Greece’s Roman Road

While the tragic offensive and defensive battle on the Greek border was going on, Thessaloniki's 1st Division was also under enormous pressure.

Due to the important position of Thessaloniki, the two divisions of the Ottoman army, with a total of about 30,000 people, frantically attacked the positions of the first division in order to relieve its frontline army.

The number of enemy troops was twice that of the defenders of Thessaloniki.

In addition, the Ottoman army used a lot of heavy artillery in the process of attacking Thessaloniki, which doubled the pressure on the first division.

But the 1st division of Manu Giannaski also had its own unique advantages.

First of all, because Thessaloniki is surrounded by plains, in order to hold on to Thessaloniki, Manujanasky ordered the troops to dig deep trenches to deal with the enemy's heavy artillery bombardment.

In order to strengthen the defense capability of the front line, the 1st Division used Maxim heavy machine guns at the same time, and cooperated with the trenches to defend the positions, which made the Ottoman army attacking Thessaloniki feel difficult - every attack was under the heavy machine gun fire of the Greek army. It was heavy casualties.

These Maxim heavy machine guns were part of the Greek armament before the war and were purchased from Germany.

Relying on the combination of trenches and Maxim machine guns, the 1st Division was able to be as solid as a rock under the successive attacks of the superior Ottoman troops.

Second, the logistical convenience of the first division.

Weapons like the Maxim heavy machine gun can fire at a rate of 300 rounds per minute at full fire, and the bullets are shot out like flowing water.

Without adequate logistical support, the army is simply asking for trouble when using such weapons.

In fact, it is precisely because of the abnormal rate of fire of the Maxim heavy machine gun that many military strategists have concerns about it - what level of logistics does this thing need before the army can use it?

For Greece, the problem was neatly solved.

The Ottoman navy is not even capable of sailing out of the Dardanelles to fight, in contrast, the Greek navy can patrol the Aegean Sea with impunity.

At the request of Constantine, the navy continued to transport logistical supplies and supplementary troops in Greece for the first division of the fierce battle by sea, and at the same time transported the wounded of the first division back to Athens when they returned.

It can be said that with the full support of the navy, the 1st Division, which has no worries, can let go of its hands and feet and fully defend Thessaloniki.

With this unique advantage, from January 10th to 23rd, under the attack of the superior Ottoman army, the city of Thessaloniki was impregnable and unbreakable.

........

On January 26, the Ottoman War in Greece had been going on for about two months.

Due to lack of supplies, the Macedonian Legion of the Ottoman army could barely cope with the strong attack of the Greek Thessaly Legion.

In January, the shortage of supplies in the Ottoman army was extremely obvious, and the news of the logistical cut off spread like wildfire in the Ottoman army.

In order to collect the rations of the soldiers, almost all the peasants near the battlefield, whether they were Greeks, Jews, or even MSLs, were looted by starving soldiers.

Even so, after January 20, the entire army had no intention of fighting, the soldiers were panicking, and they had to deal with the offensive of the Greek army every day.

In the early days, in the face of the fire preparations of the Greek artillery, the Ottoman artillery would fire back. In the later stage, the Ottoman army simply huddled in the shallow trenches of the position, and the officers would not order the soldiers to fire until the Greek army attacked.

Despair spread among the soldiers.

The Austrian commander, Edmund, was looking forward to the news of retaking Thessaloniki and restoring logistical supplies.

In order to trap the enemy Macedonian Legion, Constantine personally informed the Epirus Legion to bite the Ottoman garrison in the city of Ioannina, so that it had no time to worry about the Macedonian Legion.

The Macedonian Legion, which was standing firm and awaiting assistance, was flanked by the Greek army on both sides. After the hope of opening up the logistics was dashed, it was too late to retreat.

The helpless Edmund Pasha surrendered to Constantine in disgrace on the morning of the 27th.

The cheers of the soldiers soared into the sky.

Standing in the command camp, Constantine could clearly hear the movement on the ground.

In the border battle, the Ottoman army lost 80,000 soldiers, 25,000 people were killed and wounded, and more than 60,000 people were captured. Almost half of the casualties were from Greek artillery.

The Thessaly Legion suffered 15,000 casualties, including 5,000 Congolese.

In order to celebrate this victory, the command ordered the soldiers of the Thessaly Legion to rest for two days, and at the same time held a celebration banquet for the soldiers.

Greece won the border battle and wiped out the Ottoman Macedonian regiment, causing a big uproar in Europe.

The next day, the British Foreign Secretary personally visited the headquarters of Constantine to verify the specific situation of the Greek campaign on the spot.

"A great and glorious victory, Your Highness Constantine, from today onwards, your name will be known throughout Europe." The Marquis of Salisbury was a flatterer when he saw Constantine.

"Thank you for your congratulations, Marquis" Constantine greeted him and entered the conference room.

"Your Highness, do you know? The whole of the Balkans, and even the whole of Europe, has been shocked by your victory." Having said this, Salisbury turned worried.

"According to our ambassador in Belgrade, the news of the Ottoman army defeated by the Greek army reached Serbia, and the king of Serbia immediately ordered the mobilization of the army"

"I was just scolded by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and asked it to stop the dangerous move of mobilizing the army"

"Similar news also came from Bulgaria"

"These two countries are now on the verge of turmoil"

This was expected by Constantine~www.wuxiaspot.com~ After all, both Serbia and Bulgaria covet the Ottoman territories, especially European territories, and it is absolutely possible to fall into the trap.

However, the big brothers behind these two countries, Austria-Hungary and Russia, do not want their two younger brothers to do anything wrong at this time.

Austria-Hungary does not want Serbia to become stronger, even if Serbia is Austria-Hungary's little brother.

Austria-Hungary and Serbia also have contradictions. There are a large number of Slavs in Austria-Hungary. Among them, Croatia and Slovenia, and even Bosnia and Herzegovina, which Austria-Hungary took over in 1881, all have a large number of Slavs.

In the eyes of Serbian nationalists, these are fellow Serbs.

Serbia and Austria-Hungary are neighboring countries, and the growth of Serbia is not in the interests of Austria-Hungary.

In the same way, after obtaining the Eastern Rumelia Province, which originally belonged to the Ottomans, Bulgaria was infinitely close to the target that Russia had coveted for hundreds of years - Constantinople.

Russia has fought eight Russo-Turkish wars for this city. How can Bulgaria be allowed to interfere?

So both countries, while coveting the troubled Ottoman Empire, were helpless.

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