Greece to roman road

After hearing Constantine's question, Emmanuel was silent for a moment and said: "Prime Minister Venizelos just summoned the managers of the three major banks and asked them to cooperate with the government to purchase an emergency national debt in the amount of 200 million German dollars. Lakma”

"Before I came, I asked the Prime Minister for his opinion. According to his opinion, if you still cannot persist until the end of the war, you can apply for a loan from a foreign country."

"So, how many Congolese soldiers does the General Staff plan to recruit?" The Greek government is already under great financial pressure. If more Congolese soldiers are added now, can they afford it?

"According to estimates from the General Staff, around 100,000 to 150,000 Congolese soldiers are needed," Emmanuel thought for a moment and said.

"In this way, the total strength of the Greek army can reach about 400,000, which can generally deal with the land threats to Greece from Bulgaria and Serbia."

Constantine did not comment much on the decision made by the General Staff. Since the General Staff made such a decision, they have their own reasons.

"I know, I will inform the Congolese government of this news."

After bidding farewell to Emmanuel and his party, the senior officers of the Macedonian Legion returned to the tent again to discuss the military plan to attack Salonika.

"Everyone has heard the order from the Chief of General Staff. The heavy artillery for attacking the fortress has been allocated to each unit. All preparations have been made. How to capture the city of Salonika now requires everyone to work together and express their opinions." Constantine held the large conference table with both hands, leaned his upper body forward, and looked back and forth over the officers.

As the chief of staff of the army, Samaras has been thinking about planning an attack since the Ottomans built the fortress on how to attack Salonika.

"Your Excellency, Commander-in-Chief, although our heavy artillery is sufficient to deal with the enemy's solid permanent fortifications, it is still not a wise choice to use Greece's precious soldiers to attack the enemy's tightly defended fortresses frontally." Seeing that no one has After saying a word, Samaras, who was sitting at the right hand of Constantine, took the lead in speaking.

"Our Macedonian Army has long planned a plan to attack Salonika. Combining the maps and intelligence mapped by intelligence personnel before the war, in order to reduce the casualties of soldiers and capture Salonika quickly and effectively, we should feint attack on the front and flank roundabout"

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In the early morning of December 28, 1912, the Greek army officially attacked the city of Salonika, which was heavily defended by the Ottomans.

"Boom~~Boom!"

Sharp whistles and violent explosions, accompanied by vibrations from the ground, struck hard in the hearts of the Ottoman soldiers sitting in the bunker.

Even if the whistling and explosion of artillery shells are far away from me, my body is still instinctively afraid of this terrible sound. Every time an explosion is heard, my body trembles uncontrollably, and the sound of soil splashing up and falling down is heard. , people can't help but feel fear, and then close their eyes tightly.

"boom!"

Another 315mm heavy artillery high-explosive bomb fell into the trench. A dozen soldiers in the trench were torn into pieces before they could even scream. Their stumps and broken arms were thrown high, mixed with blood. And the dirt from the internal organs was flying all over the sky.

An entire 80-meter-long section of the trench was completely collapsed. The soldiers who were not killed by the single fragments and devastating shock waves generated by the shell explosion were also buried under layers of thick soil.

Even if they were dug out of the soil and escaped the fate of suffocation, the huge shock wave would rupture their internal organs and vomit blood, making life or death uncertain.

There are no such solid reinforced concrete fortresses on Truqiu Hill. After the war, the shallow trenches that were hurriedly dug to accommodate more soldiers could not bring any sense of security to the Ottoman soldiers.

When the soil thrown up by the explosion hit their heads, the enthusiasm they felt at the beginning of the war had long since disappeared.

The shelling, which lasted for several hours starting in the early morning, brought the Ottoman army to the point of collapse.

When the warm minced meat and blood hit the faces of the Ottoman soldiers, they fell into indescribable fear. Some of them held their heads and shivered in the trenches.

"Lift your heads! Look at me!" Lieutenant Mazahoud shouted loudly. The rumbling sound of the cannons already made his ears buzz with buzzing sounds. He didn't know whether his voice could reach him. In the ears of comrades.

But he roared with all his strength, encouraging his comrades squatting in the trench with him to fulfill his duties as a company commander.

"Don't be afraid of those cannonballs! God will bless us! Those Greek sons of bitches want to use cannonballs to defeat us, but they are just wishful thinking! When the sound of the cannons stops, those Greek sons will attack. At that time, raise your head and grab Take up the gun. Send all your bullets into their chests! Let them taste the fear of death!"

"This is the land of the Ottoman Empire! It is our home! It is the burial place of those Greek bastards! The Ottoman Empire has millions of troops! As long as we hold on until reinforcements arrive, we can crush all those German bastards! Then our The army will invade Greece! Fight all the way to Athens! Hang that damn Greek king on the flagpole! Long live the Ottoman Empire!"

The officers shouted words of encouragement, but their voices were very weak compared to the deafening explosions that continued to sound on the position.

In order to firmly attract the attention of the Ottoman defenders and mislead the enemy into thinking that the Greek army's attack direction was to the southwest, all the heavy artillery equipped by the Macedonian Army poured artillery shells towards the Bazani Fortress in the southwest. .

Before dawn, the Greek soldiers huddled behind the bunker saw an unforgettable scene: the artillery shells streaking across the night sky were as brilliant as a meteor shower, roaring towards the enemy's position.

The passionate words did not inspire the morale of Mazahoud's soldiers. They stared at the face of their company commander with numb and shrinking eyes.

But the slightly straightened body and the action of firmly gripping the rifle in his hand proved that the company commander's shouting was still useful.

For this artillery battle, the Greek artillery continued to prepare firepower all day long, with each artillery preparing nearly 50 rounds.

Although the Ottoman army also had hundreds of artillery pieces, due to the poor supply line, they would still fight back in the early stage. Soon they fell into the dilemma of lack of ammunition, died down, and were completely suppressed by firepower.

In order to enhance the impression that the Greek army's main attack direction was the Bazani Fortress, the Macedonian Legion's small and medium-caliber artillery covered the positions of other Ottoman armies with weaker firepower.

This is the so-called virtual and real, multi-line firing tactics, which made the Ottoman army unclear about the true direction of the Greek army's attack.

On the surface, every part of the entire more than ten kilometers long front seems to be an attack target by the Greek army.

Early morning of December 29th

The Fourth Division of the Macedonian Legion, under the order of Constantine, launched an attack on the position near the Bazani Fortress in order to convince the Ottoman soldiers that it was really the target of the Greek soldiers.