Chapter 385

Badoglio underestimated the impact of defeating Austria. For political purposes, King Charles directly gave him the rank of marshal.

For the Italians, defeating Austria in this era was too exciting. If he continued to win, he was afraid that all the Italian states would give him the rank of marshal.

Through the Kingdom of Sardinia, Badoglio quickly became a hero in Italy. However, it was not easy to be a hero, and he could not leave a stain on his reputation.

For example, now that the people in Milan could not buy food, they looked to him to solve the problem. Who asked him to be the mastermind of the food burning this time?

As an Italian hero, he had to keep his word. He had promised to provide food to everyone, and now he had to fulfill it.

General Badoglio still passed his political class. No, he should be Marshal Badoglio now. Although he had not been officially conferred the title, it did not matter.

The Lombardy region was also so big that it was impossible for the Austrian army to confiscate all the food in a short time. When the grain merchants ran out of food, the nobles would always keep some in their manors for their own consumption.

While he urged the country to transport food, he also tricked the nobles in the Lombardy region and got some food from their manors.

Unfortunately, the light industry in the Lombardy region was developing well in this era. Most of the nobles sold their food to the processing plants. It was spring ploughing now, and everyone did not have much food in their hands.

After searching the area, Badoglio helplessly found that it was a drop in the bucket. How much food could be left after it had been looted once?

"Marshal, the food from the country has not been shipped over yet. The food we have collected in the city is very limited. According to the current situation, including our military food, we can last for up to three days.

The food collection team sent out may have some harvest, but it has been looted by the Austrians. I'm afraid there won't be much harvest in the area around Milan! "Major General Mansit said with a frown (promoted).

At this time, the food from the Kingdom of Sardinia was actually already being transported to Milan. However, the transportation in the Regions of Italy in this era was not good, and the transportation capacity was very limited.

It was not easy to satisfy the consumption of hundreds of thousands of people in the city. This was just the beginning. Not long after, there would also be a food shortage in the countryside.

It could be said that the Kingdom of Sardinia occupying the Lombardy region would not only not increase its strength in the short term, but also become a heavy economic burden.

Badoglio already felt the pressure. The democrats in Milan had already asked him for independence, but were temporarily fooled by him.

In addition, at this time, the city was short of food. They had to rely on the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was why no one caused trouble. Once the crisis passed, it would probably be a different situation.

"I will explain the situation to the people. Currently, many of the residents in the city still had some food stored in their homes. From tomorrow onwards, everyone would only be given 70% of their rations.

In addition to the food collected from the surrounding areas of Milan, it should be able to last for five to six days. By then, the food in the country should be almost ready to be transported, "Marshal Bartolio analyzed.

Without a doubt, reducing the distribution of food would incite the people's dissatisfaction with them. However, he had already thought of all the possible solutions. There was no way he could conjure up food.

The Kingdom of Sardinia would. would be. and the Mag, the Sarans of Kon Kingdom of Sardinia, Sar.

Charles of the city, including distributing to., the local people, Count. These people were not good people. To be able to live well under the rule of Austria was not something that an honest person could do.

Without Marshal Badoglio knowing anything, the underground black market had already opened. If anyone paid attention, they would find that the food sold here was the relief food from the city.

Corruption was a tradition left over from the Austrian era. The local nobles were also the tools of the Government of Austria, so they naturally inherited this good tradition.

Needless to say, the capitalists had no moral integrity. No one could refuse to make a profit from it, including some of the officers in the Sardinian army.

When distributing food, even a little bit of it was not a small number. How could they give up?

Did they have to make up for the losses caused in the war?

Now that the amount of food distributed was reduced, wasn't it just right for them to make a fortune?

Marshal Badoglio might really not know, or he might be pretending to be ignorant.

In short, less than half of the food that should have been distributed to everyone ended up in the hands of the people. Even in the last five layers, the bread was mixed with all sorts of things.

If they were lucky, they might only add bran and some wheat straw powder. If they were unlucky, they might directly add sawdust, leaves, pebbles, and other materials into the black bread.

There was nothing that couldn't be done, only things that you couldn't think of. Fortunately, the people at the bottom were already used to this. Anyway, the black bread that they usually ate was the same. They could also use it as a brick when fighting, killing two birds with one stone.

People with financial ability had become customers of the underground black market. No, it couldn't be called a black market. They were doing business openly.

However, the prices were slightly higher, especially the price of food. It directly soared to more than ten times the price before the war. Even some of the petty bourgeoisie couldn't stand it.

Of course, the poor only had one way out. Anyway, Marshal Badoglio promised them that it would only be for a few days.

Everyone was a patriot. For the country, for the people, they could still endure a few days of hunger.

…

Paris, France

At this time, the bourgeois provisional government was busy with internal struggles.

On March 17, the Blanqui Faction organized 150,000 people and took to the streets to demonstrate. The conflict between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie was ignited in Paris.

When the Kingdom of Sardinia decided to send troops to attack Austria, the provisional government still supported it. Of course, this support was limited to words. They were unable to give substantive support.

Franz still underestimated the situation in France. Now, the situation in France was not good. The provisional government, which represented the interests of the bourgeoisie, introduced a series of policies that were biased towards the capitalists, which naturally harmed the interests of the ordinary people.

For example, on March 9, the provisional government issued a decree to reduce the cash payment of savings banks. Anyone who withdrew a deposit of more than 100 francs would be paid in depreciated national securities.

Another example: on March 16, the provisional government issued a decree to increase the direct taxes paid by farmers on land, movable property, doors and windows, and business.

(1 franc = 100 centimes, or about 0.29 grams of gold. This value is not necessarily accurate. The value of the franc changed during the Revolution.)