Chapter 899 This Is Not Sparta

Venice City.

Franz calculated that the 180,000 troops that could be mobilized at this time accounted for one-third of the total strength of the Austrian Empire Army.

After completing the internal cleanup, he finally got rid of the shackles of the domestic nobles for the first time.

Although Albrecht and Friedrich were also nobles, they at least did not have the idea of ​​being a borer at present.

At least one-third of the so-called Italian coalition had fled. After all, after losing the banner of the Pope, the appeal of nationalism did not seem to be so strong.

This was still under the premise that La Poer adopted tough control measures. If it were not for the deterrence of severe punishments, the Italian coalition might have ceased to exist at this time.

However, even so, in the absence of weapons and supplies, their morale was extremely low. Now La Poer occupied the dangerous Hukou terrain, so he could barely hold on.

In fact, Albrecht had already found a way to break through, but Franz felt that no matter how wonderful the performance was without an audience, it would lack a little feeling.

The audience Franz referred to was naturally Pius IX. Although he himself did not understand military affairs, his advisers told him.

At this time, the terrain occupied by La Poule was like Thermopylae, where the Spartans used only 300 warriors to resist the attack of the Persian army of one million.

This shocked Pius IX greatly, because at this time, the traitor La Poule was the one with more people.

In fact, there were more than 5,000 vassal troops and foreign coalition forces behind the so-called 300 warriors, and the Persians were far from a million.

"Respected Archduke Franz. How many people are you going to use to attack the Berene Valley?"

Pius IX pretended to be calm, but his moving lips and trembling hands could not deceive others.

The Pope's acting ability was really poor, but Franz still tried his best to cooperate and pretend that he didn't see it.

"Your Holiness, there are still remnants of bandits active in the Venetian region. We still need some troops to maintain order."

"Respected Archduke Franz, I hope you know that there are still more than 100,000 enemies, and they occupy advantageous terrain.

And those treacherous people in Rome are persecuting innocent people. I hope you can take back the holy city as soon as possible.

Can you tell me the total number of troops you can mobilize now?"

It was a bit difficult for Pius IX to describe and address a child under the age of 18 like Franz with "respected" and "you", but he still did it, which shows that he was really at the end of his rope.

"Fifty thousand."

Franz answered very straightforwardly.

"Is it too little?"

This was completely different from what Pius IX had in mind, but he still thought of the raid on Rome from the sea mentioned by Stefan Capela before.

"Is Austria going to attack Rome from the sea? What about the traitor La Poule?"

"No, Your Holiness. The Austrian Imperial Navy will not participate in this operation. We will directly defeat La Poule's rebels from the front and then liberate the Holy City."

Pius IX and his advisers stared at Franz, hoping that this was just a bad joke.

But Franz looked very serious, and they all began to doubt the correctness of coming to Venice to ask Austria for help.

But in fact, apart from Austria, Pius IX had no place to turn to for help at this time, as there were only a few Catholic powers on the European continent.

Spain was unable to take care of itself, and the French provisional government came to power. When they were in revolution, they even killed their own king, not to mention him, a foreign pope.

After excluding France and Spain, Austria became the only option.

In fact, there was also Naples, but at this time Ferdinand II also sent troops to participate in the "holy war", and he also formed a liberal government.

Pius IX was afraid that the same thing would happen in Naples as in the Papal States, so he did not go to Naples first as in history.

Now Austria has sent such a young archduke. Although the world has a high opinion of him, in the eyes of Pius IX, this child is probably a fool. He can only sigh that he is unlucky.

In the reverse battle of Thermopylae with 50,000 to 150,000 troops, Pius IX really didn't know how Austria would win this war.

However, when he arrived at the battlefield, he found that everything in front of him was beyond his cognition.

La Poer's army defended in the Hukou terrain. No matter how many people the attacking side had, the number of troops fighting against the other side at the same time could not exceed 2,000.

On the other side of the Hukou was a fan, and the defending side could deploy several times the troops and firepower of the attacking side.

No matter how you look at it, Austria, as the attacking side, will be crushed by an absolute disadvantage. Even if it wins the final victory, the casualties must be astronomical.

La Poer also thinks so. He just hopes that more people can be buried with him.

For some reason, La Poer thought of a country called Qin in the far east. The first king of that country created an underground army for himself.

"Maybe he thinks so too."

Lapoll said to himself, and he could not help but feel a sense of sympathy with the emperor who was thousands of miles away and a thousand years apart.

"Damn Austria, damn the Pope, damn Italy, go to hell!"

Lapoll cursed while waving his whip to drive the soldiers to the position.

The geology of the mountains in central Italy is very hard and not suitable for digging, but Lapoll doesn't care about that. He just wants to dig a trench, and no one can stop him.

But the soldier in front of him suddenly stopped, and even when the whip hit him, he didn't react, just looked straight up at the sky.

"Damn it! Lazy guy!"

Lapol cursed and looked up, and he was so surprised that he couldn't close his mouth.

A huge oval monster was floating in the sky. It had no wings or feathers, but it could fly in the air, and flames would spurt out from behind its butt from time to time.

"Oh my God! God! What kind of monster is that!"

At this moment, all the soldiers of the former Italian coalition exclaimed. This was the first time they saw such a huge aircraft.

Before there was no concept of aircraft, the shock of seeing an airship for the first time can be imagined.

Some people were scared to shit and urinate, some tried to bury their heads in the soil so that they might not be discovered by the monster in the sky, and some knelt down to pray. They always like to connect unknown things with gods.

Lapol was also scared to the point of collapsing on the ground and constantly making the sign of the cross on his chest, as if someone would come to protect him.

But this novelty can also arouse the curiosity of some people. They found that there was someone in the "belly" of the monster.

"Look! There is someone! There is someone! That's a person!"

As the first batch of airship soldiers of the Austrian Empire, they are very proud, especially when they see the people looking up below, they really have a feeling of becoming gods.

It's just that they are playing the role of the God of Destruction. A wooden barrel was pushed down from the airship.

Then a deafening roar sounded in the valley, and wood chips, smoke, and minced meat were splashed everywhere.

"This is not Sparta."