Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 834

Chapter 834: Each to Their Own Agenda
Bordeaux, France 1670

Bordeaux, a city located on the southwestern bank of the Garonne River, is a medium-sized city in the Kingdom of France focused on trade. Originally settled by the Celts around 300 BC, and later being part of the Roman Empire around the first century BC, being called Burdigala. It gained popularity for its fine wine trade, which became famous around Europe, gaining a very high reputation. But sadly, as all things exquisite, it did not last long. In the year 1152, Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry Plantagenet, who later became King Henry II of England, and took control of Bordeaux and the surrounding region under English rule for nearly three centuries. This ended the dominance of Bordeaux wine, whose core appeal was being one of the favourite wineries of the French nobles.

However, after the English were expelled in the mid-15th century, the city of Bordeaux has been part of France once again. But sadly, its dominance in wine production did not come back. As European royals, they always preferred authentic French wineries, so when Bordeaux was occupied by the English, at a time when they were more like Vikings than nobles, in disdain, they had already moved on to other wineries in France. Due to the situation, the once-famous Bordeaux saw a decline in trade. The liveliness that was present in the city was nowhere to be seen.

The only thing that remained to show its past glory was the exquisite architecture built all over the city to show its heritage, but even they were collecting dust, since the owners had better things to spend their money on other than maintaining the old castles or buildings. But all that changed when France started to expand into the Americas. Being on the southwestern coast of France, Bordeaux once again started to prosper due to the trade of high-quality wine. Money began to flow in, trade started to pick up, rich people from Paris began to visit, and the monuments began to regain their lost colour.

In such a city, which is in the path of rejuvenation, where people in gorgeous clothes walk around with smiles on their faces in a gentlemanly manner, no one knows that a top-secret meeting is going on between some of the most powerful rulers in the Western world.

—

King Louis XIV, King Charles II Stewart, and finally the Stadtholder William III of Orange—all three sat across a circular table with smiles on their faces, casually talking about matters of various European nations as if they were a group of middle-aged aunts discussing the gossip of the neighbours.

However, the emotions of the people waiting outside the isolated room were anything but casual. The butlers and servants were sweating bullets, while the knights and the knight captain were looking around, even at the empty corridor, in great cautiousness, as if a fire dragon would come to besiege the castle at any moment. This was because King Charles II Stewart and William III were staying in another country without informing anyone, not even the court nobles and the military nobles.

At such a time, what if an accident happened and the news about their existence got leaked, and the enemy took the opportunity of lax security and assassinated the leader? At least if it were a public visit, the country that is receiving the guests would bear the responsibility of safeguarding the guests’ well-being. But now, since they have come in secrecy and with only a little security in order to minimise the chances of leaking the news as much as possible, the French can easily shrug off the responsibility and slip away.

What’s worse, if such a thing happened, the enemies of Charles II Stewart and William III back home might suddenly become brave and take the opportunity to occupy the eagle’s nest when the eagle is absent. Followers who hold the king dearly naturally didn’t want to see their king suffer any losses, but even the ones who are only loyal outwardly would not want such a thing to happen because the next thing the rebels would do was to eliminate them, who are already branded as part of Charles’s or William’s group.

This truth was definitely known by Charles and William, but what was amazing was that—both Charles and William did not seem to share the same concerns as their butlers and their knight captains. Instead, they talked with Louis as if they were more comfortable in France than in their own Kingdoms. Now, this can’t be said to be exactly the case, but it is very close to the truth since they understand that if anything were to happen to them—even though France wouldn’t have to bear the responsibility—France wouldn’t exactly be unaffected. Since with the turmoil of England and the Netherlands, the Iberian countries, Spain and Portugal, will take the opportunity to completely wipe out the power of West European countries like England and the Netherlands in the Americas, leaving France completely isolated.

As for France joining hands with them to cooperate in splitting up the Americas? Heh, don’t joke. When those Iberian countries can take the whole Americas for themselves, with their chances of winning against the French are close to absolute with the Dutch and English thrown into chaos with the assassination of their leaders?, why would they cooperate with a third party to split the benefits, What’s more, the nobles of the Netherlands and England, at least for the sake of honor, will not cooperate with the French no matter how dire their situation is and how dire their consequences are.

Not to mention, if England and the Netherlands are not in their best condition, their three-country alliance formed to resist the influence of the Bharatiya Empire will not be very effective. With the Spanish and Portuguese becoming very close to the Bharatiya Empire, it is still the French that will suffer.

Louis XIV finally got impatient and brought up the topic.

“I believe both of your sires received diplomats from the Ottoman Empire. What are your opinions?”

Hearing the question of the young French king, Charles Stuart and William III immediately became silent. The cordial atmosphere immediately disappeared; the air almost became stagnant.

Moments later, Charles Stuart finally spoke out, “Making the proud Ottoman emperor ask for help from us already shows how big the threat the Bharatiya Empire poses is.”

“As much as I would love for the evil kingdom of the infidels to be destroyed, what Mehmed IV suggested does indeed make sense. Their failure in winning the war against the Bharatiya Empire and getting destroyed… no matter how unbelievable it sounds… would mean that the Bharatiyas would become unstoppable in the world. We would be in danger of becoming the neighbour of this eastern power… The Ottoman Empire alone brought us so much trouble, but thinking about the Bharatiya Empire becoming our neighbour.” Shiver!!! “I would rather have a few Tsarist Russian Empires in Europe.”

His eyes became cautious. “We are already unable to cope with the Bharatiya individually. If the Bharatiya Empire really wins the war against the Ottoman Empire, occupies the whole of the Middle East and expands the border to the Mediterranean, and takes direct control over the Asia-to-Europe trade route, then I fear even the three of us… or God forbid, even with the Germans and others joining together… might not be able to do anything to this behemoth.”

“So I think it is okay to form an alliance with the Ottoman Empire as long as the promise they made is kept.”

Louis and William nodded their heads in acknowledgement, but the decision was not made so quickly. William, who was silent until now, decided to speak up.

“My idea is similar to His Highness Charles Stuart’s, but I don’t think we should help the Ottomans so readily. The initiative should be in our hands.”

Louis and Charles immediately became intrigued.

“You have to know, Your Highnesses, it is most probable that the Ottomans would ask for our help at the most dire straits, and whether this situation were to really arise, no one could predict it. The Ottoman Empire now is the same Ottoman Empire that dominated the Mediterranean and made our forefathers cautious decades ago. It is not so easy to succumb to anyone, especially not to a nouveau riche like the Bharatiya Empire that had a sudden rise due to that cursed Vijay. I suspect that he is possessed by a devil.” By the end of his speech, his voice had almost turned into a gravelly growl, like that of an angry lion.

His expression was distorted, as his hatred for Vijay and the Bharatiya Empire could clearly be seen in his eyes. However, he still managed to rein in his emotions. ‘Ahem.’ “Anyway, coming back to the point. Maybe it is because of the Russians and Venetians acting weirdly that made Mehmed IV cautious and decide to seek our help as an alternative solution. In this case, it is obvious that Mehmed IV is negotiating early on for us to provide him a life-saving grace, so it is my opinion that we hold the higher position in both the negotiation and when sending the troops.”

“My suggestion is, instead of sending reinforcements to support whenever the Ottomans need them, we can send them after they are seriously injured from fighting the war on both sides—between the Russian Empire and the Bharatiya Empire.”

“Let us reap some more benefits. We might not get a bigger opportunity to take a bite out of this old enemy of ours.”

His eyes became sharp, and a hint of ruthlessness appeared in his expression. “Didn’t Leopold I straightforwardly refuse that he wouldn’t cooperate with the Ottoman Empire?” His hands were placed on the table as if the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I was in the grasp of his hands, but before he could continue, Louis interjected. “Leopold only rejected the proposal because his court and his people wouldn’t allow it. The hatred between the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire goes too deep; it is not something an emperor like him could change, no matter how wise he had proved himself in recent days.”

William was a little unhappy that he was cut off mid-speech, but since the person who cut him off was not a subordinate but the King of France, one of the superpowers of the world, he could only take a deep breath and nod his head without any expression. “That is true, but it still doesn’t make a difference that the Holy Roman Empire is not providing any support to the Ottoman Empire. In that case, we’ll let Leopold take the initiative to launch an attack on the Balkan region of the Ottoman Empire in the guise of defending against the Russians. No one in the Holy Roman Empire would reject waging a war against Russia in order to stop the Russians from gaining territorial claims in the Balkans, not to mention some Nobles might even be tempted to expand the Holy Roman Empire, which has been shrinking for a long time.”

“The paths may differ, but the goal is the same. This will be like giving the Holy Roman Empire nobles and Leopold I a reason to help out the Ottoman Empire indirectly. There are some smart people in their empire as well; they should immediately understand what is at stake.”

“Maybe we can provide some more support directly to the Holy Roman Empire to test the situation in Italy as well. If a war of unification really takes place, we can use the Holy Roman Empire as a gun in our hands. No matter how developed the Republic of Venice has become in recent years, it is, at the end of the day, a rich city built on commerce, not on war. As the saying goes, ‘A lean camel is bigger than a horse.’

How can Venice even imagine going up against the mighty Holy Roman Empire? As for our end goal, as long as there is still the Ottoman Empire as a buffer against the Bharatiya Empire, what does it matter how injured the Ottoman Empire is? And even if Mehmed, after the dust settles, is extremely resentful towards us, what can he do against us at that time? Not to mention retaliating, without our support, his empire might even be swallowed up.”

Hearing the suggestion, both Louis XIV and Charles II Stuart’s eyes lit up.

P.S. This chapter was actually 1000 words, after editing, it has become 2100.