Originally, Roque only wanted to send 180,000 African servant troops to Europe to support the scene, but now it seems that even Australia, which is vast and sparsely populated, with a population of only four or five million, sent hundreds of thousands of troops to Europe to support in World War I, and southern Africa, whose population is increasing and has far surpassed Australia, cannot be lazy.

What's more, southern Africa, which has performed exceptionally well in previous regional conflicts, has become a powerful supplement to its own territory with its increasingly strong industrial capacity, and has the ability to provide support to Egypt is now like an elephant crouching behind a hyena trying to hide its body, and it cannot hide at all, and the intelligence agency of the Ministry of War in Nyasaland is not eating for nothing. Those are all carrots in front of the donkey, and in another time and space, Britain gave the order to the United States, and the United States has to send troops to the British.

Upon his arrival in Pretoria, Ade immediately announced the promotion of Roque to Marshal and appointed Roque as Commander-in-Chief of the Southern African Army.

In the morning, the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Finance, and the Minister of the Interior discussed how to deal with the outside and the inside, and in the afternoon, the Minister of Defense, the Minister of Justice, and the Minister of Police discussed how to eradicate dissidents.

Both of them are already sixty years younger, and they are actually young people at the level of the country's top leaders, but after all, they can't be as energetic as real young people, and there will definitely be problems after a long time.

Real young people have to get together for a drink every day after work, and most of the topics at the dinner table at this time are the abnormal reactions of European countries to the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian crown prince, from the assassination of the crown prince on June 28 to July 22, Austria-Hungary has not declared war on Serbia, which is really abnormal.

"Because of the marriage of Archduke Ferdinand, the relationship between the old emperor Franz Joseph I and Archduke Ferdinand was very bad, the funeral of Archduke Ferdinand was shabby, not at all like an imperial heir, not even like a grand duke, Vienna only had a small parade a few hours after the death of Archduke Ferdinand, demanding that the government declare war on Serbia and avenge Archduke Ferdinand, and then the parade was quickly quelled, the horses ran and danced, nothing changed." He now has a formal position, and like Sidney Milner, he is a member of the War Coordination Committee, a body set up specifically for the next big war, with great power during the war, which will be dissolved when the war is over.

Roque and Smalls see each other almost every day, sometimes with the addition of Henry, Owen and Sidney Milner.

The usual meeting place is in a tavern next to the town square, the owner of this tavern is very good at making all kinds of snacks, Roque likes peanuts here, Xiao Si likes French fries here, Henry likes the grilled sausages here, and the bigwigs actually eat the same thing as the farmer when they don't attend the banquet.

Not even as fresh as the farmer eats.

"The Viennese have too many concerns, they need the support of Germany, they need Russia to remain silent, they need France to give up their support for Serbia, and then they dare to act boldly, the old emperor may be thanking the Serbs in his heart, the death of Archduke Ferdinand, so that he can have a reason to change the crown prince of the empire, compared with this matter, revenge becomes insignificant, even if Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, then it is certainly not to avenge Archduke Ferdinand, but for the interests of Austria-Hungary." Roque was disdainful, and Archduke Ferdinand was not the biological son of the old emperor Franz Joseph I, so it was really not necessary to say how deep the relationship was.

In fact, Austria-Hungary has received the promise of Kaiser Wilhelm II, but Austria-Hungary does not trust the promise of Wilhelm II, a madman, and it is the German generals who control Germany, not the high-ranking Wilhelm II, but Wilhelm II feels good about himself, he thinks everything is under control.

The reason why Wilhelm II is a madman has a lot to do with Wilhelm II's performance during this time.

After the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, Wilhelm II behaved more actively than the old emperor Franz Joseph I, and when summoning the Austrian envoy, Wilhelm II wrote the famous "empty check", promising that as long as Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, then Germany would stand firmly with Austria-Hungary to fight, and what Austria-Hungary needed, Germany would provide.

At the same time, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia was trying to find a peaceful solution to the Balkan crisis, and British Foreign Secretary Gray had proposed the establishment of a multinational dialogue group, not wanting to see war break out.

Although the arms race has been going on for several years, it is strange that at the very moment before the outbreak of the world war, it seems that all countries except Germany are trying to avoid war, and no one wants to see the lights of Europe go out, except for Wilhelm II.

As for Russia, it is difficult to say what kind of reaction Russia will make if Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, although Russia has coveted the Balkans for a long time, but in the previous two Balkan wars, Russia did not have any form of military action except for mouth artillery, and Russia's war potential, although strong, is vast and the infrastructure is insufficient, even if it wants to enter the war, it is not possible to do it in a day or two.

If the Austro-Hungarian army had been more efficient, then Russia had not yet completed its mobilization for the war, and the war might have ended.

What I want to explain here is the concept of "war mobilization", for different countries, the meaning of war mobilization is different, such as Russia, after the tsar issued the mobilization order, Russia is limited by objective conditions, and it may take several months for the country to enter a state of war.

For a country like Germany, which has been planning for a long time, has relatively advanced domestic infrastructure, and has a relatively complete reserve military service system, it may only take a week for the country to enter a state of war, so at the moment in 1913, war mobilization is a very terrifying signal, once a country issues a mobilization order, then interested countries must respond.

"The dignity of the empire is inviolable, and if Austria-Hungary does not respond appropriately, the image of Austria-Hungary will plummet." Henry couldn't figure out why Austria-Hungary didn't even have a symbolic ultimatum until now, except for the defense of the Russian army, Austria-Hungary now had 360,000 troops available to attack Serbia, which had suffered heavy losses in the first two Balkan wars and was at a critical stage of regaining strength, and now had only 20,000 standing troops.

"Austria-Hungary has no national image to speak of, the country is terrible from top to bottom." Xiao Si didn't like Austria-Hungary, this country was too weird, the only dualistic country in the world, Archduke Ferdinand also wanted to make the country a triad, probably because he felt that the triangle was more stable.

Needless to say, the Austro-Hungarian Empire under the dualist system is no longer a normal country, just like two divorced people with their respective children to live together, they should have worked together to rebuild a beautiful family, but both sides are separated from each other and are too selfish.

Although many people were trying to avoid the outbreak of war, war was still inevitable, and on the 23rd, Austria-Hungary finally issued an ultimatum to Serbia, demanding that it accept Austria-Hungary's ten-point demands within 48 hours, one of which was that Austria-Hungary wanted to intervene directly in Belgrade in the investigation into the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife.

The Kingdom of Serbia agreed to most of the conditions, but did not agree to the request of Austria-Hungary to intervene in the investigation, which violated the autonomy of the Kingdom of Serbia, although the Kingdom of Serbia was willing to share with Austria-Hungary the progress of the investigation into the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife.

Such a result obviously could not satisfy Austria-Hungary, from June 28 to July 23, Austria-Hungary was ready to start a war, the purpose of the ultimatum was originally to create a pretext for further war, so as soon as the time of the ultimatum arrived, the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to the Kingdom of Serbia, Baron Gisai, immediately announced the severance of relations with the Kingdom of Serbia, his luggage had already been packed, half an hour later, Baron Gisai boarded the train, another ten minutes later, Baron Gisai has returned to the territory of Austria-Hungary.

From this time it is possible to see how close Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Serbia were.

The Kingdom of Serbia was also ready for war before the ultimatum was answered, and a few hours before the ultimatum was answered, the Kingdom of Serbia declared the country in a state of general mobilization for war and moved its capital from Belgrade to the border away from Austria-Hungary.

Also on the 25th, Russia announced that the country had entered a strange "period of preparation for war", in the mind of Nicholas II, this so-called "period of preparation for war" was probably a stage between peace and war, but the Tsar was blinded by his generals, and in the eyes of Kaiser Wilhelm II, this was the general mobilization for war.

At this time, there were calm people in Germany besides Wilhelm II, so Germany did not issue a mobilization order at the first time.

On the 28th, Austria-Hungary declared war on the Kingdom of Serbia.

On the thirtieth, Russia and Austria-Hungary simultaneously announced that the country had entered a state of general mobilization for war.

On the 31st, Germany issued the famous "double ultimatum" to Russia and France.

France did not heed the German threat, and the French, who had long wanted to wash away the humiliation of the Franco-Prussian War, could not wait to issue a mobilization order on August 1.

Subsequently, Germany mobilized for war, declaring a state of war with Russia.

A month after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, the world war finally broke out.