Holy Roman Empire

The British reinforcements had just arrived in the Balkans and had not had time to take over all the defense zones. The Bulgarian guerrillas launched a comprehensive counterattack. This time the Russians also cooperated very vigorously to suppress the frontline coalition forces.

Facts proved that Plovdiv was indeed a decoy set by the British, and they were here to annihilate the main force of the Bulgarian guerrillas, but they only controlled the beginning and failed to control the ending.

As soon as the fighting started, the situation changed. More than ten cities, including Plovdiv, were attacked by guerrillas.

Most of these are feints, but this mess is unrevealed by the British before they are exposed.

There is no way, although the Greeks are not strong, they have chosen the timing very well. Who knows if they will kill Constantinople all the way?For security reasons, the Ottoman Empire had to deploy troops to contain them.

The defending city was understaffed, and there were leading parties in the city. Feudal attacks could also destroy the city. If these places were lost, the coalition forces in the Sofia region would be trapped in the siege circle, and the British forces had no choice but to send troops to reinforce.

The Bulgarian guerrillas have too weak firepower, and it is okay to bully the Ottoman second-line troops. The frontal battlefield is just like the British.

But it does not mean that there is no way to fight.The British army who had just arrived on the front line did not fight with them. The proud British commander directly treated them as indigenous in the colony.

This understanding is not wrong. In theory, Bulgaria can also be regarded as a colony of the Ottoman Empire, but it is directly affiliated.

In terms of strength, the gap is widened. Bulgarian guerrillas have also been trained by Russian and Austrian instructors. With high morale, the fighting power that broke out is not weak.

With the sound of "Boom", the British troops marching were again attacked by the guerrillas. After a moment of kung fu, the gunshots came to an abrupt end. Apparently the guerrillas retreated.

A young officer said pale: "General, the enemy was attacked in front, two soldiers were killed and seven soldiers were injured!"

"This is the first time we have been attacked by the enemy?" Major General Oliver asked

"Eighteenth time!" The young officer replied in a low voice

"What nonsense, then send me to chase!" Major General Oliver ordered

The casualties caused by the Bulgarian guerrillas were not large, except that the number of attacks was frequent, and the speed of their march was delayed. The key is to attack the morale of the troops.

Major Oliver was not the master who did not fight back at a loss, of course he had to fight back.

Due to the lack of experience in fighting guerrillas, most of the time when the enemy is chased halfway, he disappears. If he is unlucky, there will be more traps waiting for them.

In this round of confrontation, the British army did not take advantage of it, not to mention, the key is to delay the best fighter.By the time they reached their destination, the main force of the guerrillas had long since disappeared.

Everyone knows that the base of the Bulgarian guerrillas is in the Balkan Mountains, and Major General Oliver ’s task is to encircle the guerrillas.

But when he entered the Balkan Mountains, he attacked the enemy with his own short.Large forces are difficult to move, and artillery has lost its function. In this environment, the casualty ratio between the two sides is almost 1: 1.

With the replacement of a British soldier for a guerrilla, Major Oliver was not crazy. If he dared to do so, the days of going to the military court would not be far away.

Major General Oliver commanded the troops for the first time. Otherwise, as a gold-plated affiliate, he would not take this unlucky task.

The British generals who have been in the Balkans for a long time are all willing to die with the Russians on the front line, rather than enter the mountains to suppress the guerrillas.

The former enemy sees that the British combat strength is also slightly superior. As long as the enemy is not besieged several times, the risk is controllable; the latter appears to be a small risk, and the guerrillas certainly cannot beat the regular army. It's just that it's different after entering the mountain.

Major General Oliver thought that he had set up a bait to lure the Bulgarian guerrillas.

The result now is obvious. The enemy was fooled. Unfortunately, he overestimated the speed of the British army. They could not gather their pockets in time under the enemy's sneak attack.

...

Plovdiv, this strategic place has been reduced to more than half, and the defenders are still stubbornly resisting.Attacking tough battles is not the strength of the guerrillas. Even if there are internal and external cooperation in the city, they have not been able to win the city at one go.

The guerrilla commander Eddie Mir ordered: "Order the troops to stop the attack, collect as much strategic material as possible, take away what can be taken away, and burn it if it can't be taken away, not leave it to the enemy."

The middle-aged officer said reluctantly, "Commander, is it a pity that so many babies have been burnt. If we organize the militias to rush, they can still be shipped out."

Eddie Mir glared and said, "Don't talk nonsense, are we still running with so many supplies? If we were bitten by the British, even if our strength increased tenfold, it would not be their opponent! "

To be able to destroy this part of the material, Eddie Mir was already satisfied.Although it is a pity that they did not win the entire Plovdiv, politically they can declare that they have captured this place and fight for a better position among the Russians.

The Russians are very realistic. At the beginning, the treatment of the Bulgarian guerrillas would not starve them.Since they tore the Sardinian army's defense line from the front and broke through to the enemy's rear, the treatment of the guerrillas was aligned with the Russian army.

They were temporarily unable to obtain logistics supplies, but the Russians still delivered them a batch of weapons and equipment and transported them through the trails in the Balkan Mountains.

Many guerrilla officers, including Eddie Mir, have received the official rank of the Russian army, and they are now staffed.

Fitzroy Somerset also promised that if they are willing to join the army after the war, they can all get the official Russian army number and be responsible for stationing in Bulgaria; those who want to retire can also enter the government department to get matching treatment.

"independent"?Stop dreaming, the Russians did not come for charity. Fortunately, they had been fighting hard for so long, just to make Bulgarians independent.

Now Bulgarians are not so demanding, and autonomy is their highest goal.Most people also want to be sheltered by the Russians and ensure that they are not enslaved by the Ottomans.

In particular, the personnel in the religious world is a standard pro-Russian faction, and it has very high expectations for Bulgaria to join the Russian Empire.

In the future, Bulgaria is nothing more than a province, autonomous province, or joining Russia in the name of an autonomous principality. The specific situation depends on the decision of the tsarist government.

The prerequisite is that the Russians won the war, and if they lose all the Hughes, the losers are not eligible to enjoy the loot.

...

Sofia

In the coalition headquarters, Lieutenant General Montes has already greeted all the relatives of Major General Oliver. The teammates of the pit are not waiting for this, let alone the pits themselves?

If it were not for the so-called pocket formation that delayed the time of defense, the Bulgarian guerrillas would not be able to take advantage of it and have captured three and a half cities in just one week.

The cities are all Ottomans, and even if they are captured by Montes, they don't care. The problem is that the materials hoarded in the city belong to them.

Even if it is the great cause of the British emperor, it does not care about such a loss, but also consider the political influence?

The immediate consequence now is that Montes can't hold his head in front of the French.The deeper influence is that the Bulgarian region is more unstable. More and more people see the hope of getting rid of Ottoman rule and support guerrillas.

"Submit an order to Major General Oliver, let him immediately recover the lost ground, and ensure the smooth flow of our army's logistics transportation line." Montes ordered

Let's talk about the guerrilla guerrillas later. If it doesn't work, leave it to the Ottomans. Anyway, this is not the territory of the British Empire. Montes doesn't care so much.

"Yes!" The attendant replied

At the time of this order, Montes had not noticed that the danger was approaching, and Fitzroy Somerset was already planning a decisive battle.

At the beginning, the Sofia battlefield was the Russian army of 73,000 + 20,000 Bulgarian guerrillas VS 50,000 British army + 20,000 Sardinian army + 30,000 Ottoman army, the two sides have equal strength.

Now that the Russian army has been replenished, the total strength is still more than 70,000, and the Ottoman army in the coalition is less than 10,000, and only 35,000 of the remaining 42,000 British troops are on the front line. The Sardinian army still has 1.9. Million.

It has to be said that the Italians are good at saving lives, and they have the lowest casualty rate among the warring parties. Franz's tossed battlefield lifesaving manual was now deeply rooted in the Sardinian army.

This means that when the coalition reinforcements were contained by the Bulgarian guerrillas, the Russian army already had an absolute advantage on the battlefield.

The Ottoman army has been maimed, the Sardinian army paddled the whole field again, and the remaining British army cannot withstand the Russian army twice as powerful.

On December 27, 1852, under the leadership of Fitzroy Somerset, the Russian army launched an offensive in the Sofia region.

Unlike the previous attack, this time the Russian army was slamming the Sardinian army. Since the Bulgarian guerrillas were killed from here, Fitzroy Somerset realized that this is the weak point of the coalition defense. .

It was just that I missed the opportunity at that time. In order to prevent the British from plugging this loophole, it later became the target of the Russian army's feinting. The artillery fired every time was incessant, but actually did not contribute.

The Sardinian army on the opposite side is also very cooperative. It is common to fire guns into the sky. The two sides made a very fierce look.

Montes was fooled past, and really thought that the Bulgarian guerrillas had torn off the line of defense. It was the Sardinian army who was unfamiliar with the environment when they first arrived, and the guerrillas found a path to break through.

Coupled with the tightness of the troops, the Sardinians seemed to be struggling again, and they played vividly on the battlefield, resisting the Russian offensive, and he did not let the British army and their joint defense.

From the perspective of long-term development, Montes's approach is correct.If the British army and the Sardinian army are defending together, it is estimated that this elite British army will be abandoned soon.

Mantua is not a good general, but he must be a good boss.In order to reduce the rate of soldier casualties, he emphasized safety first with three orders and was loved by soldiers.

In the eyes of the Sardinian soldiers, this is not their war. The reason for going to the battlefield is to earn that salary.So they have always been able to paddle, and they will definitely not contribute.

All of this is clear to the human nature of General Mantua. This army is the political capital of his future return to the Kingdom of Sardinia. It is necessary to buy the heart of the army.

He can't do it by leading everyone to victory and snatching loot to make a fortune.Then only lead everyone to save their lives, and generals who value the lives of soldiers will also be welcomed.

Now the trouble is so great that the Russians on the other side don't cooperate, and Mantua has a headache.Give up the defense and run, think about it. If you do, the angry British will kill him directly.

What can happen to allies?Isn't it possible for the Kingdom of Sardinia to take the British apart from protest?

A middle-aged officer suggested: "General, let's open a mouth at the border with the British line of defense and let the Russians pass. Even if the British find fault after the war, we can blame them.

The Sardinians are also tempered every day by the British, and the disparity in treatment exacerbates this dissatisfaction.

Nominally everyone ’s supplies are the same, but after arriving in the place, the British can always get some supplies of fruits, vegetables, potatoes, bread and so on.

Due to the limited number, the British can only be obtained by military officers, and naturally they will not have their share.

Even generals like Mantua are not much better. If they want to improve their food, they must pay bribes to the brigade quartermasters.

They have not protested to the British, but the British bureaucrats took out the contract signed by the two countries, which clearly stated that the British Empire provided logistical support for 20,000 Sardinian soldiers.

Since it is said that "soldier", then they can only enjoy the treatment of soldiers.In the eyes of Sardinian officers, equating them with soldiers is no longer just a question of treatment, it also insults their personality.

In this case, even the coalition commander Lieutenant General Montes was powerless.

The bureaucrats in London were not something he could afford. They all acted in accordance with the regulations, fully complied with British law, and it was useless to appeal to the country.

There is no way over London, can Ottomans provide some?

Obviously, this is impossible. Looking at the situation of the Ottoman army, we know that in addition to the guarantee of the treatment of high-level officers, the bottom soldiers also need the British army to help.

If it were not the machinery of the bureaucrats in London, they had always been supplied according to the standard number of people at the time of departure. Montess distributed the extra beef jerky and biscuits to the Ottoman army, and now the front-line Ottoman soldiers are fighting hungry belly.

Mantua shook his head and said, "You can't do this. If you hunt it down afterwards, we can't escape the relationship. We can't bear the responsibility of losing the defense line, which will affect the national reputation."

Pit teammates can, but they must have skills, and if the operation is not good, they will be put in.This kind of thing that has no technical content and directly opens the defense line, Mantua will not do it.

"What should I do? The Russian offensive is so fierce, our losses are very heavy, I am afraid it will not last long." An officer said with a wry smile

Mantua frowned and lowered his voice, saying: "This war can't be fought, we don't need to stay to fight for the Ottomans.

Order the troops to abandon the most advanced positions, and by the way forget the British troops' deployment information on the battlefield, and mark them more clearly.

Remember to use Bulgarian, but the Russians can understand it anyway. This pot can only be used by the Ottomans. It is normal for Russian spies to be in their army.

With this information, the Russians will definitely shift the offensive target.Once the line of defense was lost, we contracted our forces and moved into the Kosovo region, and then returned to Thrace from the Macedonia region."

Obviously, he was already prepared, and even the escape route had been planned.If the British are strong enough to block the Russian attack, then it is easy to handle, and investigate the Russian spies in the coalition forces!

The first object of suspicion is the Ottoman army. In theory, the British and Sardinian troops are foreigners, and the Russians have no time to infiltrate.