As mentioned before, the Prime Ministers of France and Spain are trying to win over a rebel, that is, Cromwell, the protector of England and Ireland, because he has a strong army and a dozen generals who are only his subordinates, but because of his previous behavior- A king was executed, a king was exiled, and neither King Philip of Spain nor King Louis of France made a direct appearance or had a personal letter in this transaction, and it was either Don Louis of Spain or Mazarin of France. It is precisely because their correspondence is not open that we do not know what Cromwell thought at that time, we only know that he finally chose the French, but relatively, he did not ask for nothing, and every soldier he sent was for money.

However, since the protector has made a decision, the battlefield will naturally not be in Calais, but in Dunkirk.

Here we have to mention again the familiar Prince of Condé and the Viscount of Tyrrenne, who were close friends in the battle of the old town of Hertelle, became mortal enemies here, Condé knew Tyrrenne, and Tyrrenne knew Condé, so their war in Flanders was like two carpenters sawing open a big tree, coming and going, often repeatedly- Not long ago, Condé, with the help of Marshal Don Juan of Austria, had breached the line of Marshal La Feltai and captured the poor nobleman, but in an instant Viscount Tyrene had consolidated the defeated army, counterattacked the Spanish army and captured a city, a rarity in military history, but in less than a year Condé had made a beautiful counterattack at Cambrai, this time thwarting Viscount Tyrrenne's siege plan and crushing his army.

It must be said that what else can give people a glimpse of what is going on, and the choice of the winner to place the bet may lie in what kind of authority and support the king of Spain or France is willing to give these two outstanding military geniuses, in this regard, the king of Spain must not be able to compare with the king of France, although at this time it is common for the nobles of one country to serve another king, and even bear the titles of two countries, but after all, Condé was an enemy general who had fought with Spain for many years, and the king could naturally be generous, but the soldiers may not be able to- Although Kong was able to gallop and strategize on the battlefield, it was difficult to talk about how to master these subordinates who had been enemies to reach the point of commanding their fingers.

Compared to Condé, the Viscount of Tyrrenne was much less constrained here, or rather, the king did not hesitate to help and trust him, and after forming an alliance with Cromwell, his General Robert Black led the British fleet to blockade the Spanish coast and important ports, cutting off all commercial communication between Spain and the West Indies, and intercepting an important convoy of ships belonging to the King of Spain, which was laden with jewels and gold, with a total value of more than four million livres, which was a serious blow to Spain- because this gold from the colonies was prepared for the coming war.

At the same time, the British fleet had twenty ships to Dunkirk, carrying 6,000 experienced soldiers who joined the French army, and Condé and Marshal Don Juan had to lead their troops back, since Dunkirk was more important to Spain than two ships of gold.

And in front of Mr. Bishop and Louis is that they urgently need a sum of money to satisfy Cromwell's insatiable appetite, Mr. Fouquet is clever in collecting money, but the king does not want to indulge him too much, because the treasurer is best at lending, this way can indeed make up for the deficit on the books as soon as possible, but let Louis see it, it is like drawing blood from the human body and then transfusing this blood into the body, for a while it seems that it can indeed make people look energetic and vigorous, but in the end, the blood lost before has not been made up, on the contrary, in the process, Mr. Fouquet also took the opportunity to take a few sips。

What the king wanted to do was to buy and sell luxury goods for the nobles and nobles, and Marie Mancini attracted everyone's attention as soon as she appeared in the hall, and the hairstyles, decorations, and costumes that could only be said to be commonplace after a few hundred years were like thunder at this time, hit people's hearts like thunder— Beauty is always the same, unless it is distorted for political or other purposes, and even if there are those who are jealous and do not want to admit it, the king himself invited Miss Marie Mancini to dance the gavotte, and when he heard that it was all at the king's behest, the sour words of strange words immediately turned into envy and compliment.

Needless to say, when the Queen Mother came to her with Mademoiselle Mancini's hand, she said kindly, "What a beautiful little rose it is." This was the end of her one-sided cold reception of Mary.

The next day the king saw that from the Duchess of Montpensier, all the lowliest maids of the court no longer wore turbans over their hair, but curled their hair, as Mary did— Here you can see how much power and wealth can occupy in beauty, such as the duchesses, whose hair curls are as beautiful and elegant as those Greek statues, and when it comes to the maids, Bontang cannot resist issuing an order that they are no longer allowed to roast their hair with charcoal from the fireplace, and everywhere there is a stench of burnt flesh, and their hair curls are not only messy, of different sizes, but also have many defects and yellowing places.

If anyone remembers that the son of the barber who volunteered, the surname of the family was Champagne, and when his father was the king's royal barber, people said that Champagne meant the craftsman who was fortunate enough to be allowed to touch the king's hair, and when Marie Mancini shook the court with a beautiful and unique hairstyle, people spoke of Champagne, and that was the little Champagne, who became famous overnight only because he was even more arrogant than his father— Not only did he have to pay five hundred livres each time to make such a hairstyle, but the satin roses, camellias, and diamond pins that the little Monsieur Champagne used for his hairstyle, or other precious ornaments, could not refuse, and when he refused, he immediately turned and left...... In this way, the gold louis used for each haircut could even fill a small box the size of a whole pair of hands, and even so, the ladies still flocked to it...... After all, the little Monsieur Champagne had made such a beautiful hairstyle that as long as it didn't rain, they would only ride in an open-top carriage for passers-by to admire and admire.

And the king had been holding balls lately, and in addition to the nobles whom were required to be invited according to the etiquette, there was also Marie Mancini, and almost all of the people he invited were of the most unique ideas, although the king knew that they were the masterpieces of Champagne the Younger, or that it was some of the advice he had given to the younger Champanel, he would have admired it...... As rumors spread that Mr. Bishop intended to choose a "royal lady" for the king, each lady had a different hairstyle at each ball, and it became more and more exaggerated and gorgeous...... When the king and other gentlemen danced the gavotte and had to turn their heads around to avoid the flowers and feathers on the ladies' heads, the "special tax" paid by the younger Monsieur Champagne to the king was sufficient for the pre-war period.

"Women are terrible. Louie said.

This was heard by Marie, who was sitting at his feet, and inevitably made a voice of dissatisfaction, and the king had to make another concession, promising to go to Versailles with Marie once again before going to Dunkirk, alone, only the two of them.