Chapter 435: The Lion of Tyrol
Just as Heidi had said the next morning, the newly constructed Palace of Tirol held peace talks between the delegations from Hungary and Romania.
or at least the section of it that was currently livable, as a building as grand as that which Bruno was building for future generations of his family to reign from was a multiyear project even with the most efficient and capable labor force known to man.
Both the Kingdom of Hungary and Romania desired and had attempted to annex Transylvania after Bruno allowed referendum as a sign of good faith to the turbulent region, and an example being led towards a more peaceful solution.
The Referendum was largely in favor of independence. But independence was not easily secured, nor won simply because the people gave their voice to the idea. And because of its inherent weakness militarily the newly sovereign Grand Principality of Transylvania and the monarch chosen by the people quickly found themselves invaded by both of their neighbors.
Romania and Hungary immediately moved their troops into the region, attacking from both sides in a race to reach the capital damn near simultaneously. To the point where the monarch had long since surrendered, and instead the Hungarian and Romanian armies were now exchanging blows, hoping for the best.
When the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed and broke down, the majority of serious military hardware like Austro-Hungaria’s light tanks, limited air corps, and modernized artillery found themselves on the Austrian sides of the border.
Leaving the Hungarian forces now led by a Hungarian General who proclaimed himself king in the absence of the Habsburgs with a military that, while having significantly more experience than the Romanians who had remained neutral during the Great War, was armed roughly the same.
The Hungarian-Romanian War was just one of many small wars being fought in the Balkans at this very moment as a result of the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, it was the only one Bruno actually had any stake in, as for a very brief time, prior to renouncing his claim over it, Burno was the de facto Prince of Transylvania where this war was being fought.
As a result, Bruno was currently seated at a table where he met with both kings of the belligerent nations, as well as several of their ministers, delegates, and generals. Some of these men Bruno had known personally during his time in the Great War, Hungarian Generals who once took up arms for the Habsburgs were now calling another man King, and were giving Bruno a complex gaze.
On the one hand, they felt like their past ties of blood, sweat, and bullets shed together might give them the upper hand in these negotiations. On the other, there were few men who knew just how brutal of a negotiator Bruno could be than the men sitting on the Hungarian side.
In fact, the man who had proclaimed himself King of Hungary was one of such men, having served beneath Bruno’s operational authority during the Balkan theater of the great war. General Artur Arz von Straußenburg, despise the German sounding surname, was a Hungarian national, and one of the better Generals of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, both in this life, and the previous one Bruno had come from.
Granted, when you’re dealing with relatively disastrous leadership, that’s not the greatest claim to fame, but it was one nonetheless. Because of this, he looked cautiously at Bruno who was sitting silently in his seat, having heard both sides air their grievances in excess before finally coming to a conclusion on how to proceed.