Chapter 1052: Getting a Bargain

The collapse of his ideals made Garibaldi a little distracted. In his ideal, a free army should not be like this.

Garibaldi had not experienced the anti-French war, and the witnesses of that war had mixed opinions about it, but at this time, the French definitely did not do a good job in this war.

When they retreated, they took everything they could take away, and destroyed what they could not take away. The oath of the inviolability of private property was like fart in their eyes.

Radetzky's army was disciplined, and all the cities that gave up resistance along the way were basically safe and sound.

For towns that resisted to the end, Radetzky would directly use rockets to turn the town into a sea of ​​fire, and the army would not stop, after all, their primary goal was to capture Genoa.

Although the vanguard advanced very quickly, Benedek, as the battlefield commander, moved very slowly.

Benedek always believed that the French army would definitely send strong reinforcements, and he must be prepared to retreat at any time, deploy defenses along the way, and send a large number of reconnaissance troops as early warning.

However, the French army not only did not send troops to support Genoa, but also kept transferring Genoa's troops to Piedmont.

The expected hard battle did not happen, and not even a decent battle happened. Benedek's caution seemed meaningless, but this was the key point mentioned by Marshal Radetzky.

Garibaldi did not understand it either. As a low-level soldier who made a mistake, he had few channels to obtain information, but he clearly heard that the French army had hundreds of thousands of people.

Was the process of fighting in Genoa, the focal area of ​​this war, too dull?

Just like the battle in Venice, the Austrian army seemed to have only two states, either chasing others or being chased.

When arriving at the port of Genoa, all the mysteries were revealed.

Genoa had already planted the flag of the Austrian Empire, and the marines were drinking and playing cards in front of the gate.

They did not hide their contempt in their hearts and looked at their late army comrades with contempt, and even deliberately sang the impromptu pop songs in the Venetian dialect.

"The sun rises from the sea, and the earth is still asleep.

The brave sailors have won the victory under the guidance of the waves,

and the stupid ducks on land are still wandering in their dreams.

They can neither swim nor run, stupid ducks in Sicily."

In fact, the northern Italians, especially those near the Venetians, despise the southern Italians represented by the Sicilians, and even have some hostility.

Most of the army officers could not understand, and some officers from northern Italy could understand but pretended not to hear, so the handover between the two sides was smooth.

Only those Sicilian refugees who temporarily joined the army were indignant, but the facts in front of them could not be refuted.

The navy had already taken Genoa, and even forced the French army to abandon the plan to hold on to Genoa and shrink its forces.

The strategic goal was achieved, and the soldiers received the rewards promised before the war. Most of the soldiers from Sicily had forgotten their previous unhappiness.

But Garibaldi could not be happy. He was fighting for the liberation of Italy, but why did those Venetians laugh at him?

The same is true in the Papal States. People just want to keep their own piece of land and gain more power.

Every ruler talks about liberating Italy, but they never put it into practice.

Whether it is Alberto, Manin, the Pope, or those Roman republicans, the liberation of Italy in the French mouth is just a lie.

There are ruins everywhere, displaced refugees everywhere. The port that was once full of laughter and joy has become depressed and lonely. The warm and noisy bars are now dark, and the war has engulfed everything.

In the middle of the night, transactions that are darker than the night and dirtier than the alleys are constantly taking place in the dirty alleys.

However, Garibaldi is not qualified to condemn all this at this time, because it seems that all of this was caused by him and them.

The war did not become a flame that engulfed the old world, but magnified the original darkness without limit.

Garibaldi took out all his property and borrowed a lot of money, but it was still a drop in the bucket for the huge number of refugees.

Moreover, when his comrades knew what Garibaldi had done, instead of supporting and encouraging him, they began to urge him to pay back the money.

Garibaldi was a brave warrior. He was never afraid of death and difficulties. He had defeated the enemy with fewer troops and turned defeat into victory countless times. He had also escaped death countless times and stood at the forefront of the team wearing eye-catching clothes many times.

He had experienced countless things in his life that could be called legendary. He had experienced them countless times. There were bounties on his head in both the northern and southern hemispheres. His reputation alone had surpassed that of Blackbeard, who was once a powerful figure in the Caribbean.

None of these defeated him, but at this time Garibaldi was going crazy by himself.

Fortunately, Riberio had always been by Garibaldi's side. His wife's method of waking her husband up was also very simple and crude, very Indian-style, that is, a hard slap in the face and the behavior of making the same sound all night.

The next day, Garibaldi again stood on the beach with a lame leg, but this time he was not complaining and wanted to jump into the sea, but simply felt the broad mind of the sea and admired its magnificent beauty.

At this time, Garibaldi found that merchant ships flying the Austrian flag were approaching the port, and soon he found that the ships were full of food.

A group of officials and priests arrived at the same time as the food. They requisitioned churches and town halls in the city to distribute relief meals.

However, Franz understood that it was not enough to restore the vitality of a city by means of relief alone, and excessive control would only lead to the rampant black market.

First, the Austrian government would buy land from people whose houses had become ruins, and then rebuild the city according to the drawings given by the Austrian Imperial Urban Design Institute in order to start a new round of work-for-relief.

After the city construction is completed, the built houses will be sold to the Genoese. Of course, the original owners can enjoy a certain degree of discount.

This is mainly to prevent some people from playing tricks.

In addition, the port and entertainment, catering, and service facilities must be repaired first, because these are the fastest way to make money.

Of course, Franz could not do all this in vain. During this period, all transactions needed to use the new banknotes of the Austrian Empire. Relatively speaking, other currencies except the new banknotes of the Austrian Empire could not be used.

As for the reasons, there are as many as you want, such as preventing enemy infiltration, easy relief, and convenient management. It can even be said that the banknotes of the Austrian Empire are more useful and safer than the currencies of other countries.

There was almost no opposition, because the Genoese had just suffered a catastrophe, and almost all of their valuables were robbed by the French, and these banknotes with purchasing power were exchanged for their houses that had become ruins.

Everyone felt that they had picked up a great bargain, and Franz was no exception.