Regarding the Sarajevo incident, London's focus was slightly different from Berlin's.
This is mainly because the British have better intelligence agencies than the Germans and Austrians. Therefore, they learned the truth of the matter earlier than Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Moriarty was deeply worried about this: "The Chinese intelligence agency is more powerful than we imagined. In the future, in addition to being careful about the encryption code being deciphered, we must further beware of Lin Youde's infiltration."
Of course, Moriarty didn't know that this time in Sarajevo it was Lin Youde's personal cheating, and he even frightened his own intelligence chief.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire began mobilizing for war, Berlin brought together Vienna and Istanbul, and the Balkan Alliance prepared itself as if facing a powerful enemy. This was basically the state of affairs in the Balkans at this time.
In Belgrade, some close elements suggested launching an attack before the Austro-Hungarian Empire's general mobilization was completed, but Radomini Putnik sternly rejected it. The Serbian general believed that attacking the Austro-Hungarian Empire rashly would be a waste of Serbian troops. Only
Defense, taking advantage of the Serbs' local combat advantages, can better fight against the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Radomini began to strengthen fortifications on the border between Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina. He was deeply influenced by Lin Youde's military thinking and decided to follow Lin Youde's approach in defensive warfare: a large-depth stepped formation, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire broke through a line of defense.
, the defenders on the defensive line were broken into pieces and dispersed to the countryside, and with the support of the local people, they attacked the Austro-Hungarian Empire's troops and logistics supply teams.
Radomini's ideas aroused a wave of opposition from both the Serbian government and the public, but her reputation in the army was too high, so these orders were still faithfully implemented.
Here I want to briefly explain the world's military trends at this time.
Although Lin Youde and his troops fought several wonderful battles and attracted European attention to a certain extent, after a few years, Europe tended to believe that Lin Youde's victories were mostly achieved with new weapons, so he
The war cases are not of much reference value. Only the Americans honestly sent overseas students and officer corps to learn from Lin Youde and learn their modern tactical theories.
There are two characteristics of mainstream military thought in Europe today: one is the strategic emphasis on preventive war, which is to defeat you before you can defeat me. A very simple and clear idea; the other is the extreme emphasis on offense in tactics.
Take France as an example. Foch once served as the chief coach of the French army, and he was a good advocate of attack. And his student Grandmaison even proposed a new doctrine of "launching an attack regardless of all costs", and this doctrine was
This was widely accepted by French officials who were tired of saying that "France's way out is to defend the German war machine."
Within the French army, any officer who did not support this offensive doctrine was given a cold reception. For example, Michael, who served as commander-in-chief before Foch became commander-in-chief of the French army, and Petain, the hero of Verdun in the previous time and space.
And the veteran Gallienne, who made great contributions to the defense of Paris in the last time and space and was eventually exhausted at his post. This veteran general was not noticed until after the war. His achievements were not noticed, and he was posthumously awarded the rank of marshal.
In short, at this time, in the eyes of the commanders in various European countries, offense is the basis for victory. There is no other way, defense can only lead to failure - the word defensive counterattack does not exist in their dictionary at all.
European writers and philosophers have also come out to support this view. Henri Bergson, a French philosopher who once won the Nobel Prize, publicly advocated that life has mysterious power, as long as France can control the power of life.
, and if it is brought into full play, it can defeat its powerful and wealthy neighbor Germany.
Similar thoughts are rampant in Europe, and everyone firmly believes that the flesh and blood of soldiers can resist barbed wire and machine guns.
In the last time and space, Russia had seen the conditions of modern warfare in the Russo-Japanese War. So it was not too interested in this kind of thinking. However, with the stabilization of Russia's domestic situation and the terrifying increase of 1% per year by the Czar,
With the introduction of the 40-strong troop plan, the Russian generals gradually forgot the horrors of barbed wire and machine guns, and began to believe that as long as they filled the holes with the lives of soldiers, victory would always be achieved in the end.
It is precisely because of the influence of this kind of thinking that such a strange situation occurred in the early stages of World War I in the last time and space: both warring parties were attacking, and the German army was making rapid progress in the western section of the Western Front. The French army was making rapid progress in the eastern section of the Western Front.
Duan frantically attacked the German defense line - until Xiafei realized that the Germans were completely surrounding him, he began to organize a retreat.
In this time and space, this kind of thinking is also popular, so the preparations made by veteran Radomini for defense are regarded as a symbol of cowardice. Members of the Unity and Death Society headed by Selina Dragutin Dimitrivich
He firmly opposed her actions and was always planning to remove her from the position of commander-in-chief.
However, preparations are still proceeding in an orderly manner. The Serbian government has withdrawn from Belgrade, which is too close to the border, and moved to the interior. A large number of civilians have also been moved.
As for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, war mobilization was proceeding in an orderly manner. War mobilization in this era was a very complicated matter, especially for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The terrain in the Austro-Hungarian Empire was uneven and transportation was difficult.
, and the railway system as the main transportation capacity was built in a mess and looked like a piece of shit due to the incompetence of the Austro-Hungarian officials and complex internal power disputes - perhaps in the eyes of the technically gifted Austrians, such irregular railways made them
The railway route map has a special artistic sense, but for the staff of the General Staff responsible for formulating war mobilization plans, it was a disaster.
In short, both countries are preparing for war. Everyone knows that there is going to be a war between them, but neither side has declared war - Austria-Hungary has to wait for its old muscles and bones to slowly move, while Serbia
Then you don't dare to attack rashly.
Finally, on August 25, 1908, Conrad, who felt that the preparations were almost complete, reported to the cabinet that war could be declared.
So Vienna sent a declaration of war message to the Serbian government.
But at this time, a huge thing happened: the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to Serbia was eager to leave Serbia by train as soon as the war was declared, so he stayed in Belgrade. Then he knew that the Serbian government had moved to the mainland, but he did not
Knowing where they had moved, I could only try to forward the telegram to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asking them to help forward it.
When Viana heard the news, he was extremely shocked and quickly sent another telegram to the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was still in contact with the outside world.
So on the afternoon of August 25, 1908, Serbian Prime Minister Pašić, who was having dinner in a country hotel in Serbia, received two declarations of war at an interval of twenty minutes.
Pasic was so overwhelmed that he began to doubt the authenticity of the declaration of war. After all, in his opinion, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as one of the great powers, would not be so out of line, so he asked the German ambassador who was moving with the Serbian government if he knew about the declaration of war in Vienna.
Unfortunately, due to a work error, Vienna forgot to notify Berlin of the official declaration of war, so the German ambassador innocently said: "We don't know anything."
After struggling like this for almost a day, the Serbs finally determined that Vienna had declared war and the war had begun.
Pasic was horrified and quickly asked Radomini about the situation at the border, but Radomini told him that the border was peaceful and there was no sign of the Austrians at all.
The Serbians waited for another day before Austro-Hungarian artillery fire finally fell on Serbian soil.