With the traitor label hanging over it, the Kingdom of Hanover collapsed even faster than Prussia.
If even the two strongest states in North Germany had ended up like this, the other minor states could only be suffering even more miserably.
With flames of war everywhere, the Austrian Empire's advance instead became constrained at every turn.
An army passing through should have been like a swarm of locusts, something people avoided at all costs—let alone the army of an enemy nation.
Yet at this moment, the Austrian army received an unprecedented "welcome." People did not see them as troops from an enemy country at all.
In truth, the Austrian Empire's army was strictly disciplined, and the elite troops led by Archduke Albrecht had been selected with the utmost care. Their individual caliber was beyond question.
Franz's reforms over the years had not been in vain, though even more conspicuous were the Austrian army's uniforms and equipment.
Art students might be useless in other respects, but when it came to aesthetics, they absolutely crushed most leaders. Franz naturally understood how much benefit the appearance of equipment and the beauty of military uniforms could bring, so he had put enormous effort into this as well.
Unlike Prussian blue, the Austrian Empire's uniforms were generally silver-gray and pure white.
This was in fact the Austrian Empire army's traditional color scheme. White uniforms, like black ones, carried an exceptionally imposing dignity, while also representing nobility and purity.
However, during marches and battles, Austrian troops wore an outer layer of silver-gray or battlefield gray.
The main reason the Austrian Empire had abandoned those magnificent white uniforms in history was simply that they were impractical.
On a battlefield, such conspicuous uniforms were living targets for the enemy, and during marches they drew too much attention, making