With King Wilhelm I and Prime Minister Bismarck, the Prussian top leaders actively prepared and operated.

The army of the Kingdom of Prussia was on its way, and the army of the Austrian Empire was on its way.

The Austrians were naturally very clear about Prussia's ambition to unify the German region.

In recent years, the rapid development of the Kingdom of Prussia has long been no secret, the establishment of the Customs Union, the development of industry, the railway network, the Kingdom of Prussia's voice in the German region is rising.

Therefore, the Austrians naturally did not miss this war against Denmark, and could not let Prussia win over the hearts and minds of the Germans.

Of course, Austria's ambition to unify the German region was no weaker than that of Prussia, but unfortunately it was interfered by Britain and France and other countries, and did not dare to act rashly. This time, Bismarck co-led the fate of the two northern principalities and pulled Austria into the water.

In the face of common interests, Austria really took the bait, which was a conspiracy. If you don't sit back and wait for Prussia to win over the people in Germany, you can't do it without Prussia acting alone, and Prussia is already invincible.

Schleswig and Holstein were far away from Austria, and even if Austria gained control of one of the two regions, it would only be an enclave, while Prussia could quickly absorb its spoils.

However, Austria has had countless enclaves in its history, but no one cares about this problem, and the Habsburgs used to have enclaves not only in the territory of the HRE, but also in the whole of Europe and even the world. In the future, Prussia can make a fuss about this.

This is also where Bismarck is clever, the Austrians must eat this conspiracy, and pulling Austria to do it together, which is equivalent to sharing the international pressure of Prussia.

Austria, as the world's top power at present, is naturally not comparable to Prussia in the eyes of other countries.

The Habsburg dynasty at its peak had no rivals in Europe, and even now it is the world's arbiter on the same level as Britain, France and Russia.

The current Austrian Empire is not a dualistic empire like the Austro-Hungarian Empire behind, and its strength is still okay.

The old guys of the Napoleonic era are not yet gone, and the Austrian Army is still the top army to be reckoned with on the European continent.

Of course, it is unlikely that these old fellows will personally command the front, but they can at least stabilize the morale of the Austrian army, and they are all people who have seen the world.

There are also three pounds of nails in the rotten ship, although these people's minds may be outdated, but they still have the ability and vision.

This time, the Austrian army was able to keep up with the times, and although the composition of the army was chaotic, it was still well prepared.

As the Austrian army marched north, a large number of troops were gathered in the North German territory. Bavaria, Württemberg and other countries also pulled their armies to join.

From the point of view of mobilization capacity alone, Prussia is naturally superior, although geographically Prussia is basically mobilized within the territory, while Austria needs to be drawn from the country, and then go north, long distances, naturally at a disadvantage.

But it has to be said that the top quality of the Prussian army, with the unified dispatch of railways, ports, mules and horses, the General Staff methodically worked out plans.

With the linkage and interconnection of the logistics network, the whole Prussia is like a big military station, and every link of the state apparatus can complete a good docking with the army.

The Prussian army was generally clean and capable due to uniform clothing and complete rules and regulations.

The Austrian army is diverse, because there is no unified language and culture, the nobles of various places lead the armies of their respective regions, the numbers are varied, and the uniforms of the armies are not uniform, and the characteristics of their respective regions and nationalities are retained.

That is to say, the great cause of the Austrian Empire was great, the logistics did not collapse, and it could still get the support of the northern states, and the Austrian army could get relatively good rest conditions.

In addition to the Prussian and Austrian armies, other capable states also brought their own armies to help the two countries, but compared to Prussia and Austria, they could only fight soy sauce.

In addition to the materials that accompanied the troops, it was naturally impossible to transfer all the follow-up logistics from the country, and most of them were purchased from Prussia and the northern states.

At this time, Ernst, who had been prepared, joined the army support cause, and the first batch of industrial products was loaded and pulled directly from factories and warehouses to the barracks, and they were given away for free.

Many, the army that has not used the products produced by the Heixingen Development Company feels very novel.

Cigarettes and lighters, in particular, were very popular among the soldiers, especially in the Austrian army.

Although the Austrian army was also a customer of ERNST, due to distance, ERNST was unable to supply products to the Austrian army on a large scale.

Now Ernst was going to take this opportunity to spread the product to the Austrian army, and by the end of the war, Ernst's tobacco company had also set up a factory in Austria.

Because the Prussian army unified procurement and distribution of living materials for soldiers and officers, Ernst was unable to engage in some small means.

Austria is obviously different, Austria's mixed army, uneven officer quality, poor military discipline, bring market to Ernst's products.

By bribing the officers, these ruffians smoked in the barracks, and soon the cigarettes provided by Ernst were consumed. Austrian quartermasters had to increase the requirements for cigarettes on the military orders.

Because cigarettes did ensure the emotional stability of the soldiers, there was nothing to say, and the Austrian generals turned a blind eye, and with a stroke of the imperial pen, a large number of orders flew into Ernst's factory.

After these soldiers were discharged, it would be difficult for them to quit their dependence on tobacco, and Ernst would be able to continue the tobacco business, and convenient and cheap paper cigarettes would spread throughout Germany with these soldiers.

January 16, 1864.

Representatives of Austria and Prussia formally signed the agreement. Austria drafted a clause to continue the 1852 agreement, but Bismarck scrapped it and replaced it with Austria and Prussia to decide only jointly on the relations between the two principalities, and neither country could decide on succession without the consent of the other.

In this way, the two countries will jointly bear the pressure of public opinion from countries outside the region, and the problems of the German region should naturally be resolved by the Germans themselves.