In Milan, the situation had become very unfavorable to Austria: the Austro-Sardinian War which was historically known as the “First Italian War of Independence” was definitely not as simple as what had been recorded in the history books. There were rebels within the city of Milan while invading Sardinian forces were marching towards Milan.

Two of the three divisions from the advance reinforcements sent by the Vienna government had stayed behind to suppress the rebellion in Venice, leaving just a single division to advance towards the front in Milan. Adding the soldiers already stationed in Milan, the total number of soldiers available to Marshal Radetzky were less than 30,000.

Thanks to the division of 15,000 soldiers which had reached Milan, Marshal Radetzky’s army was twice as strong as what it had been historically. Otherwise, the result would’ve been the same: the Austrian army would’ve been forced to retreat to give up Milan to prevent the enemy entering Venice and the rest of Austria.

***

Milan HQ

Taking a closer look at the map on the table and considering the international situation, Marshal Radetzky made a surprising decision at the tactical meeting.

“Order the troops to be ready; we will give up Milan by the end of this month!”

“What?! Lord Marshal, you can't be serious?!” Major General Wenzel asked incredulously.

Marshal Radetzky replied calmly, “Major General Wenzel, I'm always serious during war, so let me assure you that I am very sure of what I am doing!”

“But Lord Marshal, we have not yet reached the point of needing to retreat. Once the rebellion in Venice is suppressed, our reinforcements will arrive, and it will be easy for us to block the Sardinians!” Major General Wenzel said, urgently.

Major General Wenzel was not the only one with this view, as many other senior officers present also found it hard to accept Marshal Radetzky’s plan: why should they retreat if they could win?

“The answer is quite simple; we can block the invasion of the Sardinians, but due to the internal troubles, we have no way to decisively defeat them. The rebels in Milan and the surrounding regions have colluded with the Sardinians, so if we focus our attention on a drawn-out battle with them, the rebellion will continue to grow.

There are also the political and economic aspects, but I don’t have the time to explain it to you. All you need to know is that His Imperial Highness, the Crown Prince Regent, and the Cabinet have left me in-charge of the Italian front, so you need to stop asking questions and just do as I say!” Marshal Radetzky replied, sternly.

Giving up Milan and the region of Lombardy would put him under a lot of pressure and even cause a series of ripple effects. Under normal circumstances, no official would be willing to bear this kind of responsibility. Marshal Radetzky dared to do so because of the order from the Vienna government: “as long as they achieved the final victory, he need not care about the temporary losses of a few cities.”

Trans_Later

Lombardy is the state with Milan as its main city from which it expanded outwards; same with Venetia and Venice.

In his view, the Vienna government was also aware of the dangers of the Italian front. If it wasn’t quelled soon, they would have to contend with the Papal States, Tuscany, and Naples, as well. Marshal Radetzky had enough troops to deal with Sardinia and the rebels, but if all the Italian states joined the war, things would no longer be under his control.

Therefore, it was better to give up Milan, and even Lombardy, for now; after the Kingdom of Sardinia occupies them, the other Italian states would cease their open support for them. After all, they had only declared war in order to appease their people. This was evident from the fact that none of the three states had deployed their army; only volunteers from local militias had left.

If the Kingdom of Sardinia were to occupy Lombardy, the Italians of the other states would be satisfied. In fact, they might even feel envious of the Sardinians and wouldn’t no longer suggest sending soldiers to help them. And without their support, the Sardinians would have a tough time keeping Lombardy.

Nationalism was great, but people still had to eat. The economic crisis had yet to subside, and there were many unemployed people on the poor Italian peninsula. If Sardinia failed to improve this situation, they would soon lose the support of the people and infighting would break out. The Italians had many internal contradictions which was one of the reasons why they had never united to form a single kingdom.

In addition, the attitude of Britain and France also had to be taken into account. While the French hated the Germans, their desire to recreate Napoleon’s Grand French Empire trumped their hatred. Although they hoped that Milan and Venice could be freed from Austria, they did not want Italy to be unified since that would make it difficult for them to annex Italian states in the future.

Meanwhile, the British wanted a unified Italy that could contend with France and Austria, but they did not want to see Austria collapse. Although they wanted to weaken Austria, they didn’t want to see it collapse since its presence was necessary to block the expansion of the Russians into central and western Europe.

In this context, once the Kingdom of Sardinia obtained Lombardy, the two states would definitely merge and the attitude of France would change from support to hostility. Britain’s support for Sardinia would only be verbal, and it would prefer it if Sardinia ceased the war after occupying Lombardy, but unfortunately, Sardinia was bound by public opinion and could only continue to fight.

After retreating to Venetia, the Austrian front and supply line would be shortened and the soldiers under Marshal Radetzky’s command would increase, while the Sardinian front and supply line would be lengthened. The newly occupied Lombardy would be unable to feed the Sardinian army, so they had to continue to rely on supplies from Sardinia, which would put a significant pressure on their treasury.

In addition, while fighting Austria, they would also have to feed the people of Lombardy, or they would rebel due to hunger. After Sardinia loses the financial support from France and without the three other Italian states participating in the war, the outcome of the war would be obvious. Sardinia’s national strength was limited and it could not compare with Austria, the third richest European nation.

Marshal Radetzky had become even more confident that he could defeat the Sardinian army and recover Lombardy through Austria's military superiority. He was even confident that he could take the war inside the Kingdom of Sardinia and end the threat it posed, once and for all. Strategically, Austria had not retreated, but lured the enemy in deep. In addition, Franz had privately sent letters to him, requesting him to eliminate as many rebels in Lombardy-Venetia as possible, which was another reason behind his choice to show weakness.

Marshal Radetzky was aware that the “rebels” in Franz’s letters were not the starving, impoverished people who had rebelled under incitement, but the local capitalists and nobles; without their exploitation of the common people, why would the weak and poor people rush to risk their life in a rebellion just for a piece of bread?

Once Lombardy was merged into the Kingdom of Sardinia, he was sure that most of these nobles and capitalists would support the Kingdom of Sardinia. As a result, he had already planned that after routing the Sardinians, he would unceremoniously declare the nobles and capitalists to be rebels, seize their property and regain the approval of the people.

If things went according to his plan, without the obstacles set up by the nobles and capitalists, it would be much easier to carry out ethnic integration and Lombardy-Venetia would soon stabilize. After all, many of its commoners were Germans who had immigrated to Italy over the past half century. In fact, Lombardy-Venetia, especially Venetia, had been closely associated with the Holy Roman Empire over the past millennium.

Of course, there were some disadvantages to this approach, but Marshal Radetzky was the military leader, so did not need to consider them all. Being able to solve the Italian problem once and for all was enough for him to overlook any disadvantage. In order to obtain the final victory, Milan and even Venice could be given up temporarily. As long as he managed to retake them, he would still be a hero in the eyes of the government and the people.

***

In the quiet conference room, a single voice broke the silence.

A middle-aged man stood up and said, “Lord Marshal, maybe we can do more than simply letting the Sardinians occupy Lombardy.”

“Lieutenant-General Friedrich, what do you propose?” Marshal Radetzy asked curiously.

Lt-General Friedrich smiled as he answered, “Lord Marshal, since the people of Lombardy are so welcoming to the Sardinians, we could help them make their impression of the Kingdom of Sardinia even better!”