Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 215: Vittorio Emanuele II is critically ill

As time came to June 1877, a piece of news from the Kingdom of Italy made Carlo change his travel plans for the second half of the year.

Carlo's father, Vittorio Emanuele II, had a rapidly declining health since he unified Italy. Coupled with the dire situation in Italy, Emanuele II was busy and overwhelmed every day.

Since January this year, Vittorio Emanuele II has handed over most of his political affairs to his eldest son, Crown Prince Umberto, while he himself has been living in an estate outside Rome to recuperate.

But the medical technology of that era was ultimately unreliable. After half a year of recuperation, Vittorio Emanuele II's health not only did not improve, but became worse and worse. He was bedridden and it seemed that he didn't have much time left.

Although Carlo is a time traveler, he still has a very good impression of his father. After learning that Vittorio Emanuele II was bedridden and dying, Carlo immediately decided to take the royal family and Giotti to Italy to visit his father.

As one of Carlo's earliest confidants who came to Spain with him, Jyoti has now become the commander-in-chief of the Spanish Royal Guard and is the true leader of the Guard.

Although the Guards currently only has one division under its command, this division is a reinforced division that combines cavalry and artillery, with a total number of up to 1.5 people.

The reason for bringing Steno to Italy this time was to let him go to Italy to see his father Garibaldi.

In terms of age, Garibaldi, who was born in 1807, was 1820 years older than Vittorio Emanuele II, who was born in 13.

In terms of their physical conditions, Garibaldi's condition is better than that of Vittorio Emanuele II, at least he is not in danger of life at the moment.

Of course, Garibaldi is 70 years old after all. It has been several years since Medino came to Spain with Carlo, and it is time for him to go home to see his father and reminisce with his family.

Of course, in addition to visiting his father Vittorio Emanuele II, Carlo also wanted to take the opportunity to finalize a new step of cooperation with the Italian government and to get closer to his brother, Crown Prince Umberto.

Vittorio Emanuele II had only three sons who had the right to inherit the throne: Crown Prince Umberto, Prince Amadeo and Prince Carlo.

As the first heir to the Italian throne, Crown Prince Umberto has no rivals. The second heir is Crown Prince Umberto's son, Vittorio Emanuele the Younger, and the third is his younger brother, Prince Amadeo.

Carlo is seventh in line to the Italian throne, after his two elder brothers and their sons.

Since there is no conflict of interest with Crown Prince Umberto, it is natural to have a good relationship with him and to bring Spain and Italy closer together through the relationship with Crown Prince Umberto.

Although Spain and Italy currently have good cooperation, this was only established because of Vittorio Emanuele II's support for Carlo.

If Crown Prince Umberto does not want to continue such cooperation, the cooperation between the two countries will be forced to terminate.

The good news is that there is no conflict of interest between Spain and Italy at the moment. It is necessary for both countries to cooperate with each other.

Although Italy is also a great power, it can only be ranked at the bottom among the great powers, with relatively poor population and industrial economic scale.

The same is true for Spain. Although Spain has a vast territory, its population lags far behind all the powerful countries.

Only when Spain and Italy unite can they resist the covetousness of other powerful countries. At present, in terms of African colonies, Spain and Italy have a common enemy, France.

Carlo also had his eyes on Italy's population, so naturally he didn't want to give up cooperation with Italy now.

Since we are traveling to Italy with our family, the stability of Spain is very important.

Carlo didn't want to lose his base after going to Italy, so before going to Italy, Carlo made very detailed arrangements to ensure that there would be no problems in Spain during this period.

Previously, it was because he wanted to go fishing that he gave the rebellious nobles and the remnants of Bourbon the opportunity to create chaos. Now Carlo only wants stability and will not give anyone else any chance.

Before leaving Madrid, Carlo summoned Kadir, the director of the Royal Security Intelligence Service, and gave him a rather difficult task.

Carlo requested that while he was in Italy, the Royal Security Intelligence Agency would focus its main intelligence work on Madrid and surrounding cities to ensure that no accidents would occur around Madrid.

Once any forces planning marches or rebellions are discovered, the Royal Security Intelligence Agency can take the lead in suppressing them and interrogate the masterminds behind them.

In addition to the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, which will be responsible for stability around Madrid, 1.5 guards will also be stationed around Madrid to ensure that there will be no problems in Spain's political heart.

Of course, Carlo will bring some guards with him when he goes to Italy this time. However, considering that there is only the Mediterranean Sea between Spain and Italy, the number of guards accompanying him to Italy is not large, only more than 100 in total.

After all, for Carlo, returning to Italy is like going home, and he basically doesn't need to worry about his personal safety.

The Italian government and royal family will be concerned about Carlo, and the current situation in Italy is not that complicated, and there are not so many anti-government extremists.

Before leaving, Carlo specifically instructed Archduke Serrano and Deputy Prime Minister Canovas to oversee the stable operation of the Spanish government.

At present, Spain only needs to safely provide weapons and equipment to Russia and the Ottoman Empire, and earn enough gold and other assets from these two warring countries.

Then use the money earned to vigorously develop Spain's industry and economy, allowing Spain's industry and economy to continue to maintain a relatively fast growth rate.

As for the rest, the Spanish government does not need to consider it for the time being. Development is the most important issue for Spain, and other things are trivial.

After arranging everything, Carlo took Queen Sophie and his son and daughter on a warship to Rome, Italy.

The accompanying protection this time was a fleet of three ironclad ships, one of which was the Fuxing which had just been launched not long ago.

Such a luxurious configuration is more than enough to protect Carlo's safety, not to mention fighting a small-scale naval battle with other countries.

The fleet departed from the port of Valencia in Spain, passed through the Balearic region, made a brief stop in Sardinia, Italy, and then headed directly northeast to Rome.

In Rome, the capital of Italy, the Italian government has prepared a welcome ceremony for the Spanish royal family.

Although Carlo's main purpose of coming to Italy this time was to visit Vittorio Emanuele II, Carlo was the ruler of a powerful European country after all, and he was also a family of the Italian royal family, so all the necessary welcome ceremonies were necessary.

The current Prime Minister of Italy is Agostino De Pretis, a figure worth mentioning.

This term is the first term of Prime Minister Agostino De Pretis, who also has completely different political ideas from his three predecessors.

Prime Minister Agostino De Pretis is the 12th Prime Minister of Italy since its founding and the third left-wing Prime Minister of Italy.

What do left and right mean?

This division of political ideas originated from the French Revolution. In the meetings of the French Revolution, the moderate and conservative royalists generally sat on the right side of the parliament, while the radical revolutionaries who wanted to promote democratic republican reforms sat on the left side of the parliament.

Sitting on both sides has become a tradition in the French Parliament, and left and right have become terms to refer to the political ideas of officials.

Simply put, the left represents liberal democracy and republican ideas, while the right represents conservatism and nationalism.

Prime Minister Agostino De Pretis was not a simple left-wing politician. In his early years, he had participated in the Young Italy Party and supported the republican ideas of the republican Mazzini. Although he later gradually turned to the constitutional monarchy while serving as a member of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia, some of his political ideas did not change much.

Prime Minister Agostino De Pretis also participated in the Red Shirts organized by Garibaldi and served as the high position of Dictator of Sicily.

However, after the Red Shirts regained the Kingdom of Sicily, Prime Minister Agostino and the then democrat Crispi had a disagreement over the ownership of the Kingdom of Sicily, and was eventually dismissed by Garibaldi.

It was Prime Minister Agostino's choice to support the Kingdom of Sardinia on the issue of the Kingdom of Sicily that made Victor Emmanuel II let down his guard against this former Republican.

Prime Minister Agostino served as Spanish Cabinet Minister several times after the unification of Italy, and became the recognized leader of the Italian left-wing group a few years after the unification of Italy.

After the poor performance of right-wing officials last year, Prime Minister Agostino was ordered to preside over a new cabinet, marking the first time he has formed a government as prime minister.

Although Prime Minister Agostino and his predecessor Giovanni had different political philosophies, both prime ministers were consistent in their attitude towards Spain, which was to attach importance to the Spanish government.

Spain's overall strength is relatively strong, at least Italy is not qualified to ignore Spain's existence.

For Italy, Spain is also an ally that can be won over. Agostino himself hopes that Italy will be proactive in Africa and develop colonies, so naturally he must seize Spain, one of the few allies that can provide assistance to Italy in Africa.

Italy wants to expand in Africa, and the closest and most convenient areas are Tunisia and Libya.

Especially the Tunisia region, which is less than 150 kilometers away from the Italian island of Sicily, can be said to be right at Italy's doorstep.

However, it is very difficult for Italy to take over Tunisia. Tunisia was the sphere of influence of the Ottoman Empire. Before that, Italy had no strength to compete with the Ottoman Empire.

Although the Ottoman Empire was weakened with the support of the British, it still possessed a certain military strength.

Especially the navy. In order to restrict Russia's Black Sea Fleet, the Ottoman Empire's navy was not weak, and was even able to maintain an advantage over Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

As a newly unified country, Italy still had a certain gap with the Ottoman Empire in terms of army numbers and naval size.

Even if the Ottoman Empire did not have the help of the British, it would be difficult for Italy to defeat the Ottoman Empire. At least the Ottoman Empire could knock out a few of Italy's teeth.

It is precisely because of this situation that Italy is drooling over Tunisia but dares not take any action.

Now that war has broken out again between the Ottoman Empire and Russia, Prime Minister Agostino believes this is a good opportunity for Italy to expand its sphere of influence into Tunisia.

Even if it is not possible to directly turn Tunisia into a colony, at least it can gain some benefits in Tunisia and prepare for the future annexation of Tunisia.

But even if the Ottoman Empire was tied down by the war, Italy had another competitor in Tunisia: France.

As a country on the Mediterranean coast, France has a stronger colonial presence in North Africa than Spain and Italy. France has long established the Algerian colony, which is located between Morocco and Tunisia.

As one of the most powerful countries in Europe, France's appetite is obviously greater than that of Spain and Italy.

Spain's target is only Morocco, Italy's target is only Tunisia, and the French's target is Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria in the middle.

From a historical perspective, the French were the ones who benefited in the end. They took Tunisia, completely controlled Algeria, and gained a lot of benefits in Morocco because they helped Spain control Morocco.

Spain was better off, although it was weakened, but at least it got Morocco. Italy was in a more miserable situation, because it could not get Tunisia, so it could only turn its attention to Somalia and Abyssinia, which were farther away, and showed the poor level of the Italian army to these African natives.

It was precisely because of the powerful enemy France that Prime Minister Agostino believed that Spain was a rare natural ally of Italy, as the two countries had a common enemy, France, in African colonization.

Carlo was happy to accept the goodwill shown by Italian Prime Minister Agostino.

Just as Italy needed Spain as an ally, Spain also needed Italy as an ally.

No matter how weak Italy is, it is still a great power, and the diplomatic influence and interests it can provide are unmatched by non-great power countries.

Before the outbreak of World War I, Spain and Italy had no conflict of interests, which was the basis for the two countries to conclude an alliance and carry out closer cooperation.

Carlo met his father at the estate of Vittorio Emanuele II.

Although Vittorio Emanuele II was only 57 years old, he looked like a man in his 70s.

It was already afternoon when Carlo and his family arrived at the manor.

Originally, Vittorio Emanuele II was too weak to get out of bed, but when he heard that Carlo and his family had arrived at the manor, he forced himself to sit up, and with a kind smile on his face, he called for Carlo and the two little ones to come forward.

"Fernando, Sofia." Vittorio Emanuele II called out the names of his grandson and granddaughter, with a gleam in his eyes and a very kind smile on his face.

At this moment, Vittorio Emanuele II was not the monarch of the Kingdom of Italy, but a kind old man who saw his grandchildren for the first time.

"Grandfather, Grandfather." Under Carlo's instruction, little Juan Fernando called out the name that he had already learned many times.

"Grandfather is here." Vittorio Emanuele II nodded happily immediately, reached out and gently stroked Juan Fernando's head, then smiled and said, "It's just like you when you were a kid, Carlo."

Carlo smiled and nodded, looking carefully at his father.

"The doctor told me that I don't have much time left." After looking at his grandchildren, Vittorio Emanuele II turned his gaze to his youngest son and said calmly.

Carlo nodded. He had expected this, but it still made him feel uncomfortable for some reason.

As if he could see Carlo's reluctance, Vittorio Emanuele II smiled and shook his head, saying with a smile: "Life is like this, you always have to face death, don't you?

After you left for Spain, I was most worried about you, my child. Fortunately, you are better than I thought, and the problems in Spain are not difficult for you.

I have already told Umberto that the alliance between Italy and Spain is the most important diplomatic strategy, and it can also ensure the stability of your two thrones.

Italy and Spain can not only jointly resist foreign enemies, but also jointly eliminate domestic enemies. You will do better than I can, and Amadeo will help you. "

Carlo nodded. Italy and Spain were natural allies, and Carlo did have the idea of ​​cooperating with his brother, Crown Prince Umberto, to ensure the stability of each other's thrones in the future.

No matter which country has problems in the future, at least the safety of the royal family members will not be threatened. At worst, they can voluntarily give up the throne and flee to another country for refuge. Anyway, the royal families of the two countries are one family, so it is no problem to ensure that the other party lives a wealthy life for the rest of his life.

Even if Carlo would not face such danger, he still had to consider his children and future generations. Italy was obviously a good retreat, and Amadeo's experience in history also proved that having a retreat could indeed ensure one's personal safety.

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(End of this chapter)