Chapter 451 A Bold Plan

With the complete failure of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's border defense, the peace faction headed by Emperor Karl I was obviously a little panicked.

Especially the Hungarian faction, at this time, was eager to reach an agreement with the Allies immediately to ensure that the Hungarian region would not be occupied and destroyed.

In front of its own interests, the interests of the empire seemed a little narrow. Especially under the premise that there were some contradictions between the Hungarian region and the Austrian region, it has become impossible to get the two major regions to unite regardless of their own sacrifices.

Not to mention that the two regions had contradictions before the war, even during the war, the contradictions between the Austrian region and the Hungarian region were not small.

From the terrain, it can be seen that Hungary is a very good grain-producing area because of the Hungarian Great Plain, and it is also an important grain-producing area of ​​the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Austrian region is mountainous, and the grain output is naturally impossible to compare with the Hungarian region. Therefore, a large part of the grain in the Hungarian region has been transported to the Austrian region to alleviate the food shortage of the entire empire.

But from the outbreak of the war to the present, the price of grain in the Hungarian region has risen rapidly, and Hungarian capitalists have hoarded grain and even refused to sell grain to the government.

Because of the rapid depreciation of the crown, Hungarian capitalists were no longer willing to use the crown of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to exchange food, but used the more solid British pound or gold.

At this time, the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not have enough pounds for trading, and it was even more impossible to give the gold reserves, which were very important to the country, to the Kingdom of Hungary in exchange for food.

It was also because of this that the Hungarian government shamelessly stated that Hungary was also short of food, and in turn asked the imperial government to allocate funds to the Hungarian government to purchase enough food from the people to alleviate Hungary's food crisis.

Such words are simply ridiculous. The largest grain-producing area in the empire is actually short of food. Isn't this equivalent to a lack of water in the sea and a lack of stones on land?

The bill specially customized by the imperial government before the war to combat hoarding could not be implemented by the Kingdom of Hungary at all, because the Kingdom of Hungary had its own laws.

Especially after the death of Franz I, Karl I, who was in the economic position, could not obtain the loyalty of the Hungarian government at all.

The simplest example is that the crown of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not popular in Hungary, which made almost all of Europe laugh at the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The fact that their own currency could not circulate in their own country also caused the Austro-Hungarian crown to depreciate more rapidly.

For the people, even the Hungarian government was unwilling to recognize the value of the crown. Doesn't this mean that the value of the crown is not trusted by the government at all?

What's worse is that Hungary's big landlords and big capitalists have jointly announced that it is precisely because the imperial government had previously purchased a large amount of grain in Hungary that Hungary is currently in a crisis of food shortage and rising food prices.

Although the credibility of these big capitalists' declarations is not high, there are still civilians willing to believe them.

For a while, the support of the imperial government in Hungary dropped sharply, and the Kingdom of Hungary had a tendency to split from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

On April 21, 1917, Prince Sixtus of Parma asked to meet with the French government on behalf of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Karl I, and conveyed Karl I's desire for peace.

Sixtus said that Karl I was willing to cede Dalmatia, Bosnia, and Trento on behalf of the Austro-Hungarian government in exchange for peace.

For Karl I, although doing so would cause the European Hungarian Empire to lose a large amount of territory, at least it guaranteed the stability of Austria, Hungary, Galicia and the Czech Republic. The basic base of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was still there, and it could still maintain its status as a great power.

But the price offered by the Austro-Hungarian Empire was obviously not agreed by France, not to mention that France had the entire Allied Powers behind it.

You must know that all the conditions offered by the Austro-Hungarian Empire were under the control of the Allied Powers. This also means that as long as the Allied Powers are willing, they can forcibly occupy these lands at any time, and there is no need for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to cede them.

Sixtus' request was not even conveyed to the Allied Powers Conference and was directly rejected by the French government.

Although the surrender of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was conducive to the victory of the Allied Powers in this war, the failure of the Central Powers was inevitable. Both France and the Allied Powers wanted to gain more benefits.

The news that France rejected the request for peace talks had just reached Karl I's heart. Before Karl I was angry and panicked, a worse bad news came.

After dozens of days of attack, the Balkan coalition forces have approached the Slovenia region, and the Italian army has also captured Innsbruck and is advancing towards the Klagenfurt and Graz regions.

It is obvious that even with the help of an overstaffed German army, the Austro-Hungarian front is still in danger.

The long-term fighting has made the soldiers lose their fighting spirit, and the problems between the various ethnic groups and countries in the Austro-Hungarian Empire have become more and more intense.

For the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it is impossible to completely resist the attack of Italy and the Balkan coalition forces.

The Allied forces have spread from the southwestern border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the southeastern border and even the eastern border. The Austro-Hungarian Empire does not have enough troops to defend these areas.

What's more, although Russia has not launched a campaign since the civil strife, no one dares to guarantee that the Russians will not add insult to injury at such a critical moment.

Austria-Hungary originally had hatred with Russia. If the Russians added fuel to the fire, it would likely cause the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire's defense line to collapse.

Of the more than 1 million troops of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, nearly 400,000 were deployed on the border between Galicia and Russia. This is also the real reason why the Austro-Hungarian Empire had less than 800,000 troops available.

Even though the southern front was already in danger, the Austro-Hungarian military leaders still had no intention of mobilizing troops on the Russian border.

The imperial government knew clearly that the Italians and the Balkans just wanted to cut flesh from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Russians really wanted to kill the Austro-Hungarian Empire and annex Galicia and Hungary.

If the Austro-Hungarian Empire could be completely defeated, the Russians could control the entire Balkan Peninsula, exert influence on Constantinople, and extend their tentacles to the Mediterranean and even the Middle East.

In this way, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would fall into an abyss of no return. Surrounded by powerful countries on several sides, it would be impossible for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to rise again.

Even the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire will be divided up by several major powers, just like the Kingdom of the Netherlands before.

For a country, the saddest thing is to be surrounded by several more powerful countries.

Not only will its own development path be cut off, but even its own land area will be divided up by others.

Under the advice of the Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff Waldstatten, Karl I signed an order to take a comprehensive defense in the Slovenia region, mobilize the German Army Group and the Austro-Hungarian elite to southern Austria, and strive to be the first to deal with the Italian army.

In the eyes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, although the Italian army has more than 500,000 troops, it is much larger than the Balkan army divided into two routes.

However, the combat effectiveness of the Italian army lags far behind the Balkan coalition led by the Australasian army, which also gives the Austro-Hungarian military leaders hope to quickly solve Italy.

As long as the Italians can be solved quickly and then the Slovenia region is fully defended, although it will not completely change the current situation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it will definitely be much better than the current situation.

This was the last resort for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If the predicament faced by the Austro-Hungarian Empire could not be changed, the only thing they could do was pray that the Germans would win in the spring offensive.

As time entered May, the Australasia Army was very close to Klagenfurt. But unexpectedly, the combat effectiveness of the Austro-Hungarian Army along the way was not as good as before, resulting in the Australasia offensive not receiving much resistance.

Although the advance of the front line was much slower due to the full resistance of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, coupled with various cities and fortresses, the advancement was very smooth.

Just when General Thomas was puzzled, the war report from Italy resolved General Thomas's doubts.

Since the launch of the campaign, the Italian army has shown combat effectiveness that does not conform to the impression of other countries.

In fact, this is also because the Austro-Hungarian Army faced by the Italian Army is composed of some new recruits or multi-ethnic armies.

The combat effectiveness of this army is still much weaker than the elite army faced by the Balkan coalition, which is why the Italian army attacked so quickly.

But as time entered May, the Italian army was immediately attacked by the elite troops of the German Army Group and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

As soon as they encountered the elite troops of the Allies, the Italian army immediately showed its true combat effectiveness. They were defeated by the Allies and even returned Innsbruck, which they had captured with great effort.

Seeing that Trento was at risk of being captured, Italy could not sit still and asked Australasia in the Balkan direction to speed up the attack, and at the same time asked whether Australasia could send reinforcements to assist Italy.

General Thomas naturally rejected the Italians' request. The Australasia army was not large to begin with, and he had no intention of sending troops to serve as cannon fodder for the Italians.

What's more, Australasia would not gain any benefits from the land captured for the Italians. This kind of thing that would only increase casualties for itself was also what Arthur repeatedly reminded General Thomas to avoid before he set off.

Anyway, the Australasian Expeditionary Force has independent command, and no country, including Britain and France, has the right to forcibly mobilize the Australasian Expeditionary Force.

Although Hungary transferred its elite troops to the front line with Italy, General Thomas's original plan to join the Italians in Klagenfurt failed.

But this is also a good thing for General Thomas. Because the Italians are holding back the elite of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Australasian army can attack the Austro-Hungarian Empire with confidence. They only need to scout the land west of Klagenfurt to avoid the encirclement of the Austro-Hungarian elite troops.

In this way, the Italians will not only bear the attack of the Austro-Hungarian elite troops, but the credit for capturing the Austro-Hungarian territory will also fall into the hands of the Australian army.

General Thomas will naturally not let go of this good thing that hurts others and gets credit for himself.

Throwing the Italian player telegram into the trash can, General Thomas immediately ordered the army to immediately go north to surround Klagenfurt and strive to capture this important town in the Austrian region as soon as possible.

There is also an important town called Graz in the northeast of Klagenfurt. The two cities are not far from each other and are also important fortresses in southern Austria.

Once the Austro-Hungarian Empire loses these two cities, the road to Vienna will be smooth, and the capital of the Austrian Empire will be wide open, waiting for the visit of hundreds of thousands of Balkan coalition forces.

It must be said that this was a risky move for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If the Italians could be defeated in a short period of time and the troops could successfully return to defend Klagenfurt and Graz, this would be a perfect strategic plan.

If the Italians held them back for a while, resulting in the capture of Klagenfurt and Graz, this would be a devastating blow to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

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