My Italy

Chapter 507 Mount Vesuvius

The Royal Palace, located in the center of Rome, is the center of Italian power. Many decisions that affect Italy and the world have been released or shaped by this.

As the helm of Italy, Carlo has a lot to do every day.

“Preliminary Results of Army Division-Level Pilot Reforms.”

Carlo picked up a document, looked at the title on the cover and read it out.

Carlo actually didn't understand much about the army's military reform that Simone and Darkiang had instigated. Although the three-three system was famous in later generations, the withdrawal of brigades and reorganization of regiments was also a historical trend. But apart from some basic knowledge, Carlo had no in-depth understanding at all.

The army is most taboo about laymen guiding experts, so what ability does Carlo, a military layman, have to guide the army's reform. Is it really like a mindless novel, where the protagonist casually talks about the benefits of the three-three system, and then the military feels like it has found a treasure, and then carries out reforms like crazy? How can it be such a good thing? Even if it is a correct idea, if it is not at the right time, it may also cause the failure of a reform.

Therefore, as long as it involves reform, it must be done with caution and full consideration.

The same is true for the reforms carried out by the Army. Conduct a pilot reform on one unit to see if the results are suitable, and then decide whether to carry out major reforms across the board.

As for handing the report to Carlo, this is very simple. On the one hand, it is to show loyalty to His Majesty. Every action taken by the Army is reported to His Majesty.

The second one is also preparing for a rainy day. The reason is simple. Any military reform requires sufficient funds. Although the Army has increased its funding at present, it is not known whether military reforms will be sufficient in the future. If we do not make some preparations in advance, we will be blind when we get to that point in the future.

Although Carlo may not always be able to see through the Army's little thoughts, he understands them to some extent.

For Carlo, as long as the Army's combat effectiveness can be improved, it is not impossible to relax on the funding issue. Of course, all this must be under his control.

The report submitted by the Army looks good. The 6th Infantry Division, which is undergoing pilot reforms, has reduced its total strength by 27% after some downsizing, but its combat effectiveness has only dropped by about 10%. Of course, the next step is to make changes to the technical arms of the pilot 6th Infantry Division. After all, the Sixth Division currently has 72 barreled artillery pieces. For the Italian Army, it feels a bit too much and some changes may be needed.

One more thing to say here is that the Sixth Infantry Division was selected as the pilot, which is a big surprise. Because of the effect of the experiment, the Sixth Infantry Division is currently the only fully-equipped unit of the Italian Army. With more than 14,000 men, it ranks first in the army, and even the division-level troops of the Guards are not as large as it.

"very nice!"

Carlo looked at the contents of the report and gave a rare compliment.

The Army's changes seem to be very effective, which is why Carlo praised them.

Just when Carlo was about to pick up the next document, he saw his captain of the bodyguard trotting over in a hurry.

"Your Majesty, Mount Vesuvius erupted and covered Naples with volcanic ash."

The words of the captain of the guard, McClun, made Carlo's face tighten. This volcano is 11 kilometers southeast of Naples, so don't erupt too big.

It needs to be explained here that Mount Vesuvius is also famous in history. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius during the Roman era buried the cities of Pompeii and Stabii in volcanic ash and volcanic debris, and the city of Herculaneum was also buried by mudflows.

And the volcano is also very active. From 1660 to 1872 alone, the volcano erupted 17 times, which was extremely active. This sudden eruption also announced to the world that the active period of the volcano is not over yet.

As for Carlo, he snatched the telegram from the captain of the guard and immediately read it at a glance. The telegram was sent by Clive Joglio, a senior official in the Province of Campania, saying that Mount Vesuvius in Italy, which had been sleeping this morning, suddenly erupted, and the ash from the eruption could also be felt in Naples.

In view of the current emergency situation, he has ordered people within 10 kilometers around Mount Vesuvius to evacuate immediately. In addition, the Naples power plant has caused power failure due to volcanic ash, and many factories have also shut down. Now he has ordered the police to maintain local security and organized a rescue team to rescue people around the volcano.

Now he hopes that Rome will provide support, whether it is material or human support, he wants this senior official of Jolio.

After reading the telegram, Carlo immediately gave orders to the captain of the guard. "Immediately notify the government and the military of the request from senior official Jolio and ask them to immediately send manpower and material resources to support the Naples area."

"As you command, Your Majesty."

After receiving Carlo's order, the captain of the guard hurriedly notified the prime minister and the military.

After waiting for the captain of the guard to leave, Carlo banged the table hard to vent his inner dissatisfaction. This volcanic eruption came at a really bad time, and it was still in Naples.

Rome's investment in Naples over the years has not been small at all. The continuous investment of funds and technology in petrochemicals, machinery manufacturing, textile dyes and other industries has made Naples, the largest city in the south, no worse than the three cities in the north. And to put it bluntly, in terms of the level of support received by various cities in Rome over the years, Naples ranks second and no one dares to rank first.

That's why Carlo was so dissatisfied after hearing that Mount Vesuvius erupted again. But it is useless to be dissatisfied now. We can only hope that this volcanic eruption will not be too big, otherwise Rome will come to clean up the mess again.

Speaking of which, the location of the city in Naples is not good. There is an active volcano next to it, which is too dangerous. But who made the soil covered with volcanic ash around Mount Vesuvius too fertile, so Italians risked their lives to farm here. Therefore, the towns destroyed by each eruption of Mount Vesuvius will soon be filled by brave people.

That's right, Carlo, as the king, has nothing to do about this situation.

As the government and the military, they would not have received the news of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius much later than Carlo, so by the time Carlo's order was conveyed, both sides had already begun preparations.

On the government side, Prime Minister Antonio sent Interior Secretary Cruz as a government representative to immediately go to Naples to direct and coordinate disaster relief operations.

On the military side, the navy and army also transferred a large number of tents, cooking utensils, water filters and other relief materials from warehouses and headed towards the disaster area. In addition, the navy and army deployed engineering troops to march towards Naples.

Before the arrival of support from Rome, senior officials of Giorgio organized personnel to carry out rescue operations. They first evacuated the elderly and weak people from areas close to the volcano, and then placed them in various churches, schools and other places in the northern suburbs of Naples away from the volcano. During this period, various political parties and enthusiasts also formed rescue teams to assist with rescue and logistics work.

It needs to be explained here that the danger of volcanic eruptions is not just the slow lava, but the hot volcanic ash that is actually more deadly. The volcanic ash from these eruptions is extremely hot and can easily cause burns if inhaled into the lungs.

Four years ago, Mount Pelée in the Caribbean erupted. The hot volcanic ash almost wiped out the neighboring city of Saint-Pierre. Except for three lucky people, more than 30,000 people in the city died in just five minutes. Such is the power of volcanic ash. Of course, the energy of the eruption of Mount Pelé was dozens of times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb, so it caused a huge disaster.

After Cruz arrived the next day, the Interior Secretary, who brought a large amount of relief supplies, immediately carried out disaster relief work. First of all, in order to avoid possible riots, the Interior Secretary tightened supervision on Naples. In addition, he was still the same person who was involved in disaster relief. This measure, after all, has used everything that can be used, but it is a little larger in scale.

After everyone's efforts, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius subsided three days later. It seems that the scale of this eruption is not too large.

According to scientists' statistics, Mount Vesuvius erupted with only 0.13 cubic kilometers of energy, which directly caused damage to the surrounding area of ​​20,000 square kilometers.

As for casualties, hundreds of people in the town of Ottaviano failed to escape, and some roofs collapsed due to the gravity of the volcanic ash, which also caused some casualties. However, according to government statistics, the total number of casualties was 739, of which 54 were injured.

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