Greece’s Roman Road - Chapter 201

The room was filled with smoke, the ashtray on the table was full of cigarette butts, and the three of them were silent for a long time.

Constantine coughed and broke the silence: “The question now is, can the alliance formed by Bulgaria and Serbia, combining the strengths of the two countries, be able to compete with the Ottoman Empire?”

As the chief of the general staff of the Greek Army, Emmanuel has access to a large number of military intelligence of Balkan countries on weekdays. For the same Balkan countries, whether it is Bulgaria and Serbia, or the Ottoman Empire, the Military Intelligence Bureau under the General Staff uses or Overt or covert means to collect a large amount of detailed intelligence over the years, which is an important basis for the staff to formulate plans.

Recalling the military intelligence data on Bulgaria and Serbia in his mind, Emma Inur said: “According to the analysis and speculation of our General Staff, under the war situation, the number of troops that Serbia can recruit is about 250,000, and Bulgaria is about 350,000. , the two countries join forces, the scale of military force can reach 600,000 people, facing the Ottoman Empire’s limit force of 700,000 troops, there is really a war.”

Hearing this, Constantine and Venizelos looked at each other and understood each other.

“According to the analysis of the data given by the Chief of General Staff, the two countries jointly attacked the Ottomans, and their strengths were similar to each other. For the two countries, the risk was too great,” Constantine pondered.

“A victory is a tragic victory, but on paper, the military strength of the two countries is still weak; if they lose, the independent status they deliberately obtained before will be threatened.”

Venizelos’ originally anxious brows also stretched out: “The two countries have a cold attitude towards Greece’s alliance invitation. It is not that they are really unwilling to form an alliance with Greece, but they want to obtain a relatively favorable condition in the alliance.”

Speaking of this, Venizelos seems to have opened his mind, and the reason for the encounter between the two countries in this visit suddenly became clear, and his thinking became more and more clear: “Also, don’t forget, among the three Balkan countries, Greece is the only country with a large-scale navy. , as long as the two countries have ideas about the territory of the European part of the Ottoman Empire, they must draw Greece into the alliance”

Even if the combat effectiveness of the Ottoman navy is in doubt, after all, there are several regular warships, especially the two German 10,000-ton-class former dreadnoughts purchased in 1910, and their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated.

As for the Bulgarian Navy, there are only a few torpedo boats and patrol boats, which are almost negligible.

Serbia, as a landlocked country, is even less likely to have a navy.

The only remaining European territory of the Ottoman Empire is basically the Balkan Peninsula on the coast of the Aegean Sea.

Once the two countries engage in war with the Ottoman Empire, the intended battlefield for the enemy must be in Macedonia and Thrace.

Since the two countries have no navy, the Ottoman Empire’s reinforcements in the Asia Minor peninsula can support its garrison in the Balkans by means of land and sea.

Under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, the roads in the Balkans were almost at the level of the Middle Ages and could be ignored.

If you really want to say that there are any large-scale artificial roads, I am afraid that it can be traced back to the roads built there during the Roman Empire.

(During the Roman Empire, due to the vast territory of the empire and the inconvenience of transportation, in order to maintain the rule, facilitate cultural exchanges within the empire, as well as military purposes and commercial interests, a systematic road system was built within the empire, similar to the straight road of Daqin; for example, Sophia The road leading to Constantinople, in the middle and late stages of the Eastern Roman Empire, the national power declined seriously, and I don’t know how many times, the Slav barbarians followed this road and marched under the city of Constantinople┗(T﹏T)┛）

In this case, it was more convenient for the Ottoman Empire to provide support from land and sea to the Balkan inland. After all, the efficiency of sea transportation was much higher than that of land transportation.

At present, the Ottoman Empire still controls the important port city of Thessaloniki in the Aegean Sea.

In the absence of Greece in the alliance, once the two countries and the Ottoman Empire go to war in the Balkans, the Ottoman Empire mobilized personnel and materials from other places can calmly enter the Balkan inland area through this port city, and continuously support the battle here. of the Ottoman army.

“These two countries need the Greek navy to cut off the Ottoman Empire’s route to support the Balkan battlefield by sea, otherwise, they will definitely fall into a hard fight,” Venizelos said happily.

“Also, Bulgaria is also a country with coastal areas after all, so they don’t worry. Once no one holds down the Ottoman Empire’s navy, the two former dreadnoughts of the Ottoman Empire will go north along the black smoke coast and shell their important Black Sea in turn. Along the coast, like Varna, it seems to be the only port city in Bulgaria now, right?”

There was a hint of Nuoyu on the corner of Venizelos’ mouth: “The large-caliber naval guns on warships have a range of a few kilometers near and a range of more than ten kilometers. It is used to deal with coastal towns, which is very powerful.”

“Varna is currently the only large-scale port city in Bulgaria. Not long ago, Bulgaria has just connected to the train. Through this port city, you can go directly to Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. This road is the lifeline of Bulgaria’s transportation.”

“So, even if you only add the Greek navy as a bargaining chip and place it on the side of the guarantee game, their winning rate will be greatly improved.”

Constantine stroked his chin and kept nodding his head. This explanation is indeed reasonable: “If you understand it in this way, it seems that the two sides have joined forces to suppress Greece at present, just to bargain, not to completely exclude Greece from the alliance.”

“Only, in this case, the current alliance between the two countries is obviously dominated by Bulgaria, and the strength of Serbia is even weaker than that of Bulgaria. In the war between the two countries in 1885, Serbia was completely defeated. If the Austro-Hungarian Empire did not come forward, I am afraid Belgrade Both were occupied by Bulgaria, but the two countries have old grudges.”

“Under such circumstances, for Serbia, there is no difference between an alliance with Greece or an alliance with Bulgaria. Why did Serbia choose Bulgaria silently?”

Constantine really doesn’t understand Serbia’s diplomatic choice~www.mtlnovel.com~ Serbia’s relationship with Austria-Hungary has fallen out since Austria-Hungary forcibly merged with Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908. Instead, it has a close relationship with Russia. Unsurprisingly, the Russians should have done the work behind the scenes, after all, they are all Slavic brother countries,” Venizelos sneered.

In 1908, the Austro-Hungarian Empire announced the merger of Bosnia and Herzegovina, taking advantage of the internal instability of the Ottoman Empire and the revolution of the Turkish Youth Party.

There are a large number of Slavs living in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Obviously, Serbia has ideas for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is adjacent to Serbia. In Serbia, from the king to the people, almost everyone believes that the territory of Serbia should include Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The relationship between Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was therefore tense. At that time, Russia supported Serbia, which is also a Slavic brother, and strongly opposed the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Austro-Hungarian Empire; while Germany stood behind Austria-Hungary, supported the annexation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and did not hesitate to issue War intimidation.

Due to the internal turmoil in Russia during the Russo-Japanese War, Russia’s strength was weakened. In 1908, its strength had not yet recovered. It could only watch the Austro-Hungarian Empire annex Bosnia and Herzegovina, which made Russia deeply ashamed.

Hearing Venizelos explaining the whole story, Constantine sighed in his heart that European diplomatic relations are just like this, intricate and inextricably linked with each other.

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