The Sin of Ludwigs

Before being thrown on a ship bound for North America, I had only heard of English colonies in talk at court balls.

It is said that it is the Garden of Eden for the new Puritans, but in the eyes of the old-fashioned Catholics, it is the gathering place of the devil, the paradise of criminals, the paradise of pirates, prostitutes, and villains, and the kingdom of hypocrites who are obsessed with their own monarchs.The Catholics of the old school spoke, often with contempt, of the heavily accented French and English pronunciation and the vulgar manners of the so-called planters there.

"There isn't even a real lady there, so much so that they ask Europa for a bride of pure blood!"

Of course, at that time, I was not interested in this extremely remote land where cotton and tea were said to flow in the rivers, and the people living on it. The various meanings expressed by the soft voice and the Spanish fans in their hands are enough to keep me and my friends busy!

And after what happened to Helena, all the friends scattered in a rush, and they refused to even come to see me off when I prepared the carriage to leave Ludwigsburg, and only sent a few housekeepers to say a few insincere words , is really annoying enough!

And my most powerful backer, the Viscountess Edmund, was also very dissatisfied with me. In order to make up for the impact of my mistake on her, the beauty she prepared for the Grand Duke and expected to present in August had to appear earlier, which made her She had to go to great lengths to prepare a new gift for the Grand Duke's birthday in August.

"I sincerely hope that you can grow into a mature aristocrat during the three years of traveling, with the wisdom and means corresponding to your status, so that I will not experience the dilemma I am in today again."

The annoyed Viscountess only sent me this sentence, she didn't come, she just sent me in an empty carriage with a family coat of arms, because the time of my departure happened to be the noble ladies and ladies The time to go for a walk in the outskirts of the forest, competing for beauty on this invisible stage is much more important than the fact that the only child is exiled.

Even at that time, everyone, including me, thought that three years was not a big deal. A certain distant uncle of the madam—through whom she was introduced to the Grand Duke when she was young—even sent a message, suggesting that If I am free during these three years, I can even go to the Grand Duchy of Heidelberg in Spain to investigate and find out about the two sisters of the Grand Duke of Heidelberg, Anne and Elizabeth. curious.

However, on the ninth day after leaving Ludwigsburg, my carriage was hijacked by a party of robbers!

I swear to the Virgin Mary it's that old Chartres!

How could there be a forest bandit in this world who would dare to attack a noble's carriage!

It turns out I was still too naive.

We were attacked at dusk, and the coachman hired from Ludwigsburg immediately left me and the servant and ran away without looking back. Have not seen him.

At the beginning, I tried to reason with them: "I am Viscount Edmund, if you promise to send me safely to a nearby town, I swear on the honor of my family, I will give you a ransom that matches my identity and I will not hold you accountable. .”

The robbers laughed out loud.

"Mr. Viscount, do you think your manor can pay a ransom of [-] talers? Someone came up with this amount, don't worry, it's not for your life, we don't do stupid things that are openly against the nobles, but we can If you can't live, it depends on whether God is willing to have mercy on you, I wish you good luck, noble sir!"

"My estate has an income of [-] German thalers a year..."

"Ah, great, your worth is exactly 210 thalers."

After saying this inexplicable sentence, this group of people rudely stripped off all the clothes and accessories on my body, and then put on me a ragged shirt that can be said to be extremely shabby and old trousers that are just rags. The stench made me want to vomit.They tied me up and locked me in a house, and in the next few days they arrested several young and middle-aged men, ranging in age from teens to 30s.

After a few days, after trying to escape but being starved enough, I finally realized what these people were up to.

They want to sell me and these people to Württemberg to buy the young and strong population of the army like cattle, and send them to the distant British colonies as mercenaries!

Yes, the Grand Duke of Württemberg allowed his army to buy up his people and sell them as mercenaries.

To me, this is now the worst joke in the world - about ten years ago, the Grand Duke and London signed an agreement, the Grand Duke provided London with a regiment of 300 men a year, including infantry and light cavalry; and the British government has paid the Grand Duke a certain amount of subsidy and recruitment fees every year since the date of the treaty. It is said that this fee alone reaches as much as one million talers every year.

And before that, I never thought about a question: the principality has a limited population, after recruiting every year, how do these legion members who leave on time every year than the sun rises, enter the army?

And now I know.

Once you set foot on the ship to North America, it is basically life and death with no return!

Damn the Count!When I get back to Ludwigsburg, I definitely want to see you!

After figuring out the joints involved, I decided to reserve a little physical strength and look for opportunities to directly face people with status in the army, in order to be able to have the strength to say my name and family background at that time to avoid bad luck.

The day of the handover was fast approaching, and to the horror of the civilian population, an officer in British uniform stepped into our cell.

Like looking at a lamb waiting to be slaughtered, he inspected it and skillfully said to the bandit leader: "Two are too old, one is too young, and the rest are all skinny, at most twenty talers each. "

"That's too little. It took me so much effort to get so many people together. Just to feed and clothe them would cost one taler a day! Forty talers a piece, a total of a thousand talers. "

I don't know where the strength came from, I rushed to the door and yelled at the officer: "I am Ludwig Francaimon Edmund Viscount of Ludwigsburg, and I have status. Noble, as long as you send me to Ludwigsburg, I will give you ten thousand talers!"

The officer was stunned for a moment, and then looked at me with a very surprised look. After a while, he turned his head to the bandit leader and said something that made me fall into ice: "The complexion is very fair. If you look carefully, you can see the blue color." What about the blood vessels, is this the Frankemon you speak of?"

The bandit leader shrugged his shoulders in a nonchalant way.

"It's him. As you know, our overly romantic Duke has many, many, many illegitimate children... so many that he can't even count them. This mother is said to have been a flour merchant. Daughter, she fantasizes every day that she can be called the countess of so-and-so, and she went crazy after the child was born, even with her son."

"Tsk tsk, this is the third Franchemon that I have dealt with, the illegitimate son of that lord is really everywhere." The officer said, squatting down, with a creepy expression Looking at me: "What do you think of a second lieutenant?"

"Too few, at least one lieutenant, after all, the British would believe him if he said he was the Duke's son so he was a colonel."

"That won't work, lieutenant colonels are the most, and the British are not stupid."

"Okay, then a lieutenant, for the sake of an old friend, a total of nine hundred talers."

I did not know until much later that the British pay eighty talers for each additional soldier in the mercenary regiment, and for a lieutenant, the British pay three hundred talers more than a soldier, and for a lieutenant colonel, a thousand more Five hundred talers.

And so I was put on a ship bound for the North American colony of Georgia as a nominal lieutenant-colonel of a British mercenary regiment—a figurehead lieutenant-colonel of Franchemon.

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There is not even a real lady there, so that they have to pray to Europa for a pure blood bride-please remember this sentence, hehehe.

Explain why the officer is not afraid of Edmund's revenge: 1. At that time, there was no telegram or anything, and it was not always possible to find someone to send a letter, and Edmund didn't know him yet; 2. He didn't think Edmund would come back, the reason will be explained later ;

As for why it is a lieutenant colonel? ——It’s all because Mo insisted on cp some time ago, I also want a lieutenant colonel.

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