Chapter 255: Armistice
The news that the Ottoman army was besieged by the allied forces in Adrianople spread around the world three days later. As the current affairs that countries are most concerned about at present, the news of the war between Italy and the Ottomans will always be the first to come out.
So immediately after the siege of Adriatic, the news came out. And in the face of the siege of the main army, the Ottomans, of course, did not want to see it, and before that, their army also had the idea of breaking through. Troops urgently dispatched from the besieged Adrianople and Istanbul launched a counteroffensive against Lülebulgac in an attempt to break the fate of the siege, but the city remained firmly in the hands of the Italians, which also declared the Ottomans unable to break the siege.
Of course, limited to the fact that the troops are not yet fully in place, the Ottomans, who are currently surrounded, can still take advantage of the gap to withdraw a small part of their troops. But don't think about the big troops, it's impossible to withdraw.
Among them, many high-ranking Ottoman military officers who were concerned about the safety of Istanbul took advantage of this time to be useful for the future. However, as a commander, Riza did not evacuate.
Instead, he stayed in the besieged Adrianople, and frequently appeared to cheer up the troops and maintain the morale of the army because many officers secretly left. Frequent meetings with officers and soldiers made Riza's influence in the army grow, but despite this, they were destined to be surrounded in the last fortress of Istanbul.
During this time, Riza had numerous opportunities to leave, but he refused them all.
He knew very well that if he left, then the more than 200,000 Ottoman troops in Adrianople would be finished. And the capital Istanbul simply could not stop the offensive of the Italian and Bulgarian coalition forces, and he could not go for the sake of the Ottomans.
In some ways, Riza, the leader of the al-Shabaab party, deserves to be a qualified patriot.
However, although Riza's patriotic fervor has not diminished in the slightest, it still cannot change the current situation of the war. After the news of the siege of Adrianople, the world of Istanbul was in chaos, and all kinds of gossip and rumors about the coalition forces were flying. Some say that the army in Adrianople has surrendered, others say that the army has withdrawn, and others say that the enemy is approaching Istanbul.
The news of this spread panicked the people of Istanbul, and many people fled to the Asia Minor Peninsula by boat with their families. In the face of such a scene, the troops stationed in Istanbul did not stop at all, unlike the citizens, they knew more about the exact news, and knew that now the coalition forces need to give priority to the army in Adrianople, so it is safe in Istanbul for now.
However, although it is safe for now, when the enemy solves Adrianople, then Istanbul will not have enough strength to resist the other side. Since all the troops that the Ottomans were able to mobilize had been wiped out by the enemy, the Ottomans had only more than 80,000 troops confronting the Italian landing force near Izmir, in addition to the more than 40,000 Ottoman troops in Istanbul.
The Ottoman Empire, which currently has no troops available, has few options to make when the enemy is about to enter the city.
At this time, it is normal for some changes in the Ottoman hierarchy to occur.
On the evening of the day after the news of the siege of Adrianople was reported, a mutiny broke out in the city, and the Ottoman army, still loyal to the Sultan, led by former War Minister Osman Nuri Pasha, uprooted the Al-Shabaab forces remaining in Istanbul, and imprisoned a large group of Al-Shabaab, including Ahmad Lisa.
Although there was no fierce fighting that night, it still made the people of Istanbul panic, and the curfew of that night made the people of the Ottoman capital feel unusual.
The next morning, when the dust had settled, the Ottoman Sultan Hamid II returned to power, and the Ottoman political forces immediately welcomed the Sultan again, as if they had never been there before.
The first thing Sultan Hamid II did after returning to power was to remove the Grand Vizier Javad Pasha who was pushed out by Al-Shabaab, and the officials who took office after Al-Shabaab came to power were basically in the sequence of this recall.
In their place were officials led by Said Pasha, who was known for his steady state, who took over the newly vacated position and continued to ensure the production of the Ottoman center. Of course, the most important position of Minister of War at present, with the exception of Osman Nuri Pasha, is not on his mind.
The first thing the new Ottoman top officials needed to do was to end the state of war with the coalition forces.
"Your Majesty, this is the armistice agreement we drafted, and I would like to ask Your Majesty to look at it."
In the palace, the newly appointed Grand Vizier Said Pasha presented the conditions urgently negotiated before Sultan Hamid II. When the enemy is about to enter the city, at this time come up with an armistice agreement, the conditions of which can be imagined.
In this agreement, the Ottomans fully agreed with the terms that had been negotiated before, although it was a bit difficult to gain the approval of the coalition forces on this alone. After all, this was fought for a while, and the result was even more unfavorable to the Ottoman side, so in addition to agreeing with the results of the previous negotiations, the Ottomans also added a clause that the two sides would cease fire on the spot in the current war situation, and wait for the two sides to negotiate the results of the peace talks before coordinating.
It is clear that this article is for Adrianople and Istanbul, and in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of the coalition forces, the conditions are written in advance.
Hamid II asked, after reading the urgently drafted armistice. "What is the attitude of other countries?"
Sayyid Pasha knew what the Sultan meant, and he immediately replied. "At present, the ambassadors of Britain, France, Germany, Austria and Russia have expressed their willingness to end this war to our country, and for this reason, I believe that our armistice agreement is also what all countries want to see."
There was nothing wrong with Said's words, and the European powers wanted the war to end immediately, for the simple reason that the Ottomans had performed too poorly in this war.
Everyone can see that this war has pulled out all the Ottoman bottoms. At present, the main task of the Ottomans is to end this war as soon as possible, and whether to learn the lessons or lick the wounds and restore strength is a matter for later.
In their view, the previous outbreak of Al-Shabaab was nothing more than a concentrated expression of the patriotic fervor of the Ottoman military and civilians, but the timing of its outbreak was so poor that it was simply pouring salt in the wounds of their country.
Now the Ottomans were able to return to the normal track simply unexpectedly. As for the mentality of the European powers, the Ottoman high-level leaders can still speculate a thing or two, after all, their location is too good, and the Black Sea straits are too important.
As a result, in the expectation of the Ottoman high-level, this armistice agreement was soon passed into the hands of Italy, Bulgaria, and Black and Black. In the face of the truce proposed by the Ottomans, the three countries were naturally happy to see it. It is wrong to say that except for Bulgaria, the other belligerent countries are willing to see it.
Although Bulgaria is blushing at Istanbul, which is close at hand, they also know that this is not something they can refer to at the moment, so after other countries have expressed their positions, Bulgaria can only agree.
Although all countries agreed to an armistice, Italy, as the pillar of the war, made a special request, that is, Rome must be chosen as the venue for the negotiations.
In the face of this Italian request, the Ottomans also responded in order to avoid long nights and dreams, after all, they did not have the confidence to oppose the Italian demand at present.
Negotiators from all sides rushed to Rome to prepare for the next negotiations.