Chapter 345: The Collapse of Serbia

Gao Da had originally thought this war in Europe would last a long time; he had not expected that with the start of the term at Saint Primo High School still far off, the war seemed to be coming to an end.

The breakthrough in the war was still here in Serbia.

There was no helping it; compared to Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Serbia's strength was far too weak.

Under the premise that the Russian army could not reach Serbia, even if Serbia exerted all its strength, it would at most only delay the time of its defeat.

It only took the Austro-Hungarian Empire a few days to breach Loznica, which also resulted in a gap being torn open in Serbia's western border.

The subsequent Serbian attempt to counterattack Loznica was also to plug this gap, but unfortunately, they were completely inferior to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in terms of numbers and weaponry.

After the counterattack failed, the Serbian army retreated in the direction of Belgrade. Their original intention was good, which was to defend their own capital, Belgrade.

After all, it had been mentioned that Belgrade was located on a protruding strip at the river mouth, facing the Austro-Hungarian Empire across the river on three sides.

If they could not hold the land south of Belgrade, the Serbian capital would be completely surrounded by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was fatal for a country of this small size.

Retreating toward Belgrade could indeed hold the capital, but for the cities further south on the western border, this was not good news.

The Austro-Hungarian army had also tried attacking Belgrade from the east, and they had long since learned how solid the defensive lines Serbia had set up along that route were.

Although steady progress could be made, the time and manpower consumed were unacceptable to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Since there was a solid defensive line along the Belgrade front, the Austro-Hungarian side stopped attacking Belgrade. After all, Serbia was only a small country; for Serbia, the fall of any place was extremely painful.

After discussions, the southern army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's southern battlefield decided to continue southeast to attack Valjevo, a very important supply city on Serbia's western border.

Valjevo's geographical location was extremely important; it was located in the middle of Serbia's western border and could radiate to the entire western frontier.

Precisely because of this, Serbia had stockpiled a large amount of supplies there, using it as a transit station to transport them in a steady stream to the western front.

If Valjevo could be captured, it would not only cut off the supplies for Serbia's western border but also allow the Austro-Hungarian army to thoroughly reach the main roads, laying a good foundation for the subsequent offensive.

Valjevo connected to Belgrade in the north and to the important transportation hub city of Uzice in the south; its strategic position was quite significant.

Before Serbia launched its counterattack, there were still heavy troops defending this place.

Originally, there were only 20, 00 troops in Loznica and the border to its north, while the supply city of Valjevo alone had a garrison of nearly 20, 00 men.

But after Serbia planned its counterattack, most of the garrison here was drawn to the north to plan the counterattack on Loznica.

After the counterattack failed, 35, 00 Serbian troops retreated in a panic toward Belgrade, and the supply city of Valjevo was thus neglected by the Serbian army.

Now, the remaining garrison in Valjevo was less than 10, 00 men, most of whom had been temporarily mobilized only after the war began. The kind of standing army with real combat capability hardly existed, which was definitely good news for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Austro-Hungarian side naturally knew exactly what Serbia was worth. Since Serbia had the ability to organize a counterattack, it meant that the defensive strength of central cities like Valjevo was quite empty.

After the Serbian defensive battle failed, the Austro-Hungarian Empire left about 20, 00 troops in Loznica for defense and drew another 20, 00 troops from the Bosnia region, re-forming an army of 40, 00 to launch an attack on Valjevo.

This important supply city, Valjevo, only held out for less than two days under the Austro-Hungarian attack before it was breached.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire did not linger too long after breaking through Valjevo; after leaving a portion of their forces to defend Valjevo, the remaining troops continued south to attack the transportation hub city of Uzice.

For the entire western border, the supply city of Valjevo was certainly more important. But for Serbia, the transportation hub city of Uzice was definitely more important.

Uzice was located at a three-way intersection; to the north was Valjevo, to the south was Serbia's southern border, and to the east was the Serbian hinterland.

If the Austro-Hungarian Empire could capture Uzice, the cities in Serbia's hinterland would be defenseless against the Austro-Hungarian army.

This was quite dire for Serbia, but unfortunately, at this time, the Serbian army had no more troops left to mobilize.

In northwestern Serbia, north of Valjevo, more than 80, 00 troops were gathered. Added to the troops in the south of the western border, this was almost all of Serbia's current main force.

The remaining soldiers were either lying in hospitals, dead or alive, or were soldiers who had just been mobilized and had not yet been trained, possessing no combat capability at all.

Upon learning that Valjevo had been breached and that the Austro-Hungarian army was attacking Uzice to the south, the Serbian government panicked completely.

On one hand, they ordered the troops mobilized in the hinterland cities to head urgently to Uzice, and on the other, they rushed to destroy the roads north and east of Uzice to prevent the Austrian army from using these two roads to quickly raid other Serbian cities.

In fact, the war had become very clear by this point; Serbia simply could not resist the Austro-Hungarian offensive, and no matter how they tried, they were only delaying the speed of the Austro-Hungarian advance.

Especially with Valjevo breached, the countdown to Serbia's defeat had already begun.

This supply city was quite important to Serbia's western border; from the moment the Austro-Hungarian Empire breached Valjevo, it meant that the western border Serbia had painstakingly managed for over 10 years was completely disintegrated.

Without the solid defensive line of the western border, Serbia's interior had no good terrain to defend against the Austro-Hungarian offensive.

As time reached April, the armies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia launched another large-scale offensive and defensive battle in Uzice.

The Austro-Hungarian army numbered as many as 40, 00; taking advantage of the breach of Valjevo, the Austro-Hungarian Empire pursued the victory, and their morale was high.

As for the Serbian army, the soldiers transported to Uzice were either farmers who had not been trained much, or soldiers who had been driven back to the front from hospitals despite their light or serious injuries, clearly soldiers who had been abandoned.

Relying on these people to hold Uzice was better than hoping that the Russians could quickly defeat Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in a short time, ending this war from another angle.

The final result of this not-so-small offensive and defensive battle was also very clear; the Austro-Hungarian army won this battle with almost no effort.

The transportation hub city was completely reduced to ruins in the more than a week of attacks, and the corpses of tens of thousands of Serbian and Austrian soldiers were buried in these ruins.

But there was no time to mourn these fallen soldiers now, because what awaited Serbia next would be a hellish scene even more cruel than this.

Capturing Uzice was great news for Austria, and it became the front-page headline of Austrian and Hungarian newspapers that day.

Various European countries had also sent their own military observer groups to a greater or lesser extent, which led to this news being reported in the newspapers of various countries almost without delay.

For Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, this was of course good news.

But for Serbia and Russia, this was like a death warrant, signaling that they were not far from defeat in this war.

The Russian side urgently changed its strategic deployment, deciding to fight a good battle before this war ended to add a few bargaining chips for their peace talks.

As for the Serbian government, Russia could no longer manage them at this time.

This war made Russia see the strength of the German-Austrian alliance, and even more so, it made Russia see the disadvantages of fighting alone.

For Russia, an expendable ally like Serbia was no longer important. Regardless of the outcome of this war, Russia would definitely seek more allies after the war ended and sign the Franco-Russian Alliance treaty.

Only the Franco-Russian Alliance could counter the German-Austrian alliance; this was the only thought of Alexander III and the Russian officials.

On the Spanish side, Gao Da also received the news of Uzice's breach almost immediately.

Gao Da felt a little regret; this meant that the war was about to end, and it also meant that the expansion of Spain's arms industry was about to end. More importantly, this war would change the landscape of Europe.

It was already fully foreseeable that the confrontation between the two major military groups, the Allied Powers and the Entente Powers, would happen sooner.

Even if the British had not emphasized the importance of limiting the scale of the war when it first broke out, the Russians and the French would probably already be discussing how to defeat the Germans in this war.

The British doing so indeed prevented this war from evolving toward a world war, but for the British, this was not good news.

The future European landscape would become a situation of the German-Austrian alliance versus the Franco-Russian alliance; Italy was clearly on the side of the German-Austrian alliance, which also made the British an unprecedented and complete supporting role in Europe.

This was not the kind of supporting role that the British had deliberately created by not participating in affairs, but a supporting role where the British wanted to participate in European affairs but could not.

Either of the two major military groups was more powerful than the British, which was the most fatal news for the British.

Gao Da had also thought about how the British would choose at such a critical juncture, and even considered whether the British would come to Spain to conclude an alliance treaty.

After all, among the European powers at this time, only the British and the Spanish were left without a clear stance.

However, after thinking about it, Gao Da abandoned this idea.

After all, there were irreconcilable contradictions between the British and the Spanish; unless the British were willing to give up Gibraltar, it was impossible for Spain to ally with the British.

Even if Spain wanted to choose a country to ally with, Spain had better choices.

For the two major military groups about to be formed, Spain would be a very good ally.

France needed Spain to secure its southern border, and Germany also needed Spain to create a little trouble for France's southern border.

Although Spain's army and navy could not enter the world's top three, they were both maintained at the world's top five level; comprehensively speaking, their military strength was still quite good.

This also meant that Spain would become a hot commodity in the future situation of the two major military groups' opposition, an existence that both sides would want to win over.

This was different from the awkward scene of the British, and this was also the reason why Gao Da was not panicked at all in this situation, because Spain still had choices.

Unlike Spain, the British side's choices were relatively limited.

The isolation policy and regional balance policy that the British themselves pursued made it impossible for them to personally enter the fray when the two major military groups were opposed.

Added to the fact that the British did not have very good relations with these European powers, even if the British wanted to choose, these powerful nations might not necessarily be willing to let the British join in.

Although the British joining would make the alliance's strength even more powerful, it also meant that in the future, any benefits the alliance gained, the British would also get a share.

The British were the most powerful country, which also meant that when the cake was being divided, the British would get the largest share.

But the British happened to be outside the European continent, which also meant that even if a war broke out, the British would not be too affected.

If the British were really allowed to join the alliance, perhaps when the war was finally won, the only ones to benefit would be the British.

Upon learning that the front line had successfully captured Uzice, the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I personally sent a telegram to the generals on the front line, praising their excellent performance in the war and stating that he would personally award them honors and medals after the war ended.

The old emperor's personal praise made these generals full of drive; they intended to make their battle records even richer so that they could obtain more benefits in the process of rewarding merit after the war.

This was also the advantage of a monarchy; titles and land could both be used as rewards to be bestowed upon those officers and soldiers who had performed excellently in the war.

Monarchy and the aristocratic class had been passed down in Europe for thousands of years, and the nobility of the aristocracy had long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the European people.

Facing the opportunity to directly become a member of the aristocratic class, most officers would be quite tempted. Those who were not very tempted were likely already members of the aristocracy, and their titles were so high that military merit could no longer elevate them further.

Compared to the high morale of the Austro-Hungarian army, the situation on the Serbian army side was quite low.

Because European countries were all reporting such news, even if the Serbian side reacted slowly, they all understood the fact that the front line had been defeated one after another.

If Serbia were simply being invaded, it would be fine; a war of aggression could bring more morale and popular support to the people.

But the problem was that the reason this war started was Serbia's shielding of the high-level leaders of the rebel army in the Bosnia and Herzegovina region, a point that was widely reported by Austrian media and spread to Serbia.

If the war were won, this would of course not be a problem for Serbia. After all, who wouldn't want their country to become more powerful?

Could the people in the Bosnia and Herzegovina region not be considered Serbian compatriots? What was wrong with protecting one's own compatriots?

But if the war were lost, this would be a huge problem and responsibility for the Serbian government.

If it weren't for the Serbian government shielding the high-level leaders of these rebels, this war would not have started. If the war hadn't started, the Serbian people would not have lost their loved ones because of this war.

The Serbian people lost their loved ones for this war, and as a result, the enemy even fought their way to their homes? How could the Serbian people endure this?

The terrible situation in Serbia was not just that the western border was completely breached; the situation of the capital, Belgrade, in the north was also quite bad.

More than half of the capital's area had been plowed over by the artillery of the Austro-Hungarian Empire; this war had turned the homes of hundreds of thousands of Serbian people into ruins.

In such a situation, how could the Serbian people not be angry? The moment the news that Uzice had been captured reached Belgrade, large-scale protests broke out in the southern urban area of Belgrade.

The Serbian people gathered together; they were quite dissatisfied with the government that had provoked the war but was incompetent, and they were unwilling to let such a government continue to harm their country.

The people's protests gave the Serbian government a huge headache; they hadn't even solved the Austro-Hungarian army yet, and they had to face accountability from the domestic people.

But unfortunately, at this time, neither of these two problems could be solved. The Austro-Hungarian army could not be defeated unless Serbia could conjure up more than 100, 00 troops at this moment.

But this was clearly impossible; perhaps only the legendary God could achieve it. But it was obvious that even if there were a God, God would not favor Serbia.

As for the second point, it was even more impossible to resolve. In normal times, there would be many ways to deal with public demonstrations.

Either send officials to persuade them with kind words and promise to fulfill the public's requests so they would disperse quickly, or mobilize the police or military to suppress them by force, and then control public opinion to resolve the trouble.

The situation at this moment could no longer be resolved by kind words; the public was quite suspicious of the Serbian government's capabilities, and they were also very dissatisfied with the poor performance of the Serbian military in the war.

Unless the Serbian military could win a battle at this time, such a crisis of trust could not be resolved.

Using the police or military to suppress them by force was even more out of the question. The limited military forces around Belgrade had all been sent to the front lines, and it was simply impossible to mobilize police or troops at this time.

Even if there were armed forces that could be mobilized, could they really go and suppress the demonstrations in such a situation?

If the military could not fight the war well and instead turned their guns on the public, would that not be accelerating the public's process of overthrowing the government?

Neither civil nor military methods would work, leaving the Serbian government with no good options, and they could only act like a turtle hiding in its shell.

But acting like a turtle was clearly only a temporary solution and could not completely resolve the crisis of the public demonstrations.

What was even more fatal was that the situation on the front lines was getting worse and worse for Serbia. Beset by internal and external troubles, the Serbian Prime Minister's hair turned white almost overnight.

(End of chapter)