In the peace treaty between Austria-Hungary and the Entente, Austria-Hungary repeatedly mentioned a clause that no country of the Entente could support the independent Hungarian forces.

The Hungarian independence forces included not only the Independence Party, which was already well known in Hungary, but also the capitalist and landlord classes who tried to promote Hungary's independence.

If you have a map, it is clear that most of the terrain of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is surrounded by mountains, and only the Hungarian region is one of the few plains in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

As a result, Hungary has a largely small-scale peasant economy, including a considerable number of farmers and small capitalists.

The very different economic models of Hungary and Austria are also destined for conflict between Hungary and Austria.

But for Austria-Hungary, the empire could not afford to lose such an important granary as Hungary.

After full consideration by the Austro-Hungarian government, it was finally decided that even if it lost some more territory, it could not lose the right to rule Hungary.

Of course, there was good news for Karl I, his imperial throne was kept for the time being.

In order to better rule Hungary in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Karl I's monarchy could not be lost for the time being.

After all, Karl I, in addition to the Austro-Hungarian Emperor, also had the titles of King of Bohemia and King of Hungary.

It was the combination of the three titles of Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia and King of Hungary that formed the dual state of Austria-Hungary.

Once the monarchy is overthrown, the nations united by the same Habsburg fiefdom lose their reason to unite with each other.

I have to admit that Habsburg, as the greatest royal family in Europe, still has a very rich family.

Even at the beginning of the 20th century, the Habsburgs still held the titles of the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdom of Bohemia, and were one of the most glorious and now glorious families of European royal families.

This contract was about to be concluded, and it was Karl I and the government of the Kingdom of Hungary that would be relieved.

It was a win-win situation for Karl I to retain his throne and for the government of the Kingdom of Hungary to deal with its own crisis.

As for the losses of Austria-Hungary, they could only be borne by the imperial government. But for Austria-Hungary, ending the war as soon as possible was probably the best option, at least to avoid further depletion of its own war potential, and also to avoid the human and financial losses caused by the war to the government of the Kingdom of Hungary.

When they heard that the Russian government had re-sent troops into the war, the officials of the Royal Hungarian government, large and small, were basically frightened.

If this contract can be finalized, it will at least give the Royal Hungarian government a period of development time to deal with the problem of ethnic minorities in the country.

On July 21, 1917, because the progress of the peace talks was very smooth, the result was finally declared an armistice in Austria-Hungary, and it was decided to mobilize most of the troops to the German border, in an effort to fight to the death with Germany in a short time.

The news of the surrender of Austria-Hungary shocked the European public, and at the same time meant that the defeat of Germany was a matter of time.

There are even quite a few European newspapers that are already clamoring for a peaceful Christmas for all Europeans, who even think that the Allied armies can end the war before Christmas this year.

On 24 July, more than 100,000 Australasian troops returned to the Western Front on transport ships, which also meant that the Australasian army would once again face the German army.

The Balkan coalition forces of more than 500,000 troops were also removed, and with the coordinated operation of Italy's 500,000 troops, the total number of Allied troops on the Western Front in Europe was approaching 10 million.

In the year and a half since 1916, the casualties of the Entente countries, especially Britain and France, have reached more than 4 million, and the death toll is close to 2 million, which can be described as a heavy loss in the real sense.

And the Germans are not having a good time, with a total of 3.5 million casualties and nearly 1.6 million deaths in the past year and a half.

The Battle of Verdun, the Battle of the Somme and the Spring Offensive have caused a total of more than 8 million casualties and a total death toll of more than 3.5 million, which is also the most tragic period since the outbreak of the war.

During the entire war, the total number of soldiers thrown into the war by European countries has exceeded 20 million, the total number of casualties has exceeded 15 million, and the death toll has reached 6 million.

Even the number of deaths is comparable to that of some small and medium-sized countries in Europe. The cumulative number of casualties is close to the population size of Australasia, which is enough to see the cruelty of this war.

In addition to the consumption of manpower, the consumption of funds and materials in European countries has not decreased at all.

In 1913, the year before the outbreak of the war, European countries generally spent only about 100 million pounds sterling, and some countries did not even exceed 100 million pounds.

But now, even Italy and Australasia, which spend the least on their military, are hovering around £100 million.

The most serious consumption of Britain, France, Germany, Russia and other countries has reached tens of billions of pounds per year on war expenditures, which can be said to be frantically squeezing the country's potential and harming the country's economic development.

It is no exaggeration to say that an early end to the war has become the expectation of all countries.

But the problem is that at the moment Germany is not in a position to end the war sooner rather than later, unless he ends it with the attitude of a vanquished.

You must know that the current German government is in the ruling stage of the military government, and those soldiers and Junker aristocrats will never accept defeat.

The Germans' delusional way of ending the war with a phased victory was simply not acceptable to the Allies, which also meant that the Allies had to divide the victory and defeat with Germany until either side had no room to fight back.

In early August 1917, three American divisions were transported to the Western Front, which officially brought the Allied forces on the Western Front to more than 10 million men.

On 6 August, at the behest command of the Provisional Commander-in-Chief, tens of millions of Allied troops were scattered across the Belgian and French fronts, launching an all-out assault on the German lines.

The Allied counteroffensive was earth-shattering, which also made the artillery fire on the border never stop, and the vibration of the shell explosion was like an earthquake, and the entire border line was shrouded in a layer of white fog, and the enemy's troop deployment could not be seen from above.

It is bounded by the Verdun area, the Belgian region north of Verdun is the northern theater of operations, the Verdun region is the central theater, and the south of Verdun is the southern theater.

The Northern Theater has 1.5 million British Expeditionary Forces, with 500,000 Australasian Expeditionary Forces as the main force.

The Central Theater had 500,000 British expeditionary forces, 2.5 million French troops and 100,000 American troops.

The Southern Theater had 500,000 Italian troops, 800,000 French troops and 550,000 Balkan troops.

In addition, Britain and France each had more than 1 million colonial troops, deployed in the rear of these front-line armies, responsible for transporting supplies and serving as reserves.

Although the total size of the army seems to be bluffing, in reality there are less than 3 million truly elite troops, and most of the others are colonial armies and less combat-ready armies.

The German army was only half that of the Entente, and it was less than 5 million when it was fully armed.

What's more, a considerable number of these 5 million people are new recruits, and the actual combat effectiveness is also questionable.

Moreover, Germany had at least a million troops pinned down by Russia. Since Austria-Hungary was suddenly attacked by Russia, it has strengthened its defenses on the Russian border to prevent Russia from repeating its old tricks and taking itself by surprise.

At this time, both sides had the idea of victory, because once this decisive battle was lost, it was really not far from defeat, and it was even very likely that the enemy would directly enter the capital.

Although the Entente did not have such concerns, the major European media had already blown out the cowhide, and many British and French media swore to the people that they would end the war in 1917 and let the people live a peaceful Christmas.

The people don't care whether the war on the front line will be complicated or changeable, and if bad news comes from the front at this time, no one can bear the anger of the people.

You know, in order to promote this Armageddon, the British changed their conscription system, from the previous conscription system to the conscription system, and soon raised more than 2 million combat troops.

Although the army consisted of fewer than 1 million real Britons, conscription did allow the British to have more troops.

If there is any unfavorable news from the front at this time, I am afraid that the people will immediately resist the newly revised conscription system, and even affect the British military supply.

Under such pressure, the politicians of the Entente could not bear any idea of the actual situation at the front. They have only one goal, and that is to defy the will of the people and end the war once and for all this year.

Although there will be more casualties, some casualties are quite acceptable compared to a total victory.

In particular, Britain and France had a large number of colonial armies, which were used as cannon fodder.

The Allied Commander-in-Chief adopted a diametrically opposed strategy in this counteroffensive, opting for a concentrated and oppressive charge rather than a roundabout outflanking attack.

In fact, it is normal to think about it, in the borders of Belgium, France and Germany, there are more than 14 million troops of the Allied Allies.

Although these armies were distributed in all directions, they also basically occupied the front line, and there were very few places to break through, and it was extremely easy to be detected by the enemy's troops from other directions.

Rather than this, it is better to take advantage of the absolute superiority in numbers, charge directly in front of the group, attack a certain point of the enemy, and then rush up to destroy the enemy's defensive line.

Although this will lead to more casualties, the most important thing for the Entente army at present is the number of people, and the last thing that can be consumed is time.

In the five-day period from August 6 to August 10, the number of casualties in a single day of the Allies was as high as 78,000, 44,000, 31,000, 51,000, and 37,000, and the number of deaths in a single day was as high as 22,000, 13,000, 06,000, 17,000, and 9,000 respectively.

In five days, there were 221,000 casualties and 67,000 deaths, an average of more than 13,000 deaths and 31,000 injuries per day, far more than in previous wars and more in most of last year's two major battles.

Of course, under the premise of huge casualties, the results achieved by the Allies were also very gratifying.

The first is the casualties inflicted on Germany, although the Germans are far behind this number, but the total casualties in the five days are as high as nearly 100,000, and the deaths are nearly 30,000.

Although it seems that the battle loss ratio between the two sides is close to 2 to 1, you must know that most of the troops used by the Entente are colonial troops, and this battle loss ratio is the advantage of the Entente.

The reason why the Allies were able to inflict such casualties with indigenous troops was that the three major fronts had hoarded a large number of artillery pieces, and the total number of artillery pieces had exceeded 10,000.

The entire Western Front consumed millions of shells every day, far exceeding the combined production of artillery shells by Britain, France, Australia, Italy, and the United States.

Fortunately, there is a big dog in the United States as a supply, and there is no shortage of shells and ammunition on the Western Front in a short period of time.

After all, the progress of the mobilization of the Americans' army has been very slow, and the total size of the current army is just over 200,000, and the actual combat effectiveness of the army is even less than 100,000.

Under such a premise, the Americans certainly want to increase their contribution to the war in other ways, so as not to spend a lot of money and manpower in vain, and if they play a small role in the war, they will not be able to distribute any important benefits after the war.

As the time entered mid-August, the contract between Austria-Hungary and the Entente was officially signed. This also means that the country that first provoked the First World War, after more than two years of war torture, finally chose to end the war by surrendering and leaving the war.

According to the incomplete statistics of the Austro-Hungarian government, the war brought more than 3 million casualties and more than 800,000 deaths to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, causing more than 20 billion pounds of economic losses and directly bringing this huge empire to its end.

Although the contract was signed, the subsequent reparations of up to 15 billion pounds also caused a headache for the entire imperial government.

Until this indemnity was abolished or fully repaid, Austria-Hungary could not raise its head in front of other countries.

£15 billion is enough to support a year's war in Britain, or a hundred years in Australasia.

Coupled with the ceded land, the unequal terms, and the imminent demolition of the major factories, it was questionable whether Austria-Hungary would be able to maintain its position as a great power after the war.

At least the island nations that were not affected by the war were very covetous of the status of the great powers. There are also Spain, a traditional country in Europe, and Serbia, which ate a lot of meat in this war, and so on.

Serbia, in particular, had a bad relationship with Austria-Hungary and annexed Bosnia, which Austria-Hungary had previously occupied.

You know, it was in Bosnia that the Sarajevo incident took place, which directly led to the outbreak of World War I.

Now that the land is back under Serbian rule, I believe that Austria-Hungary will not be reconciled, and I believe that Sevia, which has a much larger land, will not be reconciled to being a regional power only.

The demands for independence of Hungary, the trauma of the civil war, the high reparations, the covetousness of neighboring countries (Italy, Russia, Serbia) were the first things that Austria-Hungary had to deal with after the war.

In addition, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had abandoned the Germans to seek peace alone, was bound to be rejected by the Germans, which was a great diplomatic challenge to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which had long adhered to the alliance with Germany.

For the post-war Austro-Hungarian Empire, it is also worth thinking about whether it will be a neutral country or a new search for reliable allies.

Today, I will take a break for 4,200 words, and I will change it tomorrow.

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(End of chapter)