It was evident that Austria-Hungary was quite impatient, and the ultimatum for Venesia and Lombardy was left only 8 hours for Italy to reply.

And it was distributed in the early hours of the morning, and the 13th launched an attack early in the morning with the node stuck.

However, the invasion of Austria-Hungary had been anticipated by Italy, and it was impossible for them to advance quickly.

By this time, the total number of Italian land forces had reached 340,000, of which only a small part was stationed throughout the country to prevent landings and rebellions.

The remaining mobile forces numbered 265,000.

Being able to complete the previously drawn up recruitment plan two months ahead of schedule is not insignificant.

Quantitatively speaking, if Britain does not count the colonial forces, the Italian Army is the fourth in Europe, second only to Russia and Prussia, and even Austria-Hungary is not as big as him.

However, the combat effectiveness of this newly recruited recruit is really questionable, although Italy as a European country does not lack guns, but it is only not short of guns.

The recruits recruited a few days ago were given a Wheatley rifle and thrown to the front line.

During this period of waiting for Austria-Hungary to declare war, some of the recruits cooperated with the veterans and were on standby at any time in case Austria-Hungary suddenly attacked.

Others were trained in shooting not far away.

Rotate every once in a while.

Therefore, Italy said that it had stationed 180,000 troops in Veneto, but a considerable part of them were not in a state of combat readiness, and the combat effectiveness in a state of combat readiness was also limited.

The only ones who could really afford to fight were the 60,000 veterans who were urgently drawn from the vicinity of Rome.

But the level of these 60,000 veterans has already been shown in the two previous battles in the city of Rome.

The Italian army was so unpopular that the commander of the Austro-Hungarian army, Field Marshal Benedek, who had been commander-in-chief of the Austrian forces in Italy, made an impromptu speech before the morning attack.

To his members of staff and the two companies that were in the vanguard, he said: "Italy is a thin thief, Spain has broken his knees, and all we have to do is to put a kick in his ribs so that he can no longer covet other people's pockets." ”

Benedek made these bold remarks at a time when he had only 90,000 troops at his disposal.

Attack a hundred thousand with ninety-thousand...... Can you beat it?

The answer is simple, it is definitely possible on flat ground, but not on the Italian-Austrian border.

In this battle, Austria-Hungary was inferior not only in numbers, but also in weapons.

The Wendell rifle they used was a new model designed in 1867 and was a breech-loading rifle made by the brothers after they had learned from the wall.

The performance is quite good, and it can be used in this era.

It's a pity that the Italians opposite them had better rifles.

The Italian Vitley 1870 was based on the Swiss-made Vitley 1869, which was a degraded version of the gun - the Swiss Vitley was an 11-round bead rifle, and here in Italy, they changed it to a single shot because they thought it was a waste of bullets.

I have to say that from the current perspective, the changes in Italy are quite prescient.

If the recruits were to be fired 11 rounds indiscriminately, the Italian army would have degenerated to medieval levels in a short period of time.

However, even if this one of the most important advantages is obliterated, the Vitley 1870 is better in tightness and stability than Wendell, in short, if one reliability is 100, the other is 75.

Of course, it is not without its drawbacks, and Vitley is slightly less powerful...... But it's only a little smaller, and it's harmless.

If these rifles were given to the French, they would have been able to beat Austria-Hungary to the north.

But the Italian target is too crooked, and most recruits if someone asks him "What is your accurate shooting distance?" He will most likely answer "on the top of the head".

Fortunately, the junction of Trento and Veneto is extremely high.

If you climb it from the east, you will find the mighty Dolomites in front of Austria-Hungary, which has 18 peaks above 3,000 meters alone.

To the west, they had to face the Sétekomouni Plateau, which was also not flat, and most of the plateau was in Italy.

From here it was easier to attack Austria-Hungary, but the other way around.

Under such extremely favorable geographical conditions, the effect of Austro-Hungarian artillery fire was relatively limited, and if you wanted to hit people, you could only rush to the front and conduct infantry combat.

The Italians were able to calmly demonstrate their tattered shooting skills, firing two shots with one miss, and always hitting people.

In this kind of battle to fight the stupid in the mountains, the Austro-Hungarian offensive was really repulsed.

The battle lasted two days, each of which left more than 1,000 corpses, and Austria-Hungary gained nothing but a few useless small peaks.

……

On October 15th, Europe basically learned the news of Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Italy, and the big guys only sweated for the fate of Italy at first, and soon put the matter behind them.

After all, Italy has not only exposed its own weaknesses, but also its diplomatic strategy.

At the same time, there was a conflict with all the neighboring countries, and it was also deserved to be beaten.

The British did not even go to Austria-Hungary and say "you can't continue to bully poor Italians", because they knew that it would not work.

Austria-Hungary had no overseas interests and was one of the few countries that could completely dismiss Britain.

It is obvious that the Italo-Austrian side may be in a tug-of-war in the mountains for some time, and people are not interested in such boring battles.

At this time, there were two battlefields that Europeans paid attention to, one was the Spanish-Italian battlefield and the other was the Franco-Prussian battlefield.

Alfonso's previous remarks about the complete fulfillment of his obligations as an ally are very exciting.

You must know that after the Italian troops around Rome were drained of 60,000, the number of Spanish and Italian troops was almost the same, both about 50,000.

Italy's 50,000 people will definitely not be able to beat Spain's 50,000, this is the consensus.

In other words, as long as Spain wanted to, they could now take the initiative and open up the middle battlefield, take the rich land of central Italy, and cut off the connection between the north and the south of Italy by the way.

When the time comes, it will be logical to eat most of Italy.

However, from the day the statement was issued, the Spanish slogans were shouted loudly, but the actual action was not at all.

People can only turn their eyes to the Franco-Prussian battlefield.

As a significant part of the army was pumped to the Austro-Prussian border, Prussia's combat effectiveness decreased.

This allowed France to fight them in quick succession without a quick collapse.

But now it's also reaching a limit.

France lost more than it won, just for the sake of the political situation, and maintained a superficial inch.

And Prussia was happy to continue to bleed them at the border, without any further meaning.

But the balance of power maintained at a high cost will not last long.

With the overall situation of the Spanish-Italian battlefield decided, the decapitation blow to France is also coming.