Romanian Eagle

Chapter 187 The opening of the first battle

Genius remember the address of this site in one second: (Top Chinese), the fastest update! No ads! On July 25th, Tsar Nicholas II held a meeting of the Privy Council in Tsarist Village. At this meeting, Nicholas II The local military mobilization of the previous day was approved in principle. and the decision to mobilize only four military districts and two naval fleets. However, in essence, this military mobilization eventually covered the entire European part of Russia, including 6 military districts (not 4); Warsaw, Vilnius (Baltic Sea region), Kazan, Moscow, Kyiv, Kazan, Osad .

The Russian pre-war preparations were divided into several stages. In the first phase, reservists need to be recalled, naval ships are returned to port to prepare for battle, troops are suspended from vacation, and cavalry are required to nail their horses. Arrest spy suspects and move valuables from border areas. The most important task is to deploy troops and weapons to border posts and to provide combat orders to frontline troops. This measure only requires the signing of an order by the Minister of War.

In the second stage, the scope of the recalled reservists will be expanded. Then Russian ports need to deploy mines, buy more horses and vehicles to transport supplies, and families of officers will be moved from border areas to safe areas. Recruiting narrow-gauge rolling stock (that is, European standard gauge, Russia uses 5-foot wide gauge), and Russia needs to implement press control, which only requires the signature of the Minister of War.

The French government, as an ally, is, of course, well aware of Russia's clandestine military mobilization. To this end, the French ambassador to Russia, Paleologe, sent a telegram to the acting foreign minister of the country, Pienfaneux Martin, telling the story of Russia's secret mobilization for Austria-Hungary's attack on Serbia. It was also informed that Dragish, the embassy attache, had been stationed in the Red Village and served as the liaison officer for War Minister Sukhomlinov and Grand Duke Nikolai.

It was also on this day that Dragish received a secret instruction from the French General Staff to communicate with Russia on the principle of the inevitability of war in Europe. So the head of the French government is still sailing on the sea, the diplomatic and military liaison officers in Russia have entered a state of war, and they maintain contact with Paris in the process of secret military mobilization in Russia.

At 3 pm on the 25th, the Serbian government ordered a military mobilization against Austria-Hungary, and Serbia began to transport central bank reserves and foreign ministry documents to the mainland. The garrison of the capital has entered field fortifications, and the munitions warehouse near Belgrade has also been moved. These were all seen by the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador Gisl. He knew that Serbia would not agree to the ultimatum, and Austria-Hungary did not think they would agree.

At 5:55, Serbian Prime Minister Pasic arrived at the Austro-Hungarian embassy, ​​and Pasic handed the diplomatic note to Gisl, speaking in broken German. We can only accept some of your demands... For those remaining demands, we can only count on your noble and noble qualities as an Austrian general. (This is the original story)

Jisir rudely looked at the reply, and immediately made a judgment that Serbia's reply was not sincere. In this diplomatic note, Serbia did not even publicly apologize. He returned the documents to Pašić, who then notified Serbia, as he had not received a satisfactory response. He will leave Belgrade with the entire staff of the Austro-Hungarian embassy in the evening.

Gisle didn't scare anyone, and his men burned the diplomatic codebook in a matter of minutes. Gisl, with his wife and the entire diplomatic corps, evacuated the embassy at 6:15 p.m., and on his way to the train station he saw soldiers on the streets, but the Serbian army did not detain him. At 6:30 he left Belgrade by train, and at 6:45 Giesl and his party entered Austria-Hungary. U.S. historian Sidney Fay said it set a record for the speed at which diplomatic ties were severed.

The Austro-Hungarian government received news from Gisl at 7:45, and the military mobilization for the war was also after the Foreign Minister Berthold and the War Minister Crobatin arrived at the palace to meet Franz Joseph.

The aged emperor agreed to a mobilization for war, and at 9:23 a military mobilization order was issued by the war minister, Crobatine.

In fact, with the efficiency of the Austro-Hungarian government, according to the words of Chief of the General Staff Conrad. It won't start until the 28th.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Bertold also discussed the military mobilization plan with him, but because of the summer holiday (in July the Austro-Hungarian army sent people back to collect grain), the director of the Austro-Hungarian army could not make the army advance in advance. End of vacation (can see the chaos in the management of the Austro-Hungarian army).

Moreover, Austria-Hungary's military mobilization order is also aimed at two actual situations. The B plan is for the Balkan operations, and the R plan is for the Russian operations. The two plans are actually mutually exclusive because the battlefields are in opposite directions. Now it stands to reason that the B plan should be used to fight against Serbia, but if Russia mobilizes military first, then it will turn to the R plan, which will also cause confusion in the Austro-Hungarian army, and it will also be the same as Austria-Hungary's attack on Serbia. Troops are short.

In Conrad's plan, Austria-Hungary needed the second week, August 12, to prepare for an invasion of Serbia. Now Foreign Minister Berthold cannot wait, he believes that the Salvia problem cannot be localized by then and Russia will definitely intervene. In fact, Russia has already started a secret military mobilization, and his vision has failed.

As the biggest support behind Austria-Hungary, Germany did not return to Berlin until July 27, when the Kaiser, the chief of the general staff, General Moltke, and the naval minister, Tirpitz. Prime Minister Holwig, who came back two days before them, introduced them to the terrible situation in Austria-Hungary. Facing the violent Russian reaction to the current Serbian issue, Wilhelm II ordered the return of naval ships to the port of Kiel in response to a partial Russian mobilization.

In fact, German intelligence officers had already spotted the Russian military mobilization. In Kyiv, an artillery division was seen heading west. Intelligence officers in Riga also reported that the local army had begun laying mines outside the port. Above all, the German consul in Warsaw sent a telegram back; all the troops were recalled from the training grounds, and a large number of infantry and cavalry were transported from Brest to Lublinko and Velle (towns near Warsaw) for a whole Hundreds of troops marched to and fro on the road from Brest-Litovsk in the evening. All these made the German government believe that Russia was not only mobilizing military forces against Austria-Hungary, but also against Germany.

At 11:10 am on July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. The diplomatic note declaring war stated that the Serbian government did not meet the requirements of the note submitted by Austria-Hungary on July 23, 1914.

This is also a fait accompli that Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Berthold hopes to fulfill, but he does not know that a four-year-old European war has been ignited by him.

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