Chapter 182: Gunshots in Sarajevo (Part II)
Archduke Ferdinand, who is not known to be remembered, is in the spa town of Eliza, 10 kilometers from Sarajevo. He stayed here for the past two days with Franz Konrad von Hetzendorf, the chief of the Austro-Hungarian General Staff, who, by the way, was also the commander-in-chief of the exercise.
Archduke Ferdinand was a little tired after two days of viewing, but because there was only one last day left to visit Sarajevo.
In essence, Archduke Ferdinand's marriage was a torment for both the Archduke and his wife. Because in 1900, the Austro-Hungarian crown prince was forced by his uncle, Emperor Felanz Joseph I, to sign a declaration of abstention. In this statement, the children born to him and his wife, Sophie, could not inherit the throne.
His wife, Sophie Hotek, was arguably not a commoner, she came from a Czech aristocratic family, but her family was too humble to compete with the grand Habsburgs.
In addition to this, Sophie was once the lady-in-waiting of a Habsburg archduchess named Marie Christine, who was eager to marry Ferdinand. One day Ferdinand changed his clothes to play tennis and left the small gold box he had brought with him in the dressing room, and the mother of the Grand Duchess opened Ferdinand's small gold box in the hope of seeing a picture of her daughter, but the mother seemed to see a picture of the housemaid named Sophie.
Ferdinand did not give up his love for the sake of the dignity of his family, and he planned to marry this secret lover. This provoked strong opposition from the Habsburgs, but Archduke Ferdinand continued to marry Sophie Hotek, much of the Habsburgs who saw him as humiliated and refused to forgive him.
His wife was not forgiven, and although Sophie was eventually given the title of Grand Duchess of Hohenberg, she had to endure endless humiliation. At royal banquets, she had to be the last to enter, and she was always arranged at the last seat at the table, away from her husband. Even at the Eliza dinner on Saturday (a religious banquet presided over by the Crown Prince in Austria-Hungary), Sophie was forced to go between the two archbishops, patiently listening to her husband's painful 'toast that did not involve his wife' (Ferdinand could no longer mention Sophie's name in public or official settings), despite being far away from the Imperial Palace in Vienna.
So it is rumored that the Crown Prince Ferdinand also wanted to spend time with his wife in Sarajevo this time to relieve his huge pressure in Vienna.
The greeting of the crown prince in Sarajevo was already underway, and Mayor Fehim, in his decree asking citizens to show hospitality, had already written down the driving directions of Archduke Ferdinand, including Epikoue Avenue (the only way to and from the town hall). He wrote the route in the hope that the citizens and shops on the side of the road would place the flag and flowers of the empire on the side of the street. In fact, on 28 June, the citizens of Sarajevo hung a large portrait of Archduke Ferdinand on walls and windows.
Ilyich also summoned the Assassins to distribute weapons, preparing to surprise the Ferdinands who had come from afar. On the morning of that day, he distributed weapons to three local Assassins he had recruited and three Prinshep who had arrived from Serbia. Among them, Prinup took a Browning pistol, Chabrinovich took a grenade, and Grabezh took a Browning and a grenade. It was clear that the three of them were at the heart of the assassination attempt.
He recruited three local men, the first two of whom were Serbs, named Veilles Chubrilovich and Tsvetko Popovich. As for the third person, who is a Muslim, this person also has a very special name, which is Muhammad Bhasted.
In the end, in the allocation of places among the crowd, Ilyich chose a spot on Epiqui Avenue near the Chumurya Bridge, with Popovich by his side. Chubrilovich, Mohammed Basht and Chabrinović stood in key positions along the river. According to the route, the Grand Duke convoy will first encounter two Assassins with revolvers, and before crossing the Chumurya Bridge stands Chabrinovich, who is holding a grenade. If all three miss, Prinship, armed with a Browning pistol, will do so before the convoy reaches the next bridge, called La Tenna. If they missed, the convoy would encounter Grabezh, the only Assassin with a gun and grenade, not far from the Caesar's Bridge.
The Ferdinands arrived in Sarajevo at 9:20 a.m., accompanied by the military governor Portiorek. Today Archduke Ferdinand wears the uniform of an Austrian cavalry general, a blue bolero, black trousers, and a red belt. His wife, Sophie, was also dressed very elegantly, wearing a white tulle and a hat, and a bouquet of red roses tied to the hat.
Upon arrival, the Ferdinands first inspected the army, and then the Grand Duke and his wife boarded a royal convertible and followed behind the leading car. The mayor and the police chief were seated in the leading car, followed by the Grand Duke and his wife, followed by three vehicles of the entourage. The salute rang out 21 times and the royal parade began.
Ilyich's assassination plan is very clever because it is a multi-insurance. However, the plan had a glaring flaw, which was that it overestimated the dedication of the Assassins. Two of the most critical positions in the assassination plan were given to the unsuitable, one was Chubrilovich, a Bosnian who was both untrained and timid. The second is Mohammed Bashit, the young Muslin who is probably not very serious about the affairs of the Serbs. As the convoy passed in front of them, they didn't even move a finger.
It was the turn of the third Assassin to make a move, and he was Chabrinovic, who also made his first appearance as an Assassin from Bulgrade. When the convoy crossed the Chumurya Bridge, he opened the back cover of the grenade and threw it at Archduke Ferdinand's car, fortunately, the driver of the Grand Duke was quick-sighted, and after seeing the assassin's actions, he sped up, and the grenade grazed Archduke Ferdinand's face and smashed into the canopy and was bounced away, under the accompanying car following Ferdinand, and then the grenade exploded directly, and the explosion did not cause any serious damage to the car, only wounding Portiorek's adjutant and a few passers-by on the side. Chabrinovich escaped by jumping into the dry riverbed, but was caught by the police before he could swallow the poison (if he wanted to).
Within minutes of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the Grand Duke's convoy picked up, making the assassination attempt difficult. However, after seeing Chabrinovich miss, Princip and Grabezh, who were waiting for an opportunity behind the Grand Duke's driving route, withdrew from their respective assassination points for fear of police interrogation.
Archduke Ferdinand and his entourage arrived at the town hall, where they met with a delegation of Muslim women, where they prepared to give a public speech. The scene of the lecture was interesting, creating an Ottoman tradition under a pure gold Moorish canopy, and Archduke Ferdinand was welcomed by a group of Islamic scholars in turbans, bishops in religious attire, imams in Ottoman robes.
It was almost 11 a.m. when the presentation was over. According to the schedule, you should visit the museum and then go for lunch, but this is all about the most congested Josef Street. The military adviser to the Grand Duke of Ferdinand advised not to go to the museum and go directly to Portiorek's official residence. Archduke Ferdinand was a man of honor, and he chose to go to the hospital to comfort Potiorek's lieutenant and the rest of the staff on their injuries, and then go to lunch, which was a good end to his trip to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Since the hospital also had to go to the hospital through the congested Josef Street, Portiorek insisted that the convoy take the unwide Epiquieu Avenue in an effort to pass at high speed to prevent anyone from throwing bombs again.
At the same time, after the initial panic, the two of Prinshipp and Grabezh got together again to discuss the next move. Graberge, among them, intended to use the Kaisar Bridge as his new location, where he hoped to shoot at close range, as the returning convoy would slow down there.
And Princip also occupies a new position on the road to the museum, opposite the La Tena bridge, in front of Moritz Schiller's condiment shop, and if Archduke Ferdinand insists on the original schedule, his car will come from Epiquia Epiquia, where he will have to slow down when turning right.
Both men chose to wait for Archduke Ferdinand's convoy to slow down, because they had only been trained for a few weeks, and it was impossible for them to hit Archduke Ferdinand in a high-speed car.
So the danger of revealing Archduke Ferdinand's driving route was revealed, as soon as the Grand Duke chose one of the two destinations, his car would slow down in front of one of the two corners, and both Assassins from Serbia were waiting for him here. However, Archduke Ferdinand's insistence on choosing a third destination, and Portiorek's decision not to take Josef Street and demand that the convoy move at full speed reduce the chances of a successful second assassination. If all goes well, then Prinship, Grabezh can only watch the car speed past in front of them, unable to aim.
Mr. and Mrs. Ferdinand, together with the police convoy that had arrived to reinforce them, left the town hall after 11 a.m. and headed at full speed along Epiqui Street. For the sake of prudence, the order of the convoy was adjusted, with the mayor's car following the police car, followed by the car in which the Ferdinands and Portiorec were traveling, followed by three accompanying convoys.
Count Hallack, a close friend of the Grand Duke, offered to mount a tiller to the Archduke's left to prevent an attack from the river (the previous attack was launched by the river). Now that the Grand Duke was in the middle of a high-speed convoy, it was difficult for him to receive a bomb attack, and he would hardly be hit by a gunshot.
Standing near the Kaiser Bridge, Grabezh could only watch the convoy pass him at high speed from far and near, without turning. As the convoy approached the Latene Bridge, possibly because Potiorek forgot to inform everyone, the first two cars turned to Josef Street, while the third car carrying the crown prince and his wife and Portiorek also swerved.
Potiorek realized his mistake and ordered the driver to turn back, and the turnaround point was just in front of the condiment shop, and Archduke Ferdinand's driver slammed on the brakes and shifted into reverse gear. It was at this time that Gavrino Princip saw that the target was stationary at a distance of 2.5 meters in front of him, which lasted for about 2 to 3 seconds, and although Count Halak acted as a bodyguard, it was on the other side of the car. Princip stepped forward, got closer to his target, and fired two shots with a Browning pistol, the first in the neck of Volkswagen Archduke Ferdinand, and the second in the abdomen of Sophie.
The Grand Duke's sedan finally turned around and headed in the direction of the residence, unbeknownst to the others in the car, who had hit its target. By the time they realized something was wrong, the Ferdinands were seriously injured.
Gavrino Prinship, who caused tens of millions of casualties in World War I, was quickly arrested by the surrounding police after the shooting. In October 1914 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In prison, Princip underwent surgery to remove his arm for health reasons and died of tuberculosis on April 28, 1918.
The other persons involved in the assassination were sentenced to Danilo Irik, Nedriko Chabrinović, Necho Kairovic, Mihaelo Jovanovic and Yakov Milovich by hanging (on appeal, Kerovic's sentence was reduced to 20 years, and Milovich's sentence was reduced to life imprisonment). sentenced Princip, Chabrinovich and Grabezh to 20 years' hard labour; sentenced Vasso Chubrilovich to 16 years of hard labor; Popovich was sentenced to 13 years of hard labour – on June 28 of each year, the five men were to be confined to a separate cell. The remaining six were sentenced to three years' imprisonment to life imprisonment.
Only Mohammad Bachet escaped to Montenegro, but was captured and executed in 1917.
Now the turmoil caused by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand has just begun.
PS: Mom, Sultan, I'm sorry for the delay until today, but the steamed buns don't sleep, and still fulfill my promise and go to sleep.