She changed Europe

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"Miss Bea, it's been a long time since we last met?" Chloris, who was nimbly leaping across the rooftop, looked down at the beauty in her arms, her tone revealing a formulaic smile, which also sounded very gentle.

"You are His Highness!?" In the dim light, Beya recognized the newcomer. The familiar way he spoke, coupled with his formidable strength, allowed her to instantly identify him, especially given their shared past.

“Yes, it’s me.” Chloris gently stroked the girl’s soft hair in her arms with her right hand and answered softly.

"After you were placed under house arrest by His Highness the Crown Prince, you mysteriously disappeared. I thought you had been..." Thinking of this, Beya buried her face in Chloris's chest and cried, feeling a little aggrieved.

“How could a coward like my brother dare to kill me? I just left Berlin to take care of some business,” Chloris replied calmly.

"I'm so glad you're alright, so glad." Bea held Chloris's right hand tightly and placed it on her chest, her face beaming with genuine joy.

Seeing the girl's infatuated attitude, it's not hard to understand. After all, Chloris has accumulated quite a few romantic entanglements in Berlin. The granddaughters and daughters of these high-ranking officials and nobles have almost all been directly or indirectly taken advantage of by her.

This was her normal life until she met a certain fox, but now all her work revolves around promoting the unification of Germany, the union of Prussia and Austria, and of course, her union with the fox.

“I have a general understanding of what happened in Berlin. I deeply regret what happened to you. Tell me what forces are controlling Berlin now.” At this point, Chloris first needed to understand the root cause of the chaos in Berlin and their political demands. Although Chloris vaguely sensed that the timing of the Austrian attack was strikingly close to the outbreak of unrest in Berlin and other cities, and that the Fox was probably playing the role of instigator, she couldn't see the whole story as the Austrians' fault. After all, Prussia itself had no problems and wouldn't have given the Austrians such an opportunity.

In short, flies won't land on a flawless egg.

However, at this stage, things were no longer simply a matter of Austrians instigating the conflict. After all, if Gisela felt confident of victory, Prussia, given her character, would never allow the chaos to escalate.

In fact, after Gisela secretly transported the weapons to Hamburg, she no longer interfered with the Prussian riots, because her focus had shifted entirely to the current operation to annihilate the main Prussian forces. Therefore, the Berlin Parliament was operating completely independently.

Therefore, it was not wrong for Cloris to try to understand the Berlin Parliament's judgment. However, her own power had been marginalized and suppressed by her brother, and even Bismarck had been removed from the position of Chancellor. At this time, it was obviously not appropriate for her to directly enter the Prussian political arena and fight her brother head-on. Therefore, she needed to gather her trump cards.

"Understood, Your Highness." Beiya nodded to indicate that she understood.

"Their slogans seem to be about reclaiming the fruits of labor and eliminating exploitation and oppression, but in reality, their actions are not as noble as their slogans suggest. They are just using a seemingly selfless slogan to do selfish and despicable things. The leaders are busy fighting for power, while the masses at the bottom are carrying out destruction without any purpose."

"What about our military and police? Are they doing nothing?" Cloris still had great trust in the police system established by Bismarck. Bismarck's strong measures and high-pressure tactics ensured that Prussia had not experienced any large-scale riots in the 27 years since 1848.

"They have a general with outstanding leadership skills. Her armed forces easily defeated our police and garrison troops by taking advantage of the terrain. All of our main magical armored forces in Berlin have been transferred to the front line, while the capital does not have enough magical armored forces left to support the suppression of the rebellion."

"So your grandfather just handed our capital over to the rebels?" Chloris frowned at the mention of this.

“I’m very sorry, Your Highness, but my grandfather was just an ordinary person after all.” Bea lowered her head, her unspoken message being that her grandfather was not a political strongman like Bismarck and could not possibly do what Bismarck would do.

"What do you know about Leaderone?" The name is too strange; it's clearly a code name rather than a real name.

"I don't know. Before my grandfather left Berlin, he told me to be careful of a brown-haired woman wearing a mask. He said that was one of the leaders of this riot. I don't know if it was Lindenvan."

"Brown hair and a mask?" Chloris put down Bea from her arms, resting her chin on her hand, clearly lost in thought for a moment.

Because she seemed to recall a brief conversation she had with Gisela three years ago on the roof of Schönbrunn Palace.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

“You look surprisingly pleasing to the eye right now.” Chloris wiped the sweat from her brow and picked up her white shirt that had fallen to the ground. Gisela, her bathrobe open, lay on the ground with her face flushed, her heaving chest a silent testament to their fierce confrontation.

Gisela turned her head to one side; with her silver hair, she didn't want to pay attention to Chloris's teasing.

"Are your wounds serious?" Chloris asked with some concern.

"It's nothing, just a sting from a little bug in Hungary."

"I heard you fought against several magical armors, including those used by magical users?"

"Yes, but I was saved by a brown-haired woman wearing a mask."

"A brown-haired woman wearing a mask?"

"Do you know him?"

"No, I don't."

"But I think you should know her, because she's an old friend of mine, and I've had my fair share of matches with her in Italy."

Let's return to the present —

"Your Highness! Your Highness!" Beya's calls pulled Chloris back to reality.

“Beya, I think I need to pay a visit to this lady named Lindenwan.”

"Are you kidding me? You are a member of the Hohenzollern family, a noble Prussian princess. How could she stoop to visit such a thug?" Bea clearly knew that Chloris was a magic user and that no one in Berlin could rival her at the moment, but she still had to say these things for her own sake.

“No, there’s something about her that interests me.” After saying that, Chloris picked up Bea again and headed out of the city.

PS1: Even bad women have their own motives.

Chapter 481 The Two-Headed Eagle's Rebirth: The Battle Continues in Capter100 (Vote Requested)

At this time, in the northern part of the Sudetenland battlefield, the Prussian and Austrian sides had been fighting for several days. The once lush forests had been turned into scorched earth, and the corpses of soldiers from both sides piled up like mountains, covering the trenches and ravines.

You push back, I push back; attack after attack is thwarted, defense after defense is breached. On this worthless land, both sides have lost tens of thousands of men in the past few days. The brutality of war in this new era is beyond imagination. Although the Austrians have machine guns that give them a significant advantage in defense, they still follow a tradition similar to Prussian tactics in offense.

The Austrian commanders, Bella and Benedek, were not fools. They had many ways to advance, but their role in this operation was to contain the enemy. Therefore, they had to ensure that the enemy's attack would not be effective, while their counterattack could not be too swift and completely crush the enemy in front of them.

The cost of this tactic will be the loss of countless soldiers, which will be reduced to casualties.

Germans, Czechs, Hungarians, Italians, Croatians, Romanians, Slovaks, Ukrainians... armies speaking different languages ​​and with different customs were mobilized to the battlefield by the empire. They were handed over to officers who understood their own languages ​​to drive the Prussians in wave after wave of attacks.

Fortunately, the current war is not as severe as World War I. The empire does not need to mobilize a large number of poorly educated peasants to join the army. Most of these conscripted soldiers know a little German, so they are not too difficult to mobilize. However, even so, there are still some units where there is a gap between officers and soldiers. This gap is mainly reflected in culture and background.

Even after nearly three years of reforms, Gisela's national education still had a long way to go. The empire needed a dominant language, and the Habsburg crown needed to draw strength from Germany. The only way to gain strength was to win wars, maintain the order of the German Confederation, and then, with the economy as the priority, slowly unite Germany.

As for whether these states maintained their independence, once they began using the empire's new currency and adopting the Austrian Empire's economic system, the question of whether their armies and governments were incorporated into the empire became practically irrelevant. The cultural differences between North and South Germany were clearly not a problem compared to the aggressive French and Russians, especially after the emergence of the new Prussia.

Even though technology brought significant advancements to the Austrian army, it couldn't compensate for the difference in troop quality between the two sides. At least for now, Prussia held no advantage over the Austrian forces, especially when they were on the defensive. Their core strategy of a swift offensive had long since failed due to a series of setbacks, and their commander, Dauphin Frederick, had become unusually neurotic due to a series of events, increasingly resorting to interfering with military orders to satisfy his own lust for power.

If Gisela were here, she would definitely say that Frederick at this point was just like the young Mustache in his later years, courting disaster.

"His Highness has launched an attack on Frankfurt. It is said that the Prussian capital is located there. Dresden has also been successfully liberated. Her Majesty the Queen handed over the Allied forces to His Majesty King Ludwig of Bavaria, while His Highness has led his troops to the southwest of Cottbus. The attack can be launched tomorrow morning," Bella told Marshal Benedek, the Commander-in-Chief.

"That's really good news. The sacrifices we've made during this period haven't been in vain. Once we capture the two key points, this war will be pretty much over." This was a great encirclement campaign; this tactical maneuver wasn't just a small-scale operation, but rather spanned most of Prussia. The Prussian forces in East Prussia would be distracted by the uprising, and once the enemy realized this, Gisela was confident she could take Frankfurt. If her own troops couldn't achieve this, she'd be happy to have a mixed doubles match with Nina.

At this moment, the land of Germany is ablaze. If Schiller's spirit in heaven could gently part the clouds, he would be astonished to find that the land he so longed for was being reborn from the ashes.

Let's turn our attention back to our main characters—

It's worth mentioning that Jeanne, Aponia, and Rita, who didn't stay in the hospital for long, were quickly transferred to the northern front to deal with the potential counterattack from the Prussian magic users. Because Aponia's power had increased after using the Red Stone, there was practically no problem adding another magic user to the Austrian Empire's ranks.

Prussia's original nine magic users were reduced by three due to the departure of Black Saint and others, and two of them were seriously injured by the enemy, leaving them ridiculously with only four. Fortunately, their reunion with Bismarck restored Prussia's five-man force. However, the Austrians, who originally numbered seven, had now gained one more. Therefore, Gisela and Cecilia, one leading an army deep into Prussian territory and the other recalled by the Papacy, still had six of them.

Inside the tent at night, the three were resting, a perfectly normal occurrence. Unfortunately, the French woman sleeping in the middle had an extremely uncouth sleeping posture. Not only was she sprawled out in a horizontal position, but she also shamelessly invaded the adjacent bed, resting her silver head on Rita's lower abdomen and her legs on Aponia's chest. Even more amusingly, all three were soundly asleep despite this.

However, this harmony did not last long. In her drowsy state, Jeanne grabbed Rita's blanket and rolled off the bed with it. The cold outside quickly woke Rita, who was already having trouble sleeping.

When she opened her eyes, she happened to notice a strange scene.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the bed, Aponia was sitting upright on the edge of the bed, holding her forehead in pain, her body trembling slightly as if she were cold.

Although it was January, the coldest time of the year, Aponia, who had become a quasi-magic user, shouldn't have reacted so drastically to changes in the outside temperature. Thinking of this, Rita kept her posture and quietly watched the nun from the Church, whom she had never liked or trusted.

Rita's distrust of Aponia stemmed from several reasons. First, Aponia was vying with her for Gisela's affections, a point Rita was keen to address in any attempt to get close to Gisela. Second, Aponia was a member of the Papacy and the Thirteen Courts. Although Rita's lord had a cooperative relationship with the Thirteen Courts, any so-called cooperation was merely based on self-interest, and would inevitably break down due to the same self-interest. Third, Aponia's demeanor was too impeccable. Unlike Jeanne, who wore her heart on her sleeve, Aponia almost always had a poker face.

In conclusion, Rita can argue and joke with Jeanne because she always considers Jeanne one of her own, while she always keeps her distance from Aponia. (Isn't it because you and Jeanne had a fling? lol)

Chapter 482 The Two-Headed Eagle's Rebirth (A Poem by Ba Yueyi, Requesting Votes)

Suddenly, Aponia lifted the mattress, put on her high heels, stood up, and left the tent. Rita, seeing this, quickly put on her boots and followed her out of the tent.

Considering the other party's background, Rita, having learned her lesson, also wanted to see what this woman was up to.

Seeing Aponia's somewhat difficult steps, Rita's doubts only grew stronger.

The two walked out of the camp under the watchful eyes of the soldiers. They were Gisela's people, so the ordinary soldiers naturally didn't question them and let them leave the camp.

Aponia didn't go far, but walked into a clearing in the forest. Soon after, she collapsed to the ground, which terrified Rita. Just as she was about to lift her head from behind the tree stump where she was hiding, a familiar figure emerged from the darkness in the distance.

“Miss Cecilia?” Why is that magic user who has already been recalled by the Thirteen Courts still here? Thinking of this, Rita, who remained vigilant, skillfully reached her hand into her thigh and grasped the hilt of the knife she was holding on her inner thigh.

Even knowing that she would have no chance of becoming the opponent if they actually fought, she still had to prepare for the worst.

"My lady, should we retrieve her?" Cecilia turned her head behind her. Because of the backlighting, Rita couldn't see the person's appearance in the shadows, but could only roughly hear their conversation.

“Cecilia, you know I don’t like to twist someone’s will. I want people to obey me from the bottom of their hearts, just like you and Siegfried.” The deep tone of the voice allowed Rita to be certain without hesitation that the person in the darkness was a man.

When the man mentioned Siegfried, a strange emotion flashed across Cecilia's cold eyes.

"Don't look at me with that dangerous gaze. You know perfectly well that everything depends on our cooperation." The man's words, seemingly a joke, were interpreted very clearly by Cecilia—obey me, and I'll let Siegfried go; otherwise…

“The Red Stone can control a person’s will. Even if she herself did not want to, she still appeared here.” The man extended his scepter and lifted Aponia’s chin. At this moment, Aponia’s usually bright purple eyes became dull and lifeless, as if she had completely lost her soul.

“To gain power, one must sell one’s soul. This is called the principle of equivalence. Isn’t that what the Bible says?” the man continued.

“You’re right, so shall we take them with us?” Cecilia continued to ask.

“No need. I'm just here to test my dolls before returning to Rome, to see if they're functioning properly. We're allies with His Highness now, how could I possibly take away His Highness's maid?” Clearly, the man no longer considered Aponia his person. With that, he turned his gaze to the Black Saint, dressed in a black nun's habit, who stood behind him like a doll.

Does she have her own consciousness?

"Good question. I could bring her back to consciousness, then make this once self-important woman realize her failure, and appreciate her despair and helplessness in the face of defeat. But what's the point?" The man was clearly not one for such twisted pleasures. In his view, a tool should behave like a tool. As for those so-called evil thoughts, sorry, His Holiness the Bishop had long since abandoned such negative emotions. Apart from the missing Karen, she would not touch any woman.

Rita was stunned when she heard these astonishing words. As she turned to leave, she accidentally broke a tree branch on the ground.

"The little cutie who's been eavesdropping over there, let's prepare a small gift for her," the man said softly to Cecilia, then turned and walked into the darkness.

After the man left, Cecilia bent down and gently stroked Aponia's hair. Aponia had fallen asleep because the man had released his control.

“Even for the esteemed Lady Theresa, there are times when we, Durandal and I, don’t have many other options.” Cecilia said gently, then planted a short sword covered in runes into the ground and turned to disappear into the darkness.

Rita, who had expected to be exposed, was already prepared for battle. But when she decided to fight to the death, she noticed that the Thirteen Courts had already left. So she quickly ran over to check on Aponia's condition, but the short sword stuck in the ground caught her attention.

“The Dagger of Constantine.” Rita, fluent in Latin, instantly recognized the inscription: a dagger forged by Constantine I, one of the greatest emperors in Roman history. During his reign, he made two minor contributions to Europe: first, he built Constantinople, the city of the Queen of Cities, a city coveted by the world (a source of eternal pain for future Roman zealots); second, he issued the Edict of Milan, establishing Christianity as the state religion of Rome.

This is clearly a genuine magical artifact.

Why would the Thirteen Courts keep something so precious here? Is it because of some conspiracy?

"I must tell His Highness." Rita, worried about the magical artifacts she had brought with her, led Aponia back to the camp.

The focus shifts to the Prussian military camp—

Frederick was pacing back and forth in his tent, listening to the generals' reports.

"Frankfurt was attacked by Austria, and General Moltke suggested that the troops be withdrawn and retreated northward to avoid being surrounded by the Austrians."

“Giving up here is the same as giving up Silesia.” Losing territory was something Frederick would never allow, especially since Silesia had important strategic and economic value to Prussia.

"Your Highness, this could put our army's logistics at risk of being cut off by the enemy."

"We've lost Frankfurt, but we still have Cottbus." Two transit hubs—if we lose one, we still have the other. This was certainly the case in Frederick's view.

“Your Highness, if the enemy can launch an attack on Frankfurt, which is farther away, why can’t we launch an attack on Cottbus, which is closer? Now that Dresden has fallen, there are no obstacles for the Austrians to go north.”

"I know that, but the fact is that only Frankfurt is under attack right now, and our army has already achieved considerable success. In just a few days, we might break through the Austrian Sudetenland lines. At that point, we can easily take Prague and then march straight for Vienna. As for the Austrians' clever strategy of dividing their forces, let them bear the consequences themselves." The thought of creating...

PS1: Golden Apple, Silver Apple

Chapter 483 The Two-Headed Eagle's Rebirth: Capter 102 Gisela vs. Moltke (Vote Requested)

Under the current urgent internal and external pressures, Frederick has few other options, and therefore he desperately needs a military victory to reverse his current dire and predicament strategic situation...

“We understand Your Highness’s meaning, but Lord Moltke is in Frankfurt, and his staff still needs our reinforcements, which is related to the deployment of the entire army.”

“Tsk, then transfer the troops from the Rhineland to Frankfurt as reinforcements. No matter how many troops France sends, it’s absolutely impossible for them to invade this region. Otherwise, Britain would be the first to object.” Frederick’s judgment seemed to be without any problem, but unfortunately, he didn’t know France’s determination to acquire the Rhineland.

After all, Thiers had just ended a bloody civil war and had almost gained control of the entire French mainland. She now needed a military adventure to silence the domestic opposition.

"Have the reinforcements from East Prussia quickly suppress the rebellion. Those rioters, doing this at a time of tension on the front lines, I will absolutely not let them get away with it." Like his father William, Frederick had zero tolerance for anyone who opposed their royal family.

"Yes, Your Highness." In fact, compared to the army command, only Frederick was giving orders in the Prussian command headquarters. The generals could only obey. Prince Karl, who could really control Frederick, had been injured and went to the rear to recuperate.

On January 22, 1875, Gisela's forces launched an attack on the Frankfurt region of Prussia. The swift offensive unfolded from the south and west. Thanks to prior reconnaissance by TFT141, the attack initially targeted the weak points of the Prussian forces stationed in Frankfurt. Because of their overall numerical superiority, the strategy was to focus on key breakthroughs, shifting the force from a linear deployment to a point-based attack.

The battle officially began at 7:32 a.m. that day. Gisela first utilized the firepower of the traditional magic-armored rear ranks in coordination with the more agile light magic-armored front ranks, breaking through the outermost Prussian defenses within two hours. Using this as a breakthrough, the cavalry units advanced into the inner flank of the Prussian lines, harassing the enemy from the rear and flanks. Caught off guard, the Prussian troops were forced to abandon the outer defenses and retreat to the second line of defense.

Gisela once again resorted to the same tactics when facing the second line of defense, and even used new standard weapons such as mortars and grenades. The Prussian army, which was still in shock from the breach of the first line of defense, had no time to recover its morale before it was directly defeated by the Austrians.

At this moment, General Moltke, located inside the third line of defense, was looking at the group of well-trained Austrians in front of him with a solemn expression. Their style was completely different from the troops he had fought against before.

This reminded her of the shock she felt seven years ago, when the young Austrian princess proposed using nighttime artillery fire to create conditions for the Allied forces to break through.

His opponent's breakthrough techniques are as groundbreaking as they were back then, but this time he understands he can't just observe and learn as he used to, because the tuition this time will be extremely expensive.

“Large-barreled rapid-fire weapons, small individual hand grenades, powerful landmines, scaled-down mortars, and even individual rifles, there are huge differences in rate of fire and accuracy.” Unlike many Prussian officers who complained endlessly after setbacks on the front lines, Moltke understood the differences in the two armies’ operational thinking and methods reflected in these weapons.

Everything in Austria was changing because of that magical princess. Just as Bismarck had told him, the one who symbolized Prussia's hopes from the beginning was Chloris, who represented the future, not Frederick, who represented the old order. The current Junker nobles were too narrow-minded and selfish, and such a group would only lead the country into another uncontrollable abyss.

This is an era of great change, and to become a trendsetter in this new era, one must possess a pioneering spirit and an unyielding drive for innovation. Even as a representative of the older generation of Prussian soldiers, he couldn't help but think that perhaps he, now past fifty, was no longer suited for the battlefield.

"At least I need a proper farewell as a Prussian soldier," General Moltke said, donning the pointed military cap that Prussians were so proud of, and taking his sidearm to the front lines.

Meanwhile, Gisela was watching the advancing troops in the distance with some worry.

"Gisella, what's wrong?" Nina, who was standing beside her as her "husband" and sister, asked in a low voice.

“Mr. Moltke is among the besieged Prussian troops,” Gisela said, looking up. According to the intelligence gathered by TF141 (results of interrogation), the Prussian General Staff, originally located in Berlin, had moved to Frankfurt, which happened to be the location Gisela had to attack. Therefore, Gisela was bound to clash fiercely with this greatest soldier of the era.