Holy Roman Empire

After the Battle of Sofia, Montes, who had escaped, was summoned by the London government to return to his country. What he was waiting for was a day trip to the military court. This time, the British were ashamed.

Although Montes has repeatedly explained that the traitor ’s betrayal led to the defeat of the war, and it has no effect.

If you lose, you lose. Even if they tactically caused more casualties to the Russians, everyone knows that this battle, the coalition side lost.

The culprit is that the British army failed to defend the line of defense, allowing the Russians to break through.The matter that was attacked by the guerrillas before and after was decisively ignored, and the British were embarrassed to mention this matter.

Oliver, who has made a successful rescue, was promoted to the commander of the British army. The promotion was originally a good thing, but Major General Oliver was not a little bit happy.

He still has self-knowledge. The so-called rescue efforts are all excuses. If it is not a deep background, he will also be blamed for the failure of this war.

Had he not been engaged in the so-called decoy plan and attempted to wipe out the guerrillas in one place, the reinforcements would be stationed in various places in advance, and the main part of the guerrillas would not be able to assemble to sneak attack from behind. In this battle, he actually killed Montes.

This kind of thing fools the domestic bureaucracy, and the soldiers who fight are fooled, but they cannot deceive the officers fighting on the front line.

In this case, can he be convinced if he serves as the commander of the expeditionary force?

"Has our casualties been counted?" Oliver asked

The middle-aged military officer with a bearded beard replied: "Only a part of the statistics are collected. The Third Army of the Expeditionary Army killed 6,876 people who were killed, missing or captured, and injured 2,847 people.

The 1st and 2nd Corps of the Expeditionary Force, the casualties are still being counted. At present, we have collected 11,621 wounded soldiers, including 924 wounded, and it is said that some of the broken soldiers and the Sardinians withdrew to the Macedonia area."

This is not just a heavy loss, the expeditionary force was simply disabled.Did not return to the team for half a month, the chance of being able to return to the team is already very low.

There is no way to do it. When the battle is fought, everyone is running around in a hurry, who cares what direction is wrong.

With the defeat of the Battle of Sofia, the entire southwestern part of Bulgaria is occupied by Russians. It is unknown how many people can escape the pursuit of the Russians and Bulgarian guerrillas.

In this era, communication was poor, and the soldiers couldn't speak the language. Even if they escaped, it was very difficult for them to find their way back.

If the sense of direction is not strong, it is not impossible to go directly.

Oliver patted his head, and 80,000 British Expeditionary Forces have now hit him, and there are more than 30,000 people left in his hand. Even if he goes to Macedonia with the Sardinians, it will not exceed 40,000.

What is more crucial is that the morale of the army is completely lacking. For a long time of hard work, these soldiers are war-sickened, even for the third legion that has just arrived.

If the fighting strength of the British army was 10 before, now only 5 is left.Without half a year of repair, it is impossible to restore combat effectiveness.

The battle is still to be fought, the French have asked them to build a line of defense to prevent the enemy from coming from the west.

If possible, Oliver does not mind retreating all the way to go back and fight a battle of Constantinople.Fighting in coastal areas, they can obtain naval fire support, making it easier to gain an advantage.

Obviously this is impossible, and let alone the opinions of the Ottomans, the coalition forces and the Russians are still fighting hard in the Sliven area and cannot be withdrawn at all.

Blind retreat is likely to become a defeat, and the consequences will be serious.

Oliver said seriously: "Anyway, we must now block the Russians in Kazanlak and the old Zagora region, otherwise the coalition forces will fail this time.

The London government has issued a death order, and we must not fail the battle for our reasons.

I have requested reinforcements from the country, and the cabinet government has guaranteed that at least 50,000 reinforcements will arrive in two months.

After the Sofia War, the Russians also suffered heavy casualties, and they also need time to repair, they should not launch a major attack in the next two months."

A young officer questioned: "My Excellency Commander, IMHO, even if the Russians launched a tentative attack, I may not be able to stop it.

On the way to retreat, we lost all the artillery. One third of the soldiers now do not even have a rifle. If they are not repaired, the troops will not have any combat power at all."

This is not nonsense. If a major division of the Russian army comes over at this time, these more than 30,000 British troops will continue to run.

Oliver glared at him and said, "Colonel Fuhu, you have to worry about it. The loss of weapons and equipment has already been replenished in China, and it can be repaired in half a month at most.

The morale of the army depends on everyone's efforts.Now we will not have new combat missions, as long as we do good defensive work and wait for the arrival of reinforcements."

Passive is not passive, Oliver can't care so much.He knew that now if he relied on fortifications to defend, the soldiers would still be able to exert some of their fighting power.If you take the initiative to attack, then you have to write a "How the Deserter Was Born".

...

Kraljevo, Serbia

In the third battalion of the fourth regiment of the seventh division of Austria ’s new division, Lieutenant Colonel Haydn encountered a big problem, and a large number of soldiers broke down in his defense zone.

A young military officer about 22 to 23 years old whispered: "Lieutenant Colonel, the British sent representatives."

Hayden said lightly: "Please come in."

The current situation is a little special. In the war between Britain and Russia, Austria remained neutral, but Austria was an ally with the Russians, and was still in war with the Ottoman Empire, an ally of the British.

This intricate international relationship made Lieutenant Colonel Haydn very embarrassed.If it is an Austrian site, then as a neutral country, disarm the British and return them to the country after the war.

Unfortunately, Serbian sovereignty still belongs to the Ottoman Empire. If the British do not cooperate, Lieutenant Colonel Haydn does not know whether to force them to disarm or deport them.

Not long afterward, a somewhat embarrassed British officer came in and Lieutenant Colonel Haydn said: "Nice to meet you, Colonel Daniel, what do you need to drink?"

Colonel Daniel replied politely: "Thank you, the coffee will be fine. It's best to have some pastries."

It can be seen that his stomach has protested again, and the voice of "Guru Guru" sounded, reminding him that he should eat.

Lieutenant Colonel Hayden shrugged and said, "Sorry, I don't have any pastries here, but there are bread, canned food, and beef jerky. Would you like some more?"

This is the battlefield, although in the city of Kraljevo, the Austrian army did not have the luxury to supply pastries.

Colonel Daniel said lively: "Bread and canned food."

When they escaped, they were carrying hungry beef jerky, and now they are about to vomit, and it is good to have bread at this time.

Lieutenant Colonel Haydn instructed: "The guard brewed Colonel Daniel a cup of coffee, took a piece of bread and two cans."

Both men are soldiers, and communication between soldiers has always been straight.

After a pause, Lieutenant Colonel Haydn stated the conditions: "Colonel Daniel, you have two options:

Or, in accordance with international practice, we, as a third-party neutral country, will disarm you. The following issues will be communicated by the London government and Vienna, and you will be repatriated after the war.

Or, you are leaving now, for the friendship between the two countries, I can pretend that I have n’t seen anything.You are now leaving from the Kosovo area, and it's too late to intersect from the Macedonia area."

He did not want to clash with the British at this time. There are many British soldiers currently entering the Kraljevo area. If it cannot be dealt with in time, it is likely to cause trouble.

Colonel Daniel replied without hesitation: "We chose the first one. The Russians have occupied the Kosovo region, and our path is cut.

We agree to be disarmed, but you must provide us with identity-matched treatment and guarantee that we can only be sent back to our country after the war."

After hearing Daniel's nonsense, Lieutenant Colonel Haydn couldn't help crying.He finally understood why such a person would mistakenly enter the Kraljevo region.

Where did this stray in, simply came over intentionally.

The war lasted almost a year, and the British participated in the war for more than half a year.After fighting for so long, the troops did not rotate, and it was natural for everyone to be war-sick.

The British Army soldiers in this era were not well paid. Looking at the logistics supply, they knew that if they had a status, the bureaucracy of the logistics department would not dare to be so chaotic.

Compared with the navy, they were raised by their stepmothers, and their treatment was less than one-third of that of naval soldiers.This differential treatment naturally inspired their dissatisfaction.

Now that everyone's war exhaustion is on the rise, it is natural to find a way to escape this war.It is undesirable to be a deserter in the first place. This is subject to military law.

With the failure of the Sofia battle, their opportunity came.This time it was defeated across the board, so I must escape.

If you ran back, you would inevitably be on the battlefield.If the Russians surrendered, the bears had a bad reputation in this era, and they were afraid of being slaughtered.

Moreover, when he was a prisoner of war, he was not honourable to say that he was an enemy, and the surrender had no chance of getting treatment.

At this time, a wise man thought of a way to run to a neutral country to be disarmed, and then waited for repatriation after the war.

Not only have you escaped the war, but you do n’t have to worry about being liquidated by the country.It is normal to panic on the battlefield, and who knows that the Austrians have occupied Serbia?

Anyway, the London government did n’t send a document to inform them. They can confuse them and say they do n’t know, they can pretend to be a normal retreat and then stray into Austrian territory.

The bureaucrats of the London government must recognize that this is in compliance with the regulations. They rely on the rules of this machine to protect their own interests, and it is naturally impossible to break it easily.

In fact, not only did the British do this, but even some of the Sardinian army ran with them, but because there was hatred against Austria, not many people ran over.

As to whether it will cause trouble to the London government or affect the relationship between Britain and Austria, this is beyond their consideration.

Anyway, the Austrians must treat them to food and drink, which is a bargaining chip with the London government.

Even in order to be more convincing, they also found a step, biting that the Russians had occupied the Kosovo region and cut off their return.

Lieutenant Colonel Hayden thought about it and said, "Yes, but all British soldiers must sign the agreement.

Make sure that you strayed into Kraljevo by yourself. Because the Russians cut off their way home, you lost logistics and asked for help."

After changing the speech, everyone's face was taken care of.It also changed the argument for disarmament. In the future, the two countries will not have conflicts because of this issue.

Colonel Daniel complained: "No problem, then Lieutenant Colonel Haydn, please provide us with supplies as soon as possible. Along the way, we haven't had a normal ton of food for several days."

Lieutenant Colonel Haydn asked: "Yes, how many of you are there, and I will send someone to send you a batch of supplies in the past."

Colonel Daniel replied: "A total of 1,531 people, including 426 Sardinian soldiers, must receive the same treatment, and there are 62 wounded who need to be treated.

There should still be some troops behind. This number may continue to increase in the future. You'd better prepare more supplies."

This is not an individual running away, it's all about the officers running the road collectively with the soldiers, and also running so fresh and refined.

Lieutenant Colonel Haydn nodded and ordered people to prepare supplies.Anyway, let's stabilize these British soldiers first.

Lieutenant Colonel Haydn had no opinion on Daniel ’s request for loyalty. The London government would pay for them anyway.