Chapter 215: Vittorio Emanuele II is critically ill

As time came to June 1877, a message from the Kingdom of Italy made Carlo change his schedule for the second half of the year.

Carlo's father, Vittorio Emanuele II, had been in poor health since he unified Italy, and the bad situation in Italy made Emanuele II busy every day.

Since January this year, Vittorio Emanuele II has handed over most of his political affairs to his eldest son, Crown Prince Umberto, and he lived in a manor outside Rome to recuperate.

But the medical technology of this era is unreliable after all. After recuperating for half a year, Vittorio Emanuele II's health not only did not improve, but became worse and worse. He was bedridden and seemed to have not much time left.

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

As the first confidant who followed Carlo to Spain, Jyoti has now become the commander-in-chief of the Spanish Royal Guard and the real person in charge of the Guard.

Although the Guard currently has only one division, this division is a reinforced division that combines cavalry and artillery, with a total number of 15,000 people.

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

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

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

Of course, Garibaldi is a 70-year-old man after all. It has been several years since Medino followed Carlo to Spain, 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 get closer to his brother, Crown Prince Umberto.

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

As the first heir to the throne of Italy, Crown Prince Umberto has no competitors. The second heir is Crown Prince Umberto's son, Vittorio Emanuele Jr., and the third is his younger brother, Prince Amadeo.

Carlo's order of succession to the Italian throne is after his two brothers and their sons, and he is the seventh heir to the Italian throne.

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

Although Spain and Italy currently have good cooperation, this was established with the support of Carlo by Vittorio Emanuele II.

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 present. For the two countries, mutual cooperation is very necessary.

Although Italy is also a great power, it can only be ranked at the bottom among the great powers, whether in terms of population or industrial economic scale.

The same is true for Spain. Although Spain has a vast land area, its population is far behind all the great powers.

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

Carlo also set his sights on the population of Italy, and naturally did not want to give up cooperation with Italy now.

Because he went to Italy with his family this time, the stability of Spain became very important.

Carlo didn't want to lose his base camp after a trip to Italy, so before going to Italy, Carlo made a very precise deployment to ensure that Spain would not have any problems during this period.

Previously, it was because of the desire to fish that the rebellious nobles and the remnants of Bourbon had 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 Bureau, and gave him a very difficult task.

Carlo asked that during his trip to Italy, the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau would focus its main intelligence work on Madrid and surrounding cities to ensure that no accidents would happen around Madrid.

Once any forces planning marches and rebellions are found, the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau can take the lead in suppressing them and interrogate the masterminds behind the scenes.

In addition to the Royal Security Intelligence Bureau being responsible for the stability around Madrid, 15,000 guards will also be stationed around Madrid to ensure that there will be no problems with the political heart of Spain.

Of course, Carlo will also bring some guards with him when he goes to Italy this time. However, considering that Spain and Italy are only separated by the Mediterranean Sea, the number of guards going to Italy for protection was not large, only more than 100 in total.

In the final analysis, Carlo's return to Italy is like going home, and he basically doesn't need to worry about his personal safety.

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

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

At present, Spain only needs to provide weapons and equipment to Russia and the Ottoman Empire in a stable manner, and earn enough gold and other assets from the hands of these two participating countries.

Then use the money earned to vigorously develop Spain's industry and economy, so that Spain's industry and economy 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 explaining everything, Carlo took Queen Sophie and his son and daughter on a warship to Rome, Italy.

This time, the escort fleet consisting of three ironclad ships was accompanied by protection, one of which was the Fuxing, which had just been launched.

Such a luxurious configuration is not only enough to protect Carlo's safety, but also to fight a small-scale naval battle with other countries.

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

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 is the ruler of a European power after all, and he is also a family with the Italian royal family, so the welcome ceremony should not be missed.

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

This term is the first term of Prime Minister Agostino De Pretis, and he also has completely different political ideas from his previous three prime ministers.

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 the left and right mean?

This is a division of political ideas, which originated from the French Revolution. In the meetings during 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 and republican reforms sat on the left side of the parliament.

Sitting on both sides has become a tradition of the French parliament, and the left and right have become a term for officials' political ideas.

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

Prime Minister Agostino De Pretis is not a simple left-wing politician. In his early years, he participated in the Young Italy Party and supported the republican ideas of the republican Mazzini.

Although he 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 the Sicilian dictator.

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

It was Prime Minister Agostino who chose to support the Kingdom of Sardinia on the issue of the ownership of the Kingdom of Sicily, which made Vittorio Emanuele II let down his guard against this former Republican.

Prime Minister Agostino served as a minister in the Spanish Cabinet many 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 the new cabinet and began the first cabinet formation in his prime ministerial career.

Although Prime Minister Agostino and the previous Prime Minister Giovanni had different political ideas, the two prime ministers were consistent in their attitude towards Spain, that is, to attach importance to the Spanish government.

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

For Italy, Spain is also an ally that can be won over. Agostino himself hoped that Italy would be aggressive and develop colonies in Africa, and naturally he had to seize Spain, one of the few allies that could provide help to Italy in Africa.

If Italy wanted to expand in Africa, the nearest and most convenient areas were Tunisia and Libya.

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

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However, it is very difficult for Italy to take 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 under the support of the British, it still had certain military strength.

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

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

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 break a few teeth of Italy.

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

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

Even if Tunisia cannot be turned into a colony directly, at least some benefits can be obtained in Tunisia to prepare for the annexation of Tunisia in the future.

But even if the Ottoman Empire is restrained by the war, Italy has another competitor in Tunisia, that is, France.

As a country on the Mediterranean coast, France has a higher colonial power 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 powers in Europe, France's appetite is obviously bigger than that of Spain and Italy.

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

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

Spain was better. Although it was weakened, it got Morocco. Italy was more miserable. Because it could not get Tunisia, it could only look 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 strong enemy France that Prime Minister Agostino believed that Spain was a rare natural ally of Italy. The two countries had a common enemy, France, in African colonization.

Carlo was still very happy to accept the goodwill released 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 was, it was still a great power, and the diplomatic influence and interests it could provide were not comparable to those of non-great powers.

Before the outbreak of World War I, Spain and Italy had no conflicts of interest, which was also the basis for the two countries to conclude an alliance and cooperate more closely.

In Vittorio Emanuele II's manor, Carlo met his father.

Although Vittorio Emanuele II was only 57 years old, he looked like a 70-year-old old man.

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

Originally, Vittorio Emanuele II was still weak and bedridden, but when he heard that Carlo had brought a large family to the manor, he still forced himself to sit up, and with a kind smile on his face, he called Carlo and the two little guys to come forward.

"Fernando, Sofia." Vittorio Emanuele II called the names of his grandson and granddaughter, with a glimmer 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, Juan Fernando called out the name he had learned many times.

"Grandfather is here." Vittorio Emanuele II immediately nodded happily, 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 at his father carefully.

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

Carlo nodded, he had expected it in his heart, but somehow he still felt a little uncomfortable.

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, right?

After you went to Spain, I was most worried about you, child. Fortunately, you are better than I thought, and the problems in Spain will not be 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 thrones.

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

Carlo nodded. Italy and Spain are natural allies, and Carlo does 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 can be ensured. 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, and it is no problem to ensure that the other party spends the rest of their lives in wealth.

Even if Carlo does not face such danger, he still has to consider his children and future generations. Italy is obviously a good retreat. Amadeo's experience in history also proves that having a retreat can indeed ensure one's personal safety.

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