Watching the entire European Continent sink into a wave of strikes, Franz felt his heart tremble with fear. Anyone who had not lived through the Revolution of 1848 could not understand that sense of tension.
The first place where trouble broke out was Rome. Seizing the opportunity presented by the strike wave, the Italian Independence Organization took the chance to rise up in Rome.
Even more bizarrely, they succeeded. When Franz heard the news, he was completely dumbfounded. The higher-ups of the Italian Independence Organization were probably just as dumbfounded.
They had merely shouted a few slogans, yet they had actually liberated Rome. One had to know that no one had made any preparations; they had only intended to proclaim the idea of national independence.
Reality was just that absurd. Rome's police were all locals, and their dissatisfaction with the French had not begun yesterday. They simply dragged their feet and watched the uprising erupt.
The French garrison was stationed outside the city, and consisted of only a single infantry battalion. At the first sign of the uprising, the French troops waited for orders. Because the telegraph lines had been sabotaged, it was already too late by the time their orders reached them.
One could not blame the commanders for lacking flexibility; those were the French army's rules. Troop movements required orders from superiors. Middle- and lower-ranking officers had no authority to deploy troops, not even to suppress a rebellion.
Frankly speaking, the current international situation was not suitable for Italy to launch an independence uprising. The Paris Conference had only just begun, and reconciling conflicts and reducing international clashes was everyone's shared wish.
If the Italian Independence Organization launched an uprising now, it would be difficult for them to find supporters internationally. Even their biggest financier—the British—would not support