Viscount Arthur of Wren has been in a terrible mood lately.

When he heard that King Louis XIV of France was about to embark on a grand parade, he was unwell for a while.

By name, folks, Arthur is not a French name, but from the twelfth century to the present day, many dukes of Brittany have chosen this English name - a subtle and direct form of rebellion. It is said that Brittany had been oscillating between England and France until the Duchess married King Louis XII of France, and Brittany had to reluctantly submit. And because Louis XII had no sons, the Duchess almost made Brittany independent again - later François I married the daughter of Louis XII and the Duchess, and after their son François II ascended the throne, Brittany truly became part of France.

But during the reign of Henry IV, there was a riot in Brittany seeking independence, which of course was quickly quelled, but the Bretons still stubbornly believed that Brittany was only Brittany - it was difficult for Louis XIV's officials and priests to carry out the king's policies in Brittany, and no matter how coercive and luring they were, the Bretons would still loudly declare that they were Bretons, not French!

They even refused the benefits promised by the king...... From potatoes to poll taxes, everything is like this, either passive sabotage, or yang obedience, their stubbornness is a headache.

They even began to hate the French more than the British, and the British at least didn't claim Brittany to be theirs, did they?

Viscount Arthur never naively thought that Louis XIV, the Sun King, would allow such an almost state within a state as Brittany to continue—Flanders belonged to Spain, the Netherlands was simply an independent country, and Louis XIV had not gone all the way through the Low Countries......

He had to hold tightly in his hands even the most inhospitable North America, not to mention France and his Brittany.

But the message brought by the Duke of Saint-Simon, to be precise, threatened, was something that the king could easily do, and even if he did not believe it, in a few days he could see the king's fleet, which would be circumnavigated all of Brittany in his ironclad ships, landing in the Vanne area, and then by land to Rennes, the capital of Brittany, and his spies had been able to detect the king's garrison gathering and moving on the border between Brittany and Loire in recent days...... They were the king's strongest shield outside the guard, and each was loyal to each other—if a king would treat his soldiers like a nephew, of course? Of course he can be loyal.

He certainly mocked the Duke of Saint-Simon mercilessly—although the other party was a duke? But genealogically, everyone knows that the Duke of Saint-Simon's claim that they are descendants of Charlemagne is pure fabrication? And even the Bretons, the descendants of Charlemagne, were not afraid of this defeat (Charlemagne failed to conquer Brittany). And the Duke of Saint-Simon was not only driven out of Paris by Richelieu? Nor did he get any benefit from the son of Louis XIII, otherwise he would have come to Brittany? It's going to take on another mission.

"Charles II is just following the example of the East. Viscount Arthur muttered, he stood up, walked to the window, and looked out the dark night at the Boothriande Forest? Although he could not see anything. Less than five hundred feet away from him? The emissaries of the two countries each occupied a room. The envoys of the English were not a lord or a minister, but a wizard, and Charles II was more daring than Louis XIV, and more than a third of the secret legations were fellow devils, who arrogantly demanded that Viscount Arthur be on their side? Together against King Louis XIV of France.

Viscount Arthur was undecided.

As a Breton, he was of course willing to return Brittany to an independent state, at least seeking maximum autonomy from Louis XIV, but the problem was that if half of the information sent back by his spies was true, then the Brittany navy would indeed encounter a thorny and formidable enemy - Louis XIV's existing fleet, let alone Brittany, even the British were afraid of being difficult to defeat it.

The small naval battle before the waters off Dunkirk, Viscount Arthur had also heard of it. That kind of black huge ironclad ship will indeed directly determine the success or failure of the battle at sea, and then the British seem to be trying to build similar ships, but I don't know if it succeeded. Viscount Arthur was worried that the English would incite rebellion or rebellion in Brittany, as they had done some time ago, and let them delay the pace of Louis XIV's great conquests, without taking into account the interests of their collaborators, and even contributing to the situation - which is not without such an embarrassing situation in history - that the king of a country would also lie, push and turn his face ruthlessly, and when Brittany would face the wrath of the king, the English would have nothing to lose.

The Duke of Saint-Simon did not deserve the respect of Viscount Arthur, but the edict he brought was indeed true, and Louis XIV was indeed able to do what he threatened before the Brittany, three hundred ships were enough to blockade all the ports of Brittany, to patrol every fishing ground, to retrieve every ship and fish market, and the standard was for the king's officials, but the fish, lobsters, and oysters could not withstand any delay, and if the Bretons did not bow their heads, even if they could catch the fish, they could only watch them rot on the docks.

The same is true of another industry in Brittany, animal husbandry and slaughtering......

As for Compey, Viscount Arthur was even more bitter, and Campey's cousin had long complained that since Lorraine began to produce ceramics, Campey's pottery was not very easy to sell.

Viscount Arthur tossed and turned, unable to make a decision no matter what, but the Sun King's fleet would not wait for him. The Viscount watched with trepidation the news that the black fleet was closing in on Vanna day by day, and his cousin himself wrote to tell him that the king did have an ironclad fleet, and that the battleships were covered with ironclad and spewed white smoke, and that they could travel more than forty nautical miles a day. The British never showed up, and even the caravans cautiously detoured or slowed down, which means that even if the Bretons took refuge with the British, the British might not be able to help the Britanyes.

So when those English wizards asked to enter the Booslyonde Forest, Viscount Arthur was even a little happy, the Bouslionde Forest has a nickname - the Lost Forest, every year there are many people who strayed into it and finally disappeared, whether it was a commoner or a nobleman, this forest is treated equally, and sometimes even the people who went to search and rescue were inevitably trapped in it.

If these servants of the devil had died inside, he would have not explained to Louis XIV how he had found the English.

————————

The Forest of Buslyonde is a dangerous and rich place of mystery for mortals, but for wizards, it is a magnificent and sacred mausoleum.

Contrary to mortal speculation, the wizards knew very well that Merlin's burial place was indeed here. But to find it, not to mention mortals, even wizards are difficult. Because after Merlin was imprisoned or assassinated by Vivien, in order to prevent anyone from doing anything, the witch Morgan, who was also one of the fairies of the lake, cast a spell on the path leading to Merlin's tomb, and anyone who stepped into it would get lost, and if they couldn't get out, they would get out, and the wizards called it Lost Valley.

The Lost Valley has the same effect on mortals and wizards, no, it should be said, it is even more powerful for wizards, English wizards have always prided themselves on orthodoxy, and they have not been able to get any benefit here, and after another companion is pulled into the rancid mire, a red-haired wizard can't help but ask, "Why didn't we move Merlin's bones back to London in the first place?"

"Maybe it was because Brittany was still the king of England at the time. The other wizard with a gray feather in his hat replied quietly.

"Don't complain," said the eldest wizard, "it's no use complaining, we're already in Boothriande, and that's good, even if we can't find Merlin, there's something we can use here." ”

"Those Italian wizards will protect Louis XIV. The red-haired wizard said uneasily.

"We are the descendants of Merlin," said the wizard in the grey feather hat disdainfully, "those frivolous fools who are only good at acting between their beds, and they have the trust of Louis XIV because a witch of Gayola has become his lover." ”

"I don't think so," said the only witch in the group, "they can turn into dragons, and someone has seen with their own eyes, two dragons have fought over the island of Gayola." ”

The Grey Feather Hat let out a sharp sneer, he was the representative of most of the male wizards in England, and looked down on witches and red-haired Celtic wizards, although the former was also very powerful, and the latter lived in Britain before Merlin, but since the barbarians, that is, the Germanic invasions, the Celtic natives have become slaves and livestock. The notion of mortal class also affected wizards, and red-haired wizards also had a low status in the world.

The older wizard coughed in displeasure. Although he was not very good to witches and Celts, Merlin was indeed serving the last king of the Celts, and Brittany can also be said to be the last gathering place of Celtic power.

"Merry is right," said the older wizard, "and I have heard that Louis XIV was in alliance not only with wizards, but also with vampires and werewolves. ”

"The battle between mortals should be left to the mortals themselves. Grey Feather Hat said irritably, he did not want to admit that he had felt unwell since he entered the forest, and that the wizards had, and believed in hunches, and he had divined several times, but received no comforting response.

"If Charles II could solve it," said the older wizard, "we wouldn't be here, and he wouldn't grant our request." ”

"Do you run a school like a mortal? "I don't think it's a good idea," said the Grey Feather Hat, "wizards have wizarding traditions, and we can't teach students like a workshop owner recruits apprentices, how do you convince those masters?"

"With Gayola and the mortal artillery in front, I don't need to convince them. The older wizard said. "We must ensure that the power of the wizards can defeat the weapons of the humans. ”

Merry the Witch turned her head and sighed, "Can we really do it?" Louis XIV was surrounded by wizards, vampires and werewolves, and priests from the Inquisition......

"There is one thing that will surely attract this arrogant majesty. The older wizard said.

"What?"

"King Arthur's holy sword. The older wizard replied.

"But we don't have ......"

"We just need to get out the news. The elder wizard said, "As long as Louis XIV was as ambitious as we know, he would certainly not let go of this opportunity to disturb Great Britain." ”

King Arthur's holy sword generally refers to the king's sword he wore, and the name of this sword is destined to be owned by the rulers of Great Britain, you must know that just like the king of England always declares himself to be the king of France, the king of France has never given up the coveting of the English throne, once he gets the king's sword, Louis XIV can claim to be the lord of the destiny of heaven - the two countries, retreating can cause another civil strife in England, and it can be regarded as a slap in the face of Charles II.

——————

"Alas. Louis XIV raised his head, looked at Vesalius in astonishment, and said, "You forged a holy sword?"