In contrast to the insistence of the Viennese government, Count Obony, the leader of the Hungarian Independence Party, was quietly sending off the representatives of the British, and it was evident that the two sides were talking happily.

This is also an inevitable result, in the winter offensive launched by the Russians last year, the Kingdom of Hungary has been severely damaged, and even their national foundation has been shaken!

Who told Mao Xiong that the Southwestern Front, which was in charge of the main attack, was right next to Hungary? No, who do they hit? To defend their homeland, the Kingdom of Hungary can't even pretend to be cowardly!

Then the Hungarians fought a battle to defend their homeland, and as a result, the Kingdom of Hungary lost seven layers of field regiments, as well as a large number of militia reserves, and by the way, lost half of the country!

Although the counteroffensive launched by the Allies in the second half of the year took back these territories, after all, they were still plagued by woolly bears, the economic losses were immeasurable, and the civilian casualties were hundreds of thousands.

In addition, the Russians deliberately created millions of refugees when they retreated, which dealt a devastating blow to the economy of the Kingdom of Hungary!

At the same time, the after-effects of the Hungarian Kingdom's usual oppression of ethnic minorities also appeared, and the ruling base of the Hungarian government was already unstable due to the heavy losses of the main army corps, which allowed other ethnic groups in the country to see opportunities.

After the outbreak of the previous food crisis, the Hungarian government's request for the Vienna government's contribution to the purchase of food from the grain capitalists was also denied, and the plans of many interest groups that wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune were frustrated.

In this context, the dissatisfaction with the central government in Hungary has reached the extreme, and Count Oboni, who originally wanted the Kingdom of Hungary to break away from the Austro-Hungarian Empire - independence, naturally jumped out!

It's also normal for them to hook up with John Bull, and geopolitics dictates all this.

Russia and Bulgaria, the two neighbors of Oboni, naturally dare not provoke, there is no bone left that will be swallowed by others if it is not good, and he still knows what he can't do if he seeks skin with the tiger!

The rest of them have little choice, nothing more than a choice between Britain and France, obviously now the French don't have the energy to care about them, John Bull has become a straw for them to save their lives if they don't catch it!

It can only be said that everyone is not a fuel-efficient lamp, the Yugoslav nation and Bulgaria are mixed together, the Hungarians are mixed with the British, and the Russians have also pulled a little brother, but people are scared away by their appetite.

……

From the front, the battle became more and more intense, and the Hindenburg government found that it was impossible to count on the victory of the southern front and then join forces with Austria-Hungary to deal with Britain and France, and it was more appropriate to kill Britain and France as soon as possible and then go back to the southern front to wipe their butts.

At the end of December 1916, the Somme Offensive was launched, and unlike in history, the losses on both sides were much greater, and the Germans won the battle.

Unfortunately, this did not change the overall situation, although the Germans won the victory, but their own casualties were too great to continue the attack.

After a day's wait, when German reinforcements arrived, British and French reinforcements also arrived at the front, and the best time for the decisive battle had been missed.

Then, in January 1917, the Hindenburg government launched the Lees River Offensive, which ended in the same way, and in the end, due to lack of stamina, the German offensive was stopped by the British and French forces.

In these two battles alone, the Anglo-French army paid nearly one million casualties, and the Germans also paid a tragic price of more than 500,000 casualties, and the casualty ratio of the two sides reached an astonishing 1.8~1.9, and the Germans won a complete victory in this regard!

Unfortunately, the tactical victory could not change the strategic defeat, and the plans formulated by the Hindenburg government were only half completed, and they ended in nothing.

Marshal Foch, commander-in-chief of the Anglo-French forces, was having a hard time now, and although he had smashed the strategy of the Allies, he could not fight back by just being beaten.

The government has already blown out the cowhide, and if the war ends in 1917, even if the Germans cannot surrender by then, they must at least fight to the German mainland in order to give an explanation to the people, right?

Politicians don't care about the actual situation on the front line, they just want to see victory, no matter how big the casualties on the front line are, they have to launch a counteroffensive, anyway, they have cannon fodder!

Under this guiding ideology, the Anglo-French forces had to adopt the most rigid tactics and launch a counterattack against the Germans, with the simple aim of overpowering the Germans.

While it is not desirable to do so militarily, it becomes particularly important politically.

Especially for the British, who had just changed the conscription system to the conscription system, and at this time there was continuous unfavorable news, and the life of the London government could not be lived!

If it doesn't work, the population will resist conscription, and it will be a disaster for the Entente. Now that the war has been going on, everyone has found that it is unrealistic to use colonial troops to fight a war of attrition with the Germans and directly consume the Germans!

There is no way, although everyone doesn't care about the life or death of the colonial troops, but it costs to recruit them, complete their training, and then send them to the European continent!

The most important thing is that the cost of requisitioning a division from the colonies is not much lower than training a native division; In terms of combat effectiveness, the colonial troops were less than half of the local troops, and this was very uneconomically.

At the beginning of the war, Britain and France were rich and did not care about this consumption, but now that the war has been fought, everyone's family resources have been almost consumed.

The French have lost ten provinces in the north-east, and their domestic industry has been battered and they have had to sell off their overseas assets to raise money, and even then they have to rely financially on consortiums and international loans.

The British were no better, and do not forget that in addition to their own war costs, they were also providing loans to Bulgarian Russia.

The French did the same at the beginning of the war, but with the fall of the country, they had to withdraw and leave the usury business to John Bull.

However, John Bull's family is thick, and now that the war has only started two years, their foundation has not been exhausted, but it is inevitable to save money.

Inflation has begun to spread rapidly, and now the currencies of the major belligerents have depreciated to varying degrees, and although everyone's wages have risen on the surface, prices have risen even faster.

As a result of the conscription of large numbers of workers, women and children were forced into factories to do heavy labor, working overwhelming overtime, but with meagre incomes.

The strict rationing of the necessities of life left the general population living in a state of semi-starvation, especially in the Central Powers.

Essentially, the Entente countries were replenished with supplies from overseas trade, and if it were not for the domestic capitalists colluding with the bureaucracy to hoard them, their food would still be sufficient.

But the Allies were different, and even if they were able to concentrate all their food, they would still not be able to meet the basic needs of the people.

In this context, politicians naturally wanted to end the war as soon as possible, so everyone unanimously chose a quick solution.

On 16 February, the long-awaited Allied forces launched an offensive from Italy to Austria and Slovenia, opening a new front after the Western, Eastern and Southern Fronts.

There was no doubt that the military pressure on the Central Powers was already greater, especially on the part of Austria-Hungary, which was almost overwhelmed.

From the end of the Winter War in 1916, demonstrations had become part of Vienna, and were suspended after the victory on the Eastern Front, but with the unfavorable situation on the Southern Front, the event was carried forward again.

In his report to the Cabinet, the mayor of Vienna wrote: "The population is dominated by anger and despair, and I do not know how long they can endure it." I feel that the tragedy that is happening in Hungary is about to happen in Austria! ”

(Note: This refers to the Hungarian Revolution of 1848)

The Prime Minister of Austria-Hungary, Leopold von Berchtold, who received this report, did not make any move, because he could not do anything, and the first thing that came to mind when it came to Austria-Hungary was his national question, which was actually more acute than the national problem.

If the old emperor Joseph I was still there, with his prestige, he could still make the capitalists jealous, but unfortunately it would not work if he replaced Ferdinand II.

Who made this guy die a big death, married a queen from a commoner background, and became an alternative among the nobility, even Ferdinand II had good political skills, but he had lost the allegiance of the nobles!

Without the support of the aristocracy, would Ferdinand II be able to attack the capitalists? At least not in Austria-Hungary, where most of the army was in the hands of the nobility.

The capitalists who relaxed the restrictions were terrifying, but fortunately Nicholas II helped him a big gang, and he directly killed most of the capitalists in Russia, killing St. Petersburg with a river of blood, and also shocked the capitalists all over the world.

The Russian army told the world with practical actions that the emperor is not easy to mess with, and the army is not easy to mess with, and when one day offends the emperor and the army at the same time, then the end is coming.

Therefore, these capitalists also knew that after a few points of military material, the Austro-Hungarian army at the front did not go hungry.

No, it should be said that it has not yet reached the point of starvation, since Bulgaria bombed the Austro-Hungarian railway, the logistics system of the Austro-Hungarian army, which was already very pitiful, has become even more pitiful.

For example, it was supposed to be flour, but a batch of potatoes was transported by mistake, and the soldiers on the front line were not picky, so everyone should eat potatoes.

It's not that they are really not picky eaters, in fact, they don't dare to let the logistics department pull back and redistribute flour, so it is estimated that they are really starving to death, which is a lesson that the predecessors exchanged their lives for.

Anyway, as long as it's your food, it's wrong to transport it to the wrong place, no one dares to come again, in case of a change of goods, the next time the logistics department replaces the potatoes with grenades, it is estimated that they will really catch the blind, which is also a precedent!

Of course, this is not a big deal, last time the logistics department mistakenly turned all the food into ammunition for the oolong troops, and in the end they were so hungry that they went directly to the enemy's prisoner of war camp to eat, and then they were widely advertised.

Later, Conrad really looked at it, he felt that it would not work like this, there was no food to eat, and the surrender was in line with the moral code of Europeans, and there was no way to blame it?

Even the unlucky colonel who took the lead in surrendering did not have to bear any responsibility after the war, not to mention going to military court, not even criticizing education, and he successfully saved the lives of the young men with his witty mind, which is commendable!

If he hadn't wittily chosen to surrender to the Bulgarian army, if he had surrendered to the Russians next door, it would have been estimated that they would all starve to death before the war!

As a last resort, Conrad ruthlessly reorganized the transportation system of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, transporting food and other materials separately to avoid this deadly oolong.

This is already a very big progress, historically, the Russian army and the Austro-Hungarian army on the Eastern Front, the two sides were not more combat-effective than anyone, but more resistant to frost and who was more able to starve, and finally the hairy bear won the victory with its amazing physique!

There is also a funny anecdote about a Russian army and an Austro-Hungarian army facing each other on the front line, and due to the slippery roads in winter, everyone's supplies did not arrive on time.

Hungry, the Russian army decided to surrender to the Austro-Hungarian army on the opposite side, and after they had met to make a decision, a scout brought back a message that instantly dispelled the idea of surrender - the enemy ran out of food!

The Austro-Hungarian army made the same decision almost at the same time, but after they sent the officers who had negotiated surrender with the Russians to the Russian camp, they asked the Russian army for food that matched his identity on the grounds that it was lunch time, and only got a piece of bread, so he judged that the Russians were also out of food, so he fooled the Russians and returned to the camp to report the "good news", and then the two sides stopped fighting, and began to compete to see who could be more hungry!

Fun anecdote, anyway, if the Austro-Hungarian army had a choice, they rarely surrendered to the Russians, because they knew that the Russians were not having a good time, so they didn't want to grab rations with the Russian soldiers.

Well, there is no most pit, only more pits, in fact, the pit of the logistics supply system of the woolly bear is the crown of Europe, it can be said that the woolly bear was killed by logistics in World War I!

If the railway transport of the Germans is 100, then the railway transport of the French is at least 95, after the defeat of the Franco-Prussian War, the French changed their minds and vigorously developed railway transport;

The British have 85 years old, but they are island countries, and they can make up for it by sea, which is enough to meet the transportation needs; There are also 93 rail transport in Bulgaria, and the sea and road systems can also meet the demand;

In this regard, Austria-Hungary lost the face of the European powers, only 61, and the railway level was only slightly higher than that of Italy, but Italy was a peninsular country and could make up for it by sea, and Austria-Hungary was not as good as Italy in this regard;

As for the Russian Empire, this is a joke, even after deducting the Far East and Siberia, they are also a joke among the great powers.

Don't look at the fact that they also have more than 70,000 kilometers of railways, which is 70 percent higher than the total length of railways in Bulgaria, but their territory is also more than 40 times that of Bulgaria?

This average score is only a few quarters of Bulgaria's, which means that the Russians' railway transport score is less than 5 scum, only 4.2!

Although railway transportation is not the whole of transportation, the proportion of railway transportation in this era can account for at least seventy or eighty percent, and it is not surprising that Russia has insufficient transportation capacity.

Even a nationwide railway network has not been able to be established, so the woolly bear has always been at the bottom of the great powers in the transformation of war potential.

Because Mao Xiong is not only a railway pit, their logistics management is even more pit, and it is the norm for materials not to arrive at the front line on time, many times the troops on the front line wait and wait, and when they finally get it in their hands, it is not the materials they urgently need, or the capitalists can't use it at all with shoddy quality!

For example, the flour that comes in turns into moldy dough; The rifles that were shipped turned into parts and needed to be assembled by themselves; The tents that are transported need to be sewn by themselves; The medicines that are shipped are made from flour; The ammunition that was shipped was a squib......

Logistics is not concerned about the storage of materials, and is completely irresponsible for the quality of materials, or it has fallen under the sugar-coated shells and has become the echo worm of the capitalists!

This is also the reason why Nicholas II was able to respond to every call, and the resentment of the officers and soldiers at the front against the capitalists has reached the extreme!

……