Chapter 206: Scandal

  Chapter 202 The Scandal

The choice that the Greeks thought was right was undoubtedly unsatisfactory to both sides, so to speak.

The Russians could still grudgingly accept that wherever the Greeks were fighting, they were holding back some of the Ottoman Empire’s energies. This was a critical time, and one more ally added to the odds.

Britain and France would not be able to tolerate it, especially the British, in their view what Greece was doing, was naked betrayal.

The conflict between the two countries in 1850 was ignored by the government in London. Ignoring the fact that the two countries had flipped years earlier when Palmerston ordered the blockade of the Piraeus port.

Of course, John Bull didn’t want to irritate the Greeks at this time. In case they went straight to Constantinople regardless and cut off their logistical lines of transportation along the way, it wouldn’t take half a month for the allied forces in the Balkans to be finished.

While the Parliament in London was discussing the opening of a new front, Foreign Secretary Palmerston got into trouble. He didn’t control his lower body and got involved with the Queen’s maid of honor.

It’s not a big deal. The aristocracy is full of shit, so there’s no harm in adding another one to the list. It’s just a private affair, so we’ll just turn a blind eye to it and move on.

Instead, they made a fool of themselves by having a rendezvous in the royal palace, and were unlucky enough to be bumped into face to face by Prince Albert.

The matter is in the open, this is the palace scandal, Prince Albert angry, Queen Victoria is also angry.

If we don’t make an example of him, where is the dignity of the royal family?

The matter was so serious that the unlucky Palmerston and the maid were arrested by the palace guards and given a good reception.

In Franz’s butterfly effect, history turned a corner. Historically, Palmerston broke the virginity of the queen’s maid, and that was a private matter.

The windowpaper had not been broken, and there was still room for maneuver. Historically, Palmerston paid a terrible price, not only went off the reservation, but also spent a lot of money to find someone to intercede, and after some exchange of political benefits, he finally returned to the political arena.

Now caught in a man caught in the act, not to mention what will happen in the future, how to get through this robbery in front of us is a problem.

Foreign Secretary lewdness court, this news if spread out, that will be lively. British people’s gossip fire is very powerful, do not know what else to make up the picture.

John Russell dumbfounded, for Palmerston he is admired speechless, this colleague’s lust is not enviable, his ability to die is admired five body.

Then, he also had to find a way to make amends. The royal side must give an explanation, this colleague can not just disappear for no reason.

Palmerston is not a small person, not only is he the Foreign Secretary of the British Empire, but he is also the spokesman of the bourgeoisie in the government, and he has a lot of influence in the civil society.

Prince Albert asked, “Prime Minister, what do you think should be done about this issue?”

After arresting the man, Prince Albert regretted it. There were plenty of opportunities to clean up Palmerston later, so why did he have to do it immediately?

If the mouth is long, God knows what the outside world will say about it. Maybe some people will think that this is the royal family is persecuting the ministers, so they make a drama.

For the sake of the royal family’s reputation, this matter is destined to be dealt with only coldly. The politically astute Prince Albert, naturally chose to kick the ball.

……

The sudden outbreak of the scandal directly affected the efficiency of the government in London, delayed the opening of the second front, and created an opportunity for the Russians.

Inside a small, crumbling village in Plovdiv, Bulgarian partisans were meeting in secret.

“Gentlemen, we have just received information that the Ottoman Empire has withdrawn the army that was besieging us, and that they have been replaced by 30,000 British land forces that have just arrived.

This is both a challenge and an opportunity, the British are much stronger fighters than the Ottomans, and without two or three times the superior force we are no match for them.

Obviously, we don’t have that many troops, and that’s the challenge we’re about to encounter.

We know from our captors that there is also a lot of conflict between the British and the Ottomans, and although they are allies, the arrogant British just use them as cannon fodder.

This is the opportunity, since they are in conflict, it will be difficult for both sides to work together intimately.

The British, after all, were outsiders who were unfamiliar with the Bulgarian region, and at this time were in the process of handing over to the Ottomans, and short-term confusion was inevitable.

According to the news passed on by the inner circle, the five thousand Ottoman defenders in the city of Plovdiv were evacuated yesterday, and now there are just less than two thousand left, of which there are only eight hundred British soldiers.

This is an opportunity, if several of us join forces to capture Plovdiv in one fell swoop and smash the enemy as a material transit point, the war on the Sofia front will inevitably be affected.”

The speaker was a middle-aged man, the main leader of this alliance of several Bulgarian guerrillas man Dimitar.

Don’t look at the Bulgarian guerrillas who are now quite numerous and think that they have set up a system, in reality they are not unified and are still fighting separately.

The Russians, who supported them, the real purpose is to cause trouble to the Ottoman Empire, but not ready to let them really independent, naturally will not let them united.

In this era, Bulgarian nationalism had not yet awakened, and the latter-day father of the Bulgarian nation – Hristo Botov – was still a kindergartener. (If there were kindergartens.)

The motivation for Bulgarian resistance was largely rooted in the oppression of the Ottoman government, and persecution for their religious beliefs.

A young officer with black hair and green eyes stood up and objected, “Mr. Dimitar, Plovdiv is only 15 kilometers from Asenovgrad and 30 kilometers from Pazardzhik.

This means that once we launch an attack on Plovdiv, the enemy’s reinforcements from Asenovgrad will arrive on the same day, and those from Pazardjik will be delayed until the next day at most.

There are still three thousand defenders in Pazardjik and two thousand in Asenovgrad, and I’m going to face not two but seven thousand enemies.

The enemy has just withdrawn 5,000 defenders, and there will surely be a change of defense with new troops, and we have not yet received intelligence on this, which is very unreasonable.

There are only three possibilities for this to happen: first, the enemy’s commanders have forgotten and overlooked the importance of Plovdiv; second, something has gone wrong with our intelligence system; and third, this is a trap by the enemy, deliberately baiting us into it.

The first scenario, obviously, was impossible. The enemy is not so stupid as to fail to see even such a simple problem.

It is the Bulgarian population everywhere that gives us information; the movements of large armies cannot be kept secret, and from the information we have received, there are no large forces coming towards Plovdiv yet.

Then the chances of this being a trap are very high, and if we can’t capture Plovdiv in a short time, in three days’ time at the most the enemy forces in the neighborhood will swarm over us and trap us here.”

Dimitar explained, “Sephiroth, you are right. This place may very well be a trap for the enemy, but the temptation is just too great.

We’re all well aware that the enemy is stockpiling tons of supplies in Plovdiv, and even if this is a bait, we have a chance to smash them.

Although I’m not sure how much strategic materials the enemy has hoarded in Sofia, but looking at the enemy’s emphasis on logistical transportation, we can roughly judge that the strategic materials in the Sofia region are not enough to support the use of their frontline armies until the end of the war.

After destroying these supplies we’ll run away, as for the city of Plovdiv, it’s better to leave it to the Ottomans for the time being, and we’ll come back after the end of this meeting.”

Dimitar’s analysis was well-founded, the war had gone on until now, and the enemy strength in the Sofia region had dropped to eighty thousand. It was in this situation that Montes had also pulled out fifteen thousand British soldiers to be in charge of logistical transportation.

Due to the logistics occupied a large number of troops, which caused the Sofia front, the allied forces by the Russians pressed on the ground to beat the situation.

It was only because of the shortage of troops that Montes asked for help from home. Dimitar was in a hurry to break the situation, mainly because the enemy’s reinforcements were coming soon, and if they didn’t fight, they really couldn’t win.

This is the aftermath of the coalition’s hasty response to the war, the Russians were prepared in advance, the front line of the troops suffered heavy losses, and immediately retreated to replenish.

Supplementary troops were sent to the Principality of Wallachia, not sent directly to the front line, that is because the logistics can not afford, can only stay in the Danube.

The Ottoman Empire directly played pokies, now rely on the capture of the strong man to replenish the troops, due to the fall of the Balkan Peninsula most of the strong man have no place to catch, the replenishment speed has not been able to catch up with the consumption speed of the front line.

Britain and France are too far away from the Balkans, want to replenish the troops must be reported to the country, but also through the bureaucrats layer by layer approval, a back and forth time will pass.

In this respect, the British are ready to open a second front is indeed far-sighted, once the Crimean Peninsula war started, the Russians will be exhausted.

Even with the best preparation, it was not without its limits. Poor transportation at home was undoubtedly the greatest enemy, restricting the projection of Russian power.

A middle-aged man said with a sneer, ”Mr. Dimitar, our several guerrilla groups combined are only about 5,000 people, and you know well how the weapons and equipment are.

If this is a trap, the enemy will definitely be prepared. On the surface it seems like the enemy’s troops with combat power are those eight hundred British soldiers.

But in reality, who knows? It’s not as if the Ottoman army doesn’t have any capable fighters. If they were all a bunch of losers, we’d have been restored a long time ago.

In case the 1,000-odd Ottoman defenders, who are the elite troops of the Ottomans, together with the 800 British soldiers, the fighting strength is not much worse than ours.

I think it’s too risky to take a chance on Plovdiv, even if we have an inside man in the city, the chances of success are too low.”

Where there are people there is a jungle, the Bulgarian Partisans were originally divided into many branches, mostly formed geographically, and for the leadership of the Partisans many people were prying.

Dimitar was only the nominal leader of these guerrillas, and there were quite a few people who were dissatisfied with him. Only in the face of a common enemy, this conflict was suppressed.

“What is Mr. Hamill’s opinion?” Dimitar asked calmly

He could hear that Hamill was not against attacking Plovdiv, but had other plans.

Hamir smiled faintly and said, “High opinion doesn’t count, since we’re not sure if this is a trap or not, let’s just test it first.

Let’s first attack Zarjik, thirty kilometers away, we’ve already mapped out the situation over there, the three thousand defenders are all Ottomans, their fighting strength is very mediocre, it won’t be hard for us to unite and eat them.

If the enemy has a trap, it will be exposed at this time, they can’t possibly lay out a thirty kilometer encirclement.

If there were no traps, we were taking a shortcut straight to Plovdiv. The enemy forces around the perimeter are attracted to Zalgik, and we have a high chance of success in our surprise attack.”

Dimitar thought about it and said, “This is indeed a good way to minimize the risk. But a two-place run is still too much pressure for the guerrillas.

It seems necessary to contact Boris and the others, they will be in charge of attacking Zarjik to break the situation, and we will help with the reinforcements first.

As soon as the enemies in Plovdiv and Asenovgrad are out of the city, take them out first to make it less difficult for the attack.”

This was not the first siege of the Bulgarian Partisans, but it was their first major counterattack after being routed in the Battle of Sofia.

After more than two months of recuperation, they had regained their strength, and although they had not reached their peak, their confidence had been beaten out of them.

In this respect, the Sardinian army also deserves credit. If it wasn’t for the opportunity they created for the Bulgarians, these guerrillas would still be in a dead heat with the Allied Forces in their positions.

It was estimated that by this time, they would have suffered heavy casualties. Mao Xiong was also not a good match for the Lord, and used the guerrillas as cannon fodder from the start. Ordered the Bulgarian guerrillas to tear apart the coalition’s defenses and penetrate to the rear to attack the coalition front and rear, obviously want to kill with a knife.

Unfortunately, the plan did not change quickly, who knows that the Sardinian army so wimpy, actually really by the Bulgarian guerrillas to penetrate the position, penetrated to the rear.

The Russians simply did not believe that the guerrillas could do it, and were not able to respond in time, losing an opportunity to win the war.

(End of chapter)