The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 858 The Kingdom of Sardinia joins the war
March 1848, 3, Milan.

The entire street seemed unusually quiet. According to the informant, today would be the day of the Milan uprising.

Marshal Radetzki declared martial law immediately, which was actually very painful for him personally. After all, the old marshal loved this land deeply.

In fact, Marshal Radetzki had dismissed quite a few Lombard officers and soldiers in the previous week.

This is not only the kindness of the old marshal to prevent fratricide, but also to eliminate unstable factors in the army. After all, the knives stabbed by one's own people are often the deepest.

"Children, take the money and leave with your families. At least don't be an enemy of the empire. This is not a request, but a piece of advice."

As a senior veteran and the main person in charge in the Lombardy region, Radetzky knew exactly what Franz was going to do, and he would resolutely implement the orders of the General Staff.

It's just that he didn't want to destroy this beautiful city unless he had to.
However, as the alarm bells blared, fighting was imminent, and the people began to rush to the city hall and armory like crazy.

On one side are the people with tricolor flags and crude weapons, and on the other side are the troops who have been preparing for a long time. The battle between the two sides can be imagined.

In just two hours, blood and corpses covered the entire street. The narrow streets greatly limited the insurgents' numerical advantage, and at the same time infinitely amplified the power of artillery.

No carbon-based creature can withstand the direct fire from artillery at close range. The shotshells exploded above the heads of the crowd, and countless small steel balls were embedded in the human body under the urging of gunpowder.

The wails and screams were endless, but this was just the beginning. Solid bullets, explosive bullets, and chain bullets completely destroyed the morale of the insurrectionists.

The young soldier began to vomit, and the veteran comforted the new soldier while vomiting.

"If we don't fight back, we will be the ones who die. And I guarantee you, if they do it, we will be [-] times worse than those corpses."

Faced with corpses all over the ground, the rebels in Milan were divided. Some felt that they should work together to continue to use powerful troops to destroy the enemy, while others felt that they should surrender as soon as possible because the gap between the two sides was too large.

In fact, before the uprising began, the leader of the Republicans, Carlo Cattaneo, opposed the armed uprising, because the total number of Austrian troops inside and outside Milan was 5, and they were highly disciplined.

Marshal Radetzki was not a mediocre person, and he had a high status in the minds of the soldiers.In addition, all commanding heights and traffic arteries in Milan have been occupied by the Austrian army.

The leaders of the rebel army were a group of Jesuit priests and a few intellectuals who were dizzy at the sight of blood. The rebel army cut bread most with knives. They had no weapons and no qualified leader.

Carlo Cattaneo felt that it was more reliable to convince the Austrians with words than to use force.

However, other rebel leaders did not agree with his view. They felt that Cattaneo was a capitulator and wanted to imprison him.

In the end, it was the moderate leader Count Casarte who spoke out to prevent the Republicans from imprisoning their later leader.

Cassart himself was a traditional nobleman. He made a bet between the Kingdom of Sardinia and Austria. His eldest son went to serve in the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia, and his second son went to study in Austria.

This was not uncommon among traditional nobles, but the intrusion of Pius IX and the republicans really disrupted his plans.

Pius IX wanted to unify Italy, which was a crazy idea for Cassart, and the Republicans wanted independence, which was even crazier for Cassart.

But the survival wisdom of thousands of years as a nobleman told him that he should preserve his strength now. This is not only the strength of his own family but also the strength of Lombardy. After all, a family is too insignificant in front of a country.Cassart's suggestion was to negotiate for peace. Although it sounded very naive, historically Cassart used the opportunity of peace negotiations to convince Heinrich O'Donnell, the governor of Lombardy, that the only option was to lift martial law. to end this rebellion.

When O'Donnell forced Radetzky's troops to leave, the Lombards launched a short but effective raid to capture the naive governor.

After O'Donnell signed a series of humiliating treaties, he was imprisoned by the Lombards in a moldy wine cellar.

When the Austrian Empire's army regained the city of Milan, people remembered the unfortunate governor. By this time, he had already turned into a mummy.

In fact, O'Donnell cannot be entirely blamed for being too naive. After all, Count Cassarte is an Austrian official, an Austrian noble, and the mayor of Milan.

At this time, there should not be too many such young men in the Northern Italian bureaucracy, but fortunately a general staff was established, and Franz announced the order to enter the wartime mechanism directly through Vienna.

This would at least ensure that Radetzky's army would not be subject to internal constraints. Secondly, the continued internal conflict between delegated officials and local officials would prevent the two sides from joining forces.

As a result, the duplicitous identity of Count Cassarte was exposed, and Governor O'Donnell naturally would not just rely on the other party's orders.

In fact, Governor O'Donnell still had some integrity and intelligence. After seeing the other party's true face, he angrily scolded the other party and walked away.

Governor O'Donnell knew that his ability was limited and could not cope with the coming crisis, so he resigned from his position as governor and prepared to go home to rest in his old age.

For such a big noble, it is unrealistic to ask them to be loyal to the country. It is good to be able to do this without causing trouble to the country or taking the opportunity to make war fortune.

These people have a great cause and as long as they want, no country will refuse to accept them.Retiring early is still decent. If Governor O'Donnell makes the same mistake as in history, Franz doesn't mind helping him look decent.

Earl O'Donnell's guard had a large number of insiders installed by Franz. This was not difficult for the latter, but the former could not do anything even if he knew about it.

Without Governor O'Donnell to hold him back, the Austrian army unilaterally crushed the Milanese rebels.

However, due to the influence of religion and nationalism, anti-Austrian uprisings began to occur in other cities.

Seeing the war in northern Italy, coupled with the 45 Italian coalition troops as a shot in the arm, Carlo Alberto felt that it was time.

On March 1848, 3, the Kingdom of Sardinia officially declared war on the Austrian Empire.

Carlo Alberto knew very well that the Austrian Empire was not a fragile opponent. He knew that even if it seemed that the Austrian Empire's rule in northern Italy was crumbling, he had to go all out to have any chance of winning.

But at the same time, as an old bastard, he has already found a way out for himself.

Carlo Alberto first installed a naïve liberal politician as Prime Minister Giovanni Gronzi, and then directly promulgated a emasculated version of the constitution.

The constitution did little to combat autocracy, but it gave the state the right to impose additional war taxes and compulsory military service.

(End of this chapter)