Bulgarian Empire

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

Chekov laughed loudly and said, "The Greeks know they are 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 roared with laughter, all with expressions of gloating!

Constantine said with a smile: "Greece still has some effect. At least they still held back Ottoman's hundreds of thousands of troops. There is hard work without credit. Let's not discourage their enthusiasm!"

Ferdinand added: "Yes, the fearless spirit of the Greek government is worthy of encouragement! How about this, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called George I back, saying that we will join the war immediately, and now we are formulating a battle plan, and we will join the war as soon as it is completed! "

Foreign Minister Megev said in embarrassment: "Your Excellency, this is not good! The Greeks are still allies after all, so there must be a specific time to join the war?"

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

Tell George I to hold them up, we Bulgaria are responsible allies and we will be at war in three days!

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

Megeve couldn't complain anymore, he wanted to laugh but didn't dare to. If Ferdinand’s words were not supplemented later, it would indeed be like that. With the latter sentence, it would be a bit~~~

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

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

The core content is: request the Sudanese government to return the territory it invaded and occupied Bulgaria, that is, all the territory of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, and compensate for economic losses of two billion pounds!

Anyway, the Second Bulgarian Empire was indeed destroyed by the Ottomans for 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 compensate for the loss!

Of course, there are many contents of the ultimatum. From nonsense more than 500 years ago to the present, it lists the grievances and grievances between the Baotu in detail. Adding up the mess, there are 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 within 24 hours!

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

The matter is not over yet, Monte Negro also jumped out to show his presence, and on the day Bulgaria declared war, he also issued a war ultimatum to the Ottoman Empire!

The European people instantly turned into melon-eating people, commenting on the world while watching the excitement!

According to the unscrupulous media, the Balkan region has always had a tradition of a small war every three years and a big war every ten years. In the past ten years, except for the two Baosai wars, the rest of the time has been generally peaceful, and it is time for a big one!

The public opinion of the outside world is not important. The Sudanese government, belatedly aware of it, is now having some headaches. It is about to settle Greece, and Bulgaria and Montenegro have jumped out again!

But the Sudanese government is much tougher than trying to seek a country, so it directly refused. In one sentence: If you want to fight, come to fight!

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

While submitting the letter of war, the Bulgarian army also began to act.

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

1897,

The Ottoman Empire had an army of about 450,000 in the Balkans, and the Greeks were disabled. The Ottoman Empire also suffered 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, and Montenegro mobilized about 30,000 troops as in history. In addition to the disabled Greece, the Balkan Alliance still has an absolute advantage in strength!

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

The first road: the Bulgarian First Army, consisting of five first-class divisions, five second-class divisions, five heavy artillery regiments, two cavalry regiments, and two engineering divisions. 156,000).

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

Military Chiefs: Lieutenant General Popov as Commander of the Army Group, Major General Petrov as Chief of Staff

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

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

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

Including: Bulgarian Second Division, Third Division, Fourth Division, New Fifteenth to Nineteenth Divisions, Sixth and Seventh Heavy Artillery Regiments, Third Cavalry Regiment, and Third, Fourth, and Fifth Engineer Divisions!

Military Chiefs: Lieutenant General Dante Christoph as Commander of the Army Group, Andrei Braskov as Chief of Staff

Strategic Objectives: Macedonia region (Republic of Macedonia and Northern Greece in Central Macedonia, Western Macedonia, Eastern Macedonia), Thessaloniki, Epirus, Albania

The third route: the Bulgarian Third Army, consisting of a first-class division, a second-class division and an engineer division, with about 42,000 troops (about 31,000 soldiers).

Including: the second division of the Guards, the new twentieth division and the sixth engineering division!

Military Chiefs: Major General Ilya Dimitev as Commander of the Army Group, Vicho Dikov as Chief of Staff

Strategic Objectives: Kosovo Region, Albania

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

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

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

The fifth road, namely the seventh Bulgarian division + 1 engineering regiment, about 19,000 people

Military Chiefs: Division Commander Parif Hristov, Division Chief of Staff Stoyu Bradislov

Strategic Objectives: Crossing the Rhodope Mountains and entering Macedonia along the Struma River

As for the remaining one first-class division (fifth division) and eight second-class divisions (the newly created 21st to 28th divisions), there is no doubt that they are the general reserve team, and of course they are also left to watch the house!

Otherwise, like during the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria did its best and did not leave any troops to guard the house. It was poked in the eye by Romania, and it was defeated so quickly!

Of course, Ferdinand had to learn his lesson. He left nine divisions and a heavy artillery regiment, about 140,000 troops. Not to mention it was used for defense, even a one-on-one battle with Romania would be enough!

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