Chapter 486: Balkan Turmoil (Seeking Monthly Votes!)

When Gao Da saw the results of the Battle of the Marne, he could not help but marvel at the tenacity of the French.

In this world, France had no help from the British army; only German and French troops participated in the Battle of the Marne.

That the French army could find the gaps in the constantly advancing German army and quickly launch an attack on the exposed German flanks was something Gao Da had not expected.

Fierce fighting erupted between the German First Army, which had crossed the Marne, and the French Sixth Army, which was advancing eastward from Paris. Subsequently, the German Second and Third Armies and the French Fifth Army all deployed to support their comrades, bringing the number of soldiers participating in this battle on the banks of the Marne to over one million.

Once the German army was allowed to cross the Marne one after another, they could easily outflank Paris and lay siege to France's most important city.

This was something the French army could absolutely not accept. Under the command of General Gallieni, the French Sixth Army launched a fierce attack on the flank of the German First Army, and regardless of the casualties, they managed to drive back the German First Army that had crossed the Marne.

The German and French reinforcements that arrived later engaged in fierce fighting on the plains between the Ainahe and the Marne, ultimately ending this battle, which could be called the most tragic, at the cost of over 250, 00 casualties on both sides.

As the vanguard attacking the German army, the French Sixth Army had fewer than 100, 00 troops left capable of continuing combat after the Battle of the Marne; the losses were nothing short of disastrous.

Of course, the losses on the German side were also quite tragic. The German First Army led by Kluck had less than 50% of its combat strength remaining; without the support of the Second and Third Armies, the German First Army would likely have been wiped out there.

The most painful point for Germany arrived: with the First Army suffering heavy losses and the Second and Third Armies also sustaining significant damage, the Schlieffen Plan had essentially gone bankrupt.

The French were already prepared for the German plan to raid Paris, and wanting to end this war by quickly occupying Paris would no longer be so easy.

Because of the failure of the Battle of the Marne, the German army was forced to retreat to the north of the Ainahe, handing back the vast expanse of land between the two rivers to France.

This also allowed France to rely on the Marne to build a large number of trenches and fortifications, compensating for the disadvantage of having no natural defenses on the vast plains north of Paris.

In this way, the war with France would inevitably evolve into a war of attrition. Since Germany was fighting on two fronts, under such a long-drawn-out war of attrition, the supplies within Germany were destined to become increasingly scarce.

Therefore, Germany had to find a way to break the deadlock and avoid being forced into a long-term war of attrition.

While the Western Front was mired in a war of attrition, the clash between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia on the Eastern Front finally had a result.

The war that broke out in the Balkans was somewhat surprising, one might even say it was jaw-dropping.

Although the spark for the world war in this world did not lie in the Balkans, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's ambition toward Serbia had never changed.

After the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia, a large number of troops immediately began mobilization, attempting to eliminate this weak neighboring country of Serbia.

In order to divide Serbia more securely, the Austro-Hungarian Empire also roped in Bulgaria, promising to divide Serbia together with them.

The comprehensive national strength of Serbia and Bulgaria was originally on par, and with the addition of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a great power, it stood to reason that Serbia should have had no ability to resist, being annexed after a hasty resistance just like Belgium.

But the reality was that Serbia not only resisted the invasion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire but also fought back and forth with Bulgaria while taking on two opponents at once.

In the fighting against the Serbian army, the performance of the Austro-Hungarian army was a complete mess, which also left European countries stunned.

According to the surface data of the Balkan battlefield, the Austro-Hungarian Empire mobilized a total of over 350, 00 troops to attack Serbia, and Bulgaria also mobilized over 200, 00 troops.

On the Serbian side, the number of initially mobilized troops was only 200, 00, and the number of subsequently mobilized troops was only 50, 00.

Fighting 550, 00 with 250, 00, under normal circumstances, the side with more people would definitely win.

But the reality was that the Austro-Hungarian Empire suffered defeat after defeat, not only with over 150, 00 dead and wounded, but the hope of capturing the Serbian capital, Belgrade, was also directly shattered.

In the Balkan War, the performance of the Bulgarian army was better than that of the Austro-Hungarian army. Coupled with the general hatred the Bulgarians held for the Serbians, they caused no small amount of trouble for Serbia.

But these were of no avail; as the main force, the Austro-Hungarian Empire performed poorly, and relying on Bulgaria alone was not enough to eliminate Serbia.

The total casualties of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Bulgaria added up to nearly 250, 00, and although this came at the cost of over 150, 00 Serbian casualties, it still failed to change the current situation in the Balkans.

After several rounds of mobilization, Serbia still had as many as 200, 00 troops available for combat domestically. As for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the remaining combat troops available to be used against Serbia were fewer than 300, 00, and Bulgaria also had fewer than 150, 00 capable of continuing the offensive.

Although the Allied Powers still had a numerical advantage, Serbia was not without allies. To support Serbia, Russia launched one offensive after another on the border with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, forcing the Austro-Hungarian Empire to keep most of its main forces in Galicia and Lodomeria, which allowed Serbia to catch its breath.

The successive failures of the German and Austro-Hungarian war plans made them urge their ally, Italy, hoping that Italy would fulfill the alliance treaty as soon as possible and join the Allied Powers to fight against France and Russia.

The shrewd Italian government naturally could not agree to the demands of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They only accepted selling supplies to Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was also Italy's obligation as an ally.

As for declaring war on France and Russia, because Germany's act of initiating the declaration of war violated the treaty, Italy had no obligation to fight against France and Russia.

At this time, the Italian government had not thought of abandoning the alliance treaty; what the Italian government was thinking about was obtaining more benefits, such as territory in the Balkans and colonies in Africa.

In the eyes of the Italian government, the longer this war dragged on, the higher Italy's importance in the war would be.

If Italy joined the war now, it would be quite good to obtain Albania and Tunisia after the war ended. But if they waited until the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany showed signs of decline before joining the war, the benefits Italy could obtain would be much greater, such as Dalmatia, Savoy, Nice, Algeria, and so on.

Much of the land Italy wanted was under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was also the reason why the Italian government wanted to participate in the war only when the Austro-Hungarian Empire showed signs of decline.

Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire naturally understood Italy's thoughts; they could only curse the shamelessness of the Italian government in their hearts, but they were helpless against it.

After all, they could not force the Italian government to join the war, could they? If they really pushed Italy to the enemy side, it would definitely not be good news for the Allied Powers.

Although Italy's army was not strong, the Italian navy still had a certain level of capability. Italy's geographical location could also threaten the Austrian region, which was fatal for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Once Italy defected, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would have to concentrate a large number of troops to guard the Austrian region, which would also lead to even emptier forces in the Balkans and on the Eastern Front, affecting Germany's war plan against France.

While Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were persuading Italy to join the war, France and Russia were also looking for allies for themselves on the European continent.

After the war broke out, France and Russia had not tried to win over Spain again. Because they also knew clearly that even if they could win Spain over to join the Entente, Britain would join the Allied Powers in a short time to balance the situation on the European continent.

It was better to let Spain and Britain continue to remain outside the two major military blocs; in any case, they could obtain a large amount of material supplies from Spain, which was equivalent to having half an ally, and that was also cost-effective.

There were many allies that France and Russia wanted to win over, among them Romania, the country with the largest area in the Balkan region.

Romania was very important to both the Allied Powers and the Entente; it was not just the French-Russian Entente, the Allied Powers were also striving for Romania's support.

The reason was also very simple, and that was Romania's quite important geographical location and its rich domestic mineral resources.

Romania had oil, and the production volume was not small.