Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology-Chapter 743: Secret Weapon: (1/2)

Roughly two months ago

April 1661

Paris was filled with a festive atmosphere where people came to the streets in celebration of the marriage of their emperor, Louis XIV, with the Duchess of the Habsburg dynasty, who happens to be the sister of the current Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I.

At the beginning of the year, the sentiment of the people of France, especially the Parisians, was very low because Cardinal Jules Mazarin, the Chief Minister and the person in power in the French Empire for over two decades, finally passed away in February. This brought a heavy blow to the self-confidence of the Parisians. Fortunately, all this was washed away by the strengthening of ties with the Habsburg dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Palace of Versailles

Louis XIV had grown from a young teenage boy to an adult man of 23 years old. In his arms was a beautiful young woman with wavy blond hair and ocean-blue eyes. The woman was none other than his 15-year-old beautiful wife, Duchess Marie Von Habsburg, the princess of the Holy Roman Empire and the little sister of Leopold I.

Louis, looking at those clear blue eyes, couldn’t help but be obsessed with them. "My dear, you don’t know how much you helped me get through my most difficult times. I am eternally grateful to you," he whispered in her ear, his hot breath brushing against her skin, turning her ears red and her cheeks pink like cherries.

Marie, who was usually strong, immediately became shy and covered her face with both hands. Looking at this expression on his wife’s face, Louis immediately laughed out loud. He found his wife to be the most adorable and cute person he had ever known.

In fact, he was not always so loving towards his wife since, at the end of the day, it was a political marriage, and if he was being completely honest, he didn’t like being tied down to a single woman. However, when Cardinal Jules Mazarin passed away two months ago, surprising even himself, he was completely devastated. When he was young, he used to dislike Cardinal Jules Mazarin for his always nagging attitude and snatching away his power, but now, when he was no longer around, Louis felt a sense of loss as if he had lost his father. It was at this moment that Marie Von Habsburg came into his life. She tended to his every need and took care of him relentlessly, even though she was eight years younger than him.

Unconsciously, he began to fall in love with this considerate woman.

Louis, resting with his wife and looking at her pretty face, couldn’t help but smile bitterly as he remembered all the painful past. His emotions were only more turbulent when he remembered that his marriage with Marie Von Habsburg was actually an arrangement by the late Cardinal Jules Mazarin himself. ’Even in your death, you’re helping me. Hey, old man, how can I repay you?’ Louis lamented.

Due to the existence of Vijay, drastic changes have taken place on the European continent. Taking the current situation of France as an example, although Cardinal Jules Mazarin did die in 1661 in Vijay’s previous life too, what changed was the wife whom Louis married. In his first life, he married Maria Theresa of Spain and not the Duchess Marie Von Habsburg of the Holy Roman Empire, who was supposed to die in infancy.

The French military alliance with the English existed in his previous life too, but in this life, it is only stronger with the existence of the Bharatiya Empire. Cardinal Jules Mazarin signed a military alliance between the English and themselves as far back as 1657, and he was also responsible for propping up the League of Rhine.

If one is not observant, a change of marriage will not look like a big deal, but it is actually a massive change because marriages among the nobles are not just marriages but political ties and alliances. What this means is that the current French nation is more inclined towards the previously unlikely partner of the Holy Roman Empire instead of the Spanish Empire.

This is mainly because of the existence of the Bharatiya Empire. Due to its existence, the English and the Dutch were completely cut off from colonizing the vast majority of South Asia and Southeast Asia, where they made their biggest pot of gold in Vijay’s last life. This led to the English, the Dutch, and the French putting their attention on the Americas, which was predominantly an Iberian sphere of influence where the Spanish and the Portuguese held the most interest. With the involvement of three other giants, the situation only became more complicated.

Every country in Europe knows that there aren’t a lot of resources locally available in Europe, so they started the Age of Discovery. With Asia completely out of the question because of the Bharatiya Empire and Qing Empire, and Africa out of the question because of the bizarre diseases that are almost unsolvable, the only remaining greenland for resource extraction are the humongous continents of North and South America.

With the naval powers of Europe seeing the Americas as the new frontier of their development, any troubles and conflicts on the mainland, as long as they do not affect border security, can be put aside. It is in this situation that the naval powers of Europe have completely divided into two different camps, with the Portuguese and Spanish in one camp and the French, Dutch, and English in the other, while the land powers like the Holy Roman Empire and Russia are doing their own thing.

It is in this situation that the unlikely marriage was concluded between the Borbon dynasty and the Habsburg dynasty.

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"Knock knock!"

Suddenly, a knock was heard, which disturbed the rest of Louis XIV. Louis’s face immediately became distorted when he saw his wife turn her head around and lay under a blanket to sleep.

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"Who is it?" he asked, displeasure evident in his tone.

"Your Majesty, it’s me, Antoine. I am extremely sorry to disturb your rest, but I bear important news which requires your immediate attention."

Louis was stunned. Antoine was his intelligence officer, so he immediately realized that whatever news he brought must be very important. His expression returned to normal. He put on his coat and walked to the door.

As soon as he opened it, he met a middle-aged man who knelt on the ground with his right palm covering his left chest while his left hand handed over to him what looked like a parchment tied with a red ribbon.

Louis took the parchment, went inside, closed the door, and sat on a chair in the corner of the room after hanging his heavy coat on a hanger. Antoine, who was outside, quickly got up and left. A few minutes later, wild laughter was heard from within the royal quarters of the Versailles palace.

Louis quickly dressed up and left the palace in a hurry, only to enter an unmarked carriage that took him to the outskirts of Paris. Getting down from the carriage, he was welcomed by the Marshal General of the French military, Turenne.

"Your Excellency Turenne, please lead me to the weapon."

Turenne was an old man in his 50s who looked tall and strong, unusual for his age. Listening to the order of His Majesty, he immediately bowed and took him to the testing grounds.

Turenne ordered his subordinate officer, "Go bring the weapon."

"Right away, General," Cédric, the right-hand man of Turenne, immediately responded and went to a secret facility within the training grounds to retrieve the newly produced musket.

When he was about to enter the room, he saw an old man coming out of it, limping on one leg.

Cédric immediately became suspicious and frowned, "Hey old man, who are you? Who allowed you to enter this room?"

The old man was immediately startled, but if one looked deeply into the old man’s eyes, one could only see calmness—a calmness that comes from having everything under control.

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The old man immediately put down the mop in his hand and painfully bowed down, "Bonjour Monsieur, I was tasked to clean this quarter earlier this morning because a soldier seemed to have vomited after having too much to drink."

Cédric looked at the old man without letting down his guard, "Let me see your work order."

The old man hurriedly searched his body and took out a parchment.

Cédric quickly read through the parchment and stared at the old man with surprise, "Marshal General signed this order?"

The old man profusely nodded, so much so that even looking at it would give one neck pain,

"Yes, Monsieur. It was his nephew who was tasked to secure this room last night, you see, but—" He immediately became silent and whispered, "It is said that recently, he has become addicted to alcohol and can’t extricate himself. The General only got to know of this today, so in order to not bring shame upon their family, he asked me to silently do it."

A man whom he recently saw lying unconscious on the side of the track immediately came to his mind. Cédric’s eyebrows eased with understanding, and he nodded. He gave back the parchment and asked the old man to quickly get out before anyone saw him. Although he did not like the nephew of the Marshal General, he had no other choice but to cover up this matter for him, because being the right-hand man, one of his jobs was to cover the General’s shortcomings in the hope that he would get a chance to go further in his military career.

To be continued...