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The pure violent means, that is, war, and the reason Freud did not account for Austria having already formed an army and existing in the Pope Country, is because the Pope Country is transparently one-sided to the Kingdom of Italy.

Contrary to what Pius IX guessed, the intelligence system of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the Italian region cannot be said not to exist, but is almost nonexistent.

Yet the Kingdom of Italy can easily infiltrate the Pope Country, learn about its specifics, as the Pope Country is a theocratic regime. Since it is a religious state, naturally it cannot block believers from visiting, and the populace of the Pope Country are also Italians, deep within the heart of Italy, making it impossible to block the exchange of people and trade.

In such a situation, the Kingdom of Italy only needs to slightly bribe some people within the Pope Country to obtain the intelligence it wants, or simply send some people into the Pope Country, and the Pope Country has no way to identify who these people are.

”Lord Freud, I roughly know your country’s plans. About your country’s means, I can only say, very good, very good! Hahaha.” Pius IX, believing he had grasped the truth, laughed heartily.

Pius IX’s words greatly vexed Freud, had Pius IX guessed the existence of the Austro-Hungarian expeditionary force?

If he guessed, then he guessed! Anyway, it doesn’t matter, as long as Pius IX doesn’t speak out, there’s no major issue.

Freud spoke: ”Your Majesty! Just take the hint, don’t mention this to others. I personally am still not fully assured about certain people within the Pope Country. You just need to first organize the Pope Country’s army, fully resist the Kingdom of Italy, and we’ll handle the rest.”

”No problem, the fighting power of the Pope Country’s army is not strong, but its loyalty can be trusted. Next, I will call upon more people of insight to join the army against the Kingdom of Italy in my personal capacity,” Pius IX said.

The loyalty of the Pope Country’s army is indeed good; at least in terms of striking hard at Italians, they will show no mercy, as most of the members come from countries and regions outside Italy.

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After two days of discussion, the Kingdom of Italy internally reached a unified decision that the delay could not continue, and they must strike hard against the Pope Country.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire’s sudden intervention, in the eyes of Italy’s high-ranking officials, was a sign of Pius IX’s desperation, and certainly Pius IX took the initiative to pander to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, hoping it would interfere in Italy’s unification cause.

Once the French were gone, Pius IX realized the Pope Country could not stop the Kingdom of Italy’s actions, so he urgently sought an alternative, and there was no better choice than the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Emmanuel II analyzed: ”In this war, the only threat is the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If the Austro-Hungarian Empire sends troops to interfere, it will be in one of two directions: on land, the Venice and Lombardy areas; or at sea, the eastern territories might be shelled by the Austro-Hungarian navy, so we must be prepared for both.”

”At sea, although our strength does not match the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s, the difference isn’t too big. The Austro-Hungarian advantage lies in its more advanced top-tier ships, but we have more vessels, temporarily transferring the western navy to the eastern waters, along with land forces, can effectively defend against Austro-Hungarian naval harassment of the eastern coast,” said the Minister of the Navy.

If possible, the navy naturally wants more funds, but the last Battle of Lissa was a failure where the Italian navy clearly had the upper hand in ships over the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which is something the Kingdom of Italy cannot accept; the Italian finance cannot endure such turmoil by the navy.

Army leader Raffaele Cadorna added: ”The Venice area must be the focus of defense. For attacking the Pope Country, we only need to prepare thirty thousand troops, while on the eastern front, the opponent is the Austro-Hungarian Empire, even with the diversion caused by Prussia and Russia, it is not easy to confront the Austro-Hungarian Empire without one hundred thousand troops. Also, since we took over the Venice area not long ago which has been under Austrian influence for a long time, we should remain vigilant against some dissenters among local residents, therefore in the Venice and Lombardy front line, the troop size should best be above one hundred fifty thousand.”

This is considering the defensive aspect; the area bordering Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire is not very vast, and the north’s rugged terrain due to the Alps means only the southern coastal area connects through narrow plains, so one hundred fifty thousand men are enough to deal with the Austro-Hungarian attack.

”As for the troop attacking the Pope Country, among the thirty thousand, our government provides twenty-five thousand, and let Garibaldi organize volunteer troops to participate for the rest.”

”Mm, we must not let Garibaldi control too many troops, this person has very unstable thoughts; we must be cautious,” affirmed Emmanuel II.

Though Garibaldi is highly capable, he is not aligned with the Italian government. He is more inclined toward liberal ideas and is considered a hero fighting for the cause of liberalism.

The Kingdom of Italy has never trusted him, and judging by his personal history, what the Kingdom of Italy did was justifiable.

Garibaldi’s thinking indeed is very unorthodox; historically, he was an enemy that France deemed troublesome, yet during the Franco-Prussian War, Garibaldi strongly supported France and organized volunteer troops to join the French army against Prussia.

”Your Majesty, don’t worry, this time the main force attacking the Pope Country will naturally be led by the Kingdom, we won’t let him take all the credit,” said the Minister of the Army.

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The Italian Kingdom’s army began quietly gathering toward Venice and Lombardy areas; such large-scale military movements naturally drew the attention of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

But the Austro-Hungarian Empire pretended not to notice, allowing the Italians to complete all these actions, while the Italians also observed the Austro-Hungarian Empire; the Austro-Hungarian troops at the border acted as usual, with no activity.

This made the Kingdom of Italy bold, confirming their speculation that the Austro-Hungarian troops were being held by Prussia and Russia, and could not be deployed. Thus, after completing the troop positioning, the Venice area was almost ”solid as a rock,” and the Italian government believed it was time to resolve the Pope Country issue.

Even though the Pope Country had issued a joint statement with the Austro-Hungarian Empire earlier, the Italians were now confident the Austro-Hungarian Empire could not intervene in the unification of the Kingdom of Italy, so there was nothing more to say.

On August 16, the Kingdom of Italy issued a final ultimatum to the Pope Country, demanding the Pope surrender resistance and that the Pope Country join Italy peacefully.

With the support of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Pius IX outright refused. At this time, the Pope Country’s army had grown to about fifteen thousand people due to Pius IX’s expansion, retaining some strength to fight.

The Kingdom of Italy’s threat to the Pope Country soon elicited a response from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Once authorized by the empire, the Austro-Hungarian ambassador directly threatened in the Italian palace: ”The Pope Country has never belonged to Italy, and Italy has never been a separate nation. From a historical perspective, the Pope Country’s history is much more longstanding than the Kingdom of Italy, and Italy is merely a regional concept. If the Kingdom of Italy remains stubborn and is determined to act against the Pope Country, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will certainly not stand by and do nothing.”