While France and Germany were engaged in a battle of intrigue for Russia, the drought in Italy finally ended.

The number of people affected by the disaster reached nearly 9 million, and the direct economic loss was 217 million lire, and the indirect loss was 641 million lira, which greatly damaged the vitality of the Italian economy.

At the same time, the number of Italian immigrants has exceeded 300,000, and it is expected that more than 400,000 will go to sea by boat this year to fend for themselves.

With such a large wave of overseas migration, you can imagine the extent of the disaster in Italy this time.

And the government is basically powerless about this, because there is only so much money, and it can only give priority to ensuring that everyone will not starve to death, and as for those who are insolvent and bankrupt and seek another victory, the government really can't control it.

This year is also a year of disaster for Italy, not to mention Tunisia, which has been planning for a long time, and suffering from such a big drought, it can be regarded as Prime Minister De Pretis's means to survive.

As a result, after the disaster work has fallen behind for a while, many people have a higher level of awareness of the new prime minister.

It is also dutifully touted in public opinion, but most newspapers are still modest, but they call him the best prime minister of the past decade. Some shameless newspapers directly compared it to Cavour's existence, and they were not afraid of the wind and flashed their tongues.

No matter what is said on the outside, De Pretis as a party has not changed in the slightest, at least not in front of people.

Recently, after solving the problem of drought, he began to prepare for his visit to Germany.

Of course, he also paid a little attention to the news that France was going to visit Russia.

However, he paid attention to the news from France at most, mainly to cooperate with the issue of visiting Germany.

"Usopp, bring the news of the French."

"Yes, Your Excellency."

Usopp, who was the secretary, immediately handed over the recently compiled papers. "This is the latest intelligence from France."

De Preetis took the file, and when he opened it, he saw that it was some of the latest news from France.

For example, French Prime Minister Joufferi said that the French economy is growing well, and everyone should not have any worries about this, which is the French prime minister cheering up the economy.

Next, French diplomatic Gambetta said that France is still in a pivotal position in Europe at present, and France will still be one of the leaders in Europe in the future.

BNP Paribas said that the bank is expanding its business and there is already a new growth point, and the majority of shareholders do not need to be misled by the grapevine.

The Annam dynasty has wantonly oppressed our Catholics in its territory, and 19 Catholics, including our French priest, Father Manred Duniyok, have been killed. This news may be the next move for France, but it has nothing to do with Italy.

Then De Pretis had to look at some other news one after another. But on the surface, many of these news are newspaper reports.

Too often, though, intelligence is hidden in these reports.

For example, in the report of BNP Paribas, on the surface, the bank is trying to appease shareholders, but there are still many things that can be seen.

The first is to find new sources of profit growth, and a quick look at the recent activities of BNP Paribas will give you a rough indication of where its profits are coming from.

And it just so happened that the Italian ambassador in St. Petersburg had telegraphed to the country that BNP Paribas had been active here recently. Combined with the news of France's upcoming visit to Russia, we can infer that the two countries should have just agreed on a loan.

At that time, it was also Italy's recent focus on France and Russia, which is why this inference was made.

Of course, this can only be used as an inference, not as evidence.

However, sometimes inferences are more effective than evidence, because there is no need for real evidence, but it can be roughly guessed as a basis.

And Depretis believes that France has hooked up with Russia, which is good news for Italy. It can make the visit to Germany smoother, and maybe a good result can be achieved.

However, as the Italian prime minister, De Pretis cannot only focus on foreign affairs, and domestic affairs are the focus of attention.

Of course, he will not forget this, and after reading the latest news in France, DePretis began to deal with domestic affairs.

The first thing that catches his eye is the plan for Milan's industry. At present, Milan is one of the largest cities in Italy, and its industrial level is very high, and the city's textile, printing and dyeing and garment manufacturing are also famous in Europe. Although it is not yet known as a fashion capital, it has already taken shape. This plan is intended to deepen Milan's advantages in this field and build Milan into an Italian light industry.

DePretis read the plan carefully, and then drew a cross on the plan.

The plan was killed.

The reason for De Pretis to kill the plan is not that the plan is bad, if De Pretis is the mayor of Milan, then he does not hesitate to raise his hands in agreement, but unfortunately he is the prime minister of Italy.

Since he is the prime minister of Italy, he needs to consider the overall situation, which is currently booming in industrialization, but in southern Italy, it is still an agrarian society.

Uneven development is prone to problems, and Italy already has this problem, and the north-south antagonism is already very serious, so it is impossible for him to get the government to continue to support the northern policy and funding.

If the south, such as Palermo and Naples, came up with such a plan, he would immediately approve it without saying a word, even if the plan was almost there, just let it improve.

But it's a pity what to say about the south, if you want to accelerate the industrialization of the south, then you first need to make a big move against its officials, but at present, Depretis does not have the prestige and opportunity to attack it.

These were all problems left over from the unification of Italy, because the landed aristocracy was not greatly changed due to the urgent need for unification. Both the population and the land were constrained by the aristocracy, which, in the words of later generations, was the failure to liberate the productive forces of the South.

Since the productive forces have not been liberated, the money invested in the South will be half the effort.

In addition, a large proportion of Italy's fiscal revenue comes from the north, and the government does not have the same great organizational and coordination ability as the later Celestial Empire, so it is impossible to tilt its financial resources to the south indefinitely.

Therefore, the gap between the north and the south has not been changed, but is suspected of widening.

De Pretis is not the first prime minister to be troubled by the problem of the gap between the North and the South, in fact, since the first Italian prime minister, Cavour, successive prime ministers have faced this problem. Not to mention the cultural and linguistic differences between the two, sometimes it feels like two countries without borders.

However, problems always need to be solved, and De Pretis has his patience.