Brussels, the largest city in Flanders, once belonged to the French, Spaniards and Dutch, and because of its crucial location, it has been frantically contested by many forces, each of whom will do their best to add a layer of armor to it, so that when Louis could see it, he saw a majestic fortified city, with a double wall, a protruding baston between the bastions, and a rudimentary fortification around the walls, although it can be seen that these fortifications were made in haste, but as long as they were made of stone and mortar, they could still cause a little trouble for the French army。

But Viscount Tyrrenne and Captain Vauban never thought of wasting the lives of the soldiers in vain from the beginning, and Viscount Tyrrenne was still a little complicated, because before the battle, His Majesty said jokingly that if they could avoid the casualties of the soldiers as much as possible in the next battle, the king would discount the pension of the number of casualties of the soldiers that could usually be lost as their reward— Neither the soldiers nor the ministers of this era would consider it a humiliation for the king to speak with gold and silver, but on the contrary, the king who pays too much attention to himself will be despised, and even considered to deliberately deceive his courtiers, such as diamond pins, embroidered tunics, horses and firearms, except for the last one, the things that the king uses to reward his ministers are similar to those given to the royal wife.

It is not surprising that the king has such an order, their king has always been so merciful, so on the battlefield, the Viscount of Tyrrenne gave in to Captain Vaugan, after all, Captain Vauban tactics are the least damaged, that is, the progress must be very slow, but who will come to the rescue, the people of Brussels must have expected that Leopold I, who was also of the Habsburg lineage, would send his army, or the Dutch, who were cold-tongued, but they did not know that the Dutch were now being dragged to death by the English, and even if they could be rescued, their land was far inferior to their navy, as for Leopold IHe did not dare to act rashly until the document that proved his greed and stupidity had not been destroyed - it was also that the king was too young to care if Philip IV or Ferdinand III had signed a treaty with France, and at this time, they would have sent troops to strangle Louis XIV's ambitions in the cradle.

Leopold I may have hesitated, even though Sweden had made an alliance with France, but he still had Denmark, Switzerland, and ...... It is possible that the British Parliament, and the Church of Rome, will be able to get back from the negotiating table what they have lost in fraud and force—but all this will have to wait until the dust settles, and when the French are exhausted, and the coalition is overwhelmed, and France will inevitably make concessions—and in this case, it is impossible for Brussels to receive reinforcements.

When Louis repeatedly considered the operation after the capture of Brussels, it was not difficult to capture Flanders, but it was difficult to rule and manage the future, and the princes of the Netherlands, the Holy Roman Empire, Switzerland, and Italy would definitely reach out...... Whether it was to contain the development of France, or to cut a piece from this fat piece of good meat - if Louis was willing to compromise, then even Leopold I would have forgotten the cries and cries of Spain, but if Louis was not very sure before taking Lille, then now he was unwilling to give up even an inch of land! Here will be the French Flemish dignitaries, and the French offensive will begin.

But as if to deny the description of Viscount Tyrrenne in the carriage with the king, what the king and his ministers saw in the tent was not very exciting, and in the dug lateral trench, a column of sappers first erected a breastwork of wood and stone, and then began to dig a longitudinal trench under the breastwork, and in order to ensure that the trench would not collapse, there were people behind him holding wooden squares to support it— The sapper carried behind him a huge basket of excavated earth, and when the trench had crossed the breastwork, they used the basket filled with earth as a shield, and the stone bullets that whistled down from the wall tumbled, and the dust was scattered, but there was no way to hurt the people below.

"How I feel like I'm back in Versailles. The king muttered.

"The civil works in Versailles are over. Another courtier replied that he had supervised the great work at Versailles, but that the scene was now similar to that of Versailles.

"These are probably even more spectacular than Versailles. The king said that before the king had arrived, Captain Vauban had also summoned a great deal of the equipment necessary for the construction work, piles of wood and thatch, and pickaxes, shovels, axes, and mallets measured in wagons, and rows of stakes that had been driven into the earth by the sappers, and ropes wound between them, to form an evasive but long line of defence, outside which were vigilant cavalry troops, and they had to beware of the defenders of the city, and of the arrival of reinforcements.

Brussels was divided into the upper and lower towns, the upper city was the royal palace and the castle, the lower city was the residence of the commoners and merchants, and the plain was endless outside, and today, this wilderness like a blue was destroyed, the width of the twelve feet, and the trenches that even twenty-four pounds of cannons could bring in were constantly approaching the gates of Brussels, of course, the Brussels would not just be so restrained, they first used trebuchets and artillery, and after finding that it did not work, the gates were opened, and the defenders of Brussels rushed out, but the king's guards immediately met them, and Brussels had cavalry, but neither their horses nor their firepower could be compared with the Guards, and after a dense burst of gunfire, shouts, and a faint smoke that rose from them disappeared, the defenders of Brussels retreated back into the city, and the Guards did not chase - Even the walls of Lille have caves on both sides, and there are mechanisms above them to drop short spears and stones, like Brussels, and it is possible to preset a pipe to pour fire oil at the top of a long passage, like a guard wearing only cuirplate, and the result of rash intrusion is only death.

But it was their duty to drive away the defenders who might get in the way of the depth of the trenches, and to wear down their strength, and they quickly returned to their positions, and not a single one was wounded, and the king raised his hand and waved his hat at them, and they did the same— Then this happened two or three times, until another dawn came, and the French trench proceeded unshakably to the second parallel trench, the first trench was about two thousand feet from the walls of Brussels, and the second was only six hundred feet, and here Captain Vauban ordered the artillery to be in position, and there were twenty twenty-four-pounder guns, and eight thirty-three-pounder guns, which the Marquis de Lois had brought all the way from Orleans, and a total of twenty-eight black holes, which were aimed directly at the walls of Brussels, and they could not help but be dissatisfied and despairing, but these stubborn Brussels did not decide to surrenderThe king's messenger returned and said that they only hoped that the king of France would be merciful enough to allow their women and children to leave the city, which was about to be covered with gunpowder, and Louis allowed it. /

So at the height of the sun, the gates of Brussels opened, and horse-drawn carriages flowed out, filled with the wives and sisters of the dignitaries, and their daughters, mothers, and minor children, with whom only two knights led them, and behind their convoy were terrified plebeian women, whose husbands, fathers, and sons, perhaps voluntarily or conscripted, remained in Brussels.

When the men had left, the first heavy roar of the artillery had finally sounded, and when the women and children were not far from Brussels, they heard it and began to cry out loud, "Let them go to Waterloo." Louis said that in the past, for the sake of defense, the buildings near Brussels, but all those outside the city walls, were burned and demolished, and in the absence of mercenaries, only the ranks of women and children could not go far, "They will be grateful to you." The Marquis de Lois said that this was not entirely a compliment.

"I don't care about that," said the king, leaning back on the arm of his seat, "whether it's curse or thanksgiving, how can one sit on a throne without such an awareness?" This is his biggest realization since he became a politician, when you have to think about more and more things, you have to reduce many things to data, every decision he makes will affect the fate of tens of thousands of people, and personal joys and sorrows will always be as small as a grain of sand in the sea - or rather, when you stand on a height, it is difficult for you to care, and you rarely care about the thoughts of the people at the bottom, Louis has exhausted the last bit of strength in order to ensure that his people do not suffer, how can he pay attention to the enemy? He said that only because they were right in front of him.

With this command, the king returned his attention to the battlefield, and under the orders of Vauban, the heavy artillery concentrated its fire on the three fortresses, first stones, then earth, gravel, and the cloak of Brussels was thus stripped away little by little, and in support of this consumption were the king and the Marquis de Loiss, who brought a large number of shells, artillery, and other munitions, and the Captain Vauban could shoot continuously— Even though the barrel was red, he simply ordered the soldiers to water it, and this shelling continued all night, and when another dawn came, the distance between the French troops and the defenders was once again closer, and Captain Vauban replaced the heavy artillery with mortars.

Some of these mortars were shipped from France, and some were collected from Lille and other cities, this kind of mortar originated in the thirteenth century, with stone shells, its shape is much more interesting than the cannon that the king saw, if the king's cannon is a long adult, then the mortar is a baby or a young child, their caliber and the length of the cannon body are only about 1:12, it looks short, stupid, but don't think that they are old and short and useless, although they have a short range, but the power and angle of fire are very large, Captain Vauban used this cannon to attack the defenders hiding behind the hidden wall-- The muzzle of the mortar was raised, and the shells crossed the inclined embankment in a parabola, the breastwork, and hit directly at the men and the artillery inside—the original mortars of the French army and the collected mortars were more than thirty in all, and the shells were constantly falling on the heads of the defenders like hail, and the soldiers holding binoculars, on the ladder and the wooden tower, as soon as they saw that the fortress was showing a weakened state, immediately reported loudly, and Captain Vauban would adjust the frequency and intensity of the shelling.

At this time, it was time for the infantry to charge, and at this time it was also the greatest loss, Captain Vauban took the lead, climbed the inclined embankment in a few steps, climbed over the breastwork, and fell into the moat below, the moat of Brussels was unfortunately only a few feet high because of the accident, although it would make people soak their leggings and boots, but it had no effect on the battle, hundreds of soldiers followed closely behind Captain Vauban and the grenadiers waved the ropes in their hands, and threw the gunpowder canisters into the bastions and lofts, and with a terrible cry, several defenders were killed。

The battle that followed was the real test for these soldiers, death was completely different from poetry and drama, the wounded would howl in pain, whether they were enemies or comrades, but the dead were silent, as if in an instant, life had left them, and the night before, they were still joking with you, grabbing jerky, discussing which Bohemian woman was more beautiful, and the people who went straight and straight, and their souls left their bodies, and the shells would rot and stink, and finally turn into a pinch of black earth.

Only at this time, no one could have imagined so much, for several years, the rigorous training played a role at this time, they rushed forward bravely and calmly, not even paying attention to the people around them, or even whether they had been hit, killing the enemy became the only thought in their hearts, "Fight for the king!" they shouted.

The flames rose at that moment, and Captain Vauban saw the two lads fall like this.

The forts on either side of the fortress found that the fortress had been lost, so the defenders inside did not hesitate to turn the muzzle of the cannon and fire at it, but fortunately, Viscount Tyrrenne had already commanded the follow-up artillery to follow.

After obtaining a fort, Captain Vauban immediately ordered the mortars to be transported, between each fort, in order to ensure that the firing surface (muskets) was covered, only two hundred feet, this distance was suitable for the play of mortars, the two adjacent forts were suddenly punched several gaps, more French soldiers climbed up like ant colonies, although the defenders also tried to raise muskets to stop them, but the occupied forts were also French soldiers shooting at them, and the French artillery was still roaring.