The seventy-year-old Emperor Franz Joseph of the Austro-Hungarian Empire sat on the throne in the splendid throne room of Schönbrunn Palace. This chair became increasingly unfriendly to his old body. Everyone who sat on it
One minute is like a punishment.
But Franz still listened patiently to Conrad's impassioned speech.
Franz had no doubts about Conrad's military talent. Since the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the hands of the Sardinian army, he had lost confidence in his generals. If possible, he really wished he could give him all the advice.
The man who started a war was just a mouthful. Unfortunately, the old emperor hated his successor, Archduke Ferdinand, more than the generals.
Archduke Ferdinand was standing not far from the emperor - in fact, his position was closest to the emperor in the entire throne room, but this arrangement did not allow people to ignore the well-known gap between him and the old emperor.
This estrangement came from the wife of Archduke Ferdinand.
Everything that happened between Archduke Ferdinand and his wife all demonstrated the greatness of love. If someone wrote all of this into an opera, it would be a tribute to love that is not inferior to Shakespeare's immortal masterpiece "Romeo and Juliet".
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Archduke Ferdinand's wife Sofia did not have any noble blood. She was just the daughter of a declining Czech aristocracy. In order to survive, she had to work as a maid in an Austrian aristocratic family. No one remembered that she was once a noble, let alone a duchess.
Due to the title, her desolate territory has long been forgotten by people and has become a place for wild beasts to play in the mountains.
However, a miracle happened. The nobleman who hired Sofia wanted to marry his daughter to Archduke Ferdinand, so he invited Archduke Ferdinand to their home many times to attend tea parties and dances. As a result, the noble daughter failed to get married, but the future of the maid Sofia was changed.
In a reversal, she became the future Empress of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
At first Emperor Franz was fiercely opposed to the marriage. Franz was an extremely legalistic person. He insisted on praying every morning and evening for seventy years. He finished breakfast on time at eight o'clock every day and sat down at his desk to manage his huge family.
country. He stubbornly abided by all the dogmas instilled in him by his powerful mother, believing that this would ensure the continued glory of the Habsburg dynasty.
Therefore, Archduke Ferdinand's passionate and free love was completely unacceptable to the old emperor. He used various methods to force Archduke Ferdinand to give up his love for Sophia. But Archduke Ferdinand did not give in, he
His stubbornness was exactly the same as that of the old emperor. The two fought against each other until the end, and the old Franz was the first to get tired of it.
He made a condition to Archduke Ferdinand. As long as Sophia's children did not inherit the Habsburg crown, he would agree to Archduke Ferdinand's marriage. This condition left an indelible bond between the old emperor and the crown prince.
Due to the rift, Archduke Ferdinand's wife was looked down upon because of this condition. During the royal gathering, as the future queen, she was ranked behind Franz's grandchildren.
However, many knowledgeable people believe that even if the Sophia incident had not happened, Archduke Ferdinand and the Emperor, who advocated reform, would not have been able to talk to each other. There are fundamental differences in concepts between them, and they will never be able to get along.
Unable to reconcile.
Archduke Ferdinand wanted to turn the Austro-Hungarian Empire into a harmonious multi-ethnic country. He has made it clear that after he succeeds to the throne, he will introduce the Slavs into the empire's decision-making system and turn the dual empire into a tripartite empire.
Because of this, the Hungarians hated Archduke Ferdinand, and the conservative Austrians did not like him either.
The Emperor of Austria-Hungary, Franz Joseph, was the most conservative among many conservatives.
Archduke Ferdinand has always been opposed to Conrad's plan. He wants to negotiate with the Principality of Serbia to form a situation where the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Principality of Serbia jointly manage Bosnia and Herzegovina. Obviously, the Archduke wants to use this as a sign to the Slavs in Austria-Hungary.
The good signal further won the Slavs' support for the current regime.
Franz didn't like this proposal at all. He didn't like almost all of Archduke Ferdinand's ideas.
Therefore, although he was not at all interested in the great victory Conrad described, he still listened patiently to every detail Conrad said.
After Conrad finished speaking, the old emperor coughed and interrupted Archduke Ferdinand who was obviously about to speak.
The entire throne room was silent, and the civil and military officials all looked at Franz.
Franz leaned his head on the hard backrest of the throne and closed his eyes slightly.
At this moment, he remembered the scene when he made every major decision during the nearly sixty years he had ruled this country. It was like this every time, with all the civil and military officials gathered in the throne room, exchanging speeches.
Debate, and then wait for Franz's decision.
In Franz's memory, every decision that was so big that it had to be argued in the throne room did not result in a good outcome. Decades of hard work only resulted in disappointment and humiliation one after another.
It's enough to make the average person collapse countless times.
Initially, Franz Joseph was able to take over the Habsburg crown not because of his talent and ability, but because at the age of eighteen he looked powerful enough to boost the morale of the royal family - at that time
, the whole of Europe was trembling in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1848. The rule of the Habsburg dynasty was seriously threatened by the republicans, and the royalists were in danger.
After Franz came to the throne, he repeatedly tried to change other people's views on him. He launched several wars against Italy, which resulted in his empire losing Lombardy and Modena. Then Austria was defeated by Prussia's double-walled Bismarck and the old
Prussia, led by Moltke, lost its right to speak among the German states, so that a few years later Austria could only watch helplessly as Prussia defeated France and established the German Empire. The Austrians, who were also Germans, were left aside.
Got nothing.
Immediately afterwards, Austria was defeated by the Kingdom of Sardinia and had to agree to the Italian du li.
The only thing that could be considered a great victory in Franz's life was thanks to his beautiful queen, Sissi, the sonorous rose from Bagria.
It is a pity that Franz contracted gonorrhea during the war in Italy and infected it with the beautiful queen. As a result, there was only platonic love between the couple, but even this love could not survive.
It didn't last long before the beautiful Sissi was stabbed to death by a nationalist with a knife.
In addition to Princess Sissi, Franz also lost many important people to him in the past few decades. For example, his younger brother, this innocent boy actually volunteered to go to Mexico to inherit the throne, but he failed.
A few years later, he died under the gun of the firing squad of the republican government. Another example is Franz's son, Archduke Rudolf, the crown prince before Ferdinand. This archduke fell in love with a teenage girl.
Of course, this girl does not have the identity and status to become the bride of the Habsburg family, and this Archduke Rudolf does not have the strong will and fearless courage of Archduke Ferdinand. He is an addict and is useless in every aspect.
Appears fragile and neurotic.
In the end, Archduke Rudolf and his young lover chose to commit suicide. They embraced each other and pierced each other's chests with swords.
Too much sadness made Emperor Franz exhausted physically and mentally.
At this moment, after the emperor closed his eyes and rested for a long time, he slowly said to the civil and military officials: "So? You want me to send people to die again?"
Archduke Ferdinand opened his mouth after a brief moment of surprise, but just when everyone thought that the emperor and his nephew were about to reach an agreement for the first time, the emperor raised his hand and stopped the archduke.
"For such a long time, so many people have died," the emperor shook his head, "I am the only one who is still alive."
"Long live your Majesty," Foreign Minister Berchtold said immediately. "This is proof that our empire is still blessed by God."
Immediately, all the civil and military officials expressed their best wishes for the emperor's longevity. Obviously, both the Eastern and Western courts were the same when it came to flattery.
Franz raised his hand again to suppress the noise in the throne room.
"Yes, yes," he said, "you may be right. But life turns out to be so lonely."
Everyone looked at each other, not knowing the old emperor's intention.
"Does Budapest agree to this operation?" The old emperor changed the subject.
Hungarian Prime Minister Istvan Tisza, a representative of the Hungarian nobility, immediately stood up and said: "Your Majesty, the Budapest Parliament believes that the relationship between the Principality of Serbia and Romania will threaten Hungary's control of Transylvania. This
There are a large number of Romanians living in the area, and we cannot give them a visible example to encourage them to resist our rule. Therefore, we support Marshal Conrad’s proposal and cannot allow Bosnia and Herzegovina to be annexed by the Principality of Serbia, otherwise Telangana
Romanians in Sylvania will try to do the same and annex this land to Romania."
Franz nodded, but the expression of lack of interest was still on his face. It was obvious that what dominated his actions was not ambition or any other exciting element. He was just doing routine business and working hard to make his empire better.
Don't go off track.
"Marshal Conrad, you just said that to complete your plan, you don't even need me to order a nationwide mobilization?"
"Yes, Your Majesty," Conrad held her chin high and puffed out her empty chest, "Russia will not be able to launch an attack on us for several years. We can deploy the troops on the eastern and northern fronts, as well as the original
The troops deployed near Bosnia have merged to form a huge army group. As long as we provide enough military supplies, we can completely defeat the Turkish army in Bosnia and Herzegovina and cut off the idea of the Serbs intervening. All we need to do is to increase military supplies.
It’s just the production priority of the product.”
Franz nodded. This action seemed to have exhausted his last strength. He waved his hand and said to Conrad: "Then, just go ahead and do it. Make a plan, including relevant details for the improvement of munitions production."
Send it to my office and I will sign it."
After speaking, he made a gesture to the ceremonial officer, indicating "that's it for today."