Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Italy was bad news for Napoleon III during the war.

Napoleon III said to the French generals wearily: "Now it is certain that the Austrians will not act in our war with Prussia, which means that we will have to face more Prussian troops." ”

This news was undoubtedly heavy for the French army, and before the war, France was relatively contemptuous of Prussia, but after the fight, France found itself caught in the endless crowd tactics of the Prussians.

At present, France has fallen into a disadvantage, the Rhine Corps has been passively defending, and the McMahon division in the south has completely fallen into the upper hand, and there is a risk of collapse at any time, and the Fifth Army that went to support has not made any achievements, although it has caused huge losses to the Prussian Fifth Army by surprise, but because of the subsequent support of the Hachingen Brigade and the Third Brigade led by Robert, the two sides are deadlocked in the Saverna area.

The situation on the battlefield could not be opened, and Napoleon III's expectations for Austria-Hungary were increasing day by day, which was due to the Austro-Prussian War, and there were indeed some people in Austria who had a sense of revenge against Prussia, if the Austrian Empire still existed, the Austrians would really be able to attack Prussia, but now it was Austria-Hungary, and there was Tsarist Russia to support Prussia.

"Your Majesty, we can't count on Austria-Hungary, this group of Italians is simply brainless, and they have declared war on the Papal State in the face of Austria-Hungary's strong statement, we should not have withdrawn our troops from the Papal State in the first place......"

History cannot be assumed, and if history can really be changed, the most important thing Napoleon III wants to do now is to pull the Austrian Empire at the time of the Austro-Prussian War.

Unlike Napoleon III, the Prussian high-level leaders suddenly realized that Austria-Hungary had declared war with Italy, and turned to ecstasy.

"Now, we have finally figured out the reason for the military transfer of Austria-Hungary, they have long been eyeing Italy, this time Italy is still hitting the muzzle of the gun, and the next fate of Italy is probably ......"

"That's fine, we don't have to worry about Austria-Hungary stabbing us in the back, we can also go all out against the French, as for the Kingdom of Italy, who cares about their life or death!"

……

Italy-Austria border.

The Isonzo River defense line is divided into two layers, the lower reaches of the Isonzo River are in a north-south direction, and it is the only place in the region that is conducive to defense, so Italy will not give up the position on the west bank of the Isonzo River, but the west bank of the Isonzo River is lower than the east bank, and it is easy to be bombarded by Austro-Hungarian artillery, so Italy set up a second line of defense twenty kilometers west of the Isonzo River.

"Boom...... Rumble...... Boom ......"

The Italian side was right, and on the day after the outbreak of the war, Austrian artillery units deployed on the east bank on the heights of Bainsiza and Calso began shelling the Italian positions on the opposite bank.

At this time, Italy deployed two main defensive priorities, one was the northern defense line established in the north relying on the Alps. One is the southern defensive line laid out in the south along the west bank of the Isonzo River.

The Italian side had about 150,000 troops, while the Austro-Hungarian Empire had only 80,000 troops, including 20,000 from the Kingdom of Hungary.

Venice and Lombardy were inevitable for Austria, in addition to their important geographical location and port conditions, economic and historical reasons also made the Austrian government actively promote the war, as for Hungary, it wanted to reap some benefits, as long as Austria did not take action against the German region, and fought Italy and Tsarist Russia Hungary raised their hands in favor.

On the heights on the east bank of the Isonzo River, the Austro-Hungarian Grand Duke Albrecht held a telescope and watched with satisfaction the results of the Austro-Hungarian artillery units.

Albrecht Austro-Hungarian general, Napoleon, son of the famous Austro-Hungarian general Karl, served as the director of the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1869, focusing on the development of industry and railways; Establish a short-term military service system to train more reserve soldiers and expand the war potential; equipping troops with and further improving new weapons; Establish and improve the staff system.

When the Franco-Prussian War broke out on June 20, 1870, Prussia awarded him the title of Field Marshal of Prussia and the Order of St. George, one of the Austrians mentioned above who harbored ill will towards Prussia.

In the original history, Albrecht should have helped him deal with Prussia in France now, but at this time, Austria-Hungary had already determined the strategy of attacking Italy, so he was appointed by Franz as the supreme commander of the war against Italy.

In fact, Italy also knew that the first line of defense was under the range of Austro-Hungarian artillery fire, so it was not built with all its heart, and did not abandon this place directly, in order to delay the Austro-Hungarian army to prepare more time for strengthening the second line of defense.

"Marshal! Why don't we attack the Italian army under the cover of artillery fire, now that the Italians have been suppressed by our artillery fire, they can't raise their heads at all, and we have built strong bridgeheads in Tormino and Gorizia on the west bank of the Isonzo River, and the troops should be able to cross the river directly! An Austro-Hungarian general asked, puzzled.

"This war, now is not the time to strike, to make the Italians aware of the seriousness of the problem, and at the same time to make Italy have a delusion, so as to mobilize more troops to the Eastern Front, so that we can fight them all, now it is true that the Italians can be defeated quickly, but it is not good to frighten the Italians." Archduke Albrecht said contemptuously.

It is not that Albrecht is arrogant, the reason why Albrecht is a famous European general, and his strongest record is that he commanded 80,000 Austrian troops to defeat 120,000 Italian troops under the command of Emmanuel II in the last Italian-Austrian war.

Therefore, the 150,000 people placed by the Kingdom of Italy on the Eastern Front were really not enough in Albrecht's eyes, although he still had 80,000 in his hands this time, but this time they were all elite troops of the empire.

"Marshal, do you want the Kingdom of Italy to continue to increase its troops to the front?"

"Yes, if the Italians know that their opponent is me again, they will definitely continue to increase their chips on the front line, so we have to give the Kingdom of Italy time to prepare."

"But, marshal, this time Italy is not the attacker! If Italy had resisted with the help of fortifications, we would not have won as easily as last time. ”

"Of course I know this, my goal is to completely hurt Italy, so that it can never be the enemy of the empire again, and if you want to inflict a heavy blow on Italy, you must let it gather more troops to the front line, otherwise it will be very troublesome to pack up one by one after we enter the territory of Italy, and to avoid the subsequent resistance of Italy, we must destroy the vast majority of its living forces on the front line in one fell swoop."

Of course, Albrecht did not say another purpose, which was to attract Italian troops to Venice and Lombardy as much as possible, and to provide favorable conditions for the Austrian army hiding in Rome.

In addition to the fact that France was strong and close to the Papal States (Corsica), another reason that cannot be ignored is that Rome is not far from Florence, the capital of Italy.

If he can make good use of this strange army lurking in the Papal State, Albrecht will definitely show the Kingdom of Italy what a surprise is.

In fact, Albrecht's plan was being realized, and after figuring out the Austro-Hungarian front commander and approximate strength, the follow-up mobilization of troops from the Kingdom of Italy was constantly coming to Venice from the rear, and the Italians were preparing to build a third line of defense, and the third line of defense was near the city of Venice.

Because of the last war, Emmanuel II was impressed, or somewhat frightened, by Albrecht's command ability, and the 150,000 army was too unsafe, even if Italy was on the defensive side.

(End of chapter)