Chapter 16: Schemes of the Distant Courts
Smoke from the Volga campaign still lingered in the air when the first reports arrived.
From Vienna to London, from Istanbul to Paris, the chancelleries of Europe stirred with alarm.
The Iron Tsar’s victories were too rapid, too brutal, too complete.
And so, in drawing rooms and palace corridors, a secret consensus formed:
Russia must be contained—or destroyed.
[Global Status: Hostile Alliances Forming]
In London, Prime Minister Harold Winston convened a War Council. British naval command was ordered to expand espionage operations in the Baltic and the Black Sea.
Secret treaties were drafted with the Ottoman Sultan, offering advanced rifles and telegraph systems in exchange for coordinated attacks along Russia’s vulnerable southern borders.
Meanwhile, French diplomats whispered promises of "shared prosperity" to Polish nobles still dreaming of an independent Poland.
In Vienna, Austrian generals met with German envoys, proposing a "mutual defense pact"—one aimed not against France, but against the Russian bear awakening to the east.
[International Development: Proto-Coalition Against Russia]