Chapter 1628: Opening Up Franchises

Zhu Yaofei shook his head as he read. Had the Bourbon dynasty's intelligence all been squandered by Louis XIV? Was his great-grandson Louis XV really that brainless? Philip II had already knelt — why not quit while they were ahead?

And now look what happened — they'd kicked over a whole nest of hornets! Austria had Count Daun, Prussia had Frederick II, Russia had Fermor and Saltykov, Hungary had Count Lascy... these enemies who had slaughtered one another in the Seven Years' War were now all standing under the banner of King Philip II of Serbia, making war on Louis II's Western Roman army!

And the Republic of England, which had maintained strict neutrality for nearly a century, also charged into the fray! Not only did it send its navy to fight the Netherlands-Roman combined fleet, it also dispatched expeditionary forces to the province of New France and to India, to seize the Roman Empire's overseas provinces and colonies.

Although Louis II had drawn Sweden, Poland, the Netherlands, and Bavaria to his side, the armies of those countries were not much use in a fight. The age when the Swedes had ruled the roost was long past — they were no match at all for the combined Prussian and Russian forces. The Poles had lost their spirit ever since the death of Jan Sobieski; how could they possibly defeat a combined Russian-Prussian-Hungarian army? And while the Dutch navy was powerful, their army was weak — there was no unified Dutch army, only a hastily assembled coalition of the Seven Provinces...

As a result, Louis II's coalition fought worse and worse, losing men and officers on every front! First came a crushing defeat at the Siege of Vienna, and then at Brno and Prague in Bohemia, Frederick II's combined Austrian, Hungarian, and Prussian forces beat them bloody!

After Louis II lost all the occupied territories in Bohemia and Austria, the flames of war in Europe spread onto the soil of the Western Roman Empire and the Republic of Poland!

On the western front, the combined Austro-Hungarian-Polish army commanded by Count Daun and Count Lascy invaded Bavaria and Rome's province of Austria... and by the end of June 1760, had occupied the entire province of Austria and more than half of Bavaria.

On the central front, King Frederick II of Prussia led over a hundred thousand well-trained Prussian troops on campaigns east and west, seizing the Roman emperor's exclave of Silesia and the Duchy of Saxony, which supported Louis II, and beating back repeated attacks by the Roman-Swedish-Dutch coalition!

On the eastern front, the initiative lay entirely with the Prussian, Hungarian, and Russian coalition. After Augustus III fled from Saxony into Poland, although he quickly rallied a number of Polish noble levies, the times had completely changed!

The hastily assembled Polish noble levies were no match at all for Frederick II's Prussians or for the Russians, battle-hardened by civil war, nor could they defeat the Hungarians, who had just beaten the Western Roman army in Austria and Bohemia.

As a result, the territory of the Republic of Poland was soon partitioned among Prussia, Hungary, and Russia!

Seeing the partition of Poland, Zhu Yaofei could not help but sigh: "Why are the Poles fated to be partitioned wherever they go?"

After this moment of lament, Zhu Yaofei continued reading.

After suffering defeat after defeat, Louis II was still unwilling to concede, and actually made contact with the Ottoman Empire, which had been biding its time for years.

He, the power behind the Roman pope, actually contacted the Ottoman sultan — who also held the title of caliph — to join him in cutting down his Christian brothers!

And the Ottoman sultan of the time, Mustafa III, had truly lost his head: after receiving Egypt, ceded by the Roman Empire, he rolled up his sleeves and launched an offensive against Greece and Bulgaria in the Balkans. He also incited Albania, where Muslims formed the majority, to rise in revolt against the rule of the Mancini dynasty.

But the four countries of Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, and Wallachia, ruled by the Mancini dynasty, had long been on guard against the Ottoman Empire. So the moment the Ottomans marched, they were met by the combined armies of the four Balkan states. And Philip II, who had long coveted Istanbul, immediately brought his Serbian army into the fight as well.

And the Russian Empire, having gained vast tracts of Polish land, also joined the war against the Ottomans, launching an offensive toward the Caucasus Mountains.

Faced with a siege by so many European powers, the long-weakened Ottoman Empire simply could not hold out. After struggling bitterly for two years, it had no choice but to ask the Great Ming Empire to mediate, hoping to end the war by ceding Transcaucasia and part of the Balkan territories, along with paying a huge indemnity.

But Philip II was already determined to enter Constantinople, and Tsar Constantine I of Russia also wanted to seize the Caucasus while he had the chance, so neither was willing to accept mediation. They even invited Hungary and Austria to join the siege of Constantinople, and so the center of gravity of this Twelve Years' War shifted to the southern front, around Constantinople.

This shift saved the imperiled Louis II.

Beginning in 1765, Louis II launched a flurry of diplomatic activity. First, at the cost of ceding New France and French India, he drew the Republic of England over to Rome's side.

Then, on the condition of recognizing the Prussian and Russian partition of Poland, and recognizing Prussia's annexation of Saxony and Silesia, he made peace with those two powers.

After buying England's support and Prussia's and Russia's exit from the war at a high price, in October 1766, Louis II, having recovered his strength, once more gathered his forces and invaded Austria, seeking a decisive battle with the combined armies of Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia.

And the result of that decisive battle once again left Louis II bitterly disappointed.

Because the people of the half of Austria previously ruled by the Roman Empire had long yearned for the Archduchy of Austria, after Louis II's great army once more marched into their territory, they flocked to join the Austrian army of Henry III. As a result, Austria's strength increased enormously, and it won victory after victory in a series of battles!

However, after these victories, the combined Austrian, Hungarian, and Bohemian forces had also suffered heavy losses and lacked the strength to exploit their success, so the war on the western front fell into stalemate.

The stalemate lasted until 1768, when Istanbul, which Philip II had been besieging for nearly three years, finally fell in August of 1768!

The Ottoman Empire, having withdrawn to Asia Minor, promptly fell into civil strife and could no longer sustain the war, and had no choice but to sue Philip II for peace.

And on the sixth day after entering Istanbul, Philip II was robed in purple in the Hagia Sophia and crowned Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire!

When the news reached Paris, Louis II had no choice but to accept reality, and in December of that same year, 1768, he signed a peace treaty with Philip of Eastern Rome... the Roman Empire was formally split in two!

And this catastrophic defeat inevitably brought a massive crisis of rule to the Western Roman Empire!

The crisis of the Western Roman Empire came from three directions. First, the defeat had dealt a severe blow to the emperor's prestige!

Second, the twelve-year war had placed a heavy economic burden on Western Rome and had severely ravaged an economy that had never been very developed to begin with.

Third, the patriotic spirit displayed by the Austrians and Bohemians during this Twelve Years' War led some Western Roman officers and soldiers, especially those of French origin, to begin doubting the legitimacy of the empire.

These officers and soldiers from all over France had seen in the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Bohemia a scene of prosperity, wealth, and equality — serfdom in those two countries had long since collapsed with the fall of the Habsburg dynasty. Moreover, the ruling groups of those two countries were all outsiders, and had been forced to adopt an enlightened path. Under their leadership, the two countries had successively embarked on the road of constitutional monarchy and capitalism. And because they were small countries with few affairs, relatively abundant resources, fairly fertile land, and populations neither too large nor too small, they were both governed quite well, appearing prosperous and civilized everywhere — which made a group of French soldiers whose consciences were not yet dead feel deeply ashamed...