Politics had always been a matter where one tug moved the whole body. What looked like an ordinary warning was in fact Franz shutting off the valve on expansion and suppressing the voices of the domestic pro-war faction.
Everything had two sides. The Continental War had been won too easily, the spoils obtained had been too abundant, and most importantly, the Emperor had been willing to share the benefits. As a result, "gain fame and fortune only from horseback" had become the mainstream belief in society.
Driven by profit, the Empire from top to bottom had become unprecedentedly warlike. Ordinary people wanted to turn their fortunes around through war; common soldiers and officers who had risen through military merit wanted to cross the threshold into nobility through war; and the nobles wanted to go a step further through war.
"Man dies for wealth, bird dies for food."
Nature's law of survival was displayed here in all its vividness. Tempted by profit, everyone had forgotten the risks brought by war.
It was not that no one had noticed the problem, but everyone tacitly pretended not to see it. The reason was simple: France's collapse had robbed the Vienna Government of its sense of crisis.
In everyone's eyes, with France, that old nemesis, gone, there was no one in the entire world capable of rivaling the Holy Roman Empire.
Even though the Royal Navy was still the strongest in the world and the hulking Russian Bear remained powerful, their weaknesses were simply too obvious.
Russia's industrial strength was weak, its government was poor as a church mouse, and its economic lifeline was still in the Empire's hands. It had no choice but to watch Vienna's face.
The British navy might be the strongest in the world, but only for the time being.