The ineffectual, futile counterattack continued. Even onlookers could feel the exhausted air of defeat hanging over it.
It was not that they had failed to try. By now, factory owners across the entire German Confederation had exhausted every trick in the book. But when even nations could not handle such a formidable enemy, what could scattered merchants like them possibly do?
Only now did the politicians who had wanted to make the businessmen take the blame realize that they seemed to have fallen for The British's trap. Those stories appeared to have been nothing more than deception.
Wisdom did not seem to belong to them. Nor could an individual easily defeat a collective.
The once-lively salon now held only suffocating silence. Worse still, the Austrian Empire's mountain-toppling, sea-overturning offensive made every one of their counterattacks seem as laughable as an ant trying to shake a tree.
Their so-called responses resembled pity more than debate. No one could laugh anymore.
The Austrian Empire seemed determined to make an enemy of the entire Confederation's industry and commerce, yet they were powerless to stop it.
Many felt that the cause was hopeless and simply chose to give up. Anyone who had climbed to their current position naturally possessed their own philosophy of survival.
Even with irresistible forces behind them, they would choose the direction with less resistance.
No one wanted higher costs, but few were willing to gamble their entire fortune.
No matter how fiercely they loathed losses, they could not overcome their fear of death because of it.
"Who else can we count on? Keep bringing in experts from Britain?"
"Don't joke! I can already recite three and a half of the lines those British spout! It does nothing to those labor-protection types. In the end, we can only flee back to