Chapter 1234 Battlefield Balance
The Bitola camp was built on the mountain, and it was more like a simple and rough temporary fortress. Tarolin and his team returned to the camp before dark.
Afterwards, everyone interrogated the Serbian element. Obviously, the army was best at torturing such people, after all, they were not professional torturers.
After a night of torture, the Serbian extreme nationalist finally couldn't stand it.
In the interrogation room, interrogator Antareil reported to Bitola's highest military commander Moss:
"This man's name is Gerlovski, a Serb from the former Macedonia region. According to his oral statement, he should want to find out our true strength. It seems that the remnants of the Serbs are very restless."
"Gerlovski is a company commander of the former 16th Division of Serbia. He was born in a Serbian Orthodox family in Macedonia. His father is a local pastor in Bilatow."
"So Gerlovski has been 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..."
Serbian, Orthodox believer, extreme nationalist, from a small family in Macedonia... There is no doubt that this Gerlovski is a typical Serbian.
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 includes ordinary people.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire did not really care 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 the Bosnia Province.
Bosnia Province is a gathering place for Serbs, Croats and Ottoman survivors, 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 are also quite uncomfortable. After all, many of the imperial troops stationed in Bosnia Province were the elite of the empire.
After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been planning for the Kingdom of Serbia for a long time. The troops on the border between the two countries were at least ranked in the upper middle level of the imperial army, but these elites were destroyed because of Potiorek's command errors.
To put it more simply, most of the Bosnian troops under Potiorek's command were professional soldiers.
It is not comparable to the cannon fodder troops that were temporarily recruited and hurriedly joined the battlefield.
Fortunately, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had a deep foundation and finally saved the situation, but the price paid was also quite heavy.
Moss continued: "Now let alone Albania and Greece, the situation in the Kingdom of Serbia is not very good, especially the guerrillas, and the Serbian people who sheltered the guerrillas, making it difficult for us to live in peace."
Guerrillas are currently Moss's biggest headache. In Serbia, the soil is naturally suitable for the development of guerrilla tactics.
First of all, it is ideological. The hatred of the Serbian people for the Austro-Hungarian Empire is very deep. This is due to the Serbian government's long-term negative propaganda against the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Coupled with the blessing of nationalist thoughts, the Serbs are like crazy.
Secondly, the terrain and climate of the Balkans, where there are many mountains and hills and dense forests, are naturally suitable for guerrilla warfare.
This makes the entire Serbian region, although the big battles are basically over, small attacks and rebellions are repeatedly banned.
The situation in Bitola is even more complicated. Moss must be alert to the counterattack of local forces and the attack of foreign forces.
Although Bitola is adjacent to Greece, it is not far from Albania, and these two places are the main destinations for the Serbian army to retreat.
So Moss said: "The enemy cannot send only one infiltrator, so many people must have infiltrated the border between the two countries."
"Calculating the time, the Serbs should not be able to sit still. After all, these six months are enough for them to get support from Britain, France and Germany to re-arm their troops." "We must increase patrols in the next few days, be alert to changes in the situation in Greece, and be alert to the west. After all, the enemy may also attack from Albania."
At the end of 1915, after the fall of Serbia, the Serbian government in exile has not made any major moves, which is obviously unreasonable.
So Moss judged that the Serbian government in exile will make major moves recently, and Bitola is likely to be within the scope of the Serbian plan.
But Moss only had a battalion of troops. Of course, this did not mean that the Allied forces deployed in the border area were few. Together with the brother troops, the Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian Allied forces in the entire Serbian border area reached 50,000 and occupied a geographical advantage.
But the family knows their own business. The combat effectiveness of these more than 50,000 Allied forces is more worrying. The main force of the Allied forces in Serbia has basically gone to the Russian battlefield.
Moreover, Albania and Greece are also unstable factors. No one knows whether the two countries will join the Allied camp during this period.
Not to mention these small countries, even the paramilitary ally of the Allies, the Ottoman Empire, is still in a wait-and-see state.
This is mainly because the war situation in 1915 has fallen into a stalemate, and the Allies and the Central Powers are evenly matched, so many countries dare not bet.
Related countries such as Italy, Greece, Romania, and the Ottoman Empire did not dare to leave during this period.
Bulgaria is an exception. Bulgaria's main goal is Serbia and other Balkan countries. After the Austro-Hungarian Empire gained an advantage over Serbia last year, Bulgaria was bound to be restless.
Apart from other things, Bulgaria must recover the lost territory in the Second Balkan War, so Bulgaria has only one choice, which is to participate in the war.
Of course, the Bulgarian government naturally wants to take advantage of this opportunity to get more spoils in the Balkans. If the Austro-Hungarian Empire does everything, Bulgaria will not even get a sip of soup.
Of course, if you look at the battlefield situation in detail, the Allies are still at a disadvantage. After all, the Allies are too different from the Allies in terms of materials and national strength.
However, the situation is much better than in the previous life, which is mainly reflected in three aspects. First, there is no Italy, the troublemaker. In the previous life, Italy rebelled before the war, which can be said to have caused great trouble to the Allies.
Don't look at Italy's terrible record in the previous life, but Italy in the previous life is still a powerful country.
Now, on the Italian peninsula, the three countries dare not bet easily, which gives Germany and Austria more room for operation, at least it will not make the Austro-Hungarian Empire flustered.
Secondly, the two "neutral countries" of East Africa and the United States resold materials 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 armament of Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire was strengthened, which was also a good thing for the Allies.
Especially Bulgaria, which has already participated in the war, can at least guarantee that every soldier has a rifle, so as not to be in the same situation as Tsarist Russia.
In this regard, Ernst admires the mobilization ability of the Orthodox countries. Whether Serbia, Bulgaria, or Tsarist Russia, they all show strong mobilization ability.
On the contrary, the three countries have poor logistical support capabilities. In the past, whether Serbia, Bulgaria or Russia, a large number of soldiers were pulled into the army without weapons. This is probably a feature of the Orthodox countries.
Of course, Bulgaria is quite special. Although they believe in Eastern Orthodoxy, they are somewhat different from the Slavs in the general sense.
However, it is undeniable that the fighting power of the Bulgarians is trustworthy. Now on the Russian battlefield, the Bulgarians are also performing well.