Chapter 48: Luring the Enemy in Deep
In the Lombardy region, the situation was very unfavorable to Austria: the Italian-Austrian War was definitely not as simple as that recorded in the history books. There were capitalist and noble rebellions within, and enemy forces without.
The reinforcements sent by the Vienna government were suppressing the rebellion in Venice at that time, so there was only one division arriving at the front line. The total number of soldiers available to Marshal Radsky was less than thirty thousand.
The number was twice what it had been in history. Otherwise, the result would have been the same as in history: the Austrian army would be forced to retreat from the Milan area with their tails between their legs.
Taking a closer look at the map on the table and considering the international situation, Marshal Radsky made a surprising decision at the military conference.
"Order the troops to be ready; we will give up Milan on April 1!"
"What? Marshal, are you sure?" Major General Victor asked incredulously.
"Major General Victor, I am very sure of what I am doing!" Marshal Radsky said calmly.
"But Marshal, we have not reached the point where we must retreat. Once the rebellion in Venice is suppressed, our reinforcements will arrive, and it will be no problem for us to block the Kingdom of Sardinia!" Major General Victor said in confusion.
Victor was not alone in his doubt, as many officers present also found this plan difficult to accept: why should they retreat if they could win?
"The answer is quite simple: we can block the attack of the Kingdom of Sardinia, in the case of internal or external troubles, but we have no way to defeat them.
The rebels in the Lombardy region have colluded with the Kingdom of Sardinia, so if we fight them for a long time, the rebellion will continue.
There are also the political and economic aspects. In short, the Vienna government has authorized me to handle the Italian issue unilaterally, so what you need is just to execute my order!" Marshal Radsky explained coldly.
Giving up Lombardy would surely put him under a lot of pressure and even cause a series of ripple effects. Under normal circumstances, no official would be willing to bear this kind of responsibility.
Marshal Radsky dared to do so because of the order from the Vienna government: as long as they achieved the final victory, he need not care about the gains and losses of one city or one place.
In his view, the high-level authorityof the Vienna government was also concerned about the dangerous situation in the Italian war zone. If it wasn't solved as soon as possible, then the Papal state, the Principality of Tuscany, and the Kingdom of Naples would all get involved.
Marshal Radsky still had enough troops to deal with the Kingdom of Sardinia and the rebels alone; if all these countries joined the war, however, he would be in danger.
Thus, it was better to give up Lombardy in the first place; the Sardinian kingdom would then occupy these territories, and the other three states in Italy would not enter the war.
And they had only been forced to declare war to appease the public. The main forces of several states had not been dispatched yet; for now, only the volunteers from civil voluntary organizations were at the front.
If the Kingdom of Sardinia were to occupy these areas, the public of the other states would be satisfied. Even if they felt envy, jealousy, or hatred, they would not possibly send troops to help the Kingdom of Sardinia.
Infighting would break out without foreign aggression. The internal contradictions of the Italian countries were also significant; the people only transferred their hatred to Austria out of political needs.
However, this kind of situation would not last long. Anything could be deceived but the belly: people always had to eat.
The economic crisis was still going on, so there were a lot of unemployed people in Italy. If this problem was not solved, the conflicts would continue to erupt.
In addition to the Italians, the attitudes of Britain and France were also a problem.
The French hoped that Lombardy and Venice could be independent states; they did not want Italy to be unified by driving out Austria.
The British wanted a unified Italy that could fight off France and Austria at the same time, but they did not want to see Austria collapse.
Though they wanted to weaken Austria, they wanted to preserve enough of its strength to block the expansion of the Russians.
In this context, once the Sardinian Kingdom took over Lombardy, the two states would definitely merge, and the attitude of the French would change from support to hostility.
British support for the Kingdom of Sardinia would only be verbal. They would be happy for the Kingdom of Sardinia to stop the war as soon as possible, but unfortunately, the Kingdom of Sardinia was bound to public opinion and could only continue to fight.
After shortening the front line, Marshal Radsky had more troops, while the front line of the Kingdom of Sardinia was lengthened.
The newly occupied Lombardy could not provide them with supplies. Instead, the Kingdom of Sardinia mainly relied on domestic products, which was putting significant pressure on their forces and their homeland.
While fighting Austria, they also had to feed the people of Lombardy; otherwise, they would rebel because of their hunger.
Without the substantial support of Britain and France, there were three fewer states participating in the war. The outcome of this war was already clear. The Sardinians' national strength was limited and had no way to compare with Austria.
Marshal Radsky was confident that he would defeat the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia and then recover the Lombardy region by his military strength. He was even confident that he could succeed fighting Sardinia on its home turf.
Strategically, it was not really a retreat, but an effort to lure the enemy in deep.
More than that, Franz's private letter to him asked him to eliminate as many of rebel parties in Italy as possible, which was another reason he'd made this choice.
The words "rebel parties" were not so simple. Marshal Radsky was sure that it referred to the capitalists and nobles in Italy; without their exploitation, where had the rebellion come from?
When Lombardy was merged into the Kingdom of Sardinia, it was estimated that most of the nobles and capitalists would support the Kingdom of Sardinia. However, after the war was over, when the purge started, these people might be identified as members of the rebel parties.
Maybe they would use their family property to buy the approval of the people, and Austrian Italy would soon stabilize. After all, the people of Lombardy were Germans who had entered Italy, so without the obstacles of the upper class, it was much easier to carry out ethnic integration.
There were both advantages and disadvantages, but Marshal Radsky did not need to consider them all. He had already seen the greatest advantage: he could solve the Italian problem once and for all.
In order to win the final victory, both Lombardy and Venice could be given up temporarily. As long as they would be eventually be taken back, he would still be a hero of Austria.
In the quiet conference room, one voice broke the silence. A middle-aged general stood up and said, "Marshal, maybe we can do something more than let the Kingdom of Sardinia occupy Lombardy so easily!"
"Edmund, what is your plan?" Marshal Radsky asked with concern.
"Marshal, since the people of Lombardy are so welcoming the Italians, we might as well help them advertise to make their impression of the Kingdom of Sardinia even better!" Lieutenant General Edmund Leopold Friedrich said with a sneer.
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