In the evening, when the lights are on, people who have been busy all day are returning home to enjoy the rest time of each day.

Of course, the coming of night is not only about rest, especially the parties to this exciting peace talks, who are not qualified to rest at this time. They took advantage of the break in the negotiations to begin to adjust to the various situations that had arisen in the previous negotiations.

Inside the Austro-Hungarian Embassy, Ambassador Gavin Freddy, the observer of the Austro-Hungarian peace talks, returned to the embassy with a gloomy face.

"How's the peace talks going?"

Embassy Counselor Von Sparker asked with interest about the progress of the peace talks.

"It's terrible, a bunch of vicious dogs fighting for a bone."

Ambassador Freddy, with a sense of malice, spoke about today's peace talks.

The peace talks in Rome seemed to him terrible.

The peace talks were very important to Austria-Hungary, but they could not interfere much in it. According to Count Gustav Karnoki, Foreign Secretary and Chairman of the Council of Ministers, the war was at stake for Austro-Hungarian interests in the Balkans, but the Reich needed to consider the question of allies, and there was nothing worse than a tie in the exertion of influence.

The main reason for all this is that Austria-Hungary has a huge deviation in its estimation of Ottoman strength.

In fact, not only Austria-Hungary, but before the outbreak of this war, the general opinion of European countries was that it would be an evenly matched war. Although the Ottoman strength is constantly weakening, the Italians are not strong, and the Ottomans still have the home advantage, so this war will be fought.

However, the course of the war was beyond everyone's expectations, the Ottomans were defeated, and if it were not for the influence of various countries, Istanbul would now be occupied.

Such a situation was very embarrassing for Austria-Hungary, which had huge interests in the Balkans. Seeing that Italy and Bulgaria have seized a large amount of territory, and they can only turn the managed Serbia and Montenegro region into a direct jurisdiction, no matter how you look at it, it is your own loss.

What is even more uncomfortable is that Italy is still its ally, and it is impossible for it to do something to give authority.

In fact, it was not only Austria-Hungary that was embarrassed, but also Russia, which had the same interests as Austria-Hungary in the Balkans. Russia, which is famous in the Balkans, is not much in the situation of this war, and it can be seen that Russia is impatient to make such a crazy move to support the Ottoman munitions. Fortunately, the coalition forces did not take Istanbul, otherwise no one knows if the Russians would have gone crazy, and maybe there would have been such a crazy move as the general mobilization.

Ambassador Freddy did not care about the actions of the Russians. But although he didn't care, he couldn't stop someone from visiting. No, not long after Ambassador Freddy's return, there were embassy personnel who reported that Russian Ambassador Alexander Tokayev had come to visit.

Hearing the Russian ambassador's visit, Freddy didn't have to think about it to know what the other party meant.

Although Russia and Austria-Hungary are rivals in the Balkans, it is not surprising that they join forces at a time when their mutual interests may be threatened. And there is a precedent for this, in the Serbian war nearly a decade ago, Austria-Hungary had warned the victorious Bulgarians to stop fighting Serbia, otherwise Austria-Hungary would send troops for this.

Since the two countries have such tacit confrontation and cooperation, there is no reason why they should not use this peace talks.

Therefore, in the face of the visiting Russian ambassador, Freddy naturally invited the other party in.

In his office, the lanky Freddie looked at the fat Tokayev, and the two were obviously tall and short.

"Hello, Ambassador Tokayev, welcome to your visit."

In response to Freddy's greeting, Tokayev waved his hand and did not respond seasonally. "Freddy, we need to join forces this time."

After inwardly despising the other party for not even following diplomatic etiquette, Freddie took out a cigar and threw it to the other party. "Your Excellency, haven't we joined forces in this peace talks, and I have promised to support Serbia."

Tokayev, who took the cigar and took a puff, shook his head. "This alone is not enough, your country needs to exert your influence to get Italy to abandon the Bulgarians."

Tokayev leaned closer and whispered. "We have received information that this time Bulgaria has offered a lot of benefits in order to obtain the full support of the Italians, among which there are conditions for the reduction of tariffs on it."

Saying this, Tokayev said with a look of hatred. "These Bulgarian white-eyed wolves, they have forgotten the kindness of our country, and if it were not for the help of our country, they would not even be able to become independent."

Tokayev's words, Freddy heard that there was a face that was not very good-looking. He has no doubts about Russian intelligence, Russia's intelligence capabilities in Bulgaria are still very credible, and there are not too many Bulgarians who have a favorable opinion of Russia.

As to whether the Italians would be captivated by the conditions of the Bulgarians, Freddy could not guarantee that, given that he knew the temperament of the Italians, it would be half to half.

That being the case, then Austria-Hungary needs to warn its ally about its own attitude before doing so.

But if they want to make a statement on behalf of Vienna, then the Russians have to do something.

Freddie thought for a moment and replied. "Ambassador Tokayev, I want our country to exert influence on Italy and prevent it from helping Bulgaria, which will affect our relations with it."

At this point, Ambassador Freddy paused.

Tokayev is also a person who knows what he means by hearing the strings, and he still doesn't understand what the other party means. He had already considered it before he came here, as long as he wanted the Austro-Hungarians to make a move, he still had to give the benefits he should give, and he didn't have to pay Russian money anyway.

Tokayev said with a smile. "I have discussed this with the Prime Minister of Serbia, and they are willing to accept a 10% concession from your country on the cost of transporting goods in transit."

Tokayev said that this is the biggest problem for Serbia at the moment, they have no access to the sea, so basically most of the goods need to transit through Austria-Hungary, and Austria-Hungary charges a lot of transportation and transit fees for this. Now in order to prevent Bulgaria from becoming too strong, Serbia must show its interests to win over Austria-Hungary.

In this regard, Serbian Prime Minister Grujic is very aware of this, so there is no way to make necessary concessions. Even if Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has half of the Serb population, they can only grit their teeth and acquiesce.

As for why they chose to target Bulgaria instead of Italy, in addition to the fact that Italy is an Austro-Hungarian ally, there are also two countries that do not want regional powers to emerge in the region. To this end, they would rather pinch their noses and acquiesce to the arrival of one more player, rather than tolerate the emergence of a power in the region that could lead the region (so before World War I, there was no way that the Balkans would have crushed the whole country).

While Austria-Hungary was plotting with the Russian ambassador against Bulgaria, Bulgarian Prime Minister Stambolov was also talking with Prime Minister Depretius in the Roman Prime Minister's Office.