Chapter 275: Follow-Up Measures

Since Greece's request for Eastern Rumelia was not recognized by the great powers, in terms of territory, Greece only obtained Western Thrace, Eastern Macedonia, and Pirin Macedonia, with a total area of ​​about 30,000 square kilometers.

The area of ​​Eastern Rumelia is about 50,000 square kilometers.

After obtaining these new territories, plus the original 150,000 square kilometers of Greek territory, the total area of ​​Greece's territory reached about 190,000 square kilometers.

As for the population, including the population in the new territories, the population of Greece reached 7 million.

As for Bulgaria, after the failure of this war, it lost several territories, including Pirin Macedonia, Eastern Macedonia, Western Thrace ceded to Greece, Dobruja ceded to Romania, and Eastern Thrace returned to the Ottoman Empire.

After losing these lands, Bulgaria's territory shrank to about 120,000 square kilometers, and its population dropped to 4.3 million.

It can be said that the current Greece, at the moment the treaty was signed, was officially promoted to a regional power in the Balkans.

Bulgaria, which originally had the strongest comprehensive strength, is now surrounded by the three countries and has ceded a large area of ​​territory. Although it cannot be said that the threat of Bulgaria has been completely eliminated, after the army was severely damaged by Greece, it is impossible to provoke Greece by relying solely on Bulgaria's strength.

Serbia is now facing pressure from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and has to maintain good diplomatic relations with Greece.

Montenegro has a small population and can be almost ignored.

The internal contradictions of the Ottoman Empire have intensified, political struggles have been frequent, and the national strength has been declining. The decline has become more and more obvious, and it is impossible to recover in a short time.

As for Romania, it has relatively rich natural conditions and mineral resources, and the arable land area far exceeds that of other Balkan countries. The grain output is also the highest among the Balkan countries, and the mineral deposits include basic industrial raw materials and energy such as oil, coal and iron ore.

It's just that the geographical location is too bad. A poor country in the cracks of a big country not only has territorial disputes with the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Transylvania), but also has a rift with Russia (Moldova), and faces Bulgaria across the Danube in the south.

Almost all of Romania's expansion space has been blocked.

If these countries were not united, each of them would hardly be a match for Greece.

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On July 28, 1913, the crowd in the Parliament Square in the center of Athens was so dense that it filled the entire square.

Almost all the citizens of Athens gathered here, waiting for the final declaration of the Greek Kingdom Government.

Although the Greek people had learned from the news in the newspapers that the Greek army had won, they still tried to use this action to vent their excitement.

Everyone gathered in the square spontaneously, trying to hear the voice of victory from the highest authority in Greece.

All the sounds in the Parliament Building were transmitted to the square in front of the Parliament Building through loudspeakers.

It was also transmitted to every corner of Greece through radio waves. Such simultaneous transmission has never happened in the history of the kingdom.

"In the past month or so, the people of Greece have been involved in a war that concerns the fate of the Kingdom of Greece. Every Greek is doing their best to help their troubled motherland. The people of the Kingdom, the Kingdom's government, and I personally are all eagerly looking forward to the continued victory of the Greek army." The voice of Crown Prince Constantine echoed throughout the square.

From Tirana in the north to Crete in the south, from Corfu in the west to Western Thrace in the east, all Greeks who could hear the Crown Prince's voice stopped their actions, put down their work, gathered under the loudspeakers and in front of the radio in the square, and listened quietly.

It seemed that the whole of Greece had stopped at this moment, and there was nothing else in Greece except the Crown Prince's passionate voice.

"For this war, every Greek family has made great sacrifices. We bid farewell to our sons, husbands, and brothers, and we joined the army and went to the cruel battlefield."

"Every night when the war lasted, the Greeks prayed for their families who fought hard on the battlefield."

"In order to raise war funds, everyone bought government bonds enthusiastically."

"All Greek people! Now our efforts have finally paid off. Just now, Prime Minister Venizelos has signed a treaty with Bulgaria in Bucharest. The people of the Kingdom of Greece have once again won a great victory."

The emotions of the Greek people in the square were transformed into one word, and everyone shouted: "Long live Greece...Long live victory"

In the parliament hall, there was no party distinction at this moment, and all the members applauded the speech of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

Constantine, dressed in military uniform, a purple robe with gorgeous golden shoulder ornaments, a military cap decorated with golden tassels, and a sword hanging from his waist, walked down from the podium of the parliament. The speaker of the Kingdom Parliament greeted him: "Your Highness, the speech was great! The whole of Greece is cheering for you," the speaker praised sincerely.

After announcing the good news of victory in the war to the Greek people, Constantine immediately devoted himself to the post-war work.

On July 31, Prime Minister Venizelos, who had just returned from Bucharest, the capital of Romania, hurriedly held a post-war meeting at the Prime Minister's residence to solve a series of problems caused by the war.

"First of all, one thing must be clear. Greece must disarm now, because Greece's bankrupt finances cannot afford four to five million troops. Moreover, now that the war is over, there is no possibility of war in a short time." When Constantine When he entered the conference room, Prime Minister Venizelos was explaining his views.

The Greek army now includes two main legions: the Albanian Army and the Macedonian Army. The Albanian Army has 150,000 people, and the Macedonian Army includes 150,000 black soldiers, a total of 400,000 people.

In other words, the current Greek Army has a total number of 550,000 people. Even if the wounded and killed in the war are excluded, the number is still more than 500,000.

"But your Excellency, Prime Minister, is it too eager to start reducing the army just after the war?" Arms Minister Giannis retorted with resistance.

"Now the soldiers in the Greek army are almost all veterans with rich war experience. They have at least been baptized by one war. Now they are cut out directly. In this way, soldiers who have experienced many wars can take off their military uniforms and fight. Skills will gradually become obsolete, which is a pity.”

Giannis's opinions also represent the psychology of most Army officers.

Before the Second Balkan War, the total number of Greek troops had been maintained at around 200,000 people.

Under the pressure of the Bulgarian Army's huge numbers, the Greek Army began to expand rapidly, more than doubling in a short period of time to more than half a million people.

These are the hard work of the Greek Army officers and soldiers for many years, and every expansion is inseparable from the efforts of the Greek Army officers and soldiers.

After every soldier joins the army, officers are required to take turns in training, target shooting, formation, field marching and other subjects.

Ordinary soldiers are fine, especially technical arms, such as artillery, machine gunners, scouts, and logistics personnel. The training cost is extremely high and the process is cumbersome, requiring a lot of effort from the officers.

Now the government is demanding a drastic reduction in the number of troops. For the vast majority of Greek military officers, it seems like they are abandoning their efforts over the years.

Of course, the resistance of army officers and soldiers to disarmament may not be due to their own interests.

After all, the larger the number of people in the Greek Army, the more funds the government will invest every year.

For them as officers, the more soldiers there are, the more powerful the officers are.

To be extreme, in a communist country, the group with the highest social status should be the military officer class.

Therefore, whether it is from the perspective of emotions or interests, disarmament will be resisted by Greek army officers and soldiers.

"Besides, even Bulgaria, the defeated enemy of the Greek army, has maintained a force of 500,000 troops all year round. Greece's current land area far exceeds that of Bulgaria. With so much new land to defend, how can we cut down the army now?" Minister of Arms Giannis said with disdain.

Venizelos couldn't tell Giannis was showing off his military exploits.

"At the very least, the 150,000 Congolese soldiers in the Macedonian Army can be repatriated to Congo first. These soldiers with unusual appearances will cause a lot of trouble if they are stationed in Greece all year round." Chief of General Staff Emai As Greece’s chief of general staff, Noor is better able to understand the government’s difficulties.

"In fact, there are too many Greek young people in the army, and there are too many disadvantages. These are young and strong young people. After entering society, they will become the main labor force in society and the main force in creating social wealth."

"Now, gathering them into the army, hundreds of thousands of Greek young men, cannot only create social wealth, but also consume social wealth to support them. This is not advisable."

"Yes, yes, what the chief of general staff said makes sense," the ministers of various departments in the Venizelos government said quickly when they saw that the chief of general staff supported the prime minister's disarmament policy.

Seeing that everyone supported disarmament, Giannis could only look for help and looked at Crown Prince Constantine, who had been listening after entering the conference room.

Everyone focused their attention on themselves. Constantine deserved to express his opinion: "I know that your army has achieved great results in these two wars. The government will commend and reward the officers and soldiers who have outstanding performance in the war." "

"Now that the Greek army has won another victory, the people's recognition of the army has increased again, and the royal family can canonize several nobles again."

As the Purple Robe Foundation's income has become higher and higher over the years, the new military nobles conferred by the King of Greece can receive more and more generous dividends from the foundation every year.

According to the explanation made by the Purple Robe Foundation, the current amount of funds used for dividends each year will not be less than 8 million drachmas, and will increase year by year in the future.

In the eyes of the Greeks, becoming a noble was not only an honor, but also had extremely high benefits.

Especially among the current military officer groups in Greece, noble titles have a strong attraction, which greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of Greek officers in the war.

There were many high-level Greek army officers in the meeting room this time. Constantine also wanted to appease these newly victorious and proud generals.

"But now that the war is over, it is unbearable for Greece's finances to maintain a huge army."

"Your army won two consecutive victories within a year, allowing Greece to take almost all of Macedonia. These territories need people to reclaim them," Constantine explained loudly to the officers in the conference room, although Constantine Ding has always been prestigious in the army, but after all, this is the time when officers are most proud, and it is not suitable to forcefully suppress the opinions of officers.

"Our army has paid such a high price, and the recovered Macedonian territory cannot just be abandoned. We should reclaim these fertile wastelands as soon as possible, plant food, and breed the population. This is Greece's top priority."

Giannis, who represented the military officer's opinion, did not refute the somewhat flattering words of the crown prince.

Emmanuel has always been close to the royal family and echoed Constantine's words: "Based on the current military situation in the Balkans, as long as the Greek Army maintains a strength of 300,000, it will be enough to deal with threats from neighboring countries."

"First of all, the 150,000 Congolese soldiers will be disbanded as soon as possible and ships will be sent to escort them back to Congo."

At this point, because he was quite satisfied with the performance of black soldiers in trench warfare, Arms Minister Giannis interjected: "In fact, these black soldiers performed well in the war. If more black soldiers are deployed in future wars, it can reduce the number of black soldiers." Greek Casualties”

"Facts have proven that the model of Greek officers + black soldiers is still advisable. Although the combat effectiveness is not as strong as an army composed of pure Greek soldiers, the effect is still very good when mixed with regular troops in trench defense warfare."

"And the Congo has a very sufficient supply of black soldiers, which means that if necessary, Greece can gather a large black army in a short time."

Giannis's opinion was agreed by many Greek officers who participated in the war.

"In fact, if the Greek officers can give enough respect to the black soldiers and distinguish rewards and punishments, these Congolese blacks will have very good combat effectiveness and obedience," said General Manougianaski.

"I think the General Staff should do more work in this area and explore the organizational form of recruiting black Congolese soldiers so that when the situation requires it, they can calmly and effectively play the role of black soldiers in the war," Constantine also interjected. road.

Manugianaski's words reminded Constantine of Germany's deeds on the battlefield in East Africa in the original historical time and space.

When the war began in August 1914, the German military presence in overseas colonies was negligible, and the four colonies (Tukoland, Cameroon, German Southwest Africa, and German East Africa) were all surrounded by colonies from Britain, France and other countries.

The commander of the German East African garrison, Leto Vorbeck, led a special force, which was composed of a small number of white officers and a large number of black indigenous people. Under the situation of absolute disadvantage, not only defeated the invading German troops several times The British troops in East Africa became more and more courageous as they fought, containing a large number of British troops in Africa.