With war about to break out again, no one in the Austrian Empire—from high-ranking officials to ordinary civilians—felt the slightest surprise.
After all, Otto I was both Franz's relative and ally. On the surface, the Holy Alliance spoke of "guiding subjects and soldiers to defend religion, peace, and justice, requiring the people to obey doctrine and fulfill their duties," but in truth, it existed to preserve monarchical rule.
Many people understood this perfectly; they simply never said it aloud. Naturally, those who did not even know that much were even less likely to probe the nature of war. Whatever the Austrian Empire government promoted was what they believed.
Then did no one oppose these unceasing wars?
Of course it was impossible that no one opposed them. But aside from the civil war, every other war had taken place abroad. People's sources of information in this era were extremely limited, and those truly at the bottom of society cared even less about what happened overseas.
So long as the war did not reach their own doorstep, most people would continue struggling to make a living.
At this point, someone was bound to think of war taxes. After all, Russia and the Ottoman Empire had both been dragged down by them. Were Austrians emotionless machines, or were their economic circumstances so good that they did not care about such a trifling sum?
In truth, the common people of the Austrian Empire barely felt the war tax at all. First, the Austrian Empire had adopted a Progressive Tax System, and the taxes paid by civilians at the bottom were practically negligible.
Second, as a transmigrator from a later age, Franz understood all too well the tricks of shifting contradictions. Merchants and capitalists could pass their contradictions on to the state because of their