At this point, the other countries in Europe could not understand what Franz was doing. The Austrian Empire seemed always to be fighting, then stopping, then fighting again. It did not accord with the laws of war, but they had long since grown used to it.
What shocked them was the efficiency of the Austrian Empire's offensive. The Austrian army had needed only an extremely short time to complete the encirclement and annihilation of the Spanish Republican Army's main force.
It had been so fast that Britain and France had not even had time to adjust their strategy. The French Army's vanguard claimed to number fifty thousand men, but in reality there were only a little over thirty thousand; even adding in the second batch of troops joining the war, there were only a little over fifty thousand.
A force of more than fifty thousand could be counted as a strong army on the European continent, but before the Austrian Empire, it truly was not enough to look at.
Why had the French looked down on Austria so much? This was not actually French arrogance, but selfish calculations. After all, France's economic situation at this time was poor, and they were not the Austrian Empire's only enemy.
Using the smallest price to obtain the greatest benefit was simply human nature.
In the eyes of the French, no matter how useless Spain and Britain were, they ought to have been able to circle around Austria for a while. France only needed to put on a show and apply pressure, drawing away part of the Austrians' forces.
If it came to truly risking their lives against the Austrian Empire, the Republicans in France at this time still somewhat lacked confidence. The reason for that lack of confidence was that their organization was