Chapter 248： Franz Joseph passes away

"This news is too surprising, don't be sad. This is the will of God."

After receiving news of the death of Emperor Franz Joseph from Austria-Hungary, Edel persuaded his wife, Queen Sophie Marie, who was about to cry like tears.

This telegram was sent from Vienna early this morning. In the telegram, the Austro-Hungarian government notified Romania of the death of their emperor. As the emperor's grand-niece-in-law, Edel immediately thought of telling the news to his queen, and it turned out to be this scene.

In fact, the death of the 80-year-old Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph is not surprising to everyone. After all, time is not forgiving, the emperor's age is already too old. And Edel didn't think highly of the 80-year-old emperor. Mainly because he established the Austro-Hungarian binary empire, which in fact kidnapped the Austrians to the Magyar side in disguise, which made the elder empire, which had a lot of problems due to multi-ethnicity, the ethnic problems more prominent.

That is to say, Franz Joseph can suppress these problems with his own prestige, but it has also caused many problems in the Austro-Hungarian society and the army, as can be seen from the fact that the Austro-Hungarian army can only fight with Italy. And these problems are not only the responsibility of Franz Joseph, but I also have a little responsibility for the former rulers of the Habsburg family.

This can be seen from the title of Franz Joseph. His specific titles are as follows: Emperor of Austria blessed by God; King of Hungary and Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slovenia, Galicia and Rodomoria, Illyria, Lombardy and Venice; Jerusalem King; Duke of Austria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Krakow; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Kärnten, Carniola and Bukovina; Grand Marquis of Nibelungen; Count of Moravia; Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Raguza and Sara; etc.

Most of these titles are nominal titles, and many of them are titles of Italian territories. So this also caused a poor relationship between Austria-Hungary and Italy even after the signing of the Three Emperors Alliance.

Edel is comforting Queen Sophie Marie and plans to go with her to the funeral of his uncle Franz Joseph. This is not for Edel to respect the founder of the dual empire, but to get a closer look at the situation of Austro-Hungarian society, and by the way, take a look at the situation of his brother-in-law, Karl, who is about to take over the throne of Austria-Hungary.

Edel is assigning the main military and administrative tasks to Prime Minister Bretianu and Admiral Prieshan. The day after receiving the telegram, I boarded the royal train to Vienna with my family.

After the train left Romania and entered Austria-Hungary, Edel began to observe.

"Most of the people working in the farmland are old and weak, women and children. I haven't seen many young adults, and many of these young adults are disabled."

When the chief guard accompanied Edel to observe the scenery outside the car window, he told Edel what he had discovered.

Edel replied to Carust, the head of the guard. "The war has had a great impact on Austria-Hungary. It seems that there is not much potential to support it in the country."

There are only a few people in this car, Edel and the head of the bodyguard, and his wife Sophie Marie took her son Victor in the other car. This is why Edel dared to criticize Austria-Hungary.

The captain of the bodyguard Carust replied. "Your Majesty is right. Now the domestic potential of Austria-Hungary has been almost consumed."

The head of the guard said this for a reason, because so far, Austria-Hungary has mobilized 2.78 million young and middle-aged to the army, of which the number of Austro-Hungarian deaths reached 376,400, the number of injured reached 1,341,600, and the number of missing and captured reached 1,226,500. . However, the Austro-Hungarian mobilized army was greatly injured in this battle. Now Austro-Hungary has expanded the scope of mobilization to the range of 17 years old down and 40 years old up.

Don't think that with Austria-Hungary's population of about 50 million, mobilizing the army will be easy. Because Austria-Hungary is not comparable to Germany, as a multi-ethnic country, and is a country with less than half of the two main ethnic groups combined, its military mobilization power is also inferior among several major powers. Because too many ethnic groups have different languages. For example, Serbs, Croats and Bosnians who also come from Bosnia and Herzegovina are three languages. And the other party's words are hard to understand. This makes it difficult for the Austro-Hungarian army to send people in several languages ​​to integrate them, and it is also very inconvenient to mobilize.

After a day and night train journey, Edel and his family finally arrived in Vienna in the morning sun. The Austro-Hungarian government sent his old father-in-law, Grand Duke Otto Franz, to greet them.

Edel spoke to Grand Duke Otto Franz who was approaching him when he got out of the car. "My father-in-law, I didn't expect you to come to meet us."

"Congratulations to Karl this time, he should indeed inherit the Austro-Hungarian throne."

Grand Duke Otto Franz said to Edel with a wry smile. "This throne is almost a curse for our family, from cousin Rudolph to Ferdinand, and then to my son Karl. And now the situation in Austria-Hungary is not good, it is completely dependent on the support of Germany. Only in this way can we guarantee the current situation. If Germany can’t move, our Habsburgs don’t know what to do.”

Grand Duke Otto Franz's words are more pessimistic, but he may also be on the sidelines, because his father-in-law has never been interested in politics.

Edel felt that he could not continue discussing this issue at this time, so he pointed to his wife Sophie Marie's son in his arms. "This is your grandson Victor."

Sophie Marie also hugged Prince Victor to her father, Grand Duke Otto Franz and let him look at this little guy carefully.

Grand Duke Otto Franz saw his grandson stretch out his hand to tease him, who knew that Victor was not afraid of life at all, and started playing with his grandpa. Seeing Victor being teased with excitement, Otto Franz said with a big open smile. "This is a happy little guy, really envious and carefree."

Edel smiled and said to Grand Duke Otto Franz. "Father-in-law, you already have several grandchildren."

"But this is the only grandson."

Seeing that the two have been chatting, the Austro-Hungarian officials waiting by the side have already waited until they were worried. Sophie Mary said to the two. "You can continue talking in private, don't let others wait now."

Sophie Marie's words made the two remember that they were still in public, so they ended the chat between Weng and Son.

Then the Edels took the little prince Victor and the officials led them to rest in a palace in Vienna. They will stay here until the funeral of Emperor Franz Joseph and the enthronement of Karl Carl before returning to Romania.