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

When Eder received news of the death of Emperor Franz Joseph from Austria-Hungary, he persuaded his wife, Queen Sophie Marie, who was about to cry like a tearful person.

This telegram had been sent from Vienna early this morning, in which the Austro-Hungarian government had informed Romania of the death of their emperor. As the emperor's nephew and son-in-law, Eder immediately thought of informing his queen of the news, and the result was the current scene.

In fact, the death of the eighty-year-old Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph was not a surprise to everyone. After all, the years are not forgiving, and the emperor's age is already too old. And Eder didn't think highly of this old emperor who was over eighty years old. Mainly because he established the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which actually kidnapped the Austrians to the side of the Magyars in disguise, which made the national problems even more prominent in this old empire, which was already full of multi-ethnic problems.

That is, Franz Joseph was able to suppress these problems with his prestige during his lifetime, but it also caused many problems in Austro-Hungarian society and the army, as can be seen from the fact that the Austro-Hungarian army could only fight with Italy. Franz Joseph is not alone in these problems, but also for the successive rulers of the Habsburgs.

This is evident from the title of Franz Joseph. His specific titles are as follows: Emperor of Austria under God's Protection; kings of Hungary and Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slovenia, Galicia and Rhodomoria, Illyria, Lombardy and Venice; King of Jerusalem; Duke of Austria; Grand Dukes of Tuscany and Krakow; the Dukes of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Bukovina; Grand Marquis of the Nibelungen; Count of Moravia; the dukes of Upper and Lower Silesia, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Raguza and Sala; Wait a minute.

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

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

Eder was assigning the main military and political tasks to Prime Minister Brettianu and General Prieshan. The day after receiving the telegram, he and his family boarded the royal train to Vienna.

After the train left Romania and entered Austro-Hungarian territory, Eder began to observe.

"Most of the people working in the fields are old, weak, women and children, and I don't see many young adults, and many of them are disabled."

The head of the guard was accompanying Edel to observe the scenery outside the car window, and told Edel what he had discovered.

Edel replied to the head of the guard, Calust. "The impact of the war on Austria-Hungary was great, and it seems that there is not much potential left for it to support itself."

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

Chief of the Guard, Calust, replied. "Your Majesty is right, now the potential of Austria-Hungary has been almost depleted."

There is also a reason why the chief of the guard said this, because so far, Austria-Hungary has mobilized 2.78 million young and middle-aged people to the army, of which 376,400 have been killed in battle, 1.3416 million have been wounded, and 1.1265 million have been missing and captured. However, the Austro-Hungarian army was greatly demoralized in this great battle. Now Austria-Hungary has expanded the scope of mobilization to 17 years down and 40 years up to 40 years old.

Don't think that with a population of about 50 million Austria-Hungary, it will be easy to mobilize such an army. Because Austria-Hungary is not as good as Germany, as a multi-ethnic country, and a country where the two main nations together are less than half, its army mobilization is also notoriously poor among several powers. Because too many ethnic groups have different languages, such as the Serbs, who are also from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Croats and Bosnians are three languages. And it's hard for the other party to understand. This made it difficult for the Austro-Hungarian army to send people of several languages to integrate them, and it was also inconvenient for them to mobilize.

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

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

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

Grand Duke Otto Franz said to Eder with a wry smile. "This throne is about to become a curse for our family, from my cousin Rudolph to Ferdinand, and then to my son Carl. Moreover, the situation in Austria-Hungary is not good now, and it is entirely dependent on the support of Germany that can ensure the current situation. If Germany doesn't move one day, we Habsburgs don't know what to do. ”

Archduke Otto Franz was more pessimistic, but he may have been a bystander, since his father-in-law had never been interested in politics.

Edel felt that the issue could not be discussed at this time, so he pointed to the son that his wife, Sophie Marie, held in his arms. "This is your grandson, Victor."

Sophie Marie also took Prince Victor to her father, Archduke Otto Franz, and asked him to look at the little guy closely.

Archduke Otto Franz saw his grandson stretching out his hand to tease him, who knew that Victor was not afraid of life at all, and played with his grandfather. Looking at Victor, who was very excited to be teased, Otto Franz said with a heartfelt smile. "This is a happy little guy, really enviable carefree."

Eder said with a smile to Archduke Otto Franz. "Father-in-law, you already have several grandchildren."

"But that's the only one for my grandson."

Seeing that the two had been chatting, the Austro-Hungarian officials who were waiting on the side were already anxious. Sophie Marie said to the two. "You can continue to talk privately, and don't let anyone else wait now."

Sophie Marie's words made the two remember that they were still in public, so they ended chatting between the two sons-in-law.

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 Karl's accession to the throne before returning to Romania.