Chapter 9: End Of The War
The Austro-Prussian War was a conflict that had been prepared for well in advance, and the entire German Empire’s alignments were very clear.
The conflict had already begun in April, but due to the King of Prussia’s hesitation, Prussia did not start preparations for combat until May.
However, for this war, it was obvious that Prussia was the one more fully prepared. The Prussians had long been ready for the unification of Germany, while the Austrians were still immersed in the beautiful dream of their empire and did not realize that the situation of the Austrian Empire was already extremely dangerous.
As time entered June 1866, the flames on the Prussia-Austria border were further ignited.
The Kingdom of Bavaria in southern Germany attempted to initiate a confederation vote, using this opportunity to make Prussia and Austria stop their war preparations.
But the two countries’ war preparations had reached such a stage that a small Kingdom of Bavaria could not stop them.
After the Iron Chancellor Bismarck announced that the parliament’s decision was invalid and demanded the dissolution of the confederation congress, the entire Germany began a vigorous alignment campaign.
This upcoming war, besides deciding the winner and loser, would also determine the final hegemon of the German region.
On Prussia’s side were Mecklenburg, Oldenburg, and other states in northern Germany, as well as the three free cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lübeck.
On Austria’s side were Saxony, Hanover, Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Hesse-Kassel, Hesse-Darmstadt, and other member states of the German Confederation.
In terms of the number of aligned states, population, and area, Austria had the advantage. But in terms of military strength, Prussia was clearly stronger than the opponent.
As June 14 officially arrived, this war that both sides had prepared for a long time also erupted.
Carlo was not worried about this war at all. Even if it was just Prussia and Austria fighting one-on-one, Austria absolutely could not be Prussia’s opponent.
Although the Italian Army could not play a major role, it could still pin down part of the Austrian Army in the early stages of the war.
Moreover, Garibaldi had already prepared an army of over ten thousand in advance, and at least this army would not be a liability.
If the Austrians really underestimated the enemy, perhaps Italy could not only recapture the Venice Region but also claim the long-desired South Tyrol Region.
It is worth mentioning that, because he was not at ease with Garibaldi leading troops alone, Vittorio Emanuele II also agreed to Carlo’s request, which was to invite Garibaldi’s second son Giuseppe as Carlo’s ducal court military officer.
This position had no real power at all, since Carlo was not qualified to have a guard team.
Giuseppe’s daily task was to accompany Carlo to the military academy for studies, and by the way handle some miscellaneous tasks for Carlo and so on.
While Carlo was enduring day after day of boring and dull military studies, the war between Prussia and Austria was raging fiercely.
Although the entire battlefield was divided into three places, the one that played the decisive role was still the battlefield located in the Bohemia region.
This was not only the place where the main forces of the Prussian Army and Austrian Army clashed, but also the most elite part of the Austrian Empire.
The good news was that Carlo, relying on his own connections, could easily obtain the latest battle reports from the frontline and publish them on his 24-hour Sun Newspaper.
By the way, occasionally getting some news about Garibaldi had thoroughly secured the position of the Italian 24-hour Sun Newspaper in the Italian public opinion circle.
Riding the east wind of this war’s outbreak, the daily sales of the Italian Sun Newspaper had broken through 15,000 copies and was rapidly advancing toward 20,000 daily sales.
If it were not for the printing technology and communication technology of this era limiting the newspaper office’s expansion, the Sun Newspaper could have become Italy’s largest newspaper office with this opportunity.
The entire war did not last long, because Prussia was worried that France would intervene, so the war started with great fanfare and ended hastily.
The good news was that Italy successfully obtained the reward for participating in the war: the complete Venice Region and part of South Tyrol.
The bad news was that the Italian Army and Vittorio Emanuele II both showed an extremely poor performance in the war; the performance of over 100,000 Italian troops was not as good as Garibaldi’s army of just over 10,
But as the saying goes, a single flaw does not obscure the jade; compared to the nationwide celebration brought by recapturing Venice and annexing half of South Tyrol, Vittorio Emanuele II’s poor military command could be proactively ignored by the Italian public.
At least in this matter, Vittorio Emanuele II and Garibaldi had reached a compromise.
Garibaldi hoped to see a unified and powerful Italy within his lifetime, while Vittorio Emanuele II hoped to complete the great goal of unification of Italy during his term; the two hit it off immediately.
It was also beneficial for Carlo.
The opinion of letting Garibaldi recruit soldiers and prepare for war was proposed by Carlo, and facts proved it was very effective.
If it were not for Garibaldi’s army playing a major role on the southern front battlefield, it would have been very difficult for Italy to even recapture Venice, let alone annex part of the South Tyrol Region.
The biggest factor among these was Prussia’s fear of French intervention.
In the original history, after the Italian Army collapsed, Garibaldi was entrusted with the critical task, and with a hastily assembled army of 38,000, he repeatedly routed the Austrian Army, even nearly reaching the Tyrol Region.
But at that time, Prussia, fearing French intervention, demanded with an extremely tough attitude that the Italian Government immediately withdraw its troops.
Garibaldi had no choice but to withdraw from South Tyrol, which meant Italy only harvested the Venice Region that the Austrians voluntarily abandoned in this war.
And now, because of Garibaldi’s active offensive, they had already captured most of South Tyrol before the Prussians demanded withdrawal.
This also became the confidence of the Italian diplomatic department in demanding South Tyrol; although in the end they only obtained less than half of South Tyrol, it was still more harvest than in the original history.
Compared to Italy, the Kingdom of Prussia was absolutely the country that gained the most from this war.
After this war ended, the German Federation announced its dissolution, and Austria had lost control over the German region.
Prussia leaped to become the leader of all states in the entire German region and annexed the Kingdom of Hanover, becoming the new hegemon of the German region.
This was still very friendly for a country like Italy. With Prussia attracting the attention of Britain and France, Italy could develop quietly for a while, and Carlo did not need to worry that some of his operations would lead to bigger accidents.
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