Chapter 1631: On the Edge of Crisis

Seeing the content of "The Celestial Empire Opens Franchising," Zhu Yaofei somewhat regretted having founded the Celestial Empire Alliance in the first place... He had created this Celestial Empire Alliance for the various Huaxia nations to play with, and had never imagined opening it up to franchising, letting the whole world in.

If everyone came in, wouldn't it just become the United Nations?

And relying on clipper ships, early railways, and trains, how much overseas power-projection capability could the Great Ming Empire really have? With just these, they still wanted to intervene in the great revolution of the Roman Empire? Weren't they afraid the intervention would fail, and then they'd catch the revolutionary disease themselves?

This really was muddle-headed!

Zhu Yaofei let out a heavy sigh and continued leafing through The Comprehensive History of the Great Ming.

The title of the next chapter quickly caught his eye — it was actually "The Road to the Throne of the World"!

"The throne of the world? Could he really have taken it?" Zhu Yaofei smiled bitterly and shook his head, then read on.

It turned out that the King of the World really had been taken up by the Great Ming's Xingdao Emperor, Zhu Jianyan... At least in name, he had been King of the World for a period of time!

According to Zhu Zhongshu, the title of "King of the World" obtained by the Xingdao Emperor Zhu Jianyan was without question the highest achievement ever attained by any feudal ruler in all of history, the very summit of human feudalism!

All of humanity, or at least the greater part of it, was for the first time nominally under the governance of a single leader.

Although this leader did not issue many commands, nor did he demand any wealth or goods from those "vassal subjects" who nominally accepted his jurisdiction, and actual rule was almost nonexistent. Yet in later history, no nation could deny that it had once been part of a human empire!

Nor could any human being deny that all humanity had once been a single whole!

Nor would any human being even doubt that at some point in the future, all humanity would surely come together once again!

Because from the end of the Xingdao Emperor's "human unification" experiment all the way to the 21st century, the idea of reunifying humanity and forming a global government had always existed in the political arenas of the world's nations.

And these politicians who advocated human unification had even made several attempts at reunification through peaceful, or non-peaceful, means.

Perhaps this was the legacy that the King of the World, Zhu Jianyan, left to all humanity!

And the series of wars that took place in Europe, Africa, and the Americas during the twenty or thirty years from the late 18th century to the early 19th century were also called by later historians the "First World Unification War."

"The First World Unification War..." Zhu Yaofei looked at the title on his tablet and couldn't help frowning deeply. "If there's a first, could there also be a second and third World Unification War? All of humanity really is..."

And this great pot of the World Unification War, when it came down to it, seemed like it should be placed on Zhu Cilang's shoulders!

Such a huge pot — how could anyone carry it!

After sighing a few times, Zhu Yaofei had no choice but to continue browsing.

The First World Unification War was in fact a world war in which the Great Ming Empire provided the money and the guns, and the Eastern Roman Empire, the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and other European monarchical states that had nominally joined the Celestial Empire Alliance sent troops together to besiege the Roman Republic.

The reason it was called a world war was that not long after the war to besiege the Roman Republic began, the flames of war spread to North Africa and West Asia.

North Africa was basically all provinces of the Roman Empire, and after the revolution broke out in the homeland, these provinces all sided with the Bourbon dynasty of the Western Roman Empire, pledging loyalty to Louis IV, who later fled to Alexandria.

Therefore, after the metropolitan government of the Roman Republic repelled the first round of interventionist forces, they dispatched their most capable general, Napoleon Bonaparte from the Italian province, to lead an expedition to Egypt.

Napoleon's military ability was beyond doubt, and the Roman army, tempered by the republican revolution, was also highly effective in combat. They quickly defeated the Roman Imperial forces in Egypt, and then swept into the eastern Mediterranean coast under Ottoman Empire rule, fighting all the way to the vicinity of Asia Minor and forcing the Ottoman Empire to sign a treaty withdrawing from the Celestial Empire Alliance and paying a huge indemnity.

And while the flames of war spread to Asia and Africa, trouble also broke out in the Americas!

The trouble in the Americas was, of course, stirred up by the American Federation, which had dragged the Western Roman Empire to its death... Although this country had fought a war of independence against the Western Roman Empire, the postwar American Federation was not completely independent in spirit. Especially after the Western Roman Empire became the Roman Republic, the leaders of the American Federation regarded the republic across the Atlantic as their ally, and even proposed forming a federation.

And their proposal was quickly supported by the Roman metropolitan government in Paris, which granted the American Federation the authority to "liberate the province of New Spain." They then launched an attack on the province of New Spain by land and sea, and received support from the New Spain republicans.

Meanwhile, the Governor-General's office of the Roman province of New Spain, still loyal to the Western Roman Emperor, sought help from the Celestial Alliance coalition forces in the Americas. The United States and the Qing Kingdom also reacted immediately, sending reinforcements to Mexico City.

And so the flames of war ignited in the Americas!

Unlike the victories Napoleon Bonaparte achieved in Africa and West Asia, the American Federation's attack on the province of New Spain suffered a crushing defeat. Moreover, the New Continent United States took the opportunity to send troops into Louisiana, and at one point advanced to the walls of New Rome.

Faced with the onslaught of the powerful New Continent United States, the American Federation could only seek help from the other two great powers on the North American continent: the United Kingdom of New England and the Great Soviet Khanate of the Indians.

And Henry IX of the United Kingdom of New England and the Golden Khan of the Great Soviet Khanate were naturally unwilling to see the New Continent United States dominate alone, so they formed an alliance and sent troops to attack the New Continent United States' Huai Province and Liao Province. Thus the flames of war fully ignited across North America!

Besides the American Federation, the United Kingdom of New England, and the Great Soviet Khanate, the newborn Roman Republic also had two other crucial friends: the Republic of England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands — these two countries had not formed an alliance with the Roman Republic and still flew the banner of neutrality, but in reality they were the Roman Republic's arsenal and creditor.

Without the covert support of these two countries, the Roman Republic, even with Napoleon, could not have held out until the 19th century...

But by 1804, the Western Roman Empire had returned. Yet what returned was not the Bourbon dynasty's Western Roman Empire, but the Western Roman Empire of the Napoleon Bonaparte dynasty!

Whether it was historical inertia or Napoleon had also been influenced by the "Celestial Empire unification ideology," after becoming Western Roman Emperor he was not content, and instead began seeking a "Napoleonic version" of the road to unifying the world!

According to Napoleon's plan, to unify the world one must first unify Europe, and to unify Europe one must first unify the Eastern and Western Roman Empires!

So not long after donning the purple and becoming Roman Emperor, Napoleon began his war of conquest against the Eastern Roman Empire.

And the Eastern Roman Empire at this time was actually a loose federation. Its members included the Kingdom of Greece, the Kingdom of Serbia, the Kingdom of Albania, the Kingdom of Croatia, the Kingdom of Austria, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Wallachia, the Kingdom of Bulgaria, the Kingdom of Crete, the Kingdom of Cyprus, the Kingdom of Montenegro, and other eleven electoral kingdoms plus the crown territory of Constantinople.

According to the Eastern Roman constitution, the Emperor would be elected by the eleven electoral kingdoms on the principle of one kingdom, one vote, electing one another!

The elected person would possess the crown territory of Constantinople during their term, and could also use the imperial taxes paid by each kingdom to form an army and government.

Such a loose empire naturally could not withstand the onslaught of the Napoleonic Roman Empire, which had weathered the revolutionary storm and repelled several rounds of international interventionist forces!

And this Eastern Roman Empire had also joined the Celestial Empire Alliance when intervening in the Western Roman revolution, becoming an ally of the Great Ming Empire... So the Napoleonic Wars, from the very beginning, became a world war over "who would unify the world"!