Chapter 346

At this time, the Austro-Hungarian army was completely unaware of the chaos within Serbia, but this did not prevent them from attacking Serbian cities.

After capturing Uzice, the Austro-Hungarian army did not head north to attack Belgrade as Serbia had thought, but continued along the road to the east to attack another transportation hub city within Serbia, Starać.

Compared with Uzice, the city scale of Starać is smaller. But in terms of strategic importance as a transportation hub, Starać is in no way inferior to Uzice.

As long as Starać is captured, even if the Serbian government still holds Belgrade, they will be forced to surrender.

Because this means that almost all of Serbia's hinterland has been occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The capital, Belgrade, is certainly important, but if other places are gone, Serbia will essentially exist in name only.

Setting off eastward from Uzice, the Austro-Hungarian army once again felt the benefits brought by the highway.

The soldiers stepped onto the highway one after another; not only did the marching speed become faster, but supplies from the Austro-Hungarian Empire could also be more effectively transported to the soldiers' hands.

Although continuing to attack eastward is a bit of a rash advance, the Austrian army also made detailed preparations.

In Loznica and Valjevo, there were 20,000 troops stationed in each. The purpose of these two armies stationed here was precisely to protect the Austro-Hungarian army deep in the Serbian hinterland and prevent the army's retreat route from being cut off by the Serbian army.

Facts proved that these two armies protecting the retreat route indeed played a great role.

After the war balance had completely tilted toward the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Serbian government still tried one last struggle, and the way of the last struggle was to use all the troops that could be mobilized to attack Loznica, which was occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Loznica is the westernmost border town and also the breach in the defensive line torn open by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If this place can be blocked, the Austro-Hungarian army deep in the Serbian hinterland will have its retreat route completely cut off, and at that time, Serbia will be able to completely surround this army.

If this army can be eliminated, it is really hard to say who wins and who loses this war. After all, the main force of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is in the northern Polish plains, and the southern army actually only has these hundred thousand or so people.

But the ideal is plump, and the reality is skinny.

Serbia reorganized a force of more than 40,000 people, and they launched an attack on Loznica in a mighty manner.

The 20,000 Austro-Hungarian troops defending here managed to drag these 40,000 people for a few days, and finally, the 20,000 reinforcements from Valjevo returned to support, successfully repelling Serbia's last counterattack.

Seeing that the last counterattack had lost its effect, the Serbian government completely lost its fighting spirit.

On May 3, 1889, the Austro-Hungarian army captured the Serbian hinterland city of Starać, and an 80,000-strong army marched north from Loznica, Valjevo, and Starać to attack Belgrade.

This is like the end of the world for Serbia. Not only will the capital, Belgrade, face the situation of being attacked from the north and south, but many cities within Serbia will also face the baptism of the Austro-Hungarian military edge.

This is a war after all, and the attitude of the Austrians toward the Serbians will not be too kind.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire has paid great attention to maintaining order after occupying Serbian cities, there are still many incidents of burning, killing, and looting.

In order to maintain the combat effectiveness of the army, such things can only be prevented, not eradicated.

This also made it bitter for the Serbians in the occupied cities; they were very hateful toward these invaders, the Austrians, and on the other hand, they were also very hostile toward the Serbian government that had done nothing.

Under the attention of various European countries, a great chaos broke out in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

First, the protesting crowd stormed the government and parliament, people held up banners to dismiss the cabinet, venting their dissatisfaction with the government and parliament.

Belgrade is the capital after all; if it were just a protest by the people, it would be impossible to endanger the government's rule.

But the turning point is precisely here. Serbian King Milan Obrenović decisively announced the abolition of the cabinet, the dissolution of the parliament, and the establishment of a wartime interim cabinet, announcing that he would be committed to ending this war and saving the Serbian people in the occupied areas.

If it were before the war broke out, Serbian King Milan Obrenović would definitely not have received the support of the people.

After all, he himself was a monarch who advocated absolute monarchy, and the stability of the throne still needed the support of foreign countries.

But in the situation where the cabinet had already lost the hearts of the people, Serbian King Milan Obrenović's act of forcibly dissolving the cabinet and parliament actually attracted some favor from the people for him.

Not long after announcing the dissolution of the cabinet, Milan Obrenović, in his capacity as king, issued an order to the Serbian army on the front line, requiring them to surrender to the Austro-Hungarian army and end this war that should not have happened.

Although the Serbian army on the front line was very surprised by the domestic order, they had to comply.

After all, the logistics and supplies of the Serbian army all came from the government; if the government did not support this war, it would be of no use for them to persist.

On that day, the resisting Serbian troops surrendered to the Austro-Hungarian army one after another.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire also quite generously accepted these surrenderers and provided them with three meals a day that were considered rich.

This can also be considered one of the ways for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to win over people's hearts. Serbia is like a nail, seriously blocking the Austro-Hungarian Empire's pace of expansion into the Balkan Peninsula.

This also means that if the Austro-Hungarian Empire wants to expand southward again, it must solve Serbia, the biggest trouble.

Imposing all the responsibilities and influences of this war on the Serbian cabinet government, thereby shaking off the Austro-Hungarian Empire's crimes against the Serbians in this war, is a relatively good way.

Although there will be some Serbians who hate the Austro-Hungarian Empire, at least there is the Serbian government as a scapegoat to help share the burden.

And letting the Serbian government be the scapegoat also has other purposes. The reason this war broke out was because the pro-Russian Serbian government was very hostile to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The pro-Russian Serbian government had full ambition for the Bosnia and Herzegovina region occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and with the support of Russia, they even hollowed out the pro-Austrian Serbian King Milan Obrenović.

If the responsibility for this war can be shifted to the pro-Russian Serbian government, allowing the pro-Austrian Serbian King to ****, this is definitely good news for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Serbia, which has returned to being pro-Austrian, will not only not become an obstacle to the Austro-Hungarian Empire's continued expansion, but can even become a powerful helper for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to counter Russia.

Balkan nations like Serbia and Bulgaria, although their territory and population are not large, their combat effectiveness is indeed very fierce.

This place has been a land of four wars since ancient times; after the fall of the Byzantine Empire, it became the front line for various European countries to counter the Ottoman Empire.

Today, although the Ottoman Empire has declined, this place has also become the front line for the Russian-Austrian confrontation. It is precisely because of so many experiences that the nations here have formed a very fierce and good-at-fighting character. A Serbian army of the same size can also exert good combat effectiveness when facing the Austro-Hungarian army. If it weren't for their poor level of weaponry and logistics, it would be quite difficult for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to win this war so easily.

For the Austro-Hungarian Empire, if it could arm 100,000 Serbian troops, the role played would be comparable to 100,000 of the most elite Austro-Hungarian troops.

These 100,000 people could drag down at least 200,000 Russian troops; if there is a war with Russia in the future, the role of the Serbians is obviously quite important.

The news of Serbia's surrender caused a huge uproar in Europe, and also caused the eyes of almost all countries to be placed on the war currently taking place in the Polish plains.

In fact, for this war, neither the German, Austrian, nor Russian sides had the idea of going all out.

This also led to the war in the Polish plains being more like a practical exercise for various countries; all three countries sent a certain number of troops, on one hand testing various weapons and equipment they had developed, and on the other hand probing various array deployments and tactical ideas.

The Austro-Prussian War and the Franco-Prussian War can be considered to have completely swept line infantry into the trash can, but regarding the various strategic deployments and tactical ideas of the latest war, European countries have not yet had a relatively clear result.

This war between the three major powers is obviously a good way of exploration, and the war conducted by the three countries in the Polish plains attracted many powers to send military observer groups, recording the details of each battle in every possible way, for fear of missing any critical moments.

After Serbia announced its defeat, the three countries also knew that this war would not last long.

Everyone also had no need to fight each other to the death; after all, the main focus of this war was still on the Balkan Peninsula, and the war in the Balkan Peninsula has ended.

On the 5th day after Serbia surrendered, the envoy sent by Tsar Alexander III officially arrived in Berlin, the capital of Germany, and requested peace talks regarding this war.

For Germany at this time, this war can be considered to have satisfied their purpose.

After all, Germany had not experienced a large-scale war since the Franco-Prussian War, and this war with the Russians can be considered a good touchstone.

Facts have proved that even after nearly 20 years, the German army is still one of the most powerful armies at present.

In the limited-scale war in the Polish plains, the German army had the greatest battle results, while the soldier losses were the lowest; this is the best evidence and proof of the German army's powerful combat effectiveness.

Among the current battle loss ratios of Germany, Austria, and Russia, Germany's battle loss ratio is as high as 1:3; on average, every 1 German soldier can trade for 3 Russian soldiers.

The most elite troops of the Austro-Hungarian Empire can reach a battle loss ratio of 1:2, while ordinary troops can only reach a battle loss ratio of 1:1 or 1:1.5.

The one with the worst combat effectiveness is the Russian army. It is not that there are no elite ground forces in the Russian army that can fight the German-Austrian battle loss ratio to 1:1, but the scale of the elite ground forces is really limited.

The battle loss ratios of most troops are very terrible, and the battle loss ratios of those urgently mobilized troops are even more of a mess.

It is precisely because of the drag of these troops with poor combat effectiveness that Russia's battle loss ratio looks so terrible.

However, this is not a bad thing for Russia. After all, Russia's population is several times that of Germany and Austria, so such a battle loss ratio is not too serious for Russia.

Russia can grit its teeth and bear tens of millions of casualties, but the question is, do Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire dare to bear millions of casualties?

This is not the moment of World War I, and the populations of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire are not as large as in World War I.

Currently, according to estimates from various sources, Germany's population should be around 47.8 million, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire's population should be around 39.8 million, both of which are at a good level compared to other European countries.

You know, Britain's population at this time is only 32 million, and France's population is only 39.5 million; those who can reach a population of nearly 40 million can be called a populous country in the whole world.

Spain's population, after all kinds of catching up, is currently only 25.6 million. This is also the biggest advantage of European countries compared to Spain; population makes the comprehensive national strength of various countries climb continuously, and the mobilizable army has also expanded from the original hundreds of thousands to millions or even millions of people.

Although the populations of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire are large, compared with Russia, they appear so insignificant.

For the statistics of Russia's population, it can only be limited to a rough range at present. There is no help for it; Russia's territory is really too vast, so vast that it is difficult to calculate the population on this land.

And Russia's internal administrative system is also relatively chaotic and corrupt; even a government like Spain, which has been streamlined after reform, cannot detail the domestic population, let alone the Tsarist Russian government, which is more difficult to count and more corrupt.

The Tsarist Russian government can only make a relatively rough estimate of its own population, which is about 110 million.

And Spain, after conducting certain statistics on Russia's population births and deaths in recent years, estimates that the Russian population data may be as high as 112 million.

Don't underestimate these two decimal places; even if it's only 0.02, with the addition of hundreds of millions, it is a scale of 2 million people.

And such statistics are not precise, and it is very likely that millions of Russians have been ignored in the statistics.

After all, the technology of this era is not developed, and no country can achieve relatively precise population statistics.

But what is certain is that Russia is the most populous among all the powers at present, and it is far greater than the sum of the second and third places.

Such a population advantage is precisely Russia's reliance, and it is also the source of Russia's confidence in not fearing any war.

Just considering Russia's such a huge population is enough to make the German government seriously consider whether there is a need for peace talks.

If Russia is really provoked, under the premise of mobilizing millions of troops, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire will also have to follow suit and mobilize more than a million troops.

If the war cannot achieve its purpose, then the war can only be a waste of various resources and money.

Although the war between Germany and Russia started in the Polish plains, for the Russian-occupied Poland, Germany at this time has no thoughts.

The price Germany would have to pay to get this piece of Poland is definitely huge. Rather than this, it is better to enter peace talks with Russia earlier.

Anyway, the initial purpose of this war has been achieved; the Austro-Hungarian Empire has not only solved the trouble of Serbia but even has hope of going further in the Balkan Peninsula.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire going further in the Balkan Peninsula also means that Russia's influence must withdraw from the Balkan Peninsula. With one advancing and one retreating, for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it is a strengthening, and for Russia, it is a weakening.

(End of this chapter)