Chapter 729 - 338: The Dawn of a Super War

On February 15, 1889, Austria-Hungary officially declared to the outside world that since Serbia refused to cooperate with Austria-Hungary in capturing the rebels, Austria-Hungary and Serbia were henceforth in a state of war.

War has been declared!

When Austria-Hungary issued the ultimatum, many countries believed that Austria-Hungary would declare a state of war at the expiration of the ultimatum.

After all, the so-called ultimatum is a double-edged sword. As the saying goes, "the arrow is on the string and must be released." Once a country issues an ultimatum to another, it indicates that the issuing country is prepared for war.

When the other side refuses one’s demands, one must use war as a means to forcibly compel the other side to agree to one’s demands.

If the ultimatum is rejected and war is not declared, such behavior would not only be ridiculed by the governments of various countries but also condemned by the domestic public.

National dignity is above all else. For the old Emperor Franz Joseph I, this was a war that had to be fought.

The moment the Emperor declared war, hundreds of thousands of Austria-Hungary’s troops grandly marched southward.

It is worth mentioning that at this time, Serbia’s territory was not the same as in later generations. The land north of the Danube River was all occupied by Austria-Hungary, and Serbia’s territory was entirely located south of the Danube River.

This also means that Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, was directly on the border, facing Austria-Hungary’s southern border troops across the river.

This made Austria-Hungary’s military objectives quite clear, namely to cross the river and occupy Belgrade directly, to quickly end this war.

To be on the safe side, Austria-Hungary decided to divide its forces into two routes. One route, the main force, attacked Belgrade from north of the Danube River.

The other route, as support, advanced from the Bosnia area eastward, sweeping to the south of Belgrade.

Due to the Danube River serving as the border between Serbia and Austria-Hungary, the border between the two countries was winding and twisting, much like a winding river.

Coincidentally, Belgrade happened to be located on one of these bends, situated at the most protruding part of the salient.

Although the intersection of the two rivers gives Belgrade a better defensive terrain, for Austria-Hungary, Belgrade was indeed within the bombardment range of the border troops.

Since it was within the bombardment range, Austria-Hungary naturally would not hold back at all. On the day the war began, they launched a fierce bombardment on Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, with tens of thousands of shells being consumed that day.

This was still due to the limited number of artillery pieces of the border troops. As the war progresses, Austria-Hungary would certainly mobilize a large number of artillery pieces from other regions to bombard Belgrade.

This means that the bombardment Belgrade would face in the future would be even more intense than now.

The Serbians certainly could not withstand such ferocious shelling, and at the first moment of being declared in a state of war, they urgently contacted Russia, requesting Russia’s support.

Tsar Alexander III was also stunned by Franz Joseph I’s decisive declaration of war. He did not expect the war to break out at such a fast pace, and the most critical part was that at this time, Russia’s domestic mobilization was still not in progress at all.

Indeed, compared to Germany, Austria-Hungary was relatively slow in military mobilization, had lower organizational effectiveness, and its military combat effectiveness was not high.

But the problem was that Russia also had the same flaws, and even Russia’s flaws were more fatal than those of Austria-Hungary.

The Austrian Army of Austria-Hungary still had quite excellent combat capabilities, after all, Austrians and Germans both belong to the Germanic people, who are a very valiant and combative nation.

In terms of valor and combativeness, Russians were no weaker, but they were relatively poorer in terms of national administrative efficiency, military organization, logistical supply, and financial resources.

Austria-Hungary and Russia announced their war mobilizations at about the same time, but while Austria-Hungary had already mobilized more than 100,000 troops to wage war, Russia had mobilized very few troops.

Of course, this cannot be entirely blamed on the Russian Government. The capital of Austria-Hungary, Vienna, was only 500 kilometers from Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, which also meant that troops from the Austrian region could quickly reach the vicinity of Belgrade in a short period.

In contrast, Russia, with St. Petersburg being nearly 1800 kilometers from Belgrade, even the closest Russian border to Serbia was more than 600 kilometers away.

To put it bluntly, it was very difficult for the Russian army to cross the 600-kilometer distance to support Serbia. Unless the Russian army could cross Romania, but this route also has about 500 kilometers of distance.

Given the current situation, it was very difficult for Russia to effectively support Serbia in a short time. Compared to using Romania as a thoroughfare to reach Serbia, directly attacking the Galicia and Lodomeria regions of Austria-Hungary might be a better way to alleviate the pressure Serbia faces from its enemies head-on.

However, the problem was that once Russia launched an attack on Austria-Hungary, the war could at any moment escalate into a larger-scale great powers war.

Currently, Russia’s standing army numbered about 670,000, the largest in the whole of Europe. Once Russia joined the war, Germany would undoubtedly join the war too to help its ally in response to Russia’s pressure.