In the midst of the attention, Alfonso walked to the door of the workers' courtyard, where a red ribbon was being tied.

In fact, there is no ribbon-cutting of the construction construction in this year, at most the new ship will be cut when it is launched, which is Alfonso's first in a sense.

After all, the building itself alone cost 400,000 pounds, and there is still more to build an ironclad ship.

Alfonso naturally wanted the people to remember his kindness.

Now it seems that the effect is not bad, or at least it has managed to attract attention.

To the rousing melody of the Royal March, Alfonso and Isabella solemnly dropped their scissors.

"Long live the King!" The cheers instantly resounded.

Ordinary people were happy, but the officials and soldiers on duty were very nervous, and this kind of ritual seemed to them to be too common, and the distance between the king and the nearest citizen was only 100 meters.

At this distance, what if a gunslinger comes?

If nothing else, Italy definitely has this motive.

Even if there has been a search beforehand, it is difficult to guarantee that nothing is safe.

Alfonso was calm, he had tested it a few days ago, and now those bullets with initial velocity that had just broken the speed of sound, he could grasp it with his bare hands, and the palm of his hand would be bruised at most, without the slightest risk at all.

And until the completion of the whole ceremony, there were no assassins to verify his strength, and I have to say that it is a bit regrettable.

At the end of the ceremony, Edward left Iwakura and got into Alfonso's carriage.

He said casually: "These Japanese are really annoying, an old man came to play something close to me, and a foreign girl is almost the same."

They first came to see you, as if you were importing a large amount of Japanese bamboo? What do you want bamboo for? ”

Alfonso stared at him for a moment, making sure that he was really talking about a random topic before he spoke: "State secrets, no comment." ”

"Haha." Edward laughed dryly, but instead of getting angry, he guessed: "Make furniture? Still is...... You developed a bamboo boat? Faster than a wooden boat? ”

This really stunned Alfonso, and he looked at Edward for a while before he said quietly: "Aren't you a top student at Oxford University and Cambridge University?" ”

"It's not like they all graduated." Edward said calmly.

“…… Anyway, you'll find out after a while. Alfonso said: "I can still make you a fortune when the time comes." ”

"Okay, I'll wait." Edward complained twice: "You don't know, those women are too good at spending money, no matter how much money they ......"

While Edward was babbling to Alfonso about his affair, Austria-Hungary and Italy were in a bloody war.

More than half a month has passed since Austria-Hungary declared war on Italy, and the number of troops on the front line has reached 270,000, with another 200,000 deployed on the Austro-Prussian border.

Austria-Hungary lived up to its name as a great power, with a population of 35.7 million and a high degree of industrialization, and it did not take much effort to mobilize more troops than Italy.

A few days ago, they kept urging Spain to open up the middle front battlefield, and now they are not urging it.

During Edward's stay in Spain, there was some progress in peace negotiations.

After seizing Sardinia and Sicily, Spain passed a military order to cease attacking British merchant ships, including merchant ships on the high seas and in ports, as long as they were flying the British flag.

Even if it was a British ship that could be seen at a glance as a counterfeit Italian ship, Spain turned a blind eye.

Whether to attack or not depends entirely on the orders of the day, and under the instructions of the higher-ups, it is maintained in a state of not having enough to eat and not starving.

As a result, the blockade of Italy has been effectively lifted, and nearly 100 merchant ships travel between Britain and Italy every day, building Italy's maritime lifeline.

The cost of doing so is high, of course, but it's better than running out of bullets in a gun – life is still more precious than money.

Italy did not even say anything about the occupation of Sardinia and Sicily, and there was no word of revenge in the official newspapers.

They even withdrew the troops from outside the city of Rome, leaving the besieging army to only 30,000 men, less than the besieged side.

The Austro-Hungarian leadership speculated that Spain might have been threatened by Britain and had to give up the opportunity to continue to expand the victory.

The exact reason is unknown, but Austria-Hungary did not have much dissatisfaction with it.

Because after they declared war, Spain did not immediately make peace, but continued to occupy Sardinia and Sicily, maintaining a low-intensity blockade while helping them share the international pressure.

Truth be told, a country that is not considered an alliance is enough to do this.

Not to mention going it alone, Austria-Hungary was not afraid of Italy at all.

After France switched to the defense of Paris, Austria-Hungary temporarily gave up the idea of declaring war on Prussia and focused all on the war against Italy.

If France can counterattack later, then Austria-Hungary may go to get a piece of the pie, but with this great disadvantage, don't expect the Austrians to die for the French.

The mobilized Austria-Hungary, Italy was completely unable to parry, and the Setekomouni line, which had been stable for more than half a month, was finally breached.

Behind the plateaus and mountains was the endless plains of Venesia where tidal waves of German and Hungarian cavalry galloped and soon drove Italy across the Mincio River.

On November 3, the Austro-Hungarian Empire resumed its 1866 territory.

However, the war was won so easily, how could it be just stopped? There aren't many opportunities to expand in Europe.

The ambitions of Austria-Hungary did not stop, and they set their sights on Lombardy.

This place was ceded to the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1859 during the Second Italian War of Independence with the help of the French, and is one of the richest places in Italy – and one of them can even be removed.

To tell the truth, there is a legal basis for this, and no one can deny the legitimacy of the Vienna Conference.

However, the local population was clearly reluctant to return to Austria.

The annexation of Lombardy by Austria-Hungary was as inconsistent with public opinion as the annexation of Sicily by Spain.

However, the good thing about Sicily over Lombard is that the population of Sicily is 1.5 million less than that of Lombardy.

Moreover, the South and Italy are much poorer than the North and are correspondingly less resistant to integration into the rich countries.

The Columbards were richer than many parts of Austria, and since they stayed the same everywhere, they naturally preferred to stay with their compatriots.

With the blessing of nationalism, the power of homeland defense is staggering.

The Lombards, who were reluctant to join the army to fight Rome, spontaneously joined the Italian Self-Defense Forces at this time.

In just one week, a militia with a total strength of 120,000 troops rushed to the Mincio River defense line.