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"Dear Sophia, dear Sophia, don't die!" In the best hospital in Sarajevo, in front of a bed, Franz. Archduke Ferdinand took his wife's cold hand and shouted hysterically: "Live for our children!"

Archduke Ferdinand, wearing a slightly comically decorated helmet and a field marshal's uniform held up by his huge frame, spent the night at his bedside, his face tired and his voice a little hoarse...... But the hoarse shouts were useless.

After the wife of Archduke Ferdinand was seriously injured, she was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment, and finally died. On that day, the bomb fell not far behind Archduke Ferdinand and his wife. Archduke Ferdinand also saw the bomb, and he waved it to block it, and the bomb flew back some more distance. After the car they were in sped away, the bomb exploded, making a smashing sound like smashing things, damaging a car behind it, injuring several people, and a piece of shrapnel grazed Sophia's neck and cut an artery, unexpectedly, it was fatal.

The doctor entered the ward and announced Sophia's death. Archduke Ferdinand could not believe this fact, and with a pale face, he waved for the doctor and everyone in the ward to go out. Bosnian Governor Oskar, who accompanied Archduke Ferdinand. General Portiorek knew about the great love between Ferdinand and his wife, and he didn't say anything, and hurriedly left the ward with everyone.

The room was left with Archduke Ferdinand and his wife with their eyes closed. Archduke Ferdinand was a burly professional soldier with great intelligence and will. But under the dull and indifferent appearance, no matter who looks at his photos, they can not only feel his coldness. You can also feel a strange emptiness. He was not a fanatical militarist. Archduke Ferdinand even wanted to give the Slavic subjects of the Habsburg Empire a voice in the administration of the empire, benefiting Serbs in Bosnia. But fate, as if to push him to the position of Serbian butcher.

Ferdinand was the Austro-Hungarian Habsburg Emperor Franz. Joseph's eldest nephew. After the suicide of the emperor's only son, Rudolph, in 1889, Archduke Ferdinand became the rightful heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. But he didn't really have much interest in the throne, and this time he visited Sarajevo as the head of the Austro-Hungarian army, and he just gave his wife a little respect she deserved, so that she could enjoy the glory of the royal family.

In Vienna, the capital of the Habsburg Empire. Sophia, the wife of Ferdinand, the future emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, had little respect from the royal family. Sophia has no royal blood. Due to poor economic conditions, she had to lower her status and work as a maid in the family of an Austrian grand duchess. And the Grand Duchess was eager to marry her daughter to Archduke Ferdinand.

By chance, Ferdinand and his wife met. Year 1895. A court ball in Prague. He meets a beautiful young lady named Sophia, and they fall in love. As a result, Archduke Ferdinand often visited the Grand Duchess's luxurious residence on a regular basis, but the purpose was not to pursue the Grand Duchess's daughter, but to visit a lowly maid. This discovery caused the anger of the Grand Duchess. Sophia had to leave her job. However, Archduke Ferdinand didn't care. Continue the quest for Sophia.

According to the strict rules of the Habsburg royal family, Sophia was not qualified to become the wife of the emperor at all, nor could she become the mother of the future emperor. At first, Emperor Joseph forbade Archduke Ferdinand to marry her.

As a young man, Ferdinand struggled with tuberculosis for a long time and survived, and from then on, he was determined to live his life according to his own will. He is not interested in candidates who are qualified to be his bride and is still single in his 30s. As a result, he engaged in a will-wrenching struggle with his emperor's uncle, and the focus of the struggle was the issue of marrying Sophia.

Emperor Joseph eventually grew tired of the stalemate between the two and had to accede to Archduke Ferdinand's request. However, the dignity of the royal family cannot be degraded. Joseph agreed to their marriage, but had Ferdinand sign a special agreement for the intermarriage of members of the royal family with commoners, according to which Sophia's descendants could not become heirs to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Ferdinand smiled, "It's okay, it's okay. ”

On June 28, 1900, Archduke Ferdinand attended a secret Habsburg cabinet meeting, and in front of the emperor, the Archbishop of Vienna, the Hungarian archbishop, the government minister, and the Habsburg archduke, he solemnly declared that neither his descendants nor Sophia's descendants, nor their descendants, would inherit the throne.

Three days later, Archduke Ferdinand and Sophia were married, and only Archduke Ferdinand's mother and sisters were present in the vast Habsburg family, and even Archduke Ferdinand's younger brothers went into hiding, including the bohemian and self-righteous elder brother.

Despite this, the marriage between the prince and Cinderella was very happy, and Ferdinand and his wife soon gave birth to one daughter and two sons. Although Ferdinand is usually stiff, he is unusually self-willed when it comes to children, and he dares to play with them on the floor even in the presence of visitors, much to the surprise of visitors.

However, Sophia was still mercilessly snubbed in the royal family. She was not allowed to ride with her husband to the royal procession, nor could she sit together at state dinners, or even attend the opera in the same box as him. When Archduke Ferdinand attended the court ball as heir to the throne, Sophia was placed in the back, even behind the lowest-ranking royal lady.

So, in the chaotic border province of Bosnia, Archduke Ferdinand left the rules of Vienna behind. Couples appear in public like royalty in Sarajevo. It will be an enjoyable and precious experience, and they will enjoy the holiday to the fullest, just like a young couple from a small city who finally have the opportunity to go on vacation after many years of marriage. They live in the nearby seaview resort town of Byd Eliz. I also went to the city's antique market on Saturday. On Sundays, Mass is celebrated in the makeshift chapel of the hotel where I am staying, and then. The Grand Duke also sent a telegram to the three children: "Mom and Dad are feeling well and look forward to coming home next Tuesday." ”

But all this is warm and beautiful, because the assassination of Serbian youth came to an abrupt end. Archduke Ferdinand was alone in the ward. Recalling the past scenes, I couldn't help but shed tears: "This dirty world! ”

At a young age, Archduke Ferdinand already knew that the world was dirty and cruel, lacking humanity. In December 1892, at the age of 28, Ferdinand traveled from Trieste in the Mediterranean Sea to North America via India on the armored cruiser "Queen Elizabeth". He was accompanied by more than 400 people. In the voyage. Ferdinand wrote more than 2,000 pages of diaries, ranging from depictions of the narrow streets of Aden to climbing the garbage heaps of Calcutta. Lamenting the cruelty and squalor of the colonial system of the Western powers.

Ferdinand was an avid hunter. Ferdinand shot more than 5,000 stag in his lifetime alone, and his obsession with hunting could cause permanent damage to his eardrums. As he approached the shores of India, he picked up a shotgun and shot into the water, killing rays and finfish. Afterwards. He hunted vultures, elephants, koalas. There are even skunks, storks. In India, Ferdinand also discovered an attractive "shooting range". His porters carried 87 tents into the jungle near New Delhi. Soon after, the British Governor General in Nepal welcomed Ferdinand by arranging for 203 elephants to hunt tigers in the foothills of the Himalayas.

In the Molucca archipelago in Indonesia, a group of children gathered around him and sang "May he live a long life" in Dutch. In Jakarta, Ferdinand shot and killed a crocodile. There is also a chance to meet beautiful Dutch women in twisted flower dresses. In his diary, Ferdinand did not hide the brutal massacres and domination of the Western colonizers there.

in Australia. Ferdinand witnessed the violence: the Aboriginal people of Australia had just killed 31 colonists. Ferdinand was sympathetic to the actions of the indigenous population. He analyzed that the attack was only to retaliate for the "cruelty" of the colonizers, who were "forced to leave their ancestral lands and were cleared".

He arrives on a cruiser to Sydney Harbour and throws a lavish banquet, while also noticing the dark side of Sydney: filthy prisons, opium dens, slaughterhouses, and execution grounds.

In June 1893, Ferdinand traveled to a chilling destination, New Caledonia, a huge prison with about 8,000 prisoners living on the island. Arriving at the port, Ferdinand stared at the grim faces of the prisoners, who were toiling at the docks and mines. Before the end of the visit, the prison superintendent said they were still using guillotines.

More adventurous things are yet to come: on June 7, Ferdinand and his entourage dropped anchor on the island of Owalaha in the Solomon Islands, where they were presented with necklaces made of dog's teeth and nose rings made of tortoise shells, as well as cannibalism by the locals. This Austrian tour group armed itself and entered the hinterland of the island. In the bushes, Ferdinand haggled with a "dark-skinned cannibal woman" for a pack of betel nuts, and he also offered two cigarettes in exchange for a spear. The return journey to the ship was somewhat thrilling, part of the crew got lost and was surrounded by "barbarians", and the ensign on the ship fired a shot directly into the crowd.

After 10 months of travel, Ferdinand returned to Vienna. This insight greatly enriched his experience and also exercised his will, so that he was no longer as willful as before. He longs to live the loving life of ordinary people with his wife. Unfortunately, fate once again played tricks on him and took away his most beloved person, so the anger in Ferdinand's heart turned into a cruel will, and he decided to take revenge on the entire Serbs, he wanted to wipe the Serbian nation from the world!

When Emperor Wilhelm II heard the news of the assassination, he immediately ended his seafaring vacation in Norway and returned home. He did this more because Archduke Ferdinand was a good friend of his. A few weeks ago, he and his wife were still in Franz. Mr. and Mrs. Ferdinand's country house.

Wilhelm II patted Ferdinand on the shoulder and said, "It seems that only revenge for war can heal the pain in your heart!" Germany also needs a war just right, and I fully support you! ”

This assassination did not arouse the interest of Britain and France at first. Both countries are concentrating on other issues. London is facing a crisis of Ireland's demand for autonomy, and Paris is watching a homicide involving pornography and politics. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the leaders of the United States, France, Mexico, Guatemala, Uruguay and the Dominican Republic were assassinated. The prime ministers who were assassinated were: Russia, Spain, Greece, Bulgaria, Persia, Egypt, and members of the royal family who were assassinated included Italy, Serbia, Portugal, Greece, etc. People have become accustomed to assassinations, believing that they will not have extremely serious consequences. For Americans across the Atlantic, this is nothing more than news of an unheard of person being assassinated in an unheard of location, and it doesn't matter at all. U.S. Secretary of State James Murphy. Brian even argued: "One thing the United States must do is to set a shining example for the world of arms reduction." In the first issue of the new year in the influential magazine Opinion Review, he confidently told readers: "The world is moving away from the martial spirit; A world of peace, diligence, and friendship has emerged at dawn. ”

Only Song Xiaofei, the great president of the Chinese Empire, is keenly aware that a world war is about to break out in this filthy world! And this big war will be a huge opportunity for the Chinese people!

Soon, on behalf of Austria-Hungary, Ferdinand issued an ultimatum to Serbia, giving a 48-hour reply to which the content of the ultimatum was extremely harsh, demanding that all anti-Austrian activities be stopped, that officials and civilians who carried out anti-Austrian-Hungarian propaganda be punished, and that Austria-Hungary send personnel to jointly try the murderers of the Sarajevo incident. Serbia replied and accepted all the other conditions except for the refusal of the triage, but Austria-Hungary was still dissatisfied and broke off diplomatic relations with Serbia on the same day. A few days later, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia soon announced a general mobilization. Germany immediately declared war on Russia, France decided to support Russia, and Germany declared war on France, entered from Belgium, and launched a blitzkrieg against France. Britain declared war on Germany under the pretext that the Germans had undermined Belgian neutrality. Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia, France, Great Britain. The major imperialist countries of Europe were involved in the war. Italy, out of its own interests, declared neutrality at the beginning of the war, like China. The First World War, a full-scale outbreak broke out.

Ferdinand personally led more than 400,000 Austro-Hungarian troops to attack Serbia. Serbia, a small country with a population of more than 3 million, mobilized 400,000 troops to meet the Austro-Hungarian army. As Serbia's hardcore little brother, Montenegro, a poor and small country in addition to mountains, also sent 50,000 Montenegrin troops to help Serbia fight Ferdinand's army. The situation of the war became more than 400,000 Austro-Hungarian troops against 450,000 Serbian and Montenegro troops, and the bloody war began!

Will the history of World War I repeat itself? (To be continued......) u