After the Battle of Tarnovo, the Bulgarian army took advantage of the three days of desperate resistance of the First Army and retreated directly to Norwich. They planned to take a short rest and continue to retreat to Jablanica, which is the necessary route to the Bulgarian capital Sofia.
Through the road.
Just as Bulgaria was preparing, news of the Romanian army's victory in the Battle of Tarnovo spread throughout the world. In fact, the outside world already knew the news when the Bulgarian army retreated, but the extent of Bulgaria's losses was never reported.
In fact, this is what Crown Prince Eder did intentionally, just to make the Serbian and Greek armies have some scruples, so that Romania can occupy more areas and gain greater benefits. This is also to "help" the Romanian army by the Serbian and Greek armies.
Best return.
Romania did not disclose the results of this battle until it could no longer hide it, and at the same time allowed observer groups from various countries to visit the prisoner-of-war camp. Of course, the two countries were dissatisfied with Romania in their hearts, but in view of its strong combat effectiveness, they only allowed them to
Can they swallow their dissatisfaction on their own, who let them secretly do evil things before? Now they can only hope to break the Bulgarian position to gain points for themselves, and be in a favorable position in the competition for post-war interests.
Observer groups from various countries reported Romania's performance to the country. This was the first battle after Romania's army reorganization. Before, they only had superficial understanding, but now the performance on the battlefield is the most critical. After observing this battle, they
They all mentally improved the rating of the Romanian army.
Among them, Colonel Hans von Seeckt, the head of the German Observation Mission, wrote in a report to the General Staff: The Romanian army performed very well in this war, and their command at the battalion and company level was not inferior to
There is still a slight gap between the Imperial Army and the Imperial Army at the regiment level and above. The main reason is that there are some gaps in coordination issues, and the infantry and artillery coordination is still much worse than the Imperial Army. But I believe they are training like this for a few years.
There is no difference between the Nian General and the Imperial Army. Now the Romanian Third Division and the two Guards Divisions have reached our level.
In this report, Colonel Seekert compared the Romanian army with Germany and placed the Romanian army in a very high position. Others who had the same opinion as him were the head of the Russian Observation Group, Colonel Yerovsky, and the Austro-Hungarian Observer.
General von Kersmann, the representative of the regiment. Among them, Colonel Yerovsky believes that Romania’s current army is not much different from Russia’s, and its three most elite divisions can be compared with the Guards. General von Kersmann, the representative of Austria-Hungary, believes that Romania’s current army is not much different from Russia’s.
The army can compete with the Austro-Hungarian German army. The remaining British, French and Italian representatives also believe that the Romanian army has broken away from the second-rate European armies and can completely compete with the armies of the great powers.
After various countries reported the performance of the Romanian army back home, Germany, Austria, and Russia paid the most attention to it. Because no matter which side Romania defected to, it could strengthen the opponent's army by hundreds of thousands. It would also increase the opponent's population by nine million.
You must know that except for Russia, other countries now have a population of only 30 to 40 million. Moreover, Romania produces grain and oil, of which grain is the foundation of a country. In the late period of World War I, coups caused by lack of food and clothing occurred one after another in various countries. It is not difficult to understand.
Why is food so important? Faced with the wooing of all parties in Europe's second largest food-producing country, it is no problem.
After Germany received Colonel Seeckt's telegram, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Prime Minister Herweg, and Chief of General Staff General Moltke discussed the current situation in the Balkans.
"General Moltke, what do you think of the current Balkan war?"
William II is now more concerned about the situation in the Balkans. On the one hand, it involves Romania and the Ottomans, where Germany has good interests, and on the other hand, Bulgaria is gradually leaning towards him. He has already received news that the Ottomans are preparing to declare war on Bulgaria. Thanks to
There was a large German advisory group in the Ottoman army, so he knew the movements of the Ottoman army clearly.
On the other hand, because its most important ally, Austria-Hungary, has huge local interests, there is a great possibility of conflict with Russia. Germany must pay close attention to local trends.
"Your Majesty, I think there is no possibility for Bulgaria to win now. After the Battle of Tarnovo, there were only 330,000 Bulgarian troops left, among which the elite troops suffered heavy losses in this battle. And now they need to face the Balkans
With the millions of troops from the five countries, this is an impossible task, and now they need to seek peace to reduce their losses."
General Moltke said that Bulgaria's defeat was inevitable militarily. After hearing this, William II nodded and agreed with General Moltke's words. Now that the strength of the troops is 1:3, everyone can see that Bulgaria has failed. The key now is whether to take action.
Stop this war. Because Germany is in an awkward position in this war. On one side is Bulgaria, which is moving closer to itself, and on the other side is its traditional friendly countries (Romania and Ottoman). It is really embarrassing for them.
Faced with the difficult problem of infighting between old and new friendly countries, William II asked Prime Minister Helweg. "Your Excellency Helweg, how do you think we should express our stance on this?"
After thinking about the Kaiser's issue, Prime Minister Herweg said: "Your Majesty, I think it is best to let Austria-Hungary express its position first, and we stand behind them. After all, we are in a position where we cannot express support for anyone at will.
Let them discuss it for a while, and we will wait and see."
Faced with Prime Minister Helweger's opinion, General Moltke was not too happy. "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, according to your suggestion, it is easy for us to not get the understanding of both parties and make things worse.
.”
Faced with General Moltke's doubts, Prime Minister Helweger was not angry and asked instead, "So what should we do according to General Moltke's suggestion?"
When Prime Minister Helweger asked Moltke, Chief of the General Staff, for his opinion, the Kaiser showed great interest, and it seemed that he was also quite interested.
"Your Majesty, Prime Minister." General Moltke nodded to them first and then said his suggestion directly. "I think we should choose the winning side, which will reduce our pressure in the region. Austria-Hungary will support Bulgaria anyway, we can
Choose to support Romania and the Ottomans so that we can account for all three countries."
After hearing General Moltke's words, the Kaiser and the Prime Minister fell into thinking. This was indeed much better than the Prime Minister's previous suggestion. After thinking over and over again, Wilhelm II and Prime Minister Helweger said. "Let's follow General Moltke's method first.
Let’s do it first, and we’ll make adjustments if something unexpected happens.”
Facing William II's words, Prime Minister Helweger saluted and said, "Okay, Your Majesty, I will arrange for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to do this."
When the Kaiser was discussing his embarrassing position in this war, the one who was even more embarrassed than him was the Russian Czar Nicholas II. After receiving the news, he also convened ministers to discuss Russia's attitude.
Nicholas II asked his ministers, "Should we mediate this war now?"
Faced with the tsar's question, the military representative, Duke Nicholas Jr., took the lead in speaking. "Your Majesty, I think Romania is the one who will benefit the most now. If we mediate now, the Serbian side will not be too satisfied."
After hearing what his uncle, Duke Nicholas the Younger, said, Nicholas II looked at Prime Minister Kokovtsov, obviously he needed the Prime Minister's opinion.
"Your Majesty, it actually doesn't matter whether we mediate or not, because Bulgaria can no longer resist the attacks of the Balkan countries. As long as Ferdinand I is not stupid, he will sue for peace in a week at most." Prime Minister Kokovtsov.
Suggestions to Nicholas II. He knew why the Tsar would raise such a question, but Bulgaria can only give up now. After all, Serbia is much more important to them.
Hearing that neither the Prime Minister nor the military wanted to mediate, Nicholas II could not force it. After all, he also needed to respect the unanimous opinions of the ministers.
The only one around that could intervene in this war was the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, facing the situation of the five countries of the Second Balkan War (who knew through Germany that the Ottomans were ready to declare war) with millions of troops, they could only sit back and watch. After all, they
It is impossible to risk everything for Bulgaria, and there is Russia watching him from the side.
Now that the situation in Bulgaria has reached its most dangerous moment, neighboring countries have declared war on it or are preparing to declare war. Now it is time for the Bulgarian government to think of its own way out.
PS: I have been in bad shape for the past two days, and I have bad luck. The computer I was preparing to code broke and it was not repaired until 7:30 in the evening. The two planned updates were postponed until the early morning of the next day before I finished coding.
Chapter, now Steamed Bun has a cold, a runny nose and sweating. After coding this chapter, I’m going to go to bed and will make up three more chapters tomorrow.
