Romanian Eagle

On the third day after the Bulgarian delegation signed the secret treaty, Prime Minister Geschov took the delegation back to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.

In fact, the Prime Minister is very satisfied with this negotiation, because although the 4,000 square kilometers of territory was ceded, it is still a coastal grain-producing area (Bulgaria had only more than 80,000 square kilometers of territory at the time), but it brought Romania to the Balkan Alliance. Chariots, protecting themselves from attacks from behind, and securing a large amount of ammunition for Bulgaria, speeding up the army's preparations for war.

After getting off the train, Prime Minister Geschov and Foreign Minister Dirasloch went to report to King Ferdinand I the results of the negotiations. Although the telegram has already been said, after all, it is better to report some situations in person, such as Romania's attitude and the negotiation process.

"It's been hard work for the two of you. This negotiation is not easy. I am very satisfied with the current results."

Prime Minister Geschov and Foreign Minister Dirasloch met King Ferdinand I after the briefing. Before they could speak, King Ferdinand smiled and said comforting words first.

"Everything is for the good of the kingdom."

Hearing Ferdinand I's words, Prime Minister Geschov and Foreign Minister Dirasloch answered in unison.

"Tell me about the process of this negotiation."

Although Ferdinand already knew it through telegrams, the detailed process still needs to be described by the two parties.

"His Majesty's negotiation is mainly for me to discuss, let me talk." Prime Minister Geschov said in a deep voice.

Seeing that Ferdinand I had no objection, Prime Minister Geschov told everything about his negotiations in Romania. Ferdinand I didn't disturb the Prime Minister's narration, and he listened quietly. For a time, there was only Prime Minister Geschov's speech in the room. After talking about the details of the negotiations, Prime Minister Geschov expressed some doubts in his heart.

"Your Majesty, I always feel in my negotiations with the Romanian Prime Minister that they are deliberately trying to send us arms."

Hearing Prime Minister Geschoff's judgment, Ferdinand I asked a little puzzled. "Prime Minister, why do you have such an idea. In your explanation just now, I didn't feel that Romania was deliberately sending us arms, but you, Prime Minister, won it bit by bit."

"Maybe it's my intuition. I always feel that the Prime Minister Bretianu I was negotiating with had consciously backed down. As soon as I forced me to do so, he would back down a little bit. I didn't feel it in the atmosphere of the negotiation. , This is how I feel in hindsight. In my estimation, if we can get arms worth 4 million levs, it is a victory, but in fact, plus the loan, we got more than 7 million levs worth of arms, which is too much.” (The Lev is a Bulgarian currency equal to the Romanian leu, French franc, and Italian lira)

After hearing the Prime Minister's words, the other two present thought for a while and still had no clue. Of course, they will have no clue, and they don't have the memories of later generations like Edel, knowing that they will be beaten by the group immediately after the war.

After thinking about it for a while, Ferdinand I still had no clue, and spoke to Prime Minister Geschoff. "No matter what Romania's purpose is, this batch of aid has always strengthened Bulgaria's strength. This is the most important thing. As long as we have captured Macedonia and Thrace, we should share it."

After hearing the words of King Ferdinand I, Prime Minister Geschov and Foreign Minister Dirasloch stopped thinking about Romania's intentions. After all, Bulgaria is taking advantage of it, and there is absolutely no need to delve into its intentions.

Then they discussed Montenegro, the last country in the Balkans that had not joined the alliance. Montenegro is a mountainous country located in the southwest of the Balkans and on the east coast of the Adriatic Sea. It also has the strongest anti-Ottoman sentiment in the Balkans. This number is less than 300,000. The people's small country currently has a standing army of 18,000 people, and it is also doing its best to prepare for war.

However, in the previous May, Bulgaria consulted Russia on whether it could absorb Montenegro into the alliance, and Russia opposed Bulgaria's proposal.

The reason is that Montenegro's performance in international affairs is too radical, which has a very bad influence on the alliance. In fact, it was because Russia helped assemble the alliance with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Montenegro's anti-Ottoman tendency was too obvious, which was very inconsistent with Russia's original intention.

Now Ferdinand I brought Montenegro out for discussion again, obviously intending to bypass Russia's influence and then pull Montenegro into the alliance. After all, the performance of the Ottoman Empire in the war with Italy now shows its military weakness, how can the Balkans not be allowed to Countries are excited. And the increase in territory and people has also increased this temptation, and now King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria is obviously unable to withstand this temptation.

"Prime Minister, I want to pull Montenegro into the alliance, what do you think?" Ferdinand I said what he had been thinking about for a long time.

Hearing King Ferdinand's plan, Prime Minister Geschoff frowned and thought about it. "His Royal Highness, I have no objection to bringing Montenegro into the alliance, but preferably when we are ready."

"Why did you pull Montenegro to join the alliance when you were ready?" Ferdinand I asked with a confused expression.

"I'm afraid Montenegro will disrupt our steps." Prime Minister Geschov went on to speak his mind to the king. "We all know how hostile those mountain people in Montenegro are to the Ottomans. They will definitely declare war on the Ottomans if they have the chance. Now this batch of arms from Romania has not been delivered yet, and we will be able to increase our strength when these arms arrive."

"Then can we get Romania to send the ammunition aid as soon as possible?" Ferdinand asked the two important ministers in front of him to make a suggestion in order not to invalidate his idea.

"Your Majesty, I can send a message to Romania that the military urgently needs to get these arms. I believe that based on the good relationship we signed the alliance, we should not refuse." Inside, he stepped forward and proposed measures to agree with the king's move.

Seeing the King's happy expression, Geschoff agreed to this proposal. Afterwards, Foreign Minister Diraslochi sent a message to Romania requesting the delivery of arms assistance as soon as possible. This message was seen by Eder, and he wrote down the instruction that if the arsenal is not enough, put the army stock on top, and at the same time asked Foreign Minister Barnosk to call back Romania. The arms will be delivered within a month.

After receiving the call back, the foreign minister of Diraslochi reported the good news to King Ferdinand I.

Ferdinand I, who got the news, told Foreign Minister Dilas Lodge. "That's fine, we can send a telegram to the Montenegrin government asking them to join the alliance"

After receiving the king's approval, the foreign minister, Dirasloch, sent a telegram to the Kingdom of Montenegro, inviting them to join the alliance. The Montenegrin government, which had long been interested in this Balkan alliance, returned a call to Bulgaria after three days of negotiation after receiving the telegram. Prime Minister Lazar Tomanovic would personally lead a team to Sofia to discuss the conditions of the alliance. On July 12, the Montenegrin Prime Minister came to Sofia with a delegation to discuss the alliance with Bulgarian Prime Minister Geschov.

After five days of discussions, Bulgaria and Montenegro reached a consensus on the conditions for capturing territory and sending troops. Montenegro officially joined the Balkan Alliance. In terms of territorial division, due to the weak strength of Montenegro, only 4,500 square kilometers of territory near the Kosovo area called Belane was promised. This is also a delicious cake for Montenegro, which is only 10,000 square kilometers. However, for this territory, Montenegro needs to prepare at least 30,000 troops to attack the Ottoman Empire together. Subsequently, Montenegro and Greece also signed an alliance treaty. When negotiating with Serbia, Montenegro did not sign an alliance treaty with it due to Russia's obstruction, but only reached a verbal agreement to send troops to attack the Ottoman Empire together.

With Montenegro joining the Balkan League, it means that the Balkan countries are ready to carve up the Ottoman European territories, which will be the beginning of tragedy for the old empire still at war with Italy.

It is also not good news for Russia, which has tried to promote the Balkan alliance in the early stage, because what Russia wants is an alliance that can deal with Austria-Hungary. Now this alliance is against the Ottoman Empire first, which goes against Russia's original intention. In addition, Russia's most powerful ally, France, also held objections to the Balkan alliance. The then prime minister, Puscarlett, believed that the alliance was "a war-ready agreement", and French public opinion did not allow the government to "act solely for the sake of the Balkan issue." of military operations". But at this time Russia was powerless to change the nature of this alliance, let alone prevent it from going to war.