When Monakello awoke from his coma, he found himself lying in a room with white walls, his muscles and bones hurting as if they were falling apart, but he clenched his teeth and did not scream. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

What's going on?

The last memories were collected from the drowsy head, the town of Nadi, the spruce tree, Prince Felix, and the gunshot......

I obviously gave up the idea of sniping Prince Felix, the gunshot, and my current situation, it was clear that someone had shot at him, was the Austrian soldier in charge of the guard found out?

Monakello wanted to raise his hand and scratch his head, but found that his hands and feet could not move, this was not only a matter of pain, but also his wrists and ankles were restrained, and it seemed that he had indeed become a prisoner!

Thinking of this, the Austro-Hungarian citizen sighed in frustration, turned his head and looked silently at the window, the clouds fluttering in the sky, the birds jumping on the branches, they were free, and he had just lost his most precious freedom.

After some time, the door was pushed open, and Monakello did not pretend to be asleep, but continued to look out the window.

"You're awake!"

A light and pleasant voice came into Monaquelo's ears, and he turned his head to see that it was a young girl in a nurse's hat and a nurse's uniform, not very pretty, and there was no amiable smile on her face, but it still made Monaquelo's heart throb inexplicably, and then deep regret. I am afraid that I have no chance to live an ordinary life anymore, and those ideals and beliefs that were once engraved in my heart suddenly lost their original meaning at this moment......

Watching the nurse walk up to him, touch his forehead with the back of her hand, and then turn back to the cabinet and take out the syringes and potions from the white tray she had brought in, he moved his lips slightly, squeezing a few weak syllables out of his dry throat: "Where is this?" ”

"Bolzano Mission Hospital." She replied.

Monakello stared at the nurse's hand, a pair of very white hands with slender fingers, which reminded him of her he hadn't seen in years.

"How long have I been unconscious?"

"You were sent here two days ago, and you were badly wounded, and we thought you wouldn't survive."

Before he could ask anything more, the door was opened again, and a well-dressed officer walked in, squinted at him, and said coldly: "You were hit by two bullets, and you didn't die if you fell from a tree more than twenty meters high, boy, your luck is really good, it's surprising!" ”

Monakello could see at a glance that this guy was a major in the gendarmerie unit, and he did not answer, and only after the nurse finished giving him an intravenous injection without saying a word did he speak: "God forbid!" ”

The officer looked at him with a mocking expression, and waited patiently for the nurse to pack up her things and leave the room before snorting coldly: "God will not bless a despicable criminal who tries to attack members of the imperial family!" ”

"Believe it or not," said Monakelo, "Believe it or not, when I found out that he was Prince Felix, I gave up my plan to attack. ”

The officer walked to the window, took out a box of cigarettes from his pocket, took out one, paused on the cigarette case, and put it in his mouth: "Do you think such a clumsy lie can fool me?" ”

Monakello felt the need to defend himself, and he couldn't defend himself.

The officer smiled coldly, lit a match, lit a cigarette, took a puff, then held a cigarette roll in his left hand, and took out a brown paper book and a pen from the leather bag in his right hand, leaning against the window: "Say, what is your name?" ”

A wave of pain hit, Monakello gritted his teeth, and then replied in a deep voice: "Rayali Monakello." ”

"Nationality?"

"Austria-Hungary."

"Birthplace?"

"South Tyrol, Gromersson."

"Gromelson? It's basically all descendants of the Romans! Great Roman descent! The officer's last phrase, "Great Roman descent," was deliberately uttered in Italian, a common taunt against the Italian-speaking inhabitants in the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Monakello glanced at him hatefully, but said nothing.

The officer did not feel bored, he took a puff on his cigarette and continued to ask as he took notes in his notebook.

"Served in the military? Well? ”

"I served for two years in the 2nd Hunting Regiment in Tyrol."

The officer didn't seem surprised, and as he wrote, he muttered, "It's a shame for the 2nd Chasseur Regiment to have a traitor like you!" Disgrace! ”

Monakello clenched his fists, but he still couldn't move his hands and feet.

The officer glanced at him and sneered, "Ho, angry? Want to finish me off with that Italian rifle of yours? Speaking of which, the Italians are actually issuing you the same kind of old-fashioned rifles, and their M38 rifles, although not very good, are much easier to use than the M1891. ”

Monakello couldn't help but retort: "When I was still serving in the army, I heard them say that the gendarmes were shameless bastards, and now it seems that they really live up to their reputation!" ”

The officer was not at all angry, he looked at Monakelo: "It seems that you have indeed served in the Austrian army, and there is not a single officer or soldier here who is not afraid of the gendarmes, and the more you speak disparagemently, the more they show that they are afraid." ”

"But I don't understand why a gendarmerie officer should come and interrogate me, a man who has long since retired?" Monakello voiced his doubts.

The officer finished writing the last stroke in his notebook, and then put it away: "It seems that you are a smart man, and I like to deal with smart people. Let's be straight, with the fact that you attempted to attack Prince Felix, the court would definitely sentence you to death by hanging for treason, but I can let you live. ”

Monakello glared at him warily, "What do you want from me?" ”

The officer extinguished the cigarette butt, then took out a piece of paper from his purse and raised it in his hand: "A testimony." ”

Monakello was puzzled: "What is written on it?" ”

The officer looked at him with a smile: "If you are bent on death, you don't have to know what is written on it, and if you want to live, then do as I say, if you dare to regret it halfway, not only your life will be guaranteed, but your family will also be sentenced to death!" ”

"So I don't have a choice?" Monakello asked rhetorically.

The officer walked up to him and said condescendingly: "Anyway, you are a descendant of the Romans, and some things will make no difference to you regardless of the outcome, but you can survive, and this is the most important thing." How is it? Need to think about it for a few minutes? ”

Monakello thought for a moment: "If I agree to your request, how can you guarantee that I will not be sentenced to be hanged?" How can I ensure that my family is not implicated? ”

The officer held his head high and said, "You can only choose to believe." ”

Monakello hesitated, but in the end curiosity and desire to survive prevailed: "Well, tell me, what is my testimony. ”

The officer cleared his throat, picked up the piece of paper, and read in a voice that was neither high nor low: "The reason why I ambushed outside the town of Nadi was to kill Prince Felix, who had come to inspect, and to provoke a war between Austria-Hungary and Italy, which, however large and long, would be an unbearable burden on the less than ideal economy and finances of Austria-Hungary, and which would inevitably weaken the position of the Emperor and the Crown Prince in the eyes of the people, during which His Excellency the Archduke of Austria-Este and his followers would be actively campaigning, He called for peace, raised food and clothing for the poor people everywhere, raised his prestige, and staged a military coup d'état at the right time to force the Austrian emperor to abdicate and the crown prince to give up the right to inherit the throne. ”

After hearing this, Monakello was stunned, how could he not have thought that such a small person as himself would be involved in the struggle for power and profit at the top of the empire, and become a pawn of one faction to bring down another. With his pitiful political vision, it was not clear for a time what kind of conspiracy was behind this, but as the gendarmerie officer said, the "great Roman descendant" had no interest in the political situation in Austria-Hungary, and it made no difference to him who was overthrown and who became emperor, and he had been bent on returning to the bosom of the Italian motherland and being an upright Italian, but now he felt that it was better to live freely than anything else.

After a long while, Monakello proclaimed, "Why do I think that if I sign this confession, I will die sooner and more miserably than if I reject it?" ”

The officer laughed: "If I were you, I would probably have such worries, and the truth is that we will protect you as an important witness, except for the chief justice and a few senior examiners, no one can get close to you, and when it comes to the court trial, we will let you get a light sentence, at most let you stay in prison for a few years, and then give you a large sum of money to take your family to live in Italy." You can rest assured, since the big people above have promised, they will definitely not break their promises, and they can value credibility more than life. ”

Monakello fell silent, although he came from a commoner family and had never been in contact with the royal family, but through the famous historical stories and operas, he knew that the great men were chivalrous in some ways and cruel in others. Judging from the perjury testimony that the gendarmerie officer had just read, the target of the mastermind behind the plot was the Archduke of Austria-Esther, the second son of Emperor Karl I of Austria, and the elder brother of Prince Felix. Not only was he second in line to the throne of the Emperor of Austria, the King of Hungary and the King of Bohemia, but he was also elected as the patriarch of the Este branch due to the extinction of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand, and received the title of Archduke of Austria-Esther, so he had his own domain and many supporters. For many years, he was a philanthropic contender, donating to the poor and building schools throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire, especially in economically underdeveloped areas, and won the general favor of the people at the bottom, so he was regarded as the most formidable contender for Crown Prince Otto von Habsburg......

Otto von Habsburg is the first son of Emperor Karl I and Empress Zita, the couple has a total of six sons and four daughters, there is an old Chinese saying called many sons and many blessings, the orthodox blood of the Habsburgs passed down to him at least there will be no worries about heirs, but in the royal family, too many heirs are often not a good thing.

In general, Otto von Habsburg behaved in all respects worthy of the status of prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and in Neletania (the full name of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the kingdom and the royal domain represented by the Imperial Diet and the Crown of St. Stephen of Hungary), the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was generally divided into two parts: Inner Letania refers to the part west of the Leta River, including Austria, Slovenia, Bohemia, Moravia, Galicia, and Dalmatia, which are collectively referred to as " the kingdoms and territories represented by the Imperial Parliament"; Transleitania refers to the part east of the Leta River, including Hungary, Slovakia, Transylvania, and Croatia, which is collectively known as the "Crown of St. Stephen") is very popular with the people, while in Transleitania, he tried to win the hearts and minds of the people by introducing some reforms, but in the end he failed, so that his popularity in the region was greatly affected, and some of his words and deeds also aroused the resentment of the Slavs, and some even threatened to let him follow in the footsteps of Archduke Ferdinand.

(End of chapter)