Chapter 348 The Second Balkan War and the South American Conflict

As time enters May, the public exhibition of the white herder, Xiaobai, officially begins.

As one of the few wild white herders, Xiaobai is treated like a national treasure at the Sydney Royal Zoo.

There are special zoo staff to take care of Xiaobai's food and drink, fearing that Xiaobai will have any problems.

He eats fresh grass, tender branches and leaves harvested specially. He drinks flowing river water drawn from the river to ensure the cleanliness of the water source.

The ticket sales of the Sydney Royal Zoo have also been a hot topic recently.

Because many people asked for pre-sales in advance to avoid the hard work of going to the zoo, not only will they not see Xiaobai, but they may not be able to see him the next time they come.

As a result, the Sydney Royal Zoo, which allows ticket pre-sales, has become even more crazy about ticket purchases.

Perhaps because white herders are rare, Sydney has been crowded with people recently.

Not only citizens of Sydney, but also tourists from all over the country and even the world come, making Sydney, which was already crowded, even more crowded and busy.

However, this has made Sydney's GDP grow faster. Since the Sydney Olympics last year, tourism has become a major economic pillar industry in Australasia, especially in cities near Sydney and Melbourne.

Because the southeastern region of Australia is the core part of Australasia, this region also receives the most tourists.

Not only have two large cities with a population of one million been born, but there is also a trend of the birth of an urban agglomeration in southeastern Australia.

In order to limit the current wave of pre-sale tickets for the Sydney Royal Zoo, the Royal Zoo has also issued regulations to pre-sell tickets for at most three days later.

If it were not for this restriction, I am afraid that foreign tourists coming to the Sydney Royal Zoo would face the answer that tickets within one or two months are sold out, and tickets after two months, even have to queue up to buy.

However, this has caused the Royal Zoo's ticket revenue to rise. Previously, the daily ticket fee was only a few thousand Australian dollars during the peak period.

Now the ticket revenue can easily exceed 10,000 Australian dollars, and the Sydney Royal Zoo also has the hope of becoming profitable.

However, all this is only temporary.

As Kent Butler buys more rare wild animals from all over the world, the daily operating costs of the Sydney Royal Zoo will also rise.

You know, each kind of precious wild animal needs a different living environment.

Especially for rare animals from all over the world, their requirements for the living environment are not only harsh, but also very different for each population.

Even if it is just to arrange the living environment of these creatures, it is enough to make the Royal Zoo go into a state of loss for a long time.

Fortunately, the Royal Zoo is an industry of the royal consortium after all. With the support of the domineering royal consortium, these expenses are only a small number.

With the successful exhibition of the white herders in the Royal Zoo, various reports about the white herders were reported by major media around the world.

Yes, although only a few days have passed, the hunting of the white herders is definitely a big news, so foreign media did not care about the airship tickets costing thousands of pounds, and they all brought camera equipment and organized people to arrive in Australasia.

Fortunately, Australasia is the initiator of the airship voyage around the world, and is also the first country to establish an airship airline and start a voyage around the world.

In addition, Australasia's airship technology is world-leading, so when airship companies from various countries plan airship voyage routes around the world, they will also consider stopping in Australasia.

Since then, the airships have been better inspected and maintained in Australasia, and these technologies are not yet properly mastered by airship companies in other countries.

Especially after a big problem, it can only be sent to Australasia for repair, which also makes the current voyage around the world indispensable to the participation of Australasia.

Don't underestimate the stopover points for voyages around the world. Basically, they are selected in large cities and capitals of various countries in the world, so that big capitalists and dignitaries can take them. The primary customers of airships are basically these people.

Because of Xiaobai, Australasia has many more tourists than before, which has also had a certain impact on the urban security in Sydney.

But this is no longer a problem that Arthur has to worry about at the moment, because not long after Xiaobai entered the Royal Zoo, the world situation became chaotic again.

The London Treaty signed more than half a year ago was eventually torn up by the Balkan Alliance.

The Balkan Alliance, which originally shared the same hatred and jointly dealt with the Ottoman Empire, was eventually divided into two camps due to the uneven distribution of benefits.

Of course, one of the camps only had Bulgaria, who benefited the most in the last Balkan War.

Moreover, the other camp also joined the Kingdom of Romania, which also turned the Balkan situation into a joint fight against Bulgaria by all countries, that is, the Anti-Bulgarian Alliance.

Logically speaking, facing several enemies, Bulgaria should be the weaker party and should try its best to avoid war or seek help from the outside world.

In fact, Bulgaria did so. Because Serbia, the main country of the Anti-Bulgarian Alliance, was on good terms with Russia, and Russia was one of the four major powers of the Allied Powers.

In order to seek protection, Bulgaria quickly hooked up with the Allied Powers, which lacked allies, or more precisely, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which wanted to reach out to the Balkan Peninsula.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was worried about the previous Balkan Alliance uniting together, and could only sit back and watch Russia control the situation in the Balkans.

Seeing Bulgaria coming to the door, Austria-Hungary naturally had no excuse to refuse.

After the anti-Bulgarian alliance among the Balkan countries took shape, Bulgaria did not hesitate to sign a sovereignty defense treaty with the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The treaty stipulated that Austria-Hungary would provide loans to Bulgaria to help Bulgaria maintain armaments and domestic order.

And when Bulgaria's homeland security was seriously threatened, troops were sent to protect Bulgaria's independence and territorial integrity.

This treaty gave Bulgaria enough confidence. Bulgaria's top leaders confidently believed that with the help of Austria-Hungary and the guarantee of Bulgaria's security, Bulgaria could sit back and relax and even take the initiative to launch attacks on the Balkan countries.

In fact, Bulgaria did exactly that.

On May 19, 1913, after obtaining the consent of Germany and Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria took the lead in launching an attack on Greece and Serbia.

The 350,000 Bulgarian troops were divided into 100,000 combat troops against Greece, 150,000 combat troops against Serbia, and 100,000 reserve troops, and launched a mighty offensive.

In order to fulfill the alliance and get a share of the war, Romania declared war on Bulgaria on May 23, on the pretext that Bulgaria caused damage to the Romanian border when mobilizing its troops.

On the same day, Montenegro also declared war on Bulgaria. After just one year, the Balkans once again fell into a brutal war.

But this is not over yet. The Turkish government, which thought it had waited for the opportunity, also declared war on Bulgaria at the end of May, demanding that it regain its territory.

For a time, the entire Balkans, except for the Bosnia region occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the multinational Albania, was plunged into the dark clouds of war.

At this time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire originally wanted to fulfill the agreement signed with Bulgaria at that time.

Even Austria-Hungary has prepared enough troops and plans to launch an attack on Serbia to relieve Bulgaria's military pressure.

You must know that at this time, Bulgaria was already under siege by the Anti-Bulgarian Alliance and the Ottoman Turkish Empire. It suffered repeated setbacks and retreated across the board.

If support is not provided in time, Bulgaria's defeat is almost certain.

But the problem is that Russia stands firmly behind Serbia and expresses support for the war provoked by Serbia.

Russia has the help of Britain and France behind it. If the Austro-Hungarian Empire acts rashly, it is very likely to directly provoke a war between the Allies and the Entente.

There is no doubt about Russia’s firm support for Serbia. Because Serbia has been Russia's long-standing staunch ally and the guarantee of Russia's interests in the Balkans.

The reason why Russia can easily control the Balkan countries is due to Serbia.

Britain and France were also very firm in their support for Russia. They even called Arthur directly to ask about Arthur's attitude and even his overt and covert intentions. If the Austro-Hungarian Empire was firm in its attitude, Britain and France would not hesitate to launch a war.

The statements of Britain and France were actually asking about Arthur's attitude.

After all, Australasia is one of the four major powers of the Entente. It is impossible to survive alone when the conflict breaks out between the Allies and the Entente.

Unless Arthur wants to change jobs midway like Italy, he must firmly support Britain, France and the Allied Powers in order to protect his status as the four major powers of the Allied Powers and the distribution of interests after the war.

After receiving the inquiry telegram from the British and French governments, Arthur responded quickly, saying that Australasia was ready for battle at any time and would do its best to support Britain, France, Russia and the entire Allied Powers.

The firm attitude of the four major powers of the Allied Powers made the three major powers of the Allies, especially the most powerful country, the German Empire, feel strong pressure.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire had already sharpened its sword towards Serbia, the German Empire finally decided to stop the Austro-Hungarian Empire's actions after thinking for a long time.

In June 1913, William II’s attitude could be seen in a letter sent from Berlin to Vienna to Emperor Franz: “It is true to support Bulgaria, but if you do not hesitate to launch a war for this purpose, A war between the Allied Powers is not worth the gain. It is not that we are afraid of them, but at present, the military preparations for launching a world-level war have not been completed. We should suspend military actions against the Allied Powers and wait until the military. Let’s talk after preparations are completed.”

Even the slightly proud and eccentric William II had to admit that he faced extremely huge pressure when facing the four major powers of the Allied Powers.

France and Russia are located on the east and west sides of Germany respectively. This also means that if it wants to fight the Allies, Germany will have to face the pressure of a two-front war.

If the French and Russian armies were enough to contain the German army, then the combined fleets of Britain and France could also crush the German High Seas Fleet.

After Australasia joined the Entente, the overall strength of the Entente was not significantly improved.

Of course, this does not mean that Australasia is not powerful. In fact, the overall strength of the Allied Powers is too strong. Even if they join Australasia, the increase in this ratio is actually not high.

Although the current overall strength seems to be that Italy is stronger than Australasia, William II, who has visited Australasia many times, understands that the overall strength of the army and navy, Australasia is stronger than Italy.

More importantly, Australasia is not in Europe. As long as the mainland is not damaged, it can compete with the Allies in terms of consumption.

Although the other three major powers of the Allies have their homelands and core interests in Europe, they all have a large land area and a larger population.

If the Allies compete with the Allies in terms of consumption, the final result they face is only the word defeat.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire is Germany's most steadfast ally. After receiving the letter from William II, Emperor Franz had to terminate the domestic military operations even if he was unwilling.

Bulgaria's biggest trump card gave up Bulgaria. Facing the siege of several other countries, Bulgaria retreated step by step, and the land gained in the First Balkan War was almost lost.

On June 15, 1913, Bulgaria, which had been waiting for no military support from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, finally realized the seriousness of the matter.

The Bulgarian army's full offensive was changed to full defense. Their goal has changed from winning the war at the beginning to defending the country.

On June 17, with a great battle between the Greek and Bulgarian armies, the Greek army finally won, which also laid the final tone of this war.

Bulgaria's defeat has already appeared. Even if Ferdinand wants to persist, he may not be able to hold on for a month.

The wise abandonment of Germany and Austria-Hungary made Britain, France and Russia very satisfied, and also made Arthur temporarily relieved.

If the First World War broke out earlier, it would not be good news for Arthur.

First, the preparations in Australasia were not sufficient, and it was difficult to guarantee sufficient military strength after the war.

Second, the radical change in the world situation is also likely to make Arthur lose the opportunity to predict everything.

After all, the early outbreak of the war also means that everything in the original world has been advanced or even changed.

Arthur's advantage as a time traveler will also be wiped out, which is not good news for Arthur.

Before Britain, France, Russia and other powers could take a break, at the end of June 1913, conflicts broke out again in South America, and soon attracted the attention of major powers and the world.

There are three major powers in this region of South America, namely Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

The comprehensive strength of these three countries is similar. In addition to the obvious difference in land area, the scale of population, economy and industry is not much different.

This also leads to the fact that although these three countries have territorial disputes, it is basically unlikely that a large-scale war will break out.

To win the war, you must bet on the fate of the country and do everything.

None of the three countries has such courage and courage. After all, losing the bet means falling behind the other two countries.

The previous vigorous South American naval competition also represents the conflicts and disputes between the three countries.

In addition, Chile has the world's largest saltpeter mine and is an important saltpeter mining area for the British Empire and the world.

Therefore, after the conflict broke out in this area, it quickly attracted the attention of the British Empire, the Allied Powers and the world.

This conflict has nothing to do with Brazil, the largest country in South America. The main protagonists are the two major countries in southern South America, Chile and Argentina.

Decades ago, the land areas of Chile and Argentina were not so large.

During these decades of expansion, they expanded a lot of land to the south, and these lands are adjacent to each other.

Facing a very narrow and long border, it is impossible not to have any problems.

This has also led to a long-term relationship between Argentina and Chile, and there have been considerable conflicts between the two sides on the border.

Both countries were previously under Spanish colonial rule. After independence, the Andes Mountains formed a natural dividing line.

But the problem is that this is just a simple dividing line on land, and the boundary of the offshore strait has not been determined.

This has also led to constant disputes over the ownership of three islands, Picton, Lennox Island and Nueva Island, on the border of the Beagle Channel.

Although the combined area of ​​these three islands is only more than 300 square kilometers, the Beagle Channel where these three islands are located has a very important geographical location and rich seabed resources.

Whichever country can occupy this strait can gain some advantages over the other country.

For two evenly matched countries, this is the key to breaking the balance of the scale.

In 1902, Argentina and Chile signed a general arbitration treaty, entrusting the conflict between the two sides to the British Empire for arbitration.

But because Chile and the British Empire were on good terms, Chile naturally obtained the ownership of the three islands and became the winner of the conflict.

But this does not mean that the conflict is over. On the contrary, the Argentines were not satisfied with the arbitration. The conflict between them and Chile did not end because of the arbitration, but became more and more intense, and the two countries even had a tendency to form hatred.

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