open sea

Chapter 1174 Bad Idea

At the beginning of the winter month, paraquat turns yellow.

The divided religious wars were once again healed under the long-sleeved Valois family of the French royal family, and Bordeaux, which was occupied by the Ming army, became its confidant. Fortify the hundreds of miles of the big river, trying to maintain the border.

The Valois royal family had no choice. The queen mother, Catherine, knew that Chen Jiujing would not accept her negotiations at all, and she was determined to occupy Bordeaux by force. War was the only way to solve the problem.

In this winter, Queen Mother Catherine held a royal banquet in Fontainebleau, Paris as usual.

Most of the people participating in the banquet were nobles who made great contributions to defending the French royal family in the religious wars. Baron Billon was just one of them, and he was the less honorable party in the war.

The north and the south are two different battlefields. In the northern war, as long as Marshal Matteon leads the king's son's favorite nobles to besiege the city of Picardy Raphael, which is very close to Paris, the Duke of Condé there did not try to fight with the South Valla Henry cooperated in the battle, and when he was alone, he left for Germany to gather reinforcements, leaving only his men to defend the city.

Although the troops of Marshal Matteon led many young nobles from the court who had never participated in wars, but these lucky people who were used to absurd lives took up arms and wore embroidered clothes as extremely as gold-studded plate armor. With high combat effectiveness, the weather is also sunny and sunny, and the troops' logistics supplies are extremely sufficient.

The siege began on June 22 last year and ended on August 22. It didn't take much effort, and it took two months to win. It was so easy that it was called the siege of velvet.

The war in the south was much more difficult. With a supply line of more than [-] kilometers, the troops who had been fighting for a long time but were tired of marching approached the city of Bordeaux, and were defeated by the combined forces of Chen Jiujing and Yang Ce. The knights lost their horses during the attack, and were repeatedly attacked by Kanggulu's well-equipped cavalry, so that they lost a large number of artillery and horses and donkeys used for transportation.

In the whole battle, the city of Cahors, which was supposed to be Margot’s dowry but the royal family wanted to play tricks, was seized by Navarra. Besides, the royal army did not suffer from Navarre’s hands, and the terms of the peace negotiation were very loose, only admitting that Cahors It is nothing more than giving the rebels of Navarre a respite.

But against Chen Jiujing, they did not have the slightest advantage, so that the negotiation had to skip Chen Jiujing and unilaterally proceed with Navarra, and Bordeaux became a scar in the heart of the kingdom.

After half a year of confrontation, entering the boring winter, King Hum and the third child drank too much wine at the banquet in Fontainebleau. superior.

By the way, because Billund was defeated by Chen Jiujing, the nobles in Paris did not want to call the victory of the siege of Lafayette the siege of velvet, because velvet was also a product of Ming Dynasty, and it was called Zhangrong and velvet there.

But they couldn't find a better word to describe that battle.

The militant and fanatical words made the atmosphere of the banquet more heated. Only Baron Billon, who was holding a wine glass in the corner, remained silent, but...Billon once led an army to attack the city of Bordeaux, and the Queen Mother Catherine attached great importance to his opinion.

Unlike those nobles who only focus on Europe or even see France, the Queen Mother Catherine from the Medici family has a rough spy agency composed entirely of young girls. At this moment, their focus is on Spain. This obtained a lot of information about Ming Dynasty, which gave the French royal family a clearer understanding of the whole world.

The Queen Mother knew what kind of enemy she was going to face, and she also knew that she would fight against an enemy like Daming. What she could rely on was not those little nobles who were given fiefdoms by their sons on their buttocks.

"Sir Billon, everyone is enthusiastic about attacking Bordeaux, what do you think?"

There are many wrinkles on Billon's face. He is no longer young. After the defeat in Bordeaux, the Kingdom did not give him the opportunity to lead troops to fight for a whole year, and he wandered around in Paris all day long. At this moment, his image and He was a seasoned general, but more like an alcoholic from an unknown country, so that when the Queen Mother came to him, he didn't react.

Even after seeing the Queen Mother and hearing the question, Billon still just shook his head tiredly: "If the war continues, the Dordogne River will be lost next year, but you don't have to worry too much, the jazz will take They held up near the Vienne until the end of the war."

"The Vienne?"

Catherine frowned. She didn't like Billon's understatement of defeat, let alone accept this result, which meant that Billon believed that all the Aquitaine region would be lost in the war.

But Billon still nodded and said: "If the drunkards in this room lead the army to fight today, you will receive the news of their defeat in two months, then you can lose everything south of the Vienne River without waiting until next year. "

Queen Catherine tried her best to straighten her back, which was caused by the years. She was very angry, but looking around, she did agree with Billon's statement that war should not be started by nobles after drinking, and she was a little bit impenetrable by the girdle Furious, he took two hard breaths before calming down his anger.

Asked: "Then if you lead the army to fight, what will happen?"

Billon shook his head again: "I suggest you send someone to negotiate with Chen Jiujing now, and spend money to buy Bordeaux back. If he needs silver, give him silver, and if he needs gold, give him gold; if it doesn't work, keep the money spent on the war. Looking at the battle next year, we will form a fleet together with England and the Netherlands. If we can defeat Spain at sea, we may spend less money. If we lose, Chen Jiujing will continue to march north, and it will be more expensive."

As if a war had broken Marshal Billund's backbone, Catherine shook her head and planned to leave: "Chen Jiujing's army is indeed brave and good at fighting, but he has less than 1 people. Your Excellency... is really ashamed of the rank given to you by His Royal Highness. "

"On the contrary, I think that the most important thing I should do to be loyal to His Majesty is to promote peace as soon as possible. The enemy does have less than 90 troops, but his fleet controls Bordeaux to the Spanish waters, ensuring that ships full of supplies arrive every month. Every soldier has excellent warm clothes and sufficient ammunition, [-] years ago we knew what artillery means in war, in Italy it took a year of gunpowder reserves in exchange for two days to capture a fortified city."

"Now the Ming army has enough ammunition, enough horses and donkeys, and countless artillery pieces. Once they launch an attack to the north, no matter how many forts we have, their attack will only depend on the speed of their march."

Queen Mother Catherine attracted everyone's attention. The nobles drinking in the magnificent hall gradually stopped making noise with each other, and only turned their attention to Catherine and Billund who were talking. When he was angry, Billon didn't seem to notice.

"The situation is just the opposite for us, on the Dordogne, which is very close to Bordeaux, far from Paris, and farther from Troyes. If Bordeaux cannot be captured before the Spaniards and Navarra arrive, it is only necessary to send troops. It would make more lads die without meaning."

"To capture Bordeaux, at least 24 siege guns are needed; to defeat Chen Jiujing's troops, 36 more cannons are needed; it takes 680 horses and donkeys to reach Bordeaux from Paris across France; the copper shells they use , from Troyes to be carried across half of France by [-] donkeys, and gunpowder for a campaign, for which we have to prepare for six months or more.”

"If nothing else happens, start preparing from now and try it next autumn, but Chen Jiujing won't wait for us to prepare." Billon poured another glass of wine into his mouth, spread his hands and asked: "Now you still think Is it a bad idea to spend money to buy back Bordeaux?"

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)