"I'm sorry, everyone, we in Mozambique are very sensitive to this matter, and we will not open the port, which is related to the security of Mozambique."

"In other words, there is no talk of this matter! We just hope that you can provide the port for economic development, and the personnel can operate under your supervision, and there will be no security concerns for you. ”

The reception staff in Mozambique shook their heads and said, "Please go back!" This is the decision of the Governor. ”

The East African diplomats glanced at each other, and it seemed that the new governor of Mozambique was indeed not easy to deal with, but there was no way for everyone to do so, so they had to go back and report the situation first.

Mozambique's refusal to agree to the port lease was not a surprise to the East African government, which was not expected to agree in the first place, and was entirely motivated by a try.

Thinking about it from another perspective, if there is a country that asks East Africa to open its market, then East Africa itself will not agree, of course, renting a port and opening the market are certainly different, but the reason is the same.

East Africa fully understands the Portuguese, after all, the Portuguese have been brought by the British before, and they will definitely not let down their guard.

……

In the blink of an eye, it's December.

The Supreme Commander of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Albrecht, finally began the final battle against the Kingdom of Italy, and it is certainly not a solution to drag it on, Venice has been besieged for several months, and more than half of the population has gone, some go to East Africa, some go to South America, and some run to the periphery, and now that the purpose of Austria-Hungary has been completed as a whole, the war cannot be dragged on to prevent variables.

"Attack on all fronts!"

With the order, the whole of Italy resumed the scene of heavy artillery fire, and the heavy artillery mobilized from the rear of the Austro-Hungarian Empire bombarded the city defenses of Venice fiercely, and the pressure on the Venetian defenders increased sharply.

On the same day, the Austro-Hungarian forces in Lombardy also launched a major offensive towards Lombardy, and the expeditionary force, which had returned to the Papal States in a roundabout way to recuperate, steadily advanced towards Florence for the second time.

The Kingdom of Naples did not act on a large scale, mainly to prevent Sicily in the south, and the Sicilians were not interested in the Kingdom of Naples and did not want to restore the former two Sicilian kingdoms and live together.

And for reasons of internal instability in the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of Naples did not join the war, and Austria-Hungary agreed.

Although Sicily is still under the rule of the Kingdom of Italy, as long as the Kingdom of Naples and the Papal States exist, their communication will only depend on the Mediterranean, and such an enclave will be very likely to claim autonomy in the future, even if it does not break away from the Kingdom of Italy.

In the months when Austria-Hungary stopped its offensive, the Kingdom of Italy was not unprepared, and apart from the trouble of dealing with the annoying flies of the expeditionary force, the Kingdom of Italy was generally able to maintain order.

Taking advantage of this gap, Emmanuel II again asked the British for help, this time the British did not refuse, a large amount of military aid was tilted towards Italy, the British did not want Austria-Hungary to defeat Italy easily, the Franco-Prussian War was a foregone conclusion, unless there was a figure like Napoleon who saved France in danger again, but the probability was extremely low, so the British began to free up their hands to curb the expansion of Austria-Hungary.

At the same time, the Kingdom of Italy.

"The Austro-Hungarian Empire is not as terrible as imagined, the achievements they have created before are just a sudden launch after a long time of planning, which led to heavy losses in the early stage, but as a result of the two sides in the past few months, we can clearly see the progress of the soldiers of the kingdom." This was stated by the Minister of Defense of the Kingdom of Italy.

It is an objective fact that the military strength of the Kingdom of Italy has progressed, but it is also a fact that Austria-Hungary did not exert its strength in the first few months.

This leads to a very interesting result, although the Italian side in the Venetian area is losing troops and losing land every day, but the Italian military does have frequent successes.

Especially after Venice was besieged, it still swore to the same kingdom that "Austria-Hungary is at the end of its strong crossbow, and with the fortifications of Venice, it is completely possible to hold Venice as a bridgehead without losing it." ”

The reason why the Italian military reported this was that it had not yet been hurt, except for the first meeting of the war, and soon the intensity of the Austro-Hungarian offensive was reduced, causing the main Italian force to slowly shrink and finally squeeze into the small city of Venice.

At the same time, the Kingdom of Italy organized an army of 100,000 people in the rear with the assistance of the British, so in this war, the judgment of various countries was that Austria-Hungary might not be able to win, although the overall strength of Austria-Hungary was stronger, but with the support of the British, Italy, might be able to complete the reversal.

However, the Austro-Crèque at this time was not the Austro-Crème of the First World War in the previous life, and its army and navy generals were not the kind of stupid and incompetent, but recognized as two world famous generals, Archduke Albrecht and von Tergerthoff.

Therefore, the current Austro-Hungarian army is still on the line in strength among the great powers, and it will not be as difficult to fight Serbia as in the previous life.

Albrecht increased the strength of the Italian army on land, and the Austro-Hungarian navy began to harass the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia, as well as the mainland.

The restoration of the Kingdom of Naples ensured that it had a place to dock and replenish in the waters west of Italy.

The Kingdom of Italy felt the pressure from the very beginning in the final battle against Albrecht, and the multi-front began to rush, and Venice, a strong bridgehead, was not as strong as they had imagined.

Under the bombardment of several rounds of artillery fire, the Venetian defense line was soon breached, and Austria-Hungary entered the Venetian area and began street fighting with the Italian army.

In general, as a side fighting on home, Italy should have an advantage in the Venetian street fighting.

But this time was different, because the enemy of the Italian army was not only the Austro-Hungarian army, but also the local citizens of Venice.

After the Austro-Hungarian army entered Venice, it immediately gained the support of the Venetian people, led the way, assisted in the battle, and fired black guns in the back of the Italian army.

As for why the Venetians did this, it was because the Venetian people had long ago had no patience for the so-called Kingdom of Italy.

Venice's dignitaries took the opportunity to make a fortune in Venice, and they did it in Venice for a few months, but they dumped the pot on the Italian army.

The small city of Venice was crowded with nearly 100,000 Italian troops, and the food consumption itself was huge, and the exploitation of the government could be said to be the collapse of the citizens of Venice.

Before the Austro-Hungarian army had not yet entered, it was better to say that the moment the Austro-Hungarian Empire entered Venice, the anger of the people, which had been pent-up for months, completely exploded.

With the help of the citizens of Venice, Austria-Hungary gained the upper hand in street fighting, and the morale of the Italian army, which was already low after being stabbed in the back, collapsed in an instant, and Venice fell completely on the first day.

(End of chapter)