The Sun Never Sets In Spain

This opportunity came soon...

Although the previous attacks on the Pope were more of the spontaneous behavior of veterans, they can attack at the same time inside and outside the city, and there must be a means of contact between them.

In other words, someone can bypass Rome’s city defense forces and send the news.

There may be only two things Prim can think of. One is that in the city that is responsible for the defense of the Papal State, there are defenders colluding with the outside world.

The second is the businessmen in Rome. Someone negotiated the time of the attack with the outside world through the opportunity of maritime trade.

No matter what the truth is, Primm can't investigate it. It's not in Spain, and he doesn't even know a few people.

Moreover, the military leaders and the church bishops did not agree to make the matter big. Of course, they were very annoyed by the attack on the Pope, but at the time of the enemy, they thought that these trivial matters could be set aside.

Just when everyone thought the incident had passed, a special investigation team of the Progressive Guard of 16 men arrived in Rome.

Their task is to find out the network of relationships without causing as much attention as possible.

This task was instructed by Adolf, but he didn't want to do anything. In fact, he didn't care about the life or death of the Pope.

It's just that he thinks that secretly controlling this information channel may be helpful to the war.

The quality of the members of the Progressive Guard is much higher than that of Catalonia.

After the Progressive Party became a national party, many young people became interested in the first and only party armed forces in Spain.

Once its members were mainly farmers around Barcelona, ​​but now it has completed a major exchange. The members of the Guard who failed to grow quickly have retired and went to various cities to become police officers.

Although the layoff rate exceeded 80% at one time, its number did not decrease but increased, reaching a total of 9,000.

9000 belonged directly to the elite armed forces of the royal family. This was a terrifying force, capable of completing 45 court coups.

Under their influence, the high-level Spanish government is far less free than during Isabella's administration, and even the parliament is dead in name.

Influential, socially influential, and the work content is interesting and in line with the boy’s fantasy. Thanks to all these factors, the average education level of the Progressive Guard has reached middle school, and the special investigation team that came to Rome all graduated from military academies.

The investigation team entered Rome on October 3, the day the North-South Alliance was established, and did not disturb anyone except Prim.

They secretly received some of the prisoners from the army. After three days of torture and investigation, they locked a middle-level officer of the Papal State Patriarch's Army, Major Giorgio Lampedusa.

This person was the deputy commander of a battalion of the Zuav Army and assisted Spain in the northern section of the Roman defense circle.

As a city defense officer, he can naturally find many opportunities to contact the outside world without causing too much suspicion.

Lampedusa is not a prominent figure in the Papalian army. There are rumors that he can be an officer because he is the illegitimate son of a bishop in Rome.

The investigative team carefully checked his living habits-he was a gambler. The officer's income and the money his father gave were not enough for him to lose.

Lampedusa often accepts bribes for this, even in the corrupt Papal State army, he is considered to be the most corrupt group of people.

He confided that it might be purely economic reasons.

After knowing the truth, the investigative team did not startle, but reported the matter to Adolf, and Adolf told Morales and Primm about the matter.

When Morales heard the news, his first reaction was that the opportunity they had been waiting for came.

During this period, the decoy fleet attacked the ports of Palermo and Catania in Sicily, Italy, and the port of Cagliari in Sardinia, and sank and captured seven Italian civilian transport ships in the Mediterranean.

There is enough foreshadowing, as long as the wind is released, Morales does not believe that they are not fooled.

...

On October 6, Lampedusa was very happy at the gaming table in the barracks.

Due to the war and curfew, the casinos in Rome are closed. These days, he can only gamble with his colleagues in the barracks. Although he can also play, it is far less fun.

And even the army of the Pope State prohibits gambling, and they have to guard against accidental inspections by their superiors.

Unexpectedly, a Spanish army general came to this tour today. He happened to find their gambling equipment, but did not report them. Instead, he sat down and wanted to play with them.

He also declared that he was a novice, and he wanted Lampedusa to teach him, teach novices, Lampedusa likes it the most.

Sure enough, the Spanish officers quickly lost the £200 that they brought with them.

Lampedusa was originally worried about the other party being angry. After all, for the same military position, the Spanish soldiers have a slightly higher status, let alone a lieutenant colonel.

But the other party was not at all annoyed. After losing all the money, he drank a drink with him. This time it was exactly what Lampedusa wanted, and the two of them were already friends after drinking three rounds.

Just at this time, the Spanish military officer drunkly revealed to him a piece of news: "The next target of the Spanish fleet is the main military port of Italy, the port of Genoa."

The Port of Genoa is the main station of the Italian Mediterranean fleet, and its defense force and importance are not comparable to secondary ports such as Palermo and Catania.

The officer said without shame: "As long as the Port of Genoa is destroyed, Italy's surrender will only happen overnight."

!

Lampedusa was not a real fool, he was completely awake from the wine at this time.

All this is too coincidental, and your army officer talked to me about the Navy's classified information? So perfunctory?

He thinks that 80% of the previous events may have been exposed, and the news of the attack on the port of Genoa may be that Spain wants to spread it through his mouth.

He didn't know the specific purpose, but he knew that he had better follow the other's will.

If it wasn't intentional, that's good. He can still make a lot of money, and there will be more opportunities to make money in the future.

If it was deliberate, his bishop's father would not be able to keep him if he annoyed Spain.

...

On the evening of October 8, the Spanish harassment fleet in Rome set sail on time, and they got stuck at 11 o'clock in the evening.

As this time the route is biased towards the west coast of Italy, many Italian ocean-going fishing boats have seen the magnificent figure of the fleet along the way, and there are definitely intelligence personnel deployed by the Italian government.

Communication is inconvenient and the navy is not as powerful as humans. It is also helpless for Italy to use this method for detection.

No one knew that three hours after their departure, late at night, another huge fleet of 11 ironclad ships also quietly left the port of Rome.