After the Battle of Venice ended, Marshal Radetzky did not stop marching. He merely gave his troops two days to rest and reorganize before advancing into Lombardy.
The Sardinian government had overestimated its standing in the hearts of the local people. Having been deceived once, the people of Lombardy now hated the Sardinian government to the bone.
At precisely this time, Marshal Badoglio's halo as a famed general shattered as well. The Battle of Venice had broken the spine of the Sardinian army. Once soldiers lost their faith, the destructive power of routed troops was terrifying.
Wherever they went, they ravaged the place. Before the government could even mobilize the people, they had already maxed out the public's hatred.
Without comparison, there was no harm. Ordinary people suddenly discovered that life under the Kingdom of Sardinia was even worse than it had been under Austrian rule.
At the very least, the rotten Austrian government had established social order. Though people suffered oppression from the government, the nobility, and the capitalists, society as a whole remained stable, and everyone could still scrape by.
But after the Kingdom of Sardinia arrived, there was nothing but one war after another. Its exorbitant war taxes were even harsher than those of the Austrian government; oppression by nobles and capitalists remained unchanged, and people also had to endure harassment from marauding soldiers.
On June 1, the Milan Bread Massacre erupted. In order to survive, Milan's workers besieged bakeries, drawing a bloody suppression by Sardinian troops. Several hundred people were shot dead on the spot.
On June 3, a peasant uprising broke out in Pavia. The rebel force once grew to more than three thousand men and even openly raised banners welcoming the Austrian army.
The people's war the Sardinian government had envisioned never struck