When Petroch fired the first shots of the war, the awakened Serbian army rushed into the trenches, ready to resist the Bulgarian invasion.

The Bulgarian 4th Division, seeing that its surprise attack had been discovered, also rushed to the Serbian front-line positions, and by the time a large number of Serbian troops arrived, they were already within fifty meters of the position. After suffering a wave of casualties, the 4th Division rushed into the trenches and fought with the Serbian 6th Division. The Bulgarian artillery cluster of up to 453 guns also began to interdict shelling at this time. The reinforcements of the 6th Division were completely unable to intercept them with such powerful firepower.

Seeing that the reinforcements he sent were blocked by artillery fire, the commander of the Serbian 6th Division, Podonovic, was anxious in his heart.

Colonel Devanat, commander of the 6th Brigade of the 3rd Division, who had only been reinforced today, said loudly when he saw the 6th Division at a loss. "General, now the enemy's artillery is too fierce, our reinforcements can't go up, and the first-line position is estimated to be unable to hold it soon, so it's better for us to stick to the second-line position and defend layer by layer."

Hearing the suggestion of Colonel Devanath to reinforce him, Major General Podonovich immediately realized that he was too anxious, and called a herald to say to him. "Call back the reinforced Twelfth Brigade to reinforce the second-line positions."

Watching the departure of the heralds, Major General Podonovich secretly grieved himself for the 11th Brigade on the front line, and it was unknown how many people left in the 11th Brigade would escape back without reinforcements.

In fact, the 11th Brigade on the front-line position was almost unable to resist, and the culprit that caused them to be unable to resist was a large number of Madsen machine guns of the Bulgarian 4th Division. Under the suppression of this machine gun, a large number of soldiers of the 11th Brigade fell under its guns, and if it were not for the heavy shelling behind them, it is estimated that many people would have fled.

In the city of Ohrid, Field Marshal Putnik (who had only been promoted from general to marshal on 15 June in recognition of his exploits in the war against the Ottomans) had just been awakened by a telegram that the Sixth Division had been attacked. The old marshal, who was wearing only a shirt, took the telegram of the Sixth Division handed to him by a staff officer.

On the telegram the 6th Division said that it had come under heavy fire from the Bulgarian army and hoped to receive reinforcements. Field Marshal Putnik, who had read the telegram, gave an order to the staff officers who were waiting for an answer. "Let the 3rd and 1st Divisions stationed outside the city quickly reinforce the 6th Division's defensive line, and let the 7th and 10th Divisions be ready to reinforce at dawn."

After saying that, he felt that he had said something less, and after thinking about it carefully, he continued to speak to the staff officer. "Let the 2nd Division in the city prepare to garrison the fortifications, and at the same time prepare for the attack."

"Yes, Marshal."

The staff officer, who had received the order, replied to him and immediately went out to send a telegram to the 3rd and 1st Divisions.

Marshal Putnik could not sleep even after giving orders to his staff officers, and walked up and down the room thinking about whether there were any loopholes in his deployment. Marshal Putnik had prepared for an attack by Bulgaria, taking into account all the circumstances, and now it was only necessary to implement the plan as planned. After thinking for a while, he went to the hall of the headquarters, intending to wait for a message from the front. Seeing that the staff officers were busy with their work in the bright lights, the hall was filled with a tense atmosphere of the approaching big war.

Marshal Putnik came to the front of the hall and began to ponder as he looked at a large, high-scale military map hanging on the wall.

Seeing the marshal standing in front of the map and pondering, the voices of the staff officers were much quieter. After about fifteen minutes, a staff officer looked at the telegram he had just received, and walked up to Marshal Putnik. "The marshal has just sent a telegram from the 6th Division that the first-line positions have been lost, and they are struggling to resist in the second-line positions."

"What? Show it to me. ”

Field Marshal Putnik, who heard the latest information on the battlefield, was a little hard to believe his eyes. In his opinion, the defensive line of the 6th Division could hold at least half a day, and the reinforcements would only need an hour and a half to reach the position. At present, it seems that the Sixth Division will not be able to withstand an hour and a half, and now it is estimated that the reinforcement time will be delayed by two hours due to darkness, how can this not surprise Marshal Putnik.

Field Marshal Putnik took the telegram from the staff officer and looked at it, in which the commander of the 6th Division, Podonovich, described in detail the whole process of being attacked. Seeing that the Bulgarian army had strengthened all its heavy firepower to the vanguard, this was the reason why the 6th Division was caught off guard and suffered heavy losses.

Marshal Putnik was surprised by this, and he was surprised by the complete subversion of military common sense. But now he can't afford to lose his temper, and he needs to come up with a reliable way to solve the problem. After thinking for a while, he made arrangements to fend off the Bulgarian army.

"Send a telegram to the 7th and 10th Divisions, asking them to immediately reinforce the positions of the 6th Division."

Hearing that the marshal had made the decision to increase the number of troops twice within an hour, the staff officer immediately replied. "Yes, Marshal."

At the time of Marshal Putnik's decision to fight the Bulgarians, the second line of defense of the 6th Division was also under heavy artillery fire. The first line of defense had been lost, and the remnants of the 11th Brigade were picked up by them. Looking at the 11th Brigade in front of him, which was less than 3,000 people, General Podonovich's heart was bleeding, you must know that the 11th Brigade was more than 7,000 people before, plus the machine guns and small artillery that he replenished them, it was 8,000 people. Now he can only platoon the remnants of the 11th Brigade to the third-line position for defense.

The heavy Bulgarian shelling lasted only fifteen minutes, and then the soldiers of the Bulgarian 4th Division appeared in front of them, and the remaining soldiers of the 6th Division and the reinforced 6th Brigade of the 3rd Division began to launch a fierce counterattack. One side relied on its own fortifications to resist, and the other side relied on its own fierce firepower, and the battle situation was extremely fierce. After more than ten minutes, the Bulgarians pushed up the small artillery, and in the face of the bayonet tactics on the Bulgarian artillery, the Serbian 6th Division gradually arrived and struggled.

One support after another was broken by this Bulgarian tactic, which greatly increased the pressure on the defending Sixth Division. The 4th Division finally managed to break through into the position of the 6th Division under the cover of night, and the Serbs, who had been fighting for a while, were defeated one after another. The Third Army, behind the Fourth Division, also sent two divisions forward to reinforce it. In the end, the 6th Division failed to withstand the Bulgarian attack and withdrew from the second and third positions in succession.

But in this way, the Bulgarian army could not let go of their plans. The Bulgarian 4th Division, reinforced by two divisions of the 3rd Army, followed the attack all the way, which completely destroyed the 6th and 6th Brigades of the 3rd Division, and the soldiers rushed to Ohrid in the rear. The reinforced 3rd and 1st divisions were caught off guard and were routed by three divisions of Bulgarian troops in succession on the march. This also affected the second batch of reinforcements, and the 7th and 10th divisions were also routed by three divisions of Bulgarian troops. It was not until the next morning that the divisions recovered, which Marshal Putnik did not expect at all.

In order to avoid being surrounded by the Bulgarian army, Marshal Putnik could only lead his troops and retreat to Miyako, thirty kilometers to the rear, intending to continue the fight after regrouping.

In this battle, the Serbian army lost about 30,000 men. Of these, 6,158 were killed, 4,315 were wounded, and 18,417 were captured, most of whom were lost on the battlefield. Bulgaria lost 11,000 people, of whom 5,719 were killed and 5,134 wounded. The losses were relatively small, but the ammunition consumption of the Bulgarian machine guns was large, and the main force of the 4th Division in this raid had an average of more than 50 rounds of ammunition per Madsen machine gun, which was less than two magazines. You know, Bulgaria replenished half of the Madsen machine-gun cartridges in its stocks to the 4th Division. There are less than two magazines left, which shows the intensity of the battle.

On the other front, Bitola's Serbian army was unable to resist the Bulgarian surprise attack and was defeated, surrendering the occupied Bitola region to the Bulgarian First Army. Of the more than 70,000 Serbian troops, only about 50,000 were returned, 20,000 were left behind, and the First Army also suffered a lot of losses, and there were still 70,000 troops left in the early 80,000s.

It was the same in the Thessaloniki region, where the Bulgarian 2nd Army launched a surprise attack on the defending Greek troops. Despite the stubborn resistance of the Greek army, the Bulgarian army was defeated in the face of increased firepower and ammunition. Of the more than 70,000 Greek troops on defense, only about 60,000 made it back alive to a small town called Dambia on the border. The Bulgarian Second Army also lost almost 10,000 troops.

The results of the battle between the Bulgarian and Serbian armies surprised the European powers, and for a time the voice of Bulgaria and Prussia in the Balkans was called very loudly.