Built in 1869, the Vienna State Opera is one of the four most famous opera houses in the world, and its interior is very ornate, with a seating capacity of more than 1,600 people, and five floors of boxes around the theater, the most magnificent of which is the Emperor's box in the middle.

On the last day of January 1915, the opera house was packed, and the opera presented today was nothing special, but the Viennese gave it a good name: "Song of Victory". As a result, not only the aristocratic dignitaries of Vienna, but also the representatives of various countries who came to participate in the Vienna peace talks were invited, and the organizers generously reserved a few boxes for the Italian delegates, but for some reason they did not attend.

When the 84-year-old Austro-Hungarian Emperor Joseph I appeared at the opera house, everyone present gave a standing ovation as a tribute to the emperor and to the victors. Joseph I, who had spent 67 years on the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor, had transformed Vienna into a world famous city, and he ordered the city walls to be torn down, the magnificent Ring Road was built, and the most famous architects in Europe were invited to build splendid buildings.

Despite being the victor of the war, Joseph I did not make the vast and chaotic empire truly powerful. In its land, the aristocracy and the rich lived in luxury, a large number of poor people did not have enough to eat, the various states were independent, the different nationalities hated each other, it had abundant resources and good industrial strength but lacked economic power, the number of troops was staggering, but the quality of officers was low, there was a lack of cooperation among soldiers of all nationalities, and the equipment was far from the title of a great army power, and the army was now quite dependent on German assistance for both command and equipment.

In fact, from the moment of birth, Franz. Joseph I's misfortune was doomed. He ruled over a seemingly large but troubled country, and his mother, the Sufi Empress Dowager, gave him an outdated and outdated education, believing that her son's priority was to preserve the centuries-old noble traditions of the Habsburgs, to preserve the rule of the remnants of the dynasty, and then to consider governing Austria and, if possible, making it strong. As a result of this boring education from an early age, Franz. Emperor Joseph was of average intellect, had a mediocre personality, was obsessed with details, and was indecisive, often changing orders at the turn of the day. Although he had little military talent, his greatest hobby was wearing military uniforms. He considered himself first a glorious soldier of the Reich, then a noble German prince, and finally the Emperor of Austria. The only thing the emperor could praise was his linguistic talents, and in addition to German, he also spoke Magyar (Hungarian), Czech, Italian, Latin, Greek, as well as English and French.

Heaven was cruel to Joseph I, and in 1867, his younger brother, Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, was executed by President Juárez, and his sister-in-law, Charlotte, the daughter of King Leopold of Belgium, became a madman; In 1889, he and Sissi's only son, Rudolf of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, committed suicide outside Vienna; In 1898, Sissi, whom he had always loved, was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist on the shores of Lake Geneva; Finally, the emperor's nephew, **** Ferdinand, was assassinated in Serbia.

As Joseph I's health deteriorated in recent years, a few bold men predicted that the old emperor, the only link that held the vast empire together, was about to die, and that his nephew, the unpreevolent and mediocre crown prince Karl, would not be able to take on the task, and that it would not be long before Austria-Hungary fell into disarray.

Before the prophecy was confirmed by history, sycophants began to give more and more praise to the new crown prince of the empire, and the young Karl was trying his best to behave himself. During the war, he went to the front many times to comfort the officers and soldiers, and personally commanded several medium-sized battles, and after the defeat of Serbia, he traveled to Berlin, St. Petersburg, Istanbul, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Madrid, and other European capitals.

In addition to the Austrian Emperor and the Crown Prince, there are many distinguished guests seated in the Vienna State Opera today, the most notable are the Tsar and his wife who are visiting Vienna, and the dignitaries of various countries who came to attend the Vienna Peace Conference, including German Prime Minister Batemann and War Minister Rupresit, Russian Prime Minister Kokovzov and War Minister Marshal Ivanov, Turkish President Kemal and Defense Minister General Turan, and Bulgarian Foreign Minister Totlov.

When the Emperor and the Crown Prince were seated, the opera began. At this time, the snow was falling outside the opera house.

The winter for the Italians was tragic, not only did they lose a large part of their land, but the country's economy and industry were hit hard. Their savings over the years have been wiped out, and the reparations of 50 billion lire will carry a heavy mountain on their backs for the next 20 years. Under the terms of the Treaty of Vienna, 90 percent of the locomotives, 80 percent of the wagons, and 100 percent of the trucks in Italy had to be paid to the Central Powers, and the army had to surrender 2,000 cannons, 2,000 machine guns, and all the planes, and the navy's painstakingly managed fleet would cease to exist, and 10 battleships, 42 cruisers, and large destroyers, and 25 submarines would be removed from the battle sequence of the Italian navy.

After the signing of the Peace of Vienna, all the Italians had to do was travel honestly under the watchful eye of the Central Powers, while the representatives of the victorious powers sat around the table discussing how to divide the spoils.

The so-called Vienna Peace Conference was more precisely a conference organized by the Central Powers to divide the spoils, in which representatives of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Turkey discussed how to distribute the spoils; Bulgaria, which signed the treaty of alliance and declared war on Italy, and the foreign ministers and ministers of the Kingdom of German Egypt, the Republic of the German Sudan, and the Federation of German South Africa, which declared war on Italy during the war, came to make a "cameo appearance".

As the initiator of the war, the representative of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Crown Prince Karl, was the first to speak as the master:

"First of all, on behalf of His Majesty the Austrian Emperor, I would like to thank all countries for their support for our country in the war, and it was thanks to the cooperation of all countries that we were able to defeat the Italians in such a short time. With regard to the Italian indemnities and indemnities stipulated in the peace treaty, in addition to the warships, our government's proposal was to distribute 60% of Austria-Hungary, 25% of Germany, 9% of Russia, and 6% of Turkey! As for the fleet of the Italians, we think that the German allies should get the heavy cruiser 'Brunetti', the light cruiser 'Bettini' and 3 destroyers, the Turkish allies should get the heavy cruiser 'Vizali', the light cruiser 'Piasano' and 4 destroyers, 4 submarines, and we are also ready to give the light cruiser 'Gozo' and 2 submarines to the Russian allies! ”

As soon as Karl's speech ended, the delegates expressed their dissatisfaction with the fact that Austria-Hungary had occupied too much of the booty, especially the warships.

"Our country sent 300,000 troops to fight directly, and also provided a large amount of arms and supplies to the allies, and the rate of 25% is too low! Our country simply cannot accept it! German Chancellor Batemann was the first to speak out.

"How can this work! Our Navy contributed a lot in the operation against the Italian Navy, and lost no less sailors than other countries! And we said before we went to war that the 'Dante Aligo Icheri' should belong to our Turkey, and we have already reserved a place for it in the military port! Kemal's purpose was clear, his country needed new capital ships, but Turkey was currently limited in its economic capacity and could not build its own battleships, so the dreadnought battleship Dante Aligo Icheri, completed in 1913 and commissioned the following year, was clearly a good choice.

"You don't have to be so excited!" When Kokovtsov first said this, everyone thought that he was going to be a peacemaker, but he then changed his words, "His Highness Karl's suggestion is debatable, so we should sit down and discuss it calmly." In terms of the proportion of reparations, taking into account the fact that Russia suffered more than 7,000 casualties in combat operations with the Italians, according to the overall casualty ratio, we Russia should receive 20% of the reparations! ”

In the face of the collective opposition of Germany, Russia and Turkey, Karl was unwilling to back down. This time, the Emperor let him take full charge of the matter, also in order to establish his prestige.

"Why are we inviting them to war? With the strength of the Imperial Army, it should be a breeze for us to sweep down Italy! Long before the start of the Italian war, Karl asked Archduke Friedrich.

"Wars are not won or lost by numbers, otherwise we would not have struggled or even lost in Serbia. Facing the Italians alone, we are sure of victory, but the war may drag on for months or even a year! After the nightmare of the Belarusian campaign, Archduke Friedrich became much more cautious, and his confidence in the strength of his men was far less than before.

In the course of the battle of Italy, Karl more than once asked the Austro-Hungarian army under the command of Archduke Friedrich to speed up the offensive, and more achievements also meant a harder confidence at the negotiating table, but as Archduke Friedrich expected, the German army once again became the protagonist of the battlefield, the western offensive of the Hausen army forced the Italians to retreat continuously, and the German armored forces in the Eastern Front became a dazzling blade, and ninety percent of the fighters and pilots in the coalition army were provided by Germany, Millions of shells were supplied by Germany throughout the war.

"We think it should be 40% for Austria-Hungary, 30% for Germany, 17% for Russia, 13% for Turkey!" Batemann then proposed the ratio desired by the German government, which apparently pleased the Russians and Turks.

"In any case, Austria-Hungary deserves 60%, and we have no opinion on how the remaining reparations and supplies will be distributed!" Karl was adamant, and in fact he proposed 80 per cent of the proposals at an internal meeting of the Austro-Hungarian central government, but he reluctantly reduced the number to 60 per cent because the generals felt that this proposal was too unrealistic.

In this case, the proportional distribution proposals put forward by the Russians and Turks were also rejected by Karl one by one, and the meeting reached an impasse for a time.

In the next two days of meetings, Karl still did not budge an inch on the issue of the proportion of reparations.

On the fourth day of the meeting, Bateman suddenly made a new proposal:

"If His Royal Highness the Crown Prince receives 60 per cent of the indemnities and materiel for Austria-Hungary, our Government will demand the Italian 'Leonardo da Vinci', 'Duke of Cavour' and 'Julius. Caesar", plus 5 designated light cruisers and 10 destroyers! ”

"Battleship??" Karl looked at the German Prime Minister opposite in surprise, he obviously did not expect that the Germans would have such a big appetite for Italian ships. The Cavour-class battleship is currently the latest Italian battleship, with a displacement of 22,000 tons and eight 305 mm guns, making it one of the strongest warships in the Mediterranean. There were 3 battleships of this class, namely "Leonardo da Vinci", "Duke Cavour" and "Julio. Caesar", both of whom took part in the Adriatic Battle on December 22, 1914, and spent most of their time in the military port of Taranto.

The Russians and Turks did not say anything about Bateman's proposal, perhaps they already knew about it.

Karl had to reconsider this very important issue, as three of the 10 Italian battleships stipulated in the treaty were currently under repair, two needed further equipment, and only three Cavour-class battleships, the battleship "Dante Aligo Icherry" and one old armored battleship could sail normally. The Germans were obviously not going to strengthen the High Seas Fleet with the Italian battleships, and it is highly likely that they would eventually remain in the Mediterranean and become part of the German Mediterranean Fleet, which was not a good thing for the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

Much to Karl's dismay, the Russians then turned their attention to the Italian warships, with Kokovzov stating that "Russia can pay only 9% of the reparations and supplies, but we need 3 cruisers and 10 destroyers to strengthen the naval forces in the Black Sea!" ”

Immediately afterwards, Kemal also proposed that Turkey could accept 6% of the reparations and materiel, on the condition that 1 battleship, 3 cruisers, 6 destroyers and 12 Italian submarines were accepted.

Apparently, Karl had had run into the same trouble he had last time in Berlin, and Germany, Russia, and Turkey had once again reached some sort of unanimity in private.

At the same time, the Austrian Emperor met with Tsar Aglini at the Hofburg (Austrian Imperial Palace) in Vienna. During the conversation, Aglini expressed concern about the progress of the Vienna peace talks, and as a result, the Austrian emperor had to personally intervene to mediate.

Two days later, Germany, Austria, Russia and Turkey finally reached an agreement, and in terms of reparations and materials, Austria-Hungary still accounted for 60%, Germany, Russia, and Turkey accounted for 20%, 12%, and 8% respectively; In terms of naval vessels, the Germans got the battleships "Leonardo da Vinci", "Julio. Caesar", the heavy cruiser "Brunetti" and 3 light cruisers and 7 destroyers, the Turks got the battleship "Dante Aligo Ichelli" and 4 destroyers and 9 submarines, the Russians got the light cruiser "Gozo", "Bettini" and 7 destroyers, and the remaining 7 battleships, 19 cruisers and large destroyers, and 16 submarines were assigned to the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

After receiving the spoils of war to a comparatively satisfactory price, Germany, Russia, and Turkey agreed that Austria-Hungary would be solely responsible for sending troops to garrison the land that Italy had given to the Central Powers as guarantees in the treaty.

Politicians of various countries disagreed on the outcome of the peace talks, with some arguing that Austria-Hungary had the greatest gains, while others believed that the German strategy was quite successful, and that the ships were more relevant than the Italian indemnity payments. Of course, it is undeniable that the strength of the Austro-Hungarian Navy has increased greatly, with 17 battleships and 26 cruisers making them successfully enter the ranks of the world's leading naval powers, and the number of capital ships even exceeds that of the United States and Japan.