On June 30, the US government announced that it would hand over four Virginia-class battleships to China. These four old warships built around 2002-04 respectively were behind the appearance of dreadnoughts in the eyes of major naval powers in the world, and then they could easily influence the military structure of some small areas. Therefore, the Japanese government has not stopped protesting to the United States since the United States obtained that the United States would sell several old battleships to China. The Japanese Navy Combined Fleet even assembled for a time, approaching the territory of Manila and the United States in the Western Pacific, Guam. Although the United States at this time

The country only stationed an army of less than 100 people on Guam, but facing Japan's bare military threat, the US government, which has an upper hand in domestic isolationism, has firmly supported China, a country with a feud with Japan in the Far East, so that Japan can't be distracted from threatening the Pacific. Therefore, the US government toughly ignored Japan's dissatisfaction and threats, and even used the excuse that Chinese seafarers were insufficient, and temporarily borrowed more than 3,800 naval soldiers and officers from the US Navy and drove four Virginia-class battleships to China in the Far East. Of course, the Chinese government will pay a considerable salary for this.

On July 1, the battleship "Sultan Ottoman I" purchased by Turkey in the UK (the former "Rio de Janeiro" purchased by the Brazilian Navy from the UK) was transferred from Elsvik to the new shipyard in Vauker. Two days later, the Greek government, who was worried that the expansion of the Turkish navy would be retaliated against by Turkey, asked Germany to speed up the construction of the battle cruiser "Salamis" it ordered in 1913. The battle clouds in the Balkans were dense!

In July 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Empire held a military exercise in Sarajevo, using Serbia and Negoro as imaginary enemies, arousing the dissatisfaction of the Serbian people. Under such circumstances, on July 11, the exchanges and consultations with the Chinese delegation ended, and the procurator-general of the Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces, who signed the "Australia-China Vienna Cooperation Agreement" with China, the Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand of the Habsburg Dynasty and the Duchess of Sophie Shotec visited Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, and was shot and killed by the Serbian assassinator Gavriloplinsip, known in history as the "Sarajevo" incident. After the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph, who was resting in a summer villa, learned that the crown prince was assassinated, the elderly emperor closed his eyes in pain. Because this is not the first time in his life.

"It's so terrible!" he murmured to his servant, "The God who violates the Almighty cannot be punished. God used his hands to restore the order that I unfortunately failed to restore."

Of course his attendant understood what his emperor was saying.

Although the assassination of the crown prince and his wife was a terrible tragedy, it provided a "demand" solution to the royal crisis faced by the Habsburg dynasty. The older the Apocalypse Joseph I, the more he believed in the existence of gods, expressed great respect for his heirs who opposed the dynasty for the crime of intermarriage between noble and humble marriage and was punished by "God's punishment". At the same time, the death of the crown prince also provided the best excuse for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the worst excuse for interfering in the Balkans.

Later that day, German Emperor William II learned about the news during his inspection of the former Zeppelin Airship Company in Konstanz. At that time, he was inspecting the military's capital injection that had just completed the transformation of the aircraft production line and had been renamed "Zeppelin Airship Company". According to the report of the military and Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the future "Zeppelin Airship Company" will have the ability to produce more than 130 aircraft per month.

Austria-Hungarian Crown Prince Ferdinand was a good friend of Emperor William. After learning the terrible news, William II hurriedly ended his inspection of the "Zepplin Aircraft Company" with a pale face and anxiously boarded the train back to Berlin.

Soon, telecommunications that expressed sympathy came from all over the world. US President Woodrow Wilson sent a telegram of condolences. King George V of England declared his palace for three days of silence, and Emperor Taisho of Japan also announced his silence for three days. Despite the unspeakable joy, Russian Tsar Nicholas II also announced that his court would pay three days of silence for the death of Grand Duke Ferdinand from a diplomatic stance.

On July 11, the crown prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was assassinated. Li Han was actually in a very complicated mood about the arrival of the major incident. Due to the time difference, this huge change in Europe occurred. When the Bureau of Investigation sent the information to him, it was already early in the morning of the 12th, and it was already deep in the night. He yawned his new servant's proposal to go to rest for the third time. The Japanese Governor of North Korea and the Governor of Kanto had already returned from Japan in early June. In late June, a fleet was sent to North Korea to transport a batch of supplies. At the same time, North Korea

And the Kanto patrol patrols tried several times to approach the Chinese positions, and even deliberately provoked them, with small actions. The intelligence sent by the Bureau of Investigation from Japan made him feel more difficult than the other. Especially after the US government decided to hand over four old-fashioned warships to China to strengthen the strength of the Chinese navy, the calls for dissatisfaction with the new Chinese government in Japan had completely overwhelmed the opposition. If it weren't for the fact that the Satsuma vassal had not nodded, I was afraid that Japan would have been eager to destroy the transitional government of Li Han, who showed strong intentions in "building a strong military."

How could he sleep peacefully under such a crisis? At present, the country is in chaos and has been fighting for years. Even though there is black gold from overseas fiscally, the military gap cannot be offset by a little forward-looking point. One thing he has to admit is that the gap between China and Japan is very big, right, very big.

When his attendant knocked on the door of his office for the fourth time, Li Han was already feeling a little displeasure. He was about to speak, but his attendant anxiously put a telegram that had just been sent to the secretary's room on his table.

Li Han was a little careless, so he picked it up and took a look and then stood up.

"Immediately, please contact General Staff Jiang, General Staff Li, General Staff of Police, General Staff Lu of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to come to my office!"

"yes!"

Although his attendant was surprised by the president's performance, he still carefully recorded his orders and went to three residences in the middle of the night and called the three to the presidential palace.

On July 12, after a day of spread, a news from Europe shocked the world. The crown prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ferdinand and his wife were shot dead by Serbian national fanatics in Sarajevo, to show that this Balkan country with strong folk customs intends to get rid of the control and influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Balkans have been the powder keg of the European situation since the end of the last century. Whether it is the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Second German Empire behind them, Britain, France and Russia, all the powerful forces in Europe are entangled in it. This is the weakness of the Central European Allies and the most complex area of ​​national issues. The rich legacy left by the ancestors of the Ottoman Turkey, the dying empire, made all the political forces mixed in it red. Russia is jealous of this.

The Black Sea estuary in the interior, if you master it, you can easily extend your influence to the Mediterranean and further strengthen your influence in the Near East; Britain wants to borrow this place to block their sphere of influence; France wants to maintain their hegemony in the Mediterranean; Germany and Austria, the latter hope to annex the Balkans to restore the glory of the "Holy Roman Empire" era, and Germany wants to stabilize the situation here. First, it can contact Turkey, stabilize its flanks, and cut off the lifeline of the Indian-Suez-Mediterranean of the British Empire; second, it will block Russia within the Strait of Istanbul (also known as the Bosphorus). The complex political situation has led to a small spark here that may be brewing into a war, not to mention that Europe has become a large barracks now!

Countless Europeans only have a strong feeling at this moment, and the war is coming. Europe, which has been glorious for three hundred years, will fall from its peak because of this war. The golden age they created may end because of this war!

The news reached the Far East, giving people who were eager to try or ambitious here a different feeling. When Li Han, the interim president of the Republic of China, received the telegram at the first time, he sighed in the office for more than ten minutes. History is still moving forward according to his huge inertia! The first battle is the opportunity for China to wait for, but the first battle is also a big crisis! Losing the restraint of European powers in the Far East, he had to give everything and face the Japanese giant beast without any scruples! This pressure was so heavy that it was almost difficult for him to exhale.

It will take more than a month for the European powers in history to officially start war. Like China, Japan is looking forward to this opportunity! Perhaps the quiet days are about to pass soon, and the smell of gunpowder that has not completely dissipated over this country will become rich again!

As Li Han was worried, the shooting in Sarajevo also caused huge waves. Especially the young and strong people in the army were even more ecstatic because the new era of the Far East, which they had been pursuing, was about to come! Captain Tada Jun, a member of the General Staff Headquarters, was excited to draw out his beloved saber and constantly wipe it with brand new silk cloth when he learned the news. The Major General of the Army and the Commander of the 9th Infantry Brigade Shirakawa Yoshinosa took the sword Jujue Huomaru to sit on a hunger strike outside the Army Province, asking Japan to take advantage of this opportunity to bless Japan to send troops to the northeast to annex Manchuria and Mongolia; the same

The farce participants include Lieutenant General Andong Sayumi, the commander of the 12th Division and commander of the Korean garrison army. In the shortest time, he mobilized all the generals of the 12th Division to send their blood letters to the country, demanding that they make a contribution to the prosperity of the Japanese Empire; there were also Japanese general and military senator Prince Zairen, who became famous in the Russo-Japanese War, who had long been dissatisfied with Emperor Taisho's ascension to the throne. Not only did he go to lobby the emperor himself, but he also successively discharged all the veterans of Yama Prefecture and other army. His ambitions for belligerent expansion were fully exposed.

This is not a big deal. Although the Russo-Japanese War established Japan as a world power, this robber country could not get a penny of war compensation from the war, but instead paid huge sums of billions of yen for it. The Russian warships seized were far from being compensated. After the Russo-Japanese War, Japan's domestic economy continued to regress and stagnate for many years. In addition, Japan's expansion in the Far East was too fast after the Russo-Japanese War, which attracted the vigilance of European and American countries that were supreme, and they all suppressed and hindered Japan's development, either openly or secretly. Although Japan is crazy, there are many people in the country who look at the world. They know very well that only European powers are unable to take into account the Far East, they have the opportunity to expand.

Japan has always despised the United States and believed that this country was just a little army. If it weren't for the strong navy and domestic industry, it would be ineligible to be called a strong country. Therefore, Japan is not worried about the military threat from the United States. Expanding to the Far East is a consensus reached by all walks of life in Japan after the Meiji Restoration. Faced with China, a weak and "the country of the sick husbands of East Asia", not only did the Japanese military yearn for another victory in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, but also the civilians in Japan also generally hoped that the empire could defeat China again, like in the year of the Gengzi, and blackmail hundreds of millions of compensation.

Therefore, when news of the assassination of the crown prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a member of the two opposing and hostile military groups in Europe, spread to Japan. Many people in China believed that the war in Europe was about to begin and Japan would lose all the constraints in the Far East. Ecstasy immediately defeated all walks of life in Japan, especially the young and strong officers in the country, and in the following days it showed a more or less crazy attitude. On July 14, after several days of conspiracy and preparation, the Japanese young and strong organization, which gathered in Tokyo with the General Staff Headquarters and the Kotoshi Division as the center of the activity, dozens of people from the backbone of Kikuno-de-Asian held a meeting in a shrine in Chiyoda District, and it was almost formed soon.

The resolution was concluded. Immediately mobilized and contacted the military organizations of the Guards Division and the young and strong military organizations in various divisions, mobilized collective forces to implement this plan with the most resolute attitude, lobbying the army provinces, mainland ministers, foreign ministers, prime ministers, etc., and contacting civilian groups. As soon as Europe declares war, they will quickly mobilize troops and contact the garrisons of Kanto Prefecture, the North Korean troops, and the Chinese troops, and cooperate to take the opportunity to annex the three eastern provinces and turn the three eastern provinces into imperial colonies. It can be considered that if Russia draws troops from the Far East and returns to China, under the influence of Manchuria and Mongolia, the country of Outer Mongolia has been jealous of the territory dozens of times that of Japan.

These Japanese officers all knew that their country was not as strong as Britain and the United States. To achieve the goal of dominating China and diverting domestic conflicts, their economic and diplomatic strength were insufficient. They could only temporarily annex the fertile and fertile provinces in the east, and then wait for an opportunity to compete for leadership against the whole of China and even the entire Far East.

After several years of recession and domestic political chaos after the Russo-Japanese War, Japan finally found this opportunity. After the tense situation in Europe in recent years, Britain, Germany and other countries have either only used diplomatic means to balance the situation in China or they are close to leaving. Once the war officially begins, European powers will not even make a loud voice to express their opinions. Looking around, they will almost have no strength to restrict their ambitions. The wild beast of Japan has begun to sharpen their sharp minions and is ready to be great.

The big neighbors caught a big piece of flesh and blood. The war of European power is an opportunity for China under the leadership of Li Han to embark on the road to becoming a strong country. For Japan, which was burdened with hundreds of billions of debts after the Russo-Japanese War, the people in China were living in poverty, and the economy broke out year by year, and the economy fell into recession. Only the military industry was still developing with the continuous support of the government, isn’t it also an opportunity for further development? They rose on the corpse of the Sino-Japanese War, and this time they wanted to continue to grow in the blood of the Chinese nation. Will history give them this opportunity?
Chapter completed!