The sun is shining, the waters are blue, and seabirds with red beaks and white feathers skim the towering masts of the ships.

This is Nantes, a name that is memorable because it was here that Louis XIV's grandfather, Henry III, signed the famous Edict of Nantes in the Cathedral of Nantes, but it was called the Edict of Peace at that time.

At that time there were still many Huguenots in the city, but now they moved more to Nîmes, Montauban and La Rochelle, and later they would be gathered in Orleans, which of course made the Huguenots in France fear and pain, partly because they were going to be forced to abandon their homeland, and partly because they feared a repeat of the massacre of Saint-Barthélomew, but it was the greatest manifestation of the king's mercy to allow them to continue to live in France. Although the Huguenots suffered for hundreds of years, the crimes they committed against the Bourbon royal family were unforgivable by any ruler, and they might have had a little respite if they had done what Louis XIV had asked them to do...... The Catholics who gathered around the Huguenots were like firewood by the fireplace, burning violently at the slightest pluck.

Louis XIV didn't have to be these black sheep with horns on his head, mainly because he didn't want to ignite the flames of religious wars in his own country, and the victory of religious wars was of little use to him, but it was conducive to the expansion of the power of the Roman Church, and now the relationship between France and the Roman Church was ...... It's really not that good.

Now there are very few Huguenots in Nantes, but not none, first of all, there is one, only one in the king's shipyard, after all, there is really no disobedience in such a sensitive place, and here he must be because he is indispensable.

"When Denis Papin comes to meet her," said Louis, tweaking her sleeve for Celestia, "remember not to use the Huguenot." ”

"Why?" asked the Celestia, for there would be no Huguenots in the French court, and she certainly did not understand. "Because the term Huguenot has a contemptuous connotation," explained Louis patiently, pronouncing the word first in French and then in Swiss German: "There is an oath here, which gradually translates into the meaning of outsiders and rebels, and there was a dangerous rebel in the time of François II called Zangsong Hugue, and the Catholics deliberately linked this name with Huguenot's name, deliberately making it dirty." ”

"So to speak," said the Duke of Orleans, bluntly, "you call a Huguenot, as if you were shouting, "Hey, here is a gang of thieves, a foreign spy, a wanderer in the streets, a scumbag...... Wait, that's about it. ”

The king glared at him, he just didn't want to say such foul words to the children—forget it, he turned to the eldest princess: "In short, if you want to speak of a Huguenot's faith, just call him a Protestant." ”

The child said yes in unison, and the little Duke of Anghien tapped the plate with a spoon, and the ceremonial officer reminded him at Versailles, but here, only the king, the royal brother and their children, from Bontang down, the maids and attendants listened to and turned a blind eye, the king wore only a loose shirt and leggings, and the Duke of Orleans put his arm on the back of his chair.

Some people may remember that since the help of wizards, the ambitious Louis XIV began to put the improvement and use of the steam engine on the agenda- In fact, the original steam engine can be traced back to the first century AD, when the ancient Greek scholar Hirohiro connected a closed pot with a metal ball with two hollow tubes, and when the water in the pot boiled after heating, the steam overflowed from both sides of the metal ball and pushed the ball to turn. Louis's toy room had this, but it caught the king's attention that was a manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci, in which the forward-thinking artist and scientist had designed a steam cannon......

Steam cannons are impossible, but steam-powered machinery can, Louie's spies probe around, looking for scientists who might have talent and interest in this field, what Louis didn't expect was that this scholar was found in Blois right in front of him, and he was not a scientist or mathematician, but a doctor, and when the agent found him with the manuscript, he was packing his bags and preparing to run from France to England or Holland— Unfortunately for he was a Huguenot, and had a keen sense of smell, he said in his diary: "Since this king [referring to Louis XIV] allowed only one voice in the court and in the army, he probably would not allow two voices in the church." ”

Fortunately, the spy had the audacity to knock the Huguenotist unconscious, empty his suitcase of clothes, put him in it, and then rented a carriage as a traveler, and sent him overnight to Paris (when the king was still in the Louvre), and after ascertaining that the gentleman had a brilliant idea of the steam engine and had made a rudimentary model, the king sent him to the island of Pito, along with the wizards and craftsmen.

The island of Pito is located on the Seine, behind the Boulogne woods, is a narrow island of Hanoi, and the strange sounds and smoke of the steam engine can be sheltered by the Boulogne woods, because of the peculiarities of the Boulogne woods, it is not surprising that there are often horse-drawn carriages coming and going - but to study the steam engine, of course, on this small island, it must be really put to the test in a huge lake or even a bay.

There are not many choices in front of Louis, originally the closest to Paris is the Bay of Seine, that is, the mouth of the Seine, but it is only separated from Britain by an English Channel, and it is difficult to hide the movements inside the eyes of the British, so they can only change the location, that is, the south side of the province of Brittany, the Bay of Biscay in the Atlantic, the bad thing about the Bay of Biscay is that it is also occupied by Spain, Louis moved the location upwards, and finally fell in Nantes.

Nantes was an ancient and huge city, best of which had three rivers, the Loire, the Sèvres and the Eder, about twelve fats from the mouth of the sea, about a hundred and fifty feet at its widest point, and many strip lakes, where it was not a whim of Louis to build a ship.

After nearly ten years of construction, the port of Saint-Nazaire and the shipyard of this small town at the mouth of the Loire River have reached a certain scale, but because this port belongs to the military, it does not allow merchant ships to dock, so it is not as prosperous as other ports, and on the contrary, there are far more animals than humans who come to visit here, because whether it is the shipyard workers, the soldiers on the ship, or the residents of the town, they all live a prosperous life under the generosity of the king, they do not need hunting and fishing to survive, but a lot of bits and pieces discarded at a fixed time become seabirds and fish delicacies。

But it was destined to be a special audience, first of all, the king was not indoors, but in the open dining room of the Romanesque style, and this Mr. Papin offered neither jewels nor weapons to the king, he ...... A pot was served......

Although the king and the royal brothers, the children were indeed dining, but this pot was indeed beyond everyone's expectations, it was so large that it could fit half of the little Duke of Angian, and the little Duke of Angian opened his mouth wide and watched in amazement as the richly dressed Monsieur Papin covered the pot as if he were carrying a plate of precious and fragile glassware, and there was no indication of what was in it, and the pot was still ten feet away from them.

After putting the pot away, Mr. Papin also took out his handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead, he took a pair of tongs from the servant, and slowly unscrewed a knob on the lid of the pot, and as the knob gradually loosened, a stream of white steam rushed into the air, which was small and slender at first, and after a few seconds it swelled in a sharp whistling sound, and threw a mist on the faces of the people around him, "It smells so good." Dauphin Louis Jr. muttered. It was indeed very fragrant, and it was the smell of fish and shells, and they were not mistaken, because after the steam had gradually dissipated,

Mr. Papin opened the lid of the pot, and an even stronger aroma came out, and he brought a plate larger than the pot, and began to scoop the pieces of fish, meat, and shells into it.

Because they were all cut into pieces, they couldn't tell what kind of fish they were for a while, but they could eat flounder, cod, sole, and large conger eels, lamb and beef, and the shells were familiar oysters, which might also be eaten in Versailles, but no matter how they were kept fresh with ice, they could not compare with the fresh food that was alive and well a few hours ago, and they didn't know how long they had been stewed, whether it was fish or lamb, they were melt-in-your-mouth.

Looking at the children who were happily eating, Louis couldn't help but smile: "Sir," he said, "I didn't know that after being a doctor, inventor and craftsman, you also became a cook." ”

"It's just a little gift," said Mr. Papin, wiping his face again, "but there is no better understanding of the idea and function of steam than this." ”

"You need to explain it in detail," Louis realized that it was because he had brought the children with him, that Mr. Papin had aroused the interest of these little nobles in such a preemptive way—a little trick that was still tolerated by the king, and that Mr. Papin was indeed a man of great ability, and after the Dauphin and Princess had enjoyed their perfect taste, he lifted the lid of the pot and showed them the rubber seals, the exhaust valve, and most importantly, the safety valve.

"Why is this the most important?" asked the Crown Prince.

"Because steam is no less powerful than gunpowder. Mr. Papin said this, and then he deliberately created a small accident, or the sealed pot, and after estimating that the pressure inside should have reached a reading, Mr. Papin threw it directly off the cliff, and when it touched the ground, there was an explosion, and the attendants retrieved the twisted metal pot and the smashed stone.

The eldest princess let out an exclamation, and Papin looked at the young visitors imperceptibly, and was disappointed to find that the eldest son of the Count of Soissons, whether it was the crown prince, or the lord of the princess, or the Duke of Colonna, who accompanied him as a courtier, did not show any wince, but showed a look of eagerness, which seemed to be true when he heard that the king had brought up his children by his side, and not simply to the queen or their mother.

As a Huguenot, Papin certainly did not want to see a king with a strong and decisive temperament, but he was destined to regret that even if something happened to Louis XIV, his children would carry out his will to the end - Papin hid his mind and introduced these distinguished guests to the shipyard, according to the king's intentions, he intended to use the kinetic energy generated by steam directly on the warship, but after the steam machinery was manufactured, it was first used in the armor required for the warship. bump angles with other metal fixings.

In the deafening crash, in the rising smell of soot and gray-white steam, one after another slightly raised downward armor plates quickly took shape between the heavy and huge upper and lower dies - the way of stamping and forging has long been there, but at that time craftsmen used livestock and water power to create armor for the old men, the thickness and width of the armor could not be compared with the armor plates of warships, and there were raised nails around the perimeter of the upper mold, which left riveted holes for the armor plates.

The Marquis de Senele held up a plate of armor to the king, and he was about the same height as the king, so he bent his knee a little so that the king did not have to look up—the head of Saint-Nazaire was indeed as cautious and understanding as his father Colbert.

The king reached out and touched the armor plate in the shape of a fish's scales, which would then cover the sides of the warship's side like scales, and would be used against the increasingly powerful and dangerous artillery. Then he let the children touch it, and the personal feeling is always deeper than hearsay, and the children's eyes are shining, especially little Eugen.

In addition to the steam stamping machine, there are also steam boring machines, grinding machines and punches, drilling machines, etc., other ordinary people may not be able to understand, but the barrel drilled out of the boring machine can be understood even by the big county lord, little Eugen couldn't help but stretch out his hand, and then the next moment he was scalded and shrunk...... "It's so good," he looked around, as if he had come to a paradise that only belonged to him, and as if he was drunk and dizzy: "How many cannons will be here, Your Majesty." ”

"It's not about making cannons here. Louis said kindly, "At least it's more than that." ”

They walked along the dark, dreary roadway, flanked by stout rails and machines, and carts loaded with parts and ingredients parked in place—if they had been ordinary, they would have run merrily around under the impetus of the workers, but now they were all sitting quietly, as if they were curttsily to the king.

After passing through the corridor, the strong sea breeze and the scorching light stand side by side with the deep black shadows, and it will take a while for the children to realize that a huge ship is standing in front of them.

It was so huge that it took away half a day.