Because Franz had already relocated the populace away from the potential battlefield before the war, atrocities against civilians were rare throughout the conflict.
This greatly weakened the Austrian army's desire for revenge. Coupled with the Austrian army's own strict discipline, the entire war truly resembled a fight between brothers—stopping at the right point. Rarely did it cross the bottom line of war.
At the same time, according to the optimal path of governance in modern Western political theory, the Kingdom of Prussia's governmental structure should have been retained and then placed within the Empire's framework.
Put bluntly, it was still that Anglo-American model of local self-government, and that simply did not suit the Austrian Empire.
What they saw as an act of extreme stupidity was precisely what the Austrian Empire had to do—gradually replace Prussia's original system with that of the Austrian Empire.
Naturally, this had to be carried out by someone sufficiently familiar with both the Prussian and Austrian imperial systems, someone resolute and capable of making decisions.
Vienna, Hofburg Palace.
"Mr. Bismarck, I hope you will use your intelligence and talent to build it, rather than destroy it."
Franz's words made Bismarck feel somewhat ashamed, yet he could not summon even the slightest resentment.
Ordinarily, capable and proud men like him would regard such "generosity" or "favor" as an insult.
They would see it as trampling upon a nobleman's pride. After all, Bismarck was a Junker noble who had once sworn allegiance to William I.
Such an act was undoubtedly an instigation to betray.
Yet once the matter involved Franz, everything seemed perfectly reasonable. For nothing Franz did called to mind "pity" or "humiliation."
Given Franz's status and capabilities, if he wished to humiliate someone, he had a thousand, ten thousand ways of doing so. Moreover, from a