The Blue Death

So I went back and edited this chapter because I was disappointed with how it came out. I was trying to rush conflict too quickly and force historical references instead of making a more reasonable story. If you're reading this chapter for the first time, you can ignore the warning next chapter about going back to reread this- it's already the revised version.

Letters between Vienna and Rome were slow, to put it quite simply. Nearly seven hundred miles separated the two cities, a distance that could be covered in perhaps three weeks of hard riding, and eventually plans were laid out for a diplomatic meeting to be held in spring in Venice to discuss Danubian claims on Northern Italy instead of negotiating slowly over mail.

As the parliament debated and sent out instructions for what would be the first Italian election, Lelouch received news from Palermo that sent chills down his spine. A mysterious disease sprung up near the docks, and it was already spreading throughout Palermo. This letter itself was even worse news- it had to get here by boat, after all. That meant this mystery disease was likely already in mainland Italy, although the symptoms were certainly distinctive. Diarrhea so severe that it seemed to kill men through dehydration alone, and even water wouldn't always stop the deaths. Oh, the deaths. Reports were worrying and they were just from Palermo.

Lelouch called Jeremiah over, careful to stay calm in front of the parliament, even as his mind raced, memories of his studies of antiquity coming back to him, the Antonine plague that struck Rome, the plague of Justinian which nearly killed an emperor, and of course the Black Death.

"Your Highness?"

"Jeremiah, I've received reports of a disease in Palermo, that came by sea. It's already proving fatal, and it's likely spreading to the rest of Italy. It could remain small, but we must act." Lelouch had a few small plans to improve public health and sanitation when he came to power, but this made them critical.

Lelouch then addressed the parliament. There was no reason to try to keep the country in the dark, after all. "Gentlemen, I have received worrying news from Palermo, reports of a fatal disease in the ports, which may have already spread to Italy proper by now. It may not prove to be dangerous, but we should take steps to prevent diseases of all kinds from striking the country."

The current theory of disease was known as miasma theory, where noxious vapors from decaying matter spread disease, and while Lelouch didn't have a doctor's education, at the very least he knew that cleaning the streets of filth would be good for the public even if diseases were caused by something other than bad air.

Lelouch's first destination after informing the parliament of the disease was the Vatican archives, which held one of the greatest libraries in Europe, and it also let him inform the clergy, who played a great part in protecting the health of the Italian people. He may not have been a pious man, but he could appreciate the work of the church in caring for the sick.

Lelouch had his suspicions, as this disease seemed very different from previous diseases like smallpox or the Black Death that had rashes or buboes, while all this disease seemed to provoke was extreme sickness and diarrhea, although the spread seemed to point to disease and not just bad food.

After explaining the urgency of the situation, the tenders of the library seemed more than happy to help him search, and while the size of the library hopefully meant he would find something, he was searching a tremendous volume of writing.

It was hard to find a precise term for the reactionary forces marching back to Russia, Schneizel mused. They were divided among national lines as Prussians, Austrians, and Russians, and they were divided on religious lines as majority Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox. The alliance seemed to share very little in common other than an anti liberal sentiment forged from the fires of the French Revolution.

In the days since the liberal takeover of Saint Petersburg, more reinforcements came, and the imperial family was, ah, "relocated" to Peter and Paul, a citadel on the banks of the Neva river that flowed through Saint Petersburg. The citadel never saw actual battle, and in time shifted into a prison for political dissidents. Even if it no longer fulfilled its original use, Peter the Great most certainly didn't imagine his descendants being held hostage in the fort.

Despite quite a bit of saber rattling from the liberals, no real political reforms had been made as of yet. The Tsar certainly knew that the main force of the army was underway, in addition to what Austrian and Prussian reinforcements they had picked up, and he could dally away until reinforcements arrived.

It would take quite a while for the main Russian force to arrive due to Paris being some 1,700 miles away, which translated to months of marching even at a strenuous pace, and the garrisons were exploiting every minute of it, trying their best to fortify their position for the eventual strike of the conservative forces.

Otherwise, Schneizel and his entourage waited as February began to die and the snow began to slowly recede.

With help from the librarians, Lelouch had managed to find his culprit in a tome called De Medicina Indorum by a Hollander named Jacob de Bondt, who described a peculiar Indian disease he called cholera, after the Greek word for bile. The symptoms described were a match, diarrhea and vomiting that emptied the body of fluids and led to dehydration, in some cases leading to the skin turning blue gray.

Fighting dehydration would be a key part of any response, although Lelouch couldn't help but wonder if there was a way to get to the root of the issue, stop the disease before it hit the people, an ounce of prevention instead of a pound of cure. The normal answer would be bad air spreading the disease, but Lelouch doubted it. When the Black Death spread through Europe, plague doctors attempted to block the foul smells by stuffing their masks with sweet smelling things, but they still died. At least he was in one of the best places in the world to do research and see if anyone had reached other conclusions.

Lelouch was very lucky he decided to search in the Vatican Library, as he would have never thought to look through the works of Jesuits on his own, but here he was. He had discovered the works of a man named Kircher, a Jesuit who studied the impacts of a bubonic plague that struck Rome in 1656. Using a microscope, the man had discovered a great number of little creatures, like minuscule worms, in the blood, and proposed that they caused disease.

Supposing that such creatures were the true cause of disease and not a foul odor in the air, then fighting disease was no different than fighting other parasites which impacted the body, like flukes or tapeworms. It was simply the matter of finding out how such creatures spread, to avoid them.

"What are you working on, your Highness?" Lelouch turned to see Jeremiah standing next to him, as calm and collected as always.

"Perhaps this is a futile effort, but I'm trying to see if there is any way to prevent the spread of disease, or at least trying to understand it better. Some of these books seem to suggest that disease is the result of organisms too small to see with the eye alone, instead of foul air."

Jeremiah's brow furrowed. "I suppose that makes sense, your highness, but how does the organism travel from one body to another? If these creatures travel through the air, how is it any different from miasma, in a practical sense?"

"I suppose that's the issue. Why would a parasite cause diarrhea in the host, enough to kill them?"

"Why search for the reason a lion has fangs, your highness? Perhaps it's simply a part of the creature's nature?"

"A lion has fangs to hunt its prey, of course. A lion born without fangs wouldn't survive to adulthood…" Wait, was it that simple? If a lion needed fangs to survive, then cholera needed some reason for the diarrhea, some way in which it benefited from causing such an affliction in its victims. What was the reason?

"Jeremiah, could you think of a reason for such creatures to cause diarrhea, any at all?"

"Perhaps if it was a way in which the disease spread?"

That might just be it! If the disease spread itself through the diarrhea then it would be naturally incentivized to cause as much of it as possible. It would almost be self selecting in a way, the versions of the disease that proved most effective in propagating themselves would be the ones that continued on in greater numbers. The same theory could apply almost anywhere in nature, now that he thought about it, where the specimen most fit to survive in its environment would live to reproduce, passing on those traits which made it so good at surviving in the first place. Carry on for generations, and species might be capable of changing over time.

Staggering implications of such a theory aside, knowing that the disease might spread from the diarrhea it caused meant that their utmost priority was keeping the diarrhea away from potential victims. While he wasn't sure if it could spread through air or not, letting infected diarrhea into the water supply would be as good as poison. Sanitation and cleanliness would be key in fighting this disease, and even things as simple as cleaning one's hands after nursing the sick would probably help slow the spread.

Lelouch's royal (or viceregal) power was certainly good for something, in that he could react with much greater speed than his parliament. Lelouch sent letters all across the peninsula, describing initial steps to take to stem the spread of the disease, should it appear in their cities along with lists of the symptoms. Ships from Sicily and Rome (at the minimum) should be subject to a quarantine, in which the ships and their cargoes would spend days waiting in lazarets, islands or ships at anchor that served as stations for quarantine.

He also made sure to include orders to boil water, as the heat would hopefully help kill the small creatures Lelouch believed to cause the disease. Admittedly, the theory went against most conventional knowledge about disease, but Lelouch was confident- and he had the power to enforce his edicts. If these edicts proved effective enough, then it might even serve as proof for his theories, although his focus was on preserving Italian lives over proving any theory.

With this new medical knowledge in his mind, Lelouch decided that reducing fatalities in the army would be his next goal, both on and off the battlefield. He gathered the few "surgeons" he had in the army and proposed the idea to them, and while many where skeptical of his theory about "little animals" a discussion of medical practice in the battlefield was enlightening.

While there was always more work to do, Lelouch had proposed a system of triage, where men were sorted according to the severity of their injuries, allowing doctors to focus on those men that needed it most, and Lelouch had promised to devote a number of horses and carriages to rescuing men during active combat as opposed to sending medics in after to pick over the battlefield and find those who were still salvageable but hadn't died of their wounds yet. Lelouch had also proposed that some of the surgeons spend time instructing the men on the basics of health and treatment of injuries on the battlefield, although the burgeoning ranks of the Italian army would make that difficult.

With control over all of Italy Lelouch hoped to have an army nearly double the size of the army of the Risorgimento at it's height: 60,000 fighting men, along with potentially hundreds of artillery pieces. There was a great rush to produce enough guns, both of the artillery and infantry variety, for the growing army, especially considering that the Asplund balls and rifles were harder to make than plain muskets and normal buck and ball shot.

Soon enough, Lelouch was receiving reports from Rome of cholera within the city, almost certainly from the same ship that brought the letter carrying news of the disease. Lelouch would definitely have to invest in faster communication, like the French semaphore towers which used signal flags and a telescope to move information much faster than even the speediest rider.

Rome was a storied city, down to the sewer system, and as long as people didn't draw water downstream from any sewage dumping points, things would turn out much better than in cities without such systems. Lelouch certainly hoped that the Tiber wouldn't turn into a new Thames- one of his most distinctive memories of London was the deathly stench of the Thames, and on bad days the river seemed to flow more black than blue.

Even knowing that Rome was as prepared for the plague as it could reasonably be, Lelouch certainly didn't want the entirety of his army loitering around in the city if he could help it, and they began preparations to march towards Venice. While Lelouch certainly hoped the negotiations wouldn't sour, a bit of saber rattling was often necessary for politics.

Despite this, Lelouch couldn't stand the idea of leaving Nunnally alone so soon after they had reunited, and had arranged to have her accompany him to Venice. Even if she couldn't physically see them, she was as close to a princess as the Italians had, and she should become more familiar with the country.

As Rome vanished in the distance behind him, to be maintained by the parliament in his absence, Lelouch hoped that the ravages of cholera would not be too damaging- in Rome, and all across Europe.

As Lelouch travelled north, so did cholera, both in Italy and in Spain, where it spread from the Britannian base at Gibraltar into the hills of Andalusia, inching towards Madrid. By boat, it traveled to Toulon in southern France, to the Turkish Levant and Konstantiniyye, to Danubian Dalmatia, and the Russian Crimea. Naturally, some Britannian trading ships decided to return home instead of sailing the Mediterranean, bringing what would soon be known as the blue death first to London, and then many of the other great cities of northern Europe.

At the same time, the disease still remained strong in Asia, traveling alongside Britannian forces marching in Persia and following trade routes to China, the disease even spreading into Japan.

Nunnally's company, as well as the general lack of military urgency, made Lelouch's second visit to the City of Canals much more enjoyable than the first. It was very similar to his first visit in other ways though, with days filled with drilling as they waited for the Danubians to approach.

Strangely enough, despite all the discussions the parliament had over the finest details of the state in a desperate attempt to delay their eventual replacement by actual elected officials, nothing much had been said about the flag of Italy. Idly sketching, the first idea that came to Lelouch's mind was simple and effective, inspired greatly by the flag of the previous Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. The Britannian coat of arms, the lion and snake on a shield with a crown above, would be in the center, on a green rectangle inside a white diamond, which was itself on a red background. He had considered a tricolor design of a style similar to that of the Revolutionary French flag, but knew that it would be uncomfortably Jacobin for the Britannian ruling class. It wasn't like flags couldn't be changed in the future, after all.

In time, the Danubian delegation arrived, led by Metternich, after crossing the Piave river, which served as the border between the two states, for now at least. They were escorted by a number of guards, and Lelouch had heard rumors of unrest in Friuli, and that great numbers of Danubian soldiers had been sent into the region to pacify those Italians that remained under Danubian rule.

"You may have already realized this vi Britannia, but your unification of Italy has caused massive discontent in our Italian holdings. We realize that attempting to claim more of our land would only exacerbate these issues, but we still demand repayment for what was lost."

"What sort of repayment?"

"A portion of the taxes due from the region of Italy that was once under Habsburg rule, as well as no tariffs for Danubian traders, at least in our previous holdings." The taxes were certainly fair, and free trade was phenomenal, practically more of a boon for Lelouch than the Danubians, at least once industrialization began in earnest. Let the Danubians buy Italian wines and grain, and they'd regret it when their markets were flooded with factory made goods. Of course, he knew that there was a less enjoyable consequence of free trade.

"Free trade sounds agreeable, but I would warn against it, at least in the short term. You may have heard rumors, but a disease called cholera has spread from Sicily to Italy proper, and sending Danubian traders into Italy could only hasten spread into your Empire. Of course, it could have already spread by sea, but I feel obliged to warn you." The Empire of the Danube may have been his enemy, but that didn't mean he was going to let people die through inaction, whether Italians under their rule or any of the other ethnicities composing the country. Of course, it also kept him from looking like he spread disease through malice or omission.

"Cholera? I've never heard of such a disease before."

"It's from India, or so I've read."

"Then it came from Britannian traders in India?"

"That's definitely a possibility. The first victim we know of was a sailor, although we're not sure of his port of origin."

"I will notify the Emperor of this disease, vi Britannia. There's another thing we request of you. There has been significant unrest throughout the Empire of the Danube after your unification of Italy, and the discontent is especially strong in the Italian portion of our Empire."

"And you want me to what, condemn these rebels? It would seem a little rich, I'd think, for the man who forged his country by harvesting popular discontent to turn around and start telling off rebels, especially Italian ones."

"Not exactly, vi Britannia. We can handle malcontents within our own borders, but we need a reassurance that Italy is not supporting this unrest. Crack down on revolutionary societies that reside within your borders and make sure that no arms are being supplied by your own citizens to our rebels."

That would be harder to accomplish than Metternich's previous demands, but doing so wasn't impossible, and would put him on better terms with the Empire of the Danube, not that he was expecting a close friendship or anything of the sort. Sure, the Empire couldn't attack without provoking the wrath of the another Empire, in Britannia, but that didn't mean that having one of your strongest neighbors angry at you was a good thing.

The meeting went as well as he expected, but that didn't mean the relationship between the states was perfect now. Massive Danubian military build up to stop Italian dissidents didn't make Lelouch very happy, although he did admit he was guilty of bringing an army near the border as well.

The subject of Italians in the Danubian empire brought up another interesting question: Where would Lelouch stop? Of course, Lelouch had no interest in starting a bloody war for some land, but if the opportunity presented itself he would definitely want the remainder of the Italian peninsula still under Danubian control. He might be able to make claims on Istria and possibly Dalmatia due to Italian populations, although they also had Slavic populations that wouldn't be too happy with his rule . There was the southern Tyrol in the North, the area around Nice in France along with Corsica, and the Italian cantons in Switzerland, although Lelouch wasn't interested in pushing his luck by going for all of those places. Good fortune had given him Italy, and he would prefer to focus on securing his gains rather than reaching for every Italian he could get his hands on.

Being seen as an avaricious conqueror by the other powers of Europe wouldn't do him any good, and more importantly wouldn't do Nunnally any good. While he didn't rule over all Italians, he had enough sway in the world to keep his sister safe, and that was all that mattered.

Schneizel had received news that the combined coalition of Austrian, Prussian, and Russian forces was within a day's march of the capital, and reports were rushing in of small skirmishes between their vanguards and the forces of the St. Petersburg garrison. He supposed that the liberals would be sleeping rather poorly that night, and he was proven correct, although not in the way he had expected.

One of his aids woke him up in a panic in the middle of the night, and Schneizel could see why almost immediately. On the other side of the Neva River, Saint Petersburg burned, fires licking the sky as a conflagration raged on the northern bank. With horror, Schneizel realized that the flames had reached Peter and Paul fortress, and as he watched, transfixed, the cathedral on the island seemed to collapse under its own weight, falling to the side, its structure weakened by the fires.

As his aid rushed him to move, in case the fire spread to this side of the city, Schneizel realized that there was no way the fire could have spread to the fortress, as it was built on a small island in the river and was only connected to the rest of the city by two stone bridges. While it was certainly possible that two accidents had led to fires in both the citadel and the city proper, it was suspicious, and Schneizel couldn't help but suspect arson in both cases.

This would certainly throw the city's government into chaos, and while Schneizel imagined that it would certainly make the coalition's work easier, he wondered who they would return to the city to, if any members of the Russian Imperial family would survive those flames.

Lloyd Asplund had, with some kinks, managed to start limited operations with coal mining in Sardinia, and Asplund, as was his wont, had moved onto a different subject entirely, deciding to return to the construction of artillery, although with a focus on naval guns, largely because land based guns were naturally restrained by needed to be mobile. Naval guns were a natural escalation of Lloyd's fascination with stronger and stronger weaponry.

Lloyd had toyed with a variety of ideas, including breech loading artillery, although that hadn't really panned out as well as it did in smaller arms. An improperly sealed breech loader could prove to be both a health hazard and could decrease the range and power of the gun, and while he could probably develop an appropriate device with enough time, he turned to another intriguing idea: exploding shells.

While exploding shells had been prevalent on land for years, they were usually shot high into the air, which made them poor choices for naval battles. The gun Lloyd was currently testing would fire horizontally like a piece of field artillery, but this new piece dwarfed the sort that Lelouch and his armies pulled behind them. A 10 pounder in the Italian Army might weigh around 900 pounds, but Lloyd's current gun would weigh slightly over eight times that amount.

Lloyd had acquired an old merchant ship to use as a target, and the shells worked to spectacular effect. The gun roared like a lion and sent a shell flying, the explosion also lighting a fuse. The shell tore through the side of the ship and landed inside before exploding, leaving a gap wide enough for a man to walk through as the ship began to take on water. One more shell and the ship was in pieces, collapsing in on itself as the waves swallowed it whole.

So I hope those changes were an improvement over the old version, even if the chapter's a little shorter. Here's last version's end note, just because it explains some of my thoughts on other parts of the chapter:

I tried to make Lelouch's "discovery" here as organic as I could. People had bounced around the idea of germ theory earlier, and I think a mind like Lelouch could certainly connect the dots if he tried. I really tried to give the vibe that this was Lelouch discovering as he went, and as such any medical inaccuracies are kind of intended, as this is still based off a pretty limited amount of knowledge. We know cholera is water borne, Lelouch does not, at least not for certain.

The health research I did for this chapter was pretty interesting, but also pretty shocking. Washing your hands seems pretty intuitive, but it took until the 19th century for handwashing to become common in hospitals and similar. The man who discovered how important it was, Semmelweis, was even mocked for the theory until Pasteur proved germ theory in 1860-1864. John Snow's cholera map was in 1854.

I hope the medical drama of this chapter was interesting. I'm sorry if anyone was reading this fic to escape from all the Covid worries only to get hit with a fictional pandemic. Historical fictional pandemic? Whatever. It was a real pandemic, just written into a fictional universe.

I'm sorry if I ruined the timeline for anyone by introducing exploding-shell naval guns two years late. Just imagine Paixhans died somewhere.