Chapter 209: The Highest Level of the Pit

  Chapter 205 – The Highest Realm of the Pit

British reinforcements have just arrived in the Balkans, have not yet had time to take over the entire defense area, the Bulgarian partisans launched a full-scale counterattack, this time the Russians are also very cooperative, deadlocked the front line of the coalition forces.

Facts proved that Plovdiv was indeed a bait set up by the British, ready to encircle the main force of the Bulgarian guerrillas here, except that they only controlled the beginning and were not able to control the end.

No sooner had the battle begun to be fought than the situation changed, with more than a dozen cities, including Plovdiv, being attacked by the partisans at the same time.

Most of these were feints, but with this flurry of fighting, the British setup, which had not yet been completed, was exposed.

There was no way around it, as weak as the Greeks were, they picked their moment too well, and who knows if they would have killed all the way into Constantinople? For safety’s sake, the Ottoman Empire had to draw in troops to surround them.

There are not enough troops to defend the city, there are still bandwagons in the city, and feints may break the city, if all these places are lost, the allied forces in the Sofia region are caught in the encirclement, and the British army has no choice but to send troops to reinforce them.

Bulgarian guerrillas firepower is too weak, bullying the Ottomans second-line troops is okay, the front battlefield is just not the British.

But does not mean that there is no way to fight. Just arrived at the front line of the British army, did not fight with them, arrogant British commanders directly treat them as the natives of the colony.

There was nothing wrong with this understanding; theoretically, Bulgaria could also be considered an Ottoman colony, only directly.

In terms of strength this gap is big, Bulgarian guerrillas at least have been trained by Russian and Austrian instructors, coupled with high morale, the outbreak of combat power is not weak.

“Boom” a sound, the British troops are marching again by the guerrillas attack, a few moments after the gunfire ended abruptly, apparently the guerrillas retreated.

A young officer said with a pale face: “General, the front was attacked by the enemy, two soldiers were killed and seven were wounded!”

“How many times have we been attacked by the enemy?” Major General Oliver asked

“Eighteenth time!” The young officer replied in a low voice

“Then what’s the point of all this nonsense, hurry up and send me men after them!” Major General Oliver ordered

The Bulgarian guerrillas had inflicted few casualties on them, except for the frequency of the attacks, which delayed their march not to mention, crucially, demoralized the troops.

Major General Oliver was not one to take a loss and not fight back, of course he had to fight back.

With no experience in fighting guerrillas, most of the time the enemy disappeared halfway through the chase, and if they were unlucky there were more entrapments along the way.

In this round of exchanges, the British did not take advantage of not to mention, the key is also delayed the best opportunity to fight. When they arrived at their destination, the main force of the guerrillas had long been gone.

Everyone knew that the main camp of the Bulgarian partisans was in the Balkan Mountains, and Major General Oliver’s mission was to besiege the partisans.

But to enter the Balkan Mountains is to attack the enemy’s strength with one’s own shortcomings. It was difficult to move large forces, and artillery was useless. Fighting in this environment, the casualty ratio between the two sides was almost 1:1.

To exchange a British soldier for a partisan, Major General Oliver is not crazy, if he dares to do so, the day of court-martial will not be far away.

Major General Oliver was commanding troops in combat for the first time, or else as a gold-plated relation, he wouldn’t have taken on this unlucky mission.

British generals who have been hanging out in the Balkans for a long time would rather be on the front line and die with the Russians than go into the mountains to round up partisans.

The former enemy can see, the British army fighting strength is also slightly superior, as long as not be surrounded by several times the enemy army, the risk is controllable; the latter on the surface seems to risk is not big, the guerrillas certainly can not beat the regular army, but into the mountains after it is not the same.

Major-General Oliver, thinking himself a winner, set up a decoy to lure the Bulgarian partisans into a trap.

The result was now obvious, the enemy had fallen for it, but unfortunately he had overestimated the speed of the British troops, and they were unable to close their pocket formation in time for the enemy’s sneak attack.

……

Plovdiv, this strategic place has fallen for the most part, the defenders are still stubbornly resisting. Offensive warfare is not the strong point of the guerrillas, even if the city has an inside man inside and outside, they have not been able to take the city in one breath.

The guerrilla commander Edimir ordered, “Order the troops to stop attacking, search for strategic materials as much as possible, take away those that can be taken away, and burn those that can’t be taken away, and can’t leave them to the enemy.”

The middle-aged officer said reluctantly, “Commander, isn’t it too much of a shame to burn so many treasures. If we organize a civilian rush, we can still ship them out.”

Edimir glared and said, “Cut the crap, with so many supplies, can we still run? If we get bitten by the Brits, even if we increase our troop strength tenfold, we’re still no match for them!”

Being able to destroy this part of the supplies, Edimir was already satisfied. Although it was a bit of a pity that they didn’t take the whole of Plovdiv, politically they could have declared that they had captured the place and fought for a better position with the Russians.

The Russians were very realistic, and at first the Bulgarian partisans were treated in such a way that they would not starve people to death. Since they tore through the Sardinian army’s defenses head-on and broke through to the enemy’s rear, the guerrillas have been treated in the same way as the Russians.

Logistical supplies were out of their reach for the time being, but the Russians had still issued them a shipment of weapons and equipment, which had been transported through the trails of the Balkan Mountains.

Many of the partisan officers, including Edimir, were given official ranks in the Russian army, and they were now established men.

Fitzroy Somerset also promised that after the war, if they were willing to join the army, they would all be given official Russian army numbers and would be responsible for stationing in Bulgaria; those who wanted to retire from the army would also be able to enter the government sector and receive matching treatment.

“Independence”? Don’t dream of it, the Russians are not here to be charitable, and have fought so hard for so long just to make the Bulgarians independent.

Now the Bulgarians are not that demanding, autonomy is their highest goal. Most of them also wanted to be sheltered by the Russians and guaranteed that they would not be enslaved by the Ottomans.

Religious people, in particular, were standard pro-Russian and had very high expectations of Bulgaria’s joining the family of the Russian Empire.

The future Bulgaria would be nothing more than a province, an autonomous province, or joining Russia as an autonomous principality, depending on the decisions of the tsarist government.

The prerequisite is that the Russians win the war, and if they lose, all bets are off, and the losers are not entitled to the spoils of war.

……

Sofia.

Coalition command, Lieutenant General Monteith heart has greeted all of Major General Oliver’s relatives once again, pit teammates are not to be so, let alone pit their own people?

If he hadn’t delayed taking over the defense in order to set up the so-called pocket formation, the Bulgarian guerrillas wouldn’t have been able to take advantage of the situation and conquer three and a half cities in just one week.

The cities were all owned by the Ottomans, and even if they were captured Montes didn’t care, the problem was that the supplies hoarded in the cities were theirs.

Even if the British Empire is so big that it doesn’t care about such a small loss, it still has to consider the political implications ah?

The immediate consequence is that Montes will not be able to hold its head up in front of the French. The deeper impact was that the Bulgarian region became more unstable, and more and more people saw the hope of getting rid of the Ottoman rule and turned to support the guerrillas.

“Send orders to Major General Oliver to recover the lost ground immediately and secure the logistical transportation lines for our troops.” Montes ordered

The matter of besieging the guerrillas, it’s better to talk about it later, if it’s not possible, just leave it to the Ottomans, anyway, this is not the territory of the British Empire, Monteith doesn’t care about that much.

“Yes!” The valet replied

While giving this order, Montes hadn’t noticed that danger was approaching, and Fitzroy Somerset was already planning for Armageddon.

Initially, the battlefield in Sofia was 73,000 Russian troops + 20,000 Bulgarian partisans vs 50,000 British troops + 20,000 Sardinian troops + 30,000 Ottoman troops, both sides were equally strong.

Now that the Russian army had been replenished, the total strength was still more than 70,000 men, while there were less than 10,000 Ottoman troops left in the allied army, and only 35,000 of the remaining 42,000 British troops were on the front line, while the Sardinian army had 19,000 left.

It has to be said that the Italians are good at saving their lives, in the warring parties they have the lowest casualty rate, when Franz tossed the battlefield life preservation manual, now in the Sardinian army has been deeply rooted in people’s hearts.

This means that while the allied reinforcements were being held back by the Bulgarian partisans, the Russians already had an absolute advantage on the battlefield.

The Ottoman army had been crippled, and the Sardinian army was paddling all over the field, so the remaining British army could not stand up to double the Russian army even if they were strong in battle.

On December 27, 1852, under the leadership of Fitzroy Somerset, the Russian army launched an onslaught in the Sofia region.

Unlike the previous attacks, the Russians caught the Sardinian line and pounded it. Ever since the Bulgarian guerrillas killed their way out of here, Fitzroy Somerset realized that this was the weak point of the Allied line.

It was only then that the opportunity was missed, and in order to prevent the British from plugging the hole, it became the object of Russian feints in later years, and each time the artillery was fired, but in reality no effort was made.

The Sardinian army on the other side was also very cooperative, firing guns into the sky was a common occurrence, and both sides made a show of fighting very fiercely.

Montes was fooled, really thought it was the Bulgarian guerrillas to tear open the defense line, that is the Sardinian army is not familiar with the environment, the guerrillas found a small path to break through.

Coupled with the tightness of the troops, the Sardinians seem to be fired up again, fighting on top of the battlefield, holding off the Russians, he did not let the British army and their joint defense.

In the long run, Montes was right. If the British army and the Sardinian army were defending together, it was estimated that this elite British army would be ruined in a short time.

Mantua was not a good general, but he must have been a good superior. In order to reduce the casualty rate of soldiers, he was three orders to emphasize safety first, and was loved by the soldiers.

In the eyes of the Sardinian soldiers, this was not their war, and going to war was to earn that paycheck. So they have always been able to paddle, they absolutely do not contribute.

All of this, General Mantua, who knew human nature well, knew it all, and this army was his political capital to return to Sardinia Kingdom in the future, and buying the heart of the army was a must.

Leading everyone to win the war and get rich by grabbing the spoils of war is something he can’t do. Then there was only leading everyone to save their lives, and a general who valued the lives of his soldiers would be just as welcome.

Now the trouble was big, the Russians on the other side were actually not cooperating, and Mantua had a headache. Abandon the defense line to run away, just think about it, if you really do, the furious British will shoot him.

What could an ally do? Couldn’t the Kingdom of Sardinia do anything to the British except protest?

A middle-aged officer suggested, “General, why don’t we open an opening at the junction with the British defense line and let the Russians through, even if the British find fault after the war, we can still put the blame on them.”

Being reprimanded by the British every day, the Sardinians also had a temper, and the disparity in treatment exacerbated this dissatisfaction.

Nominally, everyone’s provisions were the same, but after arriving at the place, the British could always get some fruits and vegetables, potatoes, bread and other supplies.

Due to the limited quantity, the British were only given to officers, so naturally there was nothing for them.

Even generals such as Mantua, treatment is not much better, want to improve the food, have to pay a bribe to the British quartermaster.

It’s not that they didn’t protest to the British, but the British bureaucrats took out the contract signed between the two countries, which clearly states that the British Empire provides logistical support for 20,000 Sardinian soldiers.

Since the agreement was for “soldiers,” they were to be treated as soldiers. In the opinion of the Sardinian officers, equating them with soldiers was not just a matter of treatment, but also an insult to their character.

Even the commander of the allied forces, Lieutenant General Montes, could not do anything about this situation.

The bureaucrats in London were not the kind of people he could afford to mess with; they were following the rules, in full compliance with British law, and there was no point in complaining at home.

If there was nothing London could do, could the Ottomans provide some?

Obviously this is impossible, look at the situation of the Ottoman army will know, in addition to the treatment of high-ranking officers are guaranteed, the bottom soldiers have to be the British army to help.

If it were not for the London bureaucrats mechanical, has always been in accordance with the departure of the standard number of people issued supplies, Monteith the extra beef jerky and cookies distributed to the Ottoman army, and now the front line of the Ottoman soldiers also have to fight on a hungry stomach.

Mantua shook his head and said, “We can’t do that, if it’s traced afterward, we can’t escape the blame. We can’t take the responsibility of losing the defense line, it will affect the country’s reputation.”

It was fine to pit your teammates, but it had to be skillful, and if you didn’t operate well, you’d be putting yourself on the line. This kind of unskilled, direct release of the defense line is something that Mantua will not do.

“Then what to do? The Russians are attacking so hard, our losses are heavy, I’m afraid we won’t be able to hold out for long.” An officer said with a bitter smile

Mantua frowned and lowered his voice, “This war can’t go on, there is no need for us to stay and sell our lives for the Ottomans.

Order the troops to abandon the foremost positions, and by the way, forget the British troop deployment information on the battlefield and mark it clearly.

Remember to use Bulgarian, the Russians will be able to read it anyway, this pot can only be taken by the Ottomans, it is very normal to have Russian spies in their army.

With this information, the Russians will definitely shift their focus of attack. Once the defense line is lost, we’ll contract our forces and move into the Kosovo region, then return to Thrace from the Macedonia region.”

Obviously he had prepared for this, even the escape route had been planned. If the British were bull-headed and blocked the Russian attack, then good riddance, clear out the Russian scouts in the allied forces!

The first object of suspicion was the Ottoman army, and the theory was that the British and Sardinian armies were outsiders, and the Russians would have no time to infiltrate.

(End of chapter)