With the war having reached this point, France had staked everything. Victory meant dominating continental Europe; defeat meant sinking into the second rank.
Given France's usual overbearing conduct, it had offended no small number of people. When France was strong, no one dared provoke it. But once it declined, everything would be different.
When the nest was overturned, how could any egg remain intact?
Whether it was Napoleon IV or the upper echelons of the French Government, their fates were bound to that of the nation.
At a time like this, taking one step back no longer opened onto a vast sea and sky—it led to a bottomless abyss.
Whether for themselves or for the country, they had to find a way to win this war.
Before the matter of life and death, face had become cheaper than dirt, so they might as well copy!
Since the Austrian army's equipment was more advanced, they would simply imitate it. Could the great French Empire really fail to manufacture it?
One word from the emperor, and those below ran their legs off. Starting with the cabinet government, pressure was passed down level by level.
Although Napoleon III had the reputation of being a socialist emperor, France was still a bourgeois state, and the arms enterprises were all in the hands of capitalists.
In the past, whenever there were orders, everyone rushed to compete for them, practically wearing down the threshold of the War Ministry. Yet now that the news had been out for so long, no one showed any interest.
It was not that the capitalists did not want to make money. The key was that they lacked the ability to earn this money. There was no helping it—the timing was wrong.
In the past, they could first accept the orders and