Chapter 53: Chapter 53 – Trap

After the Austrian army retreated from Lombardy on April 1, 1848, the Sardinian army didn’t waste any time before occupying the region for themselves. The Sardinian soldiers entered Lombardy under the cheers of the local populace and without shedding a drop of blood. The cheering people of Lombardy, however, were unaware that the poor Kingdom of Sardinia would not be able to bring about the “good days.”

This was because Marshal Radetzky had secretly performed propaganda for Sardinia before he ordered his army’s retreat to Venice. As a result, the people of Lombardy, even the Republicans, were under the false belief that the Kingdom of Sardinia would fulfil all of their demands. The tricolor flag swayed in the wind and the people in the streets celebrated and cheered “Long live the Republic!”

Meanwhile, an interim government headed by Giovanni Kazzati, the leader of the revolutionaries in Milan, had been established. The Austrian army had seemingly left in such a hurry that they even forgot to take the revolutionaries who were political prisoners with them. As a result, these revolutionaries now formed the backbone of the interim government.

The interim government, however, had yet to realize that the granaries in Milan were empty. After the declaration of war against Austria by the Kingdom of Sardinia, Marshal Radetzky had swiftly ordered the collection of all the stored grain in Lombardy under the premise of rationing it. As a result, most of the grain in Lombardy had been concentrated in Milan which was then secretly transported to Venice.

Shortly after, Marshal Radetzky secretly spread a rumor that the Sardinian king had called on the people of Milan to burn all the grain in the city to force the Austrians to withdraw due to a lack of food. To strengthen this rumor’s authenticity, he had few soldiers secretly set fire to the remaining grain, and sent his other soldiers to “frantically” request the assistance of the people of Milan to put out the fire.

The people of Milan, who were eager for independence, stubbornly refused to help the Austrians. Even if they were beaten, they still didn’t budge. On the contrary, they began to believe in the rumor’s authenticity and started burning all the grain they had stowed away in their houses, lest the Austrian soldiers find it.

In the end, the people of Milan successfully burned all of the grain in the city, forced the Austrian army to retreat, and saved their city. Despite the lack of food, they didn’t panic as the Sardinian army entered the city soon after the Austrian army withdrew.

President Kazzati, who had been in a good mood since the Austrians had retreated from Milan, had just had a less than friendly talk with General Antonio Franzini, the Commander of the Sardinian army, which ruined his good mood. The timid Sardinian army did not dare to pursue the Austrian army, which destroyed his impression of the Kingdom of Sardinia as “the great Italian nation.”

Nevertheless, the army directly under President Kazzati’s interim government was still being formed, and even he himself had just come out of prison. He did not have any authority to negotiate with General Franzini. If he did not plan to pursue the Austrian army, President Kazzati had no way to change his decision.

Silvio Marcello, the new Interior Minister, ran over in a hurry and said, “Mr. President, there is no food in the city. We are unable to provide rations to the allied soldiers!”

This was an embarrassing situation. The interim government should have discovered such a major problem earlier, but the revolutionaries who made up the interim government had been in prison when the food was set on fire. Not to mention, they were anarchic revolutionaries with no ruling experience. They were busy celebrating the hard-won victory. How would they have the time to care about food?

President Kazzati asked, worried, “What should we do? I have just made a promise to General Franzini that we will provide food for the Sardinian army. Can we collect some food from the people to get through this emergency?”

Interior Minister Marcello explained, “Mr. President, that’s impossible. The Austrian army had previously collected all the food in Milan. Everyone was given food according to the ration system with only enough food to last two days being distributed each time.

In order to defeat the Austrians, the Sardinians sent spies to burn the food in Milan and the people of Milan cooperated with them. In fact, the Austrian army wouldn’t have fled in such a hurry if we hadn’t burned all the food in the granaries!”

Believing himself to have been duped, President Kazzati could no longer suppress his anger as he shouted, “Damn it! The Sardinians did it on purpose. And those shameless bastards never even mentioned the burned food, so I mistakenly promised to provide food to their army within Milan!

They are toying with us! They must have some other hidden agenda... Wait, now that I think about it... General Franzini mentioned that he would leave a garrison in Milan… It can’t be... The Sardinians plan to annex Lombardy!!”

Hearing President Kazzati’s words, Interior Minister Marcello was scared stiff. The interim government currently has no real power. If the Sardinian army threatened to withhold food, they would not be able to refuse their conditions.

He hurriedly said, “Mr. President, we must take action. When we set fire to the food, they promised to provide us with food; otherwise, our people wouldn’t have cooperated with them!”

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President Kazzati took a deep breath and calmed himself. He knew that swearing would not solve the problem. 

He ordered, “You are right, Silvio. Spread the news and warn our people to be careful and vigilant of the Sardinians. I just hope the Sardinians won’t take any drastic measures against us!”

Even if the Kingdom of Sardinia wanted to annex Lombardy, they would have to pay a suitable price and promise to give him an important position in the new regime or he would make it very tough for the Kingdom of Sardinia to rule Lombardy.

 

***

 

Turin, Piedmont.

Charles Albert, the King of Sardinia, was on cloud nine after he received the news that his army had occupied Milan and extended its influence throughout Lombardy without a fight. The ministers of the Court of Turin were similarly celebrating, and some were even thinking about how to annex Lombardy. No one had noticed that they had fallen into a trap.

The ministers were politicians, so their outlook was naturally different from a soldier like Marshal Radetzky. The act of deliberately giving up Lombardy was not something a politician could imagine. The normal way of dealing with a rebellion was to quickly and fiercely suppress it to scare off other ambitious schemers, but Marshal Radetzky had failed to do that. Still, these ministers simply deemed it to be the result of his incompetence.

 

***

 

Sardinian army camp, Milan.

The sun had set and it was well past the time to eat, but the food promised by President Kazzati had still not arrived. The senior officers of the army didn’t care. They had been invited to the banquets held by the celebrities of Milan.

Even though there was no food in Milan, these wealthy men wouldn't starve as they could simply import food from abroad. The nobles in Europe were all related due to intermarriage between the nobility. This was doubly true for the nobles in Milan and Sardinia who were neighbors.

As a result, the trouble of finding food for the tens of thousands of soldiers fell on the shoulders of Colonel Vito Farelli: when it came time for dinner, the soldiers all looked towards him. If they hadn’t been too hungry to move, these soldiers might have mutinied. Even so, Colonel Farelli knew that this wouldn’t last long.

First, he comforted the soldiers to calm them down and then he sent his lieutenant to urge the interim government of Milan to quickly send the promised food. The Austrian army had withdrawn so quickly that they’d entered Milan without much preparation. Their supplies were left in the camp seventy miles away. At the moment, he could only reach out to the interim government.

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