Chapter 264 Meat Grinder
After getting the consent of the two, Constantine solemnly took the document representing the black plan, took out a pen, and signed his name on it.
While signing, countless thoughts flashed through Constantine's mind.
The Second Balkan War at this time was completely different from the war in the original time and space.
Due to the expansion of Greece in the Balkans, the political and military situation in the Balkans was very different from that in history.
In the original history, the Second Balkan War was a treaty signed by Greece and Serbia, and the weak united to fight against the powerful Bulgaria.
The current situation is that Greece and Bulgaria have serious differences in interests due to the issue of dividing Macedonia.
Bulgaria believes that it defeated the main force of the Ottoman Empire in the First Balkan War against the Ottoman Empire and made the greatest contribution. It hopes to obtain Vardar Macedonia (now the Republic of Macedonia) and the territory near Thessaloniki, Macedonia in the Aegean Sea.
In the eyes of the Bulgarians, Macedonians are Bulgarians. They want to save their compatriots and establish Greater Bulgaria.
The Greeks certainly do not agree with Bulgaria's point of view.
First of all, the Greeks believe that those Macedonians believe in Orthodoxy, and they are Greeks.
The contemporary Greek national identity was originally reshaped by religious beliefs (Orthodoxy).
Especially within the territory of the former Ottoman Empire, those who believe in Orthodoxy are Greeks, and Greeks believe in Orthodoxy. This is the common understanding of the Greeks.
It is for this reason that the Greeks regard those Orthodox Christians who still live in the Ottoman Empire as Greeks and their compatriots.
It is precisely because of this national sentiment that in recent years, with the rapid development of the Greek economy, more and more "Greeks" who originally lived in Asia Minor have moved to Greece to live.
The people of Greece not only do not dislike these outsiders, but welcome them very much.
The Greek people believe that this is to rescue their compatriots who have suffered from the barbaric rule of the Ottoman Empire.
In fact, the Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire are a very complex group.
A considerable number of Orthodox Christians are Slavs who migrated from the Balkan Peninsula.
Secondly, the Macedonia region was Greece's main victory in the last war, so there is no reason to give it to Bulgaria.
Among the three countries in the Balkans, Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria, Serbia is the weakest, while Greece and Bulgaria are slightly stronger.
In the last war, Serbia benefited the least among the three countries, and only got the area around Kosovo.
In addition, there are 300,000 Albanians living in Kosovo, which is the largest Albanian settlement area outside of Albania.
In any case, these Albanians cannot identify with Serbia.
It is conceivable that Serbia is very dissatisfied with only getting a small area (relative to Macedonia) of Kosovo, and there are a large number of Muslims (Albanians believe in Islam) who are incompatible with Serbia.
Regarding the competition between Greece and Bulgaria for Macedonia, Serbia, which has not gained much benefit, has not made a statement.
The Greek ambassador to Belgrade has visited the Serbian Prime Minister several times to inquire about the attitude of the Serbian government, but there has been no clear result.
According to the ambassador's feedback, Serbia's attitude is also very tangled. It neither refuses nor agrees to Greece's goodwill, and its attitude is ambiguous.
Serbia does not want Greece to win, nor does it want Bulgaria to win.
Whichever side is born will gain a huge advantage in the competition for the Ottoman Empire's legacy in the Balkans.
In order to prevent the Serbian army from taking advantage of the war between the Greek army and the Bulgarian army to get involved in North Macedonia and even Albania bordering Kosovo, Greece has deployed 150,000 Albanian troops in Skopje (the capital of North Macedonia) in addition to the Macedonian Corps confronting the Bulgarian army.
This makes Greece even more stretched when facing the highly mobilized Bulgarian Army.
The Greek military leaders, including Constantine, are worried about the role that Serbia, an unknown factor, will play in this war.
Once Serbia stands on the side of Bulgaria, this war may have many variables, and the General Staff will also lose control of the direction of this war.
But now the Bulgarians have taken the initiative, and Greece has no other choice.
Seeing this scene, Emai Nur and Yannis looked at each other.
"As the supreme commander of the Greek army, I approve the black plan formulated by the General Staff." Constantine stood up and solemnly handed the document to the Chief of the General Staff Emai Nur.
"Inform the commander of the Macedonian Manugiansky Corps as soon as possible, and let him deploy and mobilize the army according to the black plan as soon as possible."
"I hope that the Greek army can be blessed by God and win a glorious victory again."
Emai Nur took the document carefully, and after confirming it again, he also took out a pen from his pocket and signed his name under Constantine's signature in the lower right corner of the document.
"Greece will win" said, and handed the document to the Minister of Armaments Yannis.
Yannis took a deep breath and signed his name in the lower right corner of the document, imitating Emmanuil.
The signatures of the three people indicate that the black plan on this document has been unanimously agreed by the three people at the top of the Greek army.
If this war fails, the three people who signed the document will certainly be held accountable by the Greek people.
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On the morning of June 19, the Macedonian Corps headquarters was located in the station in Thessaloniki
"Your Excellency, the commander of the corps, the urgent military situation of the General Staff." Metaxas, the chief of the corps, came to the office of Manugianaski, the supreme commander of the Macedonian Corps, holding a telegram in his hand, and said nervously.
Manugianaski, who was handling military affairs, immediately stood up, walked quickly to Metaxas, and said anxiously: "How about it, what is the choice of the General Staff?"
"The General Staff ordered that the Macedonian Corps will immediately implement the black plan after receiving the news." Metaxas straightened his body and read the order.
After hearing this, many staff officers of all levels of the Macedonian Corps in the office started to discuss.
"I didn't expect the General Staff to choose the conservative black plan in the end"
"No wonder, Basil's plan is too radical and the risk is too high. At the same time, we have to be careful to prevent Serbia from taking advantage of the opportunity, so we have to be more careful"
"Okay, stop discussing. Since the General Staff has made a decision, we must now strictly implement the combat plan," Manugiansky shouted loudly.
After that, he glanced at the division-level staff officers of the Macedonian Corps and continued: "According to the purpose of the black plan, the various units of the Macedonian Corps will rely on the complete defensive fortifications they have built to contain, snipe, strike, and weaken the Bulgarian army, and seek opportunities to counterattack"
"Now you will immediately return to your units, assist your military subjectivity, implement the black plan, and execute it"
After receiving the order, the staff officers filed out and went to their respective troop garrisons.
"Chief of Staff Metaxas, let's discuss the military situation on the front line," Manugiansky said to Metaxas, opening the military situation distribution map on the table.
After the London Conference failed to reach a consensus with Bulgaria, the Macedonian Corps had already begun to build fortifications on the Macedonian border.
In the same situation, Bulgaria was also actively mobilizing troops on the border.
According to intelligence, Bulgaria divided its army into two parts, mainly Kavala on the Aegean coast and Petrich in northwest Bulgaria.
Against the Macedonian Corps, the two Bulgarian armies showed a clear pincer attack, wanting to attack the Macedonian Corps, which was roughly deployed around Thessaloniki, from the northwest and southeast, and defeat the enemy Macedonian Corps in one fell swoop, occupying Vardar Macedonia and Aegean Macedonia.
After the black plan was formulated, the Macedonian Corps received instructions from the General Staff to focus on defense and build a U-shaped defense line with Serres, a central city in Macedonia, and Nizhny Tarovs, an Aegean city at the root of the Chalkidiki Peninsula, as the fulcrum.
The plan has been implemented for two months. With the efforts of the Macedonian Corps, Serres and Nizhny Tarovs have become two heavily guarded fortresses.
In addition, there are trenches connecting various defense points. According to reports from various armies, in two months, in addition to those natural obstacles formed by rivers and mountains, the Macedonian Corps has built more than 200 bunkers and 500 kilometers of trenches.
The entire eastern Macedonia has become a large construction site. 400,000 troops and other mobilized people, the number of which may reach 300,000, a total of 700,000 people, were organized by the Macedonian Corps to build a steel defense line.
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The city of Nizhny Tarovs, where the Second Division is stationed.
The border patrol team that caused the accidental exchange of fire was affiliated with the Second Division.
At this time, the battle between the Greek and Bulgarian armies had lasted for a day and a night.
On the afternoon of the 19th, 100,000 Bulgarian troops, led by General Nikolai Ivanov, had already set out from Kavala to the vicinity of the Greek army's defense line and began to attack the Greek defense line impatiently.
The Bulgarian side was somewhat surprised by the Greek army's cowardly and wantonly building fortifications.
Of course, the Bulgarian high-level officials were still very vigilant about Greece's intention to engage in a long-term war.
They naturally understood their own weaknesses very well. If they continued to delay, it would only give the Greeks more time to build more fortifications.
For the Bulgarian side, if the army could not quickly conquer the Greek defense line, Bulgaria, which had almost pulled all the strong laborers in the country into the army, would be defeated without being defeated.
In the camp of the Fourth Division of the Macedonian Corps, the division commander Papademos was seriously awaiting the Bulgarian attack.
As the main force to defend the Lower Tarov Fortress, the Greek Second Division, the Fourth Division and two black divisions are mainly deployed here.
"This." When Ivanov arrived outside the Lower Tarov Fortress, the trenches outside the city wall made Ivanov's head big!
Ivanov had some doubts about the order issued by the headquarters to quickly capture Lower Tarov, the defense node of the Greek Macedonian Corps, and quickly disintegrate the Greek army's defense line.
It's not that he had never seen trenches before, but the one in front of him was completely different from what he had seen. The trenches that extended in all directions were like a huge spider web, and they quickly spread out with Nitarov as the center.
When facing the Bulgarian army, the Ottoman army usually defended the city.
But the Greek army in front of him seemed to be playing by the rules. The depth of the entire defense line has been extended outward for more than 800 meters!
This put a lot of pressure on the infantry's charge!
The results of the reconnaissance made Ivanov somewhat helpless. The Ottoman Empire had originally built complete fortifications in these places, and Greece, based on the Ottomans, spent a huge amount of money to build a complex and solid city defense system.
In Ivanov's view, the city defense fortifications of Nitarov were designed rigorously and reasonably. The multi-layer fortifications could provide cross-fire cover for each other, and a large number of artillery were deployed.
The morale of the Greeks was also very high. In yesterday's tentative attack, the Bulgarians suffered heavy losses. In just one afternoon, more than 700 people were killed and wounded.
"Or, let's do it according to the plan! Let's blow up the artillery on the top of the city first!"
Although the Bulgarian Army began to learn from Russia, they still knew how to concentrate firepower.
Since they were responsible for conquering Tarovs, Ivanov's army carried a total of 424 artillery pieces, which were specially prepared to deal with the tough guys here.
So, a total of four artillery regiments, about 424 artillery pieces, were deployed in front of the Greeks.
Under the watchful eyes of the Greeks, they untied the artillery from the carriage step by step, arranged the artillery positions, placed the artillery in the gun position, the artillery crew members took the ammunition from the ammunition cart, and the commander began to measure the distance and prepare for the artillery fire.
The Bulgarians' training was still good, and the whole process lasted only about 30 minutes!
The Bulgarian artillery was preparing, and the infantry began to gradually approach the Greek army's defense line.
In this era, there were only artillery and rifles.
The Bulgarians began to build the suggested starting positions, and the frontline troops also began to move. The troops began to take their positions one by one, waiting for the artillery to be ready and start shelling.
While the Bulgarians were busy, the Greek army was also making final preparations for the battle.
Let’s not talk about the 200 75mm and 45 150mm rapid-fire guns behind the defense line, which are responsible for long-range suppression.
The remaining machine guns and mortars have been deployed in the pre-placed machine gun nests and artillery nests, and the troops are deployed in machine gun and mortar positions.
Although the number of people is not as large as that of the Bulgarian army, the firepower is indeed strong. The close combat firepower of the Greeks is not comparable to the Bulgarians’ single-mounted rifles.