Romanian Eagle

In fact, Britain and France are already jumping feet now, and their emphasis on Romania is more than Eder's estimation.

The main reason was that the Soviet Union and the Allies signed an armistice treaty, which made Britain and France, who had been fighting very hard on the Western Front, extremely fearful. The thought of freeing millions of German and Austrian troops from the Eastern Front gave Paris and London a headache. Now Britain and France are also negotiating overnight on the news from their embassies in Romania.

In Paris, French Prime Minister Clemenceau is calling his cabinet to discuss the matter.

In this war, because the battlefield was in France, it suffered huge losses. According to later data, France's fiscal deficit reached more than 18 billion francs after World War I. In addition, France also owed 16 billion francs to the United States and 13 billion francs to the United Kingdom. In addition to these arrears, more important is the population loss. The war killed more than 1.4 million French people and injured more than 3 million French people, which accounted for 10 of the French population. Although the end of the war was not yet reached, the French casualties had now reached 3.5 million.

According to Pétain, who succeeded Niville as the French commander-in-chief at the beginning of the year, the French army is now in a state of pessimism about the war. This year, desertion and war-weariness have spread in the army. No matter how the officers publicize, the soldiers' emotions are not high enough. Some officers are also infected by the soldiers' emotions and resist military orders.

The bad news in the French army made Prime Minister Clemenceau even more interested in Romania's participation in the war.

As the Prime Minister of France, Clemenceau is known as the Tiger of France. As the leader of the French radicals, he can have a lot of influence in French politics. Lost at the French front this year, with heavy casualties and low morale. Russia withdrew from the war. The faction represented by former Prime Minister Cayo in the French government advocates immediate peace negotiations and the realization of "peace without victors".

In this emergency, President Raymond Poincaré, who was in the main battle, decided to ask Clemenceau to form a cabinet. It is Clemenceau's second term as prime minister this year, succeeding former prime minister Cayo. In his first term as prime minister in 1906, and he was also minister of the interior, he set up the Ministry of Labour in the cabinet, which was the first time in French history. Several social reform measures were included in his policy agenda, such as the 8-hour workday and the introduction of a progressive income tax.

Therefore, as a representative of the hard-line faction, Clemenceau now needs to quickly stabilize the confidence of the French people and the army. In the country he maintained his autocratic character and implemented a personal dictatorship while retaining the parliament. He killed decisively and commanded with dignity. He went to the front many times to revive morale, and violently suppressed the anti-war forces at home, and dismissed them as "defeatists". He also used this as an excuse to vigorously suppress the labor movement.

Of course, this is not enough. In order to inspire people's hearts and morale, we also need to see the hope of winning. Therefore, the US military on the other side of the Atlantic has become the savior in his mouth. However, given that the US military is still being formed and trained in its own country, it has not come to Europe. Then Romania is a complementary measure.

In addition, the Romanian army, unlike the American army, has not received the baptism of modern warfare, and its performance in the Balkan war is also seen in the eyes, so for Romania to join the Allied Group, Clemenceau means that it will win.

The current Russian embassy leak has put Romania in a difficult situation and made Clemenceau nervous. He was afraid that Romania could not bear the pressure and fell to the Allies. This means that Germany can mobilize up to one million troops to strengthen the Western Front, which will make France's situation even more difficult, or it will be the German army to seize Paris, which will be a huge disaster for France, then the peace talks will no longer be becomes impossible.

So Clemenceau wanted to prevent this from happening. In the government meeting room, he spoke to the cabinet members present the theme of the meeting. "Right now Romania is facing a German-Austrian threat because of the leak of the Russian embassy.

We need to figure out a way to keep them from giving in to their demands, what do you guys think about that. "

Clemenceau's voice fell, and the cabinet members present all turned to Foreign Minister Pi Xiong. Pi Xiong, who is only 60 years old, knows that this is what everyone is waiting for him to say, and this matter needs the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to take the lead. However, Pixiong, who belongs to the same radical faction as Clemenceau, was also a minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs not long ago, but now he has to come up with a way for everyone to discuss, but fortunately he has already prepared before.

"Our foreign ministry's view on this matter is that Romania must win over, but how to win over requires skills."

As Pichon spoke, he had maps of the Balkans and Eastern Europe hung up. He pointed to Romania and made a speech. "As you can see, Romania's position is quite critical, and it is completely surrounded by allied countries. It can be said that we have to pay a high price for Romania to join us. Fortunately, Romania is very interested in joining us, and it is also quite good to look at their appetite. "

Everyone present knew what Pixiong said, and of course they also knew about Romanian appetite. Pi Xiong continued to talk nonsense. "Despite Romania's appetite, we at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs believe that this time is reasonable. Romania is in a position that can help us hold back millions of enemy troops before they reinforce the Western Front and threaten us. And as long as we pay attention It can be seen that the position of Romania is also very important for us in the future. It is not far from the red regime of Soviet Russia to the east of them. We must consider the possibility of intervening in the failure of this red devil regime, then Romania can become a barrier to its spread. Reliable guarantee."

None of the people who were present in the Red Soviet Russia would like it, let alone Prime Minister Clemenceau who could lead the formation of the Russian Intervention Army, but the war was holding them back.

"So how do we make Romania and Soviet Russia hostile to each other"

A cabinet official inquired about Pixiong's plans.

"This is very simple." Pixiong gestured in Ukraine. "We can give Romania to Ukraine, and I think what the Allies can give, we can still give, and we should give them more in Ukraine. For example, we can give them some in Galicia."

Pichon's remarks caused other members of the cabinet to discuss, among which the Minister of Quarters Luschel put forward a different view. "I have a somewhat different opinion on the views of Foreign Minister Pichon. Under such conditions, Romania will gain a lot of territory after the war. How can we balance them in the future?"

Luschel's words are also representative of many opposing opinions in Britain and France. For Romania's conditions and ideas, they can know three points without thinking about it. Before, they had too much appetite for Romania, which made Russia firmly opposed. Now Russia has withdrawn from the war, but no one objected to it without a watch.

Anyone with a discerning eye knows that after the defeat of Germany and Austria, the sphere of influence in Central Europe and the Balkans will enter a vacuum, and Romania will likely become a hindrance to France's entry into the region, and there are many people in London who are worried. Therefore, Luschel's words also represent the views of many British and French officials.

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