The French strategy of advancing on five fronts soon appeared on the table in the underground command room at Weissenstein Castle.
"Have the French gone mad?"
Albrecht asked in astonishment.
"It's an extremely reckless strategy, but also a very bold one, wouldn't you say?"
Archduke Charles spoke up. He felt that his eldest son overthought things and sometimes lacked a certain straightforwardness.
"Yes, Father."
"Albrecht, we're soldiers. All I need to know is the enemy's strength, deployment, and strategy. Then I can make the most reasonable decision."
"Mm."
Albrecht was already thirty-one and had commanded armies on his own many times. He had even led tens of thousands of men in large-scale battles.
Even so, facing his father's lecture, he was somewhat unwilling to accept it.
But the French advancing on five fronts had truly taken Franz by surprise.
In his view, the French Second Republic was already beset by troubles, so it ought to play things safe. At most, it should put some pressure on the German Confederation and Austria inside Belgium.
The fighting between the two sides would be confined to Belgium, leaving the British and Ottomans to bleed each other dry. That would have been the approach most in France's interests.
Even if France intended to stake everything on one throw, it should concentrate its forces and strike a single point: either Belgium or Alsace-Lorraine.
Belgium was the flashpoint. After Louis Philippe transferred Belgium's protection to the German Confederation, France had lost both the bride and the dowry.
It had not only lost Belgium, its colony on the European mainland, but had also become the aggressor.
Still, aggressors would not face much condemnation at this point. If they won on the battlefield, they would still be praised as victors.
But Franz would not let the Anglo-Saxons seize