Mediterranean Hegemony Road

"King George I of Greece personally sent a telegram for help, asking us to join the war immediately, otherwise they will have peace talks with the Ottoman Empire alone!" Minister of Foreign Affairs

Chekov laughed and said, "The Greeks know they're in a hurry now! It's a pity that they haven't figured out the situation yet. Are they threatening us with withdrawing from the war?"

Everyone burst into laughter, all with a look of schadenfreude!

Constantine said with a sneer: "Greece still has some role to play. At least they still hold back the hundreds of thousands of Ottoman troops. There is no credit or hard work. We should not discourage their enthusiasm!"

Ferdinand added: "Yes, the fearless spirit of the Greek government is worth encouraging! Well, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called back George I and said that we would go to war soon, and now we are working on a battle plan, and we will go to war as soon as it is completed! "

Foreign Minister Metev said in embarrassment: "Your Excellency, Grand Duke, this is not good! After all, the Greeks are still allies, so there must be a specific time for participating in the war, right?"

Ferdinand thought for a while, then said cautiously: "Then three days!

Tell George I and let them hold on, we Bulgaria are responsible allies and we will be in the war in three days!

In three days, I hope the Ottomans are not so incompetent and can handle the Cyril Legion! "

Metev was powerless to complain, he wanted to laugh but didn't dare to laugh. If Ferdinand's words are not added later, it is really like that, and the last sentence is added, and it is a bit ~~~

Ferdinand didn't care how King George I was feeling. Three days passed in a hurry. According to the agreement, today was the day when Bulgaria entered the war.

On May 3, 1897, Bulgaria issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the Ottoman Empire.

The core content is: ask the Sudanese government to return the territory occupied by Bulgaria, that is, all the territory of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, and compensate the economic loss of 2 billion pounds!

Anyway, the second Bulgarian Empire was indeed destroyed by the Ottomans in five hundred years. Now that Bulgaria is independent, it is no problem to take back its homeland from the Ottoman Empire and ask them to pay for their losses!

Of course, the content of the ultimatum is a lot. From more than 500 years ago to the present, it lists the grievances and grievances between protecting the soil in detail. The mess adds up to more than 100 pages!

I don't know what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs thinks. It is estimated that the Sudanese government may not be able to read the content in 24 hours!

But these are not important. Anyway, the Balkans are lively. After the Greek-Turkish war, Bulgaria joined the declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire.

Before things were over, Mente Negro also jumped out to brush his presence. On the day Bulgaria declared war, he also issued an ultimatum to the Ottoman Empire!

European people instantly turned into melon eaters, commenting on the world while watching the excitement!

According to the unscrupulous media, the Balkans have always had a tradition of three years of small wars and ten years of wars. In the past ten years, except for the two Bulgarian wars, the rest of the time was generally peaceful, and it was long overdue for a big one!

The public opinion of the outside world is not important. The Sudanese government, who has realized it later, has some headaches now. Seeing that Greece is about to settle down, Bulgaria and Mentegro have jumped out again!

But the Sudanese government was much tougher than seeking a country, and refused outright, in one sentence: if you want to fight, fight!

After the Sudanese government refused, on May 4, 1897, Ferdinand authorized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to submit a war book to the Ottoman Empire; the next day, Mentegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire, and the Balkan War broke out!

At the same time as the submission of the gauntlet, the Bulgarian army also began to act.

Unlike the first Balkan war in history, when the Union army of 630,000 fought against 500,000 Ottoman troops (350,000 in Bulgaria, 150,000 in Serbia, 100,000 in Greece, and 30,000 in Negro), this time it was almost Bulgaria One-on-one with the turkey!

In 1897,

The Ottoman Empire had an army of about 450,000 in the Balkans, and the Greeks were maimed. The Ottoman Empire also paid a lot of losses, and the number of troops dropped to about 400,000.

In order to win this war, Bulgaria mobilized a total of 600,000 troops, Mente Negro mobilized about 30,000 troops as in history, plus the already disabled Greece, the Balkan Alliance still occupies an absolute military advantage!

On May 4th, Bulgarian troops divided into five groups and launched a full-scale attack on the Ottoman Empire!

The first route: the Bulgarian First Army Group, consisting of five first-class divisions, five second-class divisions, five heavy artillery regiments, two cavalry regiments, and two engineering divisions, with a total army of about 184,000 people (combat troops about 156,000).

Including: Bulgarian 1st, 8th, 9th, 10th Division, 1st Guards Division, New 11th to 14th Divisions, Heavy Artillery 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Regiments, 1st Cavalry The regiment, the second regiment, and the first and second divisions of the engineer!

Military officers: Lieutenant General Popov as the commander of the army, Major General Petrov as the chief of staff

Strategic goal: Thrace (located in the south of the Balkan Mountains, north of the Aegean Sea, west of Macedonia, east by the Black Sea, and southeast of the Turkish Strait.)

Note: Thrace includes what is now southern Bulgaria (Northern Thrace), northern Greece (Western Thrace) and the European part of Turkey (Eastern Thrace)

The second route: Bulgarian Second Army Group, consisting of three first-class divisions, five second-class divisions, two heavy artillery regiments, one cavalry regiment, and three engineering divisions, with a total army of about 165,000 people (about 130,000 combat troops) .

Including: Bulgarian 2nd, 3rd, 4th Division, the new 15th to 19th divisions, the 6th and 7th heavy artillery regiments, the 3rd cavalry regiment, and the 3rd, 4th and 5th engineer divisions!

Military chiefs: Lieutenant-General Dante Kristof as Army Commander, Andrei Blaskov as Chief of Staff

Strategic Objectives: Macedonia Region (Republic of Macedonia and Northern Greece, Central Macedonia, West Macedonia, East Macedonia), Thessaloniki, Epirus, Albania

The third route: the Bulgarian Third Army Group, which consists of a first-class division, a second-class division and an engineer division, with a total army of about 42,000 people (about 31,000 soldiers).

Including: the Second Division of the Guards, the new 20th Division and the Sixth Engineer Division!

Military commanders: Major General Ilya Dimitev as the commander of the army and Vidjo Dikov as the chief of staff

Strategic Objectives: Kosovo Region, Albania

The fourth route, that is, the sixth Bulgarian division + 1 engineer regiment, about 19,000 people.

Military commanders: Division Commander George Ivanov, Division Chief of Staff Stefan Bogdanov

Strategic goal: cross the Rhodope Mountains and kill the Aegean Sea

The fifth route, namely the Bulgarian seventh division + 1 engineer regiment, about 19,000 people

Military commanders: Division Commander Pariv Khristov, Division Chief of Staff Stoyu Bratislov

Strategic Objective: Cross the Rhodope Mountains and enter the Macedonia region along the Struma River

As for the remaining first-class division (the fifth division) and eight second-class divisions (new divisions 21 to 28), there is no doubt that they are the general reserve team, and of course they are staying to watch the house!

Otherwise, like during the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria was all out of the elite, leaving no troops to watch the house, and was stabbed in the eye by Romania, and it was defeated so fast!

Of course, Ferdinand has to learn his lesson. He has left nine divisions and one heavy artillery regiment, about 140,000 troops, not to mention it is used for defense, even if it is a heads-up with Romania!

Remarks: Engineer divisions are listed separately and are not included in the main force of 600,000!