Chapter 199: The Struggle of the Montenegrins

  Chapter 196 – The Struggle of the Montenegrins

Montenegro

Since the outbreak of the war in the Near East, this small populated country was abuzz, and the first time there was a complete national mobilization, and still men, women, and children were mobilized.

The Montenegrin population was proud to be the only people in the Balkans who had not succumbed to the Ottomans, and for centuries they had been on the front lines of the resistance against the Ottoman Empire.

It is a nation of all people, and without government coercion, the population spontaneously took up arms and returned to the establishment.

Shkodra was just around the corner, it was unknown how many times the Montenegrins had fought their way here, this was unlike the past, and this time they had a very good chance of winning.

Not so long ago, they and Austria had successfully met in the region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the problem of weapons and ammunition that had constrained them had been solved, and the Montenegrin army’s fighting strength had increased dramatically.

Command of the Montenegrin Army

Commander-in-Chief Mirkov said cautiously, “We have just been informed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the Holsta Arsenal is coming over to test a batch of weapons.

Lasic, take a company of troops and be responsible for protecting the safety of our Austrian friends, absolutely not letting anything happen to them.”

It was no wonder that Mirkov was not cautious, now every rifle and every round of ammunition in the Principality of Montenegro was supplied by Austria.

Now Austria had replaced the Russians as their most important ally, bar none.

At this time, when Austria asked to experiment with weapons on the battlefield, they naturally could not refuse.

For the penniless Duchy of Montenegro, no matter what the performance of the weapons was, as long as there was something to use, it would be good. Now by testing weapons for Austria, they could get a batch of weapons and equipment for nothing, which in their opinion was a profit.

As for the risk of using the new weapons, could it be as big as fighting the Ottomans with cold weapons?

The number of equipment for real-world testing is not small, such as this rifle test, Hordas Arsenal directly shipped five hundred new rifles. Equipped with two Montenegrin infantry battalions, it is going to be put into the war, the actual battle test.

Lasic cried out, “The Austrians are at it again. Your Excellency the Commander, can someone else do it, I still want to fight the Ottomans?”

Although Lasic was only a regimental commander, but the Duchy of Montenegro’s army was small in number, and he, the regimental commander, had turned into a high-ranking officer.

Watching a fellow officer fight on the front line, he became the full-time head of the Austrian delegation’s guard because he knew German, and had already sent off three batches of weapons observation missions.

As a Montenegrin, how could one not be a good fighter? It was hard to wait for an opportunity, only to have it spoiled by a sudden weapons test.

Mirkov glared at him and said seriously, ”Don’t make conditions with me, this matter is not negotiable. If the test is successful, we’ll be able to pick up another five hundred rifles and a batch of ammunition for nothing, saving the country tens of thousands of guilders.”

At the mention of funding, Lasrich was speechless. Tens of thousands of Austrian guilders didn’t seem like much, but for the Duchy of Montenegro, it was a month or two of their financial income.

Weapons testing is not always successful, many weapons and equipment in the target test, the performance is very superior, once to the battlefield all kinds of problems will be exposed.

In order to encourage the domestic arsenal research and development of new weapons, now the actual test costs, are the Austrian government is responsible for out of pocket.

Austria’s major arsenals, taking advantage of this opportunity, the variety of weapons are sent to the battlefield for testing.

Field test, not only is the test of weapons performance, but also includes logistical maintenance, the difficulty of operating weapons on the battlefield and so on.

There are successes here, only more failures. A lot of weapons killing power is very big, is to the battlefield performance is not stable enough; or performance is stable, is the maintenance cost is too high.

……

Along the way, Holman Stellen was very shocked, the Duchy of Montenegro is completely universal, the pre-agreed troops of 20,000, he can be sure that the Montenegrins exceeded the task.

Young and old, anyone who could move was serving the war effort. Along the way, he saw the supplies being transported to the front line, all being passed forward village by village, like a relay race.

There were hardly any young men to be seen, and from start to finish it was all done by the old and weak, women and children. The old ones were on the verge of losing their teeth, and the young ones were still a few years old, all busy.

“Mr. Rasledge, where are your domestic youthful stalwarts?” Holman Styron asked suspiciously

Lasrich said rightfully, “All on the battlefield!”

As if seeing that Holman Stellen didn’t quite understand, Lasrich added:

“This is our homeland, there is no danger, the logistic transportation is all taken care of by the people, and after walking up a bit more, we can see our army.”

Holman Stellen didn’t say anything, just silently recorded what he saw in his notebook and continued on his way.

After arriving at the front line, Holman Stellen also found female soldiers. Obviously for the sake of this war, the Duchy of Montenegro had gambled on its national fortune, and they had pressed all of their chips.

This Near East war, for Austria is only a pickup local war, the final result of the war is nothing more than the size of the Austrian gains, anyway, the Ottomans do not dare to retaliate.

For the Russians, it is also just a strategic war, not enough life and death, the Russians have not yet reached the point of desperation.

Lose the big deal after a few decades again, the Russians family big lose up, the Russian-Turkish war fought so many times, also do not care to increase once.

Only the Duchy of Montenegro gambled on the fate of the country, if it wins, it will develop and grow, if it loses, everything will be over.

Holman Stellen understood what the Montenegrins were doing, their hatred with the Ottomans was already unraveling. For centuries, this time was the closest they had come to victory.

The Ottoman Empire was in decline, and now it was at war with Austria and Russia at the same time, and if it hadn’t been for the intervention of Britain and France the war would have been over by now.

This kind of opportunity, the Montenegrins naturally want to gamble. As a Balkan nation, if you don’t dare to gamble on the fate of the country, is it still a Balkan nation?

The only pity is that the population of Montenegro is too small, if there are 10 million people, not as long as there are five million people, they can drive the Ottomans out of the Balkan Peninsula, to establish their own empire.

Thinking about this, Holman Stellen smiled slightly. If the Duchy of Montenegro had that much population, they wouldn’t be Austria’s ally.

The entire Balkan Peninsula only had a population of just over thirteen million people, a small half of which was in the Istanbul region.

The rest of the region had two million in the Bulgarian region, the Kingdom of Greece had a population of nearly a million, the Serbian region had more than nine hundred thousand, the two Danubian principalities had more than a million each, the Macedonian region had more than a million, the Albanian region had a few hundred thousand, and the Bosnia and Herzegovina region had a few hundred thousand.

The Duchy of Montenegro, even if they try hard enough, their population limit, determines the upper limit of their development.

It is impossible to become a threat to Austria, then everyone can become good friends. For example, support the Duchy of Montenegro to develop towards the Albany region and support a nail up to keep the Balkans from unifying.

Holman Stellen shook his head and dismissed these thoughts. This was something politicians should think about, and he was already fishing over the line by considering this as a weapons designer.

……

The war started quickly, and in the binoculars Holman Stellen and his party, watched as the Montenegrin army launched an attack on the Ottoman positions.

Artillery fire roared and blood and flesh flew.

None of this Holman Stellen could care less to pay attention to, he was observing the ability of the new rifles in action, and from time to time a smile of satisfaction flowed out.

In the volley fire, because of the ability to lie down and load, the casualties of soldiers equipped with these new rifles, obviously much smaller.

Although the combat lethality was slightly lower, the advantage of a higher hit rate in close-range engagements compensated for this shortcoming.

As long as the effective range to hit the enemy, to be able to do effective killing on the line, this is not a sniper rifle, the chances of hitting the enemy at a distance is too small, the killing power of a little bit also does not matter.

The first round of testing is considered a success, Holman Stellen breathed a sigh of relief, as long as the next maintenance in the standard, even if the initial requirements.

Compared to Holman Stellen’s satisfaction, next to him, Lasrich was frowning. After having more contact with the people from the Austrian Weapons Testing Corps, he had inevitably learned some specialized knowledge.

“Mr. Holman, isn’t the ammunition consumption of this rifle a bit too large? Have you noticed that its high hit rate is actually based on the consumption of ammunition.”

Holman Styron couldn’t help but ask, “Is the ammunition consumption high?”

Lasrich replied affirmatively, “Of course, while ordinary rifles usually shoot two or three rounds per minute, this rifle can actually shoot about ten rounds per minute.

That means the ammo consumption has increased several times and the hit rate has only increased slightly, but of course our casualties are down a bit.

It’s just too expensive to use a gun like this, and we can’t afford to use it anyway. The cost of its manufacture, I’m afraid, won’t be low either.”

Holman Stellen nodded, recording all this in his notebook. Ammunition consumption was too high, and it was also very deadly in war, which meant that logistical resupply was more difficult.

For the Duchy of Montenegro, this kind of breech-loading rifle consumed too much, and they couldn’t afford to support it either with their financial resources or their industrial strength, and didn’t have the equipability to do so.

But for Austria it may not be, the consumption of ammunition of this intensity has not exceeded the limit of tolerance.

The birth of the breech-loading rifle, but also means that the cost of war increased, the industrial power and the weak countries between the strength of the gap was once again widened.

Without strong industrial strength, it simply could not support the horrific ammunition consumption of future wars.

If this Near East war, both belligerents changed to breech rifles, this war the Russians simply could not sustain.

The Russians and Austrians are really no match for Britain and France in terms of consumption. Now still able to withstand, in addition to prepare in advance, there is also the front-bore rifle ammunition consumption is not so large.

“Mr. Lasrich, I can see that you are very experienced in weapons testing, are you interested in joining our team, the salary will definitely satisfy you.” Holman Stellen invited

Weapon testing on the battlefield was a high-risk job. Doing this job, one didn’t know when one would be hit by a stray bullet that flew from who knows where.

High risk was naturally accompanied by high income, at least a few times higher than the salary of Lasrich, the head of the Black Mountain Duchy.

Nope, it could also be dozens of times. Due to financial difficulties, the officers and soldiers of the Duchy of Montenegro were treated very poorly, and most of the time they were not paid.

It wasn’t forced, but people spontaneously gave up their military pay. Unless it was because the family just couldn’t get by, usually they would voluntarily give up their paychecks.

Lasrich smiled and refused, “Thanks, Mr. Holman. But I don’t think it’s necessary, it’s not a matter of money.

There are many other things in this world that are more important than money. Right now my homeland is in a bloody battle with the Ottomans, and centuries of shame need to be washed away with our blood.

For me, defeating the Ottoman Empire is the goal in life. If this goal is accomplished, I will reconsider life.”

Holman Stellen bent his waist and bowed, saying, “Mr. Lasrich, please forgive me for my presumption. You are a true soldier and should not be insulted by money.”

At this moment, Holman Stellen really recognized Lasrich, or the Duchy of Montenegro.

Perhaps they weren’t strong enough, but their spirit of persevering in fighting for the sake of their country and nation, and the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years, with their beliefs remaining unshaken, was worthy of everyone’s respect.

After the small episode, Holman Stellen and his party changed their opinion of them. There was no longer the arrogance of the past, and the relationship between the two sides was much better.

(End of chapter)