Chapter Seventy-Five: The French Volunteers
Francisco was unequivocal, and the next day the news of the election of Amedeo as the new king of Spain was published.
However, he did not do anything desperately, and kept a hand, using the current national turmoil as an excuse to prevent Amedeo from actually taking over Spain.
The old king, far away in Italy, was annoyed by this obvious caution, and prepared a card to Francisco, a postponement of the volunteer army and borrowing.
But Amedeo didn't want to alienate the relationship again because of this incident, which led to the collapse of the cooperation, and repeatedly begged his father to take a step back, but there was no way, and the more active side was always at a disadvantage in the cooperation between the two sides.
Vittorio finally did not resist his son's pleas and began to transfer money to Francisco's account one after another.
According to the agreement between the two parties, a considerable part of this money will be directly consumed in Italy, and there is no need to really pay that much money, so even if the royal family of Savoy is not rich, it still raises all the loans in a short time.
But the help for the issuance of bearer bonds did not go so well, and Italy had only recently been reunified, and the people were very, very poor, and the middle class was much smaller than the rest of the powers, and could not afford to buy too many national bonds.
Even those who could afford to buy it were on the fence about Spanish government bonds, and were not very optimistic about the free government, which was troubled by internal and external troubles, and the total sales did not exceed £100,000, except for a part of the subscription by the royal family of Savoy.
Francisco was of course not satisfied with this outcome, but he also knew that the royal family of Savoy could not manipulate the market, so he only repeatedly urged the Kingdom of Italy to organize a volunteer army
Of course, Italy could easily take out an army of 20,000 troops, but it would be a bit too presumptuous to let an active army enter the territory of another great power.
Therefore, under the impetus of the military department, the kingdom recruited 6,000 and 5,000 new troops in Lombardy and Tuscany respectively, and then retired part of the army and formed two volunteer divisions to rush to Spain.
The two divisions will undergo a short training period (one week) in the Autonomous Community of Castile La Mancha, followed by a total of 28,000 men under Spanish numbers and Spanish uniforms.
This operation of covering up the ears and stealing the bell can't hide from anyone, but it can leave a room for everyone.
And not intervening in an official capacity, it shows that Italy has no intention of strengthening political and economic ties with Spain, but if there is a Spanish royal family, the international power will be acceptable.
Diego on the Aragon front was overjoyed by the news, and in five days they were defeated by the Catalan army, pushing back the front by 7 kilometers in a short time.
Without the help of reinforcements, they would have lost the provincial capital of Teruel within a month, as well as the supporting roads, and once they lost this key road node, they could almost declare that they had lost Valencia.
It's not that he doesn't work hard, after these few days of fighting, he is confident that he is better than Garcia on the other side, but the problem of army quality cannot be solved by him as a commander-in-chief.
Originally, he hoped that the Northern Army would quickly destroy Carlos's army and then come to his aid, or transfer some of the army.
But the officers of the Northern Army have ignored the orders of the Free Government, and have been fighting with Fernando and Catalonia, and each time they fight with the Carlos, the total number of casualties on both sides will not exceed 500.
Francisco was so angry that he had to pay them all the time, lest they fall completely to other forces.
As a result, Diego no longer counted on his colleagues in the north, and the arrival of the Italian army was the last straw, and he decided to wait a week for the Green Army to complete its training and launch a major counteroffensive to boost the morale that had been declining recently.
On the other side, the French ambassador is negotiating with Alfonso.
Italy's audacity in the Spanish Civil War made France a little angry, and again talked about sending volunteers.
Alfonso had refused because he feared that it would undermine his legitimacy and that France might make a condition that he could not agree to.
Now the problem no longer exists, and the other party has called for off-site assistance, and of course he can do it.
The French parliamentarians also felt the need to suppress this young brother who was on the rise, and the conditions offered were much more lenient than before.
As long as Catalonia pays for the armaments of the volunteers, it provides military pay and pensions.
Of course, it had to be promised that as soon as the war broke out in France, the army would immediately return home to participate in the war and bring all the equipment with it.
That is, Italy, France is only slightly angry, and it is not enough to do anything out of the ordinary.
In addition to the friendly relations between Italy and France, it is more because France's three major land neighbors, Italy and Spain combined, do not threaten France's strength.
If Prussia had expressed its intention to unite with either of the other two countries, in order to prevent the enemy from being attacked on its back, France would have taken strong measures to solve the problem, instead of sending a diplomatic letter and protesting lightly, as is the case now.
"Your Majesty, we have decided this time to send the Eleventh and Twelfth Mobile Guards in Aquitaine, and the Seventeenth Mobile Guard in Provence.
In addition, due to humanitarian considerations, the Volunteer Army will be replaced every three months. The ambassador said.
Since the death of Marshal Neil on the operating table, France's Mobile Guard program has stalled, and in some areas it is even on file.
But Nasan was not completely dead, and replaced a group of volunteers every few months, apparently with the idea of Catalonia to help train troops and provide free equipment.
The first mobile guards of Aquitaine and Provence were the largest at present, and in a few days they could reach a full 21,000 men.
It can be achieved to avoid domestic opposition (the left fears that the Mobile Guard will strengthen the authority of the monarchy and mushroomism), and it can send only an extraordinary reserve army, as in Italy.
Alfonso was a little helpless, France was so rich that he still wanted to buy Catalan wool, but this condition was not excessive, and he couldn't refuse.
"Every five months, they will return to China as soon as they learn how to use guns." Campos helped out on the sidelines.
Eventually, after some arguments, the time was set at 4 months, and instead of returning all at once, half of them would be returned every two months after the first 4 months.