Guan Zhuofan's foundation of "Italy is inferior to Austria" in front of the emperor was really timely and necessary, and only a few days later, the news of Italy's defeat came, and it was defeated by land and sea.

By land, King Victor Emanuel of Italy, with a large army of 100,000 men, marched northward, supplemented by the chief of staff, General La Marmora. At the same time, General Charitigi led a detachment of 90,000 men and went around in a circle, intending to attack the flank of the Austrian army and make a "pincer offensive". In addition to this, Italy has a reserve of 30,000 men on the second line.

That is to say, the total number of troops invested in this Italian war against Austria was 220,000 - and this was only the regular army, not counting the militia led by Garibaldi. King Victor Ermanuel was full of ambition, thinking that this time he would be punished with a big blow, and the O'Chieftain would be determined by the fact that his historical status as a hero would not be easy for thousands of generations.

In a hurry, Austria formed a southern front force of 78,000 men, led by Archduke Albrecht, and marched south to meet the enemy.

220,000 vs. 78,000, it seems that there is really a "huge disparity between strength and weakness".

The main forces of the two sides encountered in the Kustocha area, and under the first battle, the 100,000-strong army under the command of Victor Ermanuel fell apart, and the officers and soldiers scattered and fled, unable to retract, and had no strength to fight again.

The 90,000-strong "partial division" led by Chalitini was slow to move, and the main force had been completely defeated, and they had not yet seen the shadow of the Austrian army, and they did not play the role of "dividing and attacking together" at all. After receiving the news of His Majesty's defeat, Calitzini immediately ordered: the rear team should be the front team, withdraw!

The one who is. Naturally, it was Victor Ermanuel himself. But. Thankfully, the Austrians did not catch up - the Austrians rushed to move their troops north on the southern front to support the tight northern front.

This is land, what about the sea?

The Italian navy came out of the nest and formed a large task force, led by Admiral Persano, from Ancona to capture the Austrian naval base on the Adriatic island of Lissa.

At that time. The main force of the Austrian Navy, one hundred and sixty-five nautical miles away, in the port of Bora. When he received the news of the attack on Lisa, Austrian Admiral Tegethoff thought that the Italians were playing some kind of feint -- how could anyone in the world carry out a landing operation without mastering the sea dominance?

It didn't take long to find out that the Italians were here for real - damn it, there are such funny guys in the world! Tegethof hurriedly mobilized the troops of the port of Bora to save Lisa.

However, two precious days have passed.

It is a pity that the Italian Navy did not seize these two precious days.

The garrison of Lisa was very tenacious, and there were no large-caliber shore guns on the island, but the Italian fleet bombarded it for two days. You just can't beat it alive or dead. The Italian fleet not only suffered a serious consumption of ammunition and fuel, but also had low morale. The worst thing is that the ironclad ship "Mighty" was damaged by the Austrians and lost its combat capability.

Just then, the Austrian fleet led by Tegerthoff arrived.

On paper, although the "Mighty" was wounded and could not fight again, the Italian fleet still had an overwhelming advantage.

Including the "Mighty", the Italian fleet had a total of twelve ironclads.

The name "Mighty" is good, but the real ironclad ships in the fleet are the flagships "Italy" and "Di Potogaro", both of which are fast ships; There is also the "Plumb", this one, which adopted the most advanced design of the time, the "turret", and was also equipped with ramming angles. The wounded and withdrawn "Mighty" did not affect the overall combat strength of the Italian fleet.

All ironclad ships, armed with large-caliber "Armstrong" rifled guns.

In addition to the ironclads, the Italian fleet had sixteen wooden-hulled steam warships.

The Austrian fleet, which arrived in a hurry, consisted of only seven ironclad ships, most of which were relatively old. There are only seven wooden-hulled steam warships.

In terms of total firepower, the Austrian fleet was less than half of the Italian fleet.

"The disparity between the strong and the weak" is like the army.

What about the course and outcome of the battle?

Entering the Lissa Sea, Tegethoff organized the fleet into three "V" shaped wedge-shaped formations, arranged longitudinally. the first wedge-shaped formation, consisting of seven ironclad ships, headed by the flagship "Ferdinand"; the second wedge-shaped formation, consisting of wooden-hulled steam ships, headed by the "Caesar"; The rest of the gunboats and small ships were formed into a third wedge formation.

The commander of the Italian fleet, Persano, could not help but be surprised when he saw the Austrian fleet rushing towards him—hey, I don't know why he was "surprised"? Did he think that the Austrians would never come to the rescue of Lisa, and that he had always been left to act calmly and calmly?

Persano was not the only one who was "surprised". Albini, the commander of the wooden-hulled detachment, simply refused to take part in the naval battle against the Austrian fleet, on the grounds that we were too tired. Besides, isn't it for nothing that the wooden-hulled ship is against the ironclad ship?

Unable to dispose of the detachment of wooden-hulled ships that were on the verge of disobedience, in a hurry, Persano formed eleven ironclad ships into a column and rushed towards the front of the Austrian fleet. In a hurry, the latest "Plumb Hammer" did not enter the column, but ran parallel to it. Persano looked at it, forget it, and made a mistake, so I went over the "Plumb" and changed the command ship from "Italy" to "Plumb".

This is an incomprehensible change - perhaps Persano thinks it would be safer for the Plumb to be outside of the battle formation?

The consequences of this change are very serious.

First, in the midst of the chaos, most of the warships in the fleet did not know that the flagship had become the "Plumb", and they were confused about the flag of the "Plumb", and they did not know whether they should accept it or not.

Second, originally, the "Italy" was in fourth place in the column, but after such a stop, a big gap appeared between the three battleships in front of the column and the "Italy".

What kind of person is Tegethoff, how can he let go of this God-given opportunity? Immediately command the fleet, through this large gap, to divide the entire Italian fleet, in two.

The Italian fleet was in disarray, and the two sides were in a scuffle.

This situation is quite similar to the battle of Trafalgar between Britain and France, mentioned earlier. In the Battle of Trafalgar, Nelson, the commander of the British fleet, also divided the French fleet into two, so that the head and tail could not take care of each other, and finally won the Battle of Trafalgar, which finally confirmed the British maritime supremacy.

The results of the two naval battles were also quite similar.

The flagship of the Italian fleet, the "Italia," was stared at by the "Ferdinand," the flagship of the Austrian fleet, and finally, the "Ferdinand" found an opportunity and ran into the "Italia," with a large angle of attack deeply inserted into the body of the "Italia," and the turbulent sea water poured into the "Italia" cabin, and the "Italia," along with the 400 officers and men on board, slowly sank together.

Well, it seems that Persano was still prescient: the "Plumb" is safer than the "Italia".

Another ironclad ship of the Italian fleet, the "Gladiatorial Arena", was hit by the artillery fire of the Austrian ship, caught fire and exploded, and completely lost its combat effectiveness.

The Italians finally couldn't take it anymore, raised the white flag and withdrew from the battlefield.

Tegethof did not pursue, and when he came, chivalry made it; Second, even though the Italian fleet lost three ironclad ships, its strength was still superior to that of the Austrian fleet.

*

*

Italy lost so cleanly on land and at sea that the Chinese monarchs and ministers thousands of miles away looked at each other one by one.

"Alas, you were so prescient!" Cixi frowned, "This Italy has a lot of soldiers, but why is it so useless?" ”

Regarding the "foresight" in the mouth of the royal sister, Guan Zhuofan didn't dare to reply to the "Empress Dowager Xie Reward", muttered for a while, and said: "Back to the Empress Dowager, Italy has just been barely reunified, although there are many soldiers, most of them have not been trained, and it is not too much to say that it is a 'rabble'. This is true for the Army, and it is also true for the Navy. ”

After a pause, he said, "The one who led the soldiers...... It's not much better. For example, that Persano, although he had a high official position, had only commanded small ships such as gunboats, and had never fought any major battles. It was the first time for him to command such a big ship as an ironclad ship, and to fight such a big battle as the Battle of Lisa, how many ...... Some of the ducks are on the shelves. ”

"The soldiers really have to be trained!" Cixi raised her voice slightly, "I know that out of the seven days of the Xuan army, it will have to train soldiers for six days, from morning to night, which is very good!" ”

Guan Zhuofan didn't expect that as soon as the royal sister changed her words, she turned to herself, and hurriedly bowed down and replied: "Thank you for the Empress Dowager's reward!" ”

"By the way," said Cixi, "that 'flying geese' of the Austrian Navy platoon, isn't it...... Is that the 'wild goose marching array' we lined up when we performed martial arts in Tianjin? ”

"Back to the Queen Mother, exactly."

"Ouch!" Cixi's tone became excited, "Guan Zhuofan, you are really prescient!" ”

"The Queen Mother's Reward, Minister...... Terrified! ”

"Just look forward to the next battle between Prussia and Austria, and the result will be as prescient as you had!"

*(To be continued......)