In just three days, the Lucians advanced the front line more than two hundred kilometers at almost a normal marching speed.
He ran all the way to Istanbul, which is under the city of Constantinople.
After many Ottoman troops surrendered, there were simply not enough personnel to guard them.
Only a small number of secondary troops followed from the rear, watching as they unloaded their weapons and built their own prisoner camps on the plains.
The Ottoman Sultan was about to collapse completely.
He was completely sure that his troops could not withstand Lucia's attack.
Therefore, while Sudan was preparing to evacuate Istanbul and retreat further inland, he simultaneously contacted Daming and Lucia.
I hope to be able to negotiate peace with Lucia, and at the same time, I beg you to take refuge in the Ming Dynasty.
Ming's response came back quickly, allowing the Sultan to take refuge in Haifa, the headquarters of the League of Nations.
Even if the entire Ottoman Empire is gone, you can still run to Haifa to avoid it, and the Ming Dynasty will provide necessary protection and living facilities.
He also suggested that the Ottoman Sultan should go to Haifa now instead of waiting until the city is broken.
He might not be able to run away by then.
The Lucian's response came a little late, but only after one night.
The Lucians proposed a very exaggerated truce condition.
Demanding the complete surrender of the Ottoman Sultan, Emperor Lucia made him Duke of Ankara and gave him a piece of land near Ankara in the Ottoman interior as his fief.
The rest of the entire Ottoman territory was included in Lucia's mainland.
And he specifically warned the Ottomans to speed up. These conditions are the conditions that can be given under the current situation.
This was a condition given to preserve the wealth of the city and residents of Constantinople.
After Lucia captured Constantinople, she could only confer the Ottoman Sultan with the title of Earl of Peace at best, and would not have any actual fiefdom.
Once Lucia occupied all the lands along the Black Sea and Aegean Sea coasts, it would no longer accept surrender without any conditions, and the Ottoman Sultan could only become a civilian.
Lucia will launch a formal attack in two days, hoping that the Ottoman Sultan will make a timely decision as soon as possible.
The Ottoman Sultan hesitated for a long time, but finally felt that Lucia was too deceitful.
Daming said that even if he had nothing, he would still be protected and taken care of after running to Daming.
You Lucia are so harsh.
The key is that there has been no war between himself and Daming, and the cooperation has been quite pleasant.
If you bring gold and silver to the Ming Dynasty, you will most likely be able to continue to enjoy a life of glory and wealth under the protection of the Ming Dynasty.
But if he surrenders to Lucia, even if he has a noble title, he may not be able to keep his private wealth.
There are too many lessons from Ming Dynasty and history.
A monarch who surrenders to an enemy country will basically not end well.
If you want to die well, you must not only pretend to be stupid, but also pray that the other party's monarch and dignitaries are not interested in you.
However, monarchs who fled to neighboring countries usually lived well.
The monarch of the Persian Empire in history went to the Tang Empire in China and became a noble in the Tang Dynasty.
After several hours of hesitation, the Ottoman Sultan decided to accept Ming's suggestion and flee before Lucia's attack could begin.
In the past ten years, Ottoman, with the help of Ming Dynasty, built a large number of new railways.
The Ottoman Sultan also had his own special train.
He immediately ordered his men to carry a large amount of gold and silver property into the car.
This process lasted one day and one night.
Then when the Lucians attacked, the Ottoman Sultan simply got on a train and fled inland.
Ottoman soldiers still have some basic combat effectiveness when resisting external attacks in their own capital.
Their weapons and equipment are not particularly bad either.
But once the Sudan ran away and the news spread, morale collapsed.
One after another, officers surrendered directly, and Lucia occupied the city of Constantinople without much effort.
Even when Lucia's army entered the city, Emperor Lucia only learned about the escape of the Ottoman Sultan.
When Tsar Nicholas heard the report from the military personnel, he was a little stunned:
"The Sultan ran away?"
Of course it was a good thing that the Sultan ran away, allowing Lucia to easily regain the old capital of Rome, the former Constantinople.
But if the Ottoman Sultan is not captured here, it may be more difficult to capture him later.
Nicholas could imagine that once the Ottoman Sultan started running away, sooner or later he might even go directly to the Ming Dynasty.
After arriving in the Ming Dynasty, Lucia would never want to get it back.
This orthodox Ottoman Sultan fell into the hands of the Ming Dynasty, which is a headache for the current Lucia and the future New Rome.
Nicholas worried for a while, but soon realized that there was no point worrying now.
Simply put this matter aside and continue planning the subsequent battle plan.
At the same time, and more importantly, he decided to go to Constantinople in person and announce his feat of regaining Constantinople to the entire European continent.
At the same time, he couldn't wait to change the country's name to Rome.
On the other side, the Ottoman Sultan really ran all the way to the Ming Dynasty and went directly across the border to Haifa, the headquarters of the League of Nations.
The Ottoman Sultan thought well. He stayed in the safe territory of the Ming Dynasty and controlled the military and civilians in the country to continue to resist Lucia's invaders.
The key is that the Ottomans are the most traditional of all countries today.
That is to say, the national consciousness is the weakest.
The entire country is still dominated by the traditional monarchy.
After the monarch himself took the initiative to run away, even if the will of the remaining people to resist collapsed, there was not much left.
Therefore, the Lucians' subsequent offensive momentum was even more overwhelming.
Rapidly advancing from the east and west directions, they gradually occupied the entire Ottoman territory, turning the Ottoman Sultan into a subjugated king.
At the same time, troops were officially sent out to suppress the uprising in Greece, and preparations were made to include the Greek region under Lucia's rule.
As a result, the rebels in Greece became unexpectedly tenacious.
Although their heavy weapons were inferior to those of the Ottoman army, their will to resist far exceeded that of the Ottoman army.
After the main cities were captured, guerrilla warfare continued in the suburbs and villages.
It gave the Lucians a huge headache.
The Prussians on the other side were shocked by the speed of Lucia's attack in Ottoman territory, and were also stimulated by the Lucia.
If the Lucians turn around and attack Austria after defeating the Ottomans, wouldn't they want to seize the territory they have already reserved?
After being unable to attack Viana for a long time, Prussia decided to temporarily go back and attack Slovakia.
Although the battles in these areas were not smooth, after the local forces in various parts of Austria gained actual power, their resistance was not very weak.
But the combat effectiveness of these small local forces is weaker than that of completely militarized Prussia.
If the Prussians were really cruel, the most they could do was slow Prussia's advance.
As a result, the Prussians besieged Viana while gradually advancing in the western region.
By September AD, the Prussians as a whole had penetrated Slovakia, Galicia, and Transylvania.
Successfully joined forces with the Lucians in Romania.
At this time, the Lucians had occupied most of the Ottoman territory and began a nationwide campaign to suppress bandits and annihilate the Greek rebels.
The Prussians began to turn around and besiege Hungary.
Hungary is one of the most important components of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and its own strength can be considered quite powerful.
It's just that the Austrian Emperor also served as the King of Hungary.
At the same time, the main forces were also transferred to defend Viana. As a result, Hungary's strength was not sufficient.
By the end of AD, the Prussians had occupied most of Hungary.
The Italians took advantage of the fierce battle between Austria and Prussia, slowly ate up Slovenia and Croatia, and successfully joined forces with the Prussians.
Italy received the areas promised to it by Prussia.
At this time, the only areas that Austria could still control were the Grand Duchy of Austria and western Hungary.
The remaining territory is completely separated from Lucia.
Prussia no longer has to worry about Lucia coming to seize territory for the time being.
But the Prussians were still worried.
Because at this time, the entire Ottoman Empire was completely occupied by Lucia, and now Lucia's battle is only to suppress the uprising in Greece.
Lucia's subsequent attack directions are only the Netherlands, Britain, and France.
The plan to cross the sea to attack Britain was obviously too difficult, and anyone who wanted to attack France and the Netherlands had to go through Prussia.
More importantly, Prussia regarded France and the Netherlands as its own and did not want to give them to Lucia.
It's not a good thing to have Lucia's territory sandwiching your own homeland.
Therefore, at the end of AD, the Prussians invited Austria to negotiate an armistice.
Prussia demanded the surrender of the Austrian emperor and Habsburg pledged allegiance to Hohenzollern.
After Hohenzollern was crowned German Emperor, he could canonize Habsburg as King of Hungary.
The land and population of the entire Hungarian region could be handed over to Habsburg rule.
But the Habsburgs had to hand over the Austrian mainland lands.
All German regions must be ruled completely and absolutely by the German Emperor.
This condition is actually not very bad for the current Habsburg.
Prussia was even willing to exchange part of the Hungarian land it had occupied with the Habsburgs for the Austrian mainland.
However, Austria still bargains instinctively.
The Austrians demanded to keep the Austrian region and continue to be called Emperor of Austria instead of being King of Hungary.
This was unacceptable to the Prussians.
Outraged, the Prussians made the negotiations public through newspapers and radio.
Then he declared that Germany must be completely unified, and continued to launch a full-scale attack on Vienna and Hungary.
As a result, the garrisons in these two places began to collapse.
The combat effectiveness seemed to be much lower than before the negotiations, and garrison troops continued to surrender without a fight.
In less than a month, the remaining Hungarian areas were successively occupied by Prussia.
Some were captured in battle, but many more were directly surrendered by the garrison.
In other areas of the Grand Duchy of Austria, the proportion of garrisons directly surrendering became even higher.
William III, who was at the rear, looked at the reports one after another, and with some confusion and surprise, he asked Prime Minister Stein to clarify his doubts.
After thinking about it, Stein tried to analyze it and said:
"I think it may be because the Habsburgs rejected the unification of the German region and insisted on continuing to occupy the Austrian mainland alone.
"This decision cost them the hearts and minds of Germans in Austria.
“Our slogan to unify Germany and our determination to unify Germany rather than exchange occupied areas has been recognized by the local people.
“The Germans in Austria don’t have much psychological pressure to join our country.
“Mainly because we were former Habsburg subjects, and surrendering directly to us could be considered a betrayal after all, so we continued to fight.
“As for the Hungarian region, they are not very popular with the Hungarian people.
“Now we are demanding that the whole of Hungary be handed over to their rule, but they simply refuse to accept this condition.
“They also completely lost the hearts and minds of the Hungarian people.
“The local nobles and soldiers in Hungary already know that it is impossible for them to resist our attack.
“At the same time, it didn’t make much difference to them whether their allegiance was to Habsburg or Hohenzollern.
"So they also stopped fighting that didn't have much real meaning."
After hearing this, William III nodded slowly and said:
"It makes sense. In today's world, people's wisdom has gradually opened up. Habsburg still adheres to the medieval methods, and there is no market for it anymore.
"Order to announce to the outside world that the Kingdom of Prussia will be officially renamed the Kingdom of Germany, and the Holy Roman Empire will be reestablished at the same time.
“The House of Hohenzollern shall forever remain King of the Kingdom of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor.
“Lead all the German people in the name of the German King, and lead the people of other ethnic groups within the territory in the name of the Holy Roman Empire.
"Hohenzollern will do whatever it takes to completely, comprehensively and absolutely unify the German region.
“All Germans are welcome to join the Germans’ own kingdom, and other ethnic groups in Europe are welcome to join the Holy Roman Empire.
"Then launch a relentless attack on Vienna!"
Stein bowed very solemnly:
"Your will!"
The Prussian army... now should be said to be the German army, under the king's order and the guidance of the country's will, launched a larger-scale attack.
The situation in Austria on the other side took a turn for the worse.
From the original reluctant resistance, it quickly turned into collapse at the first touch.
On February 7, the second year of the Archduke, the last fortress in Austria, the city of Vienna, was finally breached.
The head of the Habsburg family, Emperor Franz II of Austria-Hungary, escaped to France via Switzerland under the escort of his brother Karl.
The German region was finally fully unified.
After the news spread, large-scale celebration parades took place in major cities in the Kingdom of Germany.
William III personally went to Vienna and held a very rough, but extremely grand coronation ceremony.
The original King William III of Prussia was officially renamed King William I of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor William I.
During the procession of the coronation ceremony, the new King William was fully dressed in military uniform and led the first troops to enter Vienna in an armed parade on the streets.
Ordinary Germans in Vienna had no objection to this kind of thing, and most of them even cheered along on both sides of the street.
William delivered a brief but powerful speech after the parade, announcing and celebrating the final reunification of the German nation.
At the same time, it also pointed out the next goal of the Germans, which was to completely defeat the French "invasion".
