Chapter 915: The Southern Front

  Chapter 897 The Southern Front

The city of Milan, at this moment, has been transformed into a military fortress, and only jingoism remains after the prosperity disperses.

Since the outbreak of the Continental War, the Kingdom of Lombardy has become the front line of the French and Austrian exchanges, after the outbreak of the war, the regent Prince Lutberd issued the first time the national mobilization order.

In the middle and late 19th century, the Wittelsbach family was cursed with a succession of misfortunes.

First, Maximilian II was slow to react and took the wrong side in the international political struggle, and only managed to keep his throne by a political marriage.

However, as the price of failure, the Wittelsbach family still paid a heavy price, lost the long-running Bavaria, and came to Lombardy to re-establish the foundation.

Just as they were getting on their feet, the succeeding king, Ludwig II, became mentally ill. It was not easy to send Ludwig II away, but the succeeding king, Otto I, was also mentally ill.

Not to mention the prestige, the Wittelsbach family was reduced to a laughing stock, the outside world ridiculed them as the “psychotic royal family”, and there were even unscrupulous people betting that the next king of the Wittelsbach family would also be a psychotic.

Not only was the family unfortunate, but the Greek line was also in a bad way. A fellow named Otto was not only disinherited himself, but also subverted.

Had it not been for the intervention of the Vienna government, the Wittelsbachs’ rule in Greece would have collapsed.

The good times didn’t last long, and now we’re caught up in the Continental War. The Kingdom of Lombardy became the front line, which was another major challenge to the rule of the Wittelsbach family.

The regent, Prince Lutburd, was very worried lately, fearing that the Wittelsbachs would go into exile again if something happened on the front line.

According to the law of the New Shinra Empire, the king and the emperor have the right to command the army at the same time, so there is nothing for him as the regent to do.

King Lombardi was mentally ill and could not fulfill his duties, so the command of the army fell into the hands of the Emperor.

Power is easy to give up, but hard to get back. In the situation of Lombardy Kingdom, the only way to get back the command of the army is to wait for the next generation of kings.

Against this background, there was no way Prince Lutburd could not be anxious. In case the Vienna government is playing the Lombardy Kingdom’s idea, directly come to a borrowed knife to kill, then it will be finished.

“Your Highness, Admiral Molex has already arrived at the parlor.”

The voice of the valet pulled Prince Lutburd out of his contemplation.

“Alright, I’ll go over immediately!”

After straightening up his clothes and looking in the mirror to make sure he wouldn’t be rude, Prince Lutburd walked out with great strides.

In the past, not to mention admirals, even if it was an imperial marshal or cabinet prime minister, Prince Lutburd could not put it in his eyes.

It was stipulated in the laws of the Empire that the Kingdom of Lombardy was highly autonomous, no matter how high up in the hierarchy these people were, there was no way for them to put their hands on the Kingdom of Lombardy.

But not now, Admiral Molex is the commander of the Italian Theater of Operations, and the Kingdom of Lombardy happens to be in his area of defense.

Looking at the whole picture, as long as they could win, even if the Lombardy Kingdom was reduced to rubble, the Vienna government would not be heartbroken.

As a frontline commander, the most important thing was to win. Everything else was a minor issue, especially since the enemy this time was the French, and everyone was mentally prepared to pay a heavy price.

Others could think that way, not Prince Lutburd. Smashing any city in the Kingdom of Lombardy would be a disaster for House Wittelsbach.

It would make their already unstable rule even more stormy. From the standpoint of the Wittelsbach family, it was best to keep the enemy out of the kingdom.

……

After the pleasantries were exchanged, Admiral Molex opened the door and said, ”Your Highness the Prince, I came here this time to seek help.

In order to safeguard the logistical supply of the frontline troops, I hope you can provide three hundred and fifty thousand laborers and requisition all of Lombardy’s railroads.”

Only laborers were requested, not soldiers, and that was because the army was not under the control of the local government, even if it was a reserve.

Hearing these two requests, Prince Lutburd frowned, “General, your request is too high.

The Lombardy Kingdom only has a population of less than four million people, and currently there are already 200,000 people serving in the army, and conscripting off another 350,000 laborers would almost drain us of all our young men and women.

Especially you have to requisition all the railroads, the production and life in the country, will be disrupted by this, I’m afraid ……”

During the war years, the people in the border areas were just a miserable lot!

When the battle started, the border area was the first to be mobilized, and had to bear the heaviest military and labor service; when the enemy came over, the border area was also the first to suffer.

Prince Lutburd’s difficulty was well understood by Admiral Moorcocks, and he would not like to do so if possible.

But the army was the quickest, and the conscription of laborers from the Lombardy Kingdom was the quickest, and the requisitioning of the railroads was a necessity.

“Your Highness, I know your concerns very well. For what the people of the Lombardy Kingdom have paid, the Empire will compensate.

I will report the situation on this side as it is, the specific compensation measures. You will talk to the cabinet yourselves.

The requisition of the railroads is not negotiable. Not only the railroads, but also the highways must be prioritized to satisfy the army. If there’s an abundance of capacity, we can open it up for civilian use.

In addition to this, I hope you can requisition off some of the vehicles from the civilian population, trucks, horse-drawn carts, ox-carts, donkey carts …… all come and go.”

One never knows how inadequate one’s preparations, are, until war breaks out.

Austria had been most prepared, and it turned out that just as soon as the war broke out, it was discovered that it was not so.

It is true that they were well prepared, but they could not afford to have more soldiers on the front line!

Franz does not think that war with the French, the need for national mobilization, the problem is that others do not see it that way ah!

Under the repeated persuasion of the crowd, Franz decisively conceded. More people is better than less people, although the consumption of a little more, but the chances of victory also went up.

In order to defeat the French, the government of Vienna was fuming, and the cabinet planned to mobilize five million troops.

The troops allocated to the southern front alone are one and a half million, the original various preparations, this time it does not seem to be enough.

There is no doubt that this one and a half million is only a figure on paper, or a theoretical value. Now on the front line of the Lombardy Kingdom, there were just over three hundred thousand troops in total.

What subsequent troops arrived, then no one knew. Everything is based on the actual situation on the front line, more or less no one knows.

Admiral Morquez had only started to make preparations in advance, lest the frontline launched an attack and there was a logistical dilemma that couldn’t be kept up with.

Listening to Admiral Morquez’s explanation, Prince Lutebold’s expression slightly slowed down, it’s good that the central government has compensation, the most fearful thing is to let the Lombardy Kingdom bear the loss by itself.

“I remember that after the reform of the Imperial Army, it has been massively equipped with trucks and motorcycles, and the logistics has been semi mechanized.

Now that so many vehicles need to be requisitioned, is the general preparing to take the initiative?”

Admiral Molex laughed, “Your Highness the Prince’s information isn’t quite accurate! Mechanization is just an idea put forward by the military, a trend for the future development of the army, but not now.

Right now, we only have a small number of troops that can achieve semi-mechanization, and if we want to completely achieve semi-mechanization, it will be difficult to do so within ten years.

However, the logistic forces did equip a large number of trucks and are at the forefront of the mechanization path. It’s just that after the expansion of the army, it’s a bit insufficient.

Considering the complex terrain and bad traffic in the Italian region, we have to have a variety of means of transportation, lest it comes to ……”

Having gotten the desired answer, Prince Lutburd breathed a sigh of relief. This was followed by a headache, cooperation was a must.

With France fighting over, the Lombardy Kingdom was the biggest victim. No matter how excessive the military’s demands were, as long as he could keep the French out of the country, he would agree.

The problem is that cooperation is not good, not to mention the central government to pull to compensate, just requisition roads, vehicles, are enough to annoy him.

……

All things need to be compared, if you know the opposite of the French face the problem, Prince Lutburd will not feel headache.

Turin French command, Marshal Adrien is looking at the map worried, according to the plan he should have launched an attack on the Kingdom of Lombardy.

However, the Italians had made a mistake, and anti-war movements broke out in several cities, including Turin, delaying the movement of the army.

If there was no manipulation, Adrian would not have believed it.

It must be realized that before this, the Italian people were still holding the banner of supporting the Emperor and demanding the government to declare war on the Bidea and Austria.

With things having come to this, Adrien could only think of a way to make things right. Even reporting back home, he couldn’t do it.

Because by lifting the lid, there would be many people following the bad luck. The more people that were offended, the more he, the marshal, wouldn’t be able to hang around.

“Have the rats been caught yet?”

Rats were synonymous with the Italian Independence Organization, and since the beginning of France’s annexation of the Italian regions, the bureaucrats had added an extra activity of catching rats.

“Marshal, you know, these rats are too timid to venture out ……”

(End of chapter)