On November 9, Austria-Hungary hastily occupied all of Venesia and immediately launched an attack on the Po River line.

A total of 200,000 troops were dispatched to attack Austria-Hungary, and the armies were divided into two routes, north and south.

But 200,000 troops were no longer enough on the current Austrian-Italian battlefield, and the newly recruited militia, together with the newly trained recruits, brought Italy's available strength on this battlefield to 350,000.

By this time, the number of troops in Italy had exceeded 400,000, which was more than France, if not counting the colonies.

For Italy, which has weak industrial capacity, lacks resources, and is still under lockdown, it is really an amazing number.

The wars fought in Western and Southern Europe were a reminder of how dangerous it was to go to war with a nation-power, but they also strengthened the determination of Austria-Hungary to cripple its opponents in one fell swoop.

On the Italian side, due to the release of prisoners by Spain, it was barely able to maintain the original size of the establishment, and there would be no strange expansion of a battalion from 500 to 800 men.

However, it is precisely in order to maintain the original establishment that most of the officers have been promoted on the basis of the original, and some have even been promoted by more than one rank.

A platoon commander is in charge of dozens of people, and suddenly let him take charge of hundreds of people, and it is great to be able to give orders accurately.

Not to mention that a considerable number of them have been working as coolies for more than a year, and they are good at building roads, but no one can say how much of the ability to fight is left.

But more people is power.

There are nearly twice as many people as on the other side, and they are still on the defending side, as long as they can be issued with compliant rifles, then no matter how high the military literacy of the opposite side is, this battle still has to be fought.

Moreover, although the newly recruited militia lacked training, their will to fight was extremely tenacious.

The morale of working for money and compulsory military service cannot be compared to the morale of joining the army spontaneously to defend the country.

As the first region to be annexed by the Kingdom of Sardinia, the people of Lombardy had a strong centripetal force towards Italy, and they had a revolution long before the War of Italian Unification.

If it had not been for the dissatisfaction with Austrian rule, the revolution would not have taken place.

From invaders trying to regain glory on the one hand, and righteous men defending their homeland on the other, this war was doomed from the beginning to be cruel – to the attention of Europe.

On the first day of the war, both sides filled the entire front, and hundreds of thousands of troops fought on the Po River plain.

The Po Plain is the largest plain in southern Europe, and there are many rivers on it, which nourishes the richest land in Italy and gives Italy the capital to build a defense line along the river.

However, the terrain of the Po Plain is so wide that it can accommodate almost as many troops as Northern France and Eastern Europe.

If the battlefield is too large, it is difficult to guarantee that nothing will go wrong.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, with the Royal Hungarian Defense Force as the vanguard, adopted a series of means to force the crossing of the river.

Of course, there were failures, but the Hungarian army was a special army independent of the other armies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, not under the command of the Imperial War Department, but under the Ministry of Local Defense of the Kingdom of Hungary.

This brought certain difficulties to coordination, but everything has disadvantages and advantages, as a national army, they also have a tenacious fighting spirit and strong cohesion that other Austro-Hungarian armies do not have.

Moreover, the Hungarian nation can be said to be one of the most martial arts in Europe, fearless on the battlefield, and repeatedly broke through the Italian defenses.

But soon, they will be pushed down the river by Italian troops who have been reinforced from elsewhere.

In this brutal and bloody tug-of-war, at least 50,000 corpses were dropped in 24 hours.

Austria-Hungary was on the side of the river, but the quality of their army was relatively much higher, and the battle loss ratio was not too ugly, probably maintained at the level of 2.2:2.8, Austria-Hungary had a slight disadvantage, but it was harmless.

This was the last glory of the Austro-Hungarian Army, and since these years, the combat effectiveness of the army can be said to have deteriorated due to the blockade of the increase in military spending by the Hungarian Budapest Parliament and the bureaucracy prevailing within the Austro-Hungarian military.

Until World War I, the industrial level of Austria-Hungary was still quite good, but the combat effectiveness of the army was quite stretched, and it could only compete with the rotten Tsarist army.

However, it was all later, and nearly 30,000 people died on the first day, and the Austro-Hungarian offensive did not stop at all.

From day to night, and from night to day, the entire Po River seemed to be stained red with blood.

Thanks to the fact that military observers and war correspondents were sent from various countries, the results of the Po River battle soon spread throughout Europe.

When the news reached Madrid, Alfonso couldn't help but be stunned, a France, an Italy, all of them were beaten into the homeland and then they were hanged.

Fortunately, Spain and Italy did not share a border, and since Northern Italy was more important than Southern Italy, Italy decided to fight Austria-Hungary to the death.

If there was no Austro-Hungarian meat shield to attract hatred, even with naval superiority, it would be impossible to land and fight without tens of thousands of deaths.

"So many dead people are still fighting?" Campos was also shocked after reading the report.

After fighting for so long, no battle could kill 50,000 people at a time, usually a division was a big remnant, and a confrontation was over.

You know, it's not 50,000 dead and wounded, it's 50,000 dead, and there's a big difference between the two.

"Such a fierce battle between Italy and Austria will definitely not last long, but the land confrontation between the great powers is too cruel." Alfonso shook his head and glanced at Campos, both of whom had some happiness in their eyes.

Campos agreed: "Fortunately, Spain is in a good geographical position, and it is difficult for a war of annihilation to happen. ”

Alfonso looked at the map of the situation in Italy hanging on the wall, and not only was Veneto painted white (Ozhan), but the south was also painted purple with dots of purple in Naples, which had been formed by the rebels.

If you look closely, you can see that there are some differences between purple and purple, one is the Republic of Naples and the other is the Kingdom of Naples.

The number of cities in the Republic and Kingdom is about fifty-fifty.

After staring at the map and thinking for a while, Alfonso called Garcia over.

Since the war in Spain was almost at a standstill, Garcia, the Minister of War, was one of the best in his spare time during this time, either training in Madrid or patrolling the army in Barcelona.

By the time Garcia arrived, Campos was gone, and Alfonso showed him the military order he had just signed, which stated that the blockade of the western Mediterranean was to be stopped.

"It's ......"

"Prepare to negotiate peace with Italy." Alfonso bluntly said: "After the lifting of the blockade and the exchange of prisoners is completed, peace with Italy is expected before the 13th."

Of course, this has nothing to do with you, I called you here to prepare the army, and after peace with Italy, we will set off to save France. ”

"In such a hurry? Didn't Britain disagree with our proposal? Campos was a little puzzled: "And shouldn't you wait until the Battle of the Po River is over?" We and France alone will not be able to defeat Prussia now. ”

Alfonso pointed to the purple dots: "Italy has lost control of the rebels, and the day the Battle of the Po River was lost, the day Naples was rebuilt."

When the time comes, my distant cousin will not be able to claim control of Sicily, and the orthodoxy of Bourbon and the Sicilies is in his hands after all, and may cause trouble.

It's not a big deal, but there's no need to tell the truth. ”

"The British have basically given up, and Austria-Hungary has decided to go deep into the front, so it is impossible for Italy to entangle us with the question of southern Italy.

As for not being able to beat...... I didn't let you start fighting Prussia right away, the formation of the Self-Defense Forces in southern France is a bit chaotic, and you bring troops to help them. ”