Pius IX was deeply displeased with Franz's unauthorized abduction of Papal States residents. But Franz refused to acknowledge that people who had been wearing shabby uniforms and carrying guns were civilians.
Strictly speaking, capturing eighty thousand prisoners in a single day should have been an impossible task. As Chu Yunfei had said, "Even if they were fifty thousand pigs, you couldn't round them all up in three days!"
But that was true under normal circumstances, and the Italian battlefield was clearly anything but normal.
The vast majority of Italians in Lapol's army had been swept up into the conflict. Religion and nationalism had fired them up in the heat of the moment.
If Lapol hadn't kept them in line with the harshest methods, they would have run off long ago. Even those three thousand men shouldn't have died.
Taking Pius IX's feelings into account, Franz decided to hand over all the officers from the former Papal States and the rebel forces.
The Austrian soldiers considered capturing Lapol and his officers a great achievement, and Franz had indeed rewarded them.
But in Franz's eyes, Lapol and the officers of the Italian Allied Forces were nothing but a pile of trash. They were completely useless to Austria.
Compared with that bunch of good-for-nothings, Franz would much rather capture Garibaldi or drive him out of Italy.
But to Pius IX, these people were different. They were traitors, followers of the devil, obstacles to his retaking Rome, and a threat to stability.
Franz could also use the opportunity to clear out the feudal forces within the Papal States, helping Pius IX complete the centralization of power.
In fact, turning the Papal States into a centralized monarchy would make it easier for the Austrian Empire to manage things later.
In Bereni Valley, the huge airships