Chapter 903: Inside and Outside the City

In Mazzini's imagination, Rome should be full of vigor and vitality, with golden light on the streets, flowers flying in the sky, and the sound of stringed instruments and orchestras. There is no pain and no sadness.

His mistress, Madame Sansou, and adopted daughter Idali (Italian homonym) also had high expectations for Rome at that time, but the huge contrast of reality poured cold water on them.

Hunger and despair were like lingering clouds hanging over the sky of Rome, and people were sitting or lying aimlessly like puddles of mud.

This was completely different from Mazzini's narration along the way, and in fact, he was also wronged. At first, Mazzini only thought that 1848 was an ordinary year, with at most more disasters.

When the gunshots in Sicily rang out, Mazzini still didn't think the world would change much.

However, the speed of change in the world was far beyond his imagination. That insignificant flame burned across the entire European continent in less than a month.

Everything was beyond his expectation. Initially, Pius IX was the target they wanted to overthrow, but then he became the leader of the Italian nation and launched a holy war to recover the lost territory.

This was actually in line with Mazzini's ideals, because he felt that the Pope was the most suitable person to carry this banner. He even wrote to the Pope in person before, but did not receive a reply.

When Mazzini heard that the Pope personally pardoned him and his followers, Mazzini immediately got rid of the British surveillance and decided to return home immediately.

However, he received the news on the ship that Pius IX had been imprisoned and kicked out, and the Roman Republic government was established.

This news shocked Mazzini, but more of a shock, because he had always thought that the people needed the banner of the Pope to unite the people.

But Mazzini never expected that the Romans would succeed. There is no doubt that they will take up the banner of leading the world again.

At this time, the Italian million-strong coalition army will surely be able to reshape the glory of the Roman Empire, and the Fourth Republic of Rome will be unstoppable.

The First Republic of Rome (Latin: Res publica Romana): Founded in the 6th century BC.

According to Roman history, in 511 BC, the Romans expelled the last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, ending the Roman monarchy and establishing the Roman Republic, where the country was divided into three powers: the Senate, the consuls, and the tribal council.

The Second Roman Republic (Italian: Comune di Roma): Founded in the 12th century around 1144 AD, Giordano Pierleoni led a rebellion against the power of the pope and secular nobles.

They tried to establish a republican regime in Rome similar to the ancient Roman Republic. Subsequently, the Roman Commune (sometimes also called the Second Roman Republic) was established.

The Third Roman Republic (Italian: Repubblica Romana): Founded in the 18th century.

On March 7, 1798, France invaded the Papal States in Rome and established the new Roman Republic. Pope Pius VI was escorted to France and died in 1799.

In 1799, the Tiberina Republic was incorporated into the Roman Republic. In June 1800, the Papal States were re-established.

So the Fourth Roman Republic was established at this time.

As a result, the Kingdom of Sardinia suddenly withdrew from the war and sided with Austria, and the million Italian coalition forces became hesitant and chaotic soldiers.

The British Mediterranean Fleet was destroyed, and the French Provisional Government refused to recognize the Fourth Roman Republic.

Although Vienna was attacked from both sides by the Czechs and Hungarians, it sent all its main forces to the Italian battlefield.

The situation of the Fourth Roman Republic became precarious in an instant, but Mazzini felt that there should be room for recovery.

After all, the situation of the Austrian Empire was also precarious at this time, and perhaps some kind of agreement could be negotiated to preserve the existence of the Fourth Roman Republic.

The million soldiers on the front line in Central Italy were not vegetarians either. The Austrians were just making gestures, and the two sides would definitely reach a deal in the end.

Although Mazzini was reluctant to admit it, politics was such a petty trick.

But ideals are full, and reality is bizarre.

Pius IX actually stood on the side of the Austrians again, and the Austrians took only three days to deal with the Italian coalition forces of one million entrenched in the mountains of central Italy.

At this time, the current situation in Rome was almost to the point of his collapse. The so-called Fourth Roman Republic only controlled a small piece of land around Rome.

After the fall of Pius IX, the regimes in the Papal States were like mushrooms after rain, and dozens of large and small regimes emerged at once.

Now, let alone the whole country united to fight against foreign enemies, he would be thankful as long as there was no civil war. In fact, more than one state in the former Papal States issued a declaration of rebellion to Rome.

At this time, the situation in Rome was very bleak. The politics, economy, and diplomacy were all in a mess. The parliament only knew how to hold meetings, but could not come up with a solution to the problem.

At present, the Austrians have almost recovered the entire central Italy region, and the warlords in the Papal States must be vulnerable.

How long can a city of Rome be defended? But if he, the last national leader, ran away again like he did in 1834, the backbone of the Italian nation would be broken.

But even if he didn't run away, what could he do?

Mazzini originally thought that the Fourth Republic of Rome needed an adviser and guidance as they said, but now it seems that he is more like a scapegoat.

Garibaldi on the other side was also very distressed. The battle between the three cities of Feltre, Malestica and Verona was worthy of being recorded in history.

But then his team encountered an Austrian advance force near Venice. Due to the small number of the opponent, Garibaldi did not take it seriously at first.

Because Garibaldi fought a good battle when he led his Sequoia Army to land in Venetia. The Sequoia Army attacked the Austrian Chasseur Camp with less than 300 people and took only prisoners. More than six hundred people attended.

The Austrian Chasseurs have always been the benchmark for combat power in the Austrian army. However, in Garibaldi's view, this combat power is not worth mentioning at all.

If the combat effectiveness of the Brazilian government army is 1, then the combat effectiveness of the Austrian elite is at most three, and the combat effectiveness of his Redwood Army is at least ten.

At this time, Garibaldi had at least a thousand people under his command, and the Austrian advance team seemed to only have one company.

So this time Garibaldi did not listen to Riberio's advice. His previous victory made him confident, and he decided to attack head-on.

However, this time Garibaldi hit a wall. He had never seen such a powerful force, let alone an Austrian army that did not surrender.

The Austrians encountered before could capture them at any time as long as they could defeat their front row.

But in this battle, two-thirds of the freedom fighters brought by Garibaldi from South America were lost, and the newly joined Italians suffered even more heavy losses.

In the end, the entire team lost one-third of its strength, but it failed to capture the Austrian vanguard.

Garibaldi himself was shot, but fortunately he had always been very lucky and only had a piece of flesh shot off his shoulder.

Note: Garibaldi's wife is an Indian named Adani Liberio Garibaldi (she took her husband's surname after marriage).

In this battle, the Indian warriors Riberio brought from his hometown also suffered heavy losses. Riberio was not as impulsive as Garibaldi. In fact, she was very calm, even when she lost her relatives.

At that time, Riberio suggested that her husband leave Venetia immediately because she knew very well that this army was different from any army she had seen before.

And Riberio had a very strong hunch that this kind of force would not appear alone.

However, the enthusiastic Garibaldi wanted to return to Verona to mobilize reinforcements. As a result, when they returned to Verona, the city returned to the hands of the Austrians again.

This put them into an extremely passive situation, but what was even more terrifying than this was that the name Garibaldi had become widely known for some reason.

The Austrian government even offered a huge reward of 100,000 florins for him. You must know that Garibaldi was only worth 500 pounds (5,000 florins) to the Brazilian government forces.

But this wasn't the craziest thing. Soon the Austrian government's personal reward for Garibaldi was increased to 200,000, and then 500,000.

Driven by this extremely exaggerated interest, soldiers within the Redwood Army even focused on Garibaldi's head, including many veterans who had followed Garibaldi through life and death.

Although he fled back to Rome at this time, Garibaldi did not dare to slack off at all because his head was too valuable.

Fortunately, I had been assassinated for a period of time in Garibaldi, Brazil, so I could barely cope with it at this time, but fatigue and embarrassment were inevitable.

However, they encountered a new crisis before they could recover. The Austrian army was already approaching the city of Rome.

Moreover, rumors about the Austrian army are flying all over the sky this time. Some people say that it was not the Austrians who defeated La Boer, but the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

At that time, the sky was filled with those kind of winged monsters, and they blocked out the sun in groups. Fire rained down from the sky, and then they swallowed up the army of millions of demons.

This is the only explanation that makes sense at this time. As for the Austrians using 50,000 troops to break through a million troops, no one would believe it.

It would be better to believe that there are really four horsemen of the apocalypse coming to help. However, although the Bereny Valley is not a natural danger, such a big and small place is indeed easy to defend and difficult to attack.

It was somewhat unexpected that the Austrians could break through the Bereni Valley in such a short period of time, but Garibaldi was not in the mood to think about the causes and consequences of this battle at this time.

Because now he and Mazzini are facing the same problem at this time, should they escape? Stay?

Those who stay will probably be able to become martyrs, but if they all die, who will inherit the great cause of the Italian nation?

Those liberals in power at this time? Since Garibaldi arrived before Mazzini, he knew more about what these people were doing, and he felt disgusted from the bottom of his heart.

But he was helpless. The changes in Garibaldi were seen by Riberio. She was a smart woman and did not have so many so-called hero complexes, so she strongly advocated leaving this place of right and wrong.

Compared to the tense and depressing atmosphere in Rome, the Austrian side seemed much more relaxed.

The only one who was a little melancholy was Archduke Albrecht. He was arranging tactics at this time. The most difficult thing among them was how to capture Rome without destroying the city as much as possible.

What made him even more unhappy was that this request was not made by Pius IX, but by Franz.

War is always deadly, so how can a siege not destroy the city?

Fortunately, Franz was referring mainly to the area near the Vatican, as well as some important monuments and churches such as the ancient Roman Colosseum.

Albrecht received a very detailed map, but he was more curious about what Franz was thinking.

Instead of wasting time, he might as well learn how to get more benefits from the Papal States like a politician. Albrecht was not a greedy person, but he felt that war should be like this, conquering cities, eating big chunks of meat, and drinking big bowls of wine.

Franz accepted the peace agreement that did not annex the Papal States, which puzzled Albrecht. What were they fighting for?

As for the negative return theory that Franz mentioned, Albrecht could not accept it. After all, Russia and Britain were so big, and they did not stop expanding. There was no emperor in the past who did not want to expand his territory.

Everything seemed to have changed when Franz came to him. He opposed the annexation of Serbia and even opposed excessive suppression of the Ottomans. Now it was the same in Central Italy.

In Albrecht's memory, Franz was the toughest against France, but France was the toughest among these countries.

He really couldn't understand why a man who dared to snatch food from the mouth of France and poke the anus of the British didn't dare to annex the Papal States and dared to bravely enter the Balkans.

Franz really couldn't explain it to him. Who dared to touch that time bomb and powder keg!

Fortunately, Albrecht had the characteristics of a soldier. As long as Franz said it in the form of an order, the former would execute it without hesitation.

Regarding the capture of Rome, Franz felt that it was better to attack the heart and the city, not to mention how the history books would criticize if Rome was really destroyed.

The impact on the international situation alone is unimaginable, because this behavior is really too bad. War is the continuation of politics, and things that are not good for politics should naturally not be done.

Although Vienna said it was extremely urgent, Franz had already left a backup plan. He was not afraid that those people would not make trouble, but that they would not dare to make trouble and would not give Franz a legitimate opportunity to deal with them.

As the privileged class of nobles, big businessmen, bankers, and Jewish financial groups that still don't know how to stand.

These people once infiltrated the politics, economy, military, and people's livelihood of the Austrian Empire. But due to the emergence of Franz, the rise of the Austrian Empire's economy made them lose what they thought was the most fundamental.

And the war at this time was the best opportunity for both sides. They were ready to tame the emperor and the government, and Franz also intended to solve them once and for all.

The funniest thing is that at this time, the capitalists and factory owners of the Austrian Empire actually considered standing on the side of the privileged class.

It seems that only capital has aggregation, but capitalists do not.

Because at this time, the largest capitalist in the entire Austrian Empire is Franz or the Austrian Imperial Family. What they control includes but is not limited to industry, commerce, railways, land, and oceans, and at this time, the sky may also be counted.