The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1945 Misconceptions
The vast majority of the remaining Prussian troops chose to surrender. Crown Prince Frederick William was captured and permanently deaf. Prince Frederick Karl, commander of the Prussian First Army, was killed in action.

The commander of the Elbe Army Corps, Karl-Helvet von Bittenfeld, went missing. Of the 93 generals who participated in the battle, 27 were killed, 19 went missing, and 47 were captured.

Of the 33.6 Prussian troops that participated in the war, 4.3 were killed in action, 14.2 were captured, and another 15.1 went missing.

Although the prince died a gruesome death, at least his body could be found, unlike General Karl Helwater von Bittenfeld whose body could not be found at all.

However, Franz was not aware of these specific figures at the time. He only knew that, according to telegrams sent back from the front, the Prussian army was in a very stable mood and the front-line troops were cleaning up the battlefield and doing the final cleanup work.

The number of 300,000 rockets is indeed astonishing, but what is even more unbelievable is that no one knew beforehand that Knigretz had hidden so many rockets.

This is, of course, for the sake of secrecy; after all, the fewer people who know about such secrets, the better.

Of course, some clever people might think of the most terrifying question: Did Franz know all along that this would be the location of the decisive battle?

This inevitably leads to speculation.
In fact, Franz came from a later era, so he was quite familiar with the key points of the Austro-Prussian War.

However, he could not be certain that history would repeat itself. After repeated analysis by the Austrian Imperial General Staff, the generals of the empire felt that Kniegretz was probably the key to victory or defeat.

Franz then simply began building up his warehouse, which would be convenient to transfer and access at any time, even if it didn't happen in Knigretz.

Of course, in addition to these 500,000 rockets, Franz had other backup plans, but they were never used.

The saturation attack of 300,000 rockets was something that armies of that era could not withstand. Even the Austrian Empire would have needed several years to produce that many rockets. Fortunately, those years of effort were not in vain.

In fact, after the Austrian Empire used rockets in large-scale warfare, other countries followed suit and formulated certain defense plans.

However, apart from the Austrian Empire, other countries had an annual production capacity of only around 5,000 units. Even if the Austrian Empire doubled its production capacity, it would only produce a maximum of 10,000 units per year.

In addition, the Austrian Empire's police force suffered heavy losses, and even sold their rockets to the public. Therefore, the Prussian army believed that the Austrian Empire's rocket inventory was around 20,000 to 30,000, and at most should not exceed 50,000.

It is clear that the Prussians made a wrong judgment based on incorrect intelligence. The industrial production capacity and scale of the Austrian Empire were unimaginable to people at that time.

一支轻型火箭的大致价格0.2英镑=2弗罗林，实战使用最多的是12磅中型火箭大致价格在0.3-0.5英镑之间，理论的最优解是24磅火箭价格1英镑左右，其他32磅、64磅以此类推。

The Austrian Empire's rockets not only completely outperformed those of other countries at the time, but also cost only 70% of what other countries would pay.

However, due to frequent wars in recent years, the price of related materials has almost doubled, so the cost has also doubled.

Franz's method of warfare was actually quite extravagant in the eyes of other countries, since people were considered the cheapest tool according to past conventional thinking.

At this time, apart from Britain, even the United States and France, which pride themselves on democracy and freedom, had a very high tolerance for casualties.

If the same casualties had occurred in later generations, the United States would probably have collapsed long ago.

Franz's approach of sacrificing weapons to reduce personnel losses was seen by outsiders as rather merciless.

The existence of the cost-of-war theory has given rise to many extreme military theorists who believe that soldiers should conserve ammunition as much as possible and use appropriate methods of killing the enemy at the right time, such as bayonets and rifle butts.

Because of this theory, even though the Austrian Empire's lever-action rifles repeatedly proved their worth on the battlefield, many military experts still felt that rate of fire was not important, and that accuracy and penetration were what mattered.

The fact that some obviously unwise statements are repeatedly argued by a group of intelligent people must be due to immense uncontrollable forces behind this, such as weapons manufacturers with complete technology and production lines.

Furthermore, at this time, the Prussians' theories on warfare were lagging behind those of the Austrian Empire, and they had serious misconceptions about firepower.

Infantry was indeed the main force in the final victory, but the firepower of the rifles in the hands of the infantry was completely inferior to that of artillery and rockets.

Many Prussian military strategists believed that the decisive battle between Prussia and Austria would be a contest between breech-loading rifles and lever-action rifles.

Over the years, Prussia has invested heavily in the military, significantly increasing the number of artillery pieces and rockets, and making considerable technological progress.

Compared to the same period in history, this was a world of difference; however, this level of improvement was insignificant compared to the Austrian Empire.

Franz could only say that times have changed.

The Prussians considered long-range firepower to be between 800 and 1500 meters, but at that time, Austria's long-range firepower coverage was two to three times that of the Prussian army.

With aerial guidance, the hit rate was even higher than that of the Prussian army.

So when the Austrian army had already locked onto their targets, they were still marching; so when the Austrian army began its fire coverage, their formation had not yet been deployed.

Such a huge gap was unimaginable to them beforehand, and no matter how many times they started over, they could not escape their fate.

Moreover, even if they manage to get through this hurdle, there are countless more to come. Perhaps it would be a form of mercy to fail and die a quick death right from the start.

However, Franz himself was not so satisfied with the current outcome. Unlike the Austrian imperial leaders who were celebrating and frantically belittling Prussia, Franz did not want to kill too many people.

The casualties among both the Prussian high command and the soldiers far exceeded Franz's expectations. He had assumed the Prussian army would collapse quickly and surrender. He had thought the officers and nobles would remain in the background and watch.
However, everything happened too fast, and the Austrian army had no intention of holding back. Despite what they did afterward, they didn't consider the consequences at all when they acted.

Princess Maria Amelia couldn't wait to break Franz's solitude; she needed his help to unbutton the buttons on her back.

It must be said that this wandering princess is quite shrewd and willing to spend a lot of money. Of course, Olga is well aware of all this, and she is happy to see it happen.

Olga even specially invited Maria Amelia to Schönbrunn Palace and treated her as a close confidante. Her only regret was that she had no unmarried sisters and had to give herself to an outsider.

From Olga's perspective, however, Franz and Nicholas I seemed to be closer than family, so she probably didn't need to worry too much.

However, with the Austrian Empire on the verge of war and Nicholas I making no move, Olga couldn't help but feel somewhat saddened.

Many people told her that a war between Austria and Russia was inevitable, and that the stronger the two countries were, the more brutal the future war would be.

Some even say that the Austrian Empire didn't need so many soldiers to deal with the German states, and that the reason for conscripting so many soldiers was to guard against the Russians. The transfer of the highly decorated General Heinau from the front lines was also to counter Russia. Although many people in Austria didn't have a good opinion of Heinau, Olga, a Russian, found his actions acceptable.

Hainau's own personality issues, coupled with the slander from domestic and foreign opponents, meant that even a public denial by the Austrian Imperial government could not clear his name.

Or perhaps Hainau never intended to wash himself clean; if he could, he would much rather wash away his identity as a Jewish illegitimate child.

For some, slander is fatal, plunging them into endless internal strife; but for others, slander is the greatest praise, and they even feel happier the more they are slandered.

Hai Nao belongs to the latter category; he enjoys the feeling that others dislike him but can't do anything about it.

On the other hand, the defenders of Dresden did not, as the Prussian General Staff had predicted, unaware of the situation, hold the city and fight the Austrian army to the bitter end.

The decoy force offered no symbolic resistance; they surrendered the moment the Austrian flag came into view, and even captured officers who refused to surrender.

In fact, when Moltke chose this decoy force, he wanted a group of people who could be sacrificed, but in the minds of the Prussian high command, it was interpreted as people who should be eliminated.

So who should be eliminated?

So the Prussian high command stuffed Jews, Gypsies, Poles, Catholics, radical workers, and proletarians into this decoy force.

What would be the attitude of this group towards the Austrian Empire?
For Catholics, Austria, the patron of Catholicism, needs no further explanation; for radical workers and proletarians, a country willing to provide them with labor protections is certainly not a bad thing.

For the Poles, it was a rather divisive situation; some admired him immensely, while others hated him vehemently. But comparisons are inevitable, and compared to Prussia and Russia, His Majesty Franz Joseph I was so kind and approachable.

In the eyes of the Roma people, Austria at this time was their ideal country. In fact, most Roma people would call Austria "Lemno," meaning a safe place, not a place to be expelled.

Located within Transylvania is Cerge, the only Roma city in the world at that time, which means "great camp," though locals prefer to call it "the city of ten thousand carts."

Because initially, the city really had tens of thousands of caravans, and even today there are still tens of thousands of caravans in and around the city. After all, the presence of these caravans gives the Roma people peace of mind.

In fact, because Roma people from all over the world speak different languages ​​and accents, they have to use Austrian as their common language to communicate.

Forget about Rom, that language has hundreds of variations, with completely different pronunciations every ten miles and different tones every hundred miles. The differences are so great that communication is impossible, and coupled with the lack of a written language, even Rom scholars don't recommend using it.

Many Roma have already settled in the Austrian Empire, which most Roma find incredible, but they have also heard that it is a place that is enchanting.

Of course, the Austrian Empire also had professions that could drive Roma crazy – tour guides and itinerant merchants.

As for the Jews, despite Franz leading the crackdown on them many times and even sending large numbers of them out of Europe, it's clear that...

However, the Jewish community did not harbor much hatred towards Franz and the Austrian Empire; rather, they felt awe and reverence.

However, compared to the inhumanity of Prussia, Franz, the just tyrant, was clearly a better choice.

The real Germans at the bottom of society also did not want to go to war with the Austrian Empire. Those high-sounding reasons could not sway them at all. Their own reason was very simple - they did not want to die.

As a result, the Austrian vanguard, which had set up a feint attack, had to accept far more prisoners than they had.

When Albrecht and his main force rushed back, they found the ground charred black, and a group of Irishmen wearing armbands were pushing wheelbarrows to take them to a makeshift grave.

When the officers and soldiers learned what the charred, foul-smelling substance was, they couldn't help but gag, and even their joy of victory was somewhat dampened.

It's not that they're unsophisticated or overly pretentious.

The scene before them was far too cruel, completely different from the glorious victory they had envisioned. Such a victory was far too heavy a burden for them.
However, for the soldiers under Hai Nao who often handled dirty work, although they would still feel nauseous and vomit instinctively, they would not become addicted to it.

On the other hand, everyone was also relieved that they were not His Majesty the Emperor's enemies.

The two-front war was a resounding victory, with the Prussian army's main force almost completely wiped out in one battle. Such achievements are something to be proud of.

Even Napoleon back then wouldn't have dared to say that he could destroy Prussia within three days. The biggest question within the Austrian Empire was whether the Kingdom of Prussia could survive for even a week.

In fact, most people felt that the war was over, and even Franz felt that it was time to deal with the aftermath of the war in the Netherlands and Denmark.

However, several urgent telegrams soon arrived on Franz's desk, announcing the death of Louis Philippe, Duke of Alsace-Lorraine, at the age of 86.

The Kingdom of Hanover has sent troops to support Prussia, and the army has now entered Prussian territory. King George V of Hanover has declared his support for the legitimate demands of the Second French Empire for Alsace-Lorraine.

Napoleon III declared war on the House of Orléans and launched an attack on Alsace-Lorraine to reclaim lost territory.

Despite the recent declaration of war, French troops had already amassed on the border. By the time Vienna learned of the conflict, the war had already begun.
Furthermore, the Duke of Omar in Algeria does not recognize the Count of Paris's right of succession.
This count of Paris was intelligent, but he loved British culture and admired the freedom and equality of America. Naturally, he deeply loathed the autocracy and corruption of the Austrian Empire.

Furthermore, in this life, he did not live a life of dependence on others, nor was he repeatedly battered in partisan struggles.

Instead, Louis-Philippe channeled all his guilt toward his eldest son onto this child, and the old man was willing to be seen as a clown by all of Europe in order to protect him.

The Count of Paris's mother also spoiled him too much. Although the Duchy of Alsace-Lorraine was not large, it was rich in resources.

Coupled with its geographically and culturally advantageous location for smuggling, the Count of Paris's life in the Duchy of Alsace-Lorraine could only be described as one of luxury, even better than his life in Paris.

That's why he could spend money like water in London and why his salons were always packed with guests.

However, the fact that two of the Count of Paris's closest and most important people passed away within a year speaks volumes about the blow it dealt him.

At this time, he trusted his British friends the most, and these people naturally warned him to be wary of Austria.

Louis-Philippe had lost his ability to take charge as he lay dying, and the Count of Paris, as his heir, resolutely rejected Franz's proposal, not wanting to have too much entanglement with him.

Therefore, at this time, the Duchy of Alsace-Lorraine had to face the overwhelming French army alone, but all parties fell into a misconception: they all thought the war between Prussia and Austria would last a long time.