Berlin, Kranzler Café.
Bismarck kept staring at the pocket watch in his hand when Werner von Siemens beside him reminded him in a low voice.
"Keeping Prince Albrecht waiting like this is somewhat discourteous."
"Lieutenant, you should know as well that Prussia has little time left. Our enemies are growing stronger by the minute, our potential allies are steadily turning into enemies, and divisions have even emerged within our own ranks.
"If this continues, Prussia truly will have no chance left."
"Does it have a chance now?"
The speaker was Albrecht von Roon. He had served in the Prussian General Staff Survey Bureau and in logistics, successively held the posts of battalion commander, regimental commander, brigade commander, and division commander, followed Archduke Albrecht to brilliant victories during the Luxembourg Crisis, and had even served as an instructor at a military academy.
It was precisely this rich résumé that would later make Albrecht von Roon an outstanding War Minister, yet it was also why he felt even more despair at this moment.
The Austrian army's firepower and tactical proficiency in particular made the arrogant Prussian soldiers seem utterly inadequate by comparison. He recalled that night, when more than a hundred thousand German Allied Forces had been chased into dropping helmets and casting aside armor by ten thousand Frenchmen—and he himself had become a French prisoner.
Had Archduke Albrecht not absolved them of blame for their defeat and kept the list of captives from being made public, his career as a professional soldier would likely have ended long ago.
Prussia's vaunted mobilization capacity was also a joke before the Austrians' absolute numbers.
The forces Prussia could muster through nationwide mobilization were probably only about equal to the Austrian Empire's standing army. If the Austrians did not reduce their forces, then Prussia truly