Chapter 461: Bulgaria Defeated

If Serbia and Montenegro declaring war on Bulgaria was still within the expectations of Prince Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, then the news of Romania declaring war on Bulgaria left Ferdinand I somewhat shocked.

Ferdinand I had never expected that Romania, which had made no moves during the First Balkan War, would so decisively choose to join Serbia and Greece this time.

Originally, if Bulgaria fought two opponents, one could carefully reason that there was still a slight chance of victory. But if it became one against three, fighting on three fronts, the Bulgarian army—even if possessed by the German army—could not be a match for these three countries.

There was no help for it; Bulgaria's own national scale was limited after all. Although it had certain advantages compared to Serbia and Greece, both in terms of territory and population, it lagged far behind Romania.

Although the newly occupied territories had a considerable population, these people certainly could not be used to directly mobilize an army.

The re-erupted Balkan War immediately attracted the gaze of all of Europe.

There was no help for it; the somewhat spectacular development of the situation in the two Balkan Wars made it hard for the European public not to pay attention.

The Balkan countries, which had fought hand-in-hand just a few months ago, immediately became bitter, deep-seated enemies a few months later.

Such a development was something most of the European public had not expected, and it was precisely the spectacular nature of this development that made news related to the Balkan War one of the topics the European public was most interested in.

Of course, interest is interest, but in reality, this war, like the previous Balkan War, had no great reference value.

The reason was also simple: the situation of the two Balkan Wars was exactly the same—multiple countries ganging up on a single country.

The number of countries in the Balkan League and the Anti-Bulgarian Alliance was consistent, and because most of the latter's troops had been on the battlefield, their combat effectiveness was actually higher than the former.

Looking again at the enemies faced by the two alliances, the strength of the Ottoman Empire was certainly stronger than that of Bulgaria.

Do not look at the fact that Bulgaria defeated the Ottoman Empire in the First Balkan War; that was because several countries ganged up on the Ottoman Empire, and they won entirely because they had more people fighting fewer.

During the First Balkan War, the total number of troops armed by the Balkan League exceeded 500,000, and the total number of troops had already far surpassed the number of troops of the Ottoman Empire.

For the current Bulgaria, they certainly could not scrape together 500,000 people. Let alone 500,000, even if they halved it, 250,000 was absolutely impossible to scrape together.

As for the Anti-Bulgarian Alliance side, Serbia and Greece alone could easily scrape together an army of 250,000. Adding Montenegro, which was just making up the numbers, and Romania, forming an army exceeding 400,000 was still easy.

One could also see Bulgaria's decline from the development of the war.

Bulgaria was the first to declare war; logically speaking, if they could strike first and defeat the weaker Greece, there was still hope of winning this war.

But reality dealt Bulgaria a heavy blow. In the battle for Thessaloniki, the disputed territory between Bulgaria and Greece, Bulgaria committed over 100,000 troops, clearly prepared to defeat Greece in one blow.

The number of Greek troops stationed in Thessaloniki also reached tens of thousands, and the country was still in constant mobilization.

As long as Bulgaria's initial attack could not defeat the tens of thousands of Greek defenders in Thessaloniki, then with the arrival of endless Greek reinforcements, it would not be so easy for Bulgaria to defeat Greece again.

The Bulgarian army also understood this point very well; their attack on Thessaloniki was quite fierce, even to the point of not caring about casualties.

But unfortunately, the Greek army had already made war preparations; they had stockpiled a large number of machine guns and artillery, repelling the Bulgarian army's attacks time and time again.

Although the fierce Bulgarian army also made the Greek army pay a great price, facing Thessaloniki right before their eyes, there was simply no way to capture this town.

After paying a price of over 30,000 casualties, Bulgaria had to abandon the attack on Thessaloniki and shifted from strategic offense to strategic defense in the Thessaloniki direction.

There was no help for it; the Bulgarian army only had so many people. If attacking one Thessaloniki required paying a price of tens of thousands, then what about facing the subsequent attacks from Serbia and Romania?

One could not rely on human lives to fill every battle; if Bulgaria possessed a population of several million or ten million, then filling it with human lives would be fine.

The reality was that Bulgaria's population had no advantage compared to the Balkan countries; using human lives to fill it would only make Bulgaria's losses greater, and apart from that, there would be no other gains.

In order to cope with the menacing Serbia and Romania, Prince Ferdinand I of Bulgaria once again issued a mobilization order within Bulgaria, hoping to use extreme mobilization to arm more troops.

Doing so indeed had a certain effect. The number of Bulgarian troops expanded from just over 200,000 to nearly 300,000, and there was hope that within a few months, the total number of troops could be increased to over 400,000 again.

The price paid for doing this was that nearly one-third of Bulgaria's adult males were on the battlefield; even if this war could be won, the casualties the war caused to Bulgaria would not be easily compensated for.

In order to effectively cope with the threat from Serbia and Romania, Bulgaria deployed several divisions on the western border, hoping that these tens of thousands of people could block the Serbian army's attack and buy more time for the Bulgarian army on the southern front to capture Thessaloniki.

As for Romania in the north, the good news was that because of the obstruction of the Danube River, the Romanian army could not cross for the time being.

Therefore, Bulgaria only needed fewer troops to guard against Romania, and Romania was further away from Bulgaria's capital, Sofia; compared to Serbia, Romania's threat to Bulgaria was not that great.

Bulgaria took nearly a week to mobilize nearly 100,000 troops, expanding the number of troops around Thessaloniki to 200,000.

After the number of troops was expanded, Bulgaria launched an attack on Thessaloniki again. Prince Ferdinand I of Bulgaria even stated that even if tens of thousands died, they must capture Thessaloniki at all costs.

Ferdinand I gave the order this way, and the Bulgarian army indeed did it this way.

However, such orders could not always have an effect; apart from increasing the casualties of the Bulgarian army in vain, it seemed there was no useful purpose.

After a bitter attack lasting a week, the Bulgarian army once again paid a price of nearly 50,000 casualties and still did not capture this important town.

The Greek army's casualties were also extremely great; even though they were on the defensive, the Greek army still paid a price of nearly 40,000 casualties.

But Thessaloniki was still guarded tightly by the Greek army; as long as Thessaloniki was not captured, it was a failure for the Bulgarian army.

The two attacks on Thessaloniki took half a month, and on the border between Bulgaria and Serbia, the Serbian army finally defeated the several divisions Bulgaria had deployed there and was able to continue advancing eastward, threatening Bulgaria's capital, Sofia.

"These Bulgarian soldiers are really not afraid of death; they only had 4 divisions, yet they managed to block us for half a month." On the Serbian border, the Chief of General Staff leading the Serbian army looked at the smoke-filled battlefield and felt a moment of emotion.

The army he led this time was nearly 200,000 strong, and it was these 200,000 Serbian troops that were blocked by 4 divisions of the Bulgarian army for half a month.

Although the Bulgarian army had a certain number of machine guns and artillery, in the face of a huge disparity in numbers, being able to be blocked for half a month was enough to prove how exaggerated the Bulgarian army was.

Of course, to want to block the Serbian army for half a month, the Bulgarian army certainly had to pay extremely heavy casualties.

Of the 4 Bulgarian divisions responsible for blocking the Serbian army, only less than 1 division's strength could successfully retreat.

The remaining Bulgarian soldiers either died on the battlefield or were too seriously injured and were captured by the Serbian army.

Some Bulgarian soldiers chose to shoot themselves before being captured, or pulled the pin on a grenade, choosing to give the Serbian soldiers a surprise before they died.

Although doing so could not be of much help to the battlefield, it did indeed hinder the Serbian army's efforts to clean up the battlefield.

There was no help for it; Serbian soldiers were also human, and they would also feel fear. ===== CHAPTER 462 =====