The King of Prussia was sincerely anxious to avoid a war, and until June 14 was determined not to take the initiative nor to agree to any measure which might savour of attack. He was with difficulty induced to consent to the successive stages of preparation. Not until the beginning of May, when the Austrian mobilization was far advanced and the transport to the frontiers impending, were the orders for the Prussian mobilization issued, and that not at once, but piecemeal between May 3 and May 12. The forces thus called out formed a total of 326,000 combatants, divided into nine army corps,[2] a reserve corps at Berlin,[3] the corps of occupation in Holstein, and the corps collected at Wetzlar from the Prussian garrisons withdrawn from fortresses of the German confederation. The arrangements made for the disposition of these forces between May 12 and June 22 form the basis of the subsequent success, and may perhaps best be described in the form of a series of problems and their solutions. 1. The first step of preparation for a war is the calculation of the force required.[4] In the case of our own small wars it is self-evident that such a calculation is necessary, and the campaign of 1882 in Egypt is an instance in which it was worked out to a nicety. It might seem equally a matter of course that when two Continental states go to war each of them will assume from the beginning that its whole available force will be employed. Yet instances are numerous in which campaigns have been lost mainly through neglect to work out this calculation. In 1859 the Austrians undertook with little more than half their army a war against the combined forces of France and Sardinia; in 1885 King Milan attacked the Bulgarians without calling out the whole of the Servian army. In both cases defeat was largely due to this initial error. The basis of the calculation is furnished by an estimate of the force which will be at the disposal of the enemy. In 1866 the Prussian staff had to face the preliminary difficulty that it was uncertain even as late as May 8 which of the German states would be on the Prussian and which on the Austrian side. The least favourable assumption was made, and it was estimated that the hostile forces would be in North Germany 36,000, in South Germany 100,000, and in Saxony and Austria 264,000, making a total of 400,000 men.[5] There could be no doubt that Prussia must employ the whole of her available forces.