Late at night, wails filled the Sardinian camp.
Falsely reporting military intelligence meant facing military law. Since they had claimed devastating losses, there had to be losses to show for it.
A man without venom was no true man; kindness could not command an army. Having climbed to his current position, Major General Will was naturally no softhearted man.
To give his superiors an explanation, Major General Will had no choice but to intensify the offensive that afternoon.
The Kingdom of Sardinia's veteran soldiers were still very brave. Their sense of belonging to the nation was far stronger than that of the Lombardians, and the afternoon's battle was far more brutal.
After tallying the casualties, Major General Will swept his hand and added all the battle losses to the morning engagement: more than three hundred dead and eight hundred wounded. That barely counted as devastating casualties.
The senior officers of the Second Division, led by Major General Will, could now account for themselves—but troop morale had also plunged to rock bottom.
Without comparison, there was no hurt. Italians were good at learning, especially the old hands in the army. They quickly picked up their comrades' advanced experience.
Once too many people knew, secrecy was out of the question. The Battlefield Survival Manual spread through the Kingdom of Sardinia's army at lightning speed.
Perhaps the commercial atmosphere was simply too strong. The soldiers quickly and happily accepted this battlefield survival handbook.
Even the bizarre theories Franz had cooked up gained widespread acceptance. At some point, a voice began to spread through the Kingdom of Sardinia's army—do not throw away your lives for the capitalists.
Italy had been divided for too long. Ordinary people had forgotten that they were Italians. In its place came Sardinians, Genoese, Lombardians...
What benefits would unification bring