Neither Vaubon nor Montesquieu knew that their fates were intertwined because of this encounter.

After separating from Montesquieu, Vaubon came to the Palace of Versailles. Unlike the past, the Palace of Versailles had some war and military flavors during this period. In fact, all the styles were just to cater to the preferences of King Louis XIV. Recently, King Louis was about to go on a war.

After experiencing a series of defeats, the elderly king also understood that France had reached its most dangerous time. More than 300,000 enemy troops were gathered around France, and more people came from the British Isles, Germany, and the Balkans. Because of China's "equal policy", the Grand Alliance received more and more sufficient supplies and wages.

In France, everything was sliding in the direction of badness. Ten days ago, a protest occurred in front of the Palace of Versailles. More than 20,000 hungry French men and women beat and marched at the Palace of Versailles with empty pots and bowls, and sang the lotus fall together. After these people were dispersed, they immediately started to move in Paris. Various big-character posters appeared on the streets and alleys, angrily scolding and insulting Louis XIV.

This is still the most prosperous Paris. You should know that in places such as Caor, groups of beggars and bankrupt farmers have begun to plunder the pastoral and town halls of the estate owners.

In order to raise funds for the war, the treasuries of Louis XIV thought of various ways, once again sold hundreds of official positions, and also imposed new taxes, so that the baptism ceremony of newborn babies and the marriages of newlywed men and women were taxed. Many poor families have chosen to marry and have children without the help of a pastor, even if such marriage is defined as illegal, even if such children are defined as illegitimate children.

The arrogance of the Great Alliance once made Louis XIV furious, but now he wants to thank the arrogance of the Great Alliance, because the French nobles also felt ashamed. After knowing that Louis XIV was going to fight in person, both merchants and nobles donated generously, and more and more volunteer soldiers and militias appeared in the army.

Louis XIV knew that this was the last rise of France. For France and for the Bourbon, he had to personally fight and defeat the Grand Alliance.

In Madame Mantenon's small living room, Vobon met Louis XIV. The king was trying on his military uniform, mats that raised his butt, high heels and stockings were all gone. Vobon seemed to have seen the arrogant king decades ago, but it was just a moment of trance. After waking up, Vobon saw the king's aging and weak body. He was so tired that he was panting when he changed his clothes. And why wasn't he himself?

"Oh, it's my dear Vaubon, are you going to follow me to fight?" Louis XIV asked happily. During this period, France lost too many generals, and too many generals were proven to be stupid. Vaubon was a tried and tested general. Louis XIV could forget the disrespect of the marshal to himself some time ago for this expedition.

Vobon said: "Your Majesty, I am here to persuade you to give up your personal expedition. What France needs is not war, but reform."

"Is that?" Louis XIV's face turned cold and said lightly: "Now the entire French people are eagerly looking forward to me to defeat the enemy of France."

"But you haven't considered failure?"

"I, the Sun King, will not fail." Louis XIV said.

"What if you fail?" Vobon asked stubbornly.

Louis XIV turned his head and decided to ignore him, and Vaubon continued: "France is now on the verge of collapse, and almost one-tenth of the people have become beggars, and the remaining nine out of ten are far more people who receive good gifts than charity. The country's sins are indeed too great. Without a solution, it will be in a state of doom.

But our nobles are immersed in the extravagant life, and they deceive you together and praise you. They are not the wealth of the country, but the wealth of the country is contributed by the diligent and hard-working lower classes. They have created the great Sun King and the great France.

But how are they now? Because of the war, they are already living in poverty, because of the war, their world is desolate...

What you are going to do now is to save these most productive classes, rather than bring him into an adventurous war.”

"It turns out that you were exaggerating. I know what you said. I think only one victory can change everything."

"No, victory cannot change everything. Victory can only defeat the Grand Alliance, but they can withstand several victories, and France can't withstand even once."

"Wobon, stop talking, you can step down."

But Vaubon did not retreat, but Louis XIV ignored him and left here on his own initiative and went to another gorgeous room.

Originally, Louis XIV thought Vaubon would leave disappointed, just like last time, but unexpectedly, Vaubon did not do this at all.

A few hours later, Prince Louis came to the king and whispered to Vaubon what he did.

It turned out that Vauban did not leave, but ran around the Palace of Versailles to promote his philosophy. He suggested that France should carry out reforms, especially thorough financial reforms. His philosophy was to recommend abolish all current taxes and replace them with progressive taxes, so that the originally privileged nobles and the Catholic Church would join the ranks of taxpayers. Landlords who owned the land, whether nobles, churches or ordinary people, would pay more than 5% of their wealth, while workers and ordinary citizens would pay no more than 3.5%.

"He also wrote a book about this, and he was sending it from his home at this time."

"What do the nobles think?"

"Everyone is avoiding him and doesn't want to hear him say that some people say they want to do everything they can to support your personal mission, nor will they agree with him."

Louis XIV nodded slightly: "I knew it was like this. Vaubon is too old and so old."

In Louis XIV's view, Vauban's fiscal reform is to shake the foundation of this country. The nobles will definitely not support it. Supporting Vauban means losing privileges. Moreover, Louis XIV feels that France has no time to carry out similar reforms. The support of the country comes from blind obedience caused by decades of worship of the Sun King, and this type of blind obedience has only been once. It has been said that it will be personally expeditioned. At this time, it may be cancelled. France will collapse directly.

When Louis XIV announced the expulsion of Vauban, bursts of cheers broke out in the entire Versailles palace, as if a plague patient had been driven away.

But no one expected that this matter would not be finished. The next day, Vaubon once again came to Versailles Palace to do the same thing, claiming that unless the king killed him, his patriotic heart would never stop beating.

This completely provoked Louis XIV, who decided to imprison Marshal Vaubon in the Palace of Versailles, and no one was allowed to communicate with him until the king personally fought for triumphantly before releasing him.

But Vaubon was imprisoned, but Marshal Vaubon's thoughts were not imprisoned. The book he presented to Baron Montesquieu was soon published in Paris, and was recognized by the citizens of Paris, pushing the protests of the lower class people in Paris and even the entire France to a climax.

A song became popular in Paris. It was a rewritten song that everyone could sing "The Lord's Prayer", but the lyrics changed.

'Our Father in Versailles, people no longer respect your name, your kingdom is no longer great, and your will cannot be performed on sea and on land, and give us bread that is lacking everywhere, and forgive our enemies' debts, just as we forgive your general's debts, and do not let us be tempted by all the temptations of Mantenon, and save us from evil.'

This song was widely circulated throughout France, and only the king was concealed. Until the last time the king went to see Vaubon, he also sang this song.

Louis XIV was furious and announced that he had put Vaubon in the Bastille Prison, believing that Vaubon was the leader of the Paris area to resist and humiliate the king's forces.

Louis XIV, who personally led the army, entered Paris before personally expeditioning, conducted a large-scale search of the city. All kinds of people who publicly expressed their dissatisfaction, including judges, workshop owners, lawyers, and workers, were arrested and threw themselves into the Bastille Prison. The voices against the king were deposited for a while. Louis XIV led 150,000 troops on the journey, with the goal directed directly to the Rhine.

At this time, France was already very weak. Louis XIV had only two generals who could be called famous generals, one was Duke of Vandom and the other was Marshal Veral. At this time, Duke of Vandom was stationed in the direction of Lille, with only more than 30,000 troops, relying on the fortress group designed and built in the border areas in his early years to resist twice as many British and Dutch coalition forces as they were.

Marshal Veral was sent to Spain early to assist the king in resisting the attack of the British and Portuguese coalition forces.

On July 14, Louis XIV's army left the city of Paris and received exciting news that Marshal Villar had won a great victory in Spain, annihilated 14,000 Portuguese and Irish soldiers, and pursued them all the way to Portugal. The forward had entered Portugal.

This seemed to be a good omen, but Louis XIV did not know that it was just a victory on the secondary battlefield and did not have decisive significance. The enemies he was facing were much stronger.

Louis XIV's personal expedition was huge, but later military mobilization was regarded as a negative case. Because it took more than two months from planning to implementation. Louis XIV announced from the beginning that the battlefield was in the direction of the Rhine River, so the Grand Alliance also planned this battle as a decisive battle that decided victory or defeat. Not only did it formulate a strategy of waiting for work, but also mobilized troops from various battlefields.

The Rhine Alliance Army gathered in famous generals!

In Austria, Prince Eugen, Prince Baden, and the Crown Prince. The King of Prussia and Prince William of Prince William were all in the army. The British-Dutch coalition forces also arrived at the battlefield by Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. After receiving reinforcements from Prince Eugen and Duke of Churchill, the Rhine Legion's size increased from 110,000 to 200,000, which formed an absolute military advantage over the French side.

After discussion, all parties suggested that King William of Prussia, the old man was the commander of the coalition forces. William of the old man was disrespectful and readily accepted the proposal. However, the Prussian king, who was called the mercenary king, did not monopolize the power. He reorganized and distributed the army according to the abilities of the generals.

Prince Baden was firm and determined, and was authorized by William the old to command the infantry army. Duke of Churchill has always been known for his cavalry. William the old drew cavalry from Prussian and Austrians to his command. William the old drew Prince Eugen the most trusted by him. He was appointed as deputy commander. In fact, the specific command of this Rhine Battle was all under the responsibility of Prince Eugen, and William also sent his sixteen-year-old son to Prince Eugen to receive his teachings.

The strategy formulated by the Great Alliance Army was very simple, that is, the entire Rhine River was stationed around Frankfurt, and only sent a small number of troops to harass Strasbourg on the west bank of the Rhine River, inducing the main French force to go deeper.

Nowadays, the situation in the Grand Alliance has improved. With the strength to fight a long-term war, the troops stationed in Frankfurt can obtain more convenient supplies by shipping on the Rhine River.

After the military arrangements were formulated, a group of nobles from the Great Alliance discussed when to eat at night, and they even thought of hot pot.

Among these nobles, Prince Eugen, William and his son had close friends with the Empire and King Yu Li Junwei. With these three people proposed, the rest had no objection.

There are not so many enjoyments in the army, but hot pot can definitely be easily made. A bite of an iron pot, a gas stove, and even the ingredients are a hodgepodge, from vegetables found by farmers to all kinds of canned meat, canned grains that you can eat when you are tired of, even bacon and cured meat.

However, this group of Europeans did not have the habit of sitting around and eating, but instead took a small pot for each person, and chose all kinds of dishes, which tasted a bit like a rotating hot pot.

"Louis XIV has arrived in Strasbourg, but it has not yet been determined when to cross the river. If he does not take action for a long time, there will be many problems," said Duke Churchill.

"What's the problem?"

Churchill thought for a while and said, "His Excellency Heinsius sent a message that the Prince of China is coming, and this wealthy prince is not as easy as that Prince of Glory."

"I don't think it's worth our own risk." Old William said, seeing Churchill's face a little gloomy, he continued: "Everyone, what we want to do will clear the 50-year haze that Louis has brought to Europe. Therefore, we must unite and eliminate the influence from anyone, whether it is domestic political forces or from Eastern China.

Everything! Everything must be said after a complete victory, and we must completely defeat Louis."
Chapter completed!