African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1234 Battlefield Balance
The camp in Bitola was built on the mountain. It was more like a simple and rough temporary fortress group. Tarolin and his party returned to the camp before dark.

Afterwards, everyone began to interrogate the Serbian. Apparently, the army was best at using torture to deal with such people. After all, they were not professional torturers.

After a night of torture, the Serbian extremist finally couldn't bear it anymore.

In the interrogation room, interrogator Antareil reported to Bitola's top military commander, Moss:

"This man's name is Gerlovski, a Serb from the former Macedonia region. According to his statement, he must be trying to find out our true strength. It seems that the remnants of the Serbs are very restless."

"Gerlovski was a company commander of the former 16th Division of Serbia. He was born into a Serbian Orthodox family in Macedonia. His father was a local priest in Bilato."

"So Gerlovski was deeply poisoned by national narrow-mindedness since he was a child. After the Kingdom of Serbia annexed Macedonia, he resolutely chose to join the army and experienced two Balkan Wars..."

A Serb, an Orthodox Christian, an extreme nationalist, born in a small family in Macedonia... There is no doubt that Gerlovski is a typical Serb.

Moss said: "Sure enough, the Serbs are determined to destroy us. The Empire paid a huge price to destroy the Kingdom of Serbia."

In order to conquer the Kingdom of Serbia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire suffered more than 400,000 casualties, of course, this number included ordinary people.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire did not actually care much about the casualties of ordinary people. After all, the situation on the Serbian battlefield was bad at the time, and it only allowed the Serbs to invade Bosnia.

The Bosnia Province is a gathering place for Serbs, Croats and Ottoman remnants, so the casualties in Bosnia are actually a good thing for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Of course, the huge losses suffered by the Austro-Hungarian army were also quite painful. After all, many of the imperial troops stationed in Bosnia were the elite of the empire.

After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been planning against the Kingdom of Serbia for a long time, and the troops on the border between the two countries were at least ranked in the upper-middle level of the imperial army. However, these elite troops were destroyed because of Potiorek's command mistakes.

To put it more simply, most of the Bosnian state troops under Potiorek's command were professional soldiers.

But they are not comparable to the cannon fodder troops that are temporarily recruited and hastily joined the battlefield.

Fortunately, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a strong foundation and eventually saved the situation, but the price it paid was quite heavy.

Moss went on to say: "Right now, let alone Albania and Greece, even the situation in Serbia is not very good. Especially the guerrillas and the Serbian people who are harboring the guerrillas, it is very difficult for us to live in peace."

Guerrillas are currently the biggest headache for Moss. The soil of Serbia is naturally suitable for the development of guerrilla tactics.

First of all, it is about ideology. The Serbian people have a deep hatred for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This is due to the Serbian government's long-term negative propaganda against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Coupled with the blessing of nationalist thought, the Serbs are like crazy.

The second is the terrain and climate of the Balkan region, which is full of mountains, hills and dense forests, which is naturally suitable for guerrilla warfare.

This meant that although major battles had basically ended throughout the Serbian region, small attacks and rebellions continued to occur.

The situation in the Bitola region is even more complicated. Moss must be wary of counterattacks from local forces on the one hand, and attacks from foreign forces on the other.

Although Bilatto is adjacent to Greece, it is not far from the Albanian region, and both places are the main destinations for the retreat of Serbian troops.

So Moss said: "The enemy couldn't have sent only one infiltrator, so many others must have infiltrated across the border between the two countries."

"Looking at the time, the Serbs should be getting impatient. After all, six months is enough time for them to get support from Britain, France and Germany and re-arm their troops." "We need to increase patrols in the next few days and be alert to changes in the situation in Greece. We also need to be alert to the west. After all, the enemy may also attack from Albania."

After the fall of Serbia at the end of 1915, the Serbian government in exile had not taken any major actions, which was obviously contrary to common sense.

Therefore, Moss concluded that the Serbian government-in-exile would make big moves recently, and Bitola was most likely within the Serbian's plan.

But Moss only had a battalion of troops under his command. Of course, this did not mean that the Allied forces deployed in the border area were few in number. Together with the brother troops, the Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian coalition forces in the entire Serbian border area numbered as many as 50,000 and had a geographical advantage.

But each one knows his own business. The combat effectiveness of the more than 50,000 coalition forces is rather worrying. The main force of the coalition forces in Serbia has basically gone to the Russian battlefield.

Moreover, Albania and Greece are also unstable factors, and no one knows whether the two countries will join the Allied camp during this period.

Not to mention these small countries, even the Ottoman Empire, the quasi-military ally of the Central Powers, was still on the sidelines.

This is mainly because the war situation throughout 1915 had fallen into a stalemate, with the Allies and the Central Powers evenly matched, so many countries did not dare to take a gamble.

Relevant countries such as Italy, Greece, Romania, the Ottoman Empire, etc. did not dare to intervene during this period.

Bulgaria is an exception. Its main target is Serbia and other Balkan countries. After the Austro-Hungarian Empire gained an advantage over Serbia last year, Bulgaria was bound to be unable to sit still.

Apart from anything else, Bulgaria must recover the territories lost in the Second Balkan War, so Bulgaria has only one choice: to participate in the war.

Of course, the Bulgarian government naturally wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to get more spoils in the Balkans. If the Austro-Hungarian Empire did everything, Bulgaria would not even get a sip of the spoils.

Of course, if we look closely at the battlefield situation, the Allies are still at a disadvantage. After all, the gap between the Allies and the Entente in terms of materials and national strength is too great.

However, the situation is much better than in the previous life, which is mainly reflected in three aspects. The first is that there is no more troublemaker like Italy. In the previous life, Italy's rebellion before the war caused huge trouble to the Allies.

Don’t be fooled by Italy’s dismal military record in its past life. After all, Italy was a powerful country in its past life.

Now, the three countries on the Italian peninsula dare not place bets easily, which instead gives Germany and Austria more room for maneuver, and at least will not make the Austro-Hungarian Empire panic.

Secondly, the two "neutral countries" of East Africa and the United States resold supplies to the Allies, which strengthened the Allies' war potential. At least Germany and Austria put more troops into the battlefield.

At the same time, because of the existence of East Africa, the armaments against Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire were strengthened, which was also a good thing for the Allies.

Especially for Bulgaria, which has already joined the war, it can at least ensure that every soldier has a rifle, so as not to end up in the same situation as Tsarist Russia.

In this regard, Ernst was quite impressed by the mobilization capabilities of the Orthodox countries. Whether it was Serbia, Bulgaria, or Tsarist Russia, they all demonstrated strong mobilization capabilities.

In contrast, the three countries have poor logistical support capabilities. In the past, whether it was Serbia, Bulgaria or Russia, a large number of soldiers were drafted into the army without even weapons. This is probably a characteristic of Orthodox countries.

Of course, Bulgaria is quite special. Although its faith is Eastern Orthodox, it is still somewhat different from the Slavs in the general sense.

However, it is undeniable that the Bulgarians’ fighting capacity is trustworthy, and now on the Russian battlefield, the Bulgarians are also performing well.

(End of this chapter)