My Italian

Chapter 259: Rome peace talks (middle)

In the early evening, when the lanterns are on, people who have been busy all day are also returning home to enjoy the rest time every day.

Of course, the coming of night is not only about rest, especially the parties in this promising peace talks are not qualified to rest at this time. They have used the intermission time of this negotiation to start to adjust the various situations that appeared in the previous negotiation.

Inside the Austro-Hungarian embassy, ​​Ambassador Gavin Freddy, the representative of the Austro-Hungarian Peace Talk Observatory, returned to the embassy with a gloomy face.

"How's the peace talks going?"

The embassy counselor Von Spark asked with concern about the progress of the peace talks.

"It sucks, a bunch of wicked dogs are fighting for a bone."

Ambassador Freddy spoke with malice about the situation of today's peace talks.

The peace talks in Rome were terrible in his opinion.

The peace talks were very important to Austria-Hungary, but they couldn't intervene too much in it. According to Count Gustav Karnochi, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of the Council of Ministers, this war concerns the interests of Austria-Hungary in the Balkans, but the Empire needs to consider allies, and is limited in exerting influence. It doesn't get any worse than this.

According to the main reason for all this, Austria-Hungary made a huge deviation in the estimation of the strength of the Ottomans.

In fact, it is not just Austria-Hungary. Before this war broke out, the general view of European countries was that it would be a close war. Although the strength of the Ottomans is constantly weakening, the Italians are not strong, and the Ottomans still occupy the home field advantage, so this war may be fought.

However, the course of the war was beyond everyone's expectations. The Ottomans were beaten to pieces. If it were not for the influence of various countries, Istanbul would now be occupied.

This situation makes Austria-Hungary, which has huge interests in the Balkans, very embarrassed. Watching Italy and Bulgaria seize a large tract of territory, and I can only turn the escrow area of ​​Serbia and Montenegro into direct jurisdiction, no matter how I look at it, I am at a loss.

What makes it even more uncomfortable is that Italy is still its own ally, and it is impossible for Italy to make some tricky moves.

In fact, it is not only the Austria-Hungary family 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, there is not much to say about the situation in this war. Being able to make a crazy move of supporting the Ottomans with arms shows Russia's impatience. Fortunately, the coalition did not capture Istanbul, otherwise no one would know if the Russians would go crazy, and maybe there would be crazy moves like general mobilization.

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

Hearing the visit of the Russian ambassador, Freddy didn't have to think to know the other party's intention.

Although Russia and Austria-Hungary are rivals in the Balkans, it is not surprising that the two sides join forces when they may threaten their mutual interests. And this is also a precedent. In the Cyprus and Bulgarian war nearly ten years ago, Austria-Hungary once issued a warning to the victorious Bulgarians, asking them to stop fighting Serbia, otherwise Austria-Hungary would send troops for this.

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 talks.

So in the face of the visiting Russian ambassador, Freddy naturally invited him to come in.

In his office, the tall and thin Freddy looked at Tokayev, who was fat as a bear. The obvious thinness and shortness of the two became a classic match.

"Hello, Ambassador Tokayev, welcome to your visit."

Facing Freddy's greeting, Tokayev waved his hand and did not answer seasonally. "Freddy, this time we need to join forces."

After he despised the other party for not even abiding by diplomatic etiquette, Freddy took out a cigar and threw it at the other party. "Your Excellency, haven't we already joined forces in this peace talks? I have promised to support Serbia."

Tokayev, who took a cigar and took a sharp puff, shook his head. "These are not enough, your country needs to exert your influence to get Italy to abandon the Bulgarians."

Tokayev approached 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 on it."

Speaking of this, Tokayev said with a look of hatred. "These Bulgarian white-eyed wolves have forgotten the kindness of our country. If it weren't for our help, they wouldn't even be able to achieve independence."

Freddy didn't look good when he heard Tokayev's words. He has no doubts about Russia's intelligence. Russia's intelligence capabilities in Bulgaria are still very credible. There should not be too many Bulgarians who have a favorable impression of Russia.

As for whether the Italians will be fascinated by the conditions of the Bulgarians, Freddy can't guarantee that, since he knows the temperament of the Italians, this kind of thing is half right.

In this case, Austria-Hungary needs to give a warning to its ally before this, and let it know the attitude of Austria-Hungary.

But if you want to show your attitude on behalf of Vienna~www.NovelMTL.com~ then the Russians must show something.

Freddie thought about it and replied. "Ambassador Tokayev wants our country to exert influence over Italy to prevent it from helping Bulgaria, which will affect our country's relations with it."

Having said this, Ambassador Freddy stopped.

Tokayev is also a person who knows the meaning of elegance by hearing the sound of the strings, and still can't understand the meaning of the other party. Before he came here, he had already thought about it. As long as he wanted the Austro-Hungarians to take action, he still had to give the benefits. Anyway, he didn't have to pay for Russia's money.

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

What Tokayev said is the biggest problem for Serbia at present. They do not have an exit to the sea, so basically most of the goods need to transit through Austria-Hungary, and Austria-Hungary charges a lot of transportation and transit fees for this. Now in order to keep Bulgaria from becoming too powerful, Serbia must use its benefits to win over Austria-Hungary.

In this regard, Serbian Prime Minister Grujic is very aware of this, so it is impossible to make necessary concessions. Even if Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has half 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, there is also the thought that the two countries do not want a regional power in the region. For this purpose, they would rather hold one more player by default, and would not tolerate the emergence of a powerful country in the region that might lead the region (so before World War I, it was impossible for a country to crush the entire field in the Balkans).

While Austria-Hungary and the Russian ambassador were conspiring against Bulgaria, Bulgarian Prime Minister Stambolov was also talking to Prime Minister Depretis in the Prime Minister's Palace in Rome.

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