Romanian Eagle

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

Among them, the Serbian negotiating delegation was led by Foreign Minister Milanovic, the Greek negotiating delegation was led by Foreign Minister Konstantin, and the Montenegrin Foreign Minister Nidnoav also came to Bucharest with negotiators. Since the performance of the Three Kingdoms in this war was not very good, the foreign ministers of the three countries often come together as a group to keep warm.

This time, the Ottoman delegation was led by his foreign minister, Ildire, who is also a senior member of the Ottoman al-Shabaab. This time he was able to come here mainly to see if he could get Adriatic Fort back. There is no danger to defend between Yabao and Istanbul, so in the spirit of seeing whether there are three poles, Ottoman also sent negotiators this time.

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

Representatives from other European countries also sent representatives to watch the negotiation process. Among them, Austria-Hungary had too many interests in the Balkans, so it sent Foreign Minister Erlenthal to watch the whole process. Russia was not to be outdone. In order to support its younger brother, it also sent Foreign Minister Satsunov to watch the whole process.

In fact, the two countries also sent their foreign ministers this time for another purpose, which is to stop the Balkan countries from fighting. The previous Balkan war was to compete for the Ottoman European territories. The second time was because of the uneven distribution of countries. The uneven distribution is estimated that the two countries will fight against each other first. Austria-Hungary and Russia were not ready before, and the foreign ministers sent now have no intention of warning them.

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

The first was the conditions put forward by the victorious powers, in which Serbia offered to own the disputed areas of Bitola and Ohrid to itself, and at the same time offered to give itself the Bulgarian area of ​​Pivit as compensation. The Greek side proposed to put the previously occupied Thessaloniki area as its own. The Ottoman side proposed that Bulgaria return Adrianople and surrounding areas. Montenegro did not claim territory, and he wanted Bulgaria to pay 2 million levas in war reparations.

Romania has the best appetite compared to other countries in the Balkans. He asked Bulgaria to draw its northeastern part from the small town of Svishtov on the Danube along the Preslav town all the way to the Black Sea to the four Bulgarian cities of Dobrich, Ruse, Suman and Varna. , about 22,000 square kilometers of territory are assigned to Romania.

If they do exactly what they want, then Bulgaria's territorial gains in this Balkan war are not much larger than before, which is a waste of work. Of course the Bulgarian delegation headed by Prime Minister Geschov disagreed.

He decided to start with the easy and then the hard, and he started with the conditions of Montenegro. He first said that the performance of Montenegro this time is not worthy of Bulgaria's payment for it, and it is right to give him a maximum of 500,000 levs.

Then I picked up Greece and said that in the previous agreement on the partition of Macedonia among the three countries, the Thessaloniki area should belong to Bulgaria, but in order to resolve the dispute with Greece, Bulgaria made concessions to divide the Thessaloniki area into two, Among them, Thessaloniki is the boundary, the east belongs to Bulgaria, and the west belongs to Greece. However, for the principle of Bulgaria's sacrifice, the city of Thessaloniki should belong to Bulgaria.

In the face of Serbia's conditions, he first said that the Pivit area cannot be used as compensation, and the Bitola and Ohrid areas should belong to Bulgaria as in the previous agreement. This time we are also willing to settle the dispute. The Ohrid region near Serbia belongs to Serbia, and the Bitola region should belong to Bulgaria.

As for the conditions under which the Ottomans demanded that Bulgaria return Adrianople and surrounding areas to them,

Prime Minister Geschov directly said that this was impossible, and no Bulgarians dared to agree to such conditions, as for the East Thrace region that the Ottoman army has now occupied. He thought that part of the Ottoman Empire could be allocated as compensation, and the rest had to be returned to Bulgaria.

In the face of 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 appease Romania's anger that Romania had not obtained the territory it deserved due to the treaty, Bulgaria was willing to give Romania an additional 4,000 square kilometers of territory, so that Romania would fully occupy the city of Dobrich, and at the same time moved the border forward by 20 -25 km distance.

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

Prime Minister Bretianu's remarks were supported by the foreign ministers of Serbia, Greece and Montenegro, saying that meeting Romania's conditions is the basis for the peace talks. In the face of this situation where all countries are doing Lei Feng, Prime Minister Geschoff does not know how to deal with it. Then, citing physical discomfort, he temporarily suspended the negotiation for a day to investigate what was going on.

"How about it?"

In the original Bulgarian embassy, ​​Geschoff was really asking the foreign minister Dirasloch who had visited the German and Austrian representatives. During the day when he got a rest, Prime Minister Geschov couldn't go out due to 'bad health', so the Foreign Minister Dirasloch had to go to Austria-Hungary and Germany, who supported him, to get news.

Seeing Prime Minister Geschov's eagerness to know the result, Foreign Minister Dirasloch told the news that he had inquired. "The situation is not good. What I have inquired about from His Excellency Sassunov is that Romania's conditions were negotiated before entering the war, and the two countries must support Romania's demands. It was also endorsed by Russia, It's hard for us now."

In fact, the Romanian side deliberately released the news when he got the news. After all, Romania is in control of the situation now, so it is entirely possible to let Bulgaria know this news.

After hearing the words of Foreign Minister Dirasloch, Prime Minister Geschov continued to ask his own concerns. "And what about Austria-Hungary and Germany's support for us?"

The hope of reducing losses now rests 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 conditions of Ottoman with reality. As for the conditions of Romania, they let us decide by ourselves. And Austria-Hungary supports us much more. , in addition to hoping that we can fully consider the situation in Romania, I agree with the conditions we gave before."

After listening to Foreign Minister Tirasloch's words, Geschoff learned that neither Austria-Hungary nor Germany were willing to support him on Romanian conditions, and felt a little disappointed. Now Romanian conditions have become a prerequisite for this negotiation, much to the nerves of Prime Minister Geschov. However, Romania has to cede too much territory 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.