Bulgarian Empire

Vol 2 Chapter 44: , War broke out (2 in 1)

   The war between the Ottoman Empire and Greece cannot be stopped now. Conflicts of interest, ethnic contradictions, and public opinion orientation, these series of factors pushed the two countries into the abyss of war!

   Ferdinand can swear in the name of God that this war is definitely not his pot! At this time in history, didn't the Ottoman Empire and Greece still fight?

   The establishment of the Balkan League undoubtedly gave the Greeks another confidence.

  In history, Prince George himself brought an army of 1,500 men to support the Crete uprising!

   In the face of collective opposition from the great powers, the Greek government, which was not fully prepared, still arbitrarily launched a war against the Ottoman Empire, knowing the strength of the main fighters in Greece!

   Compared with the international environment at that time, for the Greeks, the current situation is much better! Although the attitudes of the powers are different, they still have the support of the Russians, the British, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in diplomacy. At the same time, there are two allies in the Balkans, Bulgaria and Mente Negero. Much bigger!

  In history, because both sides were not prepared for war, they fought a war that was worse than worse, but the Greeks were still worse, making this war a laughingstock for Greece in the history of modern warfare.

   The Greeks took the initiative to provoke the war, but because the army was too wasteful, the defeat was a mess. From the declaration of war to the signing of the peace treaty, it took only thirty days to complete!

   What’s even more funny is that in these 30 days, less time was actually spent on wars, and most of the time was spent on negotiations!

   This is the funny "30 Days War"! The Greeks told the world with practical actions what is meant by self-defeating!

This time and space is no exception. On April 15, the Greek government issued an ultimatum to Osmandi, asking the Ottoman Empire to recognize Greece's merger with Crete, and apologized to the Greek people for its colonial rule and compensated the economic loss of 30 million pounds. !

  At this moment, everyone knows that the war is coming! The Greeks simply did not have the sincerity to negotiate, and the previous actions were nothing more than delays!

   In the early morning of April 17th, the Greek government formally handed over the war text to the Ottoman Empire; the Sudanese government was very efficient once, and at noon, it also handed the war text to the Greek government!

  The Greek-Turkish war officially broke out!

  Slightly different from the history, the Greeks on this plane should be more prepared. Before the war broke out, the Greek government had completed a national mobilization, mobilizing more than 240,000 troops!

   On the same day, the Greek army began to attack Macedonia and opened the curtain of the Balkan War!

   After receiving the news, Ferdinand's hanging heart finally let go. History has reached an inflection point at this moment. Where is the future heading? Everything becomes confusing!

   Ferdinand, who has nothing to do, is busy making a villain in the palace. He has been married for more than three years and has no children yet, so he is not worried.

   To know the princess Xenia in history, but the mother of seven children, there is absolutely no problem in this respect! In history, Ferdinand also had several children. He never avoided pregnancy. It makes no sense that he has no children for more than three years?

   While Ferdinand was thinking about it, George I of Greece on the other side felt uncomfortable. Since the beginning of the war, the performance of the Greek army cannot be said to be outstanding, it can also be regarded as quite satisfactory!

   The Ottoman Empire’s strategy in the Balkans focused on Bulgaria and Serbia.

   Geographically, the Serbs threatened Kosovo and Albania, while the Bulgarians threatened Macedonia and Istanbul!

   Everything has changed now. Bulgaria's military strength is still the strongest among the Balkan countries. But after the end of the Serbian War, the Serbian threat no longer exists!

   Therefore, the main enemy of the Ottoman Empire is now Bulgaria, and the main force is also concentrated on this conserved border!

  Mentenegro was too small to be in the eyes of the Ottoman Empire; while Greece invested a lot of resources in the navy, the Ottoman Empire ignored the threat of the Greek army.

   At the beginning of the war, the Ottoman Empire was not ready for war, and there were not many troops deployed on the front lines of Greece. On the seven- to eight-hundred-kilometer border, the Ottoman army is stationed with only 30,000 men!

   There is no doubt that if the 30,000 defenders are concentrated, they will still have some combat effectiveness, but they are distributed on the boundary line of 700 to 800 kilometers, there will be loopholes everywhere!

   In fact, based on the degree of decay of the Ottoman Empire, one can imagine that this nominal 30,000 defenders can guarantee half of the full amount!

   The result is self-evident. The Ottoman army deployed on the front line of Greece has fallen. The defense line of Thessaly area was broken in one barrel. The Greek army should have been "advancing with great vigor"!

   However, the poor logistical system of the Greek army was exposed. Due to the logistics drag, the Greek army did not seize the city of Trikala immediately! Of course, time wasting is not too long, at most it is only a day!

   Unfortunately, the battlefield is often racing against time, and one day is enough to change the entire battle! From the outbreak of the war to the present, the Sudanese government has reacted, and reinforcements from Macedonia are coming!

   Trikala City, the Ottoman Empire originally deployed two regiments here, plus the collapsed troops retreating from the front line, theoretically there is already a division's strength, of course, the actual strength must be at least half discounted.

   Trikala City is located on the east side of the Pindus Mountains, passing west through the Metsofeng Pass, and reaching Alta on the west side of Shanxi. Due to its unique geographical location, the Ottoman Empire could no longer continue to retreat, so it decided to stick to it. This decision changed the direction of the Greek-Turkish war!

   The Greek army with high morale hit the first nail here! On the evening of April 18, 1897, the 88 thousand Greek army under the command of Prince Constantine arrived in Trikala.

   Victory along the way, the Greek army has been dazzled by the victory. After reaching the city of Trikala, it immediately launched an all-out attack! Of course, from a strategic point of view, it is correct to attack immediately!

   But due to the tenacious pit of the Ottoman defenders, the Greek army in charge of the attack paid more than 1,500 casualties in just over five hours. In order to reduce the loss, Prince Constantine suspended the attack!

   It was not until April 20, when the artillery arrived at the battlefield, that the Greek army launched another offensive, but this time, everything was too late!

   One day is enough to change many things! The Ottoman army in the city, under the leadership of the commander Orich Pasha, has completed the internal integration, and the gathered soldiers have been reorganized.

   If the enemy to face on April 19 is only the original garrison, there are only more than 2,000 people, then after the reorganization, the Ottoman garrison has more than 5,000 people!

   It is almost impossible for more than two thousand people to defend Trikala City, even if it is delayed for a day or two! In an all-out attack by the Greeks alone, the defenders suffered more than 380 casualties.

   It doesn’t need to be much. If there are two or three more attacks like this, Trikala City will be broken because of insufficient troops!

   Unfortunately, there is no if, Prince Constantine did not know the situation in the city, and ordered to stop the attack in order to reduce the loss!

   Of course, it is not ruled out that there is arrogance and arrogance, and there is no reason to put the Ottoman army in the eyes, which creates opportunities for the defenders in the city!

   On April 20th, the Greek army launched an offensive again, and the tragic siege began. Due to the use of artillery, the casualties of the Greek army fell!

   Within one day, the Greek army paid more than 3,000 casualties, and the defenders also paid more than 1,700 casualties. The battle loss exchange ratio has changed from the original four to one to the current 1.8 to one!

   The defense of the Ottoman Empire in Trikala City has been shaky, losing one-third of its troops in one day, enough to collapse an army!

   If it weren't for the Sudanese government that had already issued a strict order, it must be guarded firmly, and reinforcements from the Macedonian region have already arrived, and now most of the defenders in the city have collapsed!

   (Note: casualties are not equal to death. For example, the number of casualties counted by some countries in the World War exceeds the number of soldiers participating in the war! The main reason is that the lightly wounded can return to the war after they recover!)

On April 21, the brutal offensive and defensive battle continued. By the evening, the Ottoman defenders had lost almost all of their peripheral defenses. Under the command of Orich Pasha, they withdrew from the defenses in an orderly manner and fought in the city. More **** street fighting!

On the third day after the war broke out, reinforcements from the Macedonian region also entered the Thessaly region. On the evening of April 21, the 100,000 Ottoman reinforcements led by Edkh Pasha were less than fifteenth from the city of Trikala. Kilometers away!

   The Greeks who didn't know that the enemy's reinforcements had arrived, on April 22, they launched a siege war again, but it was street fighting!

   Seeing that the Ottoman defenders are about to die, the scouts brought bad news to Prince Constantine-the Ottoman Empire reinforcements are about to arrive on the battlefield!

   When Prince Constantine received the news, the Ottoman Empire’s reinforcements were already less than five kilometers away from him!

   After receiving this news, Prince Constantine suppressed the anger in his heart, while ordering the abandonment of the offensive, while actively deploying defense against possible Ottoman reinforcements!

   At this time, the comparison of forces between the two sides has undergone a fundamental change. The Greeks’ warplanes have disappeared, and the failure to capture the city of Trikala means that Greece will be at a strategic disadvantage in future wars!

   After three consecutive days of siege battles, the Greek army also suffered tragic casualties, and now its morale has been greatly reduced. The passionate spirit of patriotism was still lost to the cruelty on the battlefield!

   Ed He Pasha came faster than the Greeks expected. After arriving at the front line, the Ottoman army did not make repairs and directly launched a full-scale attack on the Greek army's position!

   defeated the Greeks all at once. You have to know that after the army has been marching for a long time, the physical strength is very severe. If there is not enough time for repairs, it would be good to be able to play five or six points with a very strong force!

  Prince Constantine intends to take advantage of the initial arrival of the Ottoman army and launch a raid based on an unstable opportunity to defeat the Ottoman reinforcements in one fell swoop!

   Then the two armies preparing to attack unexpectedly met halfway down the road and launched a desperate fight! Relying on their superiority in strength, the Turkish army defeated the enemy in one fell swoop, and the Greek offensive was interrupted!

   And because of the Greeks' strategic mistakes, in order to defend against the enemy outside the country, they did not concentrate their superior forces to attack in one direction!

   At the same time, they attacked in the two directions of Thessaly and Epirus. After the Greek army in Thessaly region was blocked from attacking in Trikala, it was forced to turn to the local defense and wait for reinforcements!

   Unfortunately, Prince Constantine’s decision did not take into account the actual situation of the Greek army. If this army is a standing army, his decision is completely correct! With the corruption of the Ottoman Empire, one hundred thousand army is absolutely indispensable, and the Greek army is completely capable of fighting!

   After the Greek government carried out national mobilization, the Greek army began to inflate drastically, and the army under Prince Constantine was no exception.

   Due to the blind expansion of the Greek government, a large number of untrained soldiers have been added to the army, and the combat effectiveness of the Greek army has declined instead of rising!

   It’s fine if it is a tailwind fight. After a few more fights, the recruits become veterans, and the combat effectiveness of the army will naturally increase!

   But before becoming a veteran, as soon as the war has twists and turns, something will happen! This time is no exception, Prince Constantine was miserably miserable at UU reading www.uukanshu.com.

   The Ottoman army did not work hard before, and the offensive was smooth sailing, but the fierce offensive and defensive war broke out in Trikala, and the Greek soldiers could not bear it!

   As soon as the reinforcements of the Ottoman army arrived, the morale of the Greek army dropped to a trough! As soon as Ed Hepasa attacked, the Greek army could no longer bear the pressure and collapsed!

  Because the Ottoman army also arrived in a hurry, they were thrown into the war before they could make repairs. They were not physically strong enough. After defeating the Greeks, they were unable to pursue them.

   This caused a misjudgment for Prince Constantine, and the Ottoman army was nothing more than that, and the fighting power was not much higher than them!

   His judgment is well-founded, and the combat effectiveness of the Greek army and the Ottoman army is indeed half a catty! But this is the Greek army before the expansion, the combat effectiveness of the Greek army after the expansion is far worse!

   Prince Constantine's decision to defend on the spot is not a strategic error! Since the Greek army had just lost the battle, the loss was not great.

   Now he still has 70,000 troops in his hands, and the actual number of the Ottoman army on the opposite side is only more than 100,000 troops. The difference in strength between the two sides is not very large. As the defensive party, it will not suffer too much!

   After all, at the end of the 19th century, the power of steel mesh and trenches was still leveraged! Even if the Greek army lacks steel mesh, there is still no shortage of trenches!

   This also starts with the Greek strategy. Another Greek army led by Duke Carrobert has now reached Ioannina.

   If you abandon the Trikala city area and continue to retreat to the rear, then the Greek army attacking the Epirus area will most likely be cut off by the Ottoman army. This consequence is something the Greeks cannot bear anyway!

  

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