Britain and France treated talk of martial law and the like as a joke, and scoffed even more at Jacob Biyuen's pleas for mercy.
Taking on the entire German Confederation on land—unless they could bring Russia in to help—was simply courting death.
The Danes saw this as Denmark's internal affair, but did the German not see it as an internal affair of the German Confederation as well?
Intervening now could only lead to death.
Russia had not actually received the news yet, and given Russia's own position, the possibility of its involvement was not small.
Yet Tsar Nicholas I's greatest problem at present was how to persuade his ministers and nobles to move the capital to Constantinople.
The glory and dream of the House of Romanov could not move these Russian ministers and nobles in the slightest.
Nicholas I held several votes, yet failed to secure their agreement to relocate the capital, only leaving himself in an awkward position.
Nicholas I had thought that using a democratic approach would reduce some resistance and make it easier to shift the blame onto others.
Yet those fools who could not see the bigger picture refused to play along at all, leaving Nicholas I stranded on the rack he had built for himself.
If he forcibly relocated the capital now, it would look as though he had flown into a rage out of humiliation. But if he did not employ strong-arm measures, the relocation might remain a distant prospect forever.
Meanwhile, Denmark's border was already crowded with vast numbers of nationalists and volunteer forces from across the German States.
Yes—besides students, workers, farmers, merchants, and scholars, there were also great numbers of fully armed soldiers.
Quite a few of these soldiers were active-duty troops from the various states, alongside large numbers of mercenaries