After the Battle of Sofia, Montes, who had escaped the battle, was summoned home by the London government, and a day trip to the court-martials awaited him, this time to the disgrace of the British.

Although Montes repeatedly explained that the betrayal of the traitors led to the defeat of the war, it did not work.

If they lose, they lose, even if tactically they inflicted more casualties on the Russians, but everyone knows that in this battle, the coalition side lost.

The main culprit was that the British army failed to hold the line and allowed the Russians to break through. Everyone decisively ignored the matter of being flanked by the guerrillas, and the British were embarrassed to mention it.

Oliver, who had made a contribution to the rescue, was promoted to commander of the British army, and his promotion would have been a good thing, but Major General Oliver was not happy at all.

He is still self-aware, and the so-called rescue merit is all a pretext, and if it were not for the deep background, he would also be to blame for the failure of this war.

If it weren't for his so-called bait plan, which attempted to wipe out the guerrillas and garrison reinforcements in various key places in advance, the main force of the guerrillas would not have been able to gather and attack from behind.

This kind of thing fools the domestic bureaucracy and fools the soldiers who are fighting, but it cannot deceive the officers who are fighting on the front.

In this case, can he convince everyone as the commander of the expeditionary force?

"Have we counted our casualties?" Oliver asked

The bearded-looking middle-aged officer replied: "Only a part of the statistics has been counted, the Third Army of the Expeditionary Force has a total of 6,876 people killed, missing or captured, and 2,847 wounded.

The 1st and 2nd Expeditionary Corps, casualties are still being counted, and we have gathered 11,621 defeated troops, including 924 wounded, and it is said that some of the defeated troops have withdrawn to Macedonia together with the Sardians. ”

This is not only a heavy loss, the expeditionary force has been completely disabled. I haven't returned to the team for half a month, and the chance of being able to return to the team is already very low.

There is no way to do this, when you lose the battle and run for your life, everyone is running around, who cares what direction or not.

With the defeat of the Battle of Sofia, the whole of southwestern Bulgaria became Russian territory, and it is unknown how many people will escape the pursuit of the Russians and Bulgarian partisans.

In this era, communication was not smooth, and the soldiers did not understand the language, and even if they escaped, it was very difficult for them to find their way home.

If you don't have a strong sense of direction, it's not impossible to go the other way.

Oliver patted his head, the 80,000 British expeditionary force had been fought until now, and there were more than 30,000 people left in his hands, even if you added the Sardinians who ran to the Macedonian area, it would not exceed 40,000.

What's more important is that the morale of the army is completely lacking, and after a long period of hard fighting, these soldiers are tired of war, even the Third Army, which has just arrived.

If the combat strength of the British army was 10 before, now there are only 5 left. Without half a year of repairs, it is simply impossible to restore combat effectiveness.

But the battle still had to be fought, and the French had asked them to build a defensive line to prevent the enemy from coming from the west.

If it could, Oliver wouldn't mind retreating all the way back to fight a battle for Constantinople. Fighting in coastal areas, they can get naval fire support, making it easier to gain an advantage.

Obviously, this is impossible, and not to mention the opinion of the Ottomans, the coalition forces and the Russians are still fighting hard in the Sliven area, and they cannot withdraw at all.

A blind retreat is likely to turn into a rout, and the consequences will be serious.

Oliver said solemnly: "In any case, we must now hold off the Russians in the Kazanlak and Staraya Zagora areas, otherwise the coalition forces will lose this battle."

The government of London has given a death order, and we must not fail the battle because of our reasons.

I have already asked for reinforcements from home, and the Cabinet Government has pledged that at least 50,000 reinforcements will arrive in two months.

After the battle of Sofia, the Russians also suffered heavy casualties, and they also need time to recover, and they should not launch a major offensive in the next two months. ”

A young officer questioned: "Your Excellency, with all due respect, even if the Russians launch a tentative attack, I may not be able to stop it.

On the way to retreat, we lost all our artillery, a third of the soldiers now do not have even a single rifle, and if they are not repaired, the troops simply do not have any combat effectiveness to speak of. ”

This is not nonsense, if the Russian army has a main division at this time, these more than 30,000 British troops will continue to run away.

Oliver glared at him and said, "Colonel Fuhu, you're too worried. The losses of weapons and equipment have already been replenished domestically, and they can be made up in half a month at most.

The morale of the military depends on everyone's efforts. Now we will not have a new combat mission, just do a good job of guarding and waiting for reinforcements to arrive. ”

Passive or not, Oliver can't care so much anymore. He knew that if he relied on the fortifications to defend now, the soldiers would still be able to exert some of their combat effectiveness. If you take the initiative, you have to write a book - "How Deserters Are Born".

……

Kraljevo, Serbia

Lieutenant Colonel Haydn, 3rd Battalion, 4th Regiment of the 7th Austrian Division, was in big trouble when a large number of troops broke in his defensive area.

A young officer about 22~23 years old whispered: "Lieutenant colonel, the British have sent a representative. ”

Haydn said lightly, "Please let him in." ”

The situation was somewhat peculiar: Austria was neutral in the Anglo-Russian war, but Austria was an ally of the Russians and was at war with the Ottoman Empire, an ally of the British.

This intricate international relationship made Lieutenant Colonel Haydn very difficult. If this was Austrian territory, then it would be necessary to disarm the British as a neutral country and repatriate them after the war.

Unfortunately, Serbian sovereignty still belongs to the Ottoman Empire, and if the British do not cooperate, Lieutenant Colonel Haydn does not know whether it is better to disarm them forcibly or expel them from the country.

A short time later, a somewhat embarrassed British officer walked in, and Lieutenant Colonel Haydn said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Colonel Daniel, what do you need to drink?" ”

Colonel Daniel politely replied, "Thank you, the coffee will be fine, and it would be better to have some more pastries." ”

His stomach could be seen to be protesting again, and the sound of "gurgling" sounded to remind him that it was time to eat.

Lieutenant Colonel Haydn shrugged his shoulders and said, "I'm sorry, I don't have any pastries here, but I still have bread, canned food, and beef jerky, would you like some?" ”

Here was the battlefield, although within the city of Kraljevo the Austrian army did not have the luxury of being able to supply pastries.

Colonel Daniel said matter-of-factly: "Bread and canned food are fine. ”

When they fled for their lives, they carried all the beef jerky they were hungry for, and now they were all about to vomit, so it would be nice to have bread at this time.

Lieutenant Colonel Haydn instructed, "The guards make Colonel Daniel a cup of coffee, and bring over a piece of bread and two cans." ”

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

After a pause, Lieutenant Colonel Haydn said the conditions: "Colonel Daniel, you have two options:

Or, according to international practice, we, as a third-party neutral country, will disarm you, and the latter issues will be communicated between the government of London and Vienna, and you will be repatriated after the war.

Or, you leave immediately now, for the sake of friendship between the two countries, I can pretend that I don't see anything. It's too late for you to leave the Kosovo region and back from the Macedonian region. ”

He did not want to clash with the British at this time, and there were a lot of British soldiers entering the Kraljevo region at present, and if they could not be dealt with in time, it was likely that there would be chaos.

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

We agreed to be disarmed, but you had to give us the right treatment and promise that we would only be repatriated after the war. ”

Hearing Daniel's statement that he was talking nonsense with his eyes open, Lieutenant Colonel Haydn couldn't help but laugh and cry. He finally understood why such a person had strayed into the Kraljevo region.

What is this mistaken, it was deliberately run over.

The war lasted almost a year, and the British had been fighting for more than half a year. After fighting for such a long time, the troops were not rotated, and it was natural for everyone's war-weariness to be a little higher.

The salaries of British Army soldiers in this era were not high, and if you look at the logistics supplies, you can know that if they have status, the bureaucrats of the logistics department will not dare to mess around like this.

Compared with the navy, they are raised by their mothers, and their salary is less than one-third of that of the navy soldiers. This kind of differential treatment naturally provokes their dissatisfaction.

Now that everyone's war-weariness is high, it is natural to find a way to escape this war. It is not advisable to be a deserter in the first place, and it is subject to military law.

With the defeat at the Battle of Sofia, their chance came. This time it was a defeat on all fronts, and I was definitely going to flee for my life.

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

Besides, it is disgraceful to speak out as a prisoner of war, and the woolly bear is an enemy, and they don't even have a chance to fight for treatment if they surrender.

At this time, some smart people came up with a way, ran to a neutral country to be disarmed, and then waited for repatriation after the war.

Escaped the war without worrying about being liquidated at home. It is normal to panic on the battlefield, and besides, who knew that the Austrians occupied Serbia?

Anyway, the London government did not send a document to inform them, and everyone can pretend to be confused and say that they don't know, and they can deduce that it is a normal retreat, and then strayed into Austrian territory.

The bureaucrats of the London government must admit that this is in accordance with the regulations, and that they rely on this set of mechanical rules to protect their own interests, and naturally they cannot easily break it.

In fact, it was not only the British who did this, but even some people in the Sardinian army came with them, but because of their enmity with Austria, not many of them ran over.

As for whether it will cause problems for the London government, or affect Anglo-Austrian relations, this is not in their consideration.

Anyway, the Austrians had to entertain them with good food and drink, which was a bargaining chip with the London government.

Even in order to be more convincing, they found a staircase, insisting that the Russians had occupied the Kosovo region, cutting off their way back.

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

I made sure that you strayed into Kraljevo by yourself, and that you had lost your logistical supplies because the Russians had cut off the way back, so you asked us for help. ”

changed the rhetoric, and everyone's face was taken care of. It also put a different word for disarmament, and Britain and Austria will not have contradictions over this issue in the future.

Colonel Daniel complained: "No problem, then Lieutenant Colonel Haydn please provide us with supplies as soon as possible, we have not eaten a ton of normal food for several days along the way." ”

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

Colonel Daniel replied: "There are 1,531 men, including 426 Sardinian soldiers, who must be treated equally, and 62 wounded who need to be treated."

There should be a part of the army behind, and this number may continue to increase in the future, so you had better prepare more supplies. ”

It's not that a few people have escaped, it's just that the officers and soldiers ran away en masse, and they ran so freshly and refinedly.

Lieutenant Colonel Haydn nodded, and ordered the supplies to be prepared. Anyway, let's stabilize these British soldiers first.

Lieutenant Colonel Haydn had no opinion on Daniel's request for a moral, and the London government would pay for them anyway.