On June 7, the Kingdom of Bulgaria announced its withdrawal from the war, which severely damaged the morale of the Central Powers, and the atmosphere of defeat enveloped the entire Western Front, and the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force advanced into Bulgaria for a long time, posing a mortal threat to Austria-Hungary.

As early as the middle of last year, the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Karl I was trying to get out of the war in an honorable way, but because of the fierce fighting on the Western Front at the time, Karl I did not do so.

At the beginning of this year, when the German army suffered a defeat on the Marne, Karl I again wanted to withdraw from the war, but because the conditions of the Entente were too harsh, Austria-Hungary was forced to remain in the camp of the Central Powers.

On June 8, the day after the Kingdom of Bulgaria announced its withdrawal from the war, Hungary suddenly announced its withdrawal from Austria-Hungary and declared itself an independent state, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was divided without warning.

Nor can it be said that without warning, Austria-Hungary is the only dualist state in the world, a country has two capitals, two parliaments, two sets of government agencies, smooth sailing is such a country can still maintain a certain centripetal force, once it encounters a setback, the dualist state will completely collapse.

Karl I finally realized that the situation was irreparable, and he was still working to keep the empire unified, declaring that the empire would be transformed into a federation, and that all peoples could have their own state councils, regardless of their number.

In a country that had become de facto divided, the authority of the king had been completely subverted, no one heeded the last efforts of Karl I, and one thing became a reality, Austria-Hungary was indeed divided into many countries, the participating troops quickly collapsed, the soldiers threw down their guns and returned home, the officers were busy fighting for power and hoping to take up important positions in the new government of their respective countries, the politicians were in a carnival, the world war was not over, the liquidation of Austria-Hungary had not yet begun, and the politicians could not wait to get to work.

In short, the vast and formidable Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed in a matter of days, with more than ten new governments formed, nearly half of which wanted to join the Entente and escape the reckoning that would soon begin after the war.

The withdrawal of the Kingdom of Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary from the war had the most immediate effect on Germany, which was the loss of Romanian oil supplies, which was a mortal threat to Germany, and the Mediterranean expeditionary force led by Ian Hamilton had always hoped to do so.

The fact that the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force did not defeat the Germans on the battlefield in a dignified manner, but achieved this strategic goal because of the withdrawal of Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Bulgaria, seems to prove once again that Germany had chosen the wrong ally, but when it returned to its original Germany, Germany had no choice.

The withdrawal of the Kingdom of Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary soon had a great impact on the Western Front.

Before the Kingdom of Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary withdrew from the war, the German army on the Western Front was able to launch counterattacks in some areas and fight back and forth with the Allied forces.

After the Kingdom of Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary withdrew from the war, the German army on the Western Front was like a broken backbone, everyone knew that German defeat was inevitable, and many German troops left the trenches in despair and launched a desperate charge against the Allied forces.

They generally fell on the way to the charge, the Entente forces suffered almost no casualties, and after the battle, many German soldiers had no bullets in their rifles, and those German soldiers did not seem to notice this at all.

Even if they notice, what can they do, they do not have the ability to change the situation on the entire Western Front, and those who have the ability can take care of themselves.

After the failure of the Michael plan, the German admiral Paul von Xince replaced Kuhlmann, who was forced to resign, as the German Foreign Minister, Ludendorff met with Xince for the first time, and admitted to Xince that the German army had failed on the front line, but Ludendorff did not admit defeat, he hoped to withdraw the German army to Germany to rest, use the strong fortifications built by the German army before the world war to continue the defense, and strive for a chance to withdraw from the war with dignity.

Or rather, to wait for the Entente to take the initiative to make mistakes in order to regain the almost impossible initiative on the Western Front.

Ludendorff said the same thing about Hindenburg before.

Xince was not interested in Ludendorff's plan, and the Germans were powerless to return to the war, and at the beginning of this year, Ludendorff still had 127 complete German infantry divisions to mobilize, and only 47 German infantry divisions were left to continue fighting.

It seems that the German army still has spare strength, but these German infantry divisions that can still fight are basically in a situation of running out of ammunition and food, rifles have no bullets, artillery has no shells, and the German army cannot even guarantee the supply of military rations.

Another reason that makes Ludendorff see hope is that since the beginning of the summer, the impact of the American flu on the part of the Entente countries has become more and more serious, and Ludendorff has received news that at least 500,000 Allied troops have been affected by the American flu, and many troops have more and more non-combat attrition, and some troops are in better condition, such as the Southern African Expeditionary Force, which has abundant medical supplies, and only more than 1,000 people have been hospitalized because of the American flu.

Although the Allied forces were seriously affected by the American flu, so did Germany, which had already killed hundreds of thousands of people in Germany because of the American flu, and Ludendorff also knew about these circumstances, but Ludendorff was unwilling to admit it.

Shince and Ludendorff seem to be unable to communicate, and the exchange between the two ends with Ludendorff passing out.

Xince immediately sent someone to take Ludendorff to the hospital for treatment, and announced that Ludendorff could not continue to serve as the chief of the German General Staff due to health reasons.

When the news was broadcast to all of Germany, the Germans cheered.

Ludendorff thought that all of Germany was against him, and after he was discharged from the hospital, he did not tell anyone, and quietly fled from Germany in disguise, and later, Ludendorff went to Sweden, and some people say that Ludendorff went to southern Africa.

Ludendorff finally withdrew from the stage of history, but the world war was not over, and on the second day of Ludendorff's hospitalization, Prince Marx of Baden, known as an outstanding royalist liberal in the empire, succeeded Hertling as the German prime minister.

Winston and French President Poencaré welcomed the proposal of Prince Marx of Baden, and after nearly four years of going on in the world war, there was finally the light of day.

On 20 April, a young German submarine commander commanded his submarine to launch an attack on the passenger ship Leinster, which regularly travels between England and Ireland, and both torpedoes hit the Leinster, which sank rapidly, killing 470 people, including 135 women and children.

This almost affected the glimmer of peace that had just appeared, and in the days that had passed since April 20, almost everyone was terrified that the sinking of the "Leinster" would cause the war to continue again.

At this time, Winston exercised great restraint, and although the submarine officers who attacked the Leinster were not blamed, Winston insisted on instructing Edward Gray and Max, Prince of Baden, to move forward with the beginning of peace negotiations.

On the Western Front, Winston also telegraphed Roque, hoping that the British Expeditionary Force would not attack the Germans for the time being, but would maintain a certain degree of pressure on the Germans.

If you don't attack, how can you keep the pressure on the Germans?

Winston's telegram confused Roque's staff members, they did not understand the real purpose of Winston's telegram, and if they did not understand the relationship between Winston and Roque, the staff officers even thought that Winston was deliberately giving Roque a problem.

The staff didn't know what Winston was trying to do, and Roarke certainly knew.

The last time Winston and Roque met, Roque already knew the attitude of Winston and George V towards Germany, a Germany as completely divided as Austria-Hungary was not in the interests of the British Empire, so Roque had to put pressure on the German troops, but he could not continue to weaken the German army, and he had to retain some vitality for the German army.

This task is a bit difficult, and Roque calls the front-line commander back to Ya Luo to teach him face-to-face.

"That is, we still have to fight, but we will no longer engage the ground forces, we will have nothing to do, send planes over and still have a few bombs, drive the tanks out for a walk, and the artillery units can also train in the name of combat - if the Germans surrender to us on their own initiative, then should we accept them?" Don Juan, the commander of the 2nd Cavalry Division, was in a very unhappy mood, and now if Roque gave Don Juan a truly unrestricted authorization, Don Juan was really confident that he would lead his troops to Berlin in one go.

Roque didn't speak, and looked at Don Juan with a slightly dissatisfied look.

Don Juan, who was making a lot of nonsense, immediately became restless.

"Thank you Lord for your understanding, we are indeed powerless to attack now, the troops are advancing too fast, they are too far from the logistics base, the supplies cannot be delivered to the front in time, God is also helping the Germans, it started to rain ten days ago, it is difficult for us to advance now, the Germans have blown up bridges and railways, road traffic is a mess-" Or the Chief of Staff Haydn Alexander is smarter, the same words, expressed in different languages, with completely different meanings.

Roque nodded with satisfaction, and Don Juan and Haydn Alexander exchanged a look with different meanings, Don Juan's eyes were full of gratitude, and Haydn Alexander was full of contempt.

That is, under Roque, a general like Don Juan can get enough room to exert himself, and a commander with a small heart and a small measure, a person like Don Juan has to go to the warehouse every minute.

"We have built 12 prisoner of war camps now, but it doesn't seem to be enough, many prisoners of war are malnourished, the camps are full of disease, and we need more professional management." Julian Bing actively suggested that, like Paul Cocker, Julian Bing was now a descendant of Roque, and that Roque's authority within the British Expeditionary Force was unshakable.

(End of chapter)