British reinforcements had just arrived in the Balkans and had not had time to take over all the defense areas. The Bulgarian guerrillas launched a full-scale counterattack. This time the Russians cooperated very well and suppressed the coalition forces on the front line.

Facts have proved that Plovdiv was indeed a bait arranged by the British, preparing to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Bulgarian guerrillas here, but they just controlled the beginning and were unable to control the ending.

As soon as the battle began, the situation changed, and more than ten cities, including Plovdiv, were attacked by guerrillas at the same time.

Most of them were feint attacks, but this random attack was exposed before the British had completed the arrangement.

There was no way. Although the Greeks were not strong enough, they had a great time to choose. Who knew if they would break into Constantinople all the way? For safety reasons, the Ottoman Empire had to mobilize troops to surround them.

The troops defending the city were insufficient, and there were also leaders in the city, and feint attacks could also break the city. If all these places were lost, the coalition forces in the Sofia region would be trapped in the encirclement, and the British army had no choice but to send troops to reinforce.

The Bulgarian guerrillas have too weak firepower, so it’s okay to bully the Ottoman second-line troops, but they are not as good as the British on the front battlefield.

If you can't beat it, you will have no way to fight. The British army who had just arrived on the front line had never fought with them. The arrogant British commander directly treated them as indigenous people in the colonies.

This understanding is not wrong. In theory, Bulgaria can also be regarded as a colony of the Ottoman Empire, but it is directly affiliated.

The gap in strength is huge. The Bulgarian guerrillas have been trained by instructors from Russia and Austria. With high morale, the combat effectiveness they burst out is not weak.

With a "boom", the British army that was marching was attacked by the guerrillas again. After a moment, the gunshots came to an abrupt end, and it was obvious that the guerrillas retreated.

A young officer said pale: "General, the enemy is attacked in front of him, two soldiers were killed and seven soldiers were injured!"

"This is the first time we have been attacked by the enemy?" Major General Oliver asked

"The 18th time!" the young officer replied in a low voice.

"What nonsense is that? Send me someone to chase me!" Major General Oliver ordered

The Bulgarian guerrillas caused them little casualties, but the number of attacks was frequent, which delayed their marching speed, but the key was to hit the morale of the troops.

Major General Oliver is not the one who will not fight back if he suffers a loss. Of course, he will fight back.

Because of the lack of experience in fighting guerrillas, most of the time they chase the enemy halfway through the road, the enemy disappeared. If they are not lucky, there will be more traps waiting for them along the way.

Not only did the British army not take advantage in this round of confrontation, the key was that they delayed the best fighter plane. By the time they arrived at their destination, the main force of the guerrillas had long disappeared.

Everyone knows that the base camp of the Bulgarian guerrillas is in the Balkan Mountains, and Major General Oliver’s task is to encircle and suppress the guerrillas.

However, when entering the Balkans, it is to attack the enemy's strengths with one's own shortcomings. Large forces are difficult to move, and artillery has lost its function. In this environment, the casualties ratio between the two sides is almost 1:1.

Major General Oliver is not crazy yet to replace a British soldier with a guerrilla. If he dares to do this, his life will not be far away when he goes to the military court.

Major General Oliver was commanding troops for the first time, otherwise he would not have taken on this unlucky task as a gilded relative.

The British generals who had been in the Balkans for a long time would rather fight with the Russians on the front line than go into the mountains to encircle and suppress guerrillas.

The former enemy saw that the British army had a slightly superior combat effectiveness. As long as they were not besieged by several times the enemy's army, the risks were controllable; the latter seemed to be not very risky on the surface, and the guerrillas would definitely not be able to defeat the regular army, but they would be different after entering the mountain.

Major General Oliver thought he was able to make a plan and arranged a bait to lure the Bulgarian guerrillas into being deceived.

The result is obvious now. The enemy was fooled. Unfortunately, he overestimated the British army's marching speed. Under the enemy's sneak attack, they were unable to close the pocket formation in time.

...

Plovdiv, most of this strategic location has fallen, and the defenders are still resisting tenaciously. The battle of attack is not the strength of the guerrillas. Even if there is internal and external cooperation in the city, they will not be able to seize the city in one breath.

The guerrilla commander Edimir ordered: "Order the troops to stop attacking and collect strategic materials as much as possible. If they can be taken away, they will burn them all. They cannot be left to the enemy."

The middle-aged officer said reluctantly: "Commander, isn't it a pity that so many treasures have been burned? If we organize civilians to transport them, we can still transport them out."

Eddie Mill glared at him and said, "Stop talking nonsense. With so many supplies, can we still run? If we are bitten by the British, our troops will not be their opponent even if they increase tenfold!"

Edimir was already satisfied with the ability to destroy this part of the supplies. Although it was a bit regretful that they did not take over the entire Plovdiv, they could have declared their capture of the place and strive for a better position among the Russians.

The Russians are very realistic. At the beginning, the treatment of Bulgarian guerrillas would not starve people to death. Since they tore through the defense line of the Sardinian army head-on and broke through to the rear of the enemy, the treatment of the guerrillas has reached the Russian army.

They couldn't get the logistics supply for the time being, but the Russians still distributed a batch of weapons and equipment to them and transported them through the paths in the Balkans.

Many guerrilla officers, including Edimir, have obtained official ranks from the Russian army, and they are now in charge of their own personnel.

Fitzroy Somerset also promised that those who are willing to join the army after the war could all get the official Russian army number and be responsible for the garrison of Bulgaria; those who want to retire can also enter the government department to receive matching treatment.

"Independence"? Don't dream. The Russians are not here to do charity. Fortunately, they have fought for so long just to make the Bulgarians independent.

The Bulgarians now have not so high demands, and autonomy is their highest goal. Most people also want to be protected by the Russians and ensure that they are not enslaved by the Ottomans.

Especially the religious community, the pro-Russian faction is a standard pro-Russian faction, and he has high expectations for Bulgaria to join the Russian Empire.

In the future, Bulgaria will be nothing more than a province, an autonomous province, or a joining Russia in the name of an autonomous principality. The specific situation depends on the decision of the Tsarist government.

The prerequisite is that if the Russians win this war, if they lose everything, the loser will not be qualified to enjoy the spoils.

...

Sofia

At the coalition command, Lieutenant General Montes had already greeted all Major General Oliver's relatives in his heart. He didn't wait to cheat his teammates like this, let alone cheating his own people?

If he hadn't delayed the time for defense in order to arrange the so-called pocket array, the Bulgarian guerrillas would not have taken advantage of the situation and conquered three and a half cities in just one week.

The city is all Ottoman, and even if Montes is conquered, it doesn't care. The problem is that the materials hoarded in the city are theirs.

Even if the British Empire has great achievements and no matter how much losses are, we have to consider political influence?

The direct consequence now is that Montes cannot raise his head in front of the French. The deeper impact is that the Bulgarian region is more unstable, and more and more people have seen hope of getting rid of Ottoman rule and turned to support the guerrillas.

"Send a command to Major General Oliver to immediately recover lost land and ensure the smooth flow of our logistics transportation line." Montes ordered

Let’s talk about encirclement and suppression of guerrillas later. If it really doesn’t work, leave it to the Ottomans. Anyway, this is not the territory of the British Empire, so Montes doesn’t care about that much.

"Yes!" the attendant replied

When this order was issued, Montes had not noticed that the danger was approaching, and Fitzroy Somerset was planning a decisive battle.

At the beginning, on the battlefield of Sofia, there were 73,000 Bulgarian guerrillas vs 50,000 British troops and 20,000 Sardinian troops and 30,000 Ottoman troops, both sides were of equal strength.

Now that the Russian army has been replenished, the total strength is still more than 70,000, while the Ottoman army in the coalition is less than 10,000, and of the remaining 42,000 British troops, only 35,000 are on the front line, while the Sardinian army has 19,000 left.

It has to be said that the Italians are good at saving lives. Among all the parties involved, their casualties have the lowest rate. The battlefield life-saving manual that Franz had tortured back then has now been deeply rooted in the Sardinian army.

This means that when the coalition reinforcements were restrained by the Bulgarian guerrillas, the Russian army already had an absolute advantage on the battlefield.

The Ottoman army has been crippled, and the Sardinian army has paddled in the whole field again. No matter how strong the remaining British army is, it cannot withstand twice the Russian army.

On December 27, 1852, under the leadership of Fitzroy Somerset, the Russian army launched a fierce attack in the Sofia region.

Unlike the previous attack, the Russian army was hitting the defense line of Sardinian army. Since the Bulgarian guerrillas broke out from here, Fitzroy Somerset realized that this was the weakness of the coalition defense line.

However, I missed the opportunity at that time. In order to avoid the British from plugging this loophole, it later became the target of the Russian army's feint attack. Every time I fired artillery fire, but in fact I didn't do anything.

The Sardinian army on the opposite side also cooperated very much. It was common for firearms to be shot in the sky, and both sides acted like they were fighting very fiercely.

Montes was fooled and really thought it was the first time that the Bulgarian guerrillas had torn apart the defense line. It was when the Sardinian army came to the new arrival and was unfamiliar with the environment and was found by the guerrillas to break through.

With the tight military force, the Sardinians seemed to work hard again and fought fiercely on the battlefield. They withstand the Russian attack, so he did not let the British army and them jointly defend.

From a long-term perspective, Montes' approach is correct. If the British and Sardinian troops defend together, it is estimated that this elite British army will be destroyed in no time.

Mantua is not a good general, but he must be a good boss. In order to reduce the casualty rate of soldiers, he emphasized safety first and was deeply loved by the soldiers.

In the eyes of the Sardinian soldiers, this is not their war, and they go to the battlefield to earn that salary. So they have always been able to paddle and never work hard.

All of this was clearly understood by General Mantua, who was deeply aware of human nature. This army was the political capital for him to return to the Kingdom of Sardinia in the future, and it was necessary to buy the morale of the army.

He can't lead everyone to win battles and grab spoils to make a fortune. Then he can only lead everyone to save his life. Generals who value the lives of soldiers will be welcomed.

Now that the trouble is so big, the Russians on the opposite side don't cooperate, Mantua has a headache. He gave up the defense line and ran away. Just think about it. If he really did, the angry British would definitely kill him directly.

What can happen to the allies? Could it be that the Kingdom of Sardinia be able to deal with the British in addition to protesting?

A middle-aged officer suggested: "General, why not let us open a hole at the junction of the British defense line and let the Russians go. Even if the British find fault after the war, we can still put the blame on them."

The Sardinians are scolded by the British every day, and the gap in treatment has exacerbated this dissatisfaction.

In name, everyone's supplies are the same, but after arriving at the place, the British can always get some supplies for fruits, vegetables, potatoes, bread, etc.

Due to the limited number, only officers can obtain the British, so naturally they have no share.

Even a general like Mantua was not well treated much. If you want to improve your food, you had to pay for the British military officers.

It was not that they had protested to the British, but the British bureaucrats took out the contract signed by the two countries, which clearly stated that the British Empire provided logistical support for 20,000 Sardinian soldiers.

Since it was said that "soldiers", they could only enjoy the treatment of soldiers. In the eyes of Sardinian officers, equating them with soldiers is no longer a simple treatment issue, but also an insult to their personality.

In this case, even Lieutenant General Montes, the coalition commander, could do nothing.

It is not something he can afford to provoke London bureaucrats. They do things according to regulations, which is completely in line with British laws, and it is useless to appeal to the country.

There is no way around London. Can the Ottomans provide some?

Obviously this is impossible. Just look at the situation of the Ottoman army. In addition to the guaranteed treatment of senior officers, the lower-level soldiers also need help from the British.

If it weren't for the mechanical machinery of London's bureaucrats, they would have always distributed supplies according to the standard number of people when they set out. Montes distributed the extra jerky and biscuits to the Ottoman army. Now the Ottoman soldiers on the front line would still have to fight on hungry.

Mantua shook her head and said, "You can't do this. If we investigate it later, we will never escape."
Chapter completed!