The international situation is changing rapidly, and even the initiating countries are in it and cannot see the future clearly, let alone the bystanders.

The antagonism between the two alliances was hotly debated in Europe, with Britain being the first to react.

Their current policy is a balance of power in Europe, using checks and balances between countries to free up space to colonize Asia and block Russia.

A major war would obviously completely alter this balance of power, which Britain did not want.

And even if there is a real European war, Britain wants to win, because West France is a colonial empire, and winning Europe may further threaten their colonial hegemony.

However, as things stand, there was no chance that the North-South alliance would win—it must be admitted that Prussia had been impressive in the Franco-Prussian War, but they could not have dealt with both France and Austria-Hungary at the same time.

As for the little brother Italy, he is not even an opponent of Spain.

Amid this concern, Britain urgently contacted various countries, but only Italy made it clear that it wanted Britain to mediate.

The rest, even Prussia and France, which had suffered greatly from the war, were tougher than the other.

France demanded that Prussia withdraw from South Germany, and Prussia demanded that France return Alsace Lorraine.

The bottom lines of the two countries are not only very different, but also involve the fundamental interests of the two countries, and whoever fails to achieve it will collapse, and Britain does not dare to commit to them at will.

Prussian and British are equal players who can talk to each other on an equal footing, and Britain can't move them.

But for Spain, a country of average strength but huge maritime interests, the British Prime Minister thinks he can still speak.

The day after the establishment of the Solidarity Pact, they approached Alfonso and offered to mediate the war between Spain and Italy.

They promised that Rome would be part of the Papal States, and that Italy would have a small city as its nominal capital.

At the same time, Italy would abandon its claims to Rome, and Spain would be able to permanently garrison its troops there.

That is, Italy accepted the conditions of the Rome Conference.

Needless to say, it must have been Italy that sued Spain for peace through the mouth of Britain.

For them, agreeing to such conditions means that all the sacrifices they have made before will be in vain, and the national sentiment mobilized for this will not be invested in the war, but will be turned against themselves.

The Savoy royal family may not be doing much, but the cabinet is definitely going to be reshuffled.

And it will be nailed to the pillar of shame in history as the most compromised, cowardly and incompetent cabinet in the history of Italy.

However, it is clear that this pre-war proposal was far from Alfonso's expectations.

He wasn't really for the Papal States.

If the goal was simply to preserve Rome, there would be no need to go to the level of all-out war, and there would have been a more modest solution.

That is, Britain, and if another country wants to be this ambassador of peace, Alfonsoli will ignore him.

But even Britain could not afford to let the war go to waste, and Alfonso politely rejected the ambassador's proposal and instead made a new demand—Sardinia to be transferred to Spain.

……

“…… So that's it, the Spaniards want Sardinia, and I don't think it's too much to ask. ”

At 10 Downing Street, Foreign Minister Earl Granville reported to the Prime Minister on the results of their work.

The current Liberal Prime Minister, William Yurt Gladstone, listened quietly, did not answer the foreign minister's words, and asked rhetorically: "Since it is not excessive, has Italy been informed?" ”

Granville looked slightly annoyed: "Italy is unwilling to cede land, and even if I ask them to pay for it, they will not do it either—even in the name of redeeming prisoners of war." ”

Gladstone nodded: "That's not the end, Italy itself is not willing to make peace, since they all want to fight, then let them fight first." After a while they will learn that there is a price to be paid for losing a war. ”

There was a bit of dissatisfaction with Italy in his words.

Indeed, judging from the current situation, Italy will lose this war without any suspense, especially after the two blocs actually go to war.

The cessation of a single island of Sardinia, suspended in the Mediterranean, was considered a relatively tolerant treaty in the eyes of the British.

And as long as Italy loosens its mouth, there is still a lot of room for maneuvering.

The loss of money would offset some of it, and even Gladstone was somewhat sure that Spain would be persuaded to implement the treaty by establishing a Sardinian protectorate in Sardinia, weakening Italy without strengthening Spain.

Who would have thought that Italy would only be willing to restore its pre-war territory and give nothing else.

Then the war could only be continued, and the matter of mediation would be discussed later, and judging by the attitude of Spain and Italy, the British believed that the situation was still under their control.

……

In fact, Italy also knows that from the prisoner of war incident to this war, Italy's national honor has fallen again and again, which is nothing for an old nation-state like France, but for Italy's nascent regime, this is the root of the country's existence.

They were afraid that the cession of Sardinia would be the beginning of the collapse of the Kingdom of Italy.

If you can't cut the land, then you will pay for it, but they are poor and white, and they can't get a penny.

Italy itself was the poorest of the great powers, and the deficit had reached a considerable level due to the wars and military build-ups that had taken place over the years.

Not to mention the embargo imposed by the Solidarity Agreement a few days ago, which set off a wave of business closures, and for the first time, factory owners and workers stood on the same front and marched together to demand that the government stop the war.

Many capitalists have said in the newspapers that if the war drags on and the embargo problem is not resolved, the possibility of moving to a foreign country cannot be ruled out.

Parliament is considering giving them a weekly subsidy to reassure them, but the government is powerless to take care of more unemployed workers for the time being.

So Italy is currently in internal and external difficulties, and there is almost no liquidity on its books, so what can it do to satisfy Spain's appetite?

The double blockade on land and at sea alone was enough to bring Italy, a resource-poor country, to its knees.

Come to think of it, the Italian top brass agreed that a big victory must be fought in order to obtain decent peace conditions, and it must be done quickly, before France and Austria declare war on them!

Victory on land had already proven impossible, or rather difficult to achieve, through several previous campaigns.

They set their sights on the navy.

It just so happened that a Spanish fleet had been harassing their coastline, and the home port of this fleet was Rome.

Although the Spanish General Port was tightly covered, Italy also had its own methods of exploration, and it was entirely possible to set up an ambush to wipe out this annoying harassing fleet, and now ...... Just wait for an opportunity.