Chapter 1544 Italy is ready to make a move
The German National Party's methods were extremely extreme, but they temporarily produced good results in maintaining the overall stability of German society. In comparison, the neighboring Austro-Hungarian Empire had become a mess.
The Liberec incident quickly detonated the Bohemian industrial area. Workers and unemployed people in the entire area, under the organization of the Labor Party, wantonly disrupted the original social order and started a struggle against the Austro-Hungarian government.
The imperial government began to mobilize troops to enter the Bohemian industrial areas to quell the riots. However, the Labor Party in Bohemia was obviously not easy to deal with. At the same time, the Labor Party in other areas of the empire, especially the Labor Party in Austria, also began to support the riots in Bohemia.
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Rome.
Since Benito's "March into Rome", this thousand-year-old city has ushered in new vitality and has become the capital of Italy with a population of 40 million. All the country's resources are concentrated in Rome, and factories, administrative departments, and population are converging in Rome.
Under the rule of Benito's government, Italy's overall economic development has been relatively stable in recent years. It may not have been very impressive before, but after the global financial crisis, Italy became a pure land in the European economy.
Other countries are experiencing serious economic setbacks, let alone stable development. This makes the Italian economy look particularly "dazzling".
As the capital, Rome has developed faster than other cities in the country, becoming the "top student" among European cities in the economic crisis.
When a new round of turmoil broke out in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the first person to become restless was Benito, who was jumping up and down in Rome in a panic.
"Balbo, there is civil unrest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire now. Do you think now is an opportunity for the kingdom to intervene in the Austro-Hungarian strife and take back Eastern Lombardy and Venice?" As soon as Benito learned of the Bohemian rebellion, he summoned his confidant Balbo to ask.
Balbo thought for a moment and said, "I don't recommend the Prime Minister to do this. The civil unrest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire is currently concentrated in Bohemia and has not yet spread."
"They haven't mobilized their troops in Eastern Lombardy or Venice, so it's very difficult for us to intervene, and the success rate is not high. Compared with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy's military is too weak, so we'd better not act rashly before this."
Benito was very dissatisfied with this answer. He said: "Recovering Lombardy and the entire territory of Venice has always been the goal of the kingdom. These two regions are the key to Italy's becoming a world power."
"If we cannot recover the two places, Italy will forever lose the opportunity to rise and can only be a vassal of the Austrians."
"So, even if there are risks, as long as we can take back these two pieces of Italian homeland, all the costs and sacrifices are worth it."
Balbo scoffed at Benito's idea. He said bluntly: "Mr. Prime Minister, your idea is a bit unrealistic. The military gap between Italy and Austria-Hungary is too great. If our army enters Lombardy and Venice, there will be only one outcome, that is, we will be humiliated and beaten out by Austria."
"It is true that Italy has made some progress under your leadership in recent years, and has performed relatively well in the whole of Europe, but we have no chance of competing with the Austrians militarily. Not to mention the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire, even if they deploy Austrian troops in Eastern Lombardy and Venice, we cannot easily challenge them."
"Austria-Hungary was a European power, and its military strength was second only to Germany, Britain and France. Our Italian military strength was not enough compared to these countries."
Compared with Benito, Balbo was obviously calmer, and he was also a figure with outstanding military talent in the Italian National Party. It was precisely because of his military ability that he understood more clearly the military gap between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
"We in Italy are a resource-poor country, which makes our military industry very weak. We cannot be equipped with sophisticated weapons like the Austro-Hungarian army, and we have to be very careful about the amount of ammunition we use," Balbo said.
"In addition, Italy's finances do not support the expansion and improvement of the Kingdom's army. In recent years, Italy's economic development has been good, but it has not changed Italy's current situation."
"Therefore, our desire to fight Austria-Hungary head-on to recover Eastern Lombardy and Venice is almost impossible to achieve unless we have a top military genius like Napoleon, or even lower the standard like our own national hero Garibaldi."
"But I don't think there are any outstanding generals with such military capabilities in the Italian army right now."
"Moreover, Italy's geography and national conditions do not allow us to adopt such a risky strategy. Otherwise, let alone recovering Eastern Lombardy and Venice, it is very likely that the Austrians will turn around and invade the area currently under our control in Italy."
Benito was very dissatisfied with Balbo's words which boosted others' morale and destroyed his own prestige. His face drooped and his mouth turned downwards.
However, Benito's bad attitude also showed that he agreed with what Balbo said.
The reason why Benito called him over to ask for his opinion this time was that Benito himself was very clear about the gap between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
However, he did not want to miss this opportunity. Recovering Eastern Lombardy and Venice was too attractive to him. Like a gambler, looking at the generous rewards, he always had a fluke mentality that "maybe I can turn the tables."
Assuming that he could really recover Lombardy and Venice, Benito would become the future "saint" of Italy. This temptation was fatal to Benito, but Balbo's words directly extinguished his fantasy.
He said stubbornly: "According to what you said, we can never recover the lost territory and allow the people of Italy to be enslaved by the Austrians. Now the Austro-Hungarian Empire is in civil strife, and we are standing idly by because of cowardice!"
Balbo didn't take Benito's angry words to heart at all. After all, the Italian leader sometimes liked to act on impulse, and he was used to it.
However, Balbo would certainly not allow Benito to put the hat he had arranged on his head.
He said: "Recovering Eastern Lombardy and Venice is the goal of every Italian. Even if I can do this, I will never hesitate, even if I die."
"But if you want to recover your homeland, you can't achieve your goal just by being passionate. Especially if you are not careful, you may lose the bright future of the entire Italy."
"So we cannot let our emotions get the better of us. Of course, we cannot give up our goal of recovering our homeland just because it is difficult."
"Although we cannot directly engage in military conflict with Austria-Hungary, we can make some preparations and wait and see what happens. It won't be too late to take action when the time is right in the future."
Benito asked listlessly, "So what do you think we should do?"
Balbo said confidently: "We will not confront Austria-Hungary head-on, but we can definitely cause trouble for the Austrians in secret."
"The current civil unrest in the Austro-Hungarian Empire is mainly due to the concentrated outbreak of economic problems in Bohemia. The economic conditions of Eastern Lombardy and Venice are not much better under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire."
"The starting point of the fire in the Austro-Hungarian Empire this time was the city of Liberec in the north. The riots first broke out in this city, which was instigated by the local labor party and textile workers."
"Eastern Lombardy and Venice are also the main distribution areas of the Austro-Hungarian textile industry. Therefore, the economic problems faced by Liberec also exist in Eastern Lombardy and Venice."
"We can add fuel to the fire and make the Italians in Eastern Lombardy and Venice move like Bohemia, exacerbating the unrest within the Austro-Hungarian Empire."
"However, we should not make any big moves for the time being. Instead, we should wait until the situation in Bohemia deteriorates further before we start provoking Eastern Lombardy and Venice."
Benito frowned and asked, "Why? Isn't it better for us if the Austro-Hungarian Empire is in chaos?"
Balbo explained: "Of course, the more chaos the Austro-Hungarian Empire has, the better it is for us. However, it would be best if regions such as Bohemia could put pressure on the Austro-Hungarian government during this turmoil, forcing them to withdraw troops from Eastern Lombardy and Venice to suppress the rebellion elsewhere. This would be a better outcome for us in Italy."
"On the contrary, if there is unrest in Eastern Lombardy and Venice, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will not only not feel at ease to transfer local troops, but will also strengthen its military presence in the area."
The Austro-Hungarian Empire currently has three main areas of defense: first, the Balkan Peninsula, second, the Soviet Union in the east, and finally, the Italian Peninsula.
Among them, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would not easily mobilize to deal with the Soviet military force, leaving only the troops in the Balkan Peninsula and the Italian Peninsula.
Balbo naturally hoped that the Austro-Hungarian Empire would reduce its garrison on the Italian peninsula so that Italy would have a chance to fish in troubled waters and even recover Eastern Lombardy and Venice.
To achieve this, it was necessary to show weakness to the enemy and let the Austro-Hungarian Empire relax its vigilance against Italy.
Benito also understood, and he said: "You mean we should wait and see the development of events within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and then at the right time, incite unrest in Eastern Lombardy and Venice."
Balbo nodded and said, "That's right. At the same time, we should make military preparations, but we can't do this in the border area to prevent the Austrians from getting suspicious."
"We can place them in the northwest of the kingdom and secretly mobilize the troops. If Austria-Hungary is ultimately unable to control the situation, we can take the risk of transporting the troops to the border by rail and finally enter Eastern Lombardy and Venice."
Here Balbo is mainly referring to the army. As for the navy, Italy is absolutely no match for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Even though the Austro-Hungarian Navy's sphere of activity is limited to the Adriatic Sea, its strength is not something Italy can match.
This is still an economic issue. After all, the unified Austro-Hungarian Empire could not be compared financially with Italy, which had not yet been fully unified, and the navy was an extremely expensive branch of the military.
In recent years, Italy has just completed the merger of the navies of the former Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Naples, and has not expanded on a large scale.
Balbo went on to say: "At the same time, we should order a batch of weapons from other countries to offset the gap in weapons and equipment between us and the Austro-Hungarian army."
"At least it will ensure that we can resist the counterattack of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after we recapture Lombardy and Venice."
After hearing his plan, Benito's expression finally changed. He stood up and said to Balbo: "Balbo, you are the greatest military genius in Italy. Now, on behalf of Italy, I will entrust you with the important task of recovering Eastern Lombardy and Venice."
"During this period, if you need anything, I can support you, including funding, troop mobilization, etc. I hope the final result will not disappoint me."
Balbo saluted Benito and assured him, "Please rest assured, Prime Minister, I will always keep an eye on the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As long as there is a chance, I will make Eastern Lombardy and Venice return to the embrace of the motherland even if it costs my life."
Benito and Balbo, after all, were betting that problems would arise within the Austro-Hungarian Empire and ultimately could not be resolved. As for Italy fighting the Austro-Hungarian Empire on its own, it would be like throwing an egg against a rock and overestimating its own capabilities.
Thus, from the end of January, the Italian National Party's actions in Eastern Lombardy and Venice began to become active.
Many years ago, there were branches of the Italian National Party in Eastern Lombardy and Venice, but they had always been suppressed by the Austro-Hungarian government.
However, with the outbreak of the world economic crisis, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's control over the region continued to fail due to economic problems.
The economic crisis has led to social chaos and a large number of unemployed people, which has led to the re-activation of the Italian National Party in Eastern Lombardy and Venice in the past two or three years, and its rapid expansion in scale.
Of course, the labor party members in these two places are also relatively active. There are the Austrian Labor Party and the Italian Labor Party. They are both active in Eastern Lombardy and Venice.
At this time, the Labor Party and the Italian National Party coincided with each other's desire to further disrupt the local situation. The Labor Party's main purpose was to coordinate with other regions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so that the Habsburgs could not take care of themselves and thus completely subvert the Habsburg rule.
The Soviet Union played a leading role in this. After all, this internal riot in the Austro-Hungarian Empire was planned in advance by Moscow in late 1932, and it was not just a coincidence.
Including the Liberec workers' movement, they were all planned in advance and eventually implemented by the Soviet side. The Soviet Union's minimum requirement was to dismember the Austro-Hungarian Empire, thus eliminating this obstacle to the Soviet Union's advance into Europe from the map.
Therefore, this time they not only supported the Austrian Labor Party, but also mobilized the Czech Labor Party, the Slovak Labor Party, the Italian Labor Party, etc. to cooperate with it.
In this situation, they were moving towards the same goal as the various nationalists within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Whether it was the Labor Party or the nationalists, their primary goal was to overthrow the rule of the Habsburg family in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and then consider other issues.
So, Balbo was pleasantly surprised to find that the Italian National Party's work in Eastern Lombardy and Venice was going very smoothly. At this time, the Austrians were completely in the dark and had no idea whether it was the Labor Party or other forces causing sabotage in Eastern Lombardy and Venice.
However, compared with the Labor Party, Balbo and the Italian National Party were relatively covert in their actions according to previous arrangements. The Labor Party did not have these concerns, so they also attracted most of the firepower of the Austro-Hungarian government.
(End of this chapter)
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