Chapter 1234 Balance of Power on the Battlefield
Bitola's camp was built on the mountain. It was more like a simple and rough temporary fortress group. Talorin and his party returned to the camp before dark.
Afterwards, everyone started interrogating this Serbian element. Obviously, the army is best at dealing with such people. After all, they are not professional torturers.
After a night of torture, the Serbian extremist finally couldn't bear it anymore.
In the interrogation room, interrogator Antalier reported to Moshui, Bitola’s top military commander:
"This man's name is Gerlovski. He is a Serbian from the former Macedonian region. According to his dictation, he should want to find out our truth. It seems that the remaining Serbs are very restless."
"Gerrovski was a company commander of the former 16th Division of Serbia. He was born into a Serbian Orthodox family in Macedonia. His father was a local priest in Bilatto."
"So Gerlovsky has been deeply poisoned by national narrow-minded ideas since he was a child. After the Kingdom of Serbia annexed Macedonia, he resolutely chose to join the army and experienced two Balkan wars..."
Serb, Orthodox believer, ultra-nationalist, from a small family in Macedonia... There is no doubt that this Gerlovski is a typical Serbian element.
Moss said: "Sure enough, the Serbs are determined to kill me. The empire paid a huge price to destroy the Kingdom of Serbia."
In order to conquer the Kingdom of Serbia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire suffered more than 400,000 casualties. Of course, this number includes ordinary people.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire actually didn't care much about the casualties of ordinary people. After all, the situation on the Serbian battlefield was so bad that it only allowed the Serbs to invade Bosnia.
The state of Bosnia is where Serbs, Croats and Ottoman remnants live, so the casualties in Bosnia are a good thing for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Of course, the huge losses suffered by the Austro-Hungarian army were also quite uncomfortable. After all, many of the imperial troops stationed in Bosnia were elite elites.
After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been plotting against the Kingdom of Serbia for a long time. The troops on the border between the two countries were at least in the middle and upper reaches of the imperial army. However, these elites were ruined due to Potiorek's command errors.
To put it more simply, most of the Bosnian state army under the command of Potiorek were professional soldiers.
This is not comparable to the cannon fodder troops that were temporarily recruited and hurriedly joined the battlefield.
Fortunately, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a deep foundation and finally restored the situation, but the price paid was also quite heavy.
Moss continued: "Not to mention Albania and Greece, even the situation in the Kingdom of Serbia is not very good, especially the guerrillas and the Serb people who shelter the guerrillas, making it difficult for us to live in peace."
The guerrillas are currently Moss's biggest headache. Serbian soil is naturally suitable for the development of guerrilla tactics.
The first is ideology. The Serbian people have a very deep hatred for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This is due to the Serbian government’s long-term negative propaganda against the Austro-Hungarian Empire, coupled with the blessing of nationalist thoughts, the Serbian people are like madmen.
Secondly, the terrain and climate of the Balkans, which are mountainous, hilly and densely forested, are naturally suitable for guerrilla warfare.
This has caused the entire Serbian region, although the major battles have basically ended, small attacks and rebellions have continued.
The situation in the Bitola region is even more complicated. On the one hand, Moss must be wary of counterattacks by local forces, and on the other hand, he must be wary of attacks by foreign forces.
So Moss said: "The enemy cannot send just one infiltrator, so there must be many others who have infiltrated across the border between the two countries."
"Calculating the time, the Serbs should not be able to sit still. After all, these six months are enough for them to obtain support from Britain, France and Germany to rearm their troops." "In the past few days, we must increase patrols and be alert to changes in the situation in Greece. For We should also be vigilant in the west, after all, enemies may come from Albania.”
After the fall of Serbia at the end of 1915, the Serbian government-in-exile had not taken any major actions, which was obviously unreasonable.
Therefore, Moss concluded that the Serbian government-in-exile will make big moves in the near future, and Bitola is likely to be within the scope of the Serbian plans.
But Moss only has one battalion of troops. Of course, this does not mean that the coalition forces deployed in the border areas are small. Together with the brother troops, the Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian coalition forces in the entire Serbian border area amount to 50,000, and they occupy a geographically large area. Advantages.
But my family knows their own affairs, and the combat effectiveness of the more than 50,000 coalition troops is quite worrying. The main force of the coalition forces in Serbia has basically gone to the Russian battlefield.
Moreover, Albania and Greece are also factors of instability. No one knows whether the two countries will join the Allied camp at this time.
Not to mention these small countries, even the paramilitary allies of the Allied Powers, the Ottoman Empire is still in a wait-and-see state.
This was mainly because the entire war situation in 1915 had fallen into a stalemate. The Entente and Central Powers were evenly matched, so many countries did not dare to bet.
Relevant countries such as Italy, Greece, Romania, and the Ottoman Empire did not dare to end up at this time.
Bulgaria is an exception. Bulgaria's main goal is Serbia and other Balkan countries. After Austria-Hungary gained an advantage over Serbia last year, Bulgaria will inevitably be unable to sit still.
Apart from anything else, Bulgaria must regain the territory lost in the Second Balkan War, so Bulgaria has only one option: participating in the war.
Of course, the Bulgarian government naturally wants to use this opportunity to get more spoils in the Balkans. If everything is done by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bulgaria will not even be able to drink soup.
Of course, if we study the battlefield situation carefully, the Allies are still at a disadvantage. After all, the Allies are very different from the Allies in terms of materials and national strength.
However, the situation is much better than in the previous life, which is mainly reflected in three aspects. The first is that Italy is missing as a troublemaker. In the previous life, Italy rebelled before the war, which can be said to have caused huge trouble to the Allies.
Don't look at Italy's disastrous record in its previous life, but Italy in its previous life was still a great power.
But now on the Italian peninsula, the three countries dare not make a bet easily. This gives Germany and Austria more room to operate, at least it will not make the Austro-Hungarian Empire panic.
Secondly, the two "neutral countries" in East Africa and the United States resold supplies to the Allies, which strengthened the Allies' war potential. At least Germany and Austria devoted more troops to the battlefield.
At the same time, because of the existence of East Africa, it has strengthened its armed forces against Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire, which is also a good thing for the Allies.
Especially Bulgaria, which has already participated in the war, can at least ensure that each soldier has a rifle and will not be in the same situation as Tsarist Russia.
At this point, Ernst admired the mobilization ability of Orthodox countries. Regardless of Serbia, Bulgaria, or Tsarist Russia, they all showed strong mobilization capabilities.
On the contrary, the three countries have poor logistical support capabilities. In previous lives, regardless of Serbia, Bulgaria or Russia, a large number of soldiers were recruited into the army without even having weapons. This is probably a characteristic of Orthodox Christian countries.
Of course, Bulgaria is quite special. Although its belief is Orthodox Christianity, it is still somewhat different from the general Slavs.
However, it is undeniable that the combat effectiveness of the Bulgarians is trustworthy. Today, the Bulgarians perform equally well on the Russian battlefield.
(End of chapter)