Chapter 66: It’s Easy to Get on the Boat, But Hard to Get Off the Boat

  Chapter 66 – Getting on board is easy, getting off the boat is hard

No money this is an embarrassing problem, the Kingdom of Sardinia is located in the northwestern part of Italy, it is considered the best developed state in Italy.

Unfortunately, this can not change the Kingdom of Sardinia is the essence of the poor, the territory is only 70,000 square kilometers, the population is only so five or six million, and there are no resources, industry has just begun.

However, they are poor, not poor, have been fighting for the unification of Italy, because of the ambition, so the Kingdom of Sardinia even poorer.

To unify Italy, naturally rely on the fist, Sardinia’s military expenditure is so big a little bit, so their finances have been in the red.

Until 1852, the legendary Prime Minister Cavour came on the scene, the reform of the financial and tax system, increase national income; increase the construction of railroads and ports, the development of industry and commerce and a series of measures to get rid of the financial crisis.

Prime Minister Azeglio echoed with a worried frown: “Your Majesty is right, we are indeed out of money, this war came too suddenly and we were not well prepared.

Occupying the Lombardy region, we consumed a large amount of financial and material resources, which greatly exceeded our budget, and so far we have spent more than 28 million lira.

(1 lira = 4.5 grams of silver)

Because of the war, we can’t count on the Lombardy region’s tax revenue this year, and the second half of the year will still be in a state of net spending.

The French have suddenly terminated their promised arms aid, and we are now forced to squeeze out of our limited war funds a sum of money for the purchase of weapons and equipment, which alone will cost us at least 17 million lire more.

These two items together cost us nearly forty-five percent of our war fund, and we are still raising nearly 200,000 troops and spending at least a million lire a day, so if we continue to procrastinate, we will be bankrupt in two months at the most.”

Hearing the Prime Minister’s explanation, Army Minister Li Qi’s first reaction was that it was impossible, and he immediately questioned, “Your Excellency the Prime Minister, how can we spend so much money, according to our plan, this hundred million liras is enough to support our war for half a year!”

“Your Excellency Li Qi, are you suspecting me of embezzlement?” Prime Minister Azeglio said angrily

Corruption? How many officials in this era are not corrupt? However, this secret that is known to all is better not to be stabbed through, or else everyone’s face will not look good.

Li Qi hurriedly explained, “No, Your Excellency Prime Minister, I don’t mean to question you, I’m just a little curious about these expenses!”

Hearing Li Qi’s reply, Azeglio’s complexion slowed down a little, and he explained unhurriedly, “I’ll give you a rough calculation well, so that you can see where all this money was actually spent.

In Lombardy, it cost 8.65 million lire to buy off the Liberals, 10,536,500 lire to solve the food problem, 3,657,000 lire for relief of the war refugees, and 3,862,300 lire to set up the administration ……

Because of the revolutions in Europe, the price of weapons and equipment on the international market has risen by thirty-seven percent, and your Ministry of War is involved, so you don’t have to ask me, do you?

According to our prior plans, we were not prepared to recruit another 70,000 troops in the Lombardy region, adding so many people, the spending naturally went up!”

Hearing the Prime Minister’s explanation, Li Qi was speechless. There was no way, who let their army have no confidence in fighting the Austrians? In order to increase their chances of winning, they used the simplest method – expanding the army.

Before the Industrial Revolution, the mobilization capacity of all agrarian societies was not high enough for all people to participate in the war.

Sardinia mobilized more than 100,000 people within the kingdom, basically bringing it to the limit of mobilization. At this time, the Lombardy people’s enthusiasm for joining the army was high, and there was no reason to turn away the best soldiers, right?

At this time Li Qi can not care so much, as the Minister of War he must stand on the position of the army, as far as possible to reduce the risk of failure.

“His Excellency the Prime Minister, the British are in favor of this war, can’t we ask the British for another loan?”

Prime Minister Azeglio frowned and said with a bitter smile, “The British can’t be easy to get a loan from, for this 3 million pounds loan, we paid a small price.

Now that the war has broken out, if we ask them for another loan, I’m afraid the conditions won’t be so simple!”

(1 pound ≈ 25 lire)

There is no way, this is almost the British tried and true formula, first give a loan to lure people on board. But “easy to get on the boat is difficult to get off the boat”, to the center of the river conditions can only let them drive.

“What about the French? They do not want us to expel the Austrians out of Italy, now there is not a little show?” Li Qi asked in an undeterred manner

Charlie Albert sneered, “Hmph! The French are a bunch of dishonest assholes, even the pre-promised assistance in weapons and equipment is gone now, do you think they can still count on it?”

The crowd didn’t pick up on this topic, originally the French assistance was there, but when they learned that the Sardinian Kingdom had annexed Lombardy, things fell apart.

According to the French demand, the Lombardy region must be established as an independent state, which was undoubtedly unacceptable to them.

Independence is easy, but it will be difficult to unify again. If we miss the opportunity now, will Sardinia still have the chance to annex Lombardy?

Li Qi calculated and said: “Your Majesty, from the current situation, guarding the Venice area is the Austrian general Ladkis this old fox, ate a loss once, he is unlikely to fall for the second time.

If the Austrian army just defends the city and doesn’t engage in a decisive battle with us, then it is impossible for us to end the war within two months.

If the Austrians are not willing to end the war, even if we capture Venice the war will still continue, so the war funding still needs to be figured out again.”

He was showing his cards, wanting to end the war was not just a matter of them deciding, unless the Sardinian Kingdom’s army could fight all the way to Vienna and force the Austrian government to surrender.

This was obviously impossible, everyone was a sensible politician, even if they had more confidence in the Sardinian Kingdom’s army, no one thought that they could make it that far.

Since this was the case, then to win the war, the government would have to find a way to raise money for them to pay for the army, or else it wouldn’t be the responsibility of the Ministry of War if they lost the war due to lack of money.

Prime Minister Azeglio smiled bitterly and said, ”Alright, Your Excellency Li Qi the issue of military funding, we will find a way to solve it, but you must also ensure that you get the victory. This is a war that we cannot afford to lose!”

“Your Excellency Prime Minister, please rest assured. The one commanding this war is Marshal Badorio, he has already defeated the Austrians once, he can handle a bunch of defeated generals in his hands without a problem!” Li Qi hurriedly assured

Charlie Albert, who didn’t speak for half a minute, suddenly asked, “Prime Minister, the funding gap, how are you going to solve it?”

(End of chapter)