Chapter 1132 Royal Discussion
Rhine City.
Hold the report of Ferdinand’s assassination in his hand, Ernst was very excited. Ernst’s report was sent directly from Sarajevo to East Africa, even before Vienna received the news.
Before Ferdinand was preparing to arrive in the Sarajevo area, the East African intelligence services had already begun activities, and even the contents of the Black Hand organization’s plans were under the control of the East African intelligence services.
In other words, if East Africa wants to prevent this from happening, it can avoid the assassination of Ferdinand through many ways, such as notifying the Habsburg royal family in advance, or directly killing this mission. members of the Black Hand organization and so on.
Of course, since the East African government did nothing, it also shows that the assassination of Ferdinand was beneficial to East Africa, so East Africa chose to stand aside.
If Crown Prince Rudolf had nothing to do and ran to Sarajevo, Ernst might be able to help out of brotherly love. As for Ferdinand, Franz's nephew, Ernst could only say that he was not familiar with it.
In addition to hoping for a full-scale war to break out in Europe, East Africa would not be able to leak information directly to the Habsburgs. After all, doing so would be tantamount to admitting that East Africa was conducting espionage activities within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which could easily cause psychological discomfort to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
However, Ernst's attitude towards Ferdinand was not the same as that of his wife, Queen Karina, who was still relatively sad about the death of her uncle's son.
“Poor little Franz, how is Ernst doing now?” Karina asked sadly.
Archduke Ferdinand is also Archduke Franz Ferdinand (the assassinated Archduke Ferdinand), so Karina calls her cousin this. After all, her father is also Archduke Ferdinand (Maximiliano I). ).
Although Ernst was happy about Ferdinand's assassination, he also had to take care of his wife's emotions, so he suppressed his expression and replied calmly: "It has been sent to the hospital for rescue. I heard that there were no fatal injuries, but There may be some effects on the lungs.”
“Oh my god! Ferdinand’s lungs are already bad, will this have a worse impact on his health?” Karina said.
Ferdinand had a congenital lung disease, probably inherited from his mother, so it was difficult for him to endure the winter in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He once went to Egypt to spend the winter, and the bullet in the assassination caused damage to his lungs, which made it worse.
Ernst consoled him: "My dear, little Franz is lucky. At least he did not lose his life because of this. As long as he takes a good rest in the future, he will eventually get better."
Ernst's father-in-law, Archduke Ferdinand of East Africa, also said to his daughter: "Ernst is right. This time the killer was only a few meters away from little Franz. It is a blessing that he was not killed by a pistol at this distance." ”
Archduke Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the nephew of Archduke Ferdinand of East Africa. He and Emperor Franz shared the son of his brother Archduke Karl, so Ernst’s father-in-law was quite concerned about Archduke Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Now Ernst's father-in-law is still in good health, which is consistent with common sense. After all, his brother Emperor Franz lived until the end of World War I in his previous life, and Archduke Ferdinand of East Africa is now idle and has entered retirement life early. Maybe in the future He lived longer than his brother. In Ernst's opinion, living to the age of ninety was not a problem. After all, Emperor Franz handled so many government affairs every day and persisted until the age of eighty-six. Ernst asked himself that he could not do it. To that extent.
Ernst nodded and said: "It should be accurate. We can confirm with Vienna later. Except for the gunshot wound, all other bullets were blocked by the car body, so it will definitely not be a serious problem if it does not hit the fatal position." "
Ernst couldn't be sure. After all, the hospital was not an easy place to pry for information. Especially after Ferdinand's accident, security measures were tightened. It would be good for East African intelligence officers to get a general picture of the situation. After Archduke Ferdinand (Maximiliano I) initially confirmed the safety of his nephew, he began to worry about the relationship between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia. For Archduke Ferdinand (Maximiliano I), Austria After all, the Hungarian Empire is its mother country and the foundation of the Habsburg family, so the Austro-Hungarian Empire is second only to East Africa in its heart.
As for Mexico, a country that once had a close relationship with Archduke Ferdinand (Maximiliano I), it no longer has any relationship at all.
“This action by the Serbs is likely to trigger tensions between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia. Ernst, what do you think of this?” Archduke Ferdinand (Maximiliano I) asked.
How else to look at it? Naturally, I hope that the two countries will fight, and it is best to involve the whole of Europe. Of course, Ernst will definitely not be able to say what is in his heart.
"My opinion is that it will be difficult for Austria-Hungary and Serbia to relax this time. Of course, I personally do not want Austria-Hungary to go to war with Serbia at this time, because in my opinion, Austria-Hungary is not ready for war. " Ernst said realistically based on the poor performance of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in his previous life.
From the perspective of military expenditure alone, the performance of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in its previous life was very incompetent. The military expenditure of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the war was almost more than 400 million German marks. After the war, the military expenditure of the Austro-Hungarian Empire only doubled to more than 800 million German marks. mark.
Germany's military expenditure before the war was more than 800 million marks. After the war, its military expenditure soared to 3.2 billion marks, almost four times the pre-war level. France's military expenditure increased from more than 800 million marks before the war to about 1.5 billion marks.
It can be seen from this that the military expenditures of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the war were much lower than those of other major powers, and higher than Spain and Japan. Therefore, theoretically, after the war, in order to make up for the lack of preparation before, the Austro-Hungarian Empire The country's military expenditure should be significantly increased, but the fact is that after the war, Austria-Hungary's military expenditure only reached the pre-war standards of other major powers.
With this attitude in participating in the First World War, how could the Austro-Hungarian Empire not hold Germany back? It’s no wonder that even tiny Serbia couldn’t handle it.
Ernst continued: "The Austro-Hungarian Empire was not active in military expenditures before. Among the major European countries, its military expenditure was only higher than that of Spain. Moreover, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been at peace for a long time, and the combat effectiveness of its army was also questionable. On the other hand, Serbia had just experienced After two Balkan wars, there were a large number of soldiers with rich combat experience. At the same time, their weapons had just been replaced and were even more sophisticated than some of the troops within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not pay attention to this opponent, it would easily be defeated in the Balkan Peninsula. Big loss.”
His father-in-law was still a little unconvinced that Ernst described the Austro-Hungarian Empire in such a bad light. He said: "Serbia is a small country after all, and it has just experienced a war. I am afraid it will be difficult to support and compete with a big country like the Austro-Hungarian Empire economically. To start a new war, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire also has quite a few military talents, even if it encounters some setbacks in the early stage, it can still defeat the small country of Serbia with its strong national power, right? "
The gap between the two countries is visible to the naked eye. The Austro-Hungarian Empire has a population of more than 50 million, while Serbia, including the Croats, Slovenes and other Yugoslavs who support it, has a population of only 5 million, which is less than 10 million people of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. one part.
This is still an optimistic estimate. After all, Croatia and Slovenia are under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and many people may not be willing to become enemies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
And this is only a gap in population. Data from other levels of the Austro-Hungarian Empire can even leave Serbia behind without even being able to see its shadow.
Just like the military industry, without external support, Serbia would not have the ability to organize an army to fight against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After all, Serbia’s military industry was almost zero, and its pillar industry was mainly agriculture.
For example, the Governor of Bosnia, Potiorek, once ridiculed Serbia as a "pig farmer" because the pig industry is Serbia's pillar industry. The Serbian pig industry was hit hard due to the economic crisis.
(End of this chapter)