Chapter 347

Although the contact between the Russian ambassador and Germany was relatively secret, such news still quickly reached the ears of various European countries.

Once the most powerful countries of both sides in this great war begin to contact for peace talks, this actually also means that this war is about to end, and it ends in a way of peace talks, rather than one side being completely defeated by the other.

However, compared to the peace talks currently being conducted by Germany and Russia, European countries are obviously more concerned about the direction of the situation after this war.

At present, the military group led by Germany and Austria is already quite clear, and another power, Italy, also has an inseparable relationship with this military group.

Countering this powerful military group is naturally Russia, the other protagonist of the war. If France and Russia can sign an alliance treaty, Europe will completely form a situation of confrontation between two major military groups.

Under the situation of the confrontation between the two major military groups, the existence of other non-allied countries will be greatly reduced. Even Britain, in front of these two powerful military groups, does not have much sense of existence.

This actually also represents one thing, which is that European countries should declare their positions after this war ends.

There are at most three positions: either lean toward one of the two major military groups, or only strictly maintain neutrality.

Maintaining neutrality also requires considering the conduct of the two major military groups; after all, so-called neutrality cannot be established just by saying it yourself; it must be recognized by other countries to ensure that you will not be invaded.

At present, the only recognized neutral country is Switzerland. Besides the fact that Switzerland announced permanent neutrality relatively early and was recognized as a permanent neutral status by other European countries through the "Congress of Vienna Declaration" of 1815, another big reason is that Switzerland's geographical environment has many high mountains, and its geographical location is not very important, so countries naturally have no need to risk offending other countries to attack this neutral country.

Besides Switzerland, the permanent neutral country, other European countries need to consider what kind of diplomatic stance they should be in under the brand-new European situation.

Whether to support one of the military groups or maintain neutrality is not important; what is important is the need to fully implement one's own diplomatic stance and avoid jumping back and forth on the high wall.

The peace talks between Germany and Russia lasted for a long time; both sides did not have much dispute over the Polish region, and Germany also knew that it was impossible to take it down at this time.

The only thing in dispute is the Balkan region; Russia is not willing to lose its loyal little brother, Serbia, so quickly.

But it is very clear that the situation in Serbia at this time is no longer up to Russia.

After Serbian King Milan Obrenović announced the dismissal of the pro-Russian cabinet government, he immediately appointed nobles loyal to himself to form an interim military government.

The first thing the interim government did after taking office was to vigorously liquidate the previous pro-Russian cabinet and use public opinion power to shift all the responsibility for the war onto the previous cabinet.

Besides using the power of the pro-Russian faction, Serbian King Milan Obrenović also made good use of the people's protests in Belgrade.

The angry people rushed to the homes of the officials of the previous cabinet government and carried out righteous beatings on these cabinet officials who provoked the war by their own efforts.

Although most officials were protected by the police who arrived quickly, some people still lost their lives under the righteous beatings of the masses.

One can understand the anger of the Serbian people at this time, because this war caused heavy losses to Serbia and all Serbians.

After independence, Serbia's total population was only 2.7 million, and the casualties caused by this war already reached more than 100,000.

Just the soldiers who died and were seriously wounded and about to die, added together, reached nearly 30,000. This represents 30,000 families, and more than 100,000 Serbians lost their family members.

Besides the loss of population, because the time the war broke out was exactly the important time for agricultural planting, this also made Serbia's agriculture almost have no harvest.

It can be expected that Serbia's agricultural harvest situation this year will usher in the lowest point within 10 years, and there will be a large number of Serbians who do not have enough food to survive.

And before this war broke out, because of the struggle for control of the Serbian government between Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this small country that had just become independent gained a lot of support.

At that time, the Serbian people lived relatively well; because this war completely overturned their own lives, this is also the reason for the Serbian people's anger at the government.

After successfully shifting the people's anger to the previous cabinet government, the Serbian King quickly launched a liquidation of the previous cabinet government.

He and the previous cabinet government were originally one pro-Austrian faction and one pro-Russian faction; everyone was an enemy, so naturally there was no need to show mercy.

Those cabinet members who were not beaten to death in the angry mob beatings of the Serbian people had not yet had time to rejoice when they immediately ushered in the King's righteous trial.

Because this cabinet government caused Serbia to be in ruins, the trial for them was not only quite rapid but also very intense.

Former Cabinet Prime Minister Nikola Hristić was sentenced to death and was executed the next day.

The remaining cabinet ministers were also sentenced to imprisonment of varying terms, among whom the confidant foreign minister of the former Prime Minister Nikola Hristić was sentenced to life imprisonment and was not allowed to have his sentence reduced or be released early for any excuse or reason.

Compared with these confidants of the former cabinet prime minister who were liquidated, the confidants of Serbian King Milan Obrenović himself and some non-partisan figures in the military were promoted on a large scale.

Among them, the most representative is the Serbian Chief of General Staff Kosta Protić. In order to gain the support of the military, Serbian King Milan Obrenović directly appointed Chief of General Staff Kosta Protić to take charge of the interim military government and promised him that he would let him serve as the next Prime Minister of the Serbian cabinet government in the future.

This can be considered a political interest exchange. After Chief of General Staff Kosta Protić was promoted to the highest leader of the government, Serbian King Milan Obrenović also successfully planted several of his own confidants in the military.

Precisely because Serbian King Milan Obrenović gained the support of the military, his liquidation of the previous cabinet government became very smooth.

Even if the previous cabinet government had the support of Russia, it still could not resist the liquidation combined by the military and the King.

Besides the several ministers of the cabinet government who suffered, many members of the party to which the Prime Minister belonged were also liquidated.

The more serious ones were directly expelled from Serbia, and the less serious ones were also sentenced to imprisonment of varying years.

One has to admit that the political means of Serbian King Milan Obrenović are still relatively brilliant. Not only did he shift all the responsibility for Serbia's defeat this time to the cabinet government, but he also disguisedly mastered a certain right to speak through cooperation with the military.

Although he cannot completely control the government, through cooperation with the military, sitting firmly on his throne is no problem.

You know, in the original history, because of his overly pro-Austrian tendency, this king was eventually forced to abdicate to his son Alexander in 1889, which is this year.

At present, because of the influence of this war, Milan Obrenović's throne can still sit firmly for a few more years.

Of course, Milan Obrenović being able to stabilize his throne again through a series of means cannot be separated from the support given to him by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

When the pro-Russian cabinet government was in power, the Austrian army's offensive was quite fierce. The Austrian media was also constantly spreading bad news about the war to Serbia, provoking the dissatisfaction of the Serbians toward the cabinet government.

And after Milan Obrenović mastered the government through a series of means, the Austrian army not only began to withdraw from Serbia in an orderly manner but also left behind a batch of supplies to help Serbia restore order.

Of course, in name, this batch of supplies was not voluntarily left behind by the Austrians, but was abandoned by the Austrians after the great King of Serbia, Milan Obrenović, argued strongly on just grounds. In short, no matter what kind of excuse it was, some of the disaster-stricken Serbians did indeed get this batch of supplies.

Although these supplies were not much, they could ensure that those Serbians whose families were broken and whose loved ones were dead would not go hungry for the time being.

Compared with the previous cabinet government that caused their families to be broken and their loved ones to be dead, the Serbians could also see that the current King still had a little ability.

After temporarily rectifying the domestic order, the Serbian interim government immediately contacted the Austro-Hungarian Empire and began the peace negotiations between the two sides.

In fact, according to normal reason, this war broke out because of the border conflict between Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which led to the peace negotiations certainly needing to be conducted together, and incidentally solving the border conflict between Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

But at present, the peace talks between Germany and Russia have fallen into a stalemate, the most important of which is the debate over the Serbian issue.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire mastered the situation through the pro-Austrian Serbian King, so naturally, it would not foolishly wait for Russia to come for peace talks.

Regarding this pro-Austrian Serbian King, Milan Obrenović, there are still many things that can be said.

After Serbia became independent, there were extremely fierce quarrels and contradictions in Serbia regarding the two directions of pro-Austrian and pro-Russian.

As a pro-Austrian Serbian King, Milan Obrenović, in order to gain the support of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, signed a trade treaty and a secret agreement with the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This trade treaty gave up Serbia's economic sovereignty, allowing the industrial products of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to instantly flood the Serbian market.

And this secret agreement disguisedly gave up Serbia's sovereignty. Serbia at that time had to obey the leadership of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and maintain the same line as the Austro-Hungarian Empire in diplomacy.

It was precisely Serbia's high degree of pro-Austrian stance that made Tsarist Russia, which claimed to be the leader and protector of the Slavs, instantly dumbfounded.

Serbia's geographical location is very important, and to a certain extent, it is more important than Bulgaria.

This place is both the front line for Russia to counter Serbia and the bridgehead for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to expand southward.

Whoever can gain the support of Serbia can gain the initiative in the struggle for the Balkan Peninsula.

In order to make Serbia pro-Russian again, Tsarist Russia made various efforts and eventually cultivated a pro-Russian government that hollowed out the King.

Of course, the reason why it was possible to hollow out the King was actually caused by Milan Obrenović's own crazy operations.

If it were just being close to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this would not be an unforgivable thing. But while being close to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Milan Obrenović maintained a highly dictatorial autocratic rule, which caused the dissatisfaction of the Serbians.

The Serbians who had just become independent had not yet accepted the brainwashing of Greater Serbianism, and they did not have too many demands for the Bosnia and Herzegovina region.

What the Serbians cared more about was whether their political rights could be protected; at this time, the dictatorial rule appeared quite conspicuous.

Regarding the King's dictatorial rule, multiple protests broke out in Serbia, and the parliament also had multiple quarrels about it.

It was precisely these protests and quarrels that allowed the Russians to take advantage of the loophole, vigorously promoting Greater Serbianism, and letting the Serbians see a direction that seemed brighter.

However, this war also proved that Greater Serbianism does not seem to be that reliable; a small country having too much ambition is often not a good thing.

Where would the Serbians at this time still think about Greater Serbianism? Being able to protect their own territory and maintain that hard-won peaceful life would already be quite good.

While the Austro-Hungarian Empire was negotiating with Serbia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not forget to give the Serbians some sweetness to taste.

On the day the peace talks were conducted, the Austrian army completely withdrew from the hinterland cities of Serbia and retreated to Loznica, the border city.

While retreating, the Austrian army also left behind a large batch of food supplies and a portion of leaflets.

The leaflets were printed with the reasons for the outbreak of this war, and also stated that Austria had no intention of having a war with Serbia, and it was only after the previous Serbian cabinet government, under the misleading of Russia, shielded serious criminals in the Bosnia region that the war was triggered.

And this batch of supplies left behind by Austria was naturally the compensation to the Serbian people.

Although this was of no help to those Serbians who had already lost their loved ones, at least it pointed out a direction for them, telling them who exactly caused this war to break out.

With the previous cabinet government already liquidated, the hatred of the Serbians naturally came to the Russian side.

Of course, this little action of the Austro-Hungarian Empire could not make Serbia completely lean toward its side.

This war was fought by the Austrian army and the Serbian army after all; wanting to rely on this little compensation and leaflets to make the Serbians forgive Austria was obviously impossible.

While the peace talks between Germany and Russia were still in a stalemate, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had already quickly signed a peace agreement with Serbia and officially announced the end of this war.

Most of the contents of this peace treaty were made public, and the terms of the contents surprised the Serbians.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire did not require Serbia to cede territory; as the defeated side, Serbia only needed to pay a symbolic indemnity.

Although the amount of the indemnity was not small, for the defeated side, this was already very cost-effective.

You know, in the Franco-Prussian War, France, as the defeated side, besides the huge indemnity of 5 billion francs, also ceded Alsace and Lorraine to the then Prussia.

Alsace and Lorraine are not ordinary regions; they are not only important border towns of France but also contain extremely rich coal and iron ore resources.

The reason why the industrialization of the German Empire was so smooth, the coal and iron ore from Alsace and Lorraine also played quite a bit of help.

Compared with France, which was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War, the situation of Serbia, which was also the defeated side, was obviously much better.

The indemnity that Serbia needed to pay to the Austro-Hungarian Empire added up to only 10 million florins, which is only 20 million-plus pesetas.

This money might not even be enough for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to pay the military expenses for launching this war; from this aspect, one can also see the attitude of the Austro-Hungarian Empire toward Serbia, which is to win over as the main thing and suppress as the secondary thing.

(End of this chapter)