Chapter 1412 June Incident
The benefits are also obvious. If these infrastructure projects are put into production quickly, the East African government will be able to recover the construction costs earlier and obtain subsequent profits continuously, accelerating the accumulation of original capital.
As for some "man-made disasters" caused by engineering problems, they could be ignored by the previous East African governments, which valued the overall benefits more.
However, this development model cannot continue now. First of all, with the development of education and industry over the past few decades, East Africa has trained a large number of more professional technicians. Secondly, the thinking of the East African people has also changed with the development of the country. Finally, with the development of information technology, the East African government is unlikely to treat some man-made disasters as "nothing happened" as it did in the past.
Therefore, Ernst told Morbach: "The water diversion project in the South African plateau involves mountainous areas with complex geological conditions and a more changeable climate, so the project redundancy should be sufficient. For the quality of the project, we would rather sacrifice some costs to ensure that there is no risk of error."
"If a major accident or unnecessary human disaster occurs due to substandard engineering quality or unscientific design, I will not only be unable to explain to the public, but I may also become a laughing stock of the international community."
Ernst must keep an eye on these projects. After all, if there is no pressure from above, the people below may not take them seriously.
Morbach assured him, "Your Majesty, rest assured. We will definitely send people to keep a close eye on this kind of national engineering project."
Ernst said, "Not only should you send someone to keep an eye on it, you should also visit the site from time to time. I might even visit the project site in person. It is never too careful for such a large-scale national project."
…
May 13, 1924.
Turning our attention to Italy, the new Italian Prime Minister, Benito, is carrying out an astonishing plan. Just a year ago, this ambitious Italian extremist politician, through various means, successfully enabled the Italian Combat Team he led to gain an advantage in the Italian parliamentary elections.
After officially becoming the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy, Benito was still not satisfied, so during the year he was in office, he reorganized the Italian Combat Team into a "Black Shirts" with a more rigorous organization, larger scale, and filled with people who were dissatisfied with reality.
Strictly speaking, this was a paramilitary organization, and through this paramilitary organization, Benito quickly controlled and infiltrated various important government departments and the military in Italy.
It can be said that the Italian government has now completely fallen into Benito's one-man show, realizing the "party-state" rule. As the leader of the Black Shirts, Benito has naturally become the most powerful person in the Italian Kingdom.
Today, Benito launched the Blackshirts National Congress. However, this so-called "nationwide" is not limited to the Kingdom of Italy, but also includes the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples, and even the Blackshirts members in the occupied area of Eastern Lombardy.
Benito stood on the podium and announced loudly to the Blackshirts across the Italian peninsula: "Italy has been a great country since ancient times. We are the most direct successor of the Roman Empire. But now the Apennine Peninsula is divided into three countries. The hateful Austro-Hungarian invaders occupy our Lombardy and Venice."
"This is something our great Italian nation cannot allow. Italians across the country should unite. We must defeat the separatists and invaders, take back the land where our ancestors have lived for generations, and ultimately form a unified and powerful Italian Empire to restore the glory of the Roman Empire."
"Only a unified Italy can get rid of the oppression of France and Austria-Hungary. We will recover our lost land and let the Italian nation revive once again on the European continent."
"So, all Blackshirts, my comrades, unite!" he shouted, raising one fist above his head.
Benito's remarks undoubtedly received fanatical support from his loyal followers. In the auditorium of the Blackshirts headquarters, cheers like waves rose one after another.
"Unity! Unity!!!"
"March on Rome!!!"
"Great leader of the party! Savior of Italy! Benito!!!"
Benito looked at the Blackshirts with an arrogant look, looking down on the world.
After the cries died down a bit, he said: "Rome, Naples, Milan, Venice, they should all return to the embrace of the Italian motherland."
"As a first step, let us, the Blackshirts, lead the Kingdom of Italy, the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples to reunite as a whole, and finally launch an attack on our enemies."
Benito's mind was still very clear. He knew very well that what he should do most now was to annex the Papal States and Naples, rather than challenging the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the same time and taking back Eastern Lombardy and Venice.
After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is certainly not something that the current Italian Kingdom can challenge, and the Italians may not have the courage to wage war against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The painful lesson of the last failed unification of the Italian Kingdom is still deeply imprinted in the minds of the Italians.
On the second day after Benito convened a national party congress, the Blackshirts' Supreme Command was established and Benito went to Florence to begin commanding unified actions.
The name of the operation is: "March on Rome".
As an emerging political party with profound influence on the entire Apennine Peninsula, the Black Shirts' activities in recent years are not limited to the territory of the Kingdom of Italy. After all, in Benito's heart, the entire Apennine Peninsula is a country.
Therefore, after he issued the call, the Black Shirt Party organizations throughout the Apennine Peninsula responded actively and started the "peaceful armed seizure of power."
The reason why it was called "peaceful armed seizure of power" was that Benito's unification activity did not mean large-scale bloodshed, and he did not want a war.
Because once a war breaks out, the so-called "unification" will cause a certain blow to Benito's personal prestige, which may cause his enemies to portray him as the "executioner who massacred his compatriots."
Of course, if Benito wanted to achieve the unification of Italy peacefully without deploying troops, he would not be naive enough to rely on such weak and powerless methods as "demonstrations".
Benito, who once was in the Italian Labor Party, planned to use the power of the people to paralyze the government and army of the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples. Then, the Black Shirts would lead the masses to take over some assets of the two countries and then openly "referendum" to merge them into the Kingdom of Italy.
then……
Starting from June 1924, various disturbances began to occur in the Papal States and the Naples region, and social order suddenly collapsed and fell into the abyss of collapse.
Blackshirt members in the two places began to spread the government's corruption on the streets, persuading citizens not to be afraid, while also winning over the nobles and big capitalists and declaring their protection of the legitimate rights of workers and peasants.
Under the leadership of the Blackshirts, a large number of dissatisfied people had already accumulated and attacked the local post office, government departments, police headquarters, railway stations, barracks and other important facilities.
At the same time, the media controlled by the Blackshirts openly called on the army and police of the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples to strictly maintain neutrality and not interfere. They respected the soldiers and police and only opposed cowardly and incompetent politicians.
Under this extremely targeted public opinion offensive, which at the same time satisfies the spiritual needs of the people and guarantees the interests of the majority of people.
The Blackshirts successfully took over most of the government agencies in the two places. The army and police groups chose to wait and see, while the Pope and the royal family of Naples could only watch the Blackshirts do whatever they wanted.
This is actually a very normal situation, because compared with the Kingdom of Italy, the development of the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples in the south in recent years has been very difficult. Most people live in dire straits, and their dissatisfaction with the government has long been on the verge of exploding.
This is a very normal situation. After all, the southern part of the Apennine Peninsula has never been a wealthy region in Europe, and its living standards and economic conditions are even on the same level as Eastern Europe.
Therefore, under the instigation and leadership of the Black Shirts, they chose to retaliate against the government without hesitation.
As the social order in the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples completely collapsed, Benito in Florence also began his performance.
June 12th.
Led by Benito himself, hundreds of thousands of Black Shirts officially launched the "March on Rome" operation.
At the same time, under Benito's arrangement, the army of the Kingdom of Italy followed closely behind them.
Obviously, if he really encountered military resistance from the two countries, Benito would unceremoniously order his army to defeat some of the "enemies" who tried to resist him.
However, Benito's worries did not come true. During his trip to Rome, he not only did not encounter any resistance, but was also "welcomed" by the people. At this time, the Black Shirts Party in the Papal State had completely taken control of the situation.
The local forces of the Papal States had no intention of resisting Benito. The Pope was only furious and helpless in the Vatican, cursing the "believers" who had betrayed him.
On June 15, Benito drove to his loyal Rome. In front of hundreds of thousands of black shirts and Roman people, Benito shouted: "Today is the victory of the Italian nation!"
Most of the citizens who were caught up in the incident only knew Benito as the new Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy, but even if they were not familiar with him, they still cheered for the liberation of Rome along with the Blackshirts.
Compared to this strange ruler, the Roman people were not disgusted. After all, their slogans were still very much in line with the people's wishes.
Although the Black Shirts’ main slogan is: “You are good, I am good, everyone is good,” most people believe that as long as certain changes can be brought about, it will not be worse than the past.
After his great success in Rome, Benito couldn't wait to continue heading south, his next destination was Naples.
Benito was well aware that time was of the essence and that he could not wait for the Naples royal family and government to react, but had to make it a done deal in the shortest possible time.
Only in this way would other European countries have no excuse to interfere with Benito's actions, especially the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Although the Naples royal family has lost the support of the people, they still have external forces to rely on. The last time Naples was restored, it relied on the support of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Therefore, Benito ignored his personal safety and led the Black Shirts and the army to march south in the dark towards Naples on the day he finished his speech in Rome.
Two days later, Benito rushed to Naples without stopping and completely laid the foundation for the overall situation. Naples is the political center of Naples. By occupying here, other places can basically be "conquered by a single order."
From June 12th to June 17th.
In just five days, before most people on the Apennine Peninsula could react, Italy was nominally reunified!
Of course, Benito's mission was obviously not over yet. On June 17, Benito, in the name of the Prime Minister of Italy, quickly took over and incorporated the army and police stations in the two places.
At the same time, he ordered border troops to be prepared to deal with possible military intervention from the Austro-Hungarian Empire at any time.
If Austria-Hungary intervenes or even starts a war, all of Benito's efforts may be reduced to ashes.
In this way, Benito spent the whole month of June in fear. It was not until the third to last day of June that the Austro-Hungarian Empire sent a warning.
However, it was too late now, because Benito's government had completely taken control of the armies of the three Italian countries. Benito, who was in power, had the confidence to confront the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
On the contrary, the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not have the confidence to start a war. After experiencing World War I, the situation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not much better than that of Italy, especially the increasingly fierce ethnic conflicts in the country and the Labour Party members jumping up and down.
The fundamental reason for this situation is that the economy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire has not improved.
Of course, this does not mean that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was unable to intervene in Italian affairs, but that the Austro-Hungarian Empire had lost the best opportunity to intervene in Italy.
It only took a few days from the time Benito marched towards Rome to the time he took control of the overall situation in Italy. The inefficient Austro-Hungarian government did not even have time to understand the specific situation in Italy. By the time they learned about Italy's "unification", Benito had completely stabilized the situation.
If the Austro-Hungarian Empire had to deal with the Kingdom of Italy alone, it would still have the confidence. But now Benito has not only the Kingdom of Italy under his command, but also Naples and the Papal States.
These areas combined are enough to form a large country in Europe with a population of nearly 40 million. It should be noted that the total population of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was only more than 50 million.
Therefore, facing the reunified Italy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was helpless and even had to worry about Italy's plotting to take over the two regions of Eastern Lombardy and Venice.
Benito's unification of the Italian region also caused a stir in the international community at this time. The event was called the "June Incident" because all of Benito's actions were completed within June.
The unification of Italy has undoubtedly had an impact on the current European landscape, and different countries have different attitudes towards the unified Kingdom of Italy.
(End of this chapter)
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