Reid began making moves in Europe to achieve his current objectives and create future obstacles for Europe's rulers.
Yet Reid's actions at this moment were no less than dropping a nuclear bomb over the heads of all European elites.
Viscount Philip Parr was no spy, and his efficiency was remarkably high. After leaving Reid's side, he had been trying to contact every European noble he knew.
The reactions of the Southern European nobles who received Viscount Philip Parr's communications were surprisingly consistent: first a moment of stunned silence, then repeated verification of the authenticity with Philip Parr, followed by hanging up the call with an exceptionally complex tone that clearly conveyed deep internal conflict.
For those European nobles who had never met Reid, Viscount Philip Parr's words carried insufficient weight. Few European nobles who had survived to this day were reckless, so they dared not place bets casually, yet they feared letting the opportunity before them slip away.
Thus, for the first two days, no one came to seek out Reid.
Reid was completely unconcerned during this period. Over these two days, he ordered a halt to outward expansion and instead began clearing the remaining Eurasian Federation forces in Southern Europe, preparing for the upcoming retreat.
Strangely, the Eurasian Federation took no action whatsoever, as if they had abandoned their southern territories entirely.
In reality, this was where the Eurasian Federation's nobles exerted their influence.
The news of Reid's intention to restore European noble rule spread far more quickly than he had anticipated. Although these deeply entrenched European nobles did not immediately believe it, they were even less willing to let this opportunity slip away.
Thus, the European nobles suppressed this intelligence. Even though many were already aware, each family strictly enforced information control. Any descendants within their households who leaned toward the Eurasian Federation government were either restrained by their own families or had their entire involved families controlled by neighboring noble houses.
Simultaneously, the nobles of Western Europe mobilized their connections, ensuring that the Eurasian Federation Parliament remained stuck in debates over whether to dispatch troops to confront the New Misurugi Kingdom forces—which had "ceased advancing by the second day."
Everyone was waiting for one thing: the appearance of the first trailblazer among the Eurasian Federation's southern cities.
Over these two days, Viscount Philip Parr was like an ant on a hot pan. The opportunity for his family's ascension was right before his eyes, yet he had failed to persuade a single person, making him appear exceptionally incompetent.
For two days, Viscount Philip Parr barely slept, and strands of white began to appear in his originally dark brown hair.
However, the world never lacks the first trailblazer. Even if none emerged naturally, the European nobles would send one forward to ascertain Reid's true intentions.
As a result, early on the third day, an elderly count over seventy years old, whose family was based in Podgorica, arrived to meet Reid, bringing nearly half of his family's assets and intelligence on the Eurasian Federation's secret base in the former Bosnia and Herzegovina region.
For this pioneering noble, Reid showed sufficient respect. Not only did he accept all the money, but he also led his personal guard and the count to land in Podgorica that same day, forcibly dissolved the city government, and announced that the city would henceforth be managed by the count's son.
Subsequently, Reid raided this secret base of the Eurasian Federation and discovered that it was actually an MA Manufacturing Factory, housing a brand-new Gaelzic and five Dagger L units for defense.
However, the Eurasian Federation soldiers stationed at this base must have all studied in France, because as soon as they saw the Joyeuse Gundam land, they immediately raised the white flag.
Seeing this, Reid didn't hold back either—he took all the materials and data, but handed over the intact factory along with the Gaelzic and the guard Mobile Suits to the family of the old earl to defend their city.
Reid was essentially emptying the Eurasian Federation's pockets to fund the local nobility, and he didn't feel the slightest bit of regret.
After all, one Gaelzic and five Dagger L units posed no real threat to his own forces, and Reid wasn't worried that the earl's family would betray him for the Eurasian Federation, which would inevitably reclaim all their power.
With the first one taking the plunge, the entire southern part of Europe instantly erupted into chaos.
Since Reid had set the rule of "first come, first served" and prohibited extorting money from civilians, overnight, all the financial conglomerates in southern Europe came under attack. Countless private soldiers and police officers, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, clashed in the cities, with some battles lasting a full day and night without end.
However, without the support of the Eurasian Federation, these nouveau riche capitalists were no match for the old-established local powers of Europe. Everyone was forced to surrender their assets, even if they were already dead.
And all Reid had to do was collect the money and divide the territories.
Those who arrived first gained control of the cities, but the smaller families had already run out of funds by this point. Although their authority was protected by Reid, they still had to share governance with other local nobles willing to provide financial support, albeit with their own families holding the majority stake.
Now, these southern nobles who had regained power would never betray Reid, because if the Eurasian Federation returned, their authority would be swiftly revoked.
Moreover, the Eurasian Federation nobles in the west, seeing that Reid truly demanded no power for himself—collecting protection fees and then handing over full city management to the nobles—and even offering Mobile Suits as military guarantees if nobles provided information on Eurasian Federation remnants or bases, grew envious one after another. They began writing letters asking when Reid would launch his attack.
Many nobles even promised that if Reid restored their power, they would be willing to nominate him as the king of all Europe, offering annual tribute.
Of course, Reid merely chuckled when he read these letters. King of all Europe? He figured he might receive a bit of tribute for the first few years, but once these nobles grew powerful, they would only obey orders when it suited them, and might even rebel.
Nevertheless, Reid had to admire the European nobility's ability to control information, because to this day, the Eurasian Federation still hadn't figured out what exactly had happened in so many southern cities. Even the capitalists with substantial assets in the south couldn't grasp what was going on.
Anyone trying to send messages was intercepted and killed by nobles across Europe. Wired communications between the south and other regions were completely cut off by the nobility, and the blame for this was conveniently pinned on Reid.
Fortunately, Reid didn't mind taking the blame for cutting off communications, because he was about to personally "backstab" these nobles next.
The main reason why the Eurasian Federation has not yet gathered its remaining forces to confront Reid in a decisive battle is due to the interference of intelligence by the Eurasian nobles. Currently, the Eurasian parliamentarians still believe that Reid's forces, after their overwhelming momentum on the first day, have been weakening since the second day and are now completely exhausted. They are now forced to capture cities one by one.
Therefore, the Eurasian Federation is content to let the southern cities wear down the New Misurugi Kingdom's combat strength, merely sending some supplies as a gesture of consolation without deploying a single soldier.
After all, if the relatively underdeveloped southern cities aren't used to deplete the New Misurugi Kingdom's forces, should the few megacities in the west be sacrificed instead?
Faced with this situation, Reid can only rely on the other two members of the Earth Alliance to remind the Eurasian Federation.
Thus, with Reid intentionally turning a blind eye, spies from both the East Asian Republic and the Atlantic Federation sent back the actual situation in the southern regions of the Eurasian Federation to their respective countries via covert channels.
Both the Atlantic Federation and the East Asian Republic were immediately stunned.
It was already the CE Century, yet Europe seemed poised to revert to the Middle Ages and revive its imperial glory—a truly bewildering sight.
Moreover, the Atlantic Federation felt this tactic was all too familiar, strikingly so. Such a cunning strategy must have been used by someone before.
However, the subsequent responses of the two nations were entirely different.
Reid's deliberate leak of intelligence certainly did not include the true state of his forces. By falsifying supply numbers and deploying Mobile Dolls to patrol in repeated loops, the Atlantic Federation and the East Asian Republic received data indicating that the New Misurugi Kingdom had deployed tens of thousands of Mobile Suits in the Eurasian Federation.
Thus, the Atlantic Federation's first reaction was: This is fantastic news.
If the New Misurugi Kingdom had deployed tens of thousands of Mobile Suits in the Eurasian Federation, it meant they wouldn't be launching a major assault on the Atlantic Federation's homeland anytime soon. To test this, the Atlantic Federation attempted to organize a counterattack in the Pacific, hoping to see if the New Misurugi Kingdom's forces there had been depleted.
The result was a resounding defeat. Reid hadn't moved a single unit from the Pacific, and with the Automated Soldier Murasame gradually replacing the original Mobile Dolls, along with the Rezel being deployed as squad leader units on a large scale, the Atlantic Federation didn't even have air superiority along its coasts. Launching an attack under such conditions was nothing short of sending troops to their deaths.
After another failure in the Pacific theater, the Atlantic Federation turned to the East Asian Republic and asked, "Aren't you going to probe the East China Sea and the Equatorial Union?"
The East Asian Republic directly informed the Atlantic Federation that they had never slacked off on reconnaissance in those two areas and were absolutely certain the New Misurugi Kingdom hadn't withdrawn troops from there.
The Atlantic Federation harbored doubts about the East Asian Republic's claims but did not openly question them.
In the eyes of the Atlantic Federation, their old rival was now a reliable ally. Although the East Asian Republic was unwilling to take on the tough challenge of confronting the New Misurugi Kingdom, their performance against PLANT was beyond reproach. Their expeditionary forces in the Middle East had defeated ZAFT more times than the Atlantic Federation and the Eurasian Federation combined.
Moreover, these weren't minor skirmishes—they had even taken out ZAFT's North African commander-in-chief once, leaving the position filled only by an acting commander to this day.
However, the Atlantic Federation felt it had suffered another loss and naturally had no time to deal with matters in Europe. It merely informed the British Isles to relay the situation in the south to the Eurasian Federation and took no further action.
The Atlantic Federation disregarded the fate of its ally, the Eurasian Federation, offering only a verbal warning. In contrast, the East Asian Republic acted with remarkable loyalty.
After discussing the situation in the southern part of the Eurasian Federation domestically, the East Asian Republic concluded that the Eurasian Federation could not be allowed to collapse from within and descend into civil war—at least not now.
The East Asian Republic was well aware that the reason the European nobles dared to rise up and seize power was due to the support of the New Misurugi Kingdom forces led by Reid.
Thus, as long as they forced the New Misurugi Kingdom forces to withdraw from southern Europe before the situation escalated, the Eurasian Federation could naturally deal with these so-called nobles—essentially remnants of a bygone era.
Therefore, the East Asian Republic not only reminded the Eurasian Federation, explicitly informing them that the southern region had completely fallen, but also immediately dispatched a portion of its forces from the Middle East to march northward, directly targeting the Old Capital Base of the New Misurugi Kingdom, forcing the New Misurugi Kingdom forces to retreat for defense.
For Reid, however, this was like a pillow arriving just as he was about to fall asleep. He had been struggling to find an excuse to move the main force back to the Old Capital Base to facilitate a swift escape at any moment.
Both the southern European nobles and Reid knew full well which was easier to deal with—the East Asian Republic forces in the Middle East or the subsequent punitive forces the Eurasian Federation would reorganize. So when Reid announced his intention to retreat and block the East Asian Republic forces, none of the southern Eurasian Federation nobles tried to stop him. Instead, they expressed concern about whether Reid had enough troops and even offered to send their private soldiers to support him.
At this moment, Reid fully played the part of someone striving for the resurgence of the European nobles and his own ambition to become the new king of Europe.
Thus, he outright rejected all offers of support. Although the private soldiers of these nobles were of high quality—many would be considered elites even within the New Misurugi Kingdom forces—Reid did not want disloyal individuals in his ranks, as they posed a security risk.
Moreover, these nobles had not yet fully gained control over the southern cities of the Eurasian Federation, so they needed their secretly cultivated loyal subordinates as a guarantee of military strength.
Before leaving, Reid even gifted the nobles various Mobile Suits captured from the Eurasian Federation to ensure they could withstand the first wave of attacks and avoid being completely wiped out.
In short, Reid managed to max out the favorability of the southern Eurasian Federation nobles. When he departed, several families even presented their eligible daughters to him, washed and ready. One family even brought both the mother and daughter.
However, Reid fled overnight this time. There was no other choice—the temptation was too great, and he feared he might succumb to it if he wasn't careful. Getting involved with these nobles would only bring trouble.
Of course, while Reid was withdrawing his troops, a riot broke out in the Eurasian Federation parliament.
Although some members of the Eurasian Federation parliament were supported by nobles, the vast majority were tied to emerging capitalists.
With intelligence from the Atlantic Federation and the East Asian Republic arriving, these individuals and the capitalists behind them fully felt what it was like to have a knife pressed against their necks.
The capitalists of Europe were convinced that if the aristocracy regained power, even if they surrendered all their assets, these nobles would dig up old grievances and legally hang them on lampposts as tools to placate the masses.
Therefore, all aristocratic families in Western Europe were immediately placed under house arrest, and troops were rapidly assembled to fully reclaim the southern regions. They absolutely could not allow nobles from other areas to follow suit and directly defect to the New Misurugi Kingdom.
Meanwhile, Reid, upon learning that the Eurasian Federation had begun mobilizing troops in the west, contacted Athrun, who had been waiting outside the Circum-Terrestrial Debris Belt. Their forces took advantage of everyone's attention being focused on Europe and headed to Earth under the pretext of supporting ZAFT in North Africa.
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