Bulgarian Empire

When Prince Constantine decided to defend on the spot, the fate of the Greek army was already doomed!

The Ottoman army did not launch an attack immediately. After all, Edhe Pasha was a veteran in the army. In terms of military literacy, he was born as a nobleman. He has received systematic military education since he was a child, and his ability is still good!

He is very clear about the plan of the Greeks. In order to defend the retreat of the army led by Duke Cyril who attacked the Epirus region, Prince Constantine must defend the city of Trikala!

Similarly, if the Ottoman Empire wants to win this war, as long as Edhe Pasha can get rid of the army in front of him, he can go straight in. There is no longer a decent army in Greece now!

The two sides confronted each other around the city of Trikala. There were no big battles, but there were many small battles! Even so, there are thousands of casualties on both sides every day!

The Ottoman army is a regular army and has an advantage in strength, so such a small loss can still be covered!

But the Greeks couldn't take it anymore. They were already at a disadvantage in terms of military strength. Now that such a small-scale consumption, Prince Constantine was surprised to find that the exchange ratio between the enemy and us was as high as 1:1.5!

It's okay, they were already at a disadvantage, but now that the consumption continues, the Greeks will be the first to collapse! It's a pity that he is powerless now, and the combat effectiveness of the army cannot be improved in a day or two!

Although the Ottoman army lacked training, they had fought wars! Even if they only suppressed a few rebellions, at least they were bloody. Compared with the recruits on the Greek side, they are much stronger!

Prince Constantine has asked the country for help many times, although he also knows that there is no reinforcements in Greece, and even the current logistics supply line makes him worry!

In order to hold the line of defense, Prince Constantine suggested that the troops attacking the Epirus area be withdrawn, and jointly attack the Ottoman army in front of them!

Of course, these are all illusions. He knows that even if the country cannot provide reinforcements, it is impossible to withdraw the troops from the Epirus region!

Ottoman's reinforcements have already arrived. Not only is the pressure on his side heavy, but the Greek army in the Epirus area is also uncomfortable. If they want to withdraw, they have to do the same with the Ottomans, right?

Otherwise, if you are retreating and others are chasing after you, if you accidentally retreat and become defeated, it will be miserable!

If the Greek army before the expansion, it is possible to retreat in an orderly manner.

Now? Stop dreaming! Unless the Greek government is willing to cut off the wrists of the strong men, leaving two or three divisions to cut off the rear!

But is it possible? After leaving two or three divisions, it is equivalent to giving up these tens of thousands of troops. The Greek government will never do this until the critical moment!

Anyway, Prince Constantine, after several confrontations, he has now roughly figured out the combat effectiveness of both sides! The Ottoman army was slightly stronger than the Greek army before the expansion. Now? The combat effectiveness of the two sides is far behind!

In addition, the military advantage of the Greeks is gone now, so Prince Constantine has no hope for Greece to defeat the Ottoman Empire alone!

His real purpose is to put pressure on the country and drag the two allies into the water as soon as possible! The Balkan Alliance is no secret to high-level officials like him!

According to his thinking, no matter how much the price is paid now, Bulgaria and Montenegro must be dragged into the battlefield!

Even so, Prince Constantine did not think that this war would end soon, and it would be great if the three countries could work together to achieve a decent truce!

After all, the Ottoman Empire has accumulated power for a long time, and it was not so good before. When it was at a disadvantage on the battlefield, everyone couldn't help but think of the glorious history of the Ottomans!

Pessimism began to spread in the Greek army. Of course, this is slightly better than in history. Although it is dangerous, it can still be supported! Of course, without the intervention of Zai Li, defeat would be a matter of time!

At this moment in history, the Greeks are miserable,

After a week of fighting, they were driven back by the Ottoman army, and then the Ottoman army galloped across the battlefield in the Greek land, criss-crossing all directions!

After receiving the news from the front line, the Greek government has already made a mess. The Greek Army, which had high hopes, told them with practical actions that although the Ottoman Empire was decayed, Greece could not challenge it!

After receiving the battle report from the Greek-Turkish battlefield, Ferdinand knew that the Greeks were going to be in trouble!

Originally, the combat effectiveness of the Greek army was not as good as that of the Ottomans. If the battlefield was placed on the mainland, it would use the excuse of defending the country to inspire the morale of the army. Still worthy of a fight!

Now, the Greeks took the initiative to attack, lengthened the front line, and dispersed their forces. If the Ottomans still can't win, they will be blind!

In terms of total force, the Greeks have the upper hand, but it is a pity that the Ottoman army has the advantage in strength on some battlefields! If it is an ordinary area, it is a big deal to give up, but Trikala City, no matter how much the Greeks lose, it is a place that must not be lost!

If Ferdinand had changed, he would have concentrated his forces in the border area long ago, confronted the Ottomans, and waited for the alliance to join the war before launching an attack. This was the most correct choice!

But it is too late for the Greeks now! The Epirus area has basically been taken down by the Greeks now, and it will be difficult for them to give up, and they still have to divide their troops to occupy it!

As a result, as soon as the Ottoman reinforcements arrived, the Greek front army attacking Epirus was embarrassed. They could not concentrate their forces to fight the Ottomans. Also due to the dispersion of their forces, they could not retreat!

You know, in order to control the place, the Greek army has now spread out a small 30,000 people, and the main force gathered together is now only more than 70,000 people. They are anxiously together with the 40,000 Ottoman army, and they are temporarily at a disadvantage!

It's not that the Greek army doesn't work hard, nor is it that the Ottomans are too powerful, so blame their logistics!

Of course, their logistics department is also very wronged. The front line has advanced hundreds of kilometers, and there are no roads or railways to use.

Under such circumstances, it is difficult for the Greek army to gather together, and the remnants of Ottoman forces in various places cannot be cleaned up all at once!

Things like digging roads and blowing up bridges happened a lot! The dispersed Greek army, in addition to maintaining the lines of communication, can also collect food on the spot to solve the problem of food for the army. If they are now concentrated, the commanders will have a headache about what to eat for the next meal!

As expected, the Greeks really came to the door. Of course, Ferdinand would not come forward, and directly handed over to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deal with it.

Foreign Minister Megev immediately understood the meaning of the boss, not only rejected the request of the Greek government, but also provided a lot of evidence to the Greeks, showing that the Greek government was paddling water!

Well, it's just nonsense! The fighting power of the Greek army is already bad, but it is not bad to be able to play at this level!

It's a pity that the Greeks exaggerated their own cowhide before, and now they are directly taken out by Bulgaria as generals!

Can the Greeks deny it now and say that they are weak? ?

If this is the case, not only will the Greeks lose their position in the alliance now; the relationship between the two parties will also change, from the current alliance to Bulgaria's unilateral rescue of Greece!

The political influence is really too great!

...

From the beginning of the war to the present, George I's mood has experienced ups and downs, and he has not recovered yet!

George I asked depressedly: "What do the Bulgarians say?"

To be honest, if he hadn't been forced to be helpless, he wouldn't have bowed to Ferdinand. Don't forget that the two signed a secret betting agreement before! Now bowing to Bulgaria means that Greece will lose the right to speak in the distribution of benefits after the war!

The premise is that the Balkan Union can win the war!

The Foreign Minister said with a wry smile: "The Bulgarians have made it clear that they are not ready now and that they will not be able to attack the Ottoman Empire until their mobilization is complete!

They believe that the main force of the Ottoman Empire has not yet entered the battlefield, and with our strength, we should be able to defeat the enemy in front of us in a short period of time! "

George I was so angry that he cursed: "Ferdinand is going to hit the ground running! Doesn't he know that if our Greece is defeated, Bulgaria will not be better off? Is he willing to be suppressed by the Ottoman Empire forever? Or Was it frightened by the Ottomans?..."

When George I had vented enough, the foreign minister said anxiously: "The Bulgarians are not unprepared, they have enough reasons to reject our request, and provided us with a series of important information!

The Ottoman Empire has already begun to mobilize. At present, the entire Balkan region, the Ottoman Empire's army has reached 430,000 people!

Among them, there are 150,000 people distributed in the Istanbul area; 80,000 people are distributed in the Macedonian area without counting those who have already reinforced the front line; Army; the remaining 60,000 people are distributed in other areas!

Judging from the information they provided, there are currently about 270,000 troops of the Ottoman Empire distributed around Bulgaria, and they have contained the main force of the Ottoman Empire!

As of now, Bulgaria has mobilized 310,000 troops, but they still have to defend against the Romanians taking advantage of the fire, so the number of troops that can be put into the battlefield is less than 200,000!

The Bulgarian government has decided that it will implement the long-term plan and will not participate in the war in advance!

And warned us not to think about working without effort, if we can't even stand up to more than 100,000 Ottoman troops, then the distribution of benefits after the war will have to be re-approved according to the degree of contribution! "

George I was so angry that he wanted to vomit blood. In theory, the 250,000 Greek army had an absolute military advantage against the 140,000 Ottoman army! !

It's a pity that the front line has already advanced to the territory of the Ottomans. After this division of troops, the advantage has become a disadvantage!

Of course, if the Greek army is really as powerful as they boasted, this will not be a problem. Less wins more!

In fact, the foreign minister still has nothing to say, or maybe George I would really vomit blood! Bulgarian Foreign Minister Megev is not a soft persimmon, and his irritating skills are not just bragging!

First, he boasted for a while about the bravery of the Greek army. According to him, defeating the Ottoman army was as easy as pie!

I also directly used the Bulgarian War as an example. A regiment in Bulgaria could chase after a division of the Serbs.

It is recommended that the Greek army carry forward the spirit of not being afraid of hardship, fatigue, and sacrifice, and bravely attack the Ottomans, and also wish the Greeks an early victory!

Well, these foreign ministers will never say it! He thinks he has seen clearly the fighting power of the Greek army now, it's just a show, but it's not useful!

It is very simple to draw this conclusion. The peasant uprising army of the Ottoman Empire can fight back and forth with the Ottoman army, and you will know how useless the Ottoman army is!

From this, it can be concluded that the combat effectiveness of the Ottoman army is slightly greater than that of the mob; and the performance of the Greek army is even worse, and it cannot beat the Ottoman army. level!

Don't be surprised, it's normal for civil servants who don't understand the military to come to this conclusion! Purely from the perspective of battlefield performance, there is no problem at all, but in fact it ignores the essence!

At least the performance of the Greek army led by Prince Constantine is qualified, at least facing the Ottoman army with superior strength, it can still defend; while the Greek army led by Duke Cyril in the Epirus region with superior strength, The performance is terrible!

The objective factor is - logistics! The Ottoman army is fighting in the local area, and there are some reserves in various places. With the supply in the rear, there will be no shortage of supplies in the short term. The Greeks are a tragedy. They were not prepared enough, and now it is even worse!

At the critical moment, the Prime Minister came to the rescue. He said: "It's normal for the Bulgarians to have this attitude! Who told our army to behave so badly?

Not to mention them, I still can't believe that this is the great Greek army, the strongest army in the Balkans, is it at this level?

Of course, now is not the time for us to pursue responsibility. The top priority is to let Bulgaria know our real situation, even if we compromise on post-war interests!

Otherwise, they will think that we have not tried our best and procrastinated not to participate in the war. I am afraid that the front line will change over time! "

The prime minister's words awakened King George I. Greece is already in danger. If it is broken in any direction, Greece will really be desperate. For this reason, the navy is ready to go ashore!

Of course, if the navy were to be used as an army, Greece would probably be finished by then, and it would be useless to do anything!

George I asked again: "What did Nicholas I say? When can Montenegro join the war?"

The foreign minister said in embarrassment: "Well, Mente Negro's strength is limited. They are willing to participate in the war, but before Bulgaria's attitude is not involved in the war, they are very worried that they will be targeted by the Ottomans after participating in the war!"

After all, Nicholas I was born in the army. He participated in two Russian-Turkish wars and won the title of Marshal of the Russian Empire. He is still very clear about Montenegro's military strength.

Even if it is the power of the country, it can only produce 20,000 to 30,000 troops. As long as it fails once, Montenegro will be finished!

No one reacted this time, and no one expected to rely on Mente Negro to break the game! Rather than counting on their 20,000 to 30,000 troops, it is more practical to expect the Greek army on the front line to suddenly burst into battle!

At this time, the Minister of War said: "Our strategic material reserves are running out, and the material consumption after the war is much higher than we expected!

Especially the consumption of ammunition has increased by half of what we estimated. At the current rate of consumption, it will last for another three weeks at most. If there is a decisive battle, I am afraid that the time to support it will be even shorter! "