Holy Roman Empire - Chapter 64

Chapter 64: Chapter 64: Riding a Tiger, Hard to Dismount

Translator: 549690339

Milan City

Marshal Bardolli had been extremely vexed lately. Ever since April 7th, when the Kingdom of Sardinia announced the annexation of Lombardy, hordes of democrats had emerged to protest.

Without a doubt, he, as a Marshal, had no say in matters of state, let alone these commoners; naturally, he had sent troops to disperse them.

Fortunately, the Austrian Army had already suppressed a round of stubborn resistance, killing off most of the hard bones. Those from the provisional government had been either bribed or placed under house arrest, and the rest were merely armchair strategists.

“Your Excellency, another group of petitioners has arrived outside, requesting your deployment of troops to recapture Venice!” whispered the adjutant.

This was not the first time a petitioning group had surfaced, including those seeking independence, autonomy, or additional food allotments.

In any case, regardless of whether Bardolli had any authority, the people of the Lombardy Region seemed to have decided he was their go-to person for matters, constantly petitioning the Marshal for various issues.

Being a hero was not an easy task; in order to maintain his illustrious image, Bardolli had to exhibit a semblance of being receptive to advice.

Apart from those demanding independence, whom he had driven off with troops, he met with representatives of other petitioning groups to convey his own difficulties.

For instance, “soldiers do not interfere in politics” was the reason he used most frequently.

After repeating it many times, Bardolli himself had almost begun to believe it was true, and recently he rarely meddled with the administrative affairs of the Lombardy Region unless the local government officials proactively sought him out.

“Let their representatives come in!” said Bardolli, frowning.

There was no avoiding it this time. Dispatching troops to the Venice Area was not just a political issue, but more a military one. As the command of the frontline troops of the Kingdom of Sardinia was under his control, this time they had approached the right person.

Soon two young men with the appearance of students were brought in, causing Bardolli’s frown to tighten even more—adolescents full of juvenile fantasies were the most troublesome.

“Respected Marshal, my name is Lim, and this is Townsend. We are honored to meet you!”

Observing the two excited youths, Bardolli politely responded, “I am also pleased to meet you. May I first see the petition?”

“Oh, of course!” answered Lim promptly.

Having received the petition, Bardolli quickly scanned through it. It was a blood-letter, full of fiery contents, with dense signatures at the end—he was almost moved by it.

“I will keep this petition and convey it to the King as soon as possible. However, when we will launch an attack on Venice is a military secret that I cannot disclose.

We are currently preparing for the military assault. Everyone knows what happened recently. Due to insufficient preparation, we all ended up hungry.

This time we have learned our lesson, so we are taking more time to prepare for the war. We cannot afford to halt military action again due to food issues.

The Austrians’ total military strength amounts to five or six hundred thousand.

Once the war for Venice breaks out, they will certainly send reinforcements. Currently, my forces are insufficient.

Reinforcements from within our country are still on their way, and the new recruits recently conscripted in Lombardy are still in training. All this requires time.

“But rest assured, the final victory will surely belong to us!”

After hearing Marshal Badoglio’s explanation, the two young men kept nodding. They were both military novices and, in an age without the internet, they were unclear about the domestic situation in Austria.

According to normal thinking, Austria was very powerful. If Marshal Badoglio, who could defeat Austria, was the greatest general of the time, then everything he said must be right.

“Victory will surely be ours, Your Excellency Marshal, we all believe in you. You definitely are not the coward rumored on the outside; those are just people jealous of your talent!” Townsend blurted out without thinking.

A herd of alpacas suddenly seemed to run through Badoglio’s heart. Could you not be so blunt? That’s how you end up without friends.

Attack Venice? Wasn’t that nonsense? Did they really think Austria was made of paper?

Now he had nominally 150,000 troops at hand, nearly a third more than the opposing Austrians, but this 150,000-strong army was waterlogged, with nearly 70,000 of them being local recruits.

The Italians were never trusted by the Vienna Government, so the Austrian army didn’t have reserves in the area. Now, the soldiers Badoglio had recruited were basically just farmers who had just put down their hoes or workers from the cities.

Even junior officers were in short supply. The Italian Area was not the Germany Region, especially the commercially advanced Lombardy; the military literacy of the local nobility had plummeted.

One could say that this makeshift army was just to make up the numbers. Now they didn’t even have enough rifles to arm each man. They were passable for logistics and maintaining local order.

If sent to the battlefield, it would be like handing over heads to the enemy. The real forces in this war were still the Sardinian Army.

80,000 Sardinian Army troops versus 100,000 Austrian Army troops. No matter how you looked at it, it didn’t add up. That was the real reason they had stopped advancing.

But the public didn’t know this; they were simply calculating the total military strength. The Austrians had a total of only 100,000 troops in the Italian Area and had lost several thousand due to suppressing the revolution.

150 ,ooo Sardinian troops with the cooperation of the Venetian people — couldn’t they defeat the modest Austrian army of just over 90,000?

Marshal Badoglio’s pressure still wasn’t huge. The power base from the native Lombardy had just switched allegiance to the Kingdom of Sardinia and dared not cause trouble; for now, it was student representatives coming in, and he could still cheat them over the short term.

King Charles was different, however. Inside Sardinia, various groups abounded.

He had merely used the war to divert internal strife, only to overplay his hand. Now, radical nationalists were urging him to deploy troops to Venice daily.

This was his own mess. To ease the political pressure within the country, King

Charles had extensively propagated the Sardinian Army’s victory over the Austrians in Lombardy, leading many to mistakenly believe that Austria was no big deal.

Public opinion is the easiest to fall into madness. Charles Albert had forgotten the rule: too much is as bad as too little. Or perhaps, even if he knew, it made no difference; he no longer had control over the narrative.

Now, with nationalism soaring in the Italian Area and Sardinia being the hotbed of such intense nationalism, stimulated by the defeat of the Austrian army, nationalism had flared up once more.

At this time, nationalism mixed with patriotism had reached the brink of losing control, and there were those constantly reminding them that the Venice Area was still under Austrian rule.

Since the Kingdom of Sardinia’s annexation of Lombardy, all citizens had been rejoicing at the prospect of a step further towards the unification of Italy, and now the Venice Area controlled by Austria seemed all the more an eyesore.

The Kingdom of Sardinia was already in too deep to back out!