The war in the Balkans was once again ignited. This battle was the largest ever in the European continent. The total force of both sides invested more than one million on the front line of more than 400 kilometers.

This battle, which was destined to be famous in history, was very comedic. Logically speaking, the coalition forces were not prepared enough, and the Russians, as the initiator of the battle, should take advantage of it, or even directly lock in the victory.

The reality is very tragic. As the side launching the attack, the Russian army also experienced chaos.

The artillery commander Preston cursed angrily: "Hey, we are artillerymen. You actually sent me a bunch of bullets. Do you want me to feed the cannons?"

The officer who transported the supplies replied mechanically: "Sorry, Mr. Colonel, this is the above order. If you have any questions, please contact the command center. Now please sign for the supplies."

Preston's artillery regiment had just arrived. The infantry regiment stationed here had advanced forward, but the Logistics Department still distributed supplies according to the original plan.

Preston frowned and replied, "We responded to the above, Mr. Major. Now, these supplies are useless. You should take them back!"

The major officer said seriously: "Your Excellency, the order I received was to send this batch of supplies here to the defenders. Please be sure to sign for it.

As for how to deal with these materials, you can do it yourself. It’s okay to deal with them in private. You can find a place to throw them away. Just report a war loss after the war.

These supplies will be replenished for an infantry regiment in the next week, and there are still many good things in it. Colonel, you will not suffer any loss."

After hesitating for a while, Preston still signed his name, and the money delivered to him was useless.

Anyway, the artillery is the treasure of the headquarters, and it is different from the valuable gray animals. If one report comes up, their supplies will still come down.

...

The main force of the Russian army was one and two points in this battle. Fitzroy Summerse led four infantry divisions, two artillery regiments, and a cavalry regiment, a total of more than 73,000 people to attack the Sofia region.

The battlefield changes with frequent troops, and the logistics system cannot keep up. Unlike the last battle, it was in the Danube River Basin, and it was easy to replenish supplies. Even if it was made mistakes, it could be adjusted quickly.

It's different now. The front has advanced two hundred kilometers forward, and it takes several days to transport logistics supplies. Without telegrams, it can only be notified by the commander. The messages received by the Military Service often lag behind.

At this time, the mechanical Russian bureaucracy took effect. The officers who transported logistics supplies must transport the supplies to designated locations.

Even if the original troops were gone, they would have to hand over the supplies. It is not an isolated case that artillery soldiers like Colonel Preston received infantry supplies.

Fitzroy Somerset is a good general. He must take care of such things. How can he fight if he doesn’t solve the logistics problems?

"The logistics department ordered the logistics department to increase the supply of materials to one month. In the future, the material supply will not be in fixed locations and must be handed over to the troops where they are located.

The division-level troops are not transported separately, and they are all sent to the division headquarters to distribute materials in a unified manner. The artillery regiments and cavalry regiments are directly sent from the headquarters."

A middle-aged officer reminded: "Your Excellency the Chief of Staff, if you do this, you may not be in line with the rules."

Fitzroy Somerset shook his head and said, "Don't worry, I will explain this problem to the country. Now I will send someone to contact Commander Menshkov first, and I believe he has encountered the same problem."

...

After changing the logistics supply model, the Russian army's logistics supply chaos was finally barely resolved. Of course, the lost materials transported in front must not be found, and all of them were considered war damage.

The Battle of Sofia started, and the Russian army was only thirty kilometers away from Sofia, and the two sides had already begun to exchange fire.

Sofia coalition command, Montes asked: "Have the enemy's troops been investigated clearly?"

"Your Excellency Commander, you have figured it out. The Russian army dispatched 4 infantry divisions, 2 artillery regiments, and 1 cavalry regiment, totaling 730,000 people.

In addition, there are about 20,000 Bulgarian guerrillas. However, they seem to have had differences with the Russians and did not act together."

The reply was an Ottoman officer. They naturally did it for the investigation of the enemy situation. If the British soldiers were sent out, they would not know how to come back if they were confused.

Montes said calmly: "Our reinforcements will arrive tomorrow night, and order the troops not to rush to fight with the enemy, leaving a small number of troops to restrain the enemy's marching speed.

Except for a few important strongholds that must be held, the rest will be withdrawn and the enemy will be fought after reinforcements arrive."

It’s not okay to be calm. Montes is one of the few "veterans" in the British army. He once commanded a battalion of troops and suppressed hundreds of colonial rebellions.

There is no way, who has made the British Empire peaceful and peaceful in the past decade? Without a big war, the British Army had to bully the colonial indigenous people besides suppressing the Irish mob.

The largest battle also ended in regiment-level battles. It is rare for senior generals like Montes to go to the battlefield, so he became the commander of the British Expeditionary Force.

If you don’t have experience, you can learn it. Now Montes is doing very well, completely following the requirements of military strategy. Even if you can’t take advantage of it, you will not suffer a big loss.

...

evening

In a camp, soldiers gathered together in groups of three or three to look up at the stars.

A man with a Genoa accent asked, "Arturo, you said that we were sent to the Balkans to fight against the Russians. What are you looking at?"

Arturo said indifferently: "Didn't those men say that this time the Russians were to avenge their revenge. It is said that the Russians supported Austria in the last Olympic War, and they are still allies now.

Aangzo, why are you asking about these things? We are all about making a living. If we can find a job in China, who would come here to suffer!”

"No, I just ask casually. I always feel that there is something wrong with it. It is not normal to let us run to the Balkans to fight the Russians for no reason.

Even if we want to take revenge, it is the nobles and capitalists who need to take revenge. We poor guys have no loss. Why do we come here?" Aangzo shook his head and said

No matter how confused they are, they have not received any education, and they have never thought that there are so many things they have joined the army to make a living.

"I said what are you talking about? Go and get tomorrow's food quickly. If you miss the time, you will solve it yourself."

A familiar voice came, and the two stopped talking and ran over as quickly as possible to line up to receive the supplies.

After receiving the food, Aangzo's face turned ugly and he complained: "Damn British, do they just like corned beef and hard biscuits so much?

If you don’t even provide a piece of bread, this life is simply not something that humans live. They are deliberately treating us, and these supplies may not be as good as the Ottomans!”

In this war, the expenses of the Sardinian army were borne by the British, and the logistics supplies were naturally handled by the British.

It is not easy to say that the British soldiers were given the same supplies as theirs. They were all unified standards, with each person weighing 2 pounds of corned beef and three hard biscuits per day, and then it was gone.

Not to mention vegetables and fruits, even black bread does not have a piece. The British do this not to save costs. If you consider the cost, the price of beef is not low, and it would be much cheaper to replace it with black bread.

The reason for this tragedy was the bureaucratic system. The bureaucrats in the British office believed that corned beef jerky was easy to transport, and then slapped their butts and became a supply for the British army in this war.

On the surface, beef is eaten every day, and this kind of food is also good. If it is replaced with jerky beef and eating it every day, the feeling will not be so wonderful. The first thing to be tested is whether the teeth can bear it.

Not only is the beef hard, but the cookies distributed are harder. This may be the earliest compressed cookies. If you don’t put them in water and you can bite them, they are iron-toothed and copper teeth.

This kind of food is simply disastrous for Italians who pursue delicious food.

No matter how poor the Kingdom of Sardinia was, their army never saved food expenses, and the food level was much higher than that of the British.

"Don't complain Aangzo. If the Ottomans know, they don't mind changing with you. Are you really willing to change with them?" Arturo said with a smile.

Happiness is a comparison. The food provided by the British is the most unpalatable, at least you don’t have to worry about being hungry.

These beef jerky can also be processed in secondary processing. If conditions permit, you can get some vegetables and put them together and cook them without even adding salt.

The supplies of the Ottoman army are really bad, and there are also those who are asked to bring some dry food to the battlefield. What kind of food can be obtained depends entirely on luck. It is a good time to eat until it is 70% full.

Because of the daily salary of empty wages, the Ottoman bureaucrats have the good habit of discounting according to regulations. If a certain unit does not have a shortage, then it will be a waste of money to prepare for the whole army to go hungry.

Aangzo shook his head and said, "I didn't say that, but the British logistics officers should really die. I bet that more soldiers who were waiting to die by them were definitely more dead than those who died on the battlefield."

Arturo smiled and said, "I don't know this. Maybe the British's stomachs are different from ours, and they can bear it.

Let’s not talk about this anymore. We remember that during the day, you pulled out a few vegetables. I still have two potatoes here. I will mix them with jerky tomorrow and stew them together. Let’s eat it just right!"

The two looked at each other and smiled. Even if the logistics supply standards were low, Italians could use their talents to improve their food as much as possible under limited conditions.

In this regard, the Sardinian army also contributed. Their arrival directly improved the quality of life of the British army and reduced the number of scurvy patients in British soldiers.

The British soldiers who were with them quickly learned these excellent experiences and promoted them as quickly as possible. In the past, they went out simply to rob wealth, which was a waste.

Now that everyone has learned the essence, the crops in the fields and the cattle and sheep on the hillside can be turned into trophy. Many soldiers even learned to pickle food and store food using all conditions.

The direct sequelae of this is that the marching speed has dropped greatly and the military discipline has become even more dispersed. With the old foxes in the Sardinian army, no matter how the officers order, they should do whatever they should do.

The law does not punish the masses. Faced with a group of big-headed soldiers who stand on a unified standpoint, the officers dare not do anything to them.

By the way, the British were also ruined, and everyone discovered the power of unity. As long as they were united, the officers would not dare to touch them.

The last time to arrive in Sofia was two days later than Montes expected. On this battlefield where time is like life, two days are enough to change.

The most direct thing is that the Russian army has already been suppressed. Due to the lack of troops in the surrounding strongholds, Montes dared not divide too many troops to garrison, and now it has been completely destroyed.

The reinforcements arrived late, and the coalition forces had lost the best opportunity. It was too late to start the Russian army without firmly gaining a foothold.

Montes roared angrily: "You group of people, Lu Chen, have been delayed for two days. Are you on an outing on the road? Do you know what military law is?"

Major General Mantua of the Sardinian army lied seriously: "Commander, we were attacked by guerrillas on the road, causing dozens of casualties to us, and delayed the time in order to eliminate guerrillas."

No one is a fool. In order to escape military law, everyone said that they had encountered a guerrilla attack and the wounded were proof.

"The guerrillas are so rampant, and you have so many troops, they dare to attack them?" Montes asked in confusion.

Mantua said with a clue of inspiration: "The Commander, the guerrillas are very cunning. They don't fight us head-on, but just sneak attacks in secret.

They dug and sank on the road, and fired cold arrows at night, which was very difficult and there were quite a few people. In order not to let these people cut off our army's retreat, we wiped them out."

He is not talking nonsense. Some soldiers fell into the trap, but they fell accidentally when they went to the mountains to find prey. It also exists when they fired cold arrows. They also encountered Ottoman hunters in the mountains and were shot by them.

This is the first time that Montes has encountered such a senior talent who is lying and still has a look of distortion. British officials are still relatively honest, which is completely different from Italian officers.

This is not the first time that Mantua has done it. When they were following Marshal Bardorio, they collectively deceived the country. Now they fooled Montes, who has little experience, naturally has no pressure.

Montes shouted coldly: "Hmph!"

Then he cursed: "Even if that's the case, you shouldn't have delayed it for so long. Wouldn't you leave a small group of troops to encircle the guerrillas and bring the main force over here?

Do you know how much loss your delay has caused to our army, and you have missed the best opportunity to fǎn     gōng!”

However, at this time he did not mention military law, and everyone couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Mantua did not continue to defend himself. What was he afraid of when he was scolded, and he would not lose a piece of meat.

After the failure of the Osa War, there were not many generals in the Kingdom of Sardinia who could retain the title of general, and Mantua was one of them not because he could fight, but in fact his military capabilities were very limited.

His greatest ability is to be eloquent, observing his expression, and pushing all the responsibilities to others. He stood by the king at the first time and gained trust, which gave him the opportunity to make a comeback this time. 5
Chapter completed!