The human heart was complicated. On the surface, President Juárez had suppressed all opposing factions, but beneath it, the situation in Mexico City churned with stormy waves.
After the shooting, the blockade around the Austrian Embassy was lifted as well. At first, supplies had been barred from entering; now, the Mexican Government was taking the initiative to deliver supplies to its door.
There was no helping it—President Juárez was truly afraid. The Austrian soldiers had merely come out for a stroll and caused so much trouble. If they were allowed to wander around every day, who knew how many more problems would arise?
If a few more people died, then even if the shooting had nothing to do with them, the Republican Government would not escape the consequences. Juárez had already learned firsthand just how overbearing the great powers could be.
Ten years earlier, when the Mexican Government's finances stood on the verge of bankruptcy, Juárez had announced a two-year suspension of foreign debt payments, intending to bargain with the creditors.
The result was naturally a brutal beating from society. The Mexican Republican Government became a government in exile, and only ten years later did he return to Mexico City.
How many decades did a person have in a lifetime? Without those lost ten years, perhaps Juárez's social reforms would already have succeeded.
Only after losing something did one learn to cherish it. Only after experiencing it firsthand did one understand fear.
Now, aside from a few hot-blooded youths in the Republican Government, there was no one who did not fear the great powers. Juárez might refuse to acknowledge the debts left behind by Maximilian I, but in reality, was he not still obediently paying them back?
To placate the radicals, he had kept claiming that "once the situation stabilizes,