On 16 November, after Francesco II made a statement in the newspapers, the throne of Sicily passed to Alfonso.

No one can question the legitimacy of Sicily.

Spain ruled the land for more than 300 years, and Bourbon alone ruled the land for more than 40 years, for nearly 400 years.

National self-determination is not very popular in Europe today, and even Italy is not as orthodox as Spain in terms of legal theory.

Alfonso was still very interested in the two islands, and in his plan Sicily would become an important transit point in the Mediterranean, linking trade with the Ottomans and Egypt.

Especially when the Suez Canal was opened last year, many merchant ships from Asia will also pass through here, as long as it can be developed, there is no worry about making money.

As a first step towards the development of Sicily, Alfonso had already sent people to communicate with the Greek and Ottoman Empires to negotiate with them about the tobacco trade.

Although tobacco is also produced in Spain, only a small number of places suitable for cultivation are located on the eastern coast. On the East Coast, however, there are many uses, and the scale of cultivation is quite limited.

Ottoman Anatolia and most of Greece are good places to grow tobacco.

In these years, because the cigarette machine has not yet been invented, and the cigarettes are all handmade, the production cost is relatively high.

The people who can consume cigarettes are the middle class of various countries, and the sailors who are not short of money on a temporary basis.

When the market is small, the scale of tobacco cultivation is not much larger.

Alfonso wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to sign a long-term contract with another potential tobacco producing country.

By providing funds and securing acquisitions, we can secure the future supply of cigarette raw materials and bargaining power in the cigarette market, and by the way, save some costs.

The reason for this confidence is that since the establishment of Spanish Tobacco a year ago, the company has cooperated with the Barcelona Institute to jointly develop cigarette machines.

After so many years of hard work, there is finally a result.

In the test a month ago, ideally, the cigarette machine would be able to produce 20,000 cigarettes per day!

The process of making cigarette rolls is not too complicated in itself, and the current level of European industry is completely sufficient, and it is only a step away.

Historically, the cigarette machine would be born after 10 years.

The advantage of machines over people is overwhelming, and the daily output of 20,000 can reduce the production cost of cigarettes to 1/6 of the original.

If the current price of cigarettes is maintained, it will only take a year for a machine to earn enough money to buy itself.

But it's impossible to think about it, and the price of cigarettes will definitely be greatly reduced in the future.

If you calculate it this way, the return on investment is not very high.

So Alfonso told them not to rush to publish it and leave a year for improvements.

The person in charge is also very knowledgeable, and promises to reach at least 80,000 cigarettes per day in one year.

The cultivation cycle of cigarettes is almost a year.

Now sign a contract with the Greek Osmans, and after a year you will be able to lie down and collect the money.

At the same time that the tobacco company sent people to the East to negotiate, Garcia also led people across the Pyrenees.

With the siege of the fortress of Metz and Paris one after another, even the mighty Prussia was gradually overstretched.

In addition to continuing to march to the rest of France in the north, the south is to stay on the Loire line and not move.

In fact, they could not push, even in a very short time, the French provinces mobilized more than 200,000 people in a very short time, and more if needed.

These soldiers lacked military literacy, poor equipment, and lack command, but if Prussia came to fight, they didn't know if they would fill in all the spare troops.

…… The deterrent was sufficient, but it wasn't until Garcia came here that he realized how chaotic the situation was.

Not only were the number of officers from Paris small, but there were also many conflicts with the locals.

The main source of the contradiction is the conflict in rank and authority, and in addition to this, the operational ideas of the two sides are also very different.

Naturally, the Parisians want to go back and liberate Paris as soon as possible, and their wives and children are waiting inside.

And the officers of the defending army, as well as the newly appointed officers of the Self-Defense Forces, the self-formed militia-patriotic organizations...... The thoughts of these miscellaneous people are basically to stabilize the line of defense and slowly figure it out.

In their opinion, as long as there are still two allies, the colony and Theo, even half of France will be used to fight North Germany.

At this time, the most important thing is to keep the remaining territory, in case the active attack fails and is waved by the other side, Free France may be born early.

Anyway, both sides make sense.

But fighting a war is the most taboo this.

In short, the small southern France launched a series of power struggles around the control of the army.

The only thing to be thankful for is that people on both sides want to save France, and no one wants to seek power and usurp the throne, but they both want to do what they want.

In the past, a dispute of this magnitude would have been settled with a single telegram from Paris.

But the telegraph cables from Paris to the outside world had been cut off, and the petty quarrels seriously hampered the implementation of the military plan.

Almost 20 days have passed since the siege of Paris last month, and they have done nothing but mobilize a few people everywhere to join the army.

This time, Garcia brought a total of 40,000 people over, originally wanting to take over the mobilization work in southern France.

But when he got here, he realized that people were indeed very welcoming to him, but wanted to be a conductor? No need to talk.

The Emperor had never ordered them to listen to the Spanish.

Think about it, too, the proud French are not even at ease with their own people, how can they trust the Spaniards.

Garcia really didn't have any good records, at most he fought in the Spanish Civil War, and he basically never commanded it himself.

On the other hand, several officers from Paris have fought all over Asia, Europe, America and Africa.

The French will not stop fighting anytime soon unless a figure of prestige and convincing comes forward, and such a figure is lying quietly in Les Invalides in Paris.

Alfonso received the news from Garcia, and could only shake his head helplessly.

It's useless to give them a chance.

In fact, as long as you act fast enough, it is still no problem to stabilize the northwest of France, and you can control Brittany at worst.

You know, Brittany has not been occupied until now.

However, the region had been cut off from southern France, and it was only a matter of time before a single area faced the Prussian front.

Never mind...... Anyway, the work of army mobilization and training is still being done, but there is no way to carry out large-scale military operations.

A delay in time is good for Spain.

It's just that the Bonaparte family is pitied, and every day it drags on, their situation becomes more dangerous.