The news of Archduke Ferdinand's assassination spread quickly in Austria on the same day.

Among government officials, the first to receive news was the Austro-Hungarian Chief of the General Staff, Conrad, who had left Sarajevo a few hours before the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. He arrived at 10:30 a.m. on a train from Sarajevo to Croatia, where he was going to supervise military exercises.

Shortly in the afternoon, as the train passed through Zagreb station, Baron Kaminari, a cavalry general, entered Conrad's box and told him the terrible news. By the time Conrad's train arrived at the last stop, Karlstadt, an official telegram had arrived, officially informing him of the assassination of the heir to the Habsburg crown prince and his wife, who had been assassinated by Bosnian Serbs.

Conrad made the right judgment that this was not like the isolated operation of some madman, but organized crime. He believed that the murder of Archduke Ferdinand, in terms of effect, was Serbia's declaration of war against Austria-Hungary. This act of war, he believes, can only be responded to with war. He immediately sent a telegram to Franz Joseph I, who was vacationing at the Villa Bad Isher in the Alps, asking him whether he should interrupt the plans for Croatian military exercises and return to Vienna. The Emperor replied, Yes. The next night, Conrad drove straight to Vienna overnight.

Conrad's personality dictates that he can respond to the news of Archduke Ferdinand's assassination with a calm and belligerent attitude, as he has the same stubbornness as Archduke Ferdinand. The Chief of the General Staff of the Austro-Hungarian army was simply a soldier by nature, and the assassinated Archduke Ferdinand helped him to the post of Chief of the General Staff twice (in 1906 and 1912), and only when the emperor did not like him. It can be said that Ferdinand single-handedly contributed to his opportunity to sit as the first man in the army.

To add to this, the reason the emperor did not like him was that in November 1911, the belligerent Conrad proposed to attack Italy, which was then a formal ally of Austria-Hungary and Italy was fighting against the Ottomans, which put Conrad at a disadvantage.

However, it was Serbia that made him the most hostile, and during the outbreak of the crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he constantly demanded that his colleagues "solve the Serbian problem once and for all". Thanks to Germany's support, Vienna was able to resist Russian opposition and win European approval for Austria-Hungary's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Serbia, on the other hand, failed to stop it, and made a breakthrough from elsewhere. In the First Balkan War, a large amount of Ottoman territory was acquired. In the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria was defeated also because of Romania's participation. and, with the support of Russia, acquired part of the new territory of Bulgaria, increasing the population of the territory by almost half, and at the same time increasing the prestige of Serbia.

On the other hand, the prestige of the Austro-Hungarian Empire plummeted for its failure to intervene in the Balkan wars, and it is not surprising that the Serbs in Bosnia embraced not only national integrationism, but also political terrorism.

When Conrad saw that Serbia was not only capable of defeating the Ottomans, but also that Austria would not dare to intervene (for fear of Russian intervention), he began to fear that Austria-Hungary would not have time to solve the problem of the Slavic minorities that had accumulated for a long time.

At the first meeting of the Austro-Hungarian Cabinet after the assassination, a number of high-ranking officials considered the report sent by Sarajevo. In the end, there was a consensus that many of the assassinations on Epikoy Street appeared to have been carried out by Bosnian Serbs. And these people are all linked to the black hands in Serbia, but there is conclusive evidence that "the root of the conspiracy is Belgrade". This is what Foreign Secretary Berrhold told German Ambassador Chershki, and it was repeatedly mentioned in the coming weeks.

The Foreign Secretary said this because the Austro-Hungarian Chargé d'affaires in Belgrade had observed that it had been sent to him. After he found out locally that he had received the news of Archduke Ferdinand's assassination, the Serbian nationalists who were celebrating the festival were so excited that they fainted in the arms of others. And some say. "We've been waiting for this moment for too long."

After this cabinet meeting, there was almost unanimous opinion, the Prime Minister Count Stegger was in favor of war, the Minister of War Krobatin and the Chancellor of the Exchequer Bielinsky were also in favor of war, plus the Foreign Secretary and the Chief of the General Staff seemed to have decided to go to war in the Austro-Hungarian leadership. However, there is one high-level official who is clearly opposed to the declaration of war: Hungarian Prime Minister Tiza.

Tisza was a formidable figure in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a grim and cold man who did not speak much but carried a lot of weight. Of course, it was not only the position of prime minister that gave him such power, but also because of his family's huge influence in Hungary, not to mention Hungary's status in the dual empire of Austria-Hungary. His father, Tisza Kallman, served as Prime Minister of Hungary for 15 years (1875-1890), and even after his tenure as Prime Minister, he had to be consulted on many decrees of the Hungarian government.

In fact, Tissa did not have any good feelings for Serbia, and he hoped that Austria-Hungary would not get too involved in the affairs of the southern Balkans. If Austria-Hungary were to expand there, it would only end up weakening Hungary's special status, which would have brought in more Slavic minorities. Eventually, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would be transformed from a binary structure (Austrians and Magyars) to a ternary structure.

The attitude of Emperor Franz Joseph I was interesting: he did not care which policy the government used, but insisted on the principle that whatever kind of response the government adopted against Serbia must have the consent of Tisza and strive for the full support of Hungary.

After Foreign Minister Bertord approached Tisa in the hope that he would support, and the Hungarian Prime Minister told the Foreign Secretary. He opposed the war because Russia behind Serbia would intervene with troops, and it was unacceptable to declare war on Serbia without the support of its ally, Germany. To this end, Tissa prepared a "peace plan" for the foreign secretary to hand over to Germany.

At the heart of this "peace plan" was to draw Romania, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire into the Triple Alliance in order to thwart Russia's ambitions in the Balkans. On the surface, this is Tisza's diplomatic manipulation of Balkan politics, but in fact it is to strengthen relations with Germany, to make it more deeply involved in Austro-Hungarian affairs in the Balkans, and to turn the Balkans into a common cause of Austria-Hungary and Germany.

In the face of the assassination in Sarajevo, the Austro-Hungarian politicians could not devise their own countermeasures without the consent of Germany. This reflects the strategic incompetence of Austria-Hungary. What prevented Austria-Hungary from responding was also the internal political structure of the empire, where the high Hungarians were capable of vetoing a policy on behalf of half the empire. However, Austria-Hungary consisted of 15 nationalities and could hardly separate domestic and international policy.

Tiza's pacifist posture is also inseparable from his desire to defend the status of the Magyars. Conrad and Bertolde wanted to crush Serbia in order to weaken the wave of national independence within the empire. However, if the two wanted to achieve this goal, they first had to suppress the Magyars represented by Tisza. In this strange situation, Germany became not only the arbiter of Austro-Hungarian foreign policy, but also the cracker of the dilemma of the Austro-Hungarian system.

Now Austria-Hungary waited for the attitude of Germany.

PS Go to bed early today, get up and continue to update the codeword.