18th century total war

Chapter 273 The Second Anti-French Alliance

“Lieutenant General Porcha’s Second Army will be transferred to the southern border. Once the situation in the Kingdom of Spain changes, it will immediately march into Madrid together with the army of the Kingdom of Catalonia.

The best situation is to help Carlos IV secure the throne. If the time is too late, rescue Carlos IV and find a way to regain the throne of the Kingdom of Spain!
Of course, if Carlos IV falls into our hands, let him come to Paris to meet me first.

I believe that the strength of the four divisions of the Second Army is sufficient to stabilize the situation in the Kingdom of Spain.

What's more, we still have the thug Aragorn.

The Catalans now have a blood feud with the Spaniards, and they will definitely be very happy to help us fight the Spaniards. "

"Your Majesty, if the situation in the Kingdom of Spain collapses and the Kingdom of Portugal is restored, shall we attack the Kingdom of Portugal?"

"The Kingdom of Portugal doesn't need to attack. It is far away from the mainland of the French Empire. If we want to attack the Kingdom of Portugal, our army must continue to penetrate the Iberian Peninsula, and it is easy to fall into the predicament of security warfare.

We only need to maintain the situation in Madrid, even if the Kingdom of Spain is plunged into civil war, it is also possible.

Remember, our strategic goal is not to help Carlos IV pacify the rebels in the Kingdom of Spain, but to stabilize the security of our southern border!
In this way, even if the London government sends their Red Shirts to land, it will be difficult to threaten the southern border of the empire. "

Li Wei made a sonorous and powerful decision.

"The First Army is still the main force of this battle, but the main attack direction of the First Army is no longer the Piedmont region of the Kingdom of Sardinia, where I will hand it over to the Sardinian Army and the Italian Army.

This time our annexation of the Piedmont region of the Kingdom of Sardinia is one of our established goals.

The strategic location of this area is very important to the empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia has a Sardinia in the Mediterranean Sea that can be used as a solid rear base camp. We cannot completely submit the Kingdom of Sardinia through war for the time being. It is better to swallow the Piedmont region directly. , weakening the strength of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Without the Piedmont region, the Kingdom of Sardinia is not even considered a low-ranking country on the European continent, and will no longer be a threat to us in the future.

After the Sardinian Legion and the Italian Legion took the Piedmont region and established direct rule, they will attack the Italian region depending on the situation.

It is best to win the Lombardy region and the Venice region, and sweep away many states in the rich northern part of the Italian peninsula.

It is impossible for the Italian states to return to the level before the last war in such a short period of time, so the Italian state army is not a concern, and our main opponent is still the Austrians.

The offensive along this route can disperse the main force of the Austrians in Central Europe and help the First Army to open up the situation more quickly on the Central European battlefield.

Karl's First Army's strategic goal was to send one or two divisions, together with the Belgian Army, to attack the United Provinces of the Netherlands.

After defeating the Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, there is no need to forcibly occupy it to disperse the troops, just support a Dutch governor as a puppet.

Leave the occupation to the Belgian army.

The combat effectiveness of the Belgian army is not strong, so don't let them stand on the front line. If the Belgian army loses too much, even if the Belgian king is ours, there may be bad accidents.

While the First Army attacked the Republic of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, it sent its main force across the Rhine River.

As long as the Holy Roman Empire states on the south bank of the Rhine are not willing to surrender, they will all be wiped out, especially the powerful states in the Holy Roman Empire such as Hesse, Baden, Württemberg, and Bavaria must be completely defeated!
After defeating them, the Rhine League was formed on the spot and a new government was established. The leaders of the new government needed to come to Paris to report their work to me. "

"Your Majesty, what should the Kingdom of Switzerland do?"

"The Kingdom of Switzerland is a mountainous country, and there is not much oil and water. It will take a lot of time and military power to attack. If the Kingdom of Switzerland does not participate in the anti-French alliance, they are allowed to remain neutral.

If the army of the Kingdom of Switzerland joins the anti-French alliance to attack the mainland of the empire, two or three divisions will be deployed to stop them. Before the end of the Central European War, there is no need to go deep into the Swiss mountains.

After defeating the powerful countries in Central Europe, focus the main force to defeat the Kingdom of Switzerland. "

Li Wei's strategic plan is actually too idealistic, and only his fearless army brainwashed by the total war system can complete this plan.

After all, Levi's plan is equivalent to going to war with all the powerful countries in Europe!
After the top leaders of the French Empire formulated a strategic plan, orders began to spread from the capital of Paris to the entire French Empire. After initially digesting the wealth plundered from the Italian region and the Piedmont region of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the French Empire once again launched its war machine.

As the scale of the war becomes larger and more troops are mobilized, the preparation time for the war begins to prolong. It is no longer the era when everyone can go to the battlefield with a gun...

Good logistical supplies are an important factor in ensuring the combat effectiveness of the army, especially basic ammunition and food!

Naturally, the war mobilization of the French Empire cannot be hidden from neighboring countries. Under the tip-off of the London government, even Tsarist Russia in Eastern Europe knew that the French Empire was dispatching troops and gathering war materials on a large scale!
The wealth plundered from Italy and Piedmont began to shrink at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The supplies produced within the French Empire alone could not meet the war consumption of hundreds of thousands of troops. A large number of smugglers from various countries began to harvest wealth crazily within the French Empire.

After Li Wei got the report, he had no choice but to catch these smugglers now, but once they did, who would dare to do smuggling business in the territory of the French Empire?

Under the blockade of the British Royal Navy, it is almost impossible for the French Empire to purchase a large amount of raw materials for the production of military supplies from overseas through formal trade channels. Although the Holy Roman Empire and other neighboring countries of the French Empire have ceased war with the French Empire, But the trade blockade has remained.

The foreign ministry of the French Empire came to protest and condemn, and the governments of those countries evaded and said that this was the businessman's own behavior, playing a rogue routine.

Fortunately, the surveillance technology of this era is not good and smuggling trade is prevalent. The French Empire can meet its war needs through smuggling merchants, but the money spent is several times higher than normal trade!
Among them, Jewish businessmen were the most active. These Jewish businessmen were originally based in cities in northern Italy. However, these Jewish businessmen had a very keen political sense. After studying the history of Livy's fortune, they ran away with their money before the arrival of the French Defense Forces. the way.

These Jewish merchants are not ordinary merchants, they are all top Jewish financiers and bankers. They hold a lot of gold and silver and other hard currencies of this era in their hands!

Wealthy Jewish businessmen can squeeze a lot of wealth from the French Empire just by being second-hand dealers, and the Jewish businessmen also deduce from the behavior of the French Empire that the Li Wei government will inevitably launch a war and use raw materials for the production of strategic materials. Keep raising the price!
These shrewd Jewish businessmen knew that Livy was an unscrupulous tyrant, and their price-raising behavior would definitely arouse Livy's anger. Therefore, the Jewish businessmen sent to do business in the French Empire were all insignificant agents, and they all stayed in safety. in the cities of Central European countries.

Although Europe generally discriminated against Jews in this era, the real wealthy Jewish businessmen were welcomed by all European countries except Tsarist Russia because they had a lot of wealth.

It's not that Tsarist Russia doesn't welcome Jewish businessmen, but the greedy Tsarist Russian bureaucracy likes to slaughter Jewish businessmen with no background as fat sheep. Over time, few wealthy foreign Jewish businessmen will come to Tsarist Russia to do business...

This is actually the loss of Tsarist Russia. Jewish businessmen are very deceitful, but the wealth they brought and the economic and trade activities they promoted often bring huge tax increases to the country.

It can be said that European countries hate and love Jewish businessmen.

What I hate is that these Jewish businessmen have no patriotic sentiments and truly illustrate the concept of businessmen without borders...

As long as the money is in place, Jewish businessmen dare to sell anything!

Naturally, no country will have a favorable impression of this kind of businessman.

However, the top handful of Jewish businessmen hold a lot of wealth. The countries where they reside will inevitably bring about rapid economic development and tax revenue growth. ...

As a result, European countries promoted the insidiousness and cunning of Jewish businessmen on the one hand, and lowered the public's impression of Jews.

Before Li Wei's expedition to Italy, the commercial republic in northern Italy was the favorite state system of Jewish businessmen, where a large number of wealthy Jewish businessmen gathered.

It's a pity that these wealthy Jewish businessmen ran faster than mice and were not harvested by the French Defense Forces...

The real unlucky ones are the local nobles in Italy. They are reluctant to run away, and the ordinary wealthy businessmen who rely on them are also unlucky...

Although the Li Wei government has nothing to do with the Jewish second-hand trafficker group, this does not prevent Li Wei from keeping the Jewish businessmen in his small notebook, and waiting for the opportunity in the future to take revenge!

Under the price hikes by the Jewish merchants, the wealth plundered by the French Empire shrank significantly, and they were finally ready for war.

Of course, the opponents of the French Empire are not fools. Seeing that the French Empire is preparing for war, the military expansion plan has been advanced, but due to financial constraints, the military expansion plan has not been successfully completed.

During the autumn harvest of 1798, the French Empire brazenly declared war on the Holy Roman Empire on the grounds that the Holy Roman Empire violated the peace treaty and controlled domestic merchants not to trade with the French Empire!

Nowadays, even though the Holy Roman Empire is neither holy nor Roman nor an empire, at the official level, the Holy Roman Empire is a whole. Declaring war on the Holy Roman Empire is legally declaring war on all the states in the Holy Roman Empire.

The Berlin government of the Kingdom of Prussia, which had no intention of participating in the war, was furious after hearing the news, feeling that it had been underestimated by the tyrant Li Wei.

So, I agreed to the olive branch from the London government.

The Second London Conference was held with very high efficiency. Just one day after it was held, the second anti-French alliance was established!
The number and quality of the members of the anti-French alliance this time are greater than the first time. The first-line powers include the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland, the Holy Roman Empire, and Tsarist Russia!
Other countries include the Kingdom of Switzerland, the United Provinces of the Netherlands, the Kingdom of Denmark, the Kingdom of Sardinia, many states in the Italian region, and the Kingdom of Portugal.

It can be said that all countries in Central and Western Europe participated in the second anti-French alliance!

Only a few countries far away from France, such as Sweden, did not participate in the second anti-French alliance.

Because the Ottoman Empire still hoped to join forces with the French Empire, it did not participate in the second anti-French alliance.

However, when the French Empire's Ministry of Foreign Affairs wanted to bring the Ottoman Empire into the alliance, it was rejected by the Ottoman Empire on the grounds that the Ottoman Empire was not ready for a full-scale war with Tsarist Russia.

However, in order to make the French Empire and the Anti-French Alliance fight both sides, the Ottoman Empire provided the French Empire with tens of thousands of free muskets and dozens of old-fashioned artillery, and even thoughtfully organized ships to transport them!
However, when these arms entered Hong Kong, the people of Li Wei’s government were disappointed to find that all these guns and artillery were eliminated by the new army of the Ottoman Empire.

But no matter how bad the munitions are, they are still munitions. At least these munitions can be used, which is already very good. After all, the Ottoman Empire's army has not reached the point where each person has a flintlock gun.

This is not to say that the Ottoman Empire was too backward in this era. The main reason is that the territory of the Ottoman Empire is too large, and the size of the army is also large, and the troops stationed in different regions are different, except for the new Ottoman army. Except for chemical weapons, other local armed forces have not completed the full deployment of firearms.

The army of the Ottoman Empire on the books in this era was more than one million!

Millions of muskets, not to mention the Ottoman Empire, even the richest United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland, will not be able to produce it for a while.

Firearms don’t just have to be produced and stored in a warehouse. They can be taken out and used when needed. The daily maintenance costs are very valuable. Therefore, the Ottoman Empire provides so many firearms, which can be regarded as saving a lot of maintenance costs for itself...

The Ottoman Empire was still under the enfeoffment system, and the central court of the Ottoman Empire did not like to fully arm those local troops.

Such as the Mamluks in Egypt!
After the Li Wei government allocated the Ottoman Empire's "friendship" to the local police, the main force of the First Army led by Karl took the lead in launching the Battle of the Rhine.

(End of this chapter)