The Sun Never Sets In Spain - Chapter 140

“If you don’t tell, don’t tell.” Edward didn’t mean to get to the bottom, but he looked up and talked about the business:

“What exactly Spain wants from Italy, tell me, I’ll tell them, don’t worry, even if you want to annex the whole of Italy, I won’t be angry.”

Alfonso glanced at each other, put away his playful mentality, thought for a while and said: “It’s definitely not limited to Sardinia. After all, Italy is completely defeated, you know.”

Edward thinks so: “The winner deserves respect.”

“I also want Sicily and its affiliated islands, including places like Lipari and Pelagia.”

Edward fell silent for a while. This request was similar to what he thought, but when he heard it, he still felt that his Spanish appetite was too big.

After a while he said, “Do you know how many Italians there are in Sardinia and Sicily combined? 2.9 million! Spain has only 16 million people in total. Do you think you can digest it?”

Alfonso dismissed it:

“I only wanted a few ports in Sardinia at the beginning. They were too weak to take the opportunity. What about 2.9 million Italians? Italy has just been unified, and their people are not doing well. “

“…Okay.” Edward said with some difficulty: “I support you for everything you want to do, but I don’t count, I can only say that I will try my best to communicate with the Earl of Granville. As for the outcome, I can’t guarantee it. .”

“Well, thank you.” Alfonso nodded: “But I haven’t finished speaking yet. Routine war reparations and some preferential conditions are also indispensable, but Italy seems to be unable to spend much, so I Ensure that these conditions will not be too harsh.”

“It’s fine if you are happy.” Edward said dryly: “I have one more thing to say, I don’t know if you can accept it.”

“Say.”

“That’s right, I ran out secretly this time, and I might be preached by the earl when I go back at night, so I…”

“Want to sleep with me?” Alfonso looked at him with a smile.

Edward nodded hurriedly.

“no.”

…

When Edward tried to relive his friendship with Alfonso, a new turning point took place in the Italian battlefield.

Regarding the news of the annihilation of the ambush fleet, all Italians felt that the end was approaching, and even the most optimistic militants no longer believed that it was possible for them to win the war.

The defeat on the battlefield quickly triggered a chain reaction in many ways, and the Italian cabinet headed by Giovanni Lansa immediately fell.

Under pressure from many quarters, King Vittorio authorized his trusted Count Federico Luigi to form a cabinet.

This is the last Italian Prime Minister. He has performed well in the past two years. The most important thing is that he is a rightist.

Letting him come to power was the result of many compromises. If you go up to the left at this time, the king really worried that a group of people will rush into his bedroom tomorrow, and then tell him: “Old man, Italy is now a republic!”

However, this is the case, and the situation is not optimistic. The anger of the people cannot be calmed by the removal of a prime minister.

The best way is naturally to win a battle, but that **** ambush was originally launched for this purpose.

Facts have proved that they really can’t beat Spain on land or sea!

Some militants shouted at this time the slogan “mobilize another 200,000 soldiers and fight a decisive battle in the local area to promote peace.”

But they were fired the next day.

The Italians are not so crazy after all. Even if they are so crazy, they can’t spend a cent and can’t find a soldier willing to join the army.

Even Garibaldi, the Italian **** of war, who had high hopes, wrote a sincere letter to the king, hoping that he “for the sake of this country and nation, seriously consider peace with Spain.”

Fu Wushuang will not come singly, and Garibaldi’s condition has also worsened at this time. Perhaps it was adversely affected by the current situation. In short, although Garibaldi could manage to command the army outside Rome, no one knows when he was. You will be sick.

At this time, it would be too embarrassing for the old man to expect him to launch another general attack to rescue the Kingdom of Italy.

(In history, Garibal died after the twelfth year, but he was in poor health during this period of 1870. The Paris Commune once offered him to be the leader, but he refused due to physical reasons.)

In such a situation, the prestige accumulated by the Savoy royal family to unify Italy has been exhausted, and the words that once promised to “make the Italian nation prosper and unite” have also become dreamy.

This country and the royal family have lost the trust of his people.

What King Vittorio wants now is peace as soon as possible. This is what the people want most besides victory.

As long as you can keep your throne, what is it to cut some land? The European territorial changes are not once or twice.

Although Spain slogans to completely destroy the Kingdom of Italy and fulfill the obligations of its allies, the king does not believe it at all.

As long as you give enough, how can there be any alliance that can’t be broken?

Out of this idea, the Italian envoy contacted Prim, who was in charge of defense in Rome, and proposed an unexpected peace plan:

Italy is willing to cede Sardinia to Spain and restore it to the 1860 territory.

That is, the two Sicilies were handed over to the royal family of Bourbon again.

As for how to deal with the two Sicily, it is their own business whether Spain annexed directly or handed over to Alfonso’s relative, Francesco II.

However, this is conditional, that is, not only can Spain not demand war indemnities from Italy, but instead must provide them with interest-free loans of no less than £6 million and land purchase payments of no less than £8 million.

And they had to send troops to help them resist the upcoming Austro-Hungarian invasion.

When Alfonso received the news on the 13th, to be honest, he had a moment of heartbeat. 14 million pounds is not an unacceptable figure for a unified big country. It can be taken out by biting your teeth, let alone Said that there must be some areas for discussion.

But after thinking about it carefully, he felt that this proposal contained evil intentions.

Being able to cut off nearly half of his territory so generously is most likely to avoid popular uprisings.

In previous wars, almost all Italian troops came from the north, and the soldiers and money contributed by the south were quite small.

In addition, Southern Italy’s recognition of the Savoy royal family is also very low. If there is an uprising, it must first occur in the south.

For the Savoy royal family, this is a negative equity, and it is natural to want to get rid of them.

But Italy’s agreement does not mean that other countries can agree. Once this peace condition is reached, Britain may immediately block Spain’s road to the colonies and coerce them to spit out these territories.

The final result has a high probability of rebuilding an independent kingdom of Bourbon and Sicily.

Alfonso is not an offshore balancer. He is not interested in building nations in Europe. Even if he rebuilds a country close to Spain, what can he do?

Besides, the relatives of Bourbon have always been relatively distant.

As for helping them fight Austria-Hungary, that is even more impossible. According to the current development, Fa Austria may form an alliance against Prussia. Isn’t this condemning the European countries to the end?

After thinking about these joints, Alfonso ordered the people to reject this proposal that anyone would feel generous.

But this proposal is not meaningless, at least Alfonso knows that Italy’s bottom line is far lower than he thought.

From this point of view, Italy should have no reason to reject his peace plan.

As long as other countries are dealt with, Spain will be able to withdraw from this war in a decent way.

Alfonso had just sent a messenger, and another heavy news came: the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Italy at 8 o’clock in the morning on the 13th.