Chapter 377 The Austro-Hungarian Empire declares war

Serbian Prime Minister Pasic understands that the current situation is no longer something he can decide. The direction of Serbia depends on the attitudes of Austria-Hungary and Russia.

Therefore, Pasišić forwarded the 48-hour ultimatum proposed by Austria-Hungary to Russia without stopping, asking about the attitude of Nicholas II and the Russian government.

As a bridgehead to curb the expansion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the Balkans, Serbia was deeply valued by the Russian Empire.

After learning of the extremely harsh 48-hour ultimatum from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Nicholas II became very angry and angrily accused the Austro-Hungarian Empire of completely ignoring Tsarist Russia's special interests in Serbia and attempting to damage the status of the Tsarist Russian Empire.

The Russian Foreign Minister gritted his teeth and said: "Russia must not allow the Austro-Hungarian Empire to defeat Serbia and become the most dominant country in the Balkans."

Serbia is not only related to Russia's interests in the Balkans, but also related to the safety of the export of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

If the Balkans are dominated by the Allies, Russia's Black Sea Fleet will become the weakest among them, and Russia's only outlets to the sea will be the Baltic Sea and the Far East.

Although Nicholas II had long supported Arthur's proposal to try the murderer behind the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.

But at such a critical moment, a joint royal declaration is obviously not as important as Serbia.

Soon, Nicholas II summoned the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to St. Petersburg to express Russia's attitude.

Nicholas II said categorically: "Russia does not agree with the two agreements in the last round that undermine Serbian sovereignty, and does not agree with the Austro-Hungarian Empire's investigation of the Sarajevo assassination on Serbian territory."

Even if there is an investigation, the four major Allied powers, led by Britain, France, Russia and Australia, should organize corresponding manpower to conduct the investigation in Serbia.

As for the other countries of the Allied Powers, even Austria-Hungary, which has the status of a victim, has no right to investigate on Serbian soil.

Even if the Austro-Hungarian ambassador explained many times that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was just suppressing terrorist movements and riots that endangered the European royal families, this was very beneficial to all European monarchies.

But how could the fiery temper of the Russians believe the Austro-Hungarian Empire's rhetoric? The Russian Foreign Minister strongly stated: "If the Austro-Hungarian Empire insists on the 48-hour ultimatum, it will provoke a war throughout Europe."

On the matter of Serbia, it is impossible for Russia to give in. What's more, the Allies were very closely connected, with financial assistance from Britain and France and material assistance from Australasia. Nicholas II believed that he was very confident and could deal with any challenges from the outside world.

However, the Austro-Hungarian government did not care about Russia's tougher attitude. Berthold, who already had the say in the government, believed that with the blank check issued by Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Russians would definitely be afraid of Germany and would not be able to directly join the war.

This meant that the war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia would only turn into a small local war.

It is precisely because of this idea that at the insistence of Berthold, the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not revoke the 48-hour ultimatum and has been urging the Serbian government to respond to the ultimatum.

On July 25, 1914, Serbian Prime Minister Pašić personally rushed to the Austro-Hungarian Embassy with the Serbian government’s reply.

The Serbian government’s reply is full of wishful thinking and conciliatory intentions. Pašić explained to the Austro-Hungarian ambassador: “Serbia is ready to formally condemn all actions against the Austrians and asks Austria-Hungary not to violate Serbia’s sovereignty. If Austria-Hungary is not satisfied with such a result, Serbia is willing to accept the decision from the Hague Tribunal. arbitration."

Such responses drained the minds of Serbian government officials. Not only had it been revised repeatedly, but because the only typewriter was broken by an exhausted secretary, the reply was handwritten by Prime Minister Pasic.

Moreover, the ministers of the Serbian government believed that it would be humiliating for them to go to the Austrian embassy with a reply, so they refused to go.

This also resulted in Pasic, who is the Prime Minister of the Serbian government, having to act as the messenger himself. Although Serbia is a small country, it is still very humiliating to do so.

Although the Serbian government's reply was full of sincerity, such concessions obviously could not satisfy the appetites of the Austro-Hungarian government and Berthold.

What's more, before the Serbian government responded, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had already mobilized troops to the Serbian border.

For the Austro-Hungarian Empire, there were only two acceptable conditions, either Serbia surrendered or Serbia surrendered.

On July 26, 1914, after the Austro-Hungarian government's 48-hour ultimatum expired, the entire Europe fell into boundless silence.

William II understood that his firm position could no longer shake the determination of the Russians, and wanted to resolve this conflict through negotiation.

On the other side, the British also joined the mediation team, because such a sudden war is not a good thing for both sides.

But it is obvious that because of the firm war attitude expressed by William II for a long time, Germany's military and political ministers have already developed an irresistible urge for war.

At this time, it was already unrealistic for William II to suppress it.

The British position is obviously not applicable to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Unless William II directly and decisively asks the Austro-Hungarian Empire to give up the action, the war wheels of the Austro-Hungarian Empire will not stop.

But the problem is that William II simply cannot suppress the domestic war faction at this time. If William II unilaterally stops the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the prestige that William II has managed for a long time will be wiped out.

A monarch who is not firm in his position and jumps repeatedly may even offend both the warring faction and the peace-promoting faction.

The military mobilizations of the Austro-Hungarian Empire have become more and more frequent, and Russia has also begun to mobilize troops to the border in response.

Finally, after two days of silence, on July 28, 1914, exactly one month after Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.

In order to get the old emperor Joseph I, who was unwilling to see war, to sign the declaration of war, Berthold, who had already taken control of the government, even told a despicable lie.

"What's more, parts of the Serbian army are already attacking a detachment of the imperial troops in Temes-Kubin. If we don't take action, the heart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire will be threatened."

It was this kind of lie that made Joseph I think that Serbia had taken the initiative to provoke a war, so he decisively signed the declaration of war, provoking war throughout Europe.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!"

In the early morning of July 28, the guards knocked on the door of Nicholas II's palace and reported the news that Nicholas II did not want to hear: "Minister Sazonov came to report that the Austro-Hungarian Empire has officially sent a request to Serbia. War has been declared!”

For any country, declaring war is not a drama, but a notice of war issued to another country at the highest level of the country.

Once a state of war is entered, the war cannot end unless one party suffers irreparable losses.

"Where are Sazonov and others?" Within a few minutes, Nicholas II quickly walked out and asked.

"Your Majesty, according to the information from the Serbian ambassador, this afternoon, the Austro-Hungarian Empire officially issued a war notice to Serbia." Foreign Minister Sazonov, who had been waiting for a long time, quickly stood up and explained.

Although they are not willing to hear such news, such results have already been discussed within the Russian government.

Nicholas II ordered: "Inform Janushkevich and Sukhomlinov to immediately begin nationwide mobilization and mobilize more troops to the border."

Yanushkovych was the Russian Chief of Staff, while Suhomlinov was the Russian Minister of War.

Notifying these two people was equivalent to notifying all the Russian troops.

The good news is that although Russia has not started nationwide mobilization before, in order to prepare for the possible declaration of war by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russia has carried out partial mobilization in advance in the four military districts of Warsaw, Kiev, Odessa and Moscow.

The forces of these four military districts can just be mobilized to the border to protect Russia's border areas.

Germany actually received the news faster than Russia. Fortunately, before Austria-Hungary decided to declare war, it had notified the German government and Wilhelm II, and obtained the support of the main war factions including Wilhelm II.

As for Germany, after learning that Austria-Hungary had decided to declare war, it immediately and decisively issued a nationwide mobilization order.

July 29, 1914 was not a good day for Europe or even the world.

The day before, Austria-Hungary officially issued a notice of war to Serbia. Today, Germany and Russia have announced national mobilization, and the war in Europe has begun.

No one believed that the mobilization of Germany and Russia was just a bluff. The national mobilization represented a large-scale war and also represented that the Allies and the Entente had reached a moment of life-and-death battle.

On July 30, 1914, Germany demanded that Russia immediately lift the war mobilization order, otherwise Germany would fulfill the alliance between Austria-Hungary and join the war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.

Nicholas II naturally dismissed the Germans' demands.

Germany and Russia announced national mobilization orders at almost the same time. Why do you, Germany, ask Russia to lift the mobilization order, while your mobilization order continues to be in effect?

At Nicholas II's suggestion, the Russian government made the same request to Germany as a counterattack against Germany.

At a time when the two governments are facing tit-for-tat, Russia and Germany are already spreading propaganda against each other in their own countries.

On the morning of July 31, 1914, it was the third day that the German general mobilization order came into effect.

Wilhelm II held a royal council to determine whether Germany was ready for a state of war.

Obviously, the high-morale war faction is very confident that the German army is ready for everything.

According to a report by Army Secretary Falkenhayn, if Germany can complete this military mobilization, Germany will have 3.8 million combat troops, 6,000 artillery pieces, 45,000 machine guns, 132 aircraft, 130 military airships, 4,000 vehicles and A large amount of military supplies and living supplies.

The German Chief of Staff Moltke said: "The Imperial Army is ready. The sooner the war can begin, the better. The staff has already made a war plan. It will first launch on the Western Front, attack France through Belgium, and defeat France in about six weeks, and then Go back and join forces with Austria-Hungary to defeat Russia. I have prepared a secret ultimatum to Belgium, and the army is always ready to march towards Belgium."

William II was still a little hesitant at this time. Although Germany had an advantage in the army, the German navy was obviously inferior to the British.

However, Navy Minister Tirpitz also gave an explanation: "Your Majesty, although the number of British naval ships far exceeds ours, its combat effectiveness is still inferior to that of our Imperial Navy. We can first use submarines to block British shipping and use cruisers to carry out guerrilla warfare at sea. Disperse, the main force of the British fleet consumes its forces. Just wait until you find an opportunity for a decisive battle, there is no need to worry about the huge British navy, but it must be dispersed to all parts of the world."

William II nodded with relief, but he was still very concerned about the attitude of the British and asked: "What is the attitude of the British so far?"

"Except for previous mediation, the British have not made any statement for the time being. According to information from Australasia, during a royal conversation between Britain and Australasia, George V seemed to have mentioned that the upcoming war was In the four-nation war between Germany, Austria, France and Russia, Britain and Australia should try not to get involved in the war and remain neutral." Foreign Secretary Accord responded.

Prime Minister Bateman also said: "Your Majesty, I met with the British Ambassador yesterday and proposed that if Britain remained neutral, our country would respect the integrity of French territory after defeating France, but the British Ambassador refused. The British said that they would follow their own I think there is a high possibility that they will support France."

William II was not surprised. He seemed to have already thought of this situation and nodded calmly.

"Your Majesty, we should remind the Austro-Hungarian Empire that after the war begins, they should attack Russia with their main force, not Serbia." Seeing that the meeting was a bit cold, Moltke said quickly.

William II nodded: "Send a telegram to Joseph in my name, asking the Austro-Hungarian Empire to use its main force to fight Russia, and not to divide its forces to attack Serbia at the same time. Such a decision will have extremely great strategic significance. In This will be especially important when a large part of our army is restrained by France. In this huge war, Serbia plays only a minor role and only needs to take necessary defensive measures against it."

"What is the attitude of our ally Italy?" William II looked at Prime Minister Bateman again and asked.

Italy is one of the three major powers of the Allied Powers. Although the strength of the army is not very good, the size of the navy can be considered to be relatively high.

If Italy can be loyal to the Triple Alliance, it will be a good thing for Germany and Austria-Hungary.

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