Chapter 1031: Unscrupulous Ideas and Footing the Bill
From the fervent atmosphere at the scene, Franz knew that this epoch-making grand military parade had been a success.
As for whether some of its more soul-shaking displays might leave certain spectators feeling mentally uncomfortable, that was none of Franz's concern.
A celebration had to be lively and bustling. Only a little over ten thousand people had taken part in the parade—less than one percent of the Holy Roman Empire's vast armed forces—which was enough to prove that Franz had already shown remarkable restraint.
If he had really wanted to make a spectacle of things, organizing tens of thousands of troops for a live-force confrontation exercise would have been even more intimidating.
But this was enough. Before modern times, large-scale wars had still been rare on the European Continent.
Many battles glorified in historical records had their achievements largely puffed up. Perhaps the ancients were not bragging; they merely wrote history using the techniques of bragging.
For example, Herodotus recorded in Histories that three hundred Greek soldiers had utterly defeated 5,283,220 Persian troops.
There was nothing wrong with the record. That was exactly what it said: three hundred men defeated more than five million.
As for how the war had been fought and how it had unfolded, it was all brushed over in a few strokes. The entire work was filled with the valor of Greek soldiers.
Three hundred Spartan warriors were clearly not enough. If they had all been replaced with Saints, an assassination strike might actually have had a chance.
Roman historians were no less impressive. In Roman History, Appian recorded: "Caesar attacked Gaul and wiped out four million Gallic soldiers."
In his own book, The Gallic War, Caesar claimed: "We defeated an army of 430,000 Gauls, while not a