March 28, 1858.

Under the covert instructions of Jerome Bonaparte, Emperor of the French Empire, The Observer published an article titled "In-depth Analysis of the Regicide Orsini’s Assassination Motives."

The article first elaborated on Orsini’s background and the reasons for the assassination, then extended to the background of the Italian Carbonari and their development history (which mainly focused on the dark history of the Carbonari, as any organization once it grows large, will inevitably have dark history). It concluded the Italian Carbonari as an extreme force inclined towards killing, crime, and violence.

Upon publication, the article immediately attracted "siege" from the Republican forces and "support" from the Church Faction and Royalist Faction.

For the Republicans, Orsini’s action did lack some consideration, but that didn’t mean the entire force of the Carbonari should be criticized.

To put it inappropriately, today The Observer can criticize the Italian Carbonari as an "extreme force of killing, crime, and violence," but will they also place them in the "extreme forces" category tomorrow?

For the Royalist Faction and Church Faction, The Observer’s article was perfectly suited to their taste.

Originally, they handed power "over" to Jerome Bonaparte with the hope that he could maintain social order and serve incidentally as the guardian of the revolution.

Unfortunately, once the Emperor established the Empire, he increasingly moved away from maintaining order, instead heading towards disrupting the established order, and the Empire’s "revolutionary nature" grew stronger. The Crimean War was undoubtedly the most typical example.

Fortunately, this war didn’t cause the entire European order to collapse, and France replaced the Russian Empire’s niche to become one pole of Europe.

However, the Royalist Faction and Church Faction couldn’t endure a second Crimean War between France and other European countries.

Thus, in the eyes of the Royalist Faction and Church Faction, The Observer’s article denouncing the revolution was the Emperor’s silent commitment.

(In fact, the Royalist Faction and Church Faction were being overly sentimental; Jerome Bonaparte’s purpose in publishing this article was not for them at all.)

Both forces engaged in several exchanges on the newspaper before the news agency of the secretariat personally stepped in to broker peace.

Jerome Bonaparte also took this opportunity to thoroughly understand Paris residents’ attitude towards the Italian Carbonari.

Overall, Paris residents were not concerned about the issue of the Italian Carbonari.

This allowed Jerome Bonaparte to set aside his final concerns.

Thus, Jerome Bonaparte issued a stern order to De Luyis, instructing him to convey France’s demands to the Kingdom of Sardinia with the most severe diplomatic terms.

These included shutting down the extremist publications of the Kingdom of Sardinia and eliminating domestic extremist forces.

Receiving the order, De Luyis had no choice but to summon Delaroca Envoy again.

Under Delaroca’s puzzled expression, De Luyis smiled while asking Envoy Delaroca, "Your Excellency, has your Kingdom of Sardinia not yet reached an agreement?"

While silently cursing Prime Minister Cavour far away in the Kingdom of Sardinia, Delaroca awkwardly replied to De Luyis, "Minister Luyis, there’s still some time until the half-month deadline!

Could you wait a bit longer?"

It wasn’t entirely Delaroca Envoy’s fault for requesting more time because only a few days had passed since De Luyis’s last meeting with Delaroca.

A few days were simply not enough for the Sardinia Parliament to make a simple decision.

And the Prime Minister Cavour, who Delaroca was cursing, was not idle; he had been working through a covert line known only to him and Victor Emmanuel II to salvage France’s view of the Kingdom of Sardinia.

However, Cavour did not know that Jerome Bonaparte was determined to punish Sardinia, nor did he know that the covert line Vilnius had already been subverted by Jerome Bonaparte.

This led to Cavour not receiving accurate intelligence from Paris and being unable to reply to Delaroca.

Meanwhile, Envoy Delaroca was clueless due to the lack of new instructions from Sardinia.

De Luyis, continuing to smile after hearing all this, said to Envoy Delaroca, "Since you haven’t yet come up with a strategy, may I suggest something?"

"By all means!" Envoy Delaroca replied humbly to De Luyis.

De Luyis conveyed Jerome Bonaparte’s conditions to Envoy Delaroca, "We hope the Kingdom of Sardinia can, with international forces’ assistance, urgently shut down domestic publications with extremist ideologies!

And also eliminate existing extremist forces domestically!"

Ambassador Delaroca’s face changed dramatically after hearing Ambassador Luis’ "suggestion"!

Although Luis’ suggestion seemed to be for the benefit of Sardinia, upon closer examination, it was tearing apart the entire Sardinian Kingdom.

Sardinia was like an ugly girl (referring to the monarchy) who, through careful dressing (nominal constitutional monarchy, but in reality still an absolute monarchy), attracted the admiration of some "gentlemen" (liberals, nationalists).

But Luis wanted them to remove their disguise (abandon liberalism, return to autocracy), reverting to their previous ugly state.

If Sardinia truly followed France’s demand to shut down domestic newspapers, the liberal and nationalist forces that originally aligned with the Sardinian Kingdom would almost instantly turn into its vanguard opposition.

The tacit understanding between the monarchy and them would disappear, and a Sardinian Kingdom stripped of liberalism and nationalism would be no different from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Pope State.

Luis’ actions were practically a death sentence for them.

Even though Ambassador Delaroca knew that his forthcoming words might displease Luis, he still braced himself to respond to Ambassador Luis.

"Your Excellency, please forgive me for not being able to agree to your request!"

"Ambassador Delaroca, why is that?" Luis asked, pretending not to know anything.

"Because... because..." After stammering for a long time, Ambassador Delaroca finally forced out a sentence, "because the situation in our country is rather unique..."

"Unique situation?" Luis sneered at Ambassador Delaroca, "Is your country’s situation so unique that you can’t crack down on extreme elements, or is it that..."

At this, Luis suddenly raised his voice, "Or has your country already reached an agreement with those extreme nationalists!"

"No! It’s not true!" Ambassador Delaroca denied flatly.

Indeed, the Sardinian government had secretly supported some extremists, but their support was restricted to the extremists in Lombardy, Venice, and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

Extremists like Orsini, who were obsessed with republican ideas, were absolutely outside the realm of support for Sardinia.

"Then what does your country mean?" Luis questioned Ambassador Delaroca aggressively, "If your country isn’t collaborating with extremist forces, then your country should support France in this action. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

The extremist forces within Sardinia today could attempt an assassination of our Emperor, and tomorrow they might choose to assassinate your King.

The Sardinian Kingdom should severely crack down on these extremist forces!

If the Sardinian Kingdom feels it lacks the capability, our French Empire is also willing to assist, just like we did for the Kingdom of Spain during the Pseudo-dynasty Period (referring to the Restoration of Bourbon)!"

Ambassador Delaroca naturally understood what Luis meant by "assist."

If the French Army entered the Sardinian Kingdom, the entire kingdom would likely face a catastrophic blow.

All of Europe knew that the French Empire’s army was infamous for exploitation.

Without going too far back, just look at the recent war with the Roman Republic; before defeating the Roman Republic, the French Army had already ravaged the territories of the Pope State, and after occupying the Roman Republic and welcoming the Pope, they extorted the Church in Rome heavily again.

After the Pope’s welcome, to commend the French Army for their fearless spirit in the campaign against the Roman Republic, the Pope even gave them some money.

After three rounds of looting, the Pope’s State was nearly bankrupt trying to pay the French Army.

In the face of money, these soldiers didn’t care whether you were a priest or the Pope.

Currently, the over 4,000 soldiers within the Pope State were all being maintained with the help of Pope Pius IX.

Delaroca also heard that Pope Pius IX, to afford the military expenses of these French troops, had even cut back on his Swiss Guard.

[The main reason for Pius IX’s reduction of the Swiss Guard was not due to French military expenses, but due to the Swiss Guard’s sympathy for revolutionaries during the Great Revolution, resulting in their rebellion against Pius IX, which caused Pius IX to distrust the Swiss Guard from that time onward.]

During the Crimean War following the Roman Republic, the French Army’s behavior was slightly better.

However, Ambassador Delaroca had reason to suspect that the French Army’s good behavior in the Crimea was entirely because its residents were a bunch of paupers.

If it were in their Sardinian Kingdom, the kingdom might follow in the footsteps of the Pope State.