The Rise Of Australasia

As the Austro-Hungarian Empire's border defense completely failed, the doves led by Emperor Carl I seemed somewhat panicked.

Especially the Hungarian faction, who could not wait to reach an agreement with the Allies immediately to ensure that the Hungarian region would not be occupied and destroyed.

In the face of their own interests, the interests of the empire seemed somewhat narrow. In particular, given the existing contradictions between the Hungarian and Austrian regions, it has become almost impossible to unite them at the expense of each other.

Prior to the war, the two regions had disagreements, and even during the war, the conflicts between the Austrian and Hungarian regions were not insignificant.

From the geography alone, Hungary, because of its Hungarian Great Plain, is an excellent grain-producing area and an important grain-producing area in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

While mountainous Austria naturally cannot compete with the Hungarian region in terms of grain output. So for a long time, a large part of the grain produced in Hungary has been transported to Austria to ease the empire's grain shortage.

From the outbreak of war to the present, grain prices in Hungary have soared, Hungarian capitalists hoarded large amounts of grain, and even refused to sell it to the government.

Due to the rapid devaluation of the crown, Hungarian capitalists became reluctant to exchange grain for the Austro-Hungarian crown, choosing instead the more robust pound or gold.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire did not have enough pounds to trade at this time, and it was even more impossible to hand over the valuable gold reserves to the Kingdom of Hungary to exchange for grain.

As a result, the Hungarian Kingdom Government shamelessly claimed that it also lacked food, and in turn demanded that the imperial government allocate funds to the Hungarian government to purchase enough grain from the public to alleviate the Hungarian food crisis.

Such statements are almost laughable, as the empire's largest grain producer is now claiming a shortage of grain. Isn't this equivalent to a shortage in water at sea and a lack of rocks on land?

The anti-hoarding act, specifically drafted by the imperial government before the war, cannot be implemented by the Kingdom of Hungary because it has its own laws.

Especially after the death of Francis the First, Emperor Carl I, in an economic position, simply could not obtain the loyalty of the Hungarian Kingdom's government.

Simply put, the Austro-Hungarian crown is not popular in Hungary, making the entire Europe laugh at the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Even within the country, its currency is not circulated, causing the Austro-Hungarian crown to devalue even more rapidly.

For the people, the fact that the Hungarian Kingdom Government is unwilling to recognize the value of the crown means that it is simply not trusted by the government, right?

What is even worse is that the large landowners and capitalists in Hungary have jointly declared that it is precisely because the imperial government has been buying a large amount of grain in Hungary that has led to the current shortage of grain and crisis of soaring grain prices.

Although the credibility of these large capitalists' claims is not high, some common people still believe them.

For a time, the imperial government's support in Hungary plummeted, and the Kingdom of Hungary showed a tendency to split from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

On April 21, 1917, Prince Sextus of Parma, representing Austro-Hungarian Emperor Carl I, sought an audience with the French government and conveyed Carl I's desire for peace.

Sextus stated that Carl I was willing to cede the Dalmatian region, the Bosnia region, and Trento on behalf of the Austro-Hungarian government in exchange for peace.

For Carl I, although such a move would cause the Austro-Hungarian Empire to lose a lot of territory, at least the stability of Austria, Hungary, Galicia, and the Czech region would be guaranteed, and the basic foundation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire would remain, allowing it to maintain its status as a great power.

However, it is obvious that the conditions offered by the Austro-Hungarian Empire cannot win the agreement of France, let alone the entire Allies.

It should be noted that all the conditions offered by the Austro-Hungarian Empire are under the control of the Allies. This means that as long as the Allies are willing, they can forcibly occupy these lands at any time without the need for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to cede them.

Sextus's request was even rejected by the French government without being passed on to the Allies Conference.

Although the surrender of the Austro-Hungarian Empire would benefit the Allies in winning the war, the defeat of the Central Powers is inevitable. Therefore, both France and the Allies want to gain more benefits.

By the time the news of France's refusal to negotiate reached Carl I, before he could get angry and panicked, an even worse piece of bad news arrived.

After several days of attack, the Balkan Allied Forces had approached the Slovenian region, the Italian Army had occupied Innsbruck, and was advancing towards Klagenfurt and the Graz area.

It is clear that despite the help of a super-organized German army group, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's front line is still in jeopardy.

Long-term combat has demoralized the soldiers, and the issues between the various nations and ethnicities within the Austro-Hungarian Empire have become increasingly intense.

For the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it is impossible to completely resist the invasion of Italy and the Balkan Allied Forces.

The Allies' forces have spread from the southwestern border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the southeastern border and even the eastern border, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire simply does not have enough troops to defend these areas.

Moreover, although Russia has not launched any campaigns since the internal turmoil, no one dares to guarantee that the Russians will not add insult to injury in such a critical moment.

There is already hatred between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia, and if the Russians added fuel to the fire, it is very likely to trigger the collapse of the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire's defensive line.

In the Austro-Hungarian Empire's army of over one million, nearly 400,000 were deployed on the border between Galicia and Russia, which is the real reason why the Austro-Hungarian Empire could only mobilize less than 800,000 troops.

Even though the southern front was precarious, the Austro-Hungarian military still had no intention of mobilizing troops from the Russian border.

The imperial government knew clearly that the Italians and the Balkans wanted to carve off flesh from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but the Russians truly wanted to eliminate the Austro-Hungarian Empire and annex Galicia and the Hungarian regions.

If the Russians could completely defeat the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they could control the entire Balkan Peninsula, exert influence on Constantinople, extend their reach into the Mediterranean Sea, and even the Middle East region.

In doing so, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would fall into an irrecoverable abyss, and it would be impossible for it to rise again amidst the encirclement of several powerful nations.

Even the territory of the Austro-Hungarian Empire would be divided among the great powers, as had been the case with the previously Kingdom of the Netherlands.

For a country, the saddest thing is to be surrounded by several more powerful countries.

Not only will its own path of development be cut off, but even its own territory will be divided by others.

Under the advice of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's Chief of General Staff Wade Stedden, Carl I signed an order to adopt full defense in the Slovenian region, gathering the German Army Group and the Austro-Hungarian elite in southern Austria to try to resolve the Italian army first.

In the eyes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, although the Italian army had more than 500,000 troops, much more than the two-pronged Balkan army, the Italians' combat effectiveness was far behind the Balkan Allied Forces led by the Australasia Army, which gave hope to the Austro-Hungarian military for a quick resolution of Italy.

As long as they could quickly resolve the Italians and then concentrate on defending the Slovenian region, the situation would be much better than it is now, even if it was impossible to completely change the situation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This was the last resort for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and if it still could not change the dilemma faced by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it could only pray for the Germans to succeed in their spring offensive.

As time entered May, the Australasian Army was already very close to Klagenfurt. But unexpectedly, the combat effectiveness of the Austro-Hungarian troops they faced along the way was not as good as before, causing Australasia's offensive to meet little resistance.

Although the progress of the front line slowed down a lot due to the Austro-Hungarian Empire's full resistance, as well as various cities and fortresses, the advance was still quite smooth.

Just as General Thomas was puzzled, the battle report from the Italian side resolved his doubts.

Since the launch of the campaign, the Italian army had demonstrated combat effectiveness that did not match the impressions of other countries.

In fact, this was because the Austro-Hungarian forces faced by the Italian army were composed of new recruits or multinational armies.

The combat effectiveness of that army was much weaker compared to the elite army faced by the Balkan Allied Forces, which was the reason for the rapid progress of the Italian offensive.

But as time entered May, the Italian army was immediately attacked by the German Army Group and the Austro-Hungarian elite troops.

As soon as they encountered the elite troops of the allied nations, the Italian army immediately showed their true combat power, being beaten by the allied forces to the point of abandoning their armor and weapons, and even giving back the hard-earned capture of Innsbruck.

Seeing that Trento was at risk of being captured, Italy immediately became anxious, requesting the Austro-Hungarian side to speed up their attack and asking whether Australasia could send reinforcements to aid Italy.

As for the Italian request, General Thomas naturally refused. The Australasian army had always been small, and he had no intention of sending troops to be cannon fodder for the Italians.

Moreover, the territory conquered on behalf of Italy would not bring any benefits to Australasia, and it would only increase casualties. This kind of matter was what Arthur had repeatedly warned General Thomas to avoid before leaving.

After all, the Australasian Expeditionary Force had independent command authority, and no country, including Britain and France, could forcibly divert it.

Although Hungary's transfer of elite troops to the front with Italy made General Thomas's original plan to join forces with Italy in capturing Klagenfurt fall through.

But for General Thomas, this could also be considered as a good thing. With the Italians hindering the Austro-Hungarian Empire's elite, the Australasian Army could confidently attack the Austro-Hungarian Empire, only needing to scout the land west of Klagenfurt to avoid encirclement by the Austro-Hungarian elite troops.

In this way, not only would Italy have to bear the attack of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's elite, but the credit for conquering the Austro-Hungarian Empire's territory would also fall into the hands of the Australian Army.

General Thomas naturally would not let go of such a good thing that would allow others to be injured while reaping the benefits.

Throwing the Italian player's telegram into the trash bin, General Thomas immediately ordered the army to surround Klagenfurt from the north and strive to capture this important town in the Austrian region as soon as possible.

There was also a heavily fortified town called Graz to the northeast of Klagenfurt, which was not far from the two cities and was an important stronghold in the southern region of Austria.

Once the Austro-Hungarian Empire lost both cities, the road to Vienna would be wide open, with the Austrian Empire's capital thrown wide open, waiting for the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Balkan Allied Forces.

It must be said that this was a risky move for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If they could defeat the Italians within a short period and successfully return to defend Klagenfurt and Graz, this would be a perfect strategic plan.

If they were held up by the Italians for a while, resulting in Klagenfurt and Graz being captured, this would be a disastrous blow to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.