Franz himself had not expected this cousin of his to be so bold as to make little moves right under the Russians' noses.
Greece, with only a little over 1.7 million people, was actually going to conscript 150,000 soldiers, and Otto I still thought he had done it very discreetly.
Franz wanted to say, "The Ottomans already know!"
However, Franz did not know at this point that this was Britain making mischief behind the scenes. He only felt that that cousin of his had suffered another flare-up of adolescent delusions.
Yet Russia was too vast; a bellyful of hot blood alone was not enough.
This was the first thing to shock Franz since the end of the Hungarian rebellion. Even in Spain, facing Britain, France, and Spain, he had handled matters with ease, and had even found time to get married.
But now Franz felt his scalp go numb. Whether the Russians attacked the Ottoman Empire or not had little effect on the Austrian Empire.
However, if Russia took the opportunity to loot the Austrian Empire while the house was on fire, then Franz would find it somewhat hard to bear, and it would completely disrupt the strategic plan Franz had drawn up long ago.
In reality, the Russians' reaction was nowhere near as swift as Franz imagined. On the contrary, it was the Ottomans who had already been frightened by this news until they were pissing themselves and rolling in filth.
The Sultan Murad V, who had just turned ten, was wearing a French-style cavalry uniform and wielding an unsharpened steel saber as he hacked at the eunuchs and palace maids in the palace.
Although the steel saber had not been sharpened, those who were struck still screamed again and again.
After Murad V had "slaughtered all four directions,"