Chapter 156： Bucharest negotiations (2)

In the next few days, representatives of the participating countries gathered in Bucharest.

The Serbian negotiating delegation was led by Foreign Minister Milanovic, the Greek negotiating delegation was led by Foreign Minister Konstantin, and the Foreign Minister of Montenegro Nidnoyav also came to Bucharest with negotiators. Since the performance of the three countries in this war was not good, the foreign ministers of the three countries often came together to keep warm.

And this time the Ottoman delegation was led by its Foreign Minister Ildire, who was also a high-level Ottoman al-Shabaab. This time he was able to come here mainly to see if he could get the Adriatic Fort back. There is no danger to defend between Yaborg and Istanbul, so in the spirit of seeing whether there is a date or not, Osman also sent a negotiator this time.

As a defeated country, Bulgaria will also send a negotiating team headed by Prime Minister Geschov to participate in this negotiation with other countries. As the host of Romania, Prime Minister Bretianu will personally participate in the negotiations this time.

Other European countries also sent representatives to watch the negotiation process. Among them, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had too many interests in the Balkans and sent Minister of Foreign Affairs Elenthal to watch the whole process. Russia was not to be outdone. In order to support its younger brother, it also sent Minister of Foreign Affairs Sassonov to watch the whole process.

In fact, there is another purpose for the two countries to send foreign ministers this time, which is to stop the Balkan countries from fighting. The previous Balkan war was to compete for the Ottoman European territory. The second time was because of the uneven distribution of the countries. If this is still the case. The uneven distribution estimates that the two countries will fight first by themselves. Austro-Hungary and Russia were not prepared before, and now they have no intention of sending a foreign minister to warn them.

After the arrival of the Bulgarian negotiating delegation, which was dragged to the end, the countries began to negotiate fiercely in the venue prepared by Romania.

First of all, the conditions put forward by the victorious countries, in which Serbia proposed to own the disputed Bitola and Ohrid regions, and at the same time proposed to assign the Pivet region of Bulgaria to itself as compensation. The Greek side proposed that the previously occupied area of ​​Thessaloniki should be owned by itself. The Ottomans proposed that Bulgaria should return the Adriatic Fort and surrounding areas. Montenegro did not claim territory, and he hoped that Bulgaria would pay 2 million Levs in war reparations.

Compared to other countries in the Balkans, Romania has the best appetite. He asked Bulgaria to paddle its northeast from the small town of Svishtov on the Danube River along the small town of Preslav to the Black Sea, and divide the four cities of Dobrich, Ruse, Suman, and Varna in Bulgaria. , The territory of about 22,000 square kilometers is allocated to Romania.

If it is done in accordance with their requirements, then the territory captured by Bulgaria in this Balkan War will be not much larger than before, and it will be a waste of work. For this reason, the Bulgarian delegation headed by Prime Minister Geschov certainly disagrees.

He decided to start with the easy first and then the difficult one. First, he talked about the conditions of Montenegro. He first said that Montenegro’s performance this time was not worth the Bulgaria’s remuneration for this, and it would be right to give him a maximum of 500,000 Levs.

Then I picked up Greece and said that in the previous agreement between the three countries to carve up Macedonia, the Thessaloniki area should belong to Bulgaria. However, in order to resolve the dispute with Greece, Bulgaria made concessions to divide the Thessaloniki area into two. Among them, Thessaloniki is the border, the east belongs to Bulgaria, and the west belongs to Greece. However, for the principle of making sacrifices in Bulgaria, the city of Thessaloniki should belong to Bulgaria.

Facing the conditions of Serbia, he first said that the Pivet area cannot be used as compensation, and Bitola and Ohrid areas should belong to Bulgaria as in the previous agreement. This time we are also willing to settle the dispute in order to resolve the dispute. The Ohrid region close to Serbia is owned by Serbia, and the Bitola region should be owned by Bulgaria.

As for the conditions that the Ottomans asked Bulgaria to return the Adriatic Fort and its surrounding areas to them, Prime Minister Geschov directly said that it was impossible. No Bulgarians dared to agree to such conditions. As for the Eastern Thrace area occupied by the Ottoman army. . He believes that part of the Ottoman Empire can be allocated as compensation, and the rest must be returned to Bulgaria.

Facing Romania’s conditions, he first admitted that the 4,000 square kilometers of territory allocated to Romania in the previously signed treaty should take effect immediately. In order to quell Romania’s anger that it should be granted territory because of the delay in obtaining the treaty, Bulgaria is willing to allocate another 4,000 square kilometers of territory to Romania, so that Romania will completely occupy the city of Dobrich, and at the same time move the border 20 forward. -25 km distance.

The representatives of various countries were not satisfied with the conditions of the Bulgarian negotiator Prime Minister Geschov. In particular, the host Romanian Prime Minister Bretianu reacted most violently, he even said. "If Bulgaria cannot meet Romania's conditions, then this war will not stop."

Prime Minister Bretianu’s remarks were supported by the foreign ministers of Serbia, Greece and Montenegro, stating that meeting Romania’s conditions is the basis for the peace talks. Faced with such a situation where all countries are working as Lei Feng, Prime Minister Geschov is a little bit wondering how to deal with it. Then he temporarily stopped the negotiation for a day to explore what was going on, citing physical discomfort.

"How?"

In the original Bulgarian embassy, ​​Geschov really asked about Foreign Minister Dilas Roch, who had gone to visit the representatives of Germany and Austria. During the day when he was able to secure a rest, Prime Minister Geschov could not go out due to his ‘bad health’, so the Foreign Minister Dilas Roch had to go to Austria-Hungary and Germany who supported him to listen to the news. UU reading

Seeing the expression on Prime Minister Geschoff’s eagerness to know the result, Foreign Minister Tirasloche told the news of his inquiries. "The situation is not good. What I found out from Your Excellency Sassonov is that Romania’s conditions were negotiated before entering the war, and the two countries must support Romania’s request. The Russian endorsement was also obtained. It's hard for us now."

Actually, he got this news because Romania deliberately released it. After all, Romania now controls the situation, so it is entirely possible to let Bulgaria know about this news.

After hearing the words of Foreign Minister Tirasloch, Prime Minister Geschov continued to ask questions of his concern. "So what about Austria-Hungary and Germany's support for us?"

The hope of reducing losses now depends entirely on the support of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

"Germany's support for us is limited to the conditions of Serbia, Greece and Montenegro. We hope that we can combine the actual conditions with the Ottoman conditions. As for the conditions in Romania, they let us decide by ourselves. And Austria-Hungary supports us much more strongly. In addition to the Romanian conditions, we hope that we can fully consider the situation, but they all agree with the conditions we have given before."

After listening to the words of Foreign Minister Tirasloch, Geschoff learned that Austria-Hungary and Germany were unwilling to support themselves on Romanian terms. He was a little disappointed. Now the conditions in Romania have become a prerequisite for this negotiation, which makes Prime Minister Geschov very troubled. However, there are too many territories to be ceded by Romania this time, reaching one-seventh of Bulgaria's existing territory, which makes it difficult for Prime Minister Geschov to make a decision.

Finally, he decided to report the situation to King Ferdinand I, and let the country decide whether to accept this condition.