After the victory of the bourgeois revolution, the situation in Europe did not improve but rather deteriorated further. The capitalists who had just become masters had not yet consolidated their rule when they exposed their greedy nature. The newly established bourgeois governments not only failed to fulfill their previous promises but intensified the exploitation of the working masses. Where there is oppression, there is resistance, and thus, the workers’ and peasants’ movements started to thrive. Before Marshal Radetzky withdrew from Lombardy, he requisitioned a large amount of food. After the Kingdom of Sardinia occupied the region, Milan suffered from a food shortage. To gather provisions, they borrowed a portion of food from the local population as an emergency measure. Borrowing and repaying seemed easy enough. However, the Kingdom of Sardinia appeared to forget about repaying the borrowed provisions, which sparked discontent among the local population. That was one thing, after all only a few people had their grain borrowed. Next, to raise funds for the war, the Kingdom of Sardinia began to levy war taxes. After successive increases by the bureaucrats, the amount of war taxes had already exceeded the capacity of the lower-class population to bear. On April 21, 1848, the peasants of Brianza, unable to bear the high taxes, rebelled, and the uprising quickly spread to the Salerno and Calabria regions. The rebel armies occupied aristocratic estates, seized granaries, distributed grain to the common people, burned debts and documents, and in some places even distributed land. The actions of the peasant rebel armies terrified the capitalists and aristocrats. The Lombard government immediately dispatched troops to suppress them by force, and this spontaneously organized peasant uprising was crushed in less than a week. The peasant uprising was just the beginning. After the Kingdom of Sardinia occupied Milan, prices began to skyrocket. Taking bread as an example, from March to early May, the price soared by 74%. The capitalists took advantage of this opportunity to profiteer from the national crisis, while the working masses suffered from hunger and cold, which hurt many who had supported the Kingdom of Sardinia. On April 25, under the organization of the Workers’ Mutual Aid Society, more than 5,000 workers in Milan took to the streets to petition the provisional government appointed by the Kingdom of Sardinia, demanding that the government stabilize prices and protect workers’ rights. In that era, there was no comprehensive labor protection law, with the best being the Austrian ‘Labor Protection Law’ and its ancillary laws. Few workers in Milan could read, let alone consider political implications. The worker representatives directly copied part of the Austrian Labor Protection Law and added some provisions they considered reasonable, then submitted the petition. To win over the local capitalists and aristocrats, the provisional government of the Kingdom of Sardinia naturally included capitalists in their government. They immediately took advantage of this loophole, arresting the worker representatives on charges of being Austrian spies and sending troops to suppress the demonstrations. On April 28, a strike movement broke out in Milan, with tens of thousands of workers taking to the streets to fight for their rights. The provisional government ordered the National Guard to shoot at the “people disrupting social order”, killing more than 300 on the spot and arresting more than 500. A reign of white terror permeated Milan, and under the suppression of the bourgeois liberal government, the Milan workers’ movement fell into a low ebb.
…… It was not just the Kingdom of Sardinia suppressing the workers’ and peasants’ movements, the bourgeois liberal governments of the southern Italian states also suppressed the workers’ and peasants’ movements one after another. In Naples, the National Guard shot workers of printing factories on strike; in Rome, the National Guard massacred people demanding bread in front of bakeries; in Palermo, the National Guard turned their blades on their comrades from the January Revolution... The reactionary actions of the bourgeois governments provided the strongest support for the restoration of feudal forces. No matter how they boasted that capitalism was more progressive than feudalism, the working masses found that the capitalist regime was more vicious than the feudal aristocracy. The monarchy and aristocratic groups also seized this opportunity to launch a counterattack, with the most representative being the Austrian counter-revolutionary group led by Franz, which had already suppressed most of the revolution within Austria. In the Italian region, Pope Pius IX, fearing that Italian unification would cost him his throne and worrying that a war with Austria would lose the support of Catholics, issued the “Manifesto” on April 29, 1848, under the efforts of the Austrian Foreign Ministry, sounding the call for a counterattack. On May 15, King Ferdinand II of Naples demanded that the deputies swear allegiance to the constitution, which was opposed by the bourgeois deputies. That night, Ferdinand II sent troops into the city and turned his blade against the bourgeois parliament. In the Kingdom of Prussia, the disgruntled Junker nobility was plotting a counterattack, while King Frederick William III continued to engage in futile negotiations with the bourgeois government. France As the source of the European revolutions, was naturally the most lively place. On April 23, France held a constitutional election, and the bourgeois republican faction achieved an overwhelming victory, excluding the working class from the core of power. The rise of the French right-wing forces provoked dissatisfaction among the working class. On April 26, French workers launched an unsuccessful armed uprising in cities like Lyon and Limoges. The worker leader Blanqui issued a statement condemning the government’s betrayal of the revolution and declaring that the revolution would be carried through to the end. Class contradictions have escalated to become the main contradiction in France, with the working class and the bourgeoisie going their separate ways. At the same time, the royalists were not idle either, quietly extending their reach into the military. If it were not for the royalists being divided into three factions that kept each other in check, the bourgeoisie would already have been gone by now. …… Vienna Looking at the intelligence gathered in his hands, Franz breathed a sigh of relief. History had not undergone a major change — his butterfly effect had not yet completely altered this world. The uprising in Lombardy meant that the support base of the Kingdom of Sardinia in the region was now on par with Austria. They no longer had to worry about being drawn into a people’s war. Venice “Marshal, the enemy is out!” said Major General Victor to Marshal Radetzky. “Well, since the enemy has already come out, there’s no need to hide anymore. Order the Sixth Division to first discipline the Tuscan troops, and order the Ninth Division to defeat the Papal troops crossing the river!” Marshal Radetzky ordered coldly. It had already been extremely difficult to lure the Sardinian army into Venice. Radetzky did not expect to defeat the enemy by trickery alone. “Marshal, I heard that King Charles Albert wants to take command of the front lines himself. If he intervenes in the command, our chance will come!” Edman suggested. “No need. We’ll just directly deploy our formations and fight a decisive battle with the enemy in the Mantua region. They have no choice. Fighting in the Venice region, the Kingdom of Sardinia’s transportation costs are twice as high as ours. You already know how many supplies they need to transport every day to ensure the frontline is supplied,” Marshal Radetzky calmly said.
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