[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-rise-of-the-empire-spain":3,"chapter-rise-of-the-empire-spain-rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-461":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Rise of the Empire: Spain",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2365389,4632,"Chapter 461: Bulgaria's Defeat","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-461",461,"\u003Cp>If the declaration of war by Serbia and Montenegro was still within the expectations of Prince Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, then the news of Romania declaring war on Bulgaria truly shocked him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ferdinand I never imagined that Romania, which had taken no action during the First Balkan War, would so decisively choose to join Serbia and Greece this time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Originally, if Bulgaria were fighting two opponents, there would still have been a slim chance of victory upon careful consideration. But if it became one against three, fighting on three fronts, the Bulgarian army could not be a match for these three countries, even if possessed by the German army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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, it lagged far behind Romania in both territory and population.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the newly occupied territories also had a considerable population, these people certainly could not be used to directly mobilize an army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The re-erupting Balkan War immediately attracted the attention of all of Europe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was no help for it; the somewhat spectacular development of the situation in the two Balkan Wars made it difficult for the European public not to take notice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Balkan countries, which had been fighting hand-in-hand just months ago, had suddenly become bitter, deep-seated enemies a few months later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This development was something most of the European public had not expected, and it was precisely the spectacular nature of this development that allowed news related to the Balkan War to immediately become one of the topics the European public was most interested in.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, interest is one thing, but in reality, this war, like the previous Balkan War, had no great reference value.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reason is also very simple: the situation of the two Balkan Wars was exactly the same, both being a gang-up by multiple countries against a single country.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The number of countries in the Balkan League and the anti-Bulgarian league was the same, and because most of the latter's troops had been on the battlefield, their combat effectiveness was actually higher than the former.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking at the enemies faced by the two leagues, the strength of the Ottoman Empire was certainly stronger than that of Bulgaria.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Don't 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, winning entirely because they had more people than the opponent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the current Bulgaria, they certainly could not produce 500,000 men. Let alone 500,000, even if halved, 250,000 was absolutely impossible to produce.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the anti-Bulgarian league, 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 of over 400,000 was still easy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The decline of Bulgaria could also be seen from the development of the war.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bulgaria was the first to declare war; logically, if they could take the initiative and strike first to crush the weaker Greece, there would still be hope of winning this war.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But reality dealt Bulgaria a heavy blow. In the Battle of Thessaloniki, the disputed land between Bulgaria and Greece, Bulgaria committed more than 100,000 troops, clearly prepared to crush Greece in one blow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The number of Greek troops stationed in Thessaloniki also reached tens of thousands, and the country was still in the midst of constant mobilization.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As long as Bulgaria's initial attack could not crush the tens of thousands of Greek defenders in Thessaloniki, then with the arrival of a steady stream of Greek reinforcements, it would not be so easy for Bulgaria to crush Greece.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Bulgarian army understood this very well; their attack on Thessaloniki was quite fierce, even to the point of disregarding casualties.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But unfortunately, the Greek army had long since made preparations for war; they had stockpiled a large number of machine guns and artillery, repelling the Bulgarian army's attacks time and time again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the fierce Bulgarian army also made the Greek army pay a great price, facing the Thessaloniki that was right before their eyes, there was simply no way to capture this town.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After suffering more than 30,000 casualties, Bulgaria had to abandon the attack on Thessaloniki and shifted from strategic offense to strategic defense in the direction of Thessaloniki.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was no help for it; the Bulgarian army only had so many troops. If attacking one Thessaloniki required a price of tens of thousands of lives, then what about facing the subsequent attacks from Serbia and Romania?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One couldn't just rely on human lives to fill the gaps in every battle; if Bulgaria had a population of several million or tens of millions, then using human lives to fill them would be fine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reality was that Bulgaria's population had no advantage compared to the Balkan states, and using human lives to fill the gaps would only make Bulgaria's losses greater; there would be no other gains.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In order to cope with the menacing Serbia and Romania, Prince Ferdinand I of Bulgaria issued a mobilization order again within Bulgaria, hoping to arm more troops through extreme mobilization.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Doing so did indeed have a certain effect. The number of Bulgarian troops expanded from just over 200,000 to nearly 300,000, and there was hope of increasing the total number of troops to over 400,000 again within a few months.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The price for doing this was that nearly one-third of Bulgaria's adult males had gone to the battlefield; even if this war could be won, the casualties the war inflicted on Bulgaria would not be so easily compensated for.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In order to effectively cope with the threats from Serbia and Romania, Bulgaria deployed several divisions on the western border, hoping that these tens of thousands of men could block the Serbian army's advance and buy more time for the Bulgarian army on the southern front to capture Thessaloniki.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for Romania in the north, the good news was that due to the obstruction of the Danube, the Romanian army could not cross for the time being.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, Bulgaria only needed fewer troops to guard against Romania, and Romania was further away from Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria; compared to Serbia, the threat Romania posed to Bulgaria was not as great.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bulgaria spent nearly a week mobilizing nearly 100,000 troops, expanding the number of troops around Thessaloniki to 200,000.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the number of troops was expanded, Bulgaria launched another attack on Thessaloniki. Prince Ferdinand I of Bulgaria even stated that even if tens of thousands died, Thessaloniki must be captured at all costs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ferdinand I gave the order this way, and the Bulgarian army did indeed act this way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, such orders could not always be effective; other than increasing the casualties of the Bulgarian army in vain, it seemed there was no useful purpose.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a bitter attack lasting a full week, the Bulgarian army again suffered nearly 50,000 casualties and still did not capture this important town.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The casualties of the Greek army were also enormous; even while on the defensive, the Greek army still suffered nearly 40,000 casualties.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Thessaloniki was still held tightly by the Greek army; as long as Thessaloniki was not captured, it was a failure for the Bulgarian army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The two attacks on Thessaloniki took half a month, and on the border between Bulgaria and Serbia, the Serbian army finally crushed the several divisions Bulgaria had deployed there, able to continue advancing eastward and threatening Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"These Bulgarian soldiers are really not afraid of death; they were only 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 attack looked at the smoke-filled battlefield and felt a bit emotional for a moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The army he led this time numbered nearly 200,000, and it was these 200,000 Serbian troops that were blocked by 4 divisions of the Bulgarian army for half a month.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the Bulgarian army had a certain number of machine guns and artillery, in the face of such a huge gap in numbers, being able to be blocked for half a month was enough to prove how exaggerated the Bulgarian army was.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, to block the Serbian army for half a month, the Bulgarian army certainly had to pay enormous casualties.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of the 4 Bulgarian divisions responsible for blocking the Serbian army, fewer than 1 division's worth of troops could successfully retreat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The remaining Bulgarian soldiers either died on the battlefield or were too severely wounded and were captured by the Serbian army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some Bulgarian soldiers chose to commit suicide by shooting themselves before being captured, or pulled the pins on grenades, choosing to give the Serbian soldiers a surprise before they died.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although doing this could not be of much help to the battlefield, it did indeed hinder the Serbian army's efforts to clear the battlefield.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was no help for it; Serbian soldiers were human too, and they would also feel fear.\u003C\u002Fp>",1554,"2026-06-25T09:27:15.200Z",1,"Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite","9e70c41f0e2b4806c2e4c835c29fe88338019597575b50654e878783333d6de0","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-462","rise-of-the-empire-spain-chapter-460",493,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frise-of-the-empire-spain-cover.jpg"]