When an inconspicuous carriage carrying Prince Metternich, an advisor to the Austrian Empire, quietly entered the city of Milan, the whole city was unaware of his arrival.

Even Admiral Albrecht, who was the governor of Lombardy-Venice, stopped Prince Metternich's carriage when it arrived at the Doge's palace in Milan, and demanded that Prince Metternich's carriage be presented.

Prince Metternich opened the carriage and took out a coat of arms from the Metternich family and handed it to the soldiers.

"This is ......," the soldier, who had never seen the clan emblem, asked curiously, looking at what Prince Metternich had given him.

"Give this to your Governor Albrecht, and you will understand everything!" Mette pinched the old god and replied.

"Please wait!" The soldier immediately responded to Prince Metternich with a respectful attitude, and then turned and walked towards the governor's palace.

After a while, the soldier hurried back to the gates of the Doge's Palace, followed by a group of soldiers dressed in the light blue uniforms of the Austrian Empire and wearing various medals on their chests.

When the soldiers arrived at the gate of the governor's palace, the leader immediately raised his hand and asked the soldiers behind him to stop, and he came to the side of the car door alone, and saw through the window the sleeping Prince of Metternich in the door.

Immediately afterwards, the soldier cautiously opened the car door and called softly, "Your Excellency, Your Excellency!"

After hearing the shout, Prince Metternich slowly opened his eyes, he looked at the soldier standing at the door of the car, a kind smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and said lazily, "It was Albrecht! Why did you come here yourself?"

"Your Excellency Prince Metternich, I happened to be idle in the office just now, so I came here!" Albrecht, governor of Lombard-Venice, son of Archduke Karl, and famous general of the Austrian Empire. Friedrich. Rudolph replied in a deferential tone to the 85-year-old prince in front of him.

"That's a hard time for you to come here!" Prince Metternich said slowly to Albrecht.

"It's not hard! It's not hard!" Albrecht said with a hint of flattery in his tone, "You're the real hard worker! Nothing happened along the way!"

"Not really!" Prince Mette shook his head in response to Albrecht.

"That's good!" Archduke Albrecht replied with a smile, and then changed the tone and said, "Why don't you enter the Doge's palace first, and then talk!"

"Yes!" Metternich nodded, continuing to squint and fall asleep.

Albrecht closed the door and gave the coachman the order to enter the governor's palace.

The carriage was driven by a charioteer and entered the courtyard of the Doge's Palace.

In the courtyard, filled with Renaissance buildings and statues, the carriage stopped again, and Archduke Albrecht hurried to the carriage and opened the door for the Prince of Metternich inside.

Prince Metternich, who was in a state of false sleep, slowly opened his eyes, which seemed to be able to see through everything in the world, and then got up and stepped out of the carriage. ….

When Prince Metternich stepped into the courtyard, his eyes looked around from time to time, and he remembered the scene of his meeting with Marshal Radetzky here many years ago, and he could not help but sigh, "Ah! I didn't expect that so much time has passed, and nothing has changed here!"

"Yes! Tens or hundreds of years may seem a long time to us, but for these buildings, they are just fleeting!" Albrecht also sighed.

"Forget it! Don't talk about that!" Prince Metternich's eyes darkened slightly, and he shook his head in response to Albrecht.

"Don't talk about it! Don't say it!" Albrecht also sensed that Prince Metternich was in a somewhat depressed mood at this time, and guessed in his heart that it should be caused by the scenery in front of him and the death of Marshal Radetzky, so he hurriedly changed the subject and said, "Go! I'll take you inside!"

In Albrech

The Prince of Metternich walked along the path of the courtyard, and soon came to one of the palaces of the Doge's Palace.

Entering the palace hall, Grand Duke Albrech quickly introduced Prince Metternich, "Your Excellency, now behind me are the members of the Doge's Palace!

This is my chief of staff, Benedek, and this is the commander of the 1st Lombard Division......

Archduke Albrecht introduced his men to Prince Metternich in turn, and Prince Metternich smiled and nodded his head in approval.

After introducing each of his men, Albrecht took Prince Metternich on a tour of the operations command room of the Doge's Palace.

In the operational command room, Albrecht looked at Prince Metternich with expectant eyes, and asked in a solemn tone, "Your Excellency, is there any latest instruction from Vienna?"

Prince Metternich smiled slightly, then nodded slowly to Archduke Albrecht, "The Vienna side has indeed ordered me to convey the latest instructions to you!"

Albrecht, who received an affirmative reply from Prince Metternich, and the general behind him had a nervous look in their eyes, and they had worked hard in Lombardy for nearly a month to prepare for this moment.

"Your Excellency, when can we start the official operation?" Archduke Albrecht asked Prince Metternich in an agitated tone.

Prince Metternich spoke slowly, "The purpose of my visit this time is to give you the final battle order, and second, to deliver an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Sardinia!

In other words, you cannot do anything until the ultimatum reaches the Kingdom of Sardinia.

When the ultimatum arrives in the hands of the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Kingdom of Sardinia does not give us a satisfactory answer within the prescribed time, then you can start moving!!"

"Understood!" Archduke Albrecht nodded to Richard. Prince Metternich responded, and then he suddenly thought of something, and asked again, "By the way, as far as I know, the French side has not yet officially severed diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Sardinia, and this will cause some unnecessary trouble for our actions!"

Despite Albrecht's tactful attitude, Prince Metternich understood that Albrecht feared that the French Empire would interfere with the Kingdom of Sardinia, which would likely lead to a war between France and the Austrian Empire. ….

"You can rest assured that the French Empire will not help the Kingdom of Sardinia because of this!" Prince Metternich confidently replied to Albrecht.

On the question of the Kingdom of Sardinia, neither the Prince of Metternich nor the Count of Baul thought that Jérôme. Bonaparte would have reversed.

After all, the Austrian Empire did not completely destroy the Kingdom of Sardinia, but weakened it.

"In that case, I'll prepare it right away!" Archduke Albrecht replied to Prince Metternich.

……

Immediately afterwards, Prince Metternich sent officers from the Doge's Palace to Turin to deliver the ultimatum of the Austrian Empire to the Austrian Ambassador, who then passed it on to Victor. In the hands of Emmanuel II.

The officers set out from Milan on the orders of Prince Metternich and, after several hours of rapid horsework, finally reached the border between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia that evening.

The Sardinian army on the border line hurriedly took a defensive posture after seeing the Austrian imperial officer.

The Austrian officer hurriedly dismounted and made a gesture of surrender with both hands, and the Sardinian officer, seeing this, hurriedly asked, "What are you here for?"

The Austrian Imperial Commander hurriedly replied in Lombard, "I have come to speak for Franz of the Austrian Empire. His Majesty Joseph sent a letter!"

"Sending a message? To whom?" The king of Sardinia asked again.

"To you, of course, Victor of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Your Majesty King Emmanuel!" The Austrian Imperial Commander then replied.

"I see! Come here!" The king of Sardinia waved at the Austrian emperor

hand, the Austrian imperial officials were able to enter the borders of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Immediately afterwards, at the invitation of the king of Sardinia, the Austrian imperial officer rested for the night in the military camp in Sardinia, and the next morning, he set out for Turin again.

After a few hours by train, the Austrian imperial official arrived in Turin.

The Austrian officers who came down from the Turin railway station quickly went to the Imperial Austrian Embassy in Sardinia.

After meeting with the ambassador of the embassy, the Austrian imperial officer handed over to him an ultimatum to the ambassador in Sardinia.

The ambassador to Sardinia had a surprised look on his face after seeing the ultimatum.

As the Austrian Imperial ambassador to Sardinia, he did not even know about this until now.

To be on the safe side, the ambassador to Sardinia asked with a solemn expression, "Is this ultimatum really from Vienna?"

"Your Excellency, this ultimatum was indeed given to me by Prince Metternich!" The Austrian Imperial Governor replied to the ambassador to Sardinia, "If you don't believe me, send someone to Milan!"

[There is no radio station between Turin and Milan!] 】

"In that case, I'll head to the Turin Palace now!" The ambassador to Sardinia chose to trust the Austrian imperial officer.

After all, he is not unaware of the frequent movements of the Austrian imperial team in the border areas in recent times.

For this reason Vidocq of the Royal Palace of Turin. Emmanuel II asked him several times what the Austrian Empire wanted.

Now it seems that the previous manipulation of the Austrian Empire in the border areas was intended to attack the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Gangetic catfish