At the beginning of September, the defense of Romania had not yet begun, and the defense of Ukraine had begun first, and the Germans seemed to have turned a blind eye to the Bulgarian troops hiding in the defense line and directly entered Ukraine from the Polish region.

Obviously, forcing the Russians to withdraw from the war is the real strategic goal of the Germans, and compared to going to Romania to grab food, they can grab more in Ukraine.

As for oil, the Germans know that even if they get the oil fields, they won't be able to get oil for a while! The Romanians can fry the oil wells, and the Bulgarians, naturally, too!

The offensive of the German-Austrian coalition forces naturally increased the pressure on the tsarist government, and most of the Lithuanian and Belarusian regions have fallen, and the war in the Ukrainian region has also burned to the banks of the Goren River.

For the Russian Empire, every day of the war was astronomical, but unfortunately the terms of the two sides could not be negotiated, the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg was already full of gloom, and Nicholas II had not shown a smile for a long time.

At the political conference, Nicholas II roared: "What are the Germans trying to do? Do they think that the great Russian Empire is a soft persimmon?

Cession of Poland, half of Lithuania, and part of Ukraine? Do they think they're going to eat us? ”

Well, the Germans are still negotiating with the Russians in accordance with this idea, but unfortunately the tsarist government can't afford to drag it out, and every day is a war report of losing the city and losing the land, no wonder Nicholas II can't stand it.

Perhaps before the negotiations were over, the German-Austrian forces were already in St. Petersburg. As for the newly constructed line of defense, sorry for the short time, the inefficient Tsarist government has not yet had time to implement the plan.

The Russian army on the front line has grown from more than 5 million people at its peak to more than 2 million people left now, and this is still based on the premise that the tsarist government has drawn reinforcements from the country several times, otherwise the situation will be even worse!

The Foreign Minister said calmly: "Your Majesty, this is only a preliminary request made by the Germans, not a final condition, and we can completely keep most of our interests through negotiations!"

It is even possible not to cede the land, but only need to pay a war reparation, or sell a batch of supplies to the Germans at a low price, and we can end the war with dignity! ”

It is not only the Russians who want an armistice now, but why don't Germany and Austria-Hungary want to end the war? At least get rid of the two-front war, so that the Allies can win the war in the short term!

In order to win the war, it does not seem unacceptable to make some concessions to the Russians? Of course, this is only the situation in the eyes of politicians, but in fact it is not something that the government can make concessions if it wants to!

Nicholas II's anger was suppressed, since it was a negotiation, then it was inevitable that the lion would open his mouth, and his bottom line was to pay war reparations, cede a few more cities at most, and continue the war if there were more!

He said coldly: "Then what about the front line? If we continue to lose, maybe the negotiations are not over, and we will have to move the capital first! ”

The new Minister of War stubbornly said: "Your Majesty, the offensive of the German-Austrian forces has slowed down a lot recently, and with the increase of the front, they are almost unable to hold on.

Now Britain and France are almost ready on the Western Front, and the Italians have begun to withdraw their troops from the Western Front to fight a battle to defend their homeland, and this part of the force gap needs to be filled by the Germans themselves.

In June, the total strength of the German-Austrian forces was more than 4 million, and after more than three months of war, their losses were no less than 1 million. Now the total number of troops they can really put into battle is only about 2 million, and we can completely drag out the war until winter comes, and then launch a counterattack! ”

Although it was a very reluctant explanation, Nicholas II accepted that Napoleon had lost in the winter of the Russian Empire, and the Germans were no exception.

It was already the beginning of September, and winter had begun to fall in many parts of Russia, and it was getting colder and colder the further east it went, and in a month at most, the German-Austrian forces would have to stop their advance, otherwise the cold would have finished them.

In fact, is it that simple? The Germans also knew how terrible the Russian winter was, and Napoleon had already told the world with a real case how terrible the winter was in the Russian Empire!

……

"Your Majesty, we have received news that the British are secretly negotiating with the Italians, and there is a high probability that the Italians will withdraw from the war in the near future!" The intelligence chief, Western Europe, said cautiously.

Ferdinand was slightly stunned, the Allied forces are less than a hundred kilometers away from Rome, maybe it will take less than a week to parade in Rome, and John Niu is now jumping out to do things again!

"Attendant, let the Foreign Secretary come and see me at once!"

Fortunately, all this has not happened yet, and if the Italians are allowed to withdraw from the war so lightly, who will Bulgaria reimburse for the war expenses at that time?

The Germans just paid the war reparations to Britain and France, and their economy collapsed, and even if Bulgaria got a part of the share, they didn't know that they would get it in the Year of the Monkey!

Is it a question mark whether Austria-Hungary existed at that time? Can you still expect this money from a small dismembered state?

Did any of the other Allied members survive? Even if there is, who can afford it except for Germany, Austria and Italy?

Of course, the Italians are also very poor, but where is their size, even if they can't come up with money in a short time, they can slowly repay their debts, and they are not afraid that they dare to repay their debts!

……

Foreign Secretary Mejev hurried over from outside, and before he could speak, Ferdinand said: "The British are plotting with the Italians, and it may not be long before the Italians will withdraw from the war!"

The withdrawal of the Italians from the war is also a good thing for us, but how to withdraw from the war is a question!

We cannot tolerate a life-and-death enemy who was still fighting us just now to immediately become our ally, which is a blasphemy against the sacrificed soldiers!

Therefore, Bulgaria only accepted the surrender of the Italians, but refused to allow the Italians to join the Entente!

I ask the Foreign Office to make immediate representations to the French, and on the Italian question we must be unanimous and put pressure on the British to protest against their shameless act of betraying their allies and making contact with the enemy in private! ”

Ferdinand admits that John Bull's diplomatic skills are awesome, but now Lao Tzu only accepts the surrender of the Italians, and if John Bull can convince the Italians to surrender, then he will admit it!

If it's for the Italians to join the Entente, then forget it! Now the Allies did not need the half-crippled Italian navy, and their army was not very effective and of little use.

The most important thing is to let them join the Entente, and everyone has to come up with a lot of materials to feed them! This is equivalent to snatching food from a Bulgarian bowl, and the Entente countries are not rich in materials now, and everyone is saving a little.

For materials shipped from overseas, the basic distribution principle of Britain, France and Russia is 3.8:4.3:1:0.9! Bulgaria can get a small share of the materiel, and if one more person is added to divide it, it will be enough!

The long-term benefit money, the short-term benefit is the distribution of materials, and from the position of Bulgaria, no matter how you look at it, it is more cost-effective to make the surrender of Italy.

And the French, as long as they were interested in the territory of Italy, had to side with Bulgaria. Now the French are very dissatisfied with the Franco-Italian dividing line, and at least a few strategic points will be in their hands.

Whether the French had greater ambitions, Ferdinand did not know, anyway, as long as the French did not annex the entire Italian peninsula, he could accept it.

After thinking for a while, Metev said: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid that diplomatic protest alone will not work, once the British and Italy reach an agreement and create an established fact, we will not be able to do anything!" ”

Ferdinand said fiercely: "That's why we have to reach an agreement with the French, the British operation this time is mainly to balance the French, as long as the Italians become allies, the French have no way to continue Italian expansion!"

But we need the French to continue to expand abroad after the war, provoke the conflict between Britain and France, attract the attention of the British, and provide cover for our expansion!

Now that the Allied forces were about to arrive in Rome, what if the British and Italy had reached an agreement?

As long as we, the French, are on the same page, even if the Italians declare their withdrawal from the war, we can continue to attack Rome and force the Italian government to surrender! ”

"Yes!" Chekov replied.

Now everyone is still an ally, and after the war, everyone is a competitor, and when Bulgaria wants to expand abroad, it is naturally indispensable to face the extraneous tricks of various countries.

The best way to solve this problem is to provoke contradictions between countries so that they cannot unite against Bulgaria!

Didn't the British have a ranking of the first, second, and third enemies? Well, let's make a strong enemy for them!

In the Americas, there is the United States, which wants to drive them out at any moment, in East Asia, there is a Japan that is eyeing their colonies, in Europe there is another France, which is about to dominate the European continent, and even in Eastern Europe, there is a behemoth that turns the Baltic Sea into an inland sea, can they still care about Bulgaria?

In terms of threats, three of the four enemies above threaten John Bull's world hegemony, compared to Bulgaria, which has the most influence on their discourse in the Mediterranean, but does not have the strength to expel them!

Ferdinand was a little skeptical that John Bull could keep his position as the world hegemon, and the days of being the enemy of the world were not so easy!