Chapter 217: Vittorio Emanuele II in Critical Condition

As time reached June of 1877, a piece of news from the Kingdom of Italy caused Carlo to change his travel plans for the second half of the year.

Carlo's father, Vittorio Emanuele II, had seen his health take a sharp turn for the worse ever since the unification of Italy, and the dire situation in Italy kept Emanuele II busy and exhausted every day.

Since January of this year, Vittorio Emanuele II had handed over most of his government affairs to his eldest son, Prince of the Blood Umberto, while he himself resided in an estate on the outskirts of Rome to recuperate.

However, the medical technology of this era was ultimately unreliable; after half a year of recuperation, Vittorio Emanuele II's health not only failed to improve but grew increasingly worse, leaving him bedridden and seemingly with little time left.

Although Carlo was a transmigrator, he still held his father in high regard. Upon learning that Vittorio Emanuele II was bedridden and in critical condition, Carlo immediately decided to take his entire royal family and Qiaodi to Italy to visit his father.

As the trusted aide who had followed Carlo to Spain earliest, Qiaodi had currently become the Commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Royal Guard, making him the person truly in charge of the Guard.

Although the Royal Guard currently only had one division under its command, this division was a reinforced one mixed with cavalry and artillery, with a total strength reaching as high as 15, 00 men.

The reason for bringing Stino along on this trip to Italy was to allow him to also visit his father, Garibaldi, in Italy.

In terms of age, Garibaldi, born in 1807, was 13 years older than Vittorio Emanuele II, who was born in 1820.

Regarding their physical conditions, Garibaldi's health was better than that of Vittorio Emanuele II; at the very least, he was not currently in any life-threatening danger.

Of course, Garibaldi was, after all, a 70-year-old man. Metino had been in Spain with Carlo for several years, and it was time for him to return home to see his father and catch up with his family.

Naturally, besides visiting his father Vittorio Emanuele II, Carlo also wanted to take this opportunity to finalize further cooperation with the Italian government and, in the process, draw closer to his brother, Prince of the Blood Umberto.

Vittorio Emanuele II had only three sons with rights to the throne: Prince of the Blood Umberto, Prince Amedeo, and Carlo.

As the first in line to the Italian throne, Prince of the Blood Umberto had no competitors. The second in line was Prince of the Blood Umberto's son, little Vittorio Emanuele, and the third in line was his younger brother, Prince Amedeo.

Carlo's place in the Italian line of succession was behind his two older brothers and their sons, making him the seventh in line to the Italian throne.

Since there were no conflicts of interest between him and Prince of the Blood Umberto, it was only natural to foster a good relationship with him, using their bond to strengthen the ties between Spain and Italy.

Although Spain and Italy currently enjoyed good cooperation, this had only been established under the condition that Vittorio Emanuele II supported Carlo.

If Prince of the Blood Umberto did not wish to continue such cooperation, then the partnership between the two countries would be forced to terminate.

The good news was that there were currently no conflicts of interest between Spain and Italy. For both countries, mutual cooperation was highly necessary.

Although Italy was also a major power, it ranked at the very bottom among them, with relatively poor performance in both population and industrial economic scale.

Spain was in the same situation. Although Spain's territory was vast, its population lagged far behind all other major powers.

Only by uniting could Spain and Italy resist the covetousness of other major powers. Currently, regarding their stance on African colonies, Spain and Italy shared a common enemy: France.

Carlo also had his eyes on Italy's population and naturally did not want to abandon the cooperation with Italy at this time.

Because this trip to Italy involved taking his whole family, the stability of the Spanish mainland became very important.

Carlo did not want to lose his home base while visiting Italy, so before departing, he made quite precise deployments to ensure that Spain would not face any problems during this period.

Previously, he had given the rebellious nobles and the remnants of the Bourbon faction a chance to create chaos because he wanted to "go fishing." Now, Carlo only wanted stability and would not give anyone else any opportunities.

Before leaving Madrid, Carlo summoned the Director of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency, Kadier, and gave him a rather arduous task.

Carlo required that during his time in Italy, the Royal Security Intelligence Agency should focus its primary intelligence work on Madrid and the surrounding cities, ensuring that no accidents occurred in the vicinity of Madrid.

Once any forces planning protests or rebellions were discovered, the Royal Security Intelligence Agency was authorized to suppress them first and interrogate them to find the masterminds behind the scenes.

In addition to the Royal Security Intelligence Agency being responsible for the stability around Madrid, the 15, 00-strong Royal Guard would also be stationed around Madrid to ensure that the political heart of Spain would not face any issues.

Of course, for this trip to Italy, Carlo would also bring a portion of his guards. However, considering that only the Mediterranean Sea separated Spain and Italy, the number of guards accompanying him for protection was not large, totaling only about 100 people.

After all, for Carlo, returning to Italy was like going home; he basically did not need to worry about his personal safety.

The Italian government and the royal family would worry for Carlo, and the current situation in Italy was not that complex; there were not that many anti-government extremists.

Before leaving, Carlo specifically instructed Grand Duke Serrano and Deputy Prime Minister Canovas to supervise the stable operation of the Spanish government.

Currently, Spain only needed to steadily provide weapons and equipment to the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, earning enough gold and other assets from these two warring nations.

Then, they would use the money earned to vigorously develop Spain's industry and economy, allowing them to maintain a relatively fast growth rate.

As for other matters, the Spanish government did not need to consider them for the time being. Development was the most important issue for Spain; everything else was a minor matter.

After settling all matters, Carlo took Queen Sophie and his children to Rome, Italy, aboard a warship.

This time, the escort fleet accompanying them consisted of three ironclad warships, one of which was the *Renaissance*, which had only recently been launched.

Such a luxurious configuration was more than enough to protect Carlo's safety, let alone fight a small-scale naval battle with other countries.

The fleet departed from the Spanish port of Valencia, passed through the Balearic region, made a brief stop at Italy's Sardinia, and then headed directly northeast toward Rome.

In Rome, the capital of Italy, the Italian government had already prepared a welcome ceremony for the Spanish royal family.

Although Carlo's main purpose for coming to Italy this time was to visit Vittorio Emanuele II, he was, after all, the ruler of a European power and a member of the Italian royal family; the necessary welcome ceremonies could not be omitted.

The current Prime Minister of Italy was Agostino Depretis, a figure worth mentioning.

This term was the first term for Prime Minister Agostino Depretis, and he possessed political ideas completely different from those of his three predecessors.

Prime Minister Agostino Depretis was the 12th Prime Minister since the founding of Italy and the third left-wing Prime Minister of Italy.

What did "left-wing" and "right-wing" mean?

This was a division of political ideology, originating from the French Revolution. In the meetings during the French Revolution, the moderate conservative royalists generally sat on the right side of the assembly, while the radical revolutionaries who wanted to promote democratic and republican reforms sat on the left.

Sitting on opposite sides became a tradition in the French assembly, and "left-wing" and "right-wing" also became terms referring to the political ideologies of officials.

Simply put, the left-wing represented liberal, democratic, and republican ideas, while the right-wing represented conservatism and nationalism.

Prime Minister Agostino Depretis was not a simple left-wing politician. In his early years, he had participated in the Young Italy Party and supported the republican ideas of the republican Mazzini.

Although he gradually shifted toward constitutional monarchism during his time as a member of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia, some of his political ideas had not changed much.

Prime Minister Agostino Depretis had also participated in the Redshirts organized by Garibaldi and had served in the high position of Dictator of Sicily.

However, after the Redshirts recaptured the Kingdom of Sicily, Prime Minister Agostino and the then-democrat Crispi had a disagreement over the ownership of the Kingdom of Sicily, and he was eventually dismissed by Garibaldi.

It was precisely because Prime Minister Agostino chose to support the Kingdom of Sardinia in the issue of the ownership of the Kingdom of Sicily that Vittorio Emanuele II let down his guard against this former republican.

After the unification of Italy, Prime Minister Agostino served as a cabinet minister in Spain multiple times and became the recognized leader of the Italian left-wing group a few years after the unification.

After the right-wing officials performed poorly last year, Prime Minister Agostino was ordered to preside over a new cabinet, beginning the first cabinet formation of his prime ministerial career.

Although Prime Minister Agostino and the previous Prime Minister Giovanni held different political ideologies, both prime ministers were consistent in their attitude toward Spain: they valued the Spanish government.

Spain's comprehensive strength was relatively powerful; at the very least, Italy was not qualified to ignore Spain's existence.

For Italy, Spain was also an ally that could be courted. Agostino himself hoped that Italy would be proactive in Africa and develop colonies, so he naturally wanted to seize Spain, one of the few allies that could provide help to Italy in Africa.

If Italy wanted to expand in Africa, the nearest and most convenient regions were Tunisia and Libya.

Especially the Tunisia region, which was less than 150 kilometers away from Italy's Sicily; it could be said to be right at Italy's doorstep.

However, for Italy, the difficulty of taking Tunisia was very high. Tunisia was in the sphere of influence of the Ottoman Empire, and before this, Italy did not have the strength to compete with the Ottoman Empire.

Although the Ottoman Empire was weak under the support of the British, it still possessed a certain degree of military strength.

Especially the navy; in order to limit Russia's Black Sea Fleet, the Ottoman Empire's navy was not weak and could even maintain an advantage over Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

As a newly unified country, Italy still had a certain gap compared to the Ottoman Empire in terms of both army numbers and naval scale.

Even if the Ottoman Empire did not have the help of the British, it would still be difficult for Italy to defeat the Ottoman Empire; at the very least, the Ottoman Empire could knock out a few of Italy's teeth.

It was precisely because of this situation that Italy was drooling over Tunisia but dared not take any action.

Now that war had broken out again between the Ottoman Empire and Russia, Prime Minister Agostino believed that this was a good opportunity for Italy to expand its sphere of influence to Tunisia.

Even if they could not directly turn Tunisia into a colony, they could at least obtain some benefits in Tunisia, preparing for the future annexation of Tunisia.

But even if the Ottoman Empire was tied down by the war, Italy had another competitor in Tunisia: France.

As a Mediterranean coastal country, France's colonial efforts in North Africa were greater than those of Spain and Italy. France had long since established the colony of Algeria, which was located exactly between Morocco and Tunisia.

As one of the most powerful major powers in Europe, France's appetite was clearly larger than both Spain's and Italy's.

Spain's goal was only Morocco, Italy's goal was only Tunisia, while the French goal was Morocco, Tunisia, and the Algeria in between.

If viewed from a historical perspective, the ones who ultimately benefited were the French. The French got Tunisia, completely controlled Algeria, and because they helped Spain control Morocco, they obtained a large amount of benefits in Morocco.

Spain was slightly better off; although it had weakened, it had at least obtained Morocco. Italy was more miserable because, unable to obtain Tunisia, it could only set its sights on the more distant Somalia and Abyssinia, and it showed the poor level of the Italian army to these African natives.

It was precisely because of facing France, this powerful enemy, that Prime Minister Agostino believed Spain was a rare natural ally for Italy, as the two countries shared a common enemy in Africa: France.

Carlo was quite happy to accept the goodwill released by Italian Prime Minister Agostino.

Just as Italy needed Spain as an ally, Spain also needed Italy as an ally.

No matter how weak Italy was, it was still a major power, and the diplomatic influence and benefits it could provide were incomparable to non-major power countries.

Before the outbreak of World War I, neither Spain nor Italy had any conflicts of interest, which was the foundation for the two countries to conclude an alliance and engage in closer cooperation.

In Vittorio Emanuele II's estate, Carlo met his father.

Although Vittorio Emanuele II was only 57 years old, he looked like a twilight old man in his 70s.

When Carlo arrived at the estate with his family, it was already the afternoon of that day.

Originally, Vittorio Emanuele II was lying weakly in bed, but upon hearing that Carlo had arrived at the estate with his whole family, he forced himself to sit up, and with a kind smile on his face, he gestured for Carlo to bring the two little ones forward.

"Fernando, Sophia." Vittorio Emanuele II called out the names of his grandson and granddaughter, a glimmer of light flashing in his eyes, his face wearing a very affectionate smile.

At this very moment, Vittorio Emanuele II was not the monarch of the Kingdom of Italy, but a kind old man seeing his grandson and granddaughter for the first time.

"Grandfather, Grandfather." Under Carlo's guidance, little Juan Fernando called out the title he had already learned many times.

"Grandfather is here." Vittorio Emanuele II nodded happily, reached out to gently stroke little Juan Fernando's head, and then said with a smile: "You look just like you did when you were little, Carlo."

Carlo nodded with a smile, his gaze carefully fixed on his father.

"The doctor told me that my time is running out." After examining his grandson and granddaughter, Vittorio Emanuele II looked at his youngest son and said peacefully.

Carlo nodded; he had expected this in his heart, but for some reason, he still felt a bit uncomfortable.

Seeming to see the reluctance in Carlo's heart, Vittorio Emanuele II shook his head with a smile and said with a smile: "Life is like this; one must always face death, right?

After you went to Spain, you were the one I worried about most, child. Fortunately, you are more outstanding than I imagined; the problems in Spain cannot stump you.

I have already instructed Umberto that the alliance between Italy and Spain is the most important diplomatic strategy, and it can also ensure the stability of both your thrones.

Italy and Spain can not only jointly resist foreign enemies but also jointly eliminate domestic enemies. You will do better than me, and Amedeo will also help you."

Carlo nodded. Italy and Spain were natural allies, and Carlo indeed had the idea of cooperating with his brother, Prince of the Blood Umberto, to mutually guarantee the stability of each other's thrones in the future.

No matter which country faced problems in the future, at least they could ensure that the safety of the royal family members would not be threatened. At worst, they could voluntarily abandon the throne and flee to the other country for refuge; in any case, the royal families of the two countries were one family, and ensuring that the other lived a wealthy life for the rest of their days was not a problem.

Even if Carlo would not face such danger, he had to consider his children and descendants. Italy was clearly a good fallback, and history had proven with Amedeo's experience that having a fallback could indeed ensure one's personal safety.

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(End of this chapter)