Flowers, Swords and France

Once he heard that Charles took the matter so seriously, the bishop finally lost his composure. Just now, the Trevilles told him to kill a church priest. After he figured out the situation, he could still pretend to be fine and continue talking and laughing, but once the matter involved Rome, the situation would be completely different.

Although the French Church and the Holy See have actually been relatively independent since the late Middle Ages, and the promotion of French bishops does not require Rome's involvement at all, for bishops and other senior figures in the French Church, the Holy See still has There is a bit of incense, and they don't want to see the Holy See overthrown.

It was precisely because he cared about their voices that Louis Bonaparte launched an expedition as soon as he came to power to help the Holy See expel the revolutionaries in Rome, using this method to win over the hearts of the church.

"Your Excellency, Minister, could it be that...did you hear something in private?" He could no longer put on a reserved look. He leaned forward slightly and looked at the smiling Charles, "Could it be that in Piedmont? What news made you come to this conclusion?”

"There are indeed some clues that make people worry." Seeing that the other party had taken the bait, Charles became even more worried, "To tell you the truth, you should know that I have spent some time in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before, and I also I have had some exposure to diplomatic affairs, and many things cannot be hidden from my eyes. Although I have resigned now, I should no longer interfere with the work of my original colleagues, but... some things are too important. I have thought about it for a long time, but I still can't let it go... because of my enthusiasm for religion and my love for religion. The concerns of the Holy See and His Majesty the Pope make it difficult for me to calm down.”

Then, he picked up the cup filled with coffee and looked at the bishop while drinking. After the other person's appetite had been whetted, he slowly put down the cup and said, "Today, seeing such a respected bishop like you, I am so eager to He has helped us so much, and it would be really embarrassing if he didn’t say anything again. ”

He wanted to say this, of course, not because he had high religious zeal and could not bear to see the church's territory being annexed by Sardinia. He just wanted to use this excuse to make the Holy See understand the danger of the Piedmontese - -Although this may not have any impact now, in the end, if you want to prevent the unification of Italy, you must ask the Holy See to help, whether in spirit or in practice.

"Please tell me, Your Excellency!" The bishop finally couldn't bear it any longer. "What conspiracy are Sardinia and the Count of Cavour secretly engaged in?"

"Don't be anxious." Charles waved his hand gently to signal the other party to calm down, and then began to tell him the truth, "At that time, His Majesty had just launched a coup and wiped out the opposition. In order to prevent Europe from There was a commotion over our actions and I went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, upon arrival There I found that Sardinia was trying hard to show favor to France, and they were eager to show favor to France - you know, His Majesty hadn't even ascended the throne at that time! They seemed to want France to be their protector. We must submit to France and receive preferential treatment and care from France.”

"So that France can pull chestnuts from the fire for them?" asked the bishop.

"They didn't say clearly that they had this plan." Charles shook his head, but he did not completely deny the other party's view. "However, I think there are no people in the world who are born to love us. They can't wait to stick with us." When you come to France, you must have something you want from France.”

"Of course this is obvious!" the bishop immediately agreed, and then he also frowned, "The Sardinians are eager to please France, and then they bring nationalist demagogues like Count Cavour to power... …”

Now that the matter has reached this point, with the bishop's knowledge, of course he can draw his reasoning conclusion.

"Do these Sardinians want to use France to attack their opponents, such as the church or... or the Austrians? Then they will expand their power until they finally hold the entire Italy in their hands?" he asked inquiringly. Look at Ciel.

Today's Italy is undoubtedly a fragmented situation, but compared to the fragmented territory of the Middle Ages that was full of separatist forces, the current situation is much better - Italy is mainly divided into several major parts: occupying the Piedmont region and The Kingdom of Sardinia in Sardinia; the Papal States, which occupies Rome and part of the central region, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in the south, while the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in the center and the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venecia in the north are both Directly ruled by the Austrians.

So if Sardinia really plans to rely on itself to forcibly unify Italy, what he will have to face is the resistance from these three parties.

The monarch of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies was born in the Bourbon royal family. He suffered a lot during the Revolution. He finally regained possession of the country after King Murat of Naples was shot. However, the country was very unstable, with riots happening from time to time, and it was extremely weak. , generally speaking, it is impossible to maintain rule as long as it faces external attacks.

The main resistance comes from Austria and the Papal States. Austria is a long-established power with extraordinary strength. Sardinia cannot match it at all. Although the Papal State is weak, it has France as its backer, so it does not seem to be that easy to be defeated. Break.

It can be foreseen that if Sardinia wants to unify Italy, it must either get the support of several powerful countries and exclude the two great powers of France and Austria; or it must rely on one of the two great powers and use them to kill each other to make profits. It is impossible to achieve this goal with its own weak strength.

Precisely because of the preliminary understanding of this situation, the bishop quickly came to his own conclusion after hearing Charles' hint.

"I'm afraid they do have this plan." Charles first admitted, and then immediately found a way out for himself, not saying it for sure, "Of course, this is what I have concluded based on what I have seen. I still want to emphasize again that I have no direct evidence to prove that they must do this."

"That is to say, at least we need to observe now..." The bishop breathed a sigh of relief, but his brows were still furrowed. "If that's the case, it's terrible."

"It's terrible indeed..." Charles sighed softly, "But judging by their actions, they might think so."

"Then why should France fight for them?" The bishop was a little confused. "Think about it, the Austrians are a Catholic country, and so are we. Why should our two countries go to war with each other? Just to make the Sardinians happy?"

"Maybe the Sardinians want to tie their own interests to the interests of the Bonaparte family." Charles explained calmly, "Let me tell you another secret, Sardinia His Majesty King Emmanuel II of Ding wants to marry the Bonaparte family and marry his daughter to a prince of the royal family - perhaps they think this is a great way to please the Bonaparte family. I personally believe that His Majesty will be very happy. "

"Your Majesty will be happy to please him in this way. Everyone knows that the Bonaparte family likes this the most." The bishop sniffed, hinting that the Bonaparte family likes to associate with the European royal family, "But... I remember that the daughter of His Majesty the King is only ten years old this year?"

"Yes, she is only ten years old this year, so the marriage will certainly not happen immediately." Xia Er told the other party the secret without hesitation, "But, in a few years, when Her Royal Highness is sixteen or seventeen years old, won't it be possible?"

"An ancient royal family actually wants to please Bonaparte to this extent!" The bishop couldn't help but curl his lips, obviously disdainful of King Emmanuel II's behavior, but this disdain soon turned into worry, "But, since he is willing to do this, then... then it means that the Sardinians may really want to use France as a gun. However, a marriage... a marriage may not necessarily completely please your majesty, right?"

"One A marriage may not be enough, but the Sardinians have many ways to please His Majesty, such as the honor of the defender and liberator of Italians, and respectful worship. "Charles commented without any emotion, "After all, His Majesty was a Carbonari back then, and he still has some feelings for Italy."

"But he is the emperor of France now, not an Italian Carbonari! Does an emperor still want to make a revolution in Europe? Isn't this absurd?" The bishop couldn't help but refute, "Besides, what good will it do him to unify Italy? What good will it do for France?"

Charles shrugged.

"So this is the problem."

The bishop now fully understood what Charles meant. He suddenly realized that behind the scenes, there was enough evidence that the Sardinians did have a plan to gradually implement, wanting to please the French emperor, and then use France's power to fight their enemies, and finally realize the plan of completely unifying Italy.

Although he was not completely sure, he intuitively believed that this should be true, because the actions of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Cavour's own words and deeds gave him this hunch.

The original text is available at Six # 9 @Books/Bar!

And this is exactly what he hates.

He doesn't like to see the two remaining Catholic powers in Europe killing each other, and he doesn't like the territory of the Holy See being threatened by the Sardinians.

"Your Excellency, please stop the evil conspiracy of the Sardinians!" After thinking for a long time, he suddenly looked up at Charles, "We must not watch France get involved in such a conspiracy. It is absolutely absurd to sacrifice the blood of young people for the absurd ideas of the Sardinians!"

"I personally don't want to see such a premonition come true." Charles also immediately expressed his position to the other party, "But, you know, we have no way of guessing what His Majesty thinks, maybe he doesn't think so."

"But you have a lot of say in front of him, don't you?" The bishop was a little anxious, "You must tell him the terrible consequences of doing so... After all..."

At this point, he was suddenly speechless, because he found that Charles was looking at him with a smile on his face, as if he was mocking something.

That's right. With the Emperor's character, how could a minister insist on his own opinion in front of him? If the Emperor insisted, then he could only obey silently.

Various thoughts came to him one after another. After thinking about it, he felt a little uncomfortable.

Finally, he made up his mind. No matter what, at least the good news was communicated between the French Church and the Vatican, so that everyone could be prepared.

"Sir, can I convey your message to others?" He whispered to Charles, "Of course, I will never reveal the source of the news."

"Of course you can... In fact, I told you this specifically to let some people who should know about this know it earlier, so that I can calm my guilt and face the innocent souls who died under Philip's gun." Charles casually found a reason for his leak, "But you don't have to be too anxious. After all, this is just the beginning, and the conspiracy has not reached a critical moment. We can wait and see. After all, it's better to make plans early."

"Yes... yes." The bishop was a little relieved, "Thank you, Mr. Minister. Your piety to God is enough to move everyone, and His Holiness the Pope will also pray for you."

"God will not forgive those who disobey Him." Charlotte, who had been silent all the time, finally spoke. "No one can." (~^~)