Chapter 47: The First Italian-Austrian War Breaks Out
Chapter 47: The Outbreak of the First Italian-Austrian War
On March 27, 1848, when the government in Vienna announced the abolition of local tariffs and prohibited local governments from collecting tariffs under any name, the Hungarian representative in Vienna slammed the door on the spot.
Do not find it strange that although the Hungarians proposed the abolition of local tariffs in their conditions, their demand was for Austria to abolish them unilaterally, not that Hungary should also give up the collection of Austrian tariffs.
Otherwise, there would have been no need to argue about the issue at all; the abolition of local tariffs was proposed as early as 1795, during the Marian reforms, and had been abolished everywhere else by 1848.
The tariff was perpetuated in Hungary because of the obstruction of interest groups. The truth of the matter, and the propaganda of the outside world are simply two different concepts, and the Springsteen method applies in Europe as well.
Otherwise, it would not have been necessary to wait until the Hungarian revolution had been suppressed before the Vienna government abolished the tariff with Hungary.
……
One thing leads to another!
Before the problems in Czechoslovakia were solved, another bad news reached Vienna, the Kingdom of Sardinia declared war on Austria!
On the evening of March 23rd, King Charles Albert of Sardinia issued a speech in the square of the palace declaring war on Austria, because of the war, the news reached Vienna already on the 27th.
“Have the reinforcements we sent to Marshal Radetzky arrived yet?” Franz asked
After the suppression of the Vienna rebellion, the Austrian government drew 50,000 troops to reinforce Marshal Radetzky.
This was originally prepared by Franz in response to the war with the Kingdom of Sardinia, otherwise reinforcements would not have been needed just to suppress the rebellion in Austrian Italy.
If there was no reinforcement, it was expected to be the same as in history, Marshal Radetzky with a small number of troops and the Italians around, waiting for the arrival of domestic reinforcements before defeating the Italians.
Now the situation is different, the Vienna rebellion was suppressed in advance, the rebellion elsewhere has not yet broken out, Austria still has the strength to commit to the Italian battlefield.
“In the afternoon of the day before yesterday, it arrived in the Venice area, and has now begun to suppress the rebellion!” Felix said with a grimace
A small Sardinian Kingdom, at this time also dares to come over to challenge Austria, this is simply too old to move.
Franz shook his head, this time the Italians anti-Austria fiasco, can not only a Sardinian kingdom to participate, the papal state, Tuscany duchy, the kingdom of Naples are forced by public opinion to participate in this war.
The Austrian embassies in the Italian states, have sent word to the country to strengthen the vigilance.
“Send an order to Marshal Radetzky, let him watch the fight, fight wherever he can, and if reinforcements are needed, let him wait another month!” Franz thought about it and said
Military issues, he has no intention of discussing with the cabinet, these people are amateurs, military literacy is probably not comparable to him.
The risk of an amateur leading an insider is too great, after the outbreak of the revolution, the telegraph lines between Vienna and the Italian region, were sabotaged.
Franz is not clear about the specifics of the Italian battlefield, the only thing he can do now is to decentralize and give Marshal Radetzky a good logistical support.
Historically it was he who suppressed this Italian rebellion and defeated the armies of the Italian states, and now that Austria had a much greater advantage, it made no sense that it would lose.
Since the suppression of the Vienna Rebellion, the Austrian government had been expanding its army in preparation for war, and in addition to suppressing the revolution, it was also worried about foreign powers taking advantage of the fire.
Sometimes Franz really wanted to directly send the army, those who may rebel nobles, capitalists directly to the raid, and then carry out a land reform, all the problems are solved.
Unfortunately, this was impossible, even the nobles who participated in the rebellion, he had to hand over to the Noble Council to dispose of, let alone these who had not yet rebelled.
As of now, the rebel nobles that were executed by the Noble Council were only twelve, and the crime was actually to kill the nobles by despicable means in an attempt to muddle through and take their titles!
Well, Franz was speechless, and this was still the result of Archduke Louis fighting hard in the Noble Council because of the pain of losing his son.
Of course, Franz did not do nothing, at least was determined to be the heir of the twenty-eight nobles, all the property has been temporarily returned to the state, all the heirs of the side branch without proving that they have nothing to do with their murder before, are not allowed to inherit the title.
Unfortunately, this is an unsolvable question, as long as the application for succession to the title is made, there is a motive for the crime.
You didn’t take part in the rebellion. Did your relatives or friends? If you can’t, the fact that your neighbor took part, or perhaps someone you know, does not exonerate you.
Franz directly gave the right to determine that they are cleared of suspicion to the noble council, as long as you can more than eight layers of noble councilors have determined that you are not suspected, and is the legal first heir, you can inherit the title.
The relationship between the nobles is too chaotic, there are a lot of relatives who have the right to inheritance, and the red-eye problem is difficult to be resolved by anyone.
As long as the first heir is proven to have problems, then the title and fiefdom are the turn of the second heir.
Because of the relationship of noble marriage, the first heir and the second heir are often not from the same family, and may even be hostile, which makes it even more difficult.
Who doesn’t have a bunch of relatives and friends, it’s hard to want to inherit the title yourself, but it’s not hard at all to want to block others from inheriting the title.
……
“Your Highness, if all the major Italian states join the war, I’m afraid that the troops in Marshal Radetzky’s hands will be insufficient, do you want us to draw another reinforcement from somewhere else?” Felix suggested
“It’s not like the Italian states are united, they are forced by public opinion to send out troops, one by one they are probably still bargaining.
The ones who jumped out now are the Sardinians, I guess it will take the revolutionaries agreeing to merge with them before the Sardinians will attack.
In the Italian region, we have already deployed 40,000 troops, and with these 50,000 reinforcements, we can’t say that we will defeat the enemy, but we will have no problem circling around with them for a period of time.
Now the domestic situation is also unstable, if we continue to deploy troops, in case a rebellion breaks out in another region, we will be exhausted.
You can tell Marshal Radetzky not to care about the gain or loss of a city or a place, as long as we can achieve victory in the end, it won’t matter if we lose some places now.”
Franz still resisted the temptation to defeat the Italians quickly and chose to play it safe.
Historically Marshal Radetzky had been able to keep fighting without any preparation and with all the orders from the government in Vienna to abandon Italy, there was no reason why he would still lose now that he had received reinforcements.
The Austrian army’s fighting strength how, Franz heart has no bottom, but think of the Italian army’s record, let him rest assured.
Historically, Austria and Italy fought so many times, in addition to the original owner personally commanded and the French-Italian coalition PK lost, other times, are Austria hanging Italy, including the latter day of the rotten to the extreme Austro-Hungarian Empire, the same can hang Italy.
(End of chapter)