On July 1, 1914, the assassin of Archduke Ferdinand died in prison, including several prison guards and a series of related personnel, who were killed in various ways in various places that night.

Although Serbia did not capture any of the Assassins, Serbia protested strongly against the fact that they were from the Czech principality, but the Czech principality responded by declaring war. However, the German Emperor Wilhelm II was obviously dissatisfied with the rash declaration of war by the Czech Duchy, because he had not yet completed the deployment.

Austria-Hungary was also not slow to act, and the declaration of war, which had not been announced until July 28, was more than half a month earlier, and Germany followed suit with a declaration of war on Russia and Luxembourg. On the second day, Germany declared war on France, on the third day German soldiers began to attack Belgium, while Britain declared war on Germany and the United States declared neutrality.

Germany moved quickly and the same was true of Austria-Hungary and the Czech principalities, which declared war on Russia on 11 July, and Serbia in the Balkans and Negro in Mennégro on the same day.

A few days later, the President of the United States publicly declared that the United States would remain neutral in this war, and the Panama Canal, one of the two most strategically important artificial waterways in the world, was opened, the other being the Suez Canal, which brought the world closer.

Ships sailing between the east and west coasts of the United States had to make a detour through Cape Horn in South America, which could be shortened by about 15,000 kilometers (8,000 nautical miles) using the Panama Canal. Voyages of up to 6,500 kilometres (3,500 nautical miles) can also be saved from one coast on one side of North America to South American ports on the other. Ships sailing between Europe and East Asia or Australia can also reduce their range by 3,700 km (2,000 nautical miles) via the canal.

The Panama Canal has a total length of 81.3 kilometers, a water depth of 13 meters ~ 15 meters, and a river width of 152 meters to 304 meters. The water level of the entire canal is 26 meters higher than the two oceans, and there are 6 locks. It usually takes 9 hours for ships to cross the canal, and ships of 76,000 tons can be navigated.

The opening of the Panama Canal was indeed a direct concern of all countries, but at this time, the most important concern of all countries was the war, whether it was Britain, France, Germany or even the United States, most of the daily content of the newspapers was related to the war, and in such an environment, the German army occupied Brussels, the capital and largest city of Belgium, and Japan began to declare war on Germany.

The newspaper is updated very frequently every day, because in less than 3 hours a new country may have declared war with another country, and in less than 1 hour a new city has fallen, as in the case of Brussels, the capital of Belgium, although the pace of this fall is still a little slow.

Germany's war plan was formulated by former Chief of the General Staff Schlieffen in 1905, and the core of it was to concentrate strong forces on the Western Front, encircle the French army from the flanks through Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, which were empty in defense, and defeat France in a quick and decisive battle. Then move eastward and then deal with Russia. After the outbreak of the war, Moltke the Younger, the chief of the German General Staff, followed the plan of his predecessor and used only 9 divisions plus 5 divisions of the Czech principality to monitor Russia, while the Western Front concentrated 7 army groups with a total of 78 divisions, divided into left and right flanks with Metz as the axis. 2 armies on the left flank, with a total of 23 divisions, guarding the positions in the Alsace and Lorraine regions on the Franco-German border south of Metz; Five armies on the right flank, with a total of 55 divisions, broke through the northern border of France through Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

But unfortunately the plan was wrong, Belgium did not agree to take the road and resisted very stubbornly, although not too much time was wasted, but every minute of the war was very important, because the German soldiers did not know how much to lose in this minute.

Since the end of the Franco-Prussian War, in order to avenge the defeat, the French army began to formulate one war plan after another against Germany from 1872, and there were as many as 17 before the start of the war. The latest plan was drawn up by the Chief of the General Staff of the French Army, General Chauffeur, the "Plan No. 17". At the heart of the plan was the idea that the Germans would be massed along the fortified Franco-German border, so that the French would launch an aggressive offensive there and regain the provinces of Salsas and Lorraine, which had been lost in the Franco-Prussian War.

The right-flank Germans invaded Belgium, and because of the stubborn resistance of the Belgian troops, they were blocked for three days in the fortification, and on the 20th they occupied Brussels, which undoubtedly delayed the occupation. At this time, several main French armies were launching an offensive on the left flank of the German army in accordance with the "Plan No. 17".

However, the initial battles showed that "Plan No. 17" was bad. At Greene, the French 1st and 2nd Armies were overwhelmed by the attack on the German lines at Saarburg and Morange. After the occupation of Belgium by the right-wing German army, nearly a million men and horses of its 5 armies, like a wielded sickle, penetrated diagonally from Belgium into France. Walking on the far right was the 1st Army under the command of Kluk, about 300,000 men, which was seen as the main force of the right flank and the main attacking force of the march to Paris. The army group entered France from Belgium on 24 August. On 25 August, the Germans captured Namur. In order to hinder the advance of this German right-flank force, Xia Fei mobilized troops from the Grimm battlefield to form the French 6th Army, which was commanded by Mao Laoli.

To be honest, the matter of the fine line was not very related to the Czech principality and with Ernst, and it was his father-in-law Nicholas II who he really had to guard against.

5 Royal Army divisions have already gone to East Prussia, and the news from Russia says that the Russian army has begun to move, although the specific details are not yet known, but there is no doubt that the war on the Eastern Front is coming.

The temporary staff office of the Czech principality was busy, André was no longer here, he was really uneasy in his heart, so he went straight to the front, not to see that Ernst and Massena, who had nothing to do with military affairs, were still living as before, but they were also undoubtedly affected, and Massena would arrange for his secretary to inquire about the progress of the war in less than three hours.

At this time, the war had started on the border between Austria-Hungary and Russia, and the two sides were not only fighting fiercely in the army, but also the air force was fighting quite fiercely.

Ernst's heart was undoubtedly very worried, there were Austro-Hungarian soldiers in front of him, but everyone knew that they couldn't stop it for too long, and soon the soldiers of the Czech Duchy would collide with each other, and the real combat effectiveness of the Czech Duchy would be presented to the world for the first time.

Just as Germany announced the capture of the Belgian city of Antwerp on the Western Front, the Turkish Ottoman Empire finally put aside its hesitation to participate in this war, and its first target was Russia, and the naval shelling caused France, Britain, and Russia to declare war on it.

By this time, it was September, and the vanguard of the rapidly advancing German Army Group Kluk had advanced only 15 miles from Paris, and the main French army under the command of General Chauffeur had failed in their efforts to hold back the German right flank. The Parisians panicked, and the French government moved to Bordeaux.

At this time, Ernst finally waited for an important piece of news, the Russian army appeared on the border of the Czech principality, most of the Austro-Hungarian troops on the front line had withdrawn, and the major hospitals in the eastern part of the Czech principality were full of wounded, so the security in the place had dropped a lot.

As the Grand Duke of the Czech Duchy, how could Ernst stay in Prague at this time? Without hesitation, Ernst chose to go to the front, and his role was only one, and that was to stabilize the morale of the army!

East Prussian battlefields at the same time:

"The German commander asked us to attack Klaipėda? This is not an easy task, and our task is to help the German Army defend and not ......"

Before a major general of the Royal Czech Army could finish speaking, he was interrupted by another laughing and teasing: "Don't you know that the best defense is to attack?" Our Grand Duke is the favorite of these words, don't complain and don't forget what the order we were given when we came! ”

At the end, the general's face was very serious, and when he recalled what Ernst had said when he left, the general at the beginning couldn't help but feel a little lost. Oh, yes! Ernst had told them to obey the orders of the German commanders anyway, even if some of the orders seemed to be deliberately sent to hell.

Attacking Klaipeda is a mission to the death? In fact, this is not the case, and now the Russian army is at odds with the German army in East Prussia, and as long as they are concealed and not discovered, they are still likely to come to the outside of Klaipeda.

Can Klaipeda be taken? Why did the German commander arrange the Royal Czech Army? It's nothing more than because he is so well equipped that these German generals are the envy of them, what city can't take that large-caliber field artillery? The countless machine guns and other auxiliary weapons were undoubtedly defensive weapons.

The difficulty of such a task is how to bypass it, and if it can block the 20-day attack of the Russian army without any army reinforcements, this task is more easy and less casualties than helping the German army defend East Prussia.

Of course, if you happen to encounter a large force of Russian troops on the road, then it is very normal for the Czech troops of these army divisions to be wiped out, and there is no doubt that this matter depends on luck and proportionality. But at the same time, huge efforts will have great gains, and once they succeed, they will be the most dazzling heroes of the German Eastern Front.

Ernst's character is estimated that few people in the Czech Duchy are not clear, and after going back, the colonel will become a brigadier general, and the brigadier general will become a major general, and it is very likely that a smaller rank will go directly from a lieutenant to a colonel, and he has never been stingy with his own son Ernst of the Royal Army.