Greece to roman road

Legion of Thessaly, Frontline Command

The Thessalian Legion headquarters received the news immediately: the Marine Corps successfully captured the city of Salonika on the night of the 27th.

The conference room was filled with a relaxed and happy atmosphere, because this meant that the most important step of the Athena Project had been completed.

"Now the entire war situation is very clear. The Ottoman Macedonian Army's logistics supply transfer station has been taken over by us," Canaris, the Army's chief of staff, said in a brisk tone.

The officers burst into laughter.

"Think about it, the more than 80,000 Ottoman Macedonian troops in front of us are eating people, chewing horses, and replenishing ammunition. The consumption every day is an astronomical figure."

"For such a legion, the logistics supply line has been cut off by us, and the enemy has become completely passive."

The main idea of ​​the so-called Athena Plan is to use the 40,000 Congolese colonial troops suddenly strengthened by the Greek army to disrupt the enemy's army deployment, and use this as an opportunity to find the enemy's flaws, and then use the enemy's flaws to lay the foundation for a complete defeat of the enemy. .

Project Athena is such a plan to win by surprise.

There is no doubt that the plan is risky.

What should we do if the enemy does not act according to the situation envisioned by the General Staff?

What would happen if the Marine Corps failed to land a large number of soldiers on the coast in such a short period of time?

This is why the Chief of General Staff believes that Project Athena is too risky.

Fortunately, so far, the Greek army has been successful in attacking the enemy's weaknesses - taking advantage of the empty defense of Salonika and using the Marine Corps to attack in a sneak attack. However, the period after this is the most critical stage for victory. .

"The next period of time is the most critical," Constantine said in a still serious tone.

"If the enemy's reinforcements retake Salonika first, open up the supply line of the frontline army, and then their morale will increase greatly, they can successfully defeat us, or the war will continue."

There is no doubt that once the enemy retakes Salonika and regains its strength, the best outcome for Greece is that the war continues to stalemate. For Greece, a small country with a small population, this can almost directly declare the war to have failed.

Even though the Ottoman Empire's national power was in serious decline, its emaciated camels were larger than horses, its territory was vast, and it had tens of millions of people under its jurisdiction.

In comparison, Greece has a population of no more than two million and a territory of only 50,000 square kilometers.

Greece is simply not qualified to continue a stalemate with the other party. The two countries are not on the same level.

A quick victory was the only option for Greece to win the war.

The Ottomans are not the same. As long as it drags on, although it will suffer a certain amount of consumption and cause domestic economic deterioration, it is still more cost-effective than losing the war.

There is a fundamental difference between big countries and small countries in terms of their ability to withstand the blows of war.

For a big country, if it loses a war once or twice, it will be disgraced, but its huge size can still support it and give it a chance to turn over.

For a country like the Ottomans, since entering the 19th century, the decline of the Ottomans has been extremely obvious, and several wars have ended in failure.

If it were not for the intervention of other countries, the Ottoman Sultan would have been almost overthrown by Ali of Egypt.

Ali's army at that time had even captured Nicaea.

Even in this state of decay, the Ottoman Empire was still one of the major powers in Europe until the 20th century.

This is not the case for a small country like Greece. A war directly determines the fate of the country.

There is no chance of turning around at all.

The cost of losing a war is huge.

The fate of losers in military adventures is constant military coups, economic turmoil, severe internal strife in the country, and hardship for the people.

"It is our Thessalian Army that defeats its direct enemy, the Ottoman Macedonian Army, before the enemy retakes Salonika, and then quickly rushes to the rescue of Salonika and Epirus to achieve a glorious victory."

The atmosphere in the conference room became solemn.

In the course of the subsequent war, Salonika will become the key to this war.

If Ottoman regains Salonika, then Ottoman will win.

After the Greek army firmly holds Salonika and then defeats the Ottoman army, which is stuck in supply difficulties, it can end the war with a victory.

The fate of Salonika determines the fate of both countries.

It's a race against time.

There is no doubt that in order to win the war and regain the initiative on the battlefield, the Ottomans will mobilize troops from all over the country to attack Salonika frantically in the next period of time.

Relying on 2,000 Marines is far from enough to defend this important city.

After all, the Marine Corps is not a regular army. Their only heavy weapons are some mortars.

It is urgent to send reinforcements to support Salonika.

"Commander of the First Division, Major General Manugianasky" Constantine ordered.

Manugianasky immediately stood up from his chair respectfully.

"Order your troops to go to Salonika immediately to assist the marines there," Constantine said with a solemn expression.

The First Division was the earliest organic division formed in Greece. Most of the soldiers were elite, brave and good at fighting.

It's just that since the beginning of the border battle, Constantine has been placed behind the battle line as a strategic reserve.

This put Manujianaski, the commander of the First Division, in an awkward position, and he had always had objections to this arrangement.

Now the 1st Division was finally given a combat mission.

But Manujianaski felt tremendous pressure instantly.

Looking at the troubled Manujianaski, Constantine frowned and said: "Major General Manujianaski, you are not afraid of difficulties, are you?"

Everyone in the conference room was somewhat considerate of Manujianaski: As Salonika was the key to the outcome of the war, the Ottomans would definitely send a large number of troops to besiege Salonika.

Relying on one of Manougianaski's divisions alone, even if it was the First Division of the Greek Army, with its powerful combat effectiveness, it was not enough to make up for the huge gap in numbers.

"Your Excellency, Army Commander, if you want the First Division to stay in Salonika for a longer period of time, you must replenish us with more heavy equipment."

"If nothing else, you must allocate at least 90 Maxim heavy machine guns to us."

"There are also heavy artillery. We purchased 105mm howitzers from the French. You also need to add 20 to our first division."

The Ottoman Army has many heavy artillery with a caliber of more than 100 mm. Due to the limitations of the mountainous terrain in northern Greece, such heavy artillery is difficult to use.

However, the terrain of Salonika is different. It is surrounded by a plain. Such heavy artillery can be regarded as a deadly weapon on the battlefield. It not only has huge lethality but also has a long range.

In order to quickly recapture Salonika, the Ottoman army will not be stingy with the use of heavy artillery in its offensive in Salonika.

Relying solely on the divisional artillery regiment of the First Division, equipped with 75mm rapid-fire field guns, it was difficult to deal with the threat of the Ottoman army's large-caliber heavy artillery, both in terms of range and power.

As for the Maxim heavy machine gun, from the perspective of defensive operations, it is indeed more suitable for defensive operations.

The Maxim heavy machine gun weighs 27 kilograms and uses water cooling. It is indeed of little use in offensive operations in border battles. It is better to be used by the First Division.

Constantine thought for a moment and nodded in agreement with Manugianasky's request.