Mediterranean Hegemony Road

On the fifth day after the Battle of Constantinople, on August 20, 897, Ferdinand finally received the final casualty count report!

The numbers are startling:

The First Division of the Guards, 347 casualties, including 5 deaths and 87 serious injuries

The First Infantry Division suffered 284 casualties, including 58 dead and 8 seriously injured

8th Infantry Division, 32 casualties, including 827 dead and 8 seriously injured

...

In the first five main divisions of the First Army, each division suffered no less than one regiment, and the four second-class divisions also suffered heavy casualties. With the addition of several reinforcement divisions transferred later, the total casualties were as high as 38,000 more people!

Seeing this number, Ferdinand's heart almost jumped out! Fortunately, the medical insurance is doing well, and most of the wounded can still recover.

Of course, this is not bad. It is for the 9th century. The Bulgarian field hospital used a large amount of original disinfectant - carbolic acid, and prepared a large amount of alcohol to clean the wound, which effectively inhibited the wound from suppurating!

As for western medicine, in this day and age, it is still too expensive, and the effect is not very good, and the side effects are huge.

Ferdinand knew that for the wounded on the battlefield, the biggest problem was not the efficacy of medicines, but the need for medicines! ..

For this reason, Ferdinand also sent people to Manchuria to buy a batch of traditional Chinese medicine! People in this era are quite easy to fool. In order to make soldiers accept Chinese medicine, Ferdinand also set an example and personally advertised for Chinese medicine!

In fact, when I was on fire, I drank a bowl of boiled Huanglian! The main reason is that he is familiar with this model and knows that it is safe and has no future troubles!

But that's enough. In the eyes of ordinary people, the king can drink it, so what are we afraid of?

The purchased medicinal materials include Phellodendron cortex, Scutellaria baicalensis, Huanglian, honeysuckle, Houttuynia cordata, Forsythia, Radix Radix, Bupleurum, etc., and by the way, a few street doctors came to dispense the medicine!

Of course, Ferdinand also knew that for the damage caused by bullets and shells on the battlefield, these things are really not very effective, but there is no way but to make do with them, at least they can appease the morale of the army!

Don't you see that during the Boer War, the British couldn't provide enough medicine for the soldiers, let alone Bulgaria?

Now it seems,

With this series of efforts, the effect is not bad. Most of the wounded soldiers still saved their lives. Compared with the Baosai War, the survival rate has been greatly improved!

Among the total casualties of more than 38,000 people in the First Group Army, the number of deaths was only 484, and 24 were seriously injured and disabled. The ratio was successfully controlled within one-sixth!

The newly formed ten temporary divisions were miserable. Due to lack of sufficient training, they were sent to the battlefield in a hurry and assumed the same combat intensity as the main divisions. risk!

Temporary Division 1, 588 casualties, including 074 deaths and 28 serious injuries

Temporary Second Division, 487 casualties, including 99 deaths and 39 serious injuries

...

The total number of ten temporary divisions was as high as 58,000, and the number of casualties reached an astonishing 53,700, of which the number of deaths was as high as 3,400, and the number of seriously injured and disabled was as high as 8,000!

The number of casualties has exceeded one-third, and the temporary division has not collapsed. It has to be said that the benefits are touching!

The death toll did not exceed one-tenth of what was said in advance, but if the number of seriously injured is added, this ratio has reached an astonishing one-fifth!

The main reason for this phenomenon is the ambulance work on the battlefield. Due to the untimely rescue, many seriously wounded died directly, and many lightly wounded turned into seriously wounded!

After all, in the 9th century, once a large area of ​​wounds thickened, people would die, and those with injured limbs would be forced to amputate!

The ten temporarily reorganized divisions, field hospitals and other supporting facilities are not complete. Most of them are barefoot doctors recruited from the Istanbul area, and their medical capabilities are not at the same level!

In any case, in the battle of Constantinople, the number of casualties on the Bulgarian side reached 97,000, of which more than 8,200 were killed, and more than 8,000 were seriously injured and disabled.

Now Ferdinand had no choice but to thank himself for his wit and created the cannon fodder army, otherwise the number of casualties of the First Army would have doubled, and Bulgaria really couldn't afford to die!

As for the casualties of the Ottomans, it is difficult to count them. According to the general staff of the First Army based on the battle situation, the casualties of the Ottoman army are at least twice as many as those of the Bulgarian side!

Ferdinand didn't care about any of this! Now he is worrying about the issue of post-war resettlement. Ordinary soldiers can receive rewards and retire after fighting the war. What to do, but officers must be properly resettled!

It is absolutely impossible to stay in the army. Even if the standing army of Bulgaria is to increase, there will not be many people left!

You can't be demoted, can you? Now that everyone has basically made military achievements, it would be too much not to be promoted, and they want to be demoted. Do you really think this group of arrogant soldiers are soft persimmons?

"Chekov, what plan does your government department have to accommodate retired officers and soldiers?"

Now that Prime Minister Constantine is also presiding over negotiations in London, Ferdinand appointed Chekhov to act as prime minister.

Chekov said anxiously: "Grand Duke, after this war, the territory has nearly tripled in size. In order to stabilize the region, our cabinet thinks it is necessary to entrust some officers and soldiers to go there!

Moreover, the government is in urgent need of officials, so it can also consider selecting some of the retired military officers to serve as local officials! "

Ferdinand nodded, he knew that Bulgaria has experienced a large-scale shortage of officials.

It's not that no one will be an official, the main thing is to be able to stabilize the situation of the newly added territory, and it won't work without a certain ability!

It is normal for the government to target retired military officers. Now both Macedonia and Thrace are full of bandits and bandits, which are left over from the Ottoman Empire!

All these need to be resolved by the government later. Bandit bandits and the military will be responsible for the encirclement and suppression, but the fish that may slip through the net in the future can only be handled by the government itself!

Who else is more suitable for this job than these retired officers and soldiers?

"Okay! Then select a group of retired officers and directly become local cadres! The situation in Macedonia and Albania is still very complicated. The police stations and armed forces in various places should simply let retired officers and soldiers serve as local cadres." Already!" Ferdinand said

This is also something that can’t be helped. No matter how you clean it up, the remnants of the Ottomans still exist. If you want to suppress them, you must use tough methods!

How about the political quality of retired officers and soldiers remains to be verified, but there is one advantage that other people do not have-they dare to fight and kill!

It is perfect for eliminating hidden dangers! Otherwise, if it was proposed by a different civil servant, and use soft tactics against a group of enemies, wouldn't it be a problem for tigers?

To give a simple example: a large group of gangsters appeared in one place, with widespread influence and strong strength.

If civil officials deal with it, they will first collect evidence, and then slowly figure out a way to deal with it through legal procedures. This process may take several years!

If it was handed over to these newly retired military officers, they probably wouldn't care so much because they are full of blood. First, they would hand over the gangsters first, and then consider the issue of evidence!

If it was in a peaceful age, of course legal means would be better, but now, Bulgaria obviously needs iron and blood more! What Ferdinand wants now is to stabilize the place as soon as possible, resume production, and develop the economy!

Ferdinand thought for a while and said: "By the way, during the Battle of Constantinople, we created ten new temporary divisions, and now they have become our loyal supporters!

Most of them are people from Istanbul and Thrace. The government can choose some of them to add to the local police force. I will directly order their current military officers to retire and serve as chiefs of police stations in various places. I am not afraid of pressure. live them! "

If it wasn't for the news from the Qing newspaper department, he would have almost forgotten that after the Battle of Constantinople, the newly formed army of more than 100,000 troops had already been tied to Bulgarian chariots!

Even for the land they are about to acquire, they must support the rule of Bulgaria!

Benefits are always the best means of binding, and now they are heroes in Bulgaria, and can enjoy the treatment of retired officers and soldiers.

In Bulgaria, it may be inconspicuous, but in their own hometown, they are also a member of the privileged class!

Although the privilege is small, does it not exist? Moreover, many of them hated the Ottoman Empire. Now it would be better to absorb them into the police force and use them to fight against the remnants of the Ottoman Empire!

For the unity and stability of Bulgaria, Ferdinand decided to create an enemy for Bulgaria, an enemy that can unite the Balkan nations!

In the spirit of persimmons, Ferdinand chose the Ottoman Empire without hesitation!

First of all, all ethnic groups in the Balkans have hatred against the Ottoman Empire. In order to prevent the Sudanese government from making a comeback, they have to support the Bulgarian government!

As for whether the Sudanese government has the ability to make a comeback, this is not the point, Ferdinand can completely promote it!

The size of the Ottoman Empire is so big. After the failure of the Balkan War, they will definitely carry out internal reforms to save the nation!

As long as the propaganda is a little exaggerated and ordinary people think that the crisis is around them, national independence will not become the mainstream in the short term!

In a few years, the world will be peaceful, the living standards of the people will improve, and with the integration of culture, when everyone gets used to calling themselves Bulgarians, even if some people want to go out independently, they will not get the support of the people!

During this period, it is estimated that Ferdinand has changed the history of the various ethnic groups beyond recognition. Anyway, the Bulgarians are all mixed-race, and the ethnic groups in the Balkans are similar. It is too easy to find evidence that everyone is one family!