Chapter 192 The Plan of the Coalition Forces

On August 15, 1852, the Russian army launched the second Bulgarian battle. The main force of the Russian army came out in full force and crossed the Balkan Mountains to attack the coalition forces.

It is difficult for Franz to understand that the Russians have pressed all the main force regardless. No matter how bad it is, they still have to leave enough troops to defend the logistics transportation line. If he didn't understand, he didn't understand, and he had to help the Russians deal with the aftermath.

Austria needs this war to continue. Only when the Russians, Britain and France fought a real fire can there be a good opportunity for Austria to move westward.

Franz frowned and ordered: "Order the troops on the front line to stand by at any time. Once the coalition forces break in, they will pretend to be the Balkan guerrillas and help the Russians defend the transportation line."

If it weren't for Austria being a multi-ethnic country with a large number of ethnic minorities in the army, it would be difficult to help the Russians.

Politics is shameless. As long as the cover is not lifted, and there is no evidence in Britain and France that Austria did it, then everyone will continue to pretend to be confused, and find a chance to take revenge next time.

If the cover is lifted, then there is no need to say that there is no choice but to fight back. Franz hates taking risks in such extreme things.

Marshal Radesky suggested: "Your Majesty, direct intervention is easy to expose, or we support the local militias and partisans of the Bulgarians.

The Russians do not take them seriously, but the information provided by the front-line military observers believes that they have a high fighting will and a certain fighting power.

As long as we provide them with a batch of weapons and equipment and arm these people, it is almost impossible for the coalition forces to make a sneak attack with them. "

Austria needs the Russians to fight, but it is not ready to go into battle to help the Russians fight the war in person, which means that the westward strategy will go bankrupt.

You can't expect the Russians to be credible. Austria will help them conquer Constantinople, and they will send troops to help Austria unify the German region, right?

Thinking from another perspective, if the Austrian strategy has been realized, will Franz still do his best to help the Russians now?

Sincere cooperation is based on common interests. Once the interests are gone, everyone's position will change.

Franz shook his head and said, "It's easy to support the Bulgarians, we don't lack that little arms.

But how did the Russians explain that, according to the covenant, the Bulgarian area is the territory of the Russians, and we cannot reach out to it. "

In order to avoid conflicts, the agreement of the Russian-Austrian alliance is very clear, and the division of forces between the two countries is very clear.

Now the Russians are propagating Slavism in Bulgaria and Slavism in the Principality of Montenegro, but Serbia and the Danube Principality have not moved.

The Russians follow the rules, and Austria can't break the rules. This is the basis of the alliance between the two countries. It is easy to destroy and difficult to build.

Prime Minister Felix proposed: "If we don't arrange for someone to smuggle arms to Bulgaria, there are a lot of active arms dealers in the Balkans recently. We can find someone to act as an agent."

Metternich objected: "No. If it is a few thousand rifles, we can naturally let the arms dealers sell them to the Bulgarians.

But now we have the Bulgarians with the ability to stop the coalition raids, which requires at least one or two divisions of weaponry.

If so many weapons have flowed into the Bulgarian area, we don't know anything, is it in the past?

Besides, Bulgarians don't have that much money to buy weapons now, and arms dealers don't charge for selling arms. Such a weird thing happened. As long as the Russians are not stupid, they will know that we did it. "

Arms smuggling can only be done in small ways, and once the scale is large, it is difficult to keep secrets.

The Ottoman Empire has always controlled the flow of weapons and ammunition into the Bulgarian area. If a large number of weapons are now entering Bulgaria from the Austrian-controlled area, Austria will not be able to tell.

Franz thought for a while and said: "Select a part of the second-hand weapons in our warehouse that can still be used, and the weapons seized in the Balkans, and let the quartermaster secretly sell them to arms dealers in his own name, and we will not leave the rest. participated in."

Ordering his subordinates to resell weapons and equipment is a strange thing, and it happens now.

A large number of Austrian equipment appeared in the Bulgarian area, which will certainly attract the attention of the Russians. If it is estimated that it is replaced by second-hand and old equipment into the market, the Russians will still have the feeling of being a confidant.

Now the largest arms dealer in Bulgaria is the Russian Expeditionary Force. The officers sell the captured weapons and equipment to local guerrilla organizations for benefits.

Now that the Russian army has done it, it is not surprising that the Austrian army has followed suit. Even if the Russians find out, they will help cover up the past, otherwise their arms sales will be exposed.

Prime Minister Felix thought for a while and said: "Your Majesty, this is probably a drop in the bucket. The local militias in Bulgaria are too poor to buy some guns and ammunition. They can't afford artillery.

If the coalition forces send troops to the back to destroy, although the number of troops cannot be too large, it will not be too small, at least in regiments, and the Bulgarian local militia may not be their opponents. "

"Don't worry, we only need the Bulgarians to delay the time. With this time as a buffer, presumably the Russians should react." Franz said calmly

Franz was reassured about the combat effectiveness of the Bulgarian militia. He had fallen into a misunderstanding before, and these people on the frontal battlefield could not beat the regular army.

But in front of the house, there is terrain that can be resisted. These Bulgarians delay the enemy's marching speed, but there is still no

questionable.

Raiding the rear was originally a word - fast. If the speed is not fast enough, let alone cut off other people's logistics lines, it would be good to expose the whereabouts and not be eaten by others.

...

Balkan Coalition Command

"General Most Pasha, how can you tell me what happened? Why did the Russians attack this time, and you have no news at all?

Don't tell me about the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of troops, you didn't find out? asked the French commander-in-chief, Aimable Jean-Jacques Pelissier

"General Most Pasha, you are to blame for what happened this time, the Russians have all started to attack, you don't know it, and you want us to inform you.

This is the homeland of your Ottoman Empire. You can't get any information about it. Are all your officials eating shit? "British commander Montes accused

Facing the accusations of the two, Most Pasha had nothing to say. People are all guest troops who don't know that the Russians' actions are justifiable. These local scumbags actually let the Russians complete the military mobilization under their noses without knowing anything about it.

"I'm sorry you two. We will deal with the dereliction of duty seriously, and the same thing will not happen again. Now that the enemy has come over, let's fight the enemy first!"

After finishing speaking, Most Pasha picked up the baton, pointed on the military map, and analyzed: "Here, and here, are the focus of our competition with the Russian army.

Judging from the firepower on the battlefield, the focus of the Russian offensive should be on the strategic location - Sliven.

Sliven has been a strategic location in the Balkans since ancient times, and once the Russian army occupied it, it gave us a strategic advantage.

From here to Edirne, we can no longer establish an effective line of defense. If the Russians leave a hundred thousand troops in Sliven, we will leave two hundred thousand troops to watch them.

In addition, another city that may be the key attack of the Russians is Sofia.

Sofia is located in the southern part of the Sofia Basin. It is also a strategic location in the Balkans. If you master it, you will control half of Bulgaria.

If Sofia falls, the Russians will be able to link up with the Austrians to the north, and Belgrade, which we are still holding, will lose its strategic significance. "

Looking at the map, Montes's face changed, and now the place where the British army was stationed happened to be Sofia, and along with them there were 30,000 Ottoman troops.

It was chosen to be stationed here because of the internal analysis of the British Expeditionary Force in advance, that the Russians' goal was Constantinople, and the focus of the attack would be on the Sliven area.

If the coalition forces win and launch a counter-offensive, Sofia will be in an advantageous position again, and can rush to the Danube as quickly as possible to cut off the Russian army's retreat. This is a good place to gain military exploits.

But now, the Russians are also likely to make a breakthrough in the Sofia region. After conquering this place, most of the Balkan Peninsula was completely occupied, and the political gains were greater than the military.

French commander-in-chief Aimable Jean-Jacques Pelissier said indifferently: "The Russians want to seize Constantinople, and the Sliven area is an inescapable hurdle. Unless they are not afraid of us copying the back. Road, otherwise the Russians must attack here.

Losing the Sliven area will make it difficult for us to fight the next battle. At that time, the Russians can attack and retreat, and we can only respond passively.

Now that your country has abandoned Serbia, even if Sofia is lost, it will be nothing more than the loss of central and western Bulgaria, plus Belgrade.

This war is still early, and the one who laughs at the end is the victor. We don't need to care about the gains and losses of one city and one place. It is worth giving up some land temporarily for the final victory. "

Montes strongly objected: "The Sofia region can't just give up, the Russians have deceived the Bulgarians, and if it continues, more Balkan peoples will be deceived.

At that time, we will find that the enemy is fighting more and more. With the support of these people, even if we defeat the Russians, we will not be able to drive them out of the Balkans.

The 30,000 reinforcements sent by our country have already set off, and they will arrive in the Balkans at the latest the day after tomorrow. The 20,000 troops from the Kingdom of Sardinia also arrived in the Balkans and sent 50,000 of them to reinforce Sofia.

Restricted by logistics, the Russians have limited troops in the Balkans. They cannot attack Sofia with too many troops, and an army of 100,000 can definitely hold it.

Sliver here is guarded by the French army, and the Russians have almost no possibility of breaking through. As long as this wave of attacks is blocked, we can launch a counterattack.

In terms of military strength, we have an absolute advantage, and no matter how strong the Russian army is, it is not our opponent in the Balkans. "

The military serves politics. As the first battle of the British army on the Balkans, it is impossible for Montes to retreat without a fight, which is related to the face of their British army.

The French have already emerged, even if the French army suffers, but on the bright side, they are all victors, and failure is the fault of the Ottomans.

The British Army also needs to stand up, they also need to prove their strength to the outside world and improve their domestic status. This determines that they cannot act with the French, otherwise they will be considered to be soy sauce.

Most Pasha supported: "General Montes' proposal is good, Sofia can't afford to lose, and we can't afford the political influence."

Negatively speaking, it is unknown whether the Russians can be driven out. If both sides suffer a loss, the Ottoman Empire cannot regain the lost ground. Wouldn’t it be a big loss to give up Sofia now?

The British are strong, that's the navy; the French are strong, that's Napoleon's France; the Ottoman Empire is strong, that's history.

The strength of the Russians is now, and the army is still strong. Having fought against the Russian army many times, the Ottoman government has a lot of fearful Russians, and even Most Pasha is inevitably affected.

The Sudanese government is ready to move the capital, if not for morale, now the capital of the Ottoman Empire has become Ankara.

The woolly bears are too difficult to deal with. If they cannot be driven out of the Balkans, the Sudanese government will not dare to continue to place the capital in Constantinople and be their neighbors.

Two to one, Aimable Jean-Jacques Pelissier did not continue to oppose it. Everyone is an allied army. In fact, he can command the French army, and the Ottoman army can barely command. The proud John Bull does not buy his account. .

Aimable Jean-Jacques Perlisier suggested: "In this case, let's divide the labor. The defenders in the Sofia area are mainly British troops, named the Left Army, and General Montes is the commander.

The Sliven area, including the Kazanlak area, was garrisoned by the French army. I personally served as the commander, which was regarded as the middle route army, and General Most Pasha was in charge of the rest as the right route army.

The battle on the front lines is tight and we have no time to waste. If there is no problem, let's go to office as soon as possible! "

Montes said without hesitation: "No problem, this distribution is very reasonable, and the combat effectiveness of the troops can be mobilized to the maximum extent."