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.
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 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 Ferdinand's assassination was beneficial to East Africa, so East Africa chose to stand aside.
If Crown Prince Rudolf had nothing to do and went 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 the consideration of hoping for a full-scale war in Europe, it is not easy for East Africa to leak information directly to the Habsburgs. After all, doing so would be equivalent to admitting that East Africa is conducting espionage activities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which may 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 are 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 winters in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He once went to Egypt to spend the winter, but the assassination bullet caused damage to his lungs, which made things worse.
Ernst comforted: "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.
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 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 Serbian action 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 was more than 800 million marks before the war, and it soared to 3.2 billion marks after the war, almost four times the pre-war amount. France's military expenditure increased from more than 800 million marks before the war to about 1.5 billion marks.
From this we can see that before the war, Austria-Hungary's military expenditure was much lower than that of several other powerful countries, and was only higher than Spain and Japan. So theoretically, after the war, Austria-Hungary should have significantly increased its military expenditure in order to make up for the lack of preparation before. But the fact is that after the war, the military expenditure of Austria-Hungary only reached the pre-war standards of other major powers.
With this attitude in participating in World War I, how could Austria-Hungary not drag Germany down? No wonder it couldn't even handle a small Serbia.
Ernst went on to say: "Austria-Hungary was not active in military spending before. Among the major European powers, its military expenditure was only higher than 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 two Balkan Wars and had a large number of soldiers with rich combat experience. At the same time, its weapons had just been replaced, and were even better than some armies within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not pay attention to this opponent, it would easily suffer a great loss in the Balkan Peninsula."
For Ernst's description of the Austro-Hungarian Empire so badly, the father-in-law was still a little unconvinced. He said: "Serbia is a small country after all, and it has just experienced a war. It is probably difficult to support a new war with a big country like the Austro-Hungarian Empire in terms of economy. Moreover, the Austro-Hungarian Empire has a lot of military talents. Even if it encounters some setbacks in the early stage, it can still drag down the small country of Serbia with its strong national strength, 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, even with the support of the Croats and Yugoslavs such as Slovenia, has a population of only 5 million, less than one-tenth of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
This is still an optimistic estimate. After all, Croatia and Slovenia were under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and many people probably did not want to be enemies with the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
And this is just the population gap. The data of other aspects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire can even leave Serbia behind.
For example, in the military industry, without external support, Serbia has no ability to organize an army to fight against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After all, Serbia's military industry is almost zero, and its pillar industry is mainly agriculture.
For example, the Governor of Bosnia Potiorek once joked that Serbia is a "pig farmer" because pig farming is Serbia's pillar industry. Before, due to the economic crisis, Serbia's pig farming industry was hit hard.