Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 350: Osei Peace Talks
Although the Russian ambassador's contacts with Germany were relatively secretive, the news soon reached the ears of European countries.

Once the most powerful countries on both sides of a war begin to contact each other for peace talks, it actually means that the war is about to end, and it will end through peace talks rather than one side being completely defeated by the other.

However, compared with the ongoing peace talks between Germany and Russia, European countries are clearly more concerned about the direction of the situation after the war.

At present, the military group headed by Germany and Austria has become quite clear, and another great power, Italy, also has an inseparable relationship with this military group.

The opponent of this powerful military bloc is naturally Russia, another protagonist of the war. If France and Russia can conclude an alliance treaty, Europe will completely form a situation of confrontation between the two major military blocs.

In the situation of confrontation between the two major military groups, the existence of other non-alliance countries will be greatly reduced. Even the United Kingdom does not have much presence in front of these two powerful military groups.

This actually also represents one thing, that is, European countries should make their positions clear after the war is over.

There are only three positions at most: either lean towards one of the two major military groups, or maintain strict neutrality.

Maintaining neutrality also requires consideration of the ethics of the two major military groups. After all, the so-called neutrality cannot be established by just saying it. It must be recognized by other countries to ensure that it will not be invaded.

Currently, Switzerland is the only recognized neutral country. In addition to the fact that Switzerland declared permanent neutrality relatively early and was recognized by other European countries through the "Declaration of the Congress of Vienna" in 1815, another major reason is that Switzerland's geographical environment is mountainous and its geographical location is not very important. Naturally, there is no need for other countries to risk offending other countries to attack this neutral country.

Except for Switzerland, a permanently neutral country, other European countries need to consider what diplomatic stance they should take under the new European situation.

It is not important whether to support one of the military groups or remain neutral. What is important is to fully implement one's diplomatic stance and avoid jumping back and forth on the high wall.

The peace talks between Germany and Russia lasted for a long time. There was not much dispute between the two sides over the Polish region, and Germany also knew that it was impossible to take it at this time.

The only controversial area is the Balkans. Russia is not willing to lose its loyal brother Serbia so soon.

But it is obvious that the situation in Serbia is no longer under Russia's control.

After Serbian King Milan Obrenovic announced the dismissal of the pro-Russian cabinet government, he immediately appointed nobles loyal to him to form a provisional military government.

The first thing the provisional government did after coming to power was to vigorously liquidate the previous pro-Russian cabinet and use the power of public opinion to shift all the responsibility for the war onto the previous cabinet.

In addition to mobilizing pro-Russian forces, Serbian King Milan Obrenovic also made good use of the public demonstrations in Belgrade.

Angry citizens rushed to the homes of officials from the previous cabinet and gave these officials, who had single-handedly provoked the war, a righteous beating.

Although most of the officials were protected by the police who arrived quickly, some still lost their lives in the righteous beatings of the masses.

The anger of the Serbian people at this time is understandable, because this war has caused heavy losses to Serbia and all Serbs.

The total population of Serbia after independence was only 270 million, and the casualties caused by this war were as high as more than 10.

The number of dead and seriously injured soldiers who were about to die alone was close to 3, representing 3 families, and more than 10 Serbs lost their family members.

In addition to the loss of population, the war broke out at a critical time for agricultural planting, which meant that Serbia's agriculture suffered almost no harvest.

It is foreseeable that Serbia's agricultural harvest this year will be the lowest in less than 10 years, and a large number of Serbians will not have enough food to survive.

Before the outbreak of this war, due to the struggle between Russia and Austria-Hungary for control of the Serbian government, this small country, which had just gained independence, received a lot of support.

The lives of the Serbian people at that time were still relatively good, but this war completely overturned their lives, which is also the reason why the Serbian people are angry with the government.

After successfully transferring the public's anger to the previous cabinet government, the King of Serbia quickly launched a purge of the previous cabinet government.

He and the previous cabinet government were originally pro-Austrian and pro-Russian respectively. They were enemies, so naturally there was no room for mercy.

Those cabinet members who were not beaten to death in the angry brawl among the Seville people had no time to rejoice, as they were immediately faced with the king's just trial.

Because this cabinet government had left Serbia in ruins, their trial was not only swift but also severe.

Former Prime Minister Nikola Hristić was sentenced to death and executed the next day.

The remaining cabinet ministers were also sentenced to varying terms in prison. Among them, the foreign minister, who was a close confidant of former Prime Minister Nikola Hristić, was sentenced to life imprisonment and is not eligible for sentence reduction or early release under any pretext or reason.

Compared with these cronies of the former cabinet prime minister who were purged, Serbian King Milan Obrenovic's own cronies and some non-partisan members of the military were promoted on a large scale.

The most representative of them is Serbia's Chief of General Staff Costa Protić. In order to gain the support of the military, Serbian King Milan Obrenovic directly appointed Chief of General Staff Costa Protić to head the interim military government and promised him that he would serve as the next prime minister of the Serbian cabinet government in the future.

This was an exchange of political interests. After Chief of General Staff Kosta Protić was promoted to the highest leader of the government, Serbian King Milan Obrenovic also successfully placed several of his confidants in the military.

It was precisely because Serbian King Milan Obrenovic had the support of the military that his liquidation of the previous cabinet government became very smooth.

Even though the previous cabinet government was supported by Russia, it was still unable to resist the joint liquidation of the military and the king.

In addition to several ministers in the cabinet government, many members of the prime minister's party were also purged.

Those with more serious crimes were directly expelled from Serbia, while those with less serious crimes were sentenced to varying years of imprisonment.

It has to be admitted that the political tactics of the Serbian King Milan Obrenovic were quite clever. Not only did he put all the blame for Serbia's defeat on the cabinet government, but he also gained a certain degree of voice in disguise by cooperating with the military.

Although he cannot fully control the government, he has no problem securing his throne by cooperating with the military.

You should know that in the original history, this king was forced to give up his throne to his son Alexander in 1889, which was this year, because of his overly pro-Austrian tendencies.

At present, due to the impact of this war, Milan Obrenovich will be able to keep his throne for a few more years.

Of course, Milan Obrenovich was able to stabilize his throne again through a series of means, which was inseparable from the support given to him by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

When the pro-Russian cabinet government was in power, the Austrian army's offensive was quite fierce. The Austrian media also continued to spread bad news about the war to Serbia, stirring up Serbian dissatisfaction with the cabinet government.

After Milan Obrenovich took control of the government through a series of means, the Austrian army not only began to withdraw from Serbia in an orderly manner, but also left a batch of supplies to help Serbia restore order.

Of course, in name, the Austrians did not leave these supplies on their own initiative, but the great Serbian king Milan Obrenovich argued for them to abandon them. In short, no matter what the excuse was, some of the affected Serbs did get these supplies.

Although these supplies are not much, they can ensure that the Serbian people whose homes have been broken up will not starve for the time being.

By comparing the current king with the previous cabinet government that led to the destruction of their own country, Serbs can see that he still has some ability.

After temporarily restoring order at home, the Serbian Provisional Government immediately contacted the Austro-Hungarian Empire and began peace negotiations between the two sides.

In fact, according to normal logic, this war broke out because of the border conflict between Serbia and Austria-Hungary, which meant that peace talks had to be carried out together to resolve the border conflict between Serbia and Austria-Hungary.

But currently the peace talks between Germany and Russia have reached a stalemate, with the most prominent issue being the dispute over the Serbian issue.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire controlled the situation through the pro-Austrian King of Serbia, so it naturally would not wait foolishly for Russia to come to negotiate.

There is still a lot to say about the pro-Austrian Serbian King Milan Obrenovic.

After Serbia's independence, there were extremely fierce quarrels and conflicts within Serbia regarding the two directions of pro-Austria and pro-Russia.

As a pro-Austrian Serbian king, Milan Obrenovich signed a trade treaty and secret agreement with Austria-Hungary in order to gain the support of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This trade treaty gave up Serbia's economic sovereignty and allowed the industrial products of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to instantly flood the Serbian market.

This secret agreement was a disguised abandonment of Serbia's sovereignty. During that time, Serbia had to obey the Austro-Hungarian Empire and maintain the same diplomatic line with the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

It was precisely Serbia's strong pro-Austrian stance that stunned Tsarist Russia, which claimed to be the leader and protector of the Slavs.

Serbia's geographical location is very important, to a certain extent more important than Bulgaria.

This was not only Russia's front line against Serbia, but also a bridgehead for the Austro-Hungarian Empire's southward expansion.

Whoever can gain Serbia's support will be able to gain the initiative in the competition for the Balkan Peninsula.

In order to make Serbia pro-Russian again, Tsarist Russia made various efforts and eventually cultivated a pro-Russian government that sidelined the king.

Of course, the reason why the king was able to be sidelined was actually due to Milan Obrenovich's own outrageous actions.

If it was just about getting close to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this would not be an unforgivable thing. But while getting close to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Milan Obrenovich maintained a highly autocratic rule, which caused dissatisfaction among the Serbs.

The newly independent Serbs have not yet been brainwashed by Greater Serbia, and they do not have much demand for the Bosnia-Herzegovina region.

The Serbs were more concerned about whether their political rights could be protected, and the dictatorship was quite conspicuous at this time.

There have been many demonstrations in Serbia and many arguments in parliament over the king's autocratic rule.

It was precisely these marches and quarrels that allowed the Russians to take advantage of the situation and vigorously promote Greater Serbia, allowing the Serbs to see a seemingly brighter direction.

However, this war also proved that Greater Serbia does not seem to be so reliable. It is often not a good thing for a small country to have too many ambitions.

At this time, the Serbs no longer thought about Greater Serbia. It was already quite good enough to be able to keep their own land and maintain the hard-earned peaceful life.

While peace talks were ongoing between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, Austria-Hungary did not forget to give the Serbs a taste of its sweetness.

On the day of the peace talks, the Austrian army completely withdrew from Serbia's hinterland cities and retreated to the border city of Loznica.

While retreating, the Austrian army also left behind a large amount of food supplies and some leaflets.

The leaflets printed the reasons for the outbreak of the war and stated that Austria had no intention of going to war with Serbia. The war was triggered by the previous Serbian cabinet government, under the misleading of Russia, which sheltered serious criminals in Bosnia.

The supplies left behind by Austria were naturally compensation to the Serbs.

Although this did not help the Serbs who had already lost their loved ones, it at least gave them a direction and told them who the war was caused by.

With the previous cabinet government having been liquidated, the Serbs' hatred naturally turned to Russia.

Of course, this small move by the Austro-Hungarian Empire could not make Serbia completely side with it.

After all, this war was fought between the Austrian and Serbian armies. It was obviously impossible to make the Serbs forgive Austria with just this small compensation and leaflets.

While the peace talks between Germany and Russia were still at a stalemate, the Austro-Hungarian Empire quickly signed a peace agreement with Serbia and officially declared the end of the war.

Most of the treaty was made public, and its terms surprised the Serbs.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire did not ask Serbia to cede land. As the defeated party, Serbia only needed to pay a symbolic compensation.

Although the amount of compensation was not small, it was already a good deal for the defeated party.

You know, as the defeated party in the Franco-Prussian War, France not only paid a huge indemnity of 50 billion francs, but also ceded Alsace and Lorraine to Prussia at that time.

Alsace and Lorraine are not ordinary regions. They are not only important border towns in France, but also contain extremely rich coal and iron ore resources.

The reason why the industrialization of the German Empire was so smooth was that the coal and iron mines from Alsace and Lorraine also played a significant role.

Compared with France, which was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War, Serbia, which was also a defeated party, is in a much better situation.

The total amount of reparations Serbia needed to pay to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was only 1000 million forints, or more than 2000 million pesetas.

This amount of money may not be enough for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to launch this war. This also shows the attitude of the Austro-Hungarian Empire towards Serbia, which is to win over Serbia as the main approach and suppress it as the auxiliary approach.

(End of this chapter)