My Italy

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 involved in this eye-opening peace talks are not qualified to rest at this time. They took advantage of the lull in negotiations to make adjustments to various situations that had arisen in previous negotiations.

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.

"Too bad, 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 cannot interfere too much in it. According to Count Gustav Carnoky, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Council of Ministers, this war is related to Austria-Hungary's interests in the Balkans, but the empire needs to consider alliance issues and is restrained in exerting influence. It doesn't get much 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 the outbreak of this war, the general view among European countries was that this would be an evenly matched war. Although the strength of the Ottomans is constantly weakening, the Italians are not too strong. The Ottomans still have the home field advantage, so 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 tracts of territory, and I can only turn the Serbian and Montenegro area under my jurisdiction into a direct jurisdiction. No matter how you look at it, you are at a loss.

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 handle.

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 won’t say much about its situation in this war. The fact that it can make such a crazy move to support the Ottomans with arms shows Russia’s impatient heart. Fortunately, the coalition forces did not capture Istanbul, otherwise no one knows whether the Russians will go crazy, and maybe they will do something crazy like general mobilization.

Ambassador Freddy was unconcerned about the Russians' actions. But even though he didn't care, he couldn't stop people from visiting. No, not long after Ambassador Freddy returned, someone from the embassy came to report that Russian Ambassador Alexander Tokayev was visiting.

When Freddy heard that the Russian ambassador was visiting, he knew the purpose of the visit without even thinking about it.

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 Serbia-Bulgaria War nearly ten years ago, Austria-Hungary 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 facing 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 respond seasonally. "Freddy, we need to work together this time."

After despising the other party in his heart for not even observing diplomatic etiquette, Freddy took out a cigar and threw one to the other party and said. "Your Excellency, haven't we already joined forces for this peace negotiation meeting? I have promised to support Serbia."

Tokayev took the cigar and took a puff, shaking his head. "This alone is not enough, your country needs to exert your influence to make Italy abandon 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 conditions for lowering tariffs."

Speaking of this, Tokayev said with 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 has no doubts about Russian intelligence. Russia's intelligence capabilities in Bulgaria are still very credible. There are not many Bulgarians who have a favorable impression of Russia.

As for whether the Italians would be dazzled by the Bulgarians' conditions, Freddy couldn't guarantee this. 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 to let it know 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 replied. "Ambassador Tokayev wants our country to exert influence on Italy and prevent it from helping Bulgaria, which 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 string music by hearing it, and he can still not understand the meaning of the other party. He had already considered it before he came here. As long as he wanted the Austro-Hungarians to take action, he would still have to give them the benefits they deserve. Anyway, he didn't have to pay Russian money.

Tokayev said with a smile. "In this regard, I discussed this with the Prime Minister of Serbia and they are willing to accept a 10% concession from your country on the transit cargo transportation fee."

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 high transportation transit fee for this. Now in order to prevent Bulgaria from becoming too powerful, 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 annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has half of the Serb population, they could 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 than tolerate the emergence of a powerful country in the region that may lead the region (so before World War I, it was impossible for a country to crush the entire 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.