"His Majesty, His Majesty, the Empress of Austria was assassinated in Belgrade." Yuan Shikai ran into the imperial study with irrepressible excitement and shouted.

"What? When? Emperor Yang, who was already bored enough to practice calligraphy, stood up at once and asked impatiently.

"An hour ago, on the way to the Serbian royal palace, he was shot three times by an assassin, and he has been sent to the hospital, the specific life and death are not known, but it is very likely that he was choked, and it is said that all three shots were shot in the chest." Yuan Shikai said with a smile, it was obvious that His Excellency the Chief Attendant was very aware of the significance of these three shots.

"Ma's, tossing around and still starting like this, this is fate!" Emperor Yang smiled bitterly and said with emotion, he really didn't expect that the war, which had been ten years in advance, would actually start with an assassination.

"What time is it?" After sighing at the fate of Her Majesty the Venerable Queen Elizabeth, he looked up and asked.

"December 1st." Yuan Shikai said.

"Remember this day, an era has begun, an era that belongs to us!" His Majesty the Emperor said with a sly smile.

Yuan Shikai also laughed, and the two guys looked like a pair of standard faint kings and traitors on the stage.

An hour later, Yang Feng finally got the exact news that the Empress of Austria, who had been shot three times in the chest, finally failed to survive until the experts from the Yang Medical Center, who was invited by the Austro-Hungarian Emperor to depart from London by plane, arrived, and died in the hospital in Belgrade because of her injuries.

This news exploded like a bomb in the skies over Europe, which was already calming day by day, and dizzy the forces of all sides. Everyone understands what this means, and Austria-Hungary, which has long been sharpening its knives against Serbia and just lacks a pretext for war, will not miss this opportunity under any circumstances. Even if Emperor Joseph has lost interest in expanding his territory as he has grown older over the years, and even began to suppress the hawkish forces in the country, it is impossible not to take revenge when his wife is killed.

Even the British and French, who supported Serbia, did not expect these fellows to dare to do this, and they told the Serbs not to welcome the visit of the Austrian Empress. Etiquette is also indispensable. Don't do anything unpleasant, but they never expected that these guys were not only unpleasant, they actually killed people. After learning the news. Both British Prime Minister Balfour and French Prime Minister Combe were so angry that they scolded these pig-like teammates.

Of course, after learning the news. There are still many guys like Yang Fengjunchen, such as Kaiser Wilhelm, and Archduke Ferdinand, the crown prince of Austria-Hungary. Needless to say, the former is naturally needless to say, this assassination is simply pie in the sky for him, the good opportunity that he has dreamed of for many years has finally arrived, and the latter is also about to wake up from a dream, Archduke Ferdinand, who has long coveted Serbia, finally no longer has to worry about Emperor Joseph's stopping.

And the death of his aunt has a more important meaning for him.

The industrial strength of Austria-Hungary is enough to support any level of war, although modern people are always easy to ignore this country, but in fact its industrial strength ranks fourth in Europe, and the quality level of the arms industry is not even inferior to Germany, Skoda, Steyr The two major arsenals are also famous, especially Skoda's artillery is not inferior to Krupp, but the Austro-Hungarian army has never been able to reassure its generals.

The reason is simple, as an empire cobbled together by a large number of small countries, there are many internal contradictions between ethnic groups, and it is difficult to work together, especially between the two main kingdoms that make up this dualist empire, Austria and Hungary, but now it is different, Empress Elisabeth has a much higher status in the eyes of the Hungarians than Emperor Joseph, it was she who contributed to the Austro-Hungarian reconciliation with her charm, and the story of her and Count Andrách is a household name in Hungary, Countless Hungarians sincerely loved their queen, and when the bad news reached Budapest, the Hungarians were the first to shout the slogan of war.

So in the clamor of war in the whole country, Austria-Hungary officially issued an ultimatum to Serbia, the content was very verbose, such as banning all anti-Austrian groups, of course, the list of this anti-Austrian group must be designated by Austria-Hungary, and then the Serbian king personally went to Vienna and Budapest to apologize to the Austrian and Hungarian people, and then reaffirmed the sovereignty of Austria-Hungary over Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the most important one, handed over the murderer to Austria-Hungary for trial.

Both Assassins were caught, but neither of them was an adult, so according to Serbian law, of course, according to Austro-Hungarian law, it was certainly not possible to pay for the life of Queen Elizabeth, according to the preliminary interrogation of the Serbs, these two were Bosnian Serbs, and the reason for the assassination of Elizabeth was only to let the world hear the voice of the Bosnian people against tyranny.

It was clear that the Austro-Hungarian side was not satisfied with this result, and they were very skeptical of the impartiality of the Serb interrogation, so it was necessary for the Austro-Hungarian to interrogate them.

This point is absolutely unacceptable to the Serbs, the violation of Serbia's sovereignty is still secondary, the key is that the people are in the hands of Austria-Hungary, then it must be what they need, and what the result will be judged in the end, even if it is really found that these two assassins are the masterminds of the Serbian government, it is not impossible.

Although there are many doubts about Princip's true identity in history, and it is highly likely that he was an employee of Serbian military intelligence, it is very likely that his assassination of Archduke Ferdinand was jointly planned by French intelligence and Serbian intelligence in order to provoke a war so that all countries could be involved in it so that France could retake Alsace and Lorraine. But this time the Serbian government is indeed innocent, they are not prepared to provoke Austria-Hungary in the present situation, and it is impossible to do so in such a way that it is not good for itself.

You must know that Empress Elizabeth has a very good reputation in the international community, and after the news of her murder came out, even distant China issued a stern condemnation of this despicable act, and at the same time accused the Serbian government of poor protection, as for Europe, there are even more such voices, and even the public opinion of Britain and France is very unfavorable to Serbia.

Now the Serbian government, the most important thing is to get rid of the relationship with the assassins, but if the assassins are handed over to the Austro-Hungarian Empire for interrogation, then they must not want to get rid of it, this article in the Austro-Hungarian Imperial ultimatum is actually equivalent to suing them, the result of this matter is only war, in this case, the Serbian government might as well show its backbone in front of the people.

The Austro-Crènate ultimatum was replied within forty-eight hours, and a refusal meant a declaration of war, and during this period, the European powers jumped out one after another, first Russia threatened Austria-Hungary that if Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia, then Russia would declare war on Austria-Hungary, but then the German government sent a note to Russia that if Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary, then Germany would fulfill its allied obligation to declare war on Russia, and then France threatened Germany, and if Germany invaded Russia, then France would also fulfill its allied obligation to declare war on Germany, Austria-Hungary sent a note to France that if France declared war on Germany, Austria-Hungary would also fulfill its alliance obligations to declare war on France.

But at this time there was an anti-war wave in Britain, and Italy remained silent, each adding discordant voices to its own bloc.

Italy is expected, in fact, Yidu does not like the annexation of Serbia by Austria-Hungary, and the contradiction between them and France in the fight for Tunisia is far from the point where it is necessary to fight a war with all the strength of the country, on the contrary, Yidu is now very worried about Libya, of course, just thinking that Libya is still in the hands of the Ottoman Empire, and they don't even have the courage to invade the Ottomans now, let alone a decisive battle with France. And once the war starts, the Allied bloc will definitely beat them from the sea, and it is a joke that the two perfect battleships that Italy has just commissioned want to protect the long coastline, that is to say, if they really fulfill their alliance obligations, they will become the most unlucky of the three countries, and they are not so stupid, and it is good to see the excitement.

But the anti-war situation in Britain was a bit inexplicable to Emperor Yang.

"What are they against?" This guy asked Zhang Quan suspiciously.

"The British people think that Serbia is to blame, no matter who killed Empress Elizabeth, they have an unshirkable responsibility, and there is no need for the British to enter a war for such a country." Zhang Quan said with a smile.

Yang Feng also smiled, this issue is just a trivial matter for Prime Minister Balfour, and the voices of the people are just for reference, they have not expressed their position so far, I am afraid they are waiting for their own statement.

"I will issue a statement on my behalf, saying that I hope all countries will remain calm and try their best to maintain the current hard-won peace situation in Europe, and also announce that from today, Young's Power Systems Company will stop supplying diesel engines to Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria and Italy, and Bofors Steel Company will stop supplying military supplies including weapons and ammunition to the six countries." He thought for a moment and said.

"And what about steel?" Zhang Quan said with a smile that the importance of steel produced by Bofors is second only to diesel engines, and the vast majority of battleships under construction are imported steel from Bofors to make important parts of gearboxes, propeller shafts, and even artillery.

"Steel? Steel is not considered military material. Emperor Yang said very seriously, it doesn't matter if the diesel engine is broken by the European powers, those guys have already stockpiled enough for so many years, and there is no need to continue to buy it at all, but steel is not good, if you want them to continue to build battleships, this thing must not be broken. (To be continued......)