gift." He thought for a moment, took off his hat and handed it to Vauban, "Give this to the soldier," he said, "as my reward." Vauban bowed to him and ran as fast as he could.

Louis's hat today is bright red, and even with the paints made by the wizards, there is no need for expensive cochineal, but because the king has repeatedly reiterated that these dyes have not yet appeared in large quantities in the market, they still maintain a high price, and in addition, in the king's clothing, there are always jewels, such as this hat, the clasp used to hold the snow-white ostrich feather in place, is a pinned of a Ginza sapphire, but the ostrich feather may be more expensive than the pin.

This was indeed a generous reward, and during the reign of Louis XIII, the King of France issued a series of prohibitions on luxury, in short, both to silence the chatter of the Roman Church and to ensure that French gold and silver would not flow out of France in large quantities - after all, at this time, France had not yet become the capital of fashion, and the French were attracted to gold and silver ornaments, English lace, Dutch woollen wool, etc., which were the objects of French flock to - of course, the nobility and the king were always exceptions.

The brave soldier immediately took off his hat and put on the king's hat, and although he could not see it, the king could imagine how triumphant he was from the swaying ostrich feather.

For the French, it was almost an innocuous and interesting episode, but for the Lillees, it was humiliating, or - although their artillery could not reach the French positions, the French artillery could continue to shake their walls and confidence, and if the ten guns placed in the trenches could still give them luck, then the fifteen small cannons pushed deeper by Vauban were a different matter— It's just that Louis hasn't been able to make any special improvements to this small cannon for the time being, in addition to increasing rifling, it is to prepare a more accurate iron ruler for the gunners, that is, the current rangefinder, although the current gunners will definitely scold when they see this kind of rangefinder - especially the previous one......

It was a wooden stick carved with a horizontal bar, and the gunner put the stick on the gun, perpendicular to the gun ring (the round iron bar on the gun body), and then put the target into the intersection of the two virtual lines - Well, you can imagine how poor this aiming method is, anyway, within three hundred feet, this kind of small cannon cannons can't easily hit the target, even with rifling, but what Vauban needs is not accuracy, but to clean up those outer logue forts, perhaps because of the urgency of time, these lob forts are only about six feet high breastwall, and the shells of the small cannons can directly hit the soldiers and artillery inside.

But in the same way, these gunners were bound to be shrouded in enemy fire, and at this time the newly made ladders were pushed up, and the grenadiers, their crockpots, and gunpowder were on them, and the ladders, which had been used as siege equipment, played a new role here, and the grenadiers were not only condescending, but also able to throw ammunition farther, even threatening the soldiers on the city walls— But the French were not without losses, some of the small cannons were overturned, the gunners fell, the wooden frames burned, the ladders were also hit, the grenadiers fell from above, and the smoke and dust from the explosion completely submerged him in one fell swoop.

Louis couldn't help but grasp the arm of the chair, although he couldn't see the blood and couldn't hear the wailing, he knew very well that the battlefield must have been full of chaos.

A person who has not witnessed death and has not experienced the battle himself, even if he can compose the most passionate music and write the most tragic poems, will never be able to understand and comprehend Louis's current emotions, even if he has been chased by werewolves, plotted by wizards, cursed by his own uncle, and experienced the pain of losing his family and freedom...... But war is different, it can never be the same, this is the greatest malice that God has given to mankind, and it is also a feast that the devil holds in the world, where anyone can fall, be wounded and die, whether he was a good man or a vicious man, cowardly or brave, whether he bears sin or not...... All the same, there is no difference, under artillery fire, the fallen soldiers are like the grass and trees destroyed by the hurricane, silent, without the slightest warning.

But this is only a prelude, only an opening, Captain Vauban is already in the trench, and Viscount Tyrrenne has entered the battlefield - the soldiers are coming out of the first trench, the artillery in the second trench is moving towards the first trench, and then these most powerful guns will fire three more volleys - After three times, the walls of Lille were crumbling, and the defenders of Lille seemed to have realized that they could no longer rely on the protection of the walls, and the bags and stones behind the gates were removed, and the Spaniards and Lille militia lined up in front of the city.

There were also musketeers in this army, but there were also traditional spearmen and halberders, who lined up in familiar detachments, that is, the usual queue of thirty men used by the Dutch, a formation of thirty men, three columns, ten men in each column, about six feet between the detachments, about eight feet between the men, and five detachments in front of the French, and some loose musketeers around, opening a long front.

Viscount Tyrrenne adopted a new formation, two companies, eighty musketeers, eight musketeers in each column, with a distance of about nine feet between them, because they were fighting in a row when they were fighting head-on, that is, after the first man had finished shooting, he had to run to the last column to clear the chamber and reload the gunpowder and bullets, so there was always enough space. Because it was the first time to fight the enemy head-on, the people standing at the front were calm veterans, and it only took fifteen to twenty seconds for them to shoot once, and twenty-five to thirty seconds for the newcomers in the rear, even so, the French ** team could still guarantee that forty bullets were fired every minute.

Louis had also slandered the musket tactics of this era as if they were being shot in line, but when he really saw all this, he couldn't help but feel a tingling pain, those who fell one after another in the smoke, maybe a docile son, maybe a loyal husband, more likely a loving father, but their lifeline was cut by fate, and then everything in the world had nothing to do with them, and the priests and Bishop La Rivière around him were muttering prayers— Louis also recited the scriptures, and although he did not believe that this would lead the dead to heaven—he did understand those who had placed their hopes in monks and holy relics.

The two neatly arranged teams marched straight towards each other, advancing, and when they were probably only two hundred feet away from each other, more people fell, and Vauban saw that in the other party's array, the halberdiers and spearmen were also ready— And suddenly, with the sudden loud and rapid sound of drums, and the shouts of officers, the French musketeers in the first column suddenly became half a cut shorter, and they were half-kneeling, with their knees against the ground, and the end of their spears rested on their shoulders, and the musketeers of the second column immediately took a big step to the right, and the musketeers of the third column suddenly went straight to the soldiers of Lille— The three men lit the arquebuses at the same time, and the guns rang out, and the triple bullets washed over the soldiers of Lille like a torrential rain, and the gunners who had not yet had time to raise their muskets, the halberders and spearmen who were preparing to charge the enemy, their eyes widened and they fell in disbelief, so close, such a dense fire, almost all the people in the first few rows of queues were spared!