After receiving the battle report from Venice, Charles-Albert looked as though his soul had left his body. All his vigor vanished at once, and he kept muttering, "It's over! It's over! It's all over!"
War Minister Ricci hurriedly comforted him. "Your Majesty, things have not yet reached their worst point. We still have a chance to turn this around!"
Charles-Albert's eyes shifted as he asked with a bitter smile, "What chance? That worthless Badoglio threw away the fruits of so many years of our efforts in a single battle!"
In the Battle of Venice that had just ended, the Kingdom of Sardinia had not only lost nearly a hundred thousand troops, but also had its hard-won morale shattered.
A small nation needed courage to challenge a great power. For more than a decade, the Kingdom of Sardinia had tirelessly propagated Austria's decay and fragility in order to gather the army's fighting spirit and morale. Now, it had all been lost overnight.
Could an army without fighting spirit and morale still fight?
Charles-Albert was a clever man. He knew that the Kingdom of Sardinia had not prepared adequately for this challenge against Austria.
If not for the pressure of the domestic situation, coupled with Austria appearing to be a setting sun on the brink of darkness, he would never have taken such a risk.
Ricci explained with what he believed was sound reasoning. "Your Majesty, we still hold Lombardy. We can mobilize the local people to rise up against the Austrians. Even if we cannot defeat the enemy, we can still hold them back for a time!
"As long as the situation reaches a stalemate, we can ask the United Kingdom to mediate. We owe the British enormous loans, and the Austrians will never recognize those debts. For their own interests,