War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Turin, Royal Palace of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Bellevue, who was sitting on the throne, threw the battle report to the ground and overturned the entire table next to him.

"What on earth are these losers doing?"

Only Bellevue was left in the former five-pronged army. It seemed that he would have to come in person to restore the glory of France.

The originally imagined win-win situation turned into a lose-lose situation at this time. Not only did they fail to wait until Radetzky divided his troops, but more and more Austrian troops rushed to the Italian battlefield.

The most terrible thing is that the failure of the Mediterranean naval battle directly caused France to lose its sea control in the Mediterranean, and the French army's original sea lanes were completely blocked.

The nearly 300,000 troops instantly became a burden. Transporting supplies overland had to cross the Alps, which not only took a long time, but was also very inefficient.

After all, the people responsible for transportation also need to eat and drink, and France, which is in the midst of a dual economic and political crisis, does not have the ability to organize a large-scale transportation team.

Only sea transportation is theoretically possible to solve the expeditionary force's supply problem, but it is only possible. Because at this time the finances of the Second French Republic were in a mess, and the debt had reached an exaggerated level.

After all, the purchase price of an old-fashioned muzzle-loading rifle can exceed one hundred francs, in addition to military boots worth eighty francs and coffee beans worth one sou.

With these sky-high prices for supplies emerging one after another, it was almost impossible for the Second French Republic not to go into debt.

The cost of food and clothing for an army of 300,000 is not a small sum. In addition, the process of taking over the Kingdom of Sardinia was too easy, and the arrogance of the French soldiers could no longer be contained.

It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality. At this time, the French army simply could not accept the original inferior food.

Bellevue also wanted to maintain military morale and morale, and to leave a way for him to return to a stable situation in Paris. Naturally, he would not let these soldiers live an unhappy life, so he would only have to suffer for the people of the Kingdom of Sardinia. .

Anyway, Bellevue's banner is also to liberate Italy, so we French people go to the front line and fight hard. It's not too much for you Italians to pay more taxes, it's not too much to give up some things, and it's not too much to give up national sovereignty to us.

Whether Bellevue wanted to return home or negotiate with the Austrians, he needed enough capital. What is capital in troubled times?

Bellvi felt that it was just money, food, soldiers and horses, so he could only choose to suffer the Italians of the Kingdom of Sardinia again.

In fact, in the original plan of France and Austria, Genoa was the key to this battle. Food and reinforcements shipped from France would be continuously transported to Turin via railway to support the confrontation between the two sides along the Ticino River.

The Turin-Genoa Railway is one of the earliest railways in the Kingdom of Sardinia. After all, there are too many passes between Genoa and Piedmont, and it is a new territory, so the Kingdom of Sardinia built this railway in 1845 in history. to consolidate his rule in Genoa.

In addition to transporting soldiers and supplies, the French army can also attack the rear of the Austrian army through the Liguria Pass, so Genoa will become the focus of the competition between the two sides.

However, the intervention of the Austrian Imperial Navy made all the plans of both sides meaningless, and also woke up Bellevue who was still immersed in his dream.

The Sardinians finally realized a problem. They seemed to be on the wrong team.

However, as the king of sides, the Sardinians soon changed their stance and began to summon spirits for the Kingdom of Sardinia. They also imitated the French and tried to drive the French out of Sardinia with demonstrations.

These Sardinians have obviously not read the history of the French Revolution, or they have read an embellished version. Soon the French army set up temporary courts and guillotines in various places, allowing the Sardinian people to experience the most thrilling and exciting part of the French Revolution.

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However, the Kingdom of Sardinia really had nothing left at this time, and no matter how much Bellevue squeezed it, he could not produce the strength to crush the Northern Italian Corps of the Austrian Empire.

Radetzky's main force was across the river from the main French army, and Benedek was a less enterprising commander.

After he led his army to occupy Genoa, the first thing he did was to build the Genoa defense line. This line of defense mainly follows the legacy of the Republic of Genoa. There is not much new stuff but it is enough.

Facing the iron barrel array set up by Austria, Bellevue's staff had no good solution. This was not because the graduates of the Saint-Cyr Military Academy were all incompetent idiots, but because Bellevue valued the chips in his hands too much.

Bellevue, who had power for the first time, liked this feeling so much that he lived like an emperor in the Turin Palace.

In fact, no real emperor lived as extravagantly as Bellevue did during this period. He understood that all this was brought to him by the army in his hands.

But how can there be no death in a war? Moreover, the offensive and defensive battle involving more than half a million people was far beyond their common sense.

But in the case of similar military strength, the side that defends according to danger will definitely have the advantage.

During this period, the French did advocate offensive tactics, but this tactic mainly relied on rapid breakthroughs to quickly bypass the enemy's key defensive areas and attack weak points, rather than stupidly attacking those natural dangers that were heavily defended.

Bellevue also thought about going back to be Napoleon, but retreating was more difficult than imagined. When he came, there was no resistance from the Kingdom of Sardinia and he could easily cross the Alps.

But now the main force of the French army is confronting the Austrian side. Once it retreats, it is likely that the other side will seize the opportunity to follow and pursue them, which will turn into a big rout.

Even if the opponent does not respond in time, Austria can use sea power to transport a force to the rear of the French army to slow down the French army's retreat. As long as it is overtaken by the Austrian pursuit force, it will inevitably suffer heavy losses.

In fact, after the battle in the Swiss mountains ended, the Austrian Empire sent mountain troops to go around Switzerland to the rear of the French army.

Franz's main purpose of doing this was still to cut off the French army's supplies. After all, it was much more important for the Austrian Empire to destroy the relationship between France and Sardinia than to eliminate hundreds of thousands of French troops.

What is going on here is not the relationship between France and the Sardinian government, but the relationship between the French and the Sardinians.

As for the troops under Bellevue, Franz had no reason to kill them except Bellevue himself.

Again, France's excessive weakness is not good for Austria, but will make Austria the target of public criticism.

After the Mediterranean naval battle, the Austrian navy was almost invincible. Corsica, France's largest island, only lasted three days before surrendering.

Friedrich hit a wall on the neighboring island of Sardinia, which had built a large number of fortifications to fight against Barbary pirates.

This kind of old fortification is vulnerable to Austria's advanced weapons, but it can't stand it.

The Sardinian islanders built fortifications everywhere, and they were very determined to fight and did not surrender as soon as the cannons were fired.

Finally, at Franz's suggestion, Friedrich gave up the direct conquest of Sardinia, but occupied the island's port, and then sent Carlo Alberto and his followers to the island.

The Sardinian issue should still be resolved by the Sardinian people