Chapter 790: Assistance? (Part 2)

Northern Italy, Kingdom of Sardinia.

Carlo Alberto was not a king willing to be lonely. He always wanted to expand his territory with a dynastic war.

The Swiss civil war at this time was undoubtedly an opportunity, so Carlo Alberto sent a batch of weapons and supplies to the Orthodox Alliance as soon as possible.

After the supplies were delivered to Ticino, the soldiers of the Kingdom of Sardinia left. After all, the Free Alliance threatened to blow up the mountain road.

It would not be good for the Kingdom of Sardinia to really force these guys to jump off the wall, and Carlo Alberto was even more afraid that the two powerful neighbors around would take the opportunity to attack.

However, what he didn't know was that all these things were detained by Ticino, and he didn't know that Ticino had joined the Free Alliance at this time.

That's right! In fact, as long as the money is in place, or it is shameless enough, the Catholic states can also join the Protestant Alliance to beat the Catholic Alliance together.

Prince Metternich also did this kind of stupid thing in history. When the Austrian Empire's economy was on the verge of collapse, he collected 30 million florins and 20,000 rifles and sent them to Ticino to support the Orthodox League.

The result was that the Free League used the money sent by His Excellency the Prince to recruit soldiers and then beat his allies with Austrian weapons.

However, Franz had already sent the money and weapons to Galicia at this time, and he could use these things to train another army.

This army was mainly composed of former refugees and serfs. They had just been allocated land and had finally started a new life. They were most enthusiastic about protecting their own way of survival, and they also had a strong sense of belonging and worship for the country of Austria.

Coupled with patriotic education and brainwashing by the church, it will be an important force in Franz's hands in the future.

The veterans who were responsible for the training were some retired veterans from the Royal Dragoon Regiment. Most of these people did not participate in the previous Galician campaign. They retired because they were too old or because of injuries they had suffered in Hungary.

Although Franz gave each retired veteran a considerable pension, these people would not be willing to let their skills, which they had honed for a lifetime, disappear.

So Franz gave them another chance, and these people's loyalty was guaranteed, and they would not train a rebel army for Austria.

Back to the point, most of the remaining southern German countries were powerless, after all, Baden and Württemberg were not really powerful countries.

Of course, there were also the sixth country like Bavaria, which not only did not provide friendly sponsorship, but also asked for benefits from the Orthodox Alliance, and even more excessively, it took money but did not do anything.

However, the far-away Prussian King Frederick William IV was very concerned about this, because his family's territory, Neuschwanstein, was in it.

Although this territory often resisted taxes, it was still the property of Brandenburg. If these Swiss took the opportunity to rebel, the loss would be great.

So Frederick William IV sent his brother William Friedrich Ludwig, the famous Prince of Buckshot, William I, with 300 guards to protect the family property.

This Buckshot Prince joined the army at the age of 10, and joined the army with the rank of captain at the age of 17 to participate in the anti-Napoleonic war, and fought fiercely with Napoleon's army in Bar-sur-Aub near Frankfurt.

So he didn't care about this trip to Switzerland. In fact, there was another reason, that is, the powers at that time generally believed that the Swiss Confederation's army was not as large as they boasted.

After all, it was not uncommon to water down the number of troops in this era, especially for small countries to exaggerate in order to protect themselves. For example, Belgium also claimed to have 200,000 troops before, but it was still unknown whether there were actually 20,000.

The new State Representative Constantine Sigwart and Marshal Ulrich Salis had high hopes for these helps, but Archduke Karl didn't care.

Because I have discussed the situation of the Swiss civil war with Franz countless times before. Before the civil war expands, the great powers cannot send troops to intervene.

This is not because the threat of the Free Alliance and Britain is really that great, but the mutual restraint between France and Austria, the century-old feud.

Theoretically, if Austria and France want to divide Switzerland, no country can stop them, unless Russia and Britain intervene at the same time, but whether the news can reach St. Petersburg before the division is completed is still a question.

Nevertheless, the century-old feud between France and Austria is not so easy to resolve, just like the previous division of Belgium.

As long as the French have the opportunity, they will try to stab the back. Similarly, the French do not trust the Austrians, so there is no basis for mutual trust, let alone cooperation.

And once the buffer zone of Switzerland is lost, Austria and France will come into direct contact, and the direct result of this will be war, endless war, and there are too many conflicts of interest between the two sides.

So Franz does not want to divide Switzerland with France, and he does not want Switzerland, the sixth, to be falsely neutral every time, but really sit on the fence, and take the benefits and curse.

Either the Legitimacy Alliance defeated the Liberal Alliance, or it would give the powers a reason to intervene.

Archduke Karl knew what he should do, and he knew the key to victory in this war. There were too many mountains in the Swiss Confederation. If he wanted to achieve a unilateral victory, he would fall into a quagmire like the Spanish War.

So he did not intend to conquer all regions by force from the beginning. Those too many miscellaneous soldiers would naturally have no use except wasting food.

And Marshal Ulrich Salis did not lie about one thing, that is, Switzerland's mobilization capacity far exceeds the imagination of the great powers. The energy that this universal conscription system can exert is unimaginable for countries like Austria that still practice the conscription system.

At first, according to Archduke Karl's estimate, the Swiss Confederation could only pull out 100,000 troops at most, if it were based on Austrian standards.

But the reality is that the Legitimacy Alliance alone can easily pull out 100,000 troops, and this is not at full capacity.

According to intelligence, the Liberal Alliance has more troops, and he dare not imagine how many soldiers this country can recruit if it tries its best.

However, Archduke Karl understood why Franz had to intervene in the Swiss civil war. Such a threat should not exist, let alone be out of Austria's control.

Just as the two sides were intensively deploying their troops, the Liberal Alliance once again invited the Legitimacy Alliance to convene a federal conference to discuss the country's "tax issues."

Vienna, Hofburg Palace.

Prince Metternich was very depressed because Franz intercepted his relief supplies to Switzerland.

But what made him even more angry was that the tiny country of Switzerland dared to openly challenge the Vienna System and the Agreement of 1843.

This was not the first time that the Swiss Freedom League had challenged his bottom line. It had previously taken in the Carbonari and the Polish Restoration Army and funded rebels in Austria.

If Switzerland was not a buffer zone between Austria and France, he would definitely let those lunatics know how many guns, artillery and horses the Austrian Empire had.