Chapter 94: God Assists

"The enemy has five divisions?" Marshal Bardorio's first reaction was that the enemy's reinforcements had arrived, and he quickly overturned this judgment.

The main force of the Austrian army is in Hungary. The traffic in Hungary is not very good this year. It is not so simple to send five divisions from Hungary to Trento.

By train? The railway from Hungary has not been completed yet?

Or the cavalry? In terms of time, the cavalry can indeed arrive within a week.

But in the military, this is unreasonable, unless the Vienna government is in hot water, it will never send five divisions of cavalry to Trento!

It is not that Marshal Bardorio did not suspect that the front-line officers lied about the military situation. This was an enemy who could defeat three Sardinian divisions in one night. No matter how you looked at it, the enemy's strength could not be less!

"Did the enemy have too much mobilization of troops?" Marshal Bardorio asked suspiciously

"No, except on May 18, when they sent two regiments to reinforce Trento, there was no major troop movement." Chief of Staff Oitlet replied affirmatively.

It is impossible to draw troops from the Venice area. The total force of Austria here is less than 100,000. If five infantry divisions are drawn from it, the defense line will be empty long ago. How could this be hidden from their eyes?

After a moment of silence, Marshal Bardorio said with a wry smile, "I'm afraid the enemy's reinforcements have arrived. Perhaps the Hungarian reinforcements were just a disguise by the enemy, deliberately used to induce us to be fooled, and the real reinforcements came from Austria. The Republic of Hungary is just a mob, and the Austrian government does not need to mobilize so many troops if it wants to suppress the rebellion. I am afraid that the enemy was bluffing from the very beginning, and that old fox of Radetzky deliberately made a false appearance of insufficient troops to lure us into this battle. There were no 400,000 troops sent by Austria to Hungary to suppress the revolution, and a large part of them were directed at us."

After listening to the Marshal's thoughts, everyone's faces changed greatly. This is the most reasonable explanation.

They didn't think that the three Sardinian divisions couldn't handle the three Austrian regiments. If the strength gap between the two sides was so great, the war would have ended long ago.

Everyone is politically wise, and pitting allies is the most common method in diplomacy. In order to make them send troops to Venice as soon as possible, it is normal that the Hungarians did not tell them the news.

Oitlet said worriedly: "Marshal, no matter how rotten Austria is, it is still a powerful European country. If the Vienna government is willing, it will not be a problem to invest 200,000 to 300,000 troops in the Venice area. If we can't figure out the number of reinforcements of the enemy, we may suffer a big loss in the following battle!"

This is a very serious and realistic question, how did Austria unknowingly send troops to Trento? How many were part of the reinforcements?

Weaponry, firepower configuration, these are things they need to figure out immediately.

Marshal Bardorio thought for a while and said, "Send someone to investigate the enemy's strength immediately. It is impossible for the enemy to hide with so many troops, and there will always be clues."

After a pause, he pointed at the unfortunate guard who reported the military situation, and asked angrily: "Idiot, how are the casualties of our army?"

The unfortunate guard who was named replied hesitantly: "Marshal, the three divisions participating in the Battle of Trento have all been severely damaged, and the casualties are still being counted. It is initially estimated that the loss of personnel will not be less than 10,000..."

Hearing the specific loss figures, everyone's faces changed color, which means that for a long time in the future, the troops of these three divisions will lose their combat effectiveness.

"Marshal, since the enemy's reinforcements have arrived, it is almost impossible for us to conquer Venice. It is better to stop the attack and keep the results in our hands first!" Major General Mantua suggested daringly.

They really don't want to fight anymore.

The Austrian army is not as bad as politicians describe it at all, but it is still very powerful.　　

From the outbreak of the Battle of Venice to the present, they have not taken much advantage. At this time, the enemy reinforcements arrived, and their military number advantage no longer existed, and this battle has now become impossible to fight.

Marshal Bardorio thought for a while and said: "Order all units to stop attacking and turn to a defensive position immediately.

General Mantua, you lead the 4th, 5th, and 8th Divisions to the Ara area to defend the area and keep an eye on the enemies of Trento.

The deployment of troops in other regions remains unchanged. Everyone performs their own duties. I will report the rest to the country, and everyone waits for our nation's order!"

The Sardinians have been completely led astray, and the Austrian reinforcements have indeed arrived in the Venice area, but not to Trento, but to Vicenza.

In order to evade responsibility, General Messi lied about the military situation and led the Sardinian command to make a wrong military deployment, and used a large number of mobile troops to defend the main Austrian army that did not exist in Trento.

At this time, Lieutenant General Messi naturally couldn't care about such thing, and he was busy recruiting strong men to make up for the lack of troops.

There was no other way. After being raided by the enemy, many of his troops were scattered, and everyone was in a hurry to flee for their lives, and no one cared about gathering the defeated soldiers.

After running to Bergamo, the strength of his three divisions combined could not make up a full division. Messi would never dare to report these situations.

In order not to break the real news back to headquarters, he would leave a few attachs. Anyway, it was a time of war, and after a few battles, he could smooth out the losses.

The Kingdom of Sardinia was not very clean and clear, and Messi is still the direct descendant of King Charles-Albert.

Walking on the streets of Bergamo, and looking at the eyes of the people, Cesar felt horrified, and bravely suggested: "General, the situation here is not right, I'm afraid it's not a place to stay for a long time!"

Lieutenant General Messi's performance was much stronger. He sneered and said, "What are you thinking? It's just a bunch of pariahs. Are you worried?"

Popular sentiment? Such thing is long gone, the troops retreated to Bergamo, and the military discipline is gone.

Having suffocated the Sardinian soldiers, he vented a bit here. For example, he greeted the young women in the city cordially. When he left, he still pillaged the town..

This is also a European tradition. For thousands of years, the armies of various countries have been part-time robbers while fighting wars. Although the Sardinian army has transformed into a modern army, these bad habits still remain.

In the eyes of a young aristocrat with an unshakable conscience like Cesar, it was still a little unacceptable, but for Messer, who had participated in the anti-French war, it didn't matter at all.

Cesar said in embarrassment: "But if we do this, General, will there be trouble when Italy is unified in the future? Those congressmen, if they talk about these issues, I'm afraid..."

Messer patted Cesar on the shoulder, sighed and said, "Caesar, you think too much. Not to mention whether we can unify Italy in the first place, even if we do, no one will remember these things. Don't forget that the right to speak is always in the hands of a few. The nobles and the capitalists will never touch or smear our family, as long as they don't hate us!"

There is no doubt that this battle has destroyed Messi's heart and will to fight, and he has completely lost confidence in this war.

At this time, he was not thinking about how to win the war, but trying to escape punishment and avoid being removed from position after the war.

This is a society where morals are depraved and money is paramount. There is nothing that cannot be solved by money. Even if there is, it must be because there is not enough money!

General Messi is not the main point of focus, even if the defeat needs a scapegoat, he is not qualified. Now first search for a huge sum of money, take it back to the country to do some activities, and throw away the responsibility for defeat, which is undoubtedly the best choice for one's own interests.

The people of Bergamo have unfortunately become victims, and they have fully felt what "the kingdom of Sardinia sends warmth".