As the lights begin to light up in the evening, people who have been busy all day return home one after another to enjoy their daily rest.
Of course, the coming of night is not only related to rest, especially the parties to this eye-catching peace negotiation, who are not qualified to rest at this time. They have taken advantage of the intermission time in the negotiations to start discussing various issues that emerged in the previous negotiations.
Adjust the situation.
In the Austro-Hungarian Embassy, Ambassador Gavin Freddy, the Austro-Hungarian peace talks observer representative, returned to the embassy with a gloomy look on his face.
"How are the peace talks going?"
Vonn Spark, the counselor of the embassy, asked with concern about the progress of the peace talks.
"It's terrible, a bunch of vicious dogs fighting over a bone."
Ambassador Freddy spoke of today's peace talks with a sense of malice.
The peace talks in Rome looked really bad to him.
This peace negotiation is very important to Austria-Hungary, but they are unable to interfere too much. According to Count Gustav Carnoky, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Council of Ministers, this war is related to Austria-Hungary’s
The interests of the Balkans, but the empire needs to consider alliance issues and is tied up in exerting influence. There is nothing worse than this.
The main reason for all this was the huge deviation in Austria-Hungary's estimation of Ottoman strength.
In fact, it was not just Austria-Hungary. Before this war broke out, the general view among European countries was that it would be an evenly matched war. Although the strength of the Ottomans was constantly weakening, the Italians were not strong either, and the Ottomans still had the home field advantage.
Then this war can be fought.
However, the course of the war was beyond everyone's expectations. The Ottomans were defeated. If it were not for the influence of various countries, Istanbul would be occupied by now.
This situation makes Austria-Hungary, which has huge interests in the Balkans, very embarrassed. Watching Italy and Bulgaria seize large areas of territory, and they can only turn the Serbian and Montenegro areas under their jurisdiction into direct jurisdiction. No matter how you look at it, you are losing money.
.
What's even more uncomfortable is that Italy is still its own ally, and it is impossible for Italy to do something that would give others a leg up.
In fact, it is not just Austria-Hungary that is embarrassed. Russia, which has the same interests as Austria-Hungary in the Balkans, is also very embarrassed. As a well-known Russia in the Balkans, I will not say much about the situation in this war. It can make arms to support the Ottomans.
This kind of crazy behavior can show the impatience of Russia. Fortunately, the coalition forces did not capture Istanbul, otherwise no one knows whether the Russians will go crazy, maybe they will have crazy behavior like general mobilization.
Ambassador Freddy was not concerned about the actions of the Russians. However, although he was not concerned, he could not stop people from visiting. No, not long after Ambassador Freddy came back, someone from the embassy came to report that Russia
Visit by Ambassador Alexander Tokayev.
When Freddy heard that the Russian ambassador was visiting, he knew the purpose of his visit without even thinking.
Although Russia and Austria-Hungary are rivals in the Balkans, it is not surprising that the two parties would join forces when their common interests may be threatened. And there is precedent for this. In the Serbian-Bulgarian War nearly ten years ago, Austria-Hungary
He once issued a warning to the victorious Bulgarians, asking them to stop fighting Serbia, otherwise Austria-Hungary would send troops for this purpose.
Since the two countries have such a tacit understanding of confrontation and cooperation, there is no reason why they should not use it in this peace negotiation.
So when faced with the visiting Russian ambassador, Freddy naturally invited him in.
In his office, the tall and lanky Freddy looked at the fat and bear-like Tokayev. The obvious combination of lanky and short between the two became a classic match.
"Hello, Ambassador Tokayev, welcome to your visit."
Facing Freddy's greeting, Tokayev waved his hand and did not give a seasonal answer. "Freddy, we need to join forces this time."
After despising the other party in his heart for not even abiding by diplomatic etiquette, Freddy took out a cigar and threw it to the other party and said, "Sir, haven't we already joined forces for this peace meeting? I have promised to support Serbia."
Tokayev took the cigar and took a puff, shaking his head and saying. "This alone is not enough. Your country needs to exert your influence to make Italy give up the Bulgarians."
Tokayev leaned closer and whispered. "We have received news that this time Bulgaria has offered a lot of benefits in order to gain the full support of the Italians, including the condition of lowering tariffs."
Speaking of this, Tokayev said with a look of hatred. "These Bulgarian white-eyed wolves have forgotten the kindness of our country. Without the help of our country, they would not even be able to achieve independence."
Freddy looked unhappy when he heard Tokayev's words. He had no doubts about Russia's intelligence. Russia's intelligence capabilities in Bulgaria were still very credible. There were not many Bulgarians who had a favorable impression of Russia.
As for whether the Italians would be dazzled by the conditions of the Bulgarians, Freddy could not guarantee this question. Since he knew the temperament of the Italians, it was probably a 50-50 thing.
In this case, Austria-Hungary needs to warn its ally before this, so that it knows Austria-Hungary's attitude.
But if they want to express their attitude on behalf of Vienna, the Russians must express something.
Freddy thought about this and then replied. "Ambassador Tokayev, you want our country to exert influence on Italy and prevent it from helping Bulgaria. This will affect our country's relations with it."
At this point, Ambassador Freddy stopped.
Tokayev is also a person who knows the elegant meaning of strings by hearing the sound of strings, and he can still not understand the meaning of the other party. He had already considered it before coming here. As long as he wanted the Austro-Hungarians to take action, he should give them the benefits they should give, anyway.
No need to pay Russian money.
Tokayev said with a smile. "I discussed this with the Serbian Prime Minister and they are willing to accept a 10% concession from your country on transit cargo transportation fees."
What Tokayev said is Serbia’s biggest problem at the moment. They have no outlet to the sea, so basically most of the goods need to transit through Austria-Hungary, and Austria-Hungary charges a lot of transportation transit fees for this. Now in order to let
Bulgaria will not become too powerful, and Serbia must use its interests to win over Austria-Hungary.
In this regard, Serbian Prime Minister Grujic is very aware of this, so there is no way to make necessary concessions. Even if Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has half of the Serb population, they can only grit their teeth and acquiesce.
As for why they chose to target Bulgaria instead of Italy, in addition to Italy being an ally of Austria-Hungary, the two countries also did not want a regional power to appear in the region. For this goal, they would rather hold their noses and acquiesce to the entry of one more player.
Nor could we tolerate the emergence of a powerful country in the region that could lead the region (so before World War I, it was impossible for a country to dominate the Balkans to emerge).
While the Austria-Hungary and Russian ambassadors were plotting against Bulgaria, in the Prime Minister's Office in Rome, Bulgarian Prime Minister Stambolov was also talking with Prime Minister Depretis.
