After Mi Qing, after Li Sidi completed the Industrial Bureau, he also formalized the Finance Department and established a formal Finance Department; Send a telegram to Li Fuan, who is far away in Jinan, and ask him to regularize the organization department. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Just like Wang Qiu was unqualified, Yang Chao promoted Mi Qing, Wu Peifu has been in charge of the army, and Yang Chao asked Li Fuan, who performed well, to replace him as the head of the organization.

These four departments are large and small, the large propaganda department has 1,000 people, the small organization department has about 100 people, the finance department only needs about 100 people, and the logistics department has a little more than 300 people.

By regularizing the party organization, Yang Chao completed the final preparations for the war.

At the same time, the European continent was turbulent, the atmosphere suddenly became tense, and everyone suddenly smelled of war.

Although the emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is no longer the emperor of the Habsburg family who dominated Europe for generations, there is no shortage of people among the Austrians who have a sense of great power.

The emperor had no feelings for the death of his nephew, he was already in his 80s, and he had no passion and no energy to deal with a war, so he did not want to, nor did he have the energy to start a war.

But he didn't want to, someone did.

The chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff, Kondla, thought it out.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire borders the Balkans, a famous powder keg in Europe.

The reason why it became a powder keg is because of its geographical location, historical reasons and ethnic composition, geographically, it is the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, Europe through Asia, the junction of Asia, Africa and Europe. So Russia wanted to get a road to the Mediterranean through here, and Germany needed to pass through it along with Asia. Historically, it was also a battleground between Turkey and Europe, and was ruled by the Ottoman Empire for a long time. The complex history has created a complex ethnic composition here, with more than a dozen ethnic groups such as Greeks, Slavs, Thracians, Germans, Hungarians, Muslims, and Croats.

The national contradictions were extremely fierce, so when the area was freed from the rule of Austria-Hungary, wars often broke out.

In the two years between 1912 and 1913 alone, two major wars broke out here.

The Balkan League (Greece, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Serbia) went to war with the Ottoman Empire, which resulted in the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, ceding all of its lands on the Balkan Peninsula to the four Allied Powers, except for a small area near Istanbul, and Albania becoming independent.

However, after the war, the benefits were unevenly distributed, and the Balkan alliance fought with each other, and the Second Balkan War broke out, in which Greece, Serbia, Romania, and Turkey attacked Bulgaria, as a result, Bulgaria was defeated and ceded a large area of land.

In 1913, during the Balkan Wars, he made 25 demands for war against Serbia, but they were blocked by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, believing that the international situation was not conducive to war.

Conrad was a typical militant, but why he was targeting Serbia was because of a territorial dispute between the two countries.

In 1908, as a result of the Turkish Revolution, Austria-Hungary seized the two provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina under the notice of Austria-Hungary, and Austria-Hungary's annexation of these two provinces was justified, as early as 1878 in the Treaty of Berlin, they seized the administration of these two provinces from the decaying Ottoman Empire, which stipulated that the two provinces were administered by Austria-Hungary, but still nominally belonged to Turkey.

It was also in 1878 that Serbia, with the support of Russia, became an independent state through the Treaty of Berlin, freeing itself from Ottoman Turkish rule, and since then, Serbia has had intentions against the two provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, because these two provinces have a large number of Slavs, and Serbia is a predominantly Slavic country.

Serbia, as a backward agrarian country, is interested in the territory of Austria-Hungary, an industrial country, which is as puzzling as a sheep always thinking about the territory of a lion, as if the Vietnamese wanted to annex China's Guangxi on the grounds that Guangxi was inhabited by ethnic Vietnamese.

But with the support of the Russians, Serbia had no small courage, and Austria-Hungary annexed these two provinces to prevent Serbian expansion in the Balkans, and they had always hoped to establish a Slavic Greater Serbia. This is very similar to the nationalist expansion of Vietnam, which challenges China.

Therefore, Serbia has been secretly inciting the Slavic peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina to rebel and create separatism in the territory of Austria-Hungary.

Therefore, Conrad had long wanted to destroy Serbia, and had always been worried that he was also a Slav, and he had been expanding to the Balkans and getting the intervention of the Russians with a passage out of the Mediterranean, so Austria-Hungary has been patient until now.

This time Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, and Conrad was first furious.

The reason for his anger was that he had a good relationship with Archduke Ferdinand, who appreciated and cherished each other, and Archduke Ferdinand was a resolute and tough man who liked hunting, cared about the military, and had a very military image. In 1906, Archduke Ferdinand strongly recommended Conrad, allowing him to proudly surpass 45 older senior officers and directly serve as Chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff.

Although Europeans do not understand this sentence, their feelings are the same. Conrad also worked hard and actively to modernize the Austro-Hungarian army, and in a few years he trained frantically, turning the previously loose Austro-Hungarian army into a war machine.

But the war machine never had a chance to move, the aging Emperor Joseph never supported the war, and Archduke Ferdinand was Conrad's staunchest supporter and hope.

But when this supporter, confidant, and hope was suddenly assassinated, Conrad immediately expressed his anger, cried out that Serbia must be eliminated.

At the same time, he also felt that the opportunity had come, and the Austro-Hungarian foreign minister also changed his image of weakness in the past, sided with Conrad, and began to strongly express his desire for war.

Austria-Hungary's Foreign Minister Bechtold is a bit like China's Li Hongzhang, since Austria was excluded from Germany from Germany, the Habsburgs built the Austro-Hungarian Empire by forming the dual empire of Austria and Hungary, but as Germany became stronger and stronger, the center of Europe shifted more and more to Berlin, and Vienna was more and more marginalized, not only in the German region, but also in Central Europe, and even the entire European region.

As an ancient empire that was getting weaker and weaker, Austria-Hungary's international influence was naturally weakening day by day, and its diplomatic influence was also rapidly declining, and it was still panicked under the pressure of the Russians, so taking a defensive position was the only right choice, but weak diplomacy was scolded as a coward by the national elements at home who wanted to prove that they were still a strong empire through war.

This time the coward believed that the time had come for Austria-Hungary to go to war, and to prove to the world through war that Austria-Hungary was still a great power.

Bechtold's basis was that because the murderer was a Serb and had been trained by the Serbian military, the Serbian government would definitely not be able to get out of it, and even directly participated in the matter, and he demanded that the matter be investigated immediately, and as soon as the slightest clue was found, an ultimatum would be issued directly to Serbia, and then there would be war.

Bechtold decided that as long as Austria-Hungary found evidence, then Tsarist Russia had no excuse to enter the war, after all, the Austro-Hungarian crown prince was dead, and as a monarchy, it was really difficult for Tsarist Russia to arbitrarily interfere with Austria-Hungary's retaliation.

Therefore, Bechtold asked the emperor to start propaganda for war, and at the same time to make an ultimatum to Serbia, and on the other hand, actively carry out relevant diplomatic activities, especially to win the support of his ally Germany, so that he would not be afraid of the Russians.

In addition, Bechtold also believed that Russia had fought two major wars in the East in five years, and both of them had failed, losing millions of square kilometers of territory, and that it had long been depleted and that there was no threat to its own form, and they believed that even if they did, the Russians might not dare to go to war with Austria-Hungary.

The Austro-Hungarian ultimatum was very harsh, such as canceling Serbian anti-Austrian-Hungarian propaganda, such as revising anti-Austrian-Hungarian textbooks under Austro-Hungarian supervision, etc., but strangely, the Serbian government accepted almost all of them, but did not accept that Austria-Hungary sent people to Serbia to investigate the assassination.

At the same time, Austria-Hungary's diplomatic actions against Germany have borne fruit, the process has been full of twists and turns, after the assassination, the reason why Austria-Hungary was calm was precisely because the German embassy requested, they asked Austria-Hungary to refrain from it, because Germany has always been trying to maintain stability in the Balkans, Germany's continental railway through this area directly to Baghdad, although because of the British obstruction, they could not build to the Persian Gulf, but this Eastern railway is still very important to Germany, they can not tolerate the continuous war in the Balkans.

But the German diplomatic embassy did a stupid thing, they felt that their response was not safe, and sent a telegram to the Kaiser, expressing the hope that a higher level would come forward and exert pressure on Austria-Hungary, so that Austria-Hungary could try its best to resolve the matter peacefully, because the German diplomatic embassy found that there was an undercurrent surging within Austria-Hungary, and the main war faction was already quietly active, and they were afraid that they could not be suppressed by diplomatic means alone, and hoped to rely on the interaction between German and Austrian monarchs to resolve the matter.

As a result, the Kaiser annoyed the Kaiser, who scolded who gave you (German diplomats) the power to let you interfere like this, and the Kaiser was furious and personally gave an order for Austria-Hungary to immediately prepare a lesson for Serbia and solve it as soon as possible!

The Kaiser was so angry because his weak heart was stinging at this time, and if the death of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife was the most wounded among the nobles of Europe and China, it was the Kaiser.

The Kaiser did not look down on the aging Austro-Hungarian Emperor Joseph, but felt pity for the ambitious Archduke Ferdinand, who believed that the German-Austrian alliance would be stronger when Ferdinand succeeded to the throne in the future, and the two did have many common interests on the surface, such as a love of hunting, such as caring for the army, and so on.

The two were very good friends in private, and just a week before the murder of Archduke Ferdinand, the Kaiser had personally hosted a banquet for him, which was attended by only four people.

But a week later, his best friend died, and his diplomats were pressuring Austria-Hungary to avenge Ferdinand's best friend.

The sudden assurances of the Kaiser made Austria-Hungary ecstatic, and diplomats and military members took action one after another and began to put pressure on Serbia to prepare for war.

But the Kaiser was never a firm man, and his big tongue was famous in Europe, and he was rated by journalists as the freest man of speech in Europe, and he soon regretted his assurance, and personally met with the Austro-Hungarian diplomats, hoping that they would exercise restraint.

Austria-Hungary was depressed, and was a little uneasy about this upside-down allied emperor, so he specially sent a noble diplomat to visit Wilhelm II in a private capacity, and talked with him for a long time, but finally found that Wilhelm II still refused to give Austria-Hungary a positive guarantee.

Before leaving, the Austro-Hungarian envoy said with great emotion: "Your Majesty, Archduke Ferdinand was once a faithful admirer of yours. ”

This sentence somehow dispatched Wilhelm II, and before the Austro-Hungarian envoy left the palace, he was caught up by the Kaiser's attendants, who told him: "Whatever Austria-Hungary wants to do to Serbia, Germany is her strong backing, and will not hesitate to stand by the side of the allies." But there's one thing, and that's fast! ”

Austria-Hungary did not dare to wait, they did not know if the Kaiser would change his mind after waiting, and while the empty check of the Kaiser had not yet expired, Austria-Hungary acted extremely quickly to complete all preparations for war, and although Serbia intended to accept the ultimatum, they still declared war on Serbia, and then shelled Belgrade!

It was July 18, 1914, three weeks and 20 days after the assassination, 10 days earlier than the original history.

But at this time, it was not the outbreak of a world war, because Britain, France, Germany, and Russia had not yet acted, and at best Austria-Hungary was punishing Serbia.

"It doesn't seem to be the same!"

In the evening, Yang Chao received the news of the declaration of war by Austria-Hungary, and couldn't help but sigh, because things were much worse than he expected, and the rest of Europe was not ready for war at this time, if Austria-Hungary acted fast enough to create an established fact, it was difficult to say that there would be a war!

Of course, the diplomatic atmosphere in Europe is still very strong, and all sides are active.

The Russians were furious and clamored to punish Austria-Hungary, and the Kaiser corresponded closely with the Tsar, telling him to exercise restraint and hope that the Tsar would understand the anger of a country that had lost its crown prince.

The French president rushed to Russia to attend a Franco-Russian summit and exchange views with the Russian tsar on the situation of the war in the Balkans.

The French president directly stated that France is a staunch ally of Russia, that the two countries have the same interests, that they are closely united under the threat of Germany, that the Franco-Russian alliance can guarantee and maintain peace in Europe, and that France will firmly support Russia no matter what Russia decides.

The assurances of the French reassured the Russians, and they could do a great deal, but the first thing they had to solve was the Eastern question, and the Russian diplomatic envoys immediately approached Yang Chao, hoping that Yang Chao could guarantee the security of their eastern border.

And Yang Chao really didn't have the ability to give them this guarantee, because when Yang Chao was confused about the direction of the European war, he himself was in trouble, and his recruitment operation was strongly obstructed by Yuan Shikai. (To be continued.) )