Chapter 453: Peace Talks Again

It was not only the United States that joined the war that defeated the Allies, but also the Battle of Mosines that followed.

This was one of the plans for the Nivelle Offensive, with the British Expeditionary Force as the main force to open a breakthrough in the German defense line in the direction of Flanders.

The British Expeditionary Force's offensive direction was Ypres in Flanders, and there was a highland surrounding Ypres at the southernmost end of Ypres, and there was a town named Mosines nearby.

The town of Mosines was a prominent front of the German position. As long as this town could be captured, it would be able to occupy an extremely advantageous terrain for the Allies' next spring offensive.

The Germans deployed two infantry divisions with more than 30,000 troops here, and they had no doubts about the stability of their defense line.

What the entire Allied Powers did not expect was that the British Expeditionary Force and a small part of the Australasian Army took only a few hours to capture the town of Mosines. The time from the attack to the end caught the Germans off guard.

The person in charge of the battle was General Plumer of the United Kingdom. General Plumer had a great reputation throughout the British Expeditionary Force for his thoughtfulness, prudence and reliability.

Since 1916, General Plumer has arranged soldiers to lay mines in front of the German trench line, and now it has finally come in handy.

With full use of artillery, tanks and aircraft, General Plumer not only quickly occupied the town of Mosines, but also repeatedly repelled the German counterattack.

After successfully occupying Mosines, the British and French forces immediately decided to launch the Battle of Ypres to capture the entire Belgian region.

Of course, because the main force of the French army was still carrying out the spring offensive, the participants in the Battle of Ypres were still the British Expeditionary Force.

On June 17, 1917, the Battle of Ypres was officially launched. The British Expeditionary Force dispatched the Fifth Army and the Second Army, and with the assistance of the French First Army, launched a full-scale attack on the German army in the Ypres area.

The British mobilized up to 3,000 artillery pieces for a ten-day bombardment, and on June 27, ten days later, launched a general offensive on an 18-kilometer front.

The British Expeditionary Force faced the German Fourth Army, whose commander was General Hixter von Amni.

Although the ten-day bombardment seemed to be very scary, it also gave the German troops on the front enough time to prepare.

Most of the British troops were intercepted by the German army on the way to the attack, and the British troops in the main attack direction also gained little.

Under the heroic resistance of the Germans, the battle turned into a war of attrition, causing a total casualties of more than 70,000 in just three days.

Coupled with the heavy rain, the battlefield has become a blood-red swamp, which has also delayed the speed of the British Expeditionary Force's attack in disguise.

In order to prevent the army from being blocked in the Ypres area, the British Expeditionary Force Commander-in-Chief Haig made a decisive decision and decided to hand over the command of the Ypres Battle to the Second Army Commander-in-Chief Plummer, the general who won the Battle of Mosines before.

After Plummer took over the front-line army, he abandoned Haig's previous plan for a decisive breakthrough and decided to take a different approach, reducing the scale of the offensive. He no longer pursued a comprehensive breakdown of the German defense line, but instead attacked some small targets one by one, gradually eroding the enemy's vitality.

This also turned the so-called winning war launched by Haig, the commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force, into a real war of attrition. Haig had no choice but to let Plummer act according to his plan.

From mid-June to mid-July, the British Expeditionary Force fought a long war with the German army in the southeast battlefield.

Plummer used his talents to launch a large number of small-scale attacks to erode most of the positions occupied by the Germans in the previous two years, and successfully advanced the British front line by eight kilometers in the Ypres area.

But both the British Expeditionary Force and the German army suffered heavy casualties. The British suffered as many as 300,000 casualties in more than a month, and Germany also suffered as many as 260,000.

The British achieved considerable results in Belgium, but the main battlefield of the spring offensive, which the French were responsible for, did not make much progress.

Although the French invested a large number of troops here, they faced the full resistance of the main German forces. Even the French could not push the front line at all.

Although the Germans were already in a state of losing to stubborn resistance, no one could deny that the German counterattack was terrible.

Even though the French casualties on the front line were as high as nearly 20,000 people per day, the Germans still did not retreat a step.

It also led to the spring offensive, which was highly expected by French Commander-in-Chief Nivelle, to achieve good results on the side battlefield, but no progress on the front battlefield.

Such a disparity in results made some French people who had high hopes for General Nivelle a little restless.

The French thought that the appointment of General Nivelle would allow the French army to avenge its previous shame and even directly promote the victory of the war.

But unexpectedly, the French army still suffered a large number of casualties, but there was no result, and the blood of the soldiers was shed in vain.

France has always had a revolutionary tradition. A large number of factories and streets have started strikes and marches, and they are ready to overthrow the government if it does not give an explanation.

The French government has no good way to deal with these irritable French people. After all, these people really dare to overthrow the government.

If the French government does not have a good explanation, the French people will definitely dare to let all government officials taste the taste of being hung on the street lamp.

The French government had no choice but to urge the army to achieve results as soon as possible, and at the same time asked the Americans to join the war as soon as possible.

Unlike the somewhat tragic situation of the French, Australasia is still in a state of peace.

The people do not have much long-term vision for national interests. They can only see that because of the joining of the United States, the defeat of the Allies is only a matter of time.

Therefore, the people of Australasia are already looking forward to life after the war, and looking forward to the moment when Australasia divides the interests of the Allies and truly grows into a powerful power.

It is precisely because of the trouble of the United States joining the war that the pace of the Australasia army's attack on the Austro-Hungarian Empire has accelerated a lot.

Because the main forces of the Australasia Empire all went to resist the Italians, the Australasia Expeditionary Force launched a full-scale attack on the Klagenfurt and Graz areas, and after more than half a month of heavy bombing, it successfully captured Klagenfurt in early July.

The fall of Klagenfurt shocked the Australasia Empire. Klagenfurt is only more than 200 kilometers away from Vienna to the north. Apart from Graz, there is no other military town to defend along the way.

This also means that if there is no countermeasure, the fall of Vienna is a matter of time.

Although the main forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire are in Innsbruck and Trento, they can return to Klagenfurt at any time.

However, if they rush to Klagenfurt to support the main Italian army before defeating it, they are likely to be surrounded by the Australasian and Italian armies.

In this way, the situation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire will be even worse. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, which has lost any resistance, can only be slaughtered by the Allies.

There is also bad news for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, that is, the situation in Transylvania is not very good.

Not only is the Transylvania region facing the attack of Romania, but the Galicia region in the north is also under the watchful eyes of Russia.

When the Austro-Hungarian Empire was in trouble, the Russians finally couldn't help it and sent an army to invade Galicia, trying to regain the face of the previous setback in the Galician region.

This has led to the Austro-Hungarian Empire currently facing a three-sided attack, and the main attacking forces in the three directions are all from one of the great powers.

Even the Austro-Hungarian Empire in its heyday may not be able to withstand the siege of three powerful countries. Not to mention that it has experienced a change of monarchs and the army has suffered a great defeat now.

The news of the Russian attack shocked the Hungarian government and made the entire Hungarian government a firm peace advocate.

The Hungarian government even declared that if the imperial government was unwilling to make peace with the Allies, then the Hungarian government would sign a peace treaty with the Allies alone.

If it was during the reign of the old Emperor Franz I, such words would be considered treasonous, and the Hungarian government would not have the courage to say such words.

But now it is different. If Galicia is lost, the next region to be attacked by Russia is the Hungarian region.

This has caused a large number of farmers and capitalists in the Kingdom of Hungary to unite. In order to protect their own interests, the imperial government is nothing.

What is important is that the main force of the imperial government is currently on the front line with Italy, and the empire is suffering from the attacks of the Allies everywhere. The prestige of the imperial government has been greatly damaged, and it cannot suppress a powerful state like Hungary.

Hungarians have always been dissatisfied with the imperial government's exploitation of themselves. If it is not handled well, Hungarian independence is not impossible.

The public statement of the Hungarian government has made the chaos in the Austro-Hungarian Empire even more serious, and it has also made Emperor Karl I more determined to make peace.

There is no way. If you continue to support the war, Hungary's separation from the imperial government is inevitable. At that time, Karl I, who has low prestige, may be pushed out by the imperial government as a scapegoat and forced to bear the blame for the failure of the war for the government and the army.

The words of the Hungarian Kingdom Government are not only circulated within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but also known to the Allies.

For the Allies, this is a good opportunity for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to withdraw from the war. Of course, if the Austro-Hungarian Empire insists on not withdrawing from the war, it doesn't matter. I believe that the Kingdom of Hungary is more willing to cooperate with the Allies.

As long as the Austro-Hungarian Empire does not want to see Hungary's independence, it must agree to the demands of the Allies.

Otherwise, the Hungarian government, supported by the Allies, would not necessarily be weaker than the current Austro-Hungarian Empire.

For Russia and Italy, which have huge interests in the Balkans, they are also willing to see the Austro-Hungarian Empire fall into civil strife, or even split into small countries.

Of course, there are those who want to see the Austro-Hungarian Empire split into pieces, and naturally there are those who want the Austro-Hungarian Empire to continue to be a unified country.

Britain, which has conflicts of interest with Russia, naturally does not want Russia to unify the entire Balkan Peninsula.

If the Austro-Hungarian Empire exists, it will still be a threat to Russia in the Balkan Peninsula, and it can also prevent Russia's expansion in the Balkan Peninsula.

But in any case, this is a serious crisis for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If it is not handled well, it is not impossible for this multi-ethnic and multi-regional country to split into pieces.

Almost at the same time, the diplomatic departments of the Allied countries had a unified task, which was to get in touch with the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the Hungarian Kingdom Government.

Germany is also urgently contacting its allies. They don't want to see their only ally withdraw from the battlefield, because that would mean that Germany would no longer have any chance of winning.

If the Austro-Hungarian Empire exists, it can at least hold back more than 1 million Allied troops for Germany.

But if the Austro-Hungarian Empire withdraws from the war, Germany will face siege from all the Allied Powers. The total number of troops of the Allied Powers is currently as high as more than 10 million, and with the participation of the United States, the total number of troops is still growing.

Such a number of troops is something that the Germans can never match. Even if it is a war of attrition, it is enough to make the Germans bleed dry.

On July 17, 1917, the Austro-Hungarian government held talks with the Allies again.

What is obviously different from the last meeting is that this time the Allies have absolute initiative, and the Austro-Hungarian officials have a very gloomy face, because this meeting is destined to be a meeting of interest distribution.

Perhaps because there was no progress in the spring offensive, the French also hoped to promote the Austro-Hungarian Empire to withdraw from the war and let all allies concentrate on attacking Germany to relieve their own pressure and reduce their own casualties.

Therefore, at the beginning of the peace talks, France and Russia were aggressive towards the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as if the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not agree to the peace talks, they would support the independence of the Kingdom of Hungary.

But the Austro-Hungarian Empire had no way to deal with such an attitude, because the Kingdom of Hungary and the Austro-Hungarian government were really at odds, and the Hungarian government really wanted independence.

This was equivalent to the Allies knowing all the cards of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, even its underpants were clearly seen, and it could only let the Allies manipulate it.

Of course, willingness to negotiate was only the basis, and the Allies valued the land and various huge interests of the Austro-Hungarian Empire more.

It was impossible for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to allow the Allies to divide its land, and a quarrel like bargaining in the vegetable market began.

Although they were at a disadvantage, the diplomats of the Austro-Hungarian Empire would not give in at all, and they argued for any interests related to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, showing the courage that diplomats should have.

But this did not prevent the Austro-Hungarian Empire from withdrawing from the war, and the land and interests of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were divided up by the Allies.

The United States should be the last one to see Austria-Hungary withdraw from the war at this time, because it means that the United States can hardly get any benefits, after all, the United States did not contribute anything to the war against Austria-Hungary.

But the two countries that are most willing to see Austria-Hungary withdraw from the war are France and Russia, which are also the two major powers that support the United States to join the Allies.

On the first day of the talks, all countries put forward outrageous demands, such as Russia's request for Galicia and Slovakia, Italy's request for the Austrian region from Innsbruck to Trieste, Serbia's request for Bosnia, Britain's request for Dalmatia, Romania's request for Transylvania, and so on.

In this way, the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is only Austria, Czech Republic and Hungary, and Austria is divided in half.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire naturally cannot accept such a request, and Britain is unwilling to see Russia annex such a large territory.

As for the demands of Serbia and Romania, their demands may be met, but definitely not now.

The demands of small countries like this are basically met at the end, or even directly ignored.

Under the premise of not violating the interests of the major powers, and with the nod of the major powers, these countries can realize their demands.

Otherwise, their demands will not be taken seriously by anyone unless they are strong enough to be taken seriously by the major powers.

But it is obvious that even the current United States is not taken seriously by the major powers of the Allied Powers, not to mention the Balkan countries that have already eaten meat in Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire.

Australasia has no interest in the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Arthur is very eager for the major factories, skilled workers and technology in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

As the country with the greatest contribution to the attack on the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it is good news that Australasia does not participate in the distribution of territory. All countries are willing to let Australasia take the lead in selecting factory technology and workers in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Although the strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was only a medium-sized power before the war, the industrial level of the Austro-Hungarian Empire far exceeded that of low-level powers such as Italy, and major industrial industries were flourishing everywhere.

In particular, the industries in the Czech and Austrian regions are among the best in the whole of Europe.

In the Czech and Slovak regions, there are not only sufficient mineral resources, but also coal, which is very suitable for industrial development.

Historically, Czechoslovakia, which was born after World War I, was coveted by Germany III because of its strong industry.

If part of the industrial strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire can be absorbed, it will not only greatly enhance the industrial level of Australasia, but also narrow the gap in strength with the old industrial powers.

Anyway, the way countries absorbed German industry after World War I was through relocation and looting.

In history, a large number of German factory machines were dismantled and assembled in the Allied countries. If they could not be taken away, they were directly destroyed to avoid the rapid rise of post-war Germany because of these industrial equipment.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire also hoped to withdraw from the war early. In addition to alleviating the increasingly serious independence crisis in the Hungarian region, the Austro-Hungarian Empire also hoped to preserve its existing military strength.

At present, the Austro-Hungarian Empire still has more than 1 million combat troops, which is also the guarantee for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to maintain independence and unity after the war.

With more than 1 million troops, the Hungarian government would not dare to launch an independent rebellion even if it was happy.

At any time, the military strength of a country is the first priority. A country will be valued by others because of its military strength, but it will never be valued by others because of its previous prestige.

If the Austro-Hungarian Empire lost most of its military strength in the war, even if the peace talks saved most of the regions, it would definitely be slowly eroded and divided by other countries later.

Since the 19th century, the international community has always respected strength, the strong make the rules, and the weak are divided by the rules.

Even if Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire seem to be close, as long as the Austro-Hungarian Empire is too weak, it will inevitably be divided or even annexed by Germany.

The interests between countries are above all else, and the relationship between countries is determined by strength.

While the peace talks were going on, the war in the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not stop, which was also where the Austro-Hungarian Empire was anxious.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire had used the peace talks as an excuse to request the Allies to temporarily stop the war launched in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they were all rejected by the Allies.

The Allies were not stupid. It was the current war that gave them the initiative. Without a satisfactory offer, the Allies would not stop the war.

In order to promote the conclusion of peace talks as soon as possible, the Allies held a meeting and made certain adjustments to the requirements of various countries.

First of all, Russia, which had a big appetite, could not annex Galicia and Slovakia at the same time.

These two regions not only represent a large amount of land area and population, but are also rich in mineral resources and have very developed industries.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, which lost Galicia and Slovakia, would no longer have the strength to fight against Russia, which was something the British Empire did not want to see.

After some arguments, Russia changed its target to Galicia and some Polish areas occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, including Krakow.

This was acceptable to the British. After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire still retained industrial areas such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria. Although the losses were heavy, it was not without the power to fight.

The entire Transylvania region requested by Romania would naturally not be allowed by the great powers.

In the end, Romania changed to a piece of land 20 kilometers west of the border, which was just a small corner of the Transylvania region.

Bosnia requested by Serbia was allowed by the Allies, but Croatia was still under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In addition to this, there is Italy. The Innsbruck to Trento region and Istria region requested by the Italians were also reduced to Trento and Istria.

In addition, the Dalmatia region was a joint British-French area, and the Austro-Hungarian navy was divided by the Allies.

In addition to these land demands, the Austro-Hungarian Empire also had to pay the Allies 15 billion pounds as war compensation.

Among them, the Allies spent 8 billion pounds on the war, 3.5 billion pounds on pensions for casualties, 2.5 billion pounds on losses caused by the war, and 1 billion pounds on compensation for withdrawal.

The 15 billion pounds will be repaid in 50 years, with 200 million pounds paid in the first year and must be repaid immediately.

The remaining 14.8 billion pounds will be repaid in 50 years, with 296 million pounds repaid each year, and it will take until 1968 to be repaid.

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