Greece to roman road

The room was filled with smoke, and the ashtray on the table was filled with cigarette butts. The three people sitting around the table were silent for a long time.

Constantine coughed and broke the silence: "The question now is, can the alliance formed by Bulgaria and Serbia, combined with the strength of the two countries, compete with the Ottoman Empire?"

As the Chief of General Staff of the Greek Army, Emmanuel is exposed to a large amount of military intelligence from the Balkan countries on a daily basis. For the same Balkan countries, whether it is Bulgaria, Serbia, or the Ottoman Empire, the Military Intelligence Bureau under the General Staff Headquarters uses or Through overt or covert means, a large amount of detailed intelligence has been collected over many years, which is an important basis for the staff to formulate plans.

Recalling the military intelligence data about Bulgaria and Serbia in his mind, Emma Inur said: "According to the analysis and speculation of our General Staff, in the event of war, the number of troops that Serbia can recruit is about 250,000, and Bulgaria's about 350,000. , the two countries join forces, the military strength can reach 600,000, facing the Ottoman Empire's maximum strength of 700,000, it is really capable of fighting."

Upon hearing this, Constantine and Venizelos looked at each other and understood each other.

"According to the data given by the Chief of General Staff, the two countries jointly attacked the Ottomans. The strength of each other is almost the same. For the two countries, the risk is too great," Constantine mused.

"A victory would be a tragic victory, but on paper, the military strength of the two countries is still weak; if they lose, the independent status they have worked so hard to gain will be threatened."

Venizelos's anxious brows also relaxed: "The two countries have a cold attitude towards Greece's alliance invitation. It is not that they are really unwilling to form an alliance with Greece, but they want to obtain relatively favorable conditions in the alliance."

Having said this, Venizelos seemed to have opened up his mind. He suddenly understood the reason why the two countries were blocked during this visit, and his thinking became clearer: "And, don't forget, among the three Balkan countries, Greece is the only country with a sizable navy. , as long as the two countries still have ideas about the European part of the Ottoman Empire, they must win over Greece into the alliance."

Even if the combat effectiveness of the Ottoman Navy is questionable, after all, it still has several regular warships, especially the two German 10,000-ton pre-dreadnoughts purchased in 1910. Their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated.

As for the Bulgarian navy, there are only a few torpedo boats and patrol boats, which are almost negligible.

As a landlocked country, Serbia is even less likely to have a navy.

The only remaining European territory of the Ottoman Empire was basically on the Balkan Peninsula along the Aegean Sea.

Once a war breaks out between the two countries and the Ottoman Empire, the planned battlefields for the encounter will inevitably be in Macedonia and Thrace.

Since the two countries had no navies, the Ottoman Empire's reinforcements on the Asia Minor Peninsula could support its garrisons in the Balkans by moving both by sea and land.

Under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, the internal roads in the Balkans were almost at the medieval level and could be ignored.

If we really want to say that there are any large-scale artificial roads, I am afraid that they can be traced back to the roads built there during the Roman Empire.

(During the Roman Empire, due to the vast territory of the empire and inconvenient transportation, in order to maintain rule and facilitate cultural exchanges within the empire, as well as military purposes and commercial interests, a systematic road system was built within the empire, similar to the straight roads of the Qin Dynasty; such as Sofia The road leading to Constantinople. In the middle and late period of the Eastern Roman Empire, the national power declined seriously. I don’t know how many times Slavic barbarians followed this road and came to Constantinople┗(T﹏T))

In this case, it was more convenient for the Ottoman Empire to provide support to the interior of the Balkans from land and sea. After all, sea transportation was much more efficient than land transportation.

The Ottoman Empire still controls the important Aegean port city of Salonika.

Without Greece in the alliance, once the two countries go to war with the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, the personnel and materials mobilized by the Ottoman Empire from other places can easily enter the interior of the Balkans through this port city and provide continuous support for the battle here. of the Ottoman army.

"These two countries need the Greek navy to cut off the Ottoman Empire's sea routes to support the Balkan battlefield. Otherwise, they will definitely fall into a bitter war," Venizelos said happily.

"Moreover, after all, Bulgaria is also a country with coastal areas. They are not worried that once no one restrains the Ottoman Empire's navy, the two pre-dreadnoughts of the Ottoman Empire will go north along the black smoke coast and shell their important Black Sea in turn. The coast, like Varna, seems to be the only port city in Bulgaria now, right?”

Venizelos said with a hint of naughtiness at the corner of his mouth: "The large-caliber naval guns on warships have a range of a few kilometers for a short distance and a range of more than ten kilometers for a long distance. They are very powerful when used to deal with coastal towns."

"Varna is currently the only large-scale port city in Bulgaria. Bulgaria has just been connected to the train not long ago. Through this port city, you can directly reach Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. This road is the lifeline of Bulgaria's transportation."

"So, even if they only increase the Greek navy as a bargaining chip and place it on the side of the guarantee, their winning rate will be greatly improved."

Constantine stroked his chin and nodded repeatedly. This explanation was indeed reasonable: "If you understand it this way, it seems that the two sides are currently working together to suppress Greece, just to bargain, not to completely exclude Greece from the alliance."

"But, in this case, the current alliance between the two countries is obviously dominated by Bulgaria, and Serbia is even weaker than Bulgaria. In the war between the two countries in 1885, Serbia suffered a complete defeat. If Austria-Hungary did not come forward, I am afraid that Bell Grad was occupied by Bulgaria, and the two countries have old grievances."

"Under such circumstances, for Serbia, there is no difference between forming an alliance with Greece or Bulgaria. Why did Serbia choose Bulgaria silently?"

Constantine really didn't understand Serbia's diplomatic choices.

"The relationship between Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire has been falling out since the Austro-Hungarian Empire forcibly merged with Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908. At present, it has a close relationship with Russia. As expected, the Russians should be doing the work behind the scenes. After all, they are all It’s a Slavic brother country,” Venizelos sneered.

In 1908, the Austro-Hungarian Empire took advantage of the internal instability in the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Youth Party's revolution to announce the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

There are a large number of Slavs living in the Bosnia and Herzegovina region. Obviously, Serbia has thoughts about Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Poch is adjacent to Serbia. In Serbia, from the king to the people, almost everyone believes that Serbia’s territory should include Poch.

The relationship between Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was therefore tense. At that time, Russia supported Serbia, which was also a Slavic brother, and strongly opposed the Austro-Hungarian Empire's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina; while Germany stood behind Austria-Hungary, supported the Austro-Hungarian Empire's annexation, and did not hesitate to issue War threats.

Due to the internal turmoil in Russia during the Russo-Japanese War, Russia's strength was weakened. In 1908, its strength had not yet been restored. It could only watch the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexing Poch, which made Russia deeply ashamed.

After hearing Venizelos explain the reason, Constantine sighed in his heart that European diplomatic relations are like this, intricate and intricately connected with each other.