Mediterranean Hegemony Road

"Not bad! It seems that Ferdinand is still so shrewd and always knows how to get the best interests for himself! How is the navy prepared? Once the war starts, we can't directly intervene!" Nicholas II laughed. say later

The Minister of the Navy said confidently: "In order to ensure the victory of this war, the Black Sea Fleet will go all out, and then our main fleet will attack the Ottoman Empire in the name of the Bulgarian Navy!

Once Bulgaria has taken Istanbul, the Bosphorus will be ours! "

On this point, the Admiralty really did not brag! It's not how awesome the Russians' Black Sea Fleet is, but the Ottoman Empire's navy is rotten to the core!

The Ottoman navy used to be rich, and once ranked fifth in the world in the world navy rankings, and the tonnage of armored ships exceeded the sixth Italian by 20%.

In 1878, the Ottoman Empire had 16 ironclad ships; at that time, the world's largest British Imperial Navy had only 40 ironclad ships; the number of armored ships even surpassed that of the world's second largest naval power - France!

Not only is there a lot of quantity, but the quality is not bad. There are several ironclad ships of eight or nine thousand tons! Even the arrogant German Navy in the future, their first 9,000-ton ironclad ship, bought it from the United Kingdom after taking advantage of the Ottoman Empire's cancellation of the order!

It has 5 ship-side gunships, 10 central gun gallery ships, 1 surface-rotating ship, 4 frigates, and 20 patrol ships, with a total tonnage of 90,725 tons, second only to Britain, France, Germany and Russia. Ranked fifth in the world!

It may seem awesome, but it's actually nothing special, it's a "poor man's navy"!

The Ottoman navy has such a large family background. In an era when national strength and technology were not at the same latitude as the great powers, they built such a fleet. It was completely a sultan who had a wonderful naval fanatic from 1860 to 1871—— Abdul Aziz!

But the Ottoman Empire is poor! The moneyless Sudanese government, Abdul Aziz did a stupid thing - increase taxes!

Mainly ruled Christian areas, such as Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and other places that were still under the Ottoman Empire. One or two days is fine. This tax is levied for ten years. Christians everywhere can no longer survive and start uprisings one after another.

The nobles and princes of the Ottoman Empire saw that this was no good. The navy here is still building and the country is about to split. It can't go on like this. Together, they launched a coup d'etat and abolished His Highness Aziz.

Now the navy of the Ottoman Empire has become a motherless child, and the huge iron armored fleet has become a large toy, even so, it is enough to dominate one side!

It is a pity that the decaying Ottoman Empire is not willing to pay even the cost of maintaining the fleet. The government has stopped the normal allocation of the navy.

The naval officers and soldiers do not live on the ship either, they all have their own lives. Many officers and soldiers will get lost when they arrive at the port, and often cannot find their ships, because they rarely get on the ship!

Some officers don't even know how many people are on their ships, and they can't tell the parameters of the weapons on the warships. These are the status quo of the Ottoman Navy!

As for combat power, what the hell is that? Didn't see the provocation of the Greek navy, did the Ottoman navy not attack? Know that both countries have declared war!

To defend the Bulgarian Navy, such a reason to hold back can only fool the military novices of the Sudanese government!

Anyone with a little military common sense knows that the Bosphorus Strait is 30 kilometers long, only over 700 meters at its narrowest point, and only 3.7 kilometers at its widest point.

The shore artillery deployed on both sides of the strait is not a salute. How could the Bulgarian Navy go to the Sea of ​​Marmara to do things?

certainly,

The coastal artillery deployed by the Ottoman Empire on both sides of the strait may really be salutes! After all, nothing is impossible in this magical country!

...

Ferdinand's butterfly effect, now the situation in the Balkans has entered a turning point in history, no one can predict where the future will go!

But the Greeks still did not get rid of the fate of history. The Greek army led by Prince Constantine was still defeated by Ed Hepasha, and the main force of tens of thousands of Greek troops was destroyed!

In the early morning of April 29, 1897, after a day of hard fighting, the Ottoman army finally tore a hole in the defense area of ​​Major General Andrew of the 18th Division!

The problem was with this group of reinforcements. Due to the lack of troops, Major General Andrew had to add this group of rabble to the troops.

The brutal offensive and defensive battle has already exhausted the Greek army physically and mentally. They are the strong men who were captured, so don't expect them to have any sense of belonging to Greece!

In the early hours of the morning, a battalion of the 10th Division of the Ottoman Empire, followed by a night cover, launched a raid! After the night attack, the recruits who had just been replenished ran away in panic. This run caused a chain reaction, and many Greek soldiers also ran away in confusion!

By the time the Greek officers reacted, it was too late. The line of defense had already been torn open, and the main force of the 10th Division of the Ottoman Army had rushed in and fought with the Greek army in the dark!

Ed He Pasha, who received the news, did not hesitate, and immediately ordered the whole army to attack! Hundreds of thousands of Greek and Turkish armies launched the most brutal fight in the vast night!

All the establishments have been disrupted. Whether it is Prince Constantine or Ed He Pasha, they have already commanded the troops, and they can only watch the melee between the two sides!

With the passage of time, with the advantage of numbers, the Ottomans gradually gained the upper hand, and the ending was doomed. The Greek army was so confusedly defeated!

Even if Prince Constantine has formed a wounded division again, he is powerless at this moment!

After dawn, Ed He Pasha counted the results, and suddenly discovered that the commander of the Greek army, Prince Constantine, had been reduced to a prisoner!

In this campaign, the Ottoman army paid 34,800 casualties, annihilated more than 57,000 Greek troops, and won the first victory since the Turkish army started the war - the victory of Trikala!

Needless to say, in this war, Greece has already taken the lead out of the game!

The victorious Edge Pasha immediately cut off the connection between the Greek army in Epirus and the country! The more than 100,000 Greek troops led by Duke Cyril have now been made dumplings! In the absence of weapons and ammunition supplies, defeat is a matter of time!

At this moment, the Greek government is completely blind, and the worst has happened! The reinforcements that were originally going to reinforce Prince Constantine don't need to go now, they just go back the same way and prepare for the homeland defense battle!