November 22, 1730, Holy Roman Empire, Trieste.

The port of Trieste was briefly occupied by the Venetians from 1369 to 1372, but most of the citizens submitted a petition to Leopold III of Habsburg, asking him to come to Trieste, which became part of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1719, at the strong request of the local nobles and lords, Trieste became a free port under the authority of Charles VI of the Habsburgs. However, in many aspects such as diplomacy, military affairs, and even domestic affairs, they are still subject to the constraints and influence of the empire.

As one of the few trading port cities in the Holy Roman Empire, Trieste has a busy business district, taverns, cafes and shops, and the streets are bustling with people.

On the north side of Trieste, the highest point of the city, there is a magnificent castle that was once the main fortress of a medieval feudal lord. Today, it is the Governor's Palace of Trieste.

The Doge's Palace sits on a lawn surrounded by high walls covered with dense vegetation. In front of the palace is a beautiful fountain with water splashing on the flower beds, reflecting the winter sun and seemingly illuminating the entire courtyard.

Guided by a waiter, Luca Vitri entered the splendid hall and met Sebastian Pleddell, Governor of Trieste and Count of Austria Florze.

"You're here on behalf of the Qi people?" Count Frötz raised his chin and asked rather arrogantly.

"Yes, Your Excellency." Luca Vitryi was a little nervous, and his hands involuntarily clenched the hem of his clothes.

"Heh, what did the Qi people send you to do?"

“…… The Governor of Qi asked me to pass on a word. ”

"What?"

"The Governor of Qi asked...... Luca Vitri glanced up at the Austrian nobleman, swallowed a mouthful of water, and said stubbornly: "The Governor of Qi asked,...... Did the Austrians want a war, or did they want to continue the present peace. ”

"Huh?" When Count Flotz heard this, his eyes immediately widened, and a trace of anger appeared on his face, "Do the people of Qi want to threaten the empire with war?" ”

"......" Luca Vitri glanced at the other party, then lowered his head again, and did not answer.

"Hmph, the empire has gone through thousands of years, the civilization is long, and the country is even more powerful than the whole of Europe, how can it be threatened by your Qi country?" Count Florz said in a cold voice: "Although the people of Qi defeated England and Venice, they won a temporary victory. But don't forget that on the continent, they are an outsider after all. ”

"......" Luca Vitri glanced at the other party again, his mouth moved, as if he wanted to say something, but he was afraid of the other party's noble status, and chose to remain silent.

"Hmph, I really want to know the answer to the question of the Qi people." Count Flotz took a few steps forward, his eyes aggressively glaring at the Qi State attendant, "If the empire chooses war, what do they want?" What if we want to keep the peace? ”

"The governor of Qi said that if the empire wants to maintain peace, it must not meddle in the affairs of the Istrian region, prohibit the import of weapons and military funds there, and stop financing the rebels." Luca Vitri said with some difficulty: "If the Empire chooses war, then the Qi State does not mind a formal military contest with the Empire. ”

"Is there less military competition between the empire and the state of Qi?" When Count Flortz heard this, he couldn't help but be uplifted, and said hatefully: "For decades, they continued to arm and finance the Ottomans, and how many great battles took place with the Empire in Wallachia, in Moldavia, and in Serbia, and there were countless casualties among the Imperial officers and soldiers and civilians. Let me ask, have the people of Qi considered the feelings of the empire? Did they bring peace to the Empire? ”

On the European continent, if there is any country that hates Qi the most, it is the Holy Roman Empire, well, to be precise, it should be the Habsburg Dynasty, which has dominated the position of emperor for hundreds of years.

Under the leadership of the Habsburgs, the Holy Roman Empire was not only the only great power on the European continent that did not have diplomatic relations with Qi, but also, in the name of the emperor, strictly forbade trade, culture, or other exchanges between the states and princes within the empire and Qi.

Gain, Qi Guo is too hateful.

Since the sixties of the last century, the Qi people have hooked up with the Ottomans, the sworn enemies of Catholicism, and the two sides not only carried out close economic and trade exchanges, but also spared no effort to give the Ottomans financial and material support, so that the latter could quickly recover after being defeated by the European coalition forces, and then launched round after round of attacks on Europe again, making the Austrians who have always been on the front line of Europe miserable.

What made the Austrians even more annoyed was that the Qi people just contributed money and goods, and they also gave people!

In many military confrontations with the Ottomans, the imperial army had sporadically captured Qi soldiers. After some interrogation, these Qi soldiers admitted that they were helping and guiding the Ottoman army to fight, and even many large-scale battles were planned by these Qi soldiers.

In other words, the Qi people had actually launched a military attack on the Holy Roman Empire indirectly.

In this situation, the Habsburgs naturally did not have a good face for the Qi people.

Even more annoyingly, Qi also established a very close relationship with the Kingdom of Prussia, one of the members of the Holy Roman Empire, and secretly supported its competition with the Austrians for dominance and influence in the German region.

Originally, it was thought that even if the Qi people targeted the Habsburgs, they could only pretend to the Ottomans or Prussians and indirectly harm them.

Because, no matter how strong the Qi State was, they could not drive their proud navy to land and pose a direct threat to the Habsburgs.

Therefore, before the outbreak of the Qi-British War, the Habsburgs accepted the proposal of the Kingdom of England without scruples and launched an active attack on the Ottoman Empire from the Balkans, so as to divert the attention and energy of the Qi people from the past, thereby reducing the frontal military pressure on the Kingdom of England.

Of course, the Habsburgs did not make this decision out of self-sacrifice to save others, but because the empire made a political deal with the Kingdom of England in exchange for a promise to support the legitimate inheritance of Maria Theresia, the eldest daughter of Emperor Charles VI.

Although, according to the established agreement, the Habsburgs sent troops to attack the Ottomans, which also attracted the attention of the Qi people as they wished.

But after all, they underestimated the great strength of the Qi state, not only did they continue to fund the Ottomans, providing them with large loans and ordnance materials, stabilizing the Balkan front, but also had the spare strength to unite the Persian Empire in the Caucasus, beat the Russians fat, and completely expelled them from the Caucasus.

At the same time, Qi gathered a large number of naval ships, crossed the two oceans, and traveled thousands of miles to Europe to fight against the English navy, and finally won the victory.

What made the Habsburgs even more stunned was that after the Qi State took charge of England, they teamed up with the Ottomans to invade the Republic of Venice from both land and sea, and forced the landing of the most powerful country in Italy with a crushing momentum.

After forcing the Republic of Venice to sign the Treaty of Venice, Qi not only extorted a large amount of reparations and forced it to open its domestic market, but also obtained the ownership of the Istrian Peninsula and more than a dozen surrounding islands.

When the Habsburgs heard the news, they couldn't sit still.

If you open a map of Europe, you will see why the Holy Roman Empire is so on fire.

Although during the Thirty Years' War HRE gained the Spanish Netherlands, a section of access to the sea on the North Sea coast, and a very advantageous port like Antwerp, it was sandwiched between the Netherlands and France, and the slightest change in the situation in Europe would threaten to be blocked.

The Holy Roman Empire, on the other hand, had two ports on the Adriatic Sea that were not threatened by the great powers: Rijeka and Trieste. In the past, the Republic of Venice, although capricious and unpredictable in its war with the Ottoman Empire, was not a good ally. However, due to the fact that they are all members of the Catholic world, and because of their own limited national power, the Venetians do not pose a threat to the Holy Roman Empire.

Therefore, although the Istrian peninsula belongs to Venice, the two ports of Rijeka and Trieste, located on both sides of the peninsula, have always been in a relatively safe state, and can even rely on the protection of the Venetian navy to avoid the invasion of the Ottomans.

And now, the Istrian Peninsula has been ceded to the Qi State, and has become the overseas territory of the Indian Ocean hegemon that the Empire hates the most, which makes the two Adriatic ports owned by the Empire instantly dangerous.

The Austrians never imagined that in the blink of an eye, the Qi State would become a neighbor of the Empire!

The port of Trieste is located in the northwest of the Istrian Peninsula, to which the Qi country belongs, less than five kilometers away.

And the port of Rijeka is located in the northeast of the Istrian peninsula, and the distance is not far, only more than twenty kilometers, which may still allow enough warning time for the imperial army. However, more than a dozen islands outside the port, such as Krk, Cres, and Lošinj, have blocked the passage to the sea. If the Qi people set up cannons on these islands, not a single ship would be able to sail out of the port of Rijeka.

No, we must not allow the Qi people to control the Istrian Peninsula smoothly, let alone allow them to gain a foothold here.

As a result, when the Qi State first took over the area, the Austrians continued to spread rumors that the Qi people were extreme pagans from the East, and that they were just as brutal and greedy as the Ottomans. They will destroy all Venetians, both physically and mentally, by abusing and slaughtering Catholics.

The Austrians hoped that through this horror, the Venetians and the local residents would bravely stand up against the rule of the Qi State, and even if they could not force the Qi people to give up this territory and return to the Republic of Venice, they would try their best to prevent the Qi people from establishing a normal ruling order and keep them in chaos.

However, to the disappointment of the Austrians, the local residents and Venetians did not set off a large-scale armed revolt under the deterrence of the Qi army, but instead abandoned their homes and fled with their families, driven by terrorist rumors.

For more than a year, almost half of the inhabitants of the entire Istrian peninsula ran away, and most of them, except for a small number who fled back to Venice mainland by boat, poured into the territory of the HRE. For a time, the influx of many refugees caused great trouble to the local people's livelihood and life in the empire.

This situation is naturally undesirable for the Austrians, and it is even more difficult to accept, you Venetians have run out, so who are you counting on to make trouble for the Qi people!

The imperial military officials in the port of Trieste received an order from Vienna ordering them to rearm and retrain the Venetians who had fled to the territory before returning them to Istria to carry out an armed uprising and expel the Venetians.

Since February last year, in accordance with the provisions of the "Treaty of Venice", the Qi troops have withdrawn from the city of Venice one after another, and then loaded and transported back to Egypt, and then returned to the mainland or overseas territories, leaving only more than 1,500 Qi troops on the Istrian Peninsula and the surrounding islands.

Just when the Austrians were wondering whether to take advantage of the lack of military strength of the Qi State, they would send the Venetian civilian armed forces that had been trained over and make a big move to toss the Qi people. In June of this year, a massive armed uprising broke out on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea controlled by the Ottomans, and the Venetians, who could not be oppressed, took up rudimentary weapons and began to attack and kill Ottoman officials and garrison soldiers, and beacons were lit everywhere.

Faced with this opportunity, the Austrians could not let it go, so they immediately reached out and sent a large number of Venetian civilian armed men to the Istrian Peninsula, and even provided several artillery pieces and more than a dozen professional gunners in order to enhance their combat strength.

Sure enough, more than two months ago, the careless Qi army was attacked by the righteous army in Pajin, and more than 200 people were killed and wounded.

When the Austrians heard the news, they all cheered and held a grand ball to celebrate.

Although the Qi soldiers who were killed were all servants they had recruited from India, this small victory still made the Austrians feel an inexplicable excitement.

The army of Qi does not seem to be as powerful as the legend says.

After the First World War in Pajin, the local residents who were encouraged to join the rebel army not only contributed money and goods, but also enthusiastically joined the army, so that the rebel army expanded to more than 3,500 in a very short time.

Subsequently, under the guidance of the Austrian military advisers, the rebels attacked everywhere, occupied the village and town manors, crucified all the Venetian officials and manor owners who defected to the Qi state, and all their belongings were confiscated, which became the capital for the rebels to continue to recruit troops and horses.

The situation seems to be all right, as long as the rebels occupy and control the entire Istrian peninsula, then the Qi people who are alone in the city of Pula will become the turtles in the urn.

The Qi people, who had suffered a humiliating defeat, would have to abandon Istria in the end, either return it to the Republic of Venice, or sell the land to the Austrians and walk away with a bucket in their own hands.

European affairs, after all, are our Europeans' own affairs, and you, a Qi country who is thousands of miles away, come here to mix things blindly.

Unexpectedly, after a few months, the Qi people actually sent an envoy to Trieste City, and also threatened war, warning the empire not to meddle in the affairs of the Istrian Peninsula, let alone provide necessary material assistance to the rebel army.

To this, Count Vlotz unceremoniously refused.

The Empire, which is also the Lord's people, has the ability and obligation to provide the necessary help not to fall under the brutal oppression of the infidels.

Didn't you ask yourself why you had consistently given a large amount of aid to the Ottomans despite the Empire's resolute opposition?

Every silver coin you provide to the Ottomans will eventually turn into evil projectiles that will be fired at the soldiers and people of the Empire.

Then, our Holy Roman Empire is now funding the resistance of the Venetians, and we must also let the people of Qi experience this unspeakable pain and helplessness.

(End of chapter)