On December 31, 1701, just a few days after Christmas, the town of Campo Morone had long returned to its previous rhythm: work, hard work, endless hard work.

Italians love Catholicism and are willing to contribute their souls to God, but Catholics do not love them. The people are still deeply trapped in poverty and cannot extricate themselves. They work all day long, farm, log, fish, and raise livestock, but in the end they have nothing. The nobles and the church took away most of their wealth and left them with food that they barely fill their stomachs. The harder life is, the more people want to seek spiritual comfort in religion, and then the wealth of the church becomes larger, and it seems to be a cycle that will never end. This cycle is so strong that without external forces, it will be difficult to break it by their respective grassroots themselves.

Fortunately, people from the east coast came here, which brought a different impact to this mountain town. The arrival of nearly 20,000 people (including Italian soldiers who trained together) has created a large number of market demand. In a few years, a considerable number of shops or workshops have gathered around them. Hotels, hotels, taverns, shops and even brothels are everywhere. The population of the entire town has also doubled, and it has become a popular town in northern Asia.

The prosperity of the urban economy has greatly changed the local social order. There are fewer people engaged in pure agriculture work (there are limited land here, isn’t it). There are more people engaged in industry, commerce and service industries. The status of aristocrats (landlords) has declined. The more open-minded people have invested in industry, commerce, and the conservatives have continued to live on the land with declining returns. They are still watching prices and labor rising day by day. In the end, they are afraid that they will not be able to maintain the existing standard of living.

The town of Campomorone currently has a population of about 25,600,000, which is settled all year round. In addition, there are several times the number of migrant population coming and going. Once there are more people, there will be more trouble. I won’t talk about fighting, thieves, and gang vendettas, which are irrelevant to the East Coast people. What they care more about is the complex population composition here - the newly added town of Campomorone is mostly from other places in Italy and even foreign merchants - which provide active soil for spies.

In order to spy on the movements of the East Coast Army and the daily training of the army, these spies can lurk for a long time, and look for opportunities while doing business. The anti-espionage work has always been hot. But their ability is just like that. It is no problem to catch a few low-level spies, but it is useless to deal with those hidden deep spies. Fortunately, the East Coast people do not have too many things that need to be strictly confidential. There is a copy of the generals of European countries on the desks of the generals of European countries, and they have known it for a long time. As for the others, you can do whatever you want.

Early this morning, the gates of the Eagle Nest Fortress, the center of the spy concerned by all the spies in Campomorone town, opened wide. Teams of East Coast soldiers wearing dark blue uniforms came out in a row and went out on the playground outside the fortress.

Lieutenant Colonel Bai Chuanping, the commander of the Sixth Mixed Group and the commander of the Eagle Nest Fortress, rode a beautiful white horse and walked slowly by the company lineups.

The military parade on a white horse is a tradition formed by the East Coast Army in recent decades. Bai Chuanping, a regiment commander, was not qualified to engage in any military parade. But who told him to be a foreigner, and with the title of fortress commander, he stomped his feet and shook his feet in Northern Italy, so the show naturally went up.

Of course, today's military parade is not purely for pomp, but in fact it also has a bit of shock. Recently, the Duchy of Savoy in the west didn't know what to do, and it was a bit like engaging in Louis XIV. It actually imposed heavy taxes on merchants entering the Duchy of Savoy from Northern Italy, and also looked for trouble. Milanese merchants who were doing business in Turin were put into prison, and bilateral relations suddenly became tense.

Northern Italy could probably guess the idea of ​​the Duchy of Savoy. The last time he went against the French, he was beaten so badly. Not only did he lose his troops and generals, but he also cedeed the land and pay compensation. He was really brave. This time, Louis XIV's grandson Duke Anjou became the new king of Spain, and Grand Duke Savoy felt that the situation was not good because his country might be jointly attacked by the Spanish and French countries. It was at this time that the French envoy also arrived in Turin and forced the Duke Savoy to express his opinion.

The Duke was quite obedient in this matter. He immediately recognized the legitimacy of Philip V and believed that he was the well-deserved king of Spain. However, when the envoy talked about letting the Principality of Savoy join France and the Western side to help them suppress the nobles or foreign forces who opposed King Philip V, he hesitated again and refused to give a clear reply.

From this we can see the attitude of the Duke, that is, the two ends of the rat, the fence-bearing. On the one hand, he had a heartfelt fear of France, fearing that one day his country would end up invading, dismembering, and annexing by France, so he was always wary of France. On the other hand, his country was bordered by France and could not be avoided. His potential ally Austria was on the other side of the Alps, and there was Switzerland in the middle. It was difficult to communicate, inconvenient to contact, and business contact was not as good as France.

Therefore, the Principality of Savoy is such a tragedy. Emotionally, it should stand on the Austrian side, but rationally, it should have good relations with the French. This contradictory emotion is superimposed, and it tortures the rulers of this country at all times, making their policies sway from time to time, like fences.

In the later time and space, Savoy turned to this side and then to the side without any stance. However, in this time and space where the East Coast people intervened, the situation was a bit interesting. In history, Prince Eugen led his army to blitz into Northern Italy and integrated local resources and manpower. The Principal of Savoy once turned to Austria, which is normal. But now? Leopold is undecided about whether to enter Northern Italy, afraid of attracting strong counterattacks from the East Coast people. This new continent country has money and has very strong production capacity, and can easily arm a large number of troops. There are so many Italians. If a large number of weapons flow in, the Austrian rule in the local area will become very difficult, so he hesitated.

Since Northern Italy is still standing there and the Federal Parliament is also exercising its power steadily, what hope does the Principal of Savoy have? Do you expect the Austrians to send troops to rescue them through Switzerland? Don’t joke! Therefore, the current Duke of Savoy is actually a bit inclined to the French side. The reason is that Austria cannot quench itself in order to protect itself!

So, we can now understand why the Savoys made some bad moves against Northern Italy under the pressure of French envoys. The East Coast Army held a military parade on the Eagle's Nest to shock the Savoys. Don't overestimate yourself and bring shame to yourself!

The military parade lasted for a full half-day. After the end, the Sixth Mixed Regiment carried out military exercises with the Italians under the leadership of the deputy regiment commander. As for Lieutenant Colonel Bai Chuanping, he returned to the office in the fortress because he received new information.

"Louis XIV's move is quite hateful. If all parties were hesitant about whether to fight, they should have abandoned their fantasies now." Lieutenant Colonel Bai Chuanping slapped the table and said with a little excitement.

He had just received information that Louis XIV ordered the Paris Parliament to enact a royal decree, retaining Philip V's final rights and family relationship as the King of France. Although Philip V was not the first heir to the French throne from a legal perspective, it was unusual for Louis XIV to convene this meeting in itself. He was very likely to change his original idea and let Philip V have the right to inherit the French throne. As a very strong and honest monarch, he could of course do this. In that case, the two countries of France would really merge, which just touched the bottom line of Britain, the Netherlands and other countries. They had no room for hesitation and could only use force to stop Louis XIV's crazy idea.

On January 12, 1702, news came from the north that the French army entering the South Netherlands had clashed with the Dutch militia. Although there were no casualties, the situation was already very critical. According to the agreement signed by the United Provinces and Spain after the end of the last war, in order to prevent French invasion, the Dutch would garrison troops in some South Netherlands towns on its border with them as a buffer, including the important port city of Antwerp.

After Louis XIV's army entered the northern part of the Southern Netherlands, it asked the local Dutch army to withdraw, and brazenly sent troops to surround the Dutch barracks in Antwerp - this is the general command of the Dutch garrison in the South Netherlands. The Dutch protested strongly, the French set up cannons to respond, and finally the Netherlands surrendered, and after packing up, they retreated into their own territory.

At this time, the Spanish ambassador in The Hague hypocritically explained to the third-level parliamentary Speaker Van Beverninghe, that the French army entered the South Netherlands at the invitation of the Spanish government. There were many inappropriate garrison agreements signed by King Carlos II and should be abolished. At this time, even the stupidest person realized that there was no room for a turnaround. Louis XIV no longer wanted to hide his hostility. Now there was no other way except war.

As a senior commander, Lieutenant Colonel Bai Chuanping was of course qualified to access this information. He is now a little worried that Louis XIV, who has integrated the power of France and Spain, was over-inflated and wanted to make a difference in Italy, so that he would inevitably be involved in the war.
Chapter completed!