Chapter 377 Austria-Hungary Declares War

Serbian Prime Minister Pašić understood that the current situation was no longer something he could decide. The direction of Serbia depended on the attitudes of Austria-Hungary and Russia.

Therefore, Pašić forwarded the 48-hour ultimatum proposed by Austria-Hungary to Russia without stopping, asking about the attitudes of Nicholas II and the Russian government.

As a bridgehead to curb the expansion of Austria-Hungary in the Balkans, Serbia was highly valued by the Russian Empire.

After learning of the extremely harsh 48-hour ultimatum of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Nicholas II was very angry and angrily accused the Austro-Hungarian Empire of completely ignoring the special interests of the Russian Empire in Serbia and attempting to undermine the status of the Russian Empire.

The Russian Foreign Minister gritted his teeth and said: "Russia must not allow the Austro-Hungarian Empire to defeat Serbia and become the most dominant country in the Balkans."

Serbia is not only related to Russia's interests in the Balkans, but also to whether the export of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is safe.

If the Balkans were dominated by the Allies, Russia's Black Sea Fleet would be trapped in a trap, and Russia's only outlets would be the Baltic Sea and the Far East.

Although Nicholas II had long supported Arthur's proposal to try the murderer behind the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand.

But at such a critical moment, a joint royal declaration was obviously not as important as Serbia.

Soon, Nicholas II summoned the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to St. Petersburg to express Russia's attitude.

Nicholas II said categorically: "Russia does not agree with the two agreements in the final wanted order that undermine Serbia's sovereignty, nor does it agree with the Austro-Hungarian Empire investigating the Sarajevo assassination on Serbian territory."

Even if an investigation is to be conducted, it should be the four major powers of the Allied Powers, led by Britain, France, Russia and Australia, who should organize corresponding personnel to conduct investigations in Serbia.

As for other countries of the Allied Powers, even the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was in the position of a victim, had no right to investigate on Serbian soil.

Even though the Austro-Hungarian ambassador explained many times that Austria-Hungary was only suppressing terrorist movements and riots that endangered the European royal family, this was very beneficial to all European monarchies.

But how could the Russians believe the words of the Austro-Hungarian Empire with their hot tempers? The Russian Foreign Minister said firmly: "If the Austro-Hungarian Empire insists on a 48-hour ultimatum, it is provoking a war in the whole of Europe."

On the matter of Serbia, Russia is unlikely to give in. What's more, the ties between the Allies are very close. With financial assistance from Britain and France and material assistance from Australasia, Nicholas II believes that he is very confident and can deal with any challenges from the outside world.

However, the Austro-Hungarian government did not care about Russia's tougher attitude. Berchtold, who has already mastered the government's discourse power, believes that with the blank check issued by Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Russians will definitely be afraid of Germany and it is impossible to join this war directly.

This means that the war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia will only evolve into a small-scale local war.

It was precisely because of this idea that, under Berchtold's insistence, the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not withdraw the 48-hour ultimatum and had been urging the Serbian government to respond to it.

On July 25, 1914, Serbian Prime Minister Pašić personally rushed to the Austro-Hungarian Embassy with the Serbian government's reply.

The Serbian government's reply was full of wishful thinking and willingness to reconcile. Pašić explained to the Austro-Hungarian ambassador: "Serbia is ready to formally condemn all actions against the Austrians and ask the Austro-Hungarian Empire not to infringe on Serbia's sovereignty. If the Austro-Hungarian Empire is not satisfied with this result, Serbia is willing to accept arbitration from the Hague Court."

Such a reply exhausted the minds of Serbian government officials. Not only was it repeatedly revised, but because the only typewriter was broken by the exhausted secretary, the reply was handwritten by Prime Minister Pašić.

Moreover, the ministers of the Serbian government believed that taking the reply to the Austrian Embassy would humiliate them, so they refused to go.

This also led to Pašić, the Prime Minister of the Serbian government, having to personally act as the messenger. Although Serbia is a small country, it is still very humiliating to do so.

Although the Serbian government's reply was full of sincerity, such concessions obviously could not satisfy the appetite of the Austro-Hungarian government and Berchtold.

What's more, long before the Serbian government replied, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had already mobilized troops to the Serbian border.

For the Austro-Hungarian Empire, there were only two conditions that could be accepted, either Serbia surrendered or Serbia surrendered.

On July 26, 1914, after the Austro-Hungarian government's 48-hour ultimatum expired, the whole of Europe fell into endless silence.

William II knew that his firm position could no longer shake the Russians' determination and wanted to resolve the conflict through discussion.

On the other hand, the British also joined the mediation team, because such a sudden war was not a good thing for both sides.

But it is obvious that because of William II's firm pro-war attitude for a long time, Germany's military and political ministers have already developed an irresistible impulse for war.

At this time, it is no longer realistic for William II to suppress it.

And the British position is obviously not effective on the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Unless William II directly makes the Austro-Hungarian Empire give up its actions, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's war wheel will not stop.

But the problem is that William II simply cannot suppress the domestic war faction at this time. If William II unilaterally asks the Austro-Hungarian Empire to stop its actions, the prestige that William II has managed for a long time will be wiped out.

A monarch who is not firm in his position and jumps repeatedly may even offend both the war-promoting faction and the peace-promoting faction.

The military mobilizations of the Austro-Hungarian Empire have become more and more frequent. In response, Russia has also begun to mobilize troops to the border.

Finally, after two days of silence, on July 28, 1914, exactly one month after Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.

In order to get the old emperor Joseph I, who was unwilling to see war, to sign the declaration of war, Berthold, who had already taken control of the government, even told a despicable lie.

"What's more, parts of the Serbian army are already attacking a detachment of the imperial troops in Temes-Kubin. If we don't take action, the heart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire will be threatened."

It was such lies that made Joseph I think that Serbia had taken the initiative to provoke the war, so he decisively signed the declaration of war and started the war throughout Europe.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty!"

In the early morning of July 28, the guards knocked on the door of Nicholas II's palace and reported the news that Nicholas II did not want to hear: "Minister Sazonov came to report that the Austro-Hungarian Empire has officially sent a request to Serbia. War has been declared!"

For any country, declaring war is not a drama, but a notice of war issued to another country at the highest level of the country.

Once a state of war is entered, the war cannot end unless one party suffers irreparable losses.

"Where are Sazonov and others?" Within a few minutes, Nicholas II quickly walked out and asked.

"Your Majesty, according to the information from the Serbian ambassador, this afternoon, the Austro-Hungarian Empire officially issued a war notice to Serbia." Foreign Minister Sazonov, who had been waiting for a long time, quickly stood up and explained.

Although they are not willing to hear such news, such results have already been discussed within the Russian government.

Nicholas II ordered: "Inform Janushkevich and Sukhomlinov to immediately begin nationwide mobilization and mobilize more troops to the border."

Yanushkovych was the Russian Chief of Staff, while Suhomlinov was the Russian Minister of War.

Notifying these two people is equivalent to notifying all the Russian troops.

The good news is that although Russia has not started nationwide mobilization before, in order to prepare for the possible declaration of war by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russia has carried out partial mobilization in advance in the four military districts of Warsaw, Kiev, Odessa and Moscow.

The forces of these four military regions can just be deployed to the border to protect Russia's border areas.

Germany actually received the news faster than Russia. Fortunately, before Austria-Hungary decided to declare war, it had notified the German government and William II, and obtained the support of the main war factions including William II.

As for Germany, after learning that Austria-Hungary had decided to declare war, it immediately and decisively issued a nationwide mobilization order.

July 29, 1914 was not a good day for Europe or even the world.

The day before, Austria-Hungary officially issued a notice of war to Serbia. Today, Germany and Russia have announced national mobilization, and the war in Europe has begun.

No one thought that the mobilization of Germany and Russia was just a bluff. The national mobilization represented a large-scale war and also represented that the Allies and the Entente had reached a moment of life-and-death battle.

On July 30, 1914, Germany demanded that Russia immediately lift the war mobilization order, otherwise Germany would fulfill the alliance between Austria-Hungary and join the war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.

Nicholas II naturally dismissed the Germans' demands.

Germany and Russia announced national mobilization orders at almost the same time. Why do you, Germany, ask Russia to lift the mobilization order, while your mobilization order continues to be in effect?

At Nicholas II's suggestion, the Russian government made the same request to Germany as a counterattack against Germany.

At a time when the two governments are facing tit-for-tat, Russia and Germany are already spreading propaganda against each other in their own countries.

On the morning of July 31, 1914, it was the third day that the German general mobilization order came into effect.

Wilhelm II held a royal council to determine whether Germany was ready for a state of war.

Obviously, the high-morale war faction is very confident that the German army is ready for everything.

According to a report by Army Secretary Falkenhayn, if Germany can complete this military mobilization, Germany will have 3.8 million combat troops, 6,000 artillery pieces, 45,000 machine guns, 132 aircraft, 130 military airships, 4,000 vehicles and A large amount of military supplies and living supplies.

The German Chief of Staff Moltke said: "The Imperial Army is ready. The sooner the war can begin, the better. The staff has already made a war plan. It will first launch on the Western Front, attack France through Belgium, and defeat France in about six weeks, and then Go back and join forces with Austria-Hungary to defeat Russia. I have prepared a secret ultimatum to Belgium, and the army is ready to march to Belgium."

William II was still a little hesitant at this time. Although Germany had an advantage in the army, the German navy was obviously inferior to the British.

However, Navy Minister Tirpitz also gave an explanation: "Your Majesty, although the number of British naval ships far exceeds ours, its combat effectiveness is still inferior to that of our Imperial Navy. We can first use submarines to block British shipping and use cruisers to carry out guerrilla warfare at sea. Disperse the main force of the British fleet and wait until there is an opportunity for a decisive battle. There is no need to worry about the huge British navy, but it needs to be dispersed to all parts of the world.”

William II nodded with relief, but he was still very concerned about the attitude of the British and asked: "What is the attitude of the British so far?"

"Except for previous mediation, the British have not made any statement for the time being. According to information from Australasia, during a royal conversation between Britain and Australasia, George V seemed to have mentioned that the upcoming war was In the four-nation war between Germany, Austria and France and Russia, Britain and Australia should try not to get involved in the war and remain neutral," Foreign Secretary Accord responded.

Prime Minister Bateman also said: "Your Majesty, I met with the British Ambassador yesterday and proposed that if Britain remained neutral, our country would respect the integrity of French territory after defeating France, but the British Ambassador refused. The British said that they would follow their own I think there is a high possibility that they will support France.”

William II was not surprised. He seemed to have already thought of this situation and nodded calmly.

"Your Majesty, we should remind the Austro-Hungarian Empire that after the war begins, they should attack Russia with their main force, not Serbia." Seeing that the meeting was a bit cold, Moltke said quickly.

William II nodded: "Send a telegram to Joseph in my name, asking the Austro-Hungarian Empire to use its main force to fight Russia, and not to divide its forces to attack Serbia at the same time. Such a decision will have extremely great strategic significance. In This will be especially important when a large part of our army is restrained by France. In this huge war, Serbia plays only a minor role and only needs to take necessary defensive measures."

"What is the attitude of our ally Italy?" William II looked at Prime Minister Bateman again and asked.

Italy is one of the three major powers of the Allied Powers. Although the strength of the army is not very good, the size of the navy can be considered to be relatively high.

It would be a good thing for Germany and Austria-Hungary if Italy could be loyal to the Triple Alliance.

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