Chapter 486: Balkan Situation (Seeking Monthly Tickets!)

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

The France in this world did not have the help of the British army; the Battle of the Marne was participated in only by the German and French armies.

The French army could find the loopholes in the German army's continuous advance and quickly launch an offensive against the German army that exposed its flanks; this was something Gao Da had not expected.

The German First Army that crossed the Marne River and the French Sixth Army that marched east from Paris broke out in a fierce battle, and subsequently, Germany's Second and Third Armies and France's Fifth Army all launched support for their comrades, which also made the number of soldiers participating in this battle that broke out on the banks of the Marne River exceed one million.

Once the German army was allowed to cross the Marne River one after another, they could easily bypass to the rear flank of Paris and launch a siege on Paris, France's most important city.

This was something the French army absolutely could not accept. Under the command of General Gallieni, the French Sixth Army launched a fierce offensive against the flank of the German First Army, and without caring about casualties, it actually beat back the German First Army that had crossed the Marne River.

The German and French armies that arrived later to support also broke out in fierce fighting on the plain between the Aisne River and the Marne River, ultimately ending this battle that could be called the most tragic with the price of over 250,000 casualties on both sides.

As the vanguard of the offensive German army, after the Battle of the Marne, the French Sixth Army had less than 100,000 troops available for continued combat; the losses could not be described as anything but heavy.

Of course, the losses on the German army's side were also quite tragic. The German First Army led by Kluck had less than 50% of its combat troops available; if there were no support from the Second and Third Armies, I am afraid the German First Army would have been buried there.

For Germany, the most uncomfortable point came: with the heavy losses of the First Army and the relatively large losses of the Second and Third Armies, the Schlieffen Plan basically went bankrupt.

The French had already prepared for Germany's plan to raid Paris, and it was no longer so easy to want to end this war by quickly occupying Paris.

Because of the failure of the Battle of the Marne, the German army was forced to retreat to the north of the Aisne River, returning the large area of land between the two rivers to France.

This also led to France being able to build a large number of trenches and defensive works relying on the Marne River, making up for the disadvantage of the large plain north of Paris having no danger to defend.

In this way, the war with France was bound to evolve into a war of attrition. Germany was fighting on two fronts, and under such a long war of attrition, Germany's domestic materials were destined to become less and less.

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

While the western front battlefield fell into a war of attrition, on the eastern front battlefield, the outcome of the engagement between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia finally appeared.

The war that broke out in the Balkan region was somewhat unexpected, and it could even be said to be shocking.

Although the fuse for the outbreak of the World War in this world was not in the Balkan Peninsula, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's ambition for 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, Serbia.

To share Serbia more securely, the Austro-Hungarian Empire also pulled in Bulgaria, promising to share Serbia together with Bulgaria.

Serbia and Bulgaria's comprehensive national strength was originally not much different, plus the helper of the power level, the Austro-Hungarian Empire; logically speaking, Serbia should have no ability to resist, and would be annexed after resisting in a hurry like Belgium.

But the reality was that Serbia not only resisted the Austro-Hungarian Empire's invasion but also fought back and forth with Bulgaria in a one-on-two situation.

In the combat with the Serbian army, the performance of the Austro-Hungarian army was a complete mess, which also made European countries shocked.

The explicit data of the Balkan battlefield: the Austro-Hungarian Empire mobilized over 350,000 troops to attack Serbia, and Bulgaria also mobilized over 200,000 troops.

And on Serbia's side, the number of troops initially mobilized was only 200,000, and the number of troops mobilized later was only 50,000.

Using 250,000 to fight 550,000, in general circumstances, the side with more people must be the one to achieve victory.

But the reality was that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was defeated repeatedly, not only suffering over 150,000 deaths and injuries, but the hope of conquering Serbia's 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. Plus the reason that Bulgarians generally hated Serbians, they caused no small trouble for the Serbians.

But these were all to no avail; as the main force, the Austro-Hungarian army performed poorly, and relying on Bulgaria alone could not eliminate Serbia.

The total casualties of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Bulgaria added up to nearly 250,000; although they also exchanged for over 150,000 casualties of Serbia, they still could not change the current situation in the Balkans.

After several rounds of mobilization, Serbia still had as high as 200,000 combat troops available domestically. And on the Austro-Hungarian side, the remaining combat troops available to be used against Serbia were less than 300,000, and Bulgaria also had less than 150,000 who could continue to participate in the offensive.

Although the Alliance had a troop 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 place most of its main force in Galicia and Lodomeria, so Serbia could also catch its breath.

The successive failures of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire's combat plans made them inevitably urge their ally, Italy, hoping that Italy could fulfill its alliance obligations as early as possible, joining the Alliance to fight against France and Russia together.

The shrewd Italian government naturally could not agree to the demands of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They only accepted selling materials 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 actively declaring war violated the treaty, Italy had no obligation to fight against France and Russia.

The Italian government at this time had not thought about betraying the alliance; what the Italian government thought about was obtaining more benefits, such as territory in the Balkan Peninsula and African colonies.

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 participated in the war now, obtaining Albania and Tunisia after the war ended would be quite good. But if they participated in the war when the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany showed signs of decline, the benefits Italy could obtain would be more, such as Dalmatia, Savoy and Nice, and Algeria, etc.

Many lands Italy wanted were under the control of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was also the reason the Italian government wanted to participate in the war 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 about this.

After all, one could not forcibly force the Italian government to join the war, right? If Italy were really forced to the enemy's side, it would definitely not be good news for the Alliance.

Although Italy's army was not strong, the Italian Navy still had a certain level. Italy's geographical location could also threaten the Austrian region, which was fatal to 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 the troop strength in the Balkan region and the eastern front battlefield being even emptier, affecting Germany's combat 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 did not woo Spain again. Because they also knew that even if they could strive for Spain to join the Allied powers, Britain would also join the Alliance in a short time to balance the situation on the European continent.

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

France and Russia wanted to woo many allies, among which was Romania, the country with the largest area in the Balkan region.

Romania was very important to both the Alliance and the Allied powers; it was not just the Franco-Russian Alliance, the Alliance was also striving for Romania's support.

The reason was also very simple: it was Romania's quite important geographical location and the abundant mineral resources within the country.

Romania had oil, and the production was not small. ===== CHAPTER 487 =====