37 Chapter 96: Ruthless Politicians

After receiving the battle report of the Battle of Venice, Charlie-Albert seemed to have lost his soul.

Army Minister Li Qi hurriedly comforted: "Your Majesty, we still have a chance to make a comeback before things turn for the worst!"

Charlie-Albert rolled his eyes and asked with a wry smile: "What chance? Bardorio, this rubbish, lost all of our accumulation of so many years in one battle!"

In the just-concluded Battle of Venice, the Sardinian Kingdom not only lost nearly 100,000 troops, but also wiped out the momentum they had gathered.

It takes courage for a small kingdom to challenge an empire. In order to challenge Austria, the Kingdom of Sardinia has been promoting Austria's corruption and vulnerability for more than ten years.

Can an army without morale be able to fight?

Charlie-Albert was a wise man, and he knew that the Sardinian kingdom was not prepared enough to challenge Austria this time.

If it weren't for the domestic situation, and Austria seemed to be in decline, he would never have taken the risk.

Li Qi explained with his own reasonable reasons: "Your Majesty, now we have Lombardy in our hands, we can mobilize the local people to fight against the Austrians, and even if we can't defeat the enemy, we can hold them back for a while!

As long as the situation is deadlocked, we can ask the British to mediate. We still owe the British a large amount of loans, the Austrians will not recognize this money, and for their own sake, the British must support us too! "

In order to support the Kingdom of Sardinia to unify the Italian region, John Bull had invested much of their money, and invested a total of tens of millions of pounds in loans.

Charlie-Albert shook his head and said: "It's not that simple, Austria is not a soft fruit you can just squeeze as others wish, and the British are not charitable. Unless we can hold off the Austrian front in Lombardy, we're going to have very difficult times ahead of us! "

It has always been foreign superpowers bullying small countries. This time, the Kingdom of Sardinia broke the rules and challenged Austria as a small country, but it still lost miserably. This is a tragedy.

Historically, the Austrians let the Sardinian kingdom go because of the Hungarian rebellion and did not have the energy to liquidate them.

Now the Hungarians are obviously unable to count on it. Even if Austria does not increase its troops, the army in the Venice area can turn the Sardinian kingdom into history.

"Not good at all, Your Majesty. Now we have to block the news immediately. If the news of the defeat of the Battle of Venice spreads, the country will be in chaos!" Prime Minister d'Azeglio said in a rush.

Everyone reacted at once, and no one can run away when something goes wrong.

It can be said that the Sardinian Kingdom's long-term political propaganda against the blackening of Austria has laid hidden dangers for the present.

Impatient nationalism is the easiest to get out of control, they do not consider the actual situation, and they cannot tolerate failure.

Charlie-Albert has just realize such issue, and as a qualified politician, he will make the best choice for himself.

"The government immediately came forward to refute the rumors, and at the same time released fake news, saying that we were in a decisive battle with the Austrians, and we are currently in a stalemate. At the same time, a nationwide mobilization will be carried out, and all the young men were incorporated into the army, especially those young students, and they were sent to the battlefield for me. The Foreign Office must contacted the British as soon as possible and asked them to mediate the war. As long as the conditions proposed by the British are not too excessive, we will directly agree to it! "

Charlie-Albert didn't want to be overthrown by the radical nationalists, he had to let these people die first.

"Your Majesty, do you want to replace Bardorio?" asked Li Qi, the Minister of War.

Charlie-Albert fell into contemplation, if possible, he really hopes that the Sardinian kingdom can now push out a hero that can turn the tide of the war.

"Forget it, it's a big taboo in the military to change generals before the battle, let him continue to commit crimes!"

Hesitating again and again, Charlie Albert gave up the plan to make a substitution. At this time, whoever goes up will not end up much better. If it doesn't work, it will make the situation worse. It's better to let Bardorio take all the responsibilities.

...

Budapest

As the capital of the Hungarian Provisional Government and one of the few cities the revolutionists could control, it was already a sea of ​​sin.

Petőfi really couldn't stand it any longer. He only felt that his ideal was getting further and further away from reality. In addition to bringing the so-called freedom to Hungary, the revolution was only a disaster.

"Mr. Kossuth[1], we must clean up the military discipline. The current National Guard has become a group of bandits and robbers. If this continues, the revolution will be over!"

Kossuth, who used to have unlimited energy in the past, was sitting there with a gloomy face at this time, and there were some bloodshot eyes in those sharp eyes, but he was still full of energy.

After listening to Sándor Petőfi's words, Kossuth nodded, then said with a wry smile: "It's too depressing to fight the enemy for a long time. Soldiers are also human beings. Than there are more unpredictable consequences!"

How could he not know about the chaos in the city? However, now they have no choice. It is more meaningful to talk about life and ideals of a soldier. It is more meaningful to talk about military salaries.

Since the war has been going on, the Hungarian republican government has long been hollowed out, and there is no money to pay the army salaries, so the soldiers can only be allowed to rob.

"But Mr. Kossuth, we will lose the trust of the people if we go on like this!" Sándor Petőfi said unwillingly.

As an idealist, compassion is only a small part, and if he can win, Petőfi doesn't mind sacrifice.

But now there was a voice telling him that it was impossible to continue like this, and he hoped that Kossuth would come forward to stop the rebels from doing horrible things.

Kossuth said without changing his face: "Revolution always requires sacrifice, and this sacrifice can be you or me, the National Guard, or the ordinary Hungarian people! History will remember their sacrifices, and sooner or later we will settle this account with the Austrians! Budapest can't be held anymore, everything here is left for the enemy, it's better to destroy it!"

"You're going to destroy the city, you're crazy!" said Petőfi desperately.

Kossuth sternly spoken: "It's not that I am going to destroy the city, but the Austrians are going to destroy the city! Now that the enemy has built a dam upstream, as long as we hold on, they will flood the city! Think about it, once the Austrians release water to attack the city, how much loss will it bring downstream? At that time, there will be hundreds of thousands or even millions of people who will be homeless. These people will become our comrades in arms, and we will join hands to bury this decaying empire!"

[1] I'm going to change it to Mr. as it sounds better for a president. I'll make the changes when I re-read though the chapters.