Nineteenth Century Medical Guide

Chapter 449 445. The Crooked Knife
The news of the explosion at the Paris train station was transmitted to all parts of Europe via telegram that night, and even directly to the United States across the Atlantic Ocean via the submarine cable that had just been laid last summer.

The next morning, European newspapers reported on the Paris bombings, including Hungarian media. The Morning Post and the Budapest Journal both reported on the bombings in detail, overshadowing the news of Gyula Andrassy's appointment as prime minister that was to be held that morning.

After receiving the news last night, Hungary reacted immediately and discussed whether to postpone the appointment ceremony. After all, Gyula Andrássy is the leader of Hungary and has the support of the people. His life cannot be lost.

As the garrison general, Maximilian strongly supported this approach, and the apparent reason was naturally safety first.

But in fact, although postponing the appointment ceremony is safe enough, it is also a manifestation of cowardice. In Maximilian's eyes, Andrassy is a hypocrite who appears to be kind on the surface but sucks Austria's blood crazily behind the scenes. So as long as it can affect Andrassy's image, he will agree.

Others also agreed with Maximilian's approach. Safety is definitely more important than honor, especially now that the prime minister has already been decided, so it doesn't matter if the image is damaged a little.

However, Andrassy, ​​who had benefited from his image, still went against the crowd and decided to go on the podium as planned.

At 20 am on the th, the appointment ceremony was officially held in Freedom Square in Budapest.

A large number of people gathered at the scene, most of whom were Hungarians who were quite satisfied with the Austro-Hungarian merger. Of course, such a country could not have only one ethnic group, Slavs, Prussians, Russians, Austrians, Czechs and other people of all kinds were mixed together.

For safety reasons, an isolation zone was forcibly created between the public and the podium. Except for the Austrian garrison and the local Hungarian police, no one else was allowed to enter, not even the politicians in the speaking area.

The speech started with Deak.

As a former counselor of both countries, Deac, who has now resigned from all his positions, can be regarded as an important figure in the merger of Austria-Hungary.

But he gave all the glory to Andrassy alone: ​​"My friend, Count Gyula Andrassy is a true child of destiny given to us by God! He has given everything for the birth of this huge empire today, and everyone has seen it! It is natural for the people to make him the Prime Minister of Hungary! On behalf of all the representatives of the former Hungarian Parliament and the peace-loving Hungarians, I now declare..."

As he finished speaking, gunshots suddenly rang out among the crowd.

Deak was startled, and after a brief moment of shock, he immediately thought of Andrassy who was about to stand up. Just as he turned around to protect the Hungarian Prime Minister, he felt something touch his left arm, followed by a piercing pain.

There was chaos all around, and Deac wanted to take a few more steps, but he was immediately surrounded by soldiers on both sides of the podium. He could hardly see anything, and only heard the voices of Maximilian, the police chief, and several captains of the guard giving orders.

"Protect the Prime Minister!"

"Protect Deak!!!"

"Catch that guy! That woman in the canary yellow dress, that's her!"

"There's also a guy in a black coat in the distance, don't let him get away!!!"

The bullets were all aimed at the podium, but it was not easy to shoot at the same range as a rifle with a revolver. A total of five bullets were fired from the two pistols, and then the gunman was pinned to the ground.

Both men swore to God that they had aimed at Gyula Andrassy's chest and pulled the trigger, but neither of them actually hit him.

The first shot hit the podium in front of Deak, and the second shot, fired almost simultaneously, hit the wooden board below the podium. The third shot could have hit Andrassy, ​​but was blocked by Deak. The next two shots, like Ayesha's, hit Nikolai Pavlovich Ignatiev, the Russian ambassador who had nothing to do with Austria-Hungary, due to the chaos at the scene and the intervention of the guards.

Deak's left arm immediately bleeds, but Ignatiev, who is far away, is much better. The Russian envoy who just came here from Istanbul may be old, and he didn't react in time and was shot twice in a row, one in the stomach and one in the ankle.

Similar to the situation in Paris, the two injured were immediately sent to the best medical center in Budapest, St. Janos Hospital. One of the two assassins surrendered on the spot and was caught, while the other was shot to death.

On the same day, several newspapers in Vienna also reported the news of the attack on the Austrian emperor.

However, because the result was good and Kawi was with them, the mood of both newspapers and the people in Vienna was relatively stable. Even many entertainment facilities were operating as usual, without any tension that would be expected if the emperor was assassinated.

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, an opera was being performed in the Burgtheater in Vienna. It was Georges Bizet's first opera, The Pearl Fishers, which he completed four years ago.

Perhaps because Cavey's previous throat cancer surgery was a huge success, the patient, Bizet, also gained a lot of attention from the Austrian people. "The Pearl Fishers", which originally had little response in Paris, gradually entered major theaters in Vienna.

The feedback was not all positive, but it gave Bizet a lot of confidence. He recently considered changing the premiere location of his plays, so he has been active in Vienna, preparing to warm up for "The Belle of Bayeux", which he just completed last year.

The premiere venue was naturally the Burgtheater.

This is Laszlo's business. Thanks to Kavi's connections, Bizet's operas often appear here. Ticket sales are not very good, but Laszlo doesn't care. He cares about Kavi Heins. It is more practical to give a little benefit to the opera writer that Kavi values ​​than to please Kavi directly.

Just like when he discussed the pharmaceutical factory with Kavi, Laszlo today invited two Czech national party leaders, Palacký and Riegel.

On the surface, this Hungarian came to discuss business, but secretly he had a political mission.

The Czech Republic is home to the most important coal and iron producing areas of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a place that László could not avoid. In his early years, he set up a factory there, which later grew bigger and bigger, gradually becoming an economic bridge between Austria and Hungary. Now that he has brokered the merger of Austria and Hungary, he has begun to calm the Czechs' emotions.

Laszlo's status and position are not equal to those of the other two.

However, Franz was not in Vienna, and Austria-Hungary had just merged. It was not advisable for the Czechs to directly contact the officials in Vienna, which would arouse Hungarian suspicion. Therefore, Laszlo was the lubricant, and he mostly talked about coal and steel.

During the casual conversation, he still revealed some things about the future constitutional amendment of the empire. This was not a good thing for the Czech Republic, and it almost cut off the possibility of independence. But considering that Hungary did not have a parliament and its status was not much higher than that of the Czech Republic, their emotions were relatively stable. In fact, as long as he talked about this step and made them acquiesce to the fact of constitutional amendment, Laszlo would be considered successful.

Next, as long as some support is given to economic development to make up for the losses caused during the Austro-Prussian War, the Czech Republic will be able to stabilize.

As long as Czechoslovakia is stabilized, the industry of the Austro-Hungarian Empire can be stabilized, and the entire empire can still survive.

But who would have thought that just when they talked about the key point, a guy with a pistol secretly opened the door of the box and broke in quietly.

This was originally a box with very adequate security measures.

There were only two doors for entry and exit, both guarded by guards, and the back door was always locked. The only real way out was the front door. But who could have expected that the back door, which was supposed to be locked, had been tampered with, and the spring on the lock had long been broken. And the guard who was supposed to be there strangely left his post and ran downstairs to drink with some old friends.

In short, all protective measures are ineffective.

The Pearl Fishers was being performed, the singing and music were gradually reaching a climax, and the audience was quietly waiting. Suddenly, a slight gunshot was heard in the box, but only a few people heard it. A few seconds later, a black shadow fell directly from the box stand.

The performance was interrupted and the theater was in chaos.

Compared to the two assassinations in Paris and Budapest, this one was not very successful. The assassin fired two shots at Laszlo, one shot grazed Laszlo's neck and left a bloody mark. The other shot missed and hit Palacky's shoulder, who was standing next to him.

The old man in his sixties was sent to the Municipal General Hospital more than an hour later despite his wounds. Fortunately, Ignaz and Sediyo were there and pulled him back from the hemorrhagic shock.

Compared to Palacky's excessive blood loss, Ignatiev, who was shot twice, seemed more relaxed. On the way, he chatted with the guards, talking about his achievements in the Far East and Istanbul, as well as his experiences in Hungary this time. However, he never came out after entering St. Janos Hospital.

Hungary's overall medical level is one level lower than Austria's, and there is no surgeon like Kavi or those who have worked with Kavi to make up for the upper limit, so you can imagine its ability.

The bullet in the ankle did not threaten his life, and at most he would have to undergo amputation, but the bullet in the stomach had penetrated his intestines and spleen. This was actually not a bad thing, as he could just open his abdomen and sew up what needed to be blocked, and remove the bullet.

However, the surgeons at St. Janos Hospital had little experience in performing laparotomies. The only doctor who had performed a splenectomy fiddled with Ignatiev's stomach for more than two hours. Seeing more and more blood in his stomach, with blood clots forming in some places, he finally had to declare the Russian dead.

The news that the Russian ambassador was assassinated in Budapest was enough to shock Europe. If we add the similar experience of the leader of the Czech National Party and the explosion at the Paris train station yesterday, the outline of the plot behind it seems to be getting clearer and clearer.

Then someone dug up several pieces of news.

Ignatiev was not the real target of the assassination; the real target was someone other than Andrassy and Deak; the envoy came to Hungary to continue the Tsarist Russia's policy in the Ottoman Empire, Austria, and Hungary and to spread his Pan-Slavism.

Then, another piece of news about Laszlo's plan to save the Czech and Slovak infrastructure for Franz spread like wildfire. Someone even came forward to testify that he had a copy of their secret contract.

The news spread more and more outrageous. When it reached Paris, the mainstream newspapers that originally only had morning editions suddenly printed afternoon supplements or evening editions.

Their front-page headlines were dominated by the two assassinations in Budapest and Vienna. They seemed to be good analyses, but the texts were all aimed at some kind of instability hidden after the Hungarian unification.

"I didn't expect that after sleeping here for one night, the world would change so much." With the help of Melanie, Shelly turned the page again and found that it was all unimportant things, so she put the newspaper aside. "But the angle of the Times is quite interesting. If it weren't for Dr. Kavi, I would really have lost my arm."

Valente was very satisfied with the operation. Although a steel plate and seven screws cost 90,000 francs, he had the same idea as Devinke: the money could be earned again, and it was worth it as long as the hand could be saved.

"How do you feel now?"

"I said before that it's fine. Except for the inability to move, everything else is fine." Xie Lisi twisted her body with difficulty and touched the gauze strip on her right arm with her left hand. "It's just that the thing inside is quite heavy."

"I've asked the carpenter to build a bracket next to the bed so that you don't have to bear too much weight when you sleep." Valente gestured vividly beside the bed, "When you can get out of bed, let the maid help you."

Shelly was quite satisfied. She asked him to pour her a glass of water, then helped herself up and drank two sips.

"Come back with me. Don't live here anymore." Valente always felt that the environment here was not good, and there were not so many maids to serve. "It would be awkward to live with those common people. Besides, it would be embarrassing if I told others about it later."

Xie Lisi originally thought so. Although her arm could not move, she had a servant with her, so changing clothes was not a problem. Moreover, after such a serious injury, she would definitely attract countless attention if she could appear in the social circle within a few days.

So she asked Kavi this morning when he was doing his rounds, but the answer was "No, you can't leave for at least a week!" Kavi certainly had his own medical reasons, but in his experience, it was better to use direct "verbal threats" when facing nobles.

"Doctor Kavi said that we can leave only after a week when the wound is healed."

"My father always came to our house for surgery, and he even helped me get the instruments. Why has everything changed now?" Valente was puzzled. It was not easy for an aristocrat to completely change his mindset. "Are you going to sleep here for the next seven days?"

"Hasn't it been changed to a single room? At least there are professional nurses here to help. If you are worried, bring two more maids over."

Xie Lisi didn't come from a particularly good family, so she didn't really care about these things: "I even asked Landreth to choose a place near the side door, so that no matter how noisy the other wards are, they can't disturb me."

As soon as he opened his mouth, he heard cheers and whistles like noise coming from Devinke's room on the other side. Apparently, his other friends came to the ward one after another. They brought red wine, whiskey, flowers and a bucket of Devinke's favorite oysters to celebrate the chocolate tycoon's survival.

Shelly covered her chest with her left hand, feeling her body's reaction to the noise. "You're right, dear. Let's talk to Dr. Kavi again."