Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 462 Bulgaria's Defeat
While the declarations of war by Serbia and Montenegro were somewhat expected by Prince Ferdinand I of Bulgaria, the news of Romania's declaration of war against Bulgaria shocked him.

Ferdinand I never expected that Romania, which had made no move in the First Balkan War, would so decisively choose to join Serbia and Greece this time.

If Bulgaria were fighting two countries, upon closer examination, it would have had a slight chance of winning. However, if it were to fight three, in a three-front war, even if the Bulgarian army were to be transformed by the German army, it would be no match for these three countries.

Unfortunately, Bulgaria's national size is limited. While it has certain advantages compared to Serbia and Greece, it lags far behind Romania in both land area and population.

Although the newly occupied territories also have a considerable population, these people certainly cannot be used to directly mobilize the army.

The renewed Balkan Wars immediately drew the attention of all of Europe.

There was no way to ignore the fascinating developments of the two Balkan wars, which were hard to ignore by the European public.

The Balkan countries, which had been fighting side by side just a few months ago, became bitter enemies with deep-seated hatred just a few months later.

This development was unexpected by most Europeans, and it was precisely this exciting development that made news related to the Balkan Wars one of the most interesting topics for Europeans.

Of course, while it may be interesting, this war, like the previous Balkan War, is not very valuable for reference.

The reason is simple: the situation in both Balkan wars was exactly the same, with multiple countries ganging up on a single country.

The Balkan League and the Anti-Bulgarian League have the same number of member states, but because most of the latter's troops have been on the battlefield, their actual combat effectiveness is higher than that of the former.

Looking at the enemies faced by the two allies, the Ottoman Empire was certainly stronger than Bulgaria.

Don't be fooled by Bulgaria's victory over the Ottoman Empire in the First Balkan War; it was because several countries ganged up on the Ottoman Empire, and they won entirely due to numerical superiority.

During the First Balkan War, the Balkan League armed forces numbered over 50, far exceeding the size of the Ottoman Empire's army.

Bulgaria certainly cannot afford 50 people right now. Even if they halved it to 50, let alone 25, they absolutely cannot come up with that number.

On the anti-Bulgarian alliance side, Serbia and Greece alone could easily muster an army of 25. Add Montenegro (just to make up the numbers) and Romania, and forming an army exceeding 40 would be a piece of cake.

The course of the war also reveals Bulgaria's decline.

Bulgaria was the first to declare war, and in theory, if it could have struck first and defeated the weaker Greece, it would have had a chance to win the war.

But reality dealt Bulgaria a heavy blow. In the battle for Thessaloniki, a disputed territory between Bulgaria and Greece, Bulgaria deployed more than 100,000 troops, clearly prepared to crush Greece in one fell swoop.

The Greek military has tens of thousands of troops stationed in Thessaloniki, and the country is still mobilizing.

If Bulgaria's initial offensive fails to defeat the tens of thousands of Greek defenders in Thessaloniki, then with the continuous arrival of Greek reinforcements, it will not be so easy for Bulgaria to defeat Greece.

The Bulgarian army was well aware of this, and their attack on Thessaloniki was extremely fierce, even to the point of disregarding casualties.

Unfortunately, the Greek army was already prepared for war, stockpiling large quantities of machine guns and artillery, and repeatedly repelled the Bulgarian army's attacks.

Although the fierce Bulgarian army inflicted heavy losses on the Greek army, there was simply no way to conquer Thessaloniki, which was right before their eyes.

After suffering more than 3 casualties, Bulgaria was forced to abandon its offensive on Thessaloniki and shift from a strategic offensive to a strategic defensive posture in the Thessaloniki direction.

Unfortunately, Bulgaria only has so many troops. If attacking Thessaloniki alone costs tens of thousands of lives, how will they cope with attacks on Serbia and Romania?
It's impossible to fill every battle with human lives. If Bulgaria had a population of several million or tens of millions, then filling the gaps with human lives would be acceptable.

The reality is that Bulgaria's population is not any advantage compared to the Balkan countries. Using human lives to compensate for Bulgaria's losses will only make the losses greater, and there will be no other gains.

In response to the aggressive advances of Serbia and Romania, Prince Ferdinand I of Bulgaria issued another mobilization order within Bulgaria, hoping to arm more troops through maximum mobilization.

This approach has indeed had some effect. The Bulgarian army has expanded from just over 20 to nearly 30, and there is hope that the total number of troops will increase again to over 40 within a few months.

The cost of this was that almost a third of Bulgaria's adult men went to war, and even if the war were won, the casualties suffered by Bulgaria would not be easily made up for.

In order to effectively counter the threats from Serbia and Romania, Bulgaria deployed several divisions on its western border, hoping that these tens of thousands of troops could halt the Serbian army's advance and buy more time for the Bulgarian army on the southern front to capture Thessaloniki.

As for Romania to the north, the good news is that the Romanian army cannot cross the river for the time being due to the Danube River.

Therefore, Bulgaria only needs fewer troops to defend against Romania, and Romania is farther from Bulgaria's capital, Sofia. Compared to Serbia, Romania poses less of a threat to Bulgaria.

Bulgaria mobilized nearly 10 troops in almost a week, expanding the troop strength around Thessaloniki to 20.

After expanding its army, Bulgaria launched another attack on Thessaloniki. Prince Ferdinand I of Bulgaria declared that even if tens of thousands died, they would spare no effort to capture Thessaloniki.

This was the order given by Ferdinand I, and this is exactly what the Bulgarian army did.

However, such orders were not always effective; aside from increasing Bulgarian army casualties, they seemed to have no other use.

After a week-long siege, the Bulgarian army suffered nearly 5 casualties but still failed to capture the key town.

The Greek army also suffered heavy casualties; even on the defensive, it still suffered nearly 4 casualties.

However, Thessaloniki remained firmly held by the Greek army, and failure to capture Thessaloniki would be a defeat for the Bulgarian army.

The two attacks on Thessaloniki took half a month, and on the border between Bulgaria and Serbia, the Serbian army finally defeated several Bulgarian divisions deployed there, enabling them to continue their eastward advance and threaten the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.

"These Bulgarian soldiers are really fearless. They only have four divisions, yet they managed to hold us off for half a month." On the Serbian border, the Chief of the General Staff, who was leading the Serbian army's offensive, looked at the smoke-filled battlefield with a sense of感慨 (gan3kai3, a feeling of deep emotion or reflection).

The army he led this time numbered nearly 200,000. It was these 200,000 Serbian troops that were held up for half a month by four divisions of Bulgarian troops.

Although the Bulgarian army had a certain number of machine guns and artillery, the fact that they were able to hold off the enemy for half a month in the face of such a huge numerical disadvantage is enough to prove just how formidable the Bulgarian army was.

Of course, if the Bulgarian army wants to hold off the Serbian army for half a month, it will certainly suffer heavy casualties.

Of the four Bulgarian divisions tasked with blocking the Serbian army, less than one division was able to successfully retreat.

The remaining Bulgarian soldiers either died on the battlefield or were too badly wounded to be captured by the Serbian army.

Some Bulgarian soldiers chose to shoot themselves or detonate grenades before being captured, hoping to give the Serbian soldiers a surprise before they died.

While this did not significantly improve the battlefield situation, it did hinder the Serbian army's efforts to clear the battlefield.

There was no way around it; Serbian soldiers were human too, and they could feel fear. Faced with the Bulgarian soldiers' fearless actions, even if they weren't timid, they couldn't help but feel a bit of apprehension.

"Alright, soldiers, our biggest obstacle has been removed. Now it's time for the Bulgarians to have a headache."

He ordered his troops to advance without pause toward Sofia, the Bulgarian capital. "I want to see if the Bulgarians, who have mobilized over 20 troops around Thessaloniki, still have any forces left to defend Sofia," the Serbian Chief of General Staff said with a smile, looking towards Sofia. He was already quite impatient.

Although it was somewhat humiliating to be blocked by tens of thousands of Bulgarian troops for half a month, as long as they could reach the Bulgarian capital Sofia in a short time, the mission would be accomplished.

If we can capture Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, it will be a great achievement, and the two weeks of obstruction beforehand will be a minor setback.

It wasn't just the high-ranking officers who were very interested in the approach of the enemy to Sofia; the lower-ranking officers and soldiers in Serbia were also very excited about besieging the enemy's capital.

Although Serbia and Bulgaria did not have much animosity before, and the First Balkan War was even brought about by the alliance between Serbia and Bulgaria.

But as the saying goes, there are no permanent friends between nations. For Serbia, the vast territory of North Macedonia is definitely more important than its alliance with Bulgaria.

The land in North Macedonia is related to the Greater Serbia plan proposed by the Serbian government, for which the Serbian government has already deeply offended Austria-Hungary.

The Serbs weren't even afraid of the powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire, so why should they fear Bulgaria, which wasn't even a major power?

In fact, looking at the entire war, the Bulgarian army's performance was absolutely top-notch.

Military observer groups from major European powers also paid close attention to the performance of the armies of these Balkan countries. Both the Serbian and Bulgarian armies fought quite bravely, but the Bulgarian army was superior in combat effectiveness to the Serbian army.

The Bulgarian army's fighting prowess stems largely from the Bulgarian people's fierce character. From the distant Eastern Roman Empire, the Bulgarian region has always been an important source of manpower for the empire.

The Bulgarian Empire was once established here, which is enough to prove the glorious history of the Bulgarians.

Throughout the long history of the Balkan peoples' independence from Ottoman rule, the Bulgarians earned the nickname "Prussia of the Balkans" because of their formidable army.

The fighting power of the Prussian army goes without saying. The fact that it was able to defeat France, the former European hegemon, proves that the Prussian army's fighting power was absolutely top-notch in Europe. It can even be said without exaggeration that the Prussian army's fighting power was the number one in Europe.

Bulgaria's reputation as the Balkan Prussia doesn't necessarily mean their army's fighting strength is comparable to Prussia's. However, within the Balkan region, the Bulgarian army's combat power is undoubtedly among the best.

Even on a European scale, the Bulgarian army's combat capabilities rank among the top in Europe. However, due to Bulgaria's relatively small overall national strength and population, it has consistently failed to achieve a high ranking in army classifications.

Although the Bulgarian army is very brave in battle, Bulgarian soldiers are also ordinary people, and they will eventually get tired.

Because Bulgaria has committed more than 20 troops to the southern front, the number of Bulgarian troops available to defend against Serbia is less than 20.

To be precise, because almost all of the four divisions on the border have been wiped out, Bulgaria currently has less than 150,000 troops left to defend against Serbia.

Serbia, on the other hand, has a military force of over 20, with reinforcements continuously arriving. In terms of troop strength alone, Bulgaria is already at a disadvantage.

Moreover, Bulgaria, while dealing with Serbia, also needs to be wary of a sudden attack from Romania. Although Romania's army is far less powerful than Bulgaria's, Romania has a much larger population, and the army it can field is far superior to Bulgaria's.

If the Romanian army were to successfully launch a surprise attack and cross the Danube to the south bank, Bulgaria would have no hope of victory.

With 20 troops deployed to the southern front and 15 to the western front, Bulgaria had virtually no troops left to mobilize.

If Romania were to deploy an army of more than 10 men, Bulgaria would have no choice but to surrender to the combined forces of these countries.

Just as Bulgaria feared, Romania has indeed deployed troops, and not just 10, but a massive army of up to 20.

However, there was no need for the Romanian army to participate, because the Bulgarian army was defeated again in the main battle against Serbia.

On the western front, although the Bulgarian army was outnumbered, the Bulgarians showed no fear.

They even planned a counter-offensive against the Serbian army. If they could successfully eliminate a portion of the Serbian army, the western front could smoothly transition from defense to offense.

But God doesn't fulfill people's wishes.

The Bulgarian army was exhausted from prolonged combat. Many soldiers were newly mobilized, and while they were willing to fight for their country, they were clearly not yet accustomed to the atmosphere of the battlefield.

Meanwhile, facing the counterattack of the Bulgarian army, the Serbian army did not choose to put up a strong resistance, but instead opted for a strategy of retreating while counterattacking.

This strategy kept the Bulgarian army busy, and on the third day of the counter-offensive, the exhausted Bulgarian army could not hold on any longer. The Serbian army found a weak point in their defenses and directly repelled the Bulgarian counter-offensive.

In addition to the complete failure of the counter-offensive, several divisions were also encircled as Serbia launched a renewed counter-offensive.

Because of their recent defeat, the main Bulgarian army was certainly unable to rescue these soldiers. This left the surrounded Bulgarian troops with no choice but to surrender after a final act of resistance.

There was no other way; we'd run out of bullets, and we couldn't exactly go in and fight with bayonets.

Although some soldiers had similar thoughts, the long hours of combat had left most of them physically and mentally exhausted. Some soldiers no longer cared about winning or losing the war; they just wanted to get a good night's sleep without any worries.

The defeated Bulgarian army hastily retreated eastward, while the Serbian army followed closely behind. Before the Bulgarian army could even establish a foothold, the Serbian army launched an attack and successfully captured city after city from the Bulgarian army.

After being defeated and forced to retreat, the Bulgarian army would retreat, regroup, and then be defeated again. This cycle repeated itself until the Bulgarian army had nowhere left to retreat to.

They were only a dozen kilometers away from the capital, Sofia, a distance that was no longer safe in wartime.

If they retreat again, the enemy army could very well surround Sofia. A siege of the capital would be a devastating blow to the troops fighting on the front lines.

This also means that if Sofia were surrounded, the war could actually be over.

As of now on the western front, the Bulgarian army has lost nearly 6 troops, leaving less than 9 combat-ready soldiers.

Of the 6 troops lost, 3 were killed or wounded, and the remaining 3 were either captured or went missing.

The losses on the western front alone were already quite heavy; for Bulgaria, this was a complete and utter defeat.

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(End of this chapter)