I Am Louis XIV

  Chapter 135 The Dockyard of Dunkirk

In the dock project in Dunkirk, the act of hiring wizards can be said to be a test by Louis to the inner world and the power of the outer world related to the inner world. Before that, even if the king coveted the power of the wizards, he valued it more. Their role in conspiracies and wars, like the big families in the inner world, it is almost impossible to regard wizards as craftsmen or farmers - people are always a little bit afraid of what they don't understand, Louis is different. He almost became a wizard. With the help of the Vampire Hallows, he even learned how to cast magic. It can only be said that after the last layer of the curtain was lifted, what was displayed in front of the king. The body is not as graceful and moving as imagined.

Also because it was the first time, the Mancini family was also very cautious, there were only about fifty wizards - they were just very ordinary wizards, they had no honor to serve the king or ministers, and they did not have the qualifications to enter and leave the world at will. One thing is, they also have the pride of being a wizard, and they will never give in to serve mortals easily. For most of them, it is the first time they have left that small island. These young people in robes are crowded. One by one, they got off the boat, looking up at the black city wall while looking up at the black city wall, while stroking the casting materials and herbs hidden in their sleeves with a little unease.

These people, according to the king's orders, came here late at night, and they were led by Madame Milady, the lady of the Duke of Colonna. As soon as they saw the more beautiful and moving faces under the light of the torches, the count of d'Artagnan's Her face hung down all of a sudden, and Milady just giggled at this. Of course, who else but her could control and appease these young wizards? Fortunately, even wizards were still men, and Milady was never afraid of any man.

  Well, maybe their King's Majesty was an exception.

   "How do you plan to arrange these people?" asked Mrs. Milady.

"A group of scholars who came here from Italy on a pilgrimage." Count D'Artagnan said that both of them were secret agents of the king, and they did their part to do things like this, whether it was an identity, a reason, or a purpose. D'Artagnan returned to his former splendid appearance after a moment of anger. After all, he couldn't let his personal emotions ruin the work entrusted by the king. "Where did Dunkirk come from?" Milady asked in a low voice.

   "Why not," replied the Count D'Artagnan in a small voice: "Dunkirque's name means church on the dunes."

Milady smiled when he heard this, and Count D'Artagnan politely stretched out his arm when she saw this. She stepped forward to hold it, and the two walked into the city side by side. In the middle of the night, Cities of this era are usually dead silent, and today is no exception. The light of the torches can only illuminate the part above the shoulders, and the damp ground echoes with the sound of soft-soled shoes. The group of wizards is very tired, just because When they arrived at a new place, they could barely support before the excitement passed. Fortunately, the mansion that D'Artagnan prepared for this group of wizards was not far from the city wall. It was a mansion with a dozen rooms. Even in the dark you can see it's been decorated as best you can, but you can still see the roughness and smell the freshness - it's hard to describe, but all new buildings have that smell .

When these wizards were led back to their rooms, I was afraid they didn't notice that their rooms were on the top three floors and the bottom two floors... They said they were servants, but in fact they should be D'Artagnan's spies, and they needed to guarantee These wizards will not easily come into contact with outsiders, and they also need to ensure that the soldiers and civilians in Dunkirk will not notice their strangeness.

  ——

  Hood's wound that was pecked by the crow has healed, but it is still a little itchy, especially before falling asleep and waking up. Before he is awakened by this slight itching, the first thing he smells is a strong aroma of coffee.

In 1661, coffee was still a precious drink called black gold. Its origin was in Africa. It was not easy to come to England, Italy or France, and the output was small. In the world, there are also large families. Planting coffee trees, after all, the magic of wizards can solve many problems encountered in planting, but this dark brown drink is still not eligible for every wizard, and Hood only tasted one at a grand banquet. Small mouth.

When he hurriedly put on his robe and ran down the stairs, he saw in the large chalk-painted kitchen a large pot hanging from a vigorous fire, the boiling steam mixed with a thick aroma, indicating that the pot was Inside was tumbling coffee, a maid struggling to lift it from the fire, but she clearly overestimated her strength, the copper kettle shaking dangerously, hot liquid spilling from the lid and spout It came out and splashed on the maid's hand, she screamed and let go instinctively, seeing that the pot of precious coffee was about to be fed to the kitchen floor, Hood hurriedly threw a feather, chanted a spell, and a transparent The hand immediately held the copper pot firmly.

With another scream, Hood remembered that these servants were all mortals. While he was recalling how to recite the spell to erase memory, he tried to comfort the terrified little maid. At this time, another male servant left. Come in, in the mansion, the status of the male servant is always higher than that of the maid. The maids should not even appear in front of the guests. He also saw the copper pot hanging in the air, but his performance was much better than the little maid. , he salutes Hood, tells him that breakfast will be served soon, and promises that no one will disturb the esteemed guest again—that is, of course, the little maid.

   By the way, Hood thought shamefully, the nobles did have breakfast in their rooms. He glanced at the copper pot with some embarrassment and longing: "I think I can probably have a cup of coffee?"

   "Sure, sir, a cup of coffee," said the valet.

   When Hood left and actually returned to his room, the little maid put down her hand covering her face: "I don't quite understand why we do this."

"Wizards are very vigilant," said the valet, "or rather, they prefer to see mortals tremble at them, making a fuss and shouting at even the smallest things... Otherwise, how can they highlight their special and noble What." It was a bit sharp to say this, and the servant remembered that they were still "guests" of the king after all, so he shut his mouth and said no more.

This request is exactly what Milady put forward. She understands men and wizards. A good show is more conducive to them controlling these young people. After that, these wizards showed the demeanor that a noble person should have as much as possible, that is ... very generous, like some requests that can only work in the middle of the night, they also agreed, this is not the king's intention to torture them, but to let the wizards cast magic, only rely on the darkness to block the eyes of civilians and spies from other countries .

It is a last resort to let the wizards participate. After all, in addition to building a dock that can accommodate thirty warships, he also wants to build two dry docks, the so-called ship repair docks, so that they don't have to work hard The ship is towed ashore for maintenance, but such a dry dock is connected to the landing ground on three sides and the channel on the other side. Between the channel and the channel, a water-retaining dock must be set up - a simple dock for docking only needs to extend the land into the sea. , the dry dock needs to temporarily block the sea outside the dock, and to exclude the sea water from the dock - this, of course, can be done by mortals alone, the problem is, whether it is the cost of the project or the construction time will be infinitely increased.

  The king hired these wizards to see if they could reach places that mortals could not.

The wizards went back to work after a few days of rest. While the residents were fast asleep, they brought coffee in cute little silver pots to the construction site of the dock, a short distance from where the Battle of the Dunes took place. The place is not far away, the longest dock is outside, the dry dock is inside, looking down from above, it looks like a capital E with the opening facing out, the U-shaped base of the dry dock is ready, the sea is in Under the moonlight, the waves are rippling and the silver light is flickering. The scenery is undoubtedly beautiful. It is a pity that neither the wizard nor Mr. Vauban, who is in charge of the defense and the construction of the shipyard, are indifferent to this.

The wizards first checked the work they were going to do, and they didn't know whether to set up an invisible barrier to block the sea water outside and in the dock, and wait until the dock door reached the position to drive the sea water out; Drive out, and then set up a barrier to ensure that mortals can work as usual. After discussing with Mr. Vauban, the person in charge here, Milady decided to let the wizards try it first. Magic can split the sea and move heavy objects, but this behavior is also the first time for the wizards. Sure enough, they After several failures, I decided to drive the sea water out first, and then set up a barrier. The first one requires cooperation with mortals for too long, and it is impossible for them to find any clues, and the latter one...: "I can try to do more Get some sackcloth," Vauban said, "that...the magical barrier is invisible, but it has a form, right?"

"Indeed," said Milady, "how can it block the sea if it has no real form?" This magic was originally created to block arrows or fire, but is now used more in Isolation of fog, insects and unpleasant smells, these wizards have served the banquets of big families, so they all use this spell skillfully.

Poor Sebastian Vauban is still a pure young man. He has never seen wizards and is still full of fear of them. The reason why he can still stand here tenaciously, working with a group of wizards, or more directly Say, supervise their work.

Some of these wizards don't even have their own staffs. After all, staffs are also very expensive, from raw materials to production costs. Fortunately, these can be owed to the king, so under the moonlight, Vauban saw a group of people like people in It is said in the bedtime story that the wizards in black robes and holding long staffs file to both sides of the dry dock, throw marble blocks and metal blocks into the sea, these are the medium of spell casting, Vauban sees I don't understand, but after the media was put in and the wizards started chanting the incantation, the sea began to roll as if it was boiling. He could see it. At first, the sea was just strange. A little higher, no, it is not the walls that are rising, but the sea that is lowering, and as these sorcerers say, the sea is being driven out.

This is almost impossible for mortals, and it is not easy for wizards. The pressure of seawater is well known. Under thousands of feet of seawater, even steel will bend due to heavy water pressure. The water surface here is far from the bottom of the sea. It was only over a hundred feet, but it also made the wizards pale, and the preparatory wizards on the side immediately stepped forward to share the pressure when they saw it, so as not to let them go to waste - the sea water only lowered a small part, and then even rebounded, No one knows how and when the gap came into being. Vauban only saw that a color darker than the sea suddenly appeared under his feet, and then he realized that it was sand that could not emit light, like magic, oh , no, it's the magic that drives the water back, from an inch, to a cubit, to a shot - and after about fifty feet of sand is exposed, the wizards finally understand, they're too tired to speak. They could not even raise their hands and feet, but Milady asked the servants to take them back.

Vauban boldly went down to the sand. As soon as he landed, he fell directly into the knee-deep sand, struggling to walk. There were fish, shrimp and shells in the gravel that had no time to escape, but Vauban did not pay any attention to them, his eyes Shining like a child, the bright whale oil lamp illuminates the scene in front of him, as if behind a wide transparent glass, it is the sea in the night, not the sea surface, but the bottom of the sea, and the school of fish attracted by the light is tight. He followed Vauban, walking around in front of the barrier, even reaching out to touch it, it felt like glass, he said in his heart, but he only dared to touch it lightly.

But this was already the most daring act. The other officers who were allowed to know were in awe, and they didn't even dare to look directly at the strange sight created by magic. After they pulled Vauban up, they asked him how to explain it to people tomorrow. There is no need to explain this matter. Vauban has already prepared for it. Hundreds of bags of sand were piled up in front of the transparent barrier. A little gap, although it is wet, it is enough for people to work - just tell people that this barrier blocks the sea water and don't touch it at will.

   As he expected, although people all looked weird and unbelievable, considering that they were working in it, they didn't dare to destroy or move the sandbags.

   (end of this chapter)