The first person to get the news about Sarajevo was not Vienna, or even Belgrade, which was relatively close, but Holanggabo, which was thousands of miles away. (.)
Not long after Archduke Ferdinand died, the code word that the operation had failed was sent back to the Gestapo headquarters.
Victoria immediately went to report to Lin Youde, and then she saw the Navy Minister looking up to the sky strangely and sighing: "Sure enough, this is fate. I hope there are eggs in the lunch box of the class."
"What?" Victoria asked suspiciously.
Lin Youde waved his hand and said: "Don't worry. Next, you should pay more attention to the trends in the Balkans and give me a status briefing every day."
After saying that, Lin Youde signaled to Victoria that she could leave.
Coming out of Lin Youde's room, Victoria fell into deep thought as she walked.
It's so strange. If neither the European Bureau nor the Gestapo knew about the assassination operations of the Black Hand, then there must be no one else who could provide Lin Youde with this information. No one knows this better than Victoria - Lin Youde's actions are also Victoria's.
One of the key points of Ya's surveillance was that she was very sure that Lin Youde had not been in contact with anyone suspicious.
But Lin Youde not only accurately predicted the assassination, but also had a very accurate grasp of the number of assassins. This is simply...
Victoria shook her head. She only believed in science and logic, and firmly believed that one day even the power of Shen Ji could be interpreted by science. But precisely because of her almost pathological admiration for logic, her thinking inevitably led
An extreme. While in India, Victoria met an English girl, who helped Victoria in danger and protected her for a long time.
During this period of time, Victoria had quite an in-depth contact with this British girl. Her words impressed Victoria very deeply: "When other possibilities have been eliminated, the last one left is
Maybe no matter how ridiculous it is, it’s still the truth of the matter.”
Now Victoria is facing such a situation.
She couldn't help but think of the words of her best friend who failed to escape from Professor Wagner's den: "Go to the dragon, the dragon will protect us."
For the first time in so many years, Victoria found that her body was shaking slightly.
If. If God really exists, why does he only give women the blood of God?
What if God or Allah or some other god doesn’t actually favor women?
So among men, of course there should be lucky ones with the blood of God, but this blood is very hidden, and the whole world is not aware of its existence.
God's Chosen One, True Dragon Emperor, Allah's Coming...these terms passed through Victoria's mind one after another.
That's the simplest explanation, isn't it?
In the history of this time and space, there are always some men who are particularly lucky. They are born and die without any scars. There are always some men who are incredibly able to attract many noble and high-level goddesses to follow them without regrets and swear that they belong to them both physically and mentally.
He. Even if this man is a bow-legged dwarf!
Thinking of this, Victoria fell into confusion. She felt that the things she had always believed in and her entire world view had collapsed. She glanced at the sky outside the corridor inadvertently, and was frightened by the wing clouds left by the VF flight.
I jumped a lot, thinking I saw the dragon, which the Chinese regard as the supreme divine beast.
At this time, the voice of her dead friend filled Victoria's head.
"The dragon will protect us."
"Go to the dragon."
"dragon……"
Victoria held onto the window sill and used all her strength to maintain her standing posture, her forehead covered with sweat.
"The dragon will protect us..." Victoria muttered silently. "That dragon, it turns out, does not refer to the nation that worships dragons, but to the blood of dragons? In that case..."
At this time, a maid appeared in the corridor, and Victoria immediately stopped her involuntary moaning. She quickly adjusted her state, and when the maid noticed her, she had already put on her old poker face.
But even she herself didn't notice that there was a hint of religious piety in her pupils.
Austro-Hungarian Empire Royal Palace.
Franz Joseph had just learned of the death of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife.
He put down the paper with the telegram written on it, and supported the armrests of the chair with both hands to stand up. The maid next to him immediately came up to help him, but was stopped by the old emperor sternly.
"Don't come here! I'm not old enough to stand up yet!"
The maid was frightened. She took three steps back and even forgot to apologize. When she finally remembered that she should apologize, the old emperor had already stood up with his own strength, turned around and walked tremblingly towards the closed window of the room.
——The old emperor is in poor health and cannot stand the cold.
He held the window sill with both hands and looked up at the sky filled with dark clouds outside the window.
At this time, his attendant asked: "Vienna is still waiting for your instructions, how should you reply to them?"
"Just say that my health is not good and my mind is blurred." The old emperor ordered in a clear voice, "Let them go."
"yes."
"You all stand down."
"But..." The royal doctor looked a little doubtful.
"Stand down!" the old emperor shouted. At this moment, he seemed to have turned into the eighteen-year-old boy who had just ascended the throne, full of energy and strength.
But then, all of this disappeared, and the old man stood in front of the window with his back hunched over, his side face filled with sadness that no one present could understand.
The attendants quietly exited the room, leaving the old emperor alone.
"Dead, dead again." Franz Joseph recited a monologue that no one was listening to. "Everyone has died, but I am the only one who is still alive. Life is so lonely."
After saying that, he raised his hand, pulled up the latch of the window, and then pushed the window open.
The cold wind from the Austrian countryside immediately poured into the room, blowing up the curtains, documents and everything else that could be blown up.
The wind is howling.
Outside the window, thunder and lightning flashed.
The old man faced the strong wind and opened his arms toward the sky filled with dark clouds, lightning, and thunder.
"Sissi!" He called the name of the beautiful queen who had died many years ago, "Oh! My beautiful Sissi! Do you know how much I have missed you over the years..."
Outside the window, the only thing that responded to the old emperor was earth-shattering thunder.
Conrad's first words when he learned of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand were: "Great!"
Then she coughed a few times in embarrassment, and then glared viciously at the staff officers around her.
"I mean, it's really bad. But we must avenge the dead Archduke! Let those damn Serbs pay with their blood! You guys, start preparing for war mobilization immediately."
"But, Marshal," a staff officer whispered, "the truth of the assassination has not been found out yet."
According to the intelligence returned, there were doubts in the assassination process, and it seemed that unknown forces wanted to prevent the assassination from happening. However, Conrad did not care about this.
"The truth is not important. What is important is that we finally have a reason and an excuse to take action against the Serbs."
In addition, with Conrad's current reputation, once Archduke Ferdinand died, no one except Emperor Franz could stop Conrad from getting the cabinet to agree to launch a war.
And the emperor sent a message saying that the old emperor was insane and could no longer take charge, so now no one in the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire could stop Conrad, and she could do whatever she wanted. This was her
The main reason why I just yelled "that's great".
She can finally launch the long-awaited all-out war. She firmly believes that through this battle, she will definitely stay in the history of human military affairs forever.
"Inform Berchtold and Tisza that we are going to convene an emergency meeting of the cabinet." Conrad said to his messenger.
Germany, Potsdam Palace.
After William II learned of the death of Archduke Ferdinand, he was obviously depressed.
Although he had just cursed this guy as a bastard not long ago, his grief for his old friend obviously took over now. He was silent for a long time, and then asked Bateman who had been standing by: "So, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will definitely start a general mobilization of war.
Already?"
"I'm afraid that's the case, Your Majesty."
"Okay, very good." William II said weakly. "Show Vienna that Germany will provide them with assistance as much as possible to help them defeat the Balkan Alliance."
"Your Majesty," Foreign Secretary Zimmermann suggested, "we should promote an alliance between Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire so that the two armies can fight together. This way, the chance of victory will be greater."
William II frowned. He did not answer immediately. Instead, he turned to Minister of War Falkenhayn and Chief of General Staff Moltke: "Is this necessary?"
"I'm afraid so." The German general said very rudely, "The Austro-Hungarian Empire is so old that its joints are creaking, and the Balkan Alliance will almost certainly get the support of Britain."
"But if the alliance between Vienna and Istanbul is promoted, it is very likely that Romania will join the Balkan Alliance and declare war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire." Bateman expressed his inner worries, "Romania can mobilize at least 600,000 troops. Will this be more gain than loss?
?”
"At that time, we can come forward to put pressure on Romania," Zimmerman disagreed with Bateman's opinion. "The Romanians don't have the Russians behind them, and they don't dare to defy us."
"That's it." William II agreed, "Urge Vienna to send troops and promote their alliance with Istanbul. These two things must be done immediately, and then let the ambassador to Romania vaccinate the Romanians."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
At this time, William II seemed to be in a better mood again - it was normal for him to be so moody, so neither the generals nor the ministers expressed surprise.
"A proxy war!" William II said, "That's good. We successfully avoided a direct conflict with Britain. That's good."
On August 3, 1908, the third day after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Imperial General Staff ordered the country to begin general mobilization for war.
In the last time and space, almost two months after the death of Archduke Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary began its general mobilization for war. This time and space only took two days. This is also one of the many insignificant changes in history (to be continued...)