Romanian Eagle

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

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

In this telegram, sent from Vienna early this morning, the Austro-Hungarian government informed Romania of the death of their emperor. As the emperor's grand-niece-in-law, Edel, thought of telling his queen the news for the first time, and the result is this scene.

In fact, the death of the eighty-year-old Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph came as no surprise to everyone. After all, time is not forgiving, and the age of the emperor is too old. And Edel's evaluation of this old emperor, who is in his 80s, is not high. Mainly because he established the Austro-Hungarian dual empire, which actually kidnapped the Austrians to the side of the Magyars in disguise, which made the ethnic problems more prominent in this old empire, which had many multi-ethnic problems.

That is to say, Franz Joseph could suppress these problems by virtue of his prestige, but it also caused many problems in the Austro-Hungarian society and army, which 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 single responsibility for the successive rulers of the Habsburg family.

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

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

Edel is comforting Queen Sophie Marie, planning to go with her to the funeral of her great-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 take a look at the situation of Carl, the brother-in-law who is about to take over the throne of Austria-Hungary.

Edel is arranging the main military and political work to Prime Minister Bretianu and General Premont. The day after receiving the telegram, he and his family boarded the royal train to Vienna.

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

"Most of the people working in the farmland are old and weak, women and children, not many young adults, and many of these young adults are disabled.

"

When the captain of the guard accompanied Eder to observe the scenery outside the car window, he told Eder what he had discovered.

Edel replied to the captain of the bodyguard, Carust. "The war had a great impact on Austria-Hungary, and it seems that there is not much potential to support it at home."

There were only Eder and the captain of the guards in this carriage, and his wife Sophie Marie and her son Victor were in the other carriage. This was why Eder dared to criticize Austria-Hungary.

Captain Carust replied. "Your Majesty is right. Now Austria-Hungary's domestic potential has been almost consumed."

There is also a reason for the captain of the guard to say this, because up to now, Austria-Hungary has mobilized 2.78 million young adults to the army, of which Austria-Hungary has killed 376,400, injured 1,341,600, and lost and captured 1.1265 million. . However, the troops mobilized by Austria-Hungary were severely damaged in this war. Now Austria-Hungary has expanded the scope of mobilization to 17 years old downwards and 40 years old upwards.

Don't think that with a population of about 50 million in Austria-Hungary, it will be easy to mobilize such a small army. Because Austria-Hungary is no better than Germany, as a multi-ethnic country, and a country with less than half of the two main ethnic groups combined, its military mobilization is also notorious among several powers. Because too many ethnic groups have different languages, such as Serbs, Croats and Bosnians from Bosnia and Herzegovina are three languages. And it's hard to understand what they're talking about. This made it difficult for the Austro-Hungarian army to send people in several languages ​​to integrate them, and it was also very inconvenient when mobilizing.

After a day and a night of train travel, Eder and his family finally arrived in Vienna in the morning sun. The Austro-Hungarian government sent his father-in-law, Archduke Otto Franz, to greet them.

As soon as Eder got out of the car, he spoke to the approaching Archduke Otto Franz. "Father-in-law, I didn't expect you to come to greet us."

"Congratulations to Karl this time. He should indeed inherit the throne of Austria-Hungary."

Archduke Otto Franz said to Eder with a wry smile. "This throne is about to become 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 supported by Germany Only then can the current situation be guaranteed. If one day Germany does not move, we Habsburgs don’t know what to do.”

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

Eder felt that he could not continue to discuss this issue at this time, so he pointed to the son of his wife Sophie Marie in her arms. "This is your grandson Victor."

Sophie Marie also held Prince Victor to her father, Archduke Otto Franz, and asked him to look at this little guy carefully.

Archduke Otto Franz saw his grandson reaching out to tease him. Who knew that Victor was not afraid of life at all and played with his grandfather. Seeing the excited Victor being teased, Otto Franz said with a hearty smile. "He's a happy little guy, and he's really enviable and carefree."

Eder smiled and said to Archduke Otto Franz. "Father-in-law, you already have several grandchildren."

"But this is the only grandson."

Watching the two chatting all the time, the officials of the Austro-Hungarian Empire who were waiting on the side were already anxious. Sophie Marie said to the two. "You can continue chatting in private, don't make others wait now."

Sophie Marie's words reminded the two of them that they were still in public, so the chat between Weng and husband-in-law ended.

Then the Eders took the little prince Victor and were led by officials to a palace in Vienna to rest. They would stay here until the funeral of Emperor Franz Joseph and the enthronement of Karl, before returning to Romania.