After the Battle of Sofia, Montes, who escaped, was summoned back to his country by the London government. What awaited him was a one-day tour of the military court. This time the British were embarrassed.

Although Montes repeatedly explained that the war was defeated due to the betrayal of the traitor, and it had no effect.

If you lose, you lose. Even if they caused greater casualties to the Russians in tactical terms, everyone knows that the coalition forces lost in this battle.

The culprit was that the British army was unable to defend the defense line, which allowed the Russians to break through. Everyone decisively ignored the fact that they were attacked by the guerrillas, and the British were embarrassed to mention this matter.

Oliver, who was successful in rescue, was promoted to British commander. It was a good thing to be promoted, but Major General Oliver did not have any joy.

He still knows himself. The so-called success in rescue is an excuse. If it were not for the deep background, he would have to blame the failure of this war.

If he hadn't had the so-called bait plan and attempted to kill all the guerrillas in one place, and reinforcements were stationed in advance in various important places, the main forces of the guerrillas would not have gathered together to attack from behind. In fact, he had killed Montes in this battle.

This kind of thing fools domestic bureaucrats and fools the soldiers who fight, but cannot deceive the officers fighting on the front line.

In this case, can he be convinced by the commander of the Expeditionary Force?

"Have our casualties been counted?" Oliver asked

The middle-aged officer with a bearded look replied: "Only a part of it was counted, the Third Legion of the Expeditionary Force, totaling 6,876 people died in battle, missing or captured, and 2,847 people were injured.

The first and second legion of the Expeditionary Force are still counted. We have collected 11,621 defeated soldiers, including 924 wounded soldiers. It is said that some of the defeated soldiers and the Sardinians have retreated to the Macedonian area."

This is not just a heavy loss, but the Expeditionary Force was simply crippled. It has not returned to the team for half a month, so the chance of returning to the team is already very low.

There is no way to do this. When you are defeated and flee, everyone is running around in a hurry, no matter who cares about what direction.

With the failure of the Battle of Sofia, the entire southwestern Bulgaria was dominated by the Russians. It is unknown how many people could escape the pursuit of the Russians and Bulgarian guerrillas.

This era of communication is not smooth and the soldiers are not able to speak. Even if they escape, it will be very difficult for them to find their way back.

If the sense of direction is not strong, it is not impossible to go directly against the rules.

Oliver patted his head. After 80,000 British Expeditionary Forces fought, he only had more than 30,000 people left in his hands. Even if he had joined the Sardinians to go to the Macedonian region, there would not be more than 40,000.

What's more important is that the morale of the army is completely gone. After a long period of hard fighting, these soldiers are feeling war-weary, even the same is true for the Third Legion that had just arrived.

If the British army had the combat power of 10 before, there would be only 5 left now. Without half a year of renovation, it would be impossible to restore its combat power.

But the war still needs to be fought. The French have asked them to build a line of defense to prevent the enemy from coming from the west.

If possible, Oliver would not mind retreating all the way back and fighting a battle of Constantinople. Fighting along the coast, they could gain naval fire support and make it easier to fight to the advantage.

Obviously this is impossible. Not to mention the Ottomans' opinions, the coalition forces and the Russians are still fighting hard in the Slivan area and cannot withdraw at all.

Blind retreat may turn into a defeat, and the consequences will be serious.

Oliver said seriously: "No matter what, we must now block the Russians in Kazanlek and the old Zagora region, otherwise the coalition forces will fail in this battle.

The London government has issued a death order, and the battle cannot be defeated because of our reasons.

I have requested reinforcements from the country, and the cabinet government has guaranteed at least 50,000 reinforcements will arrive in two months.

After the Sofia War, the Russians also suffered heavy casualties, and they also need time to repair. They should not launch a major attack in the next two months."

A young officer questioned: "Mr. Commander, I am forgiving that even if the Russians launch a tentative attack, I may not be able to stop it.

On the way back, we threw away all the artillery, and one-third of the soldiers now don't even have a rifle. If they are not trimmed, the troops will have no combat power at all."

This is not nonsense. If a main division of the Russian army came at this time, the more than 30,000 British troops would continue to run away.

Oliver glared at him and said, "Col. Fhu, you are over-concerned. The loss of weapons and equipment has been replenished in China, and it can be replenished in at most half a month.

The morale issue of military personnel depends on everyone's efforts. Now we will not have new combat tasks. Just do a good job of defensive work and wait for reinforcements to arrive."

Oliver no longer cared about being passive or not. He knew that if the soldiers were able to exert some of their combat effectiveness by relying on the fortifications to defend now, they would have to write a book called "How the Deserter was Born".

...

Serbia Kralevo

In the third battalion of the 4th Regiment of the newly formed 7th Division of Austria, Lieutenant Colonel Haydn encountered a big trouble and a large number of defeated soldiers appeared in his defense zone.

A young officer aged between 22 and 23 whispered: "Lieutenant Colonel, the British have sent representatives."

Haydn said lightly: "Please come in."

The situation is a bit special now. Austria remained neutral in the war between Britain and Russia, but Austria was an ally with the Russians and was still going to war with the Ottoman Empire, an ally of the British.

This complex international relations made Lieutenant Colonel Haydn very embarrassed. If this was Austrian territory, then as a neutral country, disarming the British and repatriating them to their country after the war would be.

Unfortunately, Serbia's sovereignty still belongs to the Ottoman Empire. If the British did not cooperate, Lieutenant Colonel Haydn would not know whether to force disarm them or deport them.

Soon, a somewhat embarrassed British official walked in, and Lieutenant Colonel Haydn said, "I'm glad to see you, Colonel Daniel, what do you need to drink?"

Colonel Daniel replied politely: "Thank you, just coffee is good, it's better to have some pastries."

It can be seen that his stomach has protested again, and a "guru" sound sounded, reminding him that it was time to eat.

Lieutenant Colonel Haydn shrugged and said, "Sorry, I don't have pastries here, but there are bread, canned and jerky, do you want some?"

This is on the battlefield, and although in the city of Klareva, the Austrian army was not as luxurious as to serve pastries.

Colonel Daniel said: "It's good to have bread and cans."

When they were running for their lives, they were carrying hungry beef jerky, and now they were almost vomiting. It would be nice to have bread at this time.

Lieutenant Colonel Haydn ordered: "The guards make a cup of coffee for Colonel Daniel, get a bread and two cans."

Both of them are soldiers, and the communication between soldiers has always been straightforward.

After pausing, Lieutenant Colonel Haydn stated the conditions: "Col. Daniel, you have two options:

Or, as international practice, we, as a third-party neutral country, will disarm you, and the subsequent issues will be communicated by the London government and Vienna, and you will be deported after the war.

Or, you are leaving now, and for the sake of friendship between the two countries, I can pretend to have seen nothing. You are leaving now from Kosovo and going back from Macedonia."

He did not want to have a conflict with the British at this time. There are currently many British soldiers entering the Clareva area. If they cannot be dealt with in time, trouble may occur.

Colonel Daniel replied without hesitation: "We choose the first one, the Russians have occupied the Kosovo region and our back road has been cut off.

We agree to be disarmed, but you must provide us with matching status treatment and guarantee that we can only be repatriated after the war."

After hearing Daniel's lies with his eyes open, Lieutenant Colonel Haydn was a little amused and crying. He finally understood why such a person had accidentally entered the Klareyvo area.

This is not a mistake, it was just a deliberately running over.

This war lasted almost a year, and the British had been involved in the war for more than half a year. After fighting for such a long time, the troops did not rotate, so it was natural for everyone to be more war-weary.

The British Army soldiers in this era were not well treated. You can tell from the logistics supply that if they had status, the bureaucrats in the logistics department would not dare to do so randomly.

Compared with the Navy, they were raised by stepmothers and were treated less than one-third of the Navy soldiers. This distinction naturally aroused their dissatisfaction.

Now that everyone is war-weary, they naturally have to find a way to escape this war. Being a deserter is not advisable first, it is subject to military law.

With the failure of the Battle of Sofia, their chance came. This time they were defeated on the whole line and they would definitely run away.

If they run back, they will inevitably go to the battlefield. If they surrender to the Russians, the bears have a bad reputation in this era and they are afraid of being massacred.

Besides, it was not glorious to speak out as a prisoner of war. The bear was the enemy again, and they did not even have the chance to fight for treatment after surrendering.

At this time, a smart man came up with a solution, ran to the neutral country and was disarmed, and then waited for the war to be deported back to the country.

It is normal to escape the war and avoid being liquidated domestically. It is not only normal to panic on the battlefield, but who knows that the Austrians occupied Serbia?

Anyway, the London government has not issued a document to inform them, so everyone can pretend to be confused and say they don’t know. They can say it is a normal retreat and then mistakenly enter the territory of Austria.

The bureaucrats of the London government must recognize that this is in compliance with the regulations. They rely on this set of mechanical rules to protect their own interests, so it is naturally impossible to break it easily.

In fact, not only the British did this, but also some people in the Sardinian army followed him, but because they had a grudge against Austria, not many people came over.

As for whether it will cause trouble to the London government or affect the relationship between Britain and Austria, this is not within their consideration.

Anyway, Austrians must treat them with delicious food and drink, which is a bargaining chip that can bargain with the London government.

Even in order to be more convincing, they found a step and insisted that the Russians had occupied the Kosovo region and cut off their way back.

Lieutenant Colonel Haydn thought for a while and said, "Yes, but all British soldiers must sign the agreement.

You are sure that you have entered Klarevo by yourself. Because the Russians cut off the way home and you have lost your logistics supplies, you have sought help from us."

After changing the arguments, everyone's face was taken care of. I also changed the disarmament to another statement, and Britain and Austria would not have conflicts over this issue in the future.

Colonel Daniel complained: "No problem, then Lieutenant Colonel Haydn, please provide us with supplies as soon as possible. Along the way, we haven't eaten a ton of normal meals for several days."

Lieutenant Colonel Haydn asked, "Yes, how many of you are? I will send someone to send you a batch of supplies."

Colonel Daniel replied: "There are 1,531 people, including 426 Sardinian soldiers, who must enjoy the same treatment, and there are 62 wounded people who need treatment.

There should be some troops in the future, and the number of people may continue to increase in the future. You'd better prepare more supplies."

This is not because some people have escaped, but because the officers and soldiers run away together, and they run so fresh and refined.

Lieutenant Colonel Haydn nodded and ordered people to prepare supplies. No matter what, let's stabilize these British soldiers first.

Lieutenant Colonel Haydn had no objection to Daniel's loyal request, and the London government would pay for them anyway.
Chapter completed!