Just as the Ferdinand was preparing to attack, a white flag was raised aboard the Caesar, leaving the Austro-Hungarian Navy utterly dumbfounded.
With the Caesar's surrender, the other ships also gave up resisting. The Battle of the Adriatic Sea was completely over, and control of the Adriatic Sea had fallen wholly into Austro-Hungarian hands.
By then, three Italian Navy capital ships had already been sunk. Since they had surrendered, the Austro-Hungarian Navy, which had been striking to kill just moments before, began pulling people from the sea.
With the threat at sea eliminated, the fifty thousand troops long prepared at the Port of Trieste were about to set out. They would be transported aboard merchant vessels to Italy's East Coast, where they would open a third front and join Papal States forces in taking the eastern part of the Kingdom of Italy.
Inside Venice.
The sound of artillery rose and fell without end. For the city's residents, it was truly unbearable; the god of death might descend at any moment, and everything depended on luck.
At a supply distribution point, Venice citizens were following the city government's arrangements and purchasing grain and daily necessities.
Several temporarily hired armed men were responsible for maintaining order.
"Mr. Ross, this flour is far too expensive! It's doubled in price again since yesterday."
"Just tell me whether you want it or not! Because of the war, the whole city is short of grain. And where do you think food for the Kingdom's army of over a hundred thousand comes from? Isn't it requisitioned from the Venice region? We risked our lives collecting this grain from the countryside." Ross barked impatiently at the crowd.
"That's not right, Mr. Ross! This Pizza-brand flour isn't a Venice product. Did you collect that from the Venice countryside