Chapter 1132 Royal Discussion
Rhine City.
Holding 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 earlier than Vienna received the news. a little.
Before Ferdinand prepared to arrive in the Sarajevo area, the East African intelligence agencies had already begun activities, and even the contents of the Black Hand organization's plans were under the control of the East African intelligence agencies.
In other words, if East Africa wants to prevent this from happening, it can avoid Ferdinand’s assassination in many ways, such as notifying the Habsburg royal family in advance, or Directly kill the members of the Black Hand organization who performed this mission, etc.
Of course, since the East African government did nothing, it also shows that Ferdinand's assassination 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 Not familiar.
In addition to hoping for a full-scale war to break out in Europe, it is not easy for East Africa to leak information directly to the Habsburgs. After all, doing so would be tantamount to admitting that East Africa is conducting espionage activities within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which could easily cause the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Psychological discomfort.
However, Ernst's attitude towards Ferdinand was not the same as that of his wife, Queen Karina. Karina was still quite 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. Listen. It is said that there is no fatal injury, but it may have some impact on the lungs."
"Oh my god! Ferdinand's lungs are not good, will this have a worse impact on his health?" Lina said.
Ferdinand had a congenital lung disease, probably inherited from his mother, so it was difficult for him to endure the winters in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He once went to Egypt to spend the winter, and the assassination bullet caused damage to his lungs. , which can be considered as adding insult to injury.
Ernst comforted: "My dear, little Franz is lucky. At least he did not lose his life. As long as he takes a good rest in the future, he will 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 very important to Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Nan Dagong is still more concerned.
Now Ernst’s father-in-law is still in good health, which is in line 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 in good health. Entering retirement life, he may live longer than his brother in the future. In Ernst's view, living to the age of ninety is not a problem. After all, Emperor Franz handles so many government affairs every day and persists until the age of eighty-six. Ernst asked himself Not as good as Franz.
Archduke Ferdinand of East Africa asked Ernst: "Is the news accurate? After all, there may be variables in such a short period of time."
Ernst nodded: "It should be It's accurate. We can confirm with Vienna later. Except for that one bullet wound, the other bullets were blocked by the car body, so it will definitely not be a serious problem if it doesn't 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 Serbian action is likely to trigger tensions between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia. Ernst, what do you think of this?” Archduke Ferdinand (Maximilian) Noah 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, but after the war, the military expenditure of the Austro-Hungarian Empire only doubled. , reaching more than 800 million German marks.
Germany’s military expenditure before the war started was more than 800 million marks. After the war, its military expenditure soared to 3.2 billion marks, almost four times that before the war. France’s military expenditure increased from more than 800 million marks before the war to 15 About 100 million marks.
It can be seen from here that the military expenditure of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the war was much lower than that of several other great powers, and was higher than Spain and Japan. Therefore, in theory, after the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire To make up for the lack of previous preparations, the country's military expenditure should be significantly increased. However, 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 World War I, how could Austria-Hungary not hold back Germany? No wonder even little 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 Having gone through two Balkan wars, there are a large number of people with rich combat experience. The soldiers, and their weapons have just been replaced, and are even more sophisticated than some of the troops in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If the Austro-Hungarian Empire does not pay attention to this opponent, it will easily suffer big losses in the Balkans. "
For. Ernst spoke so unfavorably of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that his father-in-law was still a little unhappy. Convinced, 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 a new war with a big country like Austria-Hungary economically, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire does not have many military talents. Even if you encounter some setbacks in the early stage, you can rely on your strong national power to bring down the country. Serbia is a small country, 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 has a population of only 5 One million people, less than one-tenth of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
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.
Take the military industry for example. 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)