I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 154 The Black Death (3)

The Duke of Orleans is still struggling to support him. He believes that the king will never give him up easily, but people in Paris and all over France are all whispering, because after learning that the Black Death broke out in Nancy, Lorraine, The first thing the king did was to block the road and ordered all the territories and villages from Lorraine to the south and north to enter a state of martial law. On the new road, the methods of detecting, preventing and blocking the Black Death written by the king's doctors and maesters were spread to all corners - these roads are one of the brilliant achievements of the king in these three years, and also let the French treasury. One of the culprits of the emptiness, which started in Paris and spread to Le Havre in the west, Artois and Verdun in the north, France Conde in the west, and Orleans in the north, although it was not guaranteed Go anywhere, but at least ensure that every province has an avenue for horses to run fast, and this road is now almost a lifeline for the people - the custodian also carries the king's soldiers, if there are officials or If the lord does not cooperate, they have the right to arrest the latter. In the worst case, they are allowed to execute criminals by the king—this kind of behavior would have been criticized more than ten days ago, but at this time, as long as People with a bit of brains will not make nonsense about this. In fact, although some of the requests of the supervisors involved places that the lords do not want people to set foot on, or secret materials, they also obediently took them out, just asking To be able to get a place to live in Paris.

Yes, just as the people of Lorraine flock to Nancy, the people from the other places mentioned above are also heading for Paris - where they believe that the king is, it must be safe - after all, in this day and age, there are still It is said that the king treats scrofula (tuberculosis) by touching his subjects. Louis himself once performed such a ritual, but even if St. Louis is reincarnated, he may not dare to touch the black silk patient. Is he going to accept these nobles? became the king's problem.

   It is conceivable that if they refuse, those people must have resentment in their hearts, but if they accept it, let alone whether any of them will

There are the carriers of the plague seeds, the population alone—these people don't come alone, they must bring their families, servants, and soldiers, and Paris can't carry so many people, so the king said, "Let them go to Versailles. ."

The idea of ​​building a new palace in Versailles has been around since Louis was a boy, not only because the people of Paris had betrayed their king twice, and not only because the people of Versailles were more revered and loyal to the king, after all , or the population. The population of Paris has shrunk drastically because of the riots. The problem is that after several years of reproduction and migration, Paris is overcrowded again. If it is not for the king who has done some expansion and sorting out of the urban area of ​​Paris, such a population density Sooner or later there will be a plague.

What Louis originally envisioned was to extend the borders of Paris outwards, just as people hundreds of years later, in order to accommodate tens of millions of people, continued to embrace the surrounding towns and cities in their arms, the king did not. To re-establish the meaning of a city of Versailles, he only wanted to move the palace to Versailles after the completion of the palace in Versailles, but also to connect Versailles with Paris, so that Versailles became the moon city of Paris, and when Versailles and Paris The area between Paris gradually prospered, and then the area of ​​Paris naturally expanded to Versailles - but I didn't expect that the Palace of Versailles had just begun to take shape, and he had to stuff hundreds of nobles into it.

   But there is really no place for these people other than Versailles. First of all, in addition to the king's palace, Versailles also has apartments built by the king for workers and designers. These houses can be built to five floors because of the cement. Although they are ugly, they have doors, windows, and The most basic furniture, even public bathing and sanitation facilities, can be used to supply those servants and soldiers; secondly, although Versailles is not far from Paris, it is not so close to reach, it is surrounded by forests With the swamp, it is no exaggeration to say that if a plague breaks out here, as long as the road is cut off, none of the people inside will be able to get out.

Finally, if you haven't forgotten, Versailles was bought by two consecutive kings, Louis XIII and Louis XIV, with a lot of money, even those swamps and forests, so they are the lords here, what happened in this territory , the people of this land shall obey their laws.

But what makes people uneasy is that the king never mentioned the Duke of Orleans who was besieged at the castle of Fowlerville in Nancy, did not say that he would send troops to encircle the mob, and did not hold a mass to pray for his brother Philip, in order to ask for God's blessing. Bless - don't say what the queen mother did, people are watching the attitude of the king, they can't help but guess, does the king have the intention to destroy such a talented younger brother? The former Duke of Orleans, Gaston, is in front of him. Louis XIII fell from a horse and was seriously injured. The duke never got rid of the suspicion, and the king and the queen mother did not hesitate to sentence him to exile after the riots subsided ( It was the harshest sentence ever imposed on a prince by blood), and while the Duchess of Gaston and her daughters were still mourning him, the court never stopped for music and laughter. , the two His Majesties are very willing to watch him die.

   Is the title of Duke of Orleans so ominous? Or Gaston's curse?

Louis walked alone in the Louvre. Now the Louvre has lost its glory, and there are traces and smells of limewater everywhere. Fortunately, for the renovation of the Louvre and the construction of the Palace of Versailles, Paris has accumulated a lot of lime, and now They are all used for epidemic prevention, but what people don't know is that those mixed in lime also come from magic medicine crystals extracted by wizards in the inner world. This crystal comes from the invention of Varo Vesalius. It was first used to detect the composition of ore, then it was used to make dyes, it was later found to be toxic, and finally it was researched by wizards that it could also be used as a healing potion.

For the wizards, this kind of experiment is quite novel, because for the people in the previous world, they seldom delved into something, like a magic spell. Once it is invented, then the teacher asks the students not to. No compromise, read and do it meticulously, and the same is true of potions. As for tracing the source, only the wizards of the big family can possibly touch the mysteries in the door. But since the king knew about the existence of the inner world, he has been full of inquisitiveness about this place that he does not know. He can also provide the things that the big family can provide to the members of the direct line, whether it is venues, samples, or It is precious materials such as gems, as long as it can give him results, his generosity can make any parent in the world be amazed.

And this white crystal is the latest achievement delivered by the wizards to the king. At first, they were formulated into potions, which were used for external application and oral administration to treat bleeding and fever. People who have fever are more often caused by infection, so the king I wondered whether it would be an effective bactericidal drug, and it was found after experiments that it was indeed the case - this crystal was extracted from the medicament smelted from coal, and coal, ever since there was Lorraine, the king has been advocating Coal burning, this "fashion" was also spread to other provinces along with lace, dyes and bathing, etc. For a time, the production and supply of coal increased greatly, and those used by wizards did not attract anyone's attention at all.

Before the outbreak of the Black Death, the wizards accumulated a lot of raw materials for crystallization. When the news of the Black Death was confirmed (or even earlier), the king not only asked those wizards who were lucky enough to stay outside the epidemic area to stop all work, I tried my best to make this crystal, and also issued orders to the Duchess of Colonna - and the Mancini family behind her, to dispatch more wizards to make this crystal - although it is still only a handmade product, fortunately, it only needs to be melted in water. A little bit of it can achieve the effect of sterilization and anti-epidemic. At least, it is no problem to ensure that Paris and Versailles are not disturbed.

In addition, although it is speculation, and most people do not know that the Black Death is transmitted by rats, after the renovation of Paris, clean streets and houses, repelling bugs and rats, do not know when the public bathrooms reopened , has also made Paris a clean island, where people seem to find themselves sick less often - such rumors will naturally not be blocked from the ears of the provincials.

Of course, the most important thing is that they are all coming to the pilgrimage. The Virgin at the central altar of Notre-Dame de Paris weeps every day and never stops, and the pilgrims do see it. Even if no one approaches the icon, the clear Tears will still flow on time. Bishop Larivière led the priests to respectfully receive the tears, melt them into holy water, and distribute them to every devout believer.

Holy water is originally wine. According to the king's instructions, the wine is also added with sugar. Some people who feel weak just out of fear will naturally feel refreshed after drinking it, while others are also melted in holy water. The magic potion crystals - this crystal is soluble in alcohol, and has a bitter and sour taste, but in wine, no one can drink it.

Now the queen mother, the king and queen, the dauphin, the Duchess of Orleans and her daughter are drinking it, too, and so are the squires and maids, there is always a faint smell of wine in the air, in fact they are more It comes from the crystals in the lime water - but compared to the stability inside and outside Paris, the Queen Mother and the Duchess of Orleans are always frowning. The Queen accompanies them when the King is dealing with political affairs. As soon as the King comes in, the Queen will shake hands after salute. Holding his hand, Louis shook it back. Queen Teresa was indeed not beautiful, but even those who hated Spaniards the most had to say at this moment that the calm demeanor of the Queen's House did give them a great deal of attention. Comfort and support—Louis feels the same way.

  Before the king could greet her mother, the queen mother cast an earnest look. This is understandable. Louis is all her hope and sustenance, but her favorite should be Philip. Especially after she made such a decision for Louis and France, she has always had a deep apology for this young son. When Louis decided to reuse Philip, she was still worried about whether Philip would breed ambition because of it. Thinking that she should be more worried about Philip's safety. After all, there is no merit that can be easily obtained by lying in a comfortable bedroom.

   "Don't worry, mother," Louis stepped forward and took his mother's thin shoulders: "I've sent someone to pick him up, and he'll be back in Paris soon to be with us."

On the concrete road from Paris to Verdun, a train is speeding, but it is strange that there are no knights and soldiers to protect the carriage except for the carriage driven by double horses, and they are driving in the middle of the night. Even if they still have the lights hanging (but on a cloudy night, this light is better than nothing), and the driver can be like those gentlemen without the trouble of seeing things at night, which is too dangerous.

Except for people, dark creatures, or beasts, if there are any additional obstacles on the road, the carriages that are not detected and avoided in time, at this terrifying speed, will fly out violently, the carriages roll over, the ruts are broken, and the horses I am afraid that there is no way to keep the neck and legs of the passengers intact.

But neither the night nor the presence of danger posed any threat to the silent coachmen. They descended to the ground, waving their whips regularly, making it bang in the air, so that the horses could play their best Efficiency, the horses ran as hard as they wished, their manes were soaked with sweat, it clinging to the undulating muscles, and the oncoming wind was so strong that it almost blew the driver's pocket. cap.

What is surprising is that the coachman suddenly made a strange cry when the darkness was almost everywhere, the horses pricked up their ears and spun, and they heard it, as if in a matter of seconds, these four-hoofed winds lowered. At their own speed, when the clouds moved away a little, a tiny ray of light cast across the wilderness, and they saw it too—just less than a hundred feet away from them, there was a big tree lying across the road. .

If the carriage is still rushing, it is inevitable that the carriage will kill people, but at this time the speed of the horses has been reduced to the level that even a fast human can catch up. Slowly stopped, but the driver above did not speak or move, and after a few seconds, the person he was waiting for appeared.

The torches were lit one after another. This is Revigny. In fact, he has entered the Lorraine region. The lord of Revigny is not a pro-French person. His wife is loyal to the Archduke of Austria, and he hopes more. Lorraine maintains its present substantial independence.

   (end of this chapter)