When the 7th Division of the Serbian Army made a historic way to open the road to the sea in this landlocked country, Major General Miseggs, who was almost determined to become a national hero, could not imagine what an incredible Pandora's box he had opened with his own hands.

However, this veteran soldier who participated in the Serbian and Bulgarian wars obviously realized that the threat of the Ottoman Empire was almost negligible, but the next blow from Austria-Hungary was probably a big problem that he had to deal with with all his might.

Immediately after taking control of the port of Budva on August 4, the local arsenal was opened, and a large number of Serb paramilitary units were recruited to participate in the local militarized management. The Bellane line advanced westward, pushing the front that had the potential to break out in the direction of Sarajevo.

The plan of the Serbian War Ministry to seize the Montenegro region of Herzegovia was naturally well thought out, and the passage to the Adriatic Sea was a key point in the future fate of the republic, and at this point, Serbia was forced to go all out.8 However, the power of Austria-Hungary was by no means to be underestimated, and Austria-Hungary also had obvious ambitions for Bosnia and Herzegovina, so it opened a gap in the Herzegovina-Montenegro region, which was furthest from the Bosnia-Austria-Hungary border, became the key to the planning of the Serbs.

In this case, the territory of Herzegovia was cut off by the waist. Serbia received the possibility of expansion from both flanks. If possible. The Government of Serbia will not hesitate to swallow all the territory of Herzegovina...... Even if Austria-Hungary were to send troops, it would have to carefully consider finding an excuse to annex Bosnian territory before it could enter Herzegovia on a large scale, but reaching the front would obviously effectively drain the military effectiveness of Austria-Hungary.

By then, the Serbs will have built up enough defense lines to deal with the attack! Of course, the premise is that the Serbian army must immediately and carefully judge the situation and act! Moreover, Serbia clearly has a stronger grip......

On August 7, despite a strong military warning from Austria-Hungary. Germany did not hesitate to threaten war with all parties trying to get involved in the Herzegovina crisis, but the Russian Empire still made an extremely strong diplomatic statement, announcing that it would take the initiative to send troops to assist in the event of an attack on Serbian proper, and the Russian side did not make any clear definition of the so-called Serbian proper, which is obviously St. Petersburg's greatest diplomatic and military flexibility.

It was obvious that the German-Austrian alliance could not accept such a threat, and the German staff immediately activated the war plan and announced a war mobilization. Expand the size of the German Army from 600,000 to 900,000, and call up reserves to form a new military force as appropriate. Once Austria-Hungary is attacked by foreign forces, it will immediately organize the forces of the alliance to launch an all-out counterattack.

On 15 August, the Serbian army had successfully taken control of most of the territory of the Herzegovian Montenegrin region, and the seventh, ninth, and eleventh divisions of the forward Serbian army arrived at the line from Wishegrad to the port of Dubrovnik in the Adriatic Sea.

At this moment, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's original military strength in Bosnia and Herzegovina was only more than 5,000 marines, although the imperial navy also rushed from the port of Asterto to reinforce, however, the lack of land cover, the small Adriatic Sea activities, even in the face of Serbia, which has no navy at all, the Austro-Hungarian navy has to worry about the threat of coastal artillery, which directly leads to the Austro-Hungarian reinforcements have not yet entered Herzegovina.

Continue to advance and occupy Sarajevo...... On 18 August, the 11th Serbian Army received a new order to suspend the construction of a defensive line in the Focha area and instead launch an offensive to Sarajevo, 70 kilometers away, to completely destroy the Austro-Hungarian defenses in Herzegovina.

"Chancellor, Germany wants our help, they fear that the French will soon be united with the Russians, in that case, even if Germany's powerful fighters can crush the French, I am afraid that Austria-Hungary will not be able to resist the attack of Russia and the Balkan Slavic states!" In the Beijing Prime Minister's Office, Wu Tingfang, senior counselor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said to Zhou Ruidong with a cup of strong tea and a pair of red eyes.

Zhou Ruidong nodded, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already exploded in the past ten days, and the ministers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Russia, and Ottoman have taken turns to go into battle, all of which are spying on China's position in the Far East...... But at the same time, with the interests of 60,000,000 citizens at stake, Beijing was obviously also deliberate, and he turned his head and swept his gaze to the bigwigs of the Ministry of Military Affairs sitting on the left.

At this moment, Xu Shoushan naturally understood that it was the moment when he appeared, and he immediately came to the side of the chamber next to the map of Europe that had been hung, and pointed to the Republic of Serbia, which has now expanded to the Adriatic Sea, "Serbia is fighting against opponents who are several times their size, which makes me have to admire their courage to bet, if Austria-Hungary does not send troops from Bosnia, but directly attacks the northern border of Serbia from Hungary, I am afraid that the war is over now!" ”

"Chief Xu, has the Ministry of Military Affairs conducted a demonstration on this? How long did it take for Austria-Hungary to defeat Serbia? He Xing, the general minister of the Ministry of Commerce on the side, has already opened his mouth to ask about the results, once a war breaks out in Europe, the most affected is naturally the Ministry of Commerce, and now the trade with Europe and the Americas, especially the Nanyang industry with a large number of European shadow companies.

Italy and the Ottoman Empire are still fighting in the Mediterranean, although the sea power contest between the two sides is very cautious, but destroyers, torpedo boats and other small warships are indeed in contact with very frequent, and recently Greece has suddenly been involved in the battle for the territory of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Navy obviously has another target to deal with, Greece and the Ottoman Empire are also separated by the Ionian Sea, it is likely that Greece and Italy will unite to deal with the Ottoman Navy...... This is not a good thing for the frequent maritime trade routes of the Mediterranean.

As for the trade through the Panama Canal, because the canal has only been put into trial operation, the throughput capacity is really limited, and the military ships are still the main service objects, so it is still difficult to rely on the Panama Canal to travel through the Atlantic Ocean at least in the short term.

Xu Shoushan immediately gave a prediction for He Xing's question, "Chief He, we got the news from Germany and Austria-Hungary, although they have carried out war mobilization, they will definitely not be able to come up with the determination to fight a decisive battle with the Russian Empire, you know, Serbia only has 200,000 troops, but the Russian Empire has deployed more than 700,000 land forces around the Black Sea and the Black Sea Fleet, which has always been a deadly force!" ”

"So, it's hard to get a quick end to the war?!" He Xing immediately understood the decision of the Ministry of Military Affairs, and he immediately began to think about the investment in overseas territories that the Ministry of Commerce was working on, and the news from the Ottoman Empire that the two countries were secretly signing an agreement on the joint development of the territories along the Red Sea coast, as long as there was no access to the Guò Suez Canal, China's military base in the Red Sea was enough to control the security...... It seems that the direction of state-owned investment needs to be adjusted.

"Not only is it difficult to fight a quick battle, but I am afraid that if the war continues, it will turn into a big brawl...... The Ottoman Empire couldn't hold on to its own land, none of these Europeans were fuel-efficient lamps, and there would only be one ending! ”

“……”

The meeting lasted for a whole day, and the high-level leaders from the Ministry of Military Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Intelligence Department submitted their own plans on how to deal with the situation in Europe early the next morning, and Zhou Ruidong's cabinet reacted very quickly!

On August 25, when the Austro-Hungarian Army and the 11th Division of the Serbian Army exchanged fire 8 kilometers west of Sarajevo City, Beijing sent a strong message that shocked the world!

The Chinese Government announced that in the midst of changes in the world situation, the Chinese Government has decided to hold a military exercise of naval coordinated operations at the Hawaiian Military Port on 27 August, and a large-scale army exercise in the Ili region of Xinjiang and the Beihai region of Siberia on 30 August, and what shocked the world was that the troops mobilized in these two military exercises reached an astonishing 700,000 troops.

You must know that according to the earlier disarmament of the Chinese army, nearly one-third of the conventional troops have been reduced, and China announced the reorganization of the army, navy, and air force at the end of last year, which is regarded by the outside world as a new trend in the reform of China's first affairs, but it was not expected at all that the size of the squadron has undergone amazing changes in just half a year, and now nearly 700,000 troops have been dispatched at one time, which will directly put huge pressure on the Russian Empire.

The Chinese used less than 300,000 troops, and the shock of this large-scale military exercise to the Russians was obviously enough to shake the Russians' determination to try to fight in the Balkans, and Russia has not yet come out of the shadow of the defeat in Siberia, and now, the Chinese have built the railway to the farthest end of Ili and the end of the Tangnu-Uliang Sea, while the Russians' Siberian Railway brought a logistical rout in 1891.

On the same day, Jieyang, Guangdong, Qin Kai stood in front of Seeking Truth from Truth with a heavy heart, a few minutes ago, he held Ding Richang's withered hand that gradually lost his strength to bid farewell to the old man who had the grace of knowing him, and the old man was peaceful and calm when he died, and his last wish was to donate the collection of books collected by Seeking Truth from Zhai all his life, and a moment later, he got a telegram from Beijing sent by the guard officer. (To be continued......)