Chapter 97: The Politician’s Ruthlessness
Chapter 97 – The Politician’s Ruthlessness
After receiving the battle report of the Battle of Venice, Charles Albert’s whole person was like losing his soul, his essence was gone all of a sudden, and his mouth was still chanting, “It’s over! It’s over! It’s all over!”
Minister of War Li Qi hurriedly consoled: “Your Majesty, things have not reached the worst, we still have a chance to turn the tide!”
Charles Albert’s eyes rolled back in his head and asked with a bitter smile, “What chance? This waste of a man, Badorio, has thrown away what we have accumulated for so many years in a single battle!”
In the just-concluded Venice Battle, the Sardinian Kingdom not only lost nearly 100,000 troops, but also lost the essence they had managed to gather.
It takes courage for a small country to challenge a big country, in order to challenge Austria, the Kingdom of Sardinia has been propagandizing Austria’s corruption and unbeatability for more than ten years, and only then did it gather military morale, which is now lost in one go.
Can an army without morale fight?
Charles Albert is a smart man, he knows that this challenge to Austria Sardinia Kingdom is not well prepared.
If the situation at home was not compelling, coupled with the fact that Austria was looking thin on the ground, he would never have taken the risk.
Li Qi explained with what he thought was a reasonable reason: ”Your Majesty, now we still have Lombardy in our hands, we can mobilize the local people to rise up against the Austrians, even if we can’t defeat the enemy, we can still stall them for a while!
As long as the situation is deadlocked, we can ask the British to mediate. We still owe the British a large loan, the Austrians won’t recognize the money, and for their own interests, the British must support us as well!”
In order to support the Sardinian Kingdom to unify the Italian region, John Bull but the blood money, before and after a total of tens of millions of pounds of loans, if all of a sudden gone, even if it is again a large family they can not afford.
Charlie Albert shook his head and said: ”Things are not that simple, Austria is not a soft touch, and the British are not doing charity.
Unless we are able to block the Austrian troops in Lombardy, or else we want to get through this time – difficult!”
It’s never been the case that the great powers bully the small countries, this time the Kingdom of Sardinia broke the norm and challenged Austria as a small country, and on the other hand, lost miserably, which would be tragic.
Historically, the Austrians spared the Kingdom of Sardinia, and that was because of the Hungarian rebellion, there was no energy to liquidate them.
Now the Hungarians obviously can’t be counted on, Austria even if they don’t increase their troops, just the army in the Venice area now can turn the Sardinian Kingdom into history.
“Not good, Your Majesty. Now we have to block the news immediately, if the news of the Venice meeting defeat gets out, the country will be in chaos!” Prime Minister Azeglio said as an afterthought
The crowd reacted at once, everyone was a grasshopper on a rope, no one could run away if something went wrong.
It could be said that the Sardinian Kingdom’s long history of political propaganda against the blackening of Austria had already sowed hidden dangers for now.
Impatient nationalism is the easiest to get out of control, they will not consider the actual situation, much less tolerate failure.
Charles Albert has woken up, and as a competent politician, he will make the choice that is most favorable to him.
“The government immediately stepped in to dispel the rumors, and at the same time put out false news, saying that we are in a duel with the Austrians, and are currently in a stalemate.
At the same time, carry out a universal mobilization, incorporate all the young and strong into the army, especially those young students, send them all to the battlefield for me.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should contact the British as soon as possible and ask them to mediate this war. Any conditions that the British put forward can be directly agreed to as long as they are not too excessive!”
Charlie Albert didn’t want to be overthrown by radical nationalists, so he just had to let these people go and die first.
“Your Majesty, should we remove Badolio?” Minister of War Li Qi asked
Charles Albert was in deep thought, if possible, he really hoped that a hero would come out of the Sardinian Kingdom now to save the day.
“Forget it, replacing a general on the verge of battle is a major military taboo, it’s better to let him await his punishment and make a merit!”
Hesitating again and again, Charlie Albert gave up his intention to change the man. Whoever is replaced at this time will not end up much better, and may even worsen the situation, so it would be better to let Badorio take all the blame.
……
Budapest
As the capital of the Hungarian Provisional Government and one of the few cities left that the revolutionaries could control, it was already a sea of evil.
Pedro can’t stand to watch it anymore, he just feels that his ideals are getting farther and farther away from reality, and that the revolution has brought nothing but disaster to Hungary except for the so-called freedom.
“Mr. Kosut, we have to clean up the military discipline, now the National Self-Defense Forces are turning into a bunch of bandits and robbers, if this goes on the revolution will be finished!”
Kosut, who used to have boundless energy, was sitting there with a melancholic face, with a few bloodshot lines inside those sharp eyes, but his spirits were still high.
Hearing Pei Duo Fei’s words, Kosut nodded, then smiled bitterly and said, “The long battle with the enemy is too depressing, soldiers are also human beings, they need to vent, and I’m afraid that restraining the military discipline at this time will result in even more unpredictable consequences!”
How could he not be aware of the chaos within the city? However, right now they had no choice, giving the big-headed soldiers a talk about life and ideals was not as meaningful as talking about military pay.
The war has been going on until now, the Hungarian Republican Government has long been emptied out, no money to pay the military pay can only let the soldiers to rob.
“But Mr. Kosut, we will lose our hearts and minds if we go on like this!” Pedro said reluctantly
As an idealist, compassion is only a small part of the equation, and Pedro doesn’t mind sacrificing if he can achieve victory.
But now there was a voice telling him that this would not work, and it was only then that he expected Cossut to step in and stop the disorganized soldiers from doing wrong.
Kossuth said without changing his face: “The revolution always requires a sacrifice, and this sacrifice can be you and me, the National Self-Defense Army or the ordinary Hungarian people!
History will remember the sacrifices they made, and sooner or later we will settle this score with the Austrians!
Budapest can’t be defended, everything left here is for the enemy, it might as well be destroyed!”
“You will destroy the city, you are mad!” Pedro said excitedly
Kosut said excitedly, “It is not I who am going to destroy the city, it is the Austrians who are going to destroy the city!
The enemy has now built a dam upstream, and as long as we hold out a little longer, they will release water to flood the city!
Think about it, once the Austrians release the water to attack the city, how much damage will be done downstream?
By then there will be hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people left homeless, and all of these people will become our comrades in arms as we join forces to bury this rotten empire!”
(End of chapter)