War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Belgrade, headquarters of the Austrian Empire in the Balkans.

"It's finally our turn! I don't know what the point of going to Dobruja is."

The tall and thin staff officer complained.

"Isn't this helping our allies? If we don't go to the Russians, we'll be finished."

A short and fat colleague nearby explained.

"It's better if they're finished. Can the Russians really be considered our allies? The thought of more than a million gray beasts is scary. There's nothing wrong with letting them suffer a little."

This is actually the idea of ​​most Austrian military leaders. For hundreds of years, the Balkans have been the traditional expansion direction of the Austrian Empire.

The Ottomans are Austria's sworn enemies, and the Russians are Austria's biggest rivals. If the Russians want to die, then let them die. Now is the time to fight for territory.

Ever since Austria took over Belgrade, the military has been preparing for an attack on southern Serbia. It has conducted countless military exercises and infiltrated almost all key nodes.

Especially after the death of Milos Obrenović, the Serbs have been actively moving closer to the Austrian Empire. After all, the Ottoman Empire, which annexed Serbia again, was really inhumane.

In addition to large-scale liquidations and retaliations, a rather harsh taxation and inspection system was established. The Serbs' right to autonomy was abolished and they once again became an inferior nation.

Especially for those Serbs who fled from Austria to Serbia, even the Hungarians did not treat them as human beings so badly.

In addition, the land development level in southern Serbia was very low at this time, the infrastructure construction was incomplete, and the land itself was far less fertile than in the north.

Even if Ottoman taxes were lower than Hungary's, the food the Serbs had left was not enough to feed themselves and their families.

Austria's attack on southern Serbia at this time was a perfect opportunity. With Albrecht's arrival in Belgrade, a long-planned war began.

The Austrian Empire's army entered the southern Serbia region from three sides along the Great Morava River, the Lim River, and the White River.

The Turkish army, which was less than one-fifth the size of the Austrian army, not only had to face a powerful enemy that crushed it in terms of manpower, technology, and logistics, but also had to be wary of the Serbs who were revolting everywhere.

With the help of countless guides, the Austrian army easily defeated the Ottoman garrison stationed in southern Serbia. At this time, Olma Pasha did not even know that Austria had launched an attack from the western front.

At the same time as Austria invaded southern Serbia, Otto I also began his own expedition.

As a small country with a population of less than 1.2 million, Greece has always maintained a standing army of more than 100,000 people.

For this war he planned to expand the Greek military force to 200,000, and it was precisely because of this number that Nicholas I allowed Otto I to come to the table.

Otto I wanted to besiege Constantinople immediately, but he realized a problem during his many exchanges with Francis and Austrian military advisers.

That is, Greece’s strength is insufficient. Rather than attacking Constantinople, it is more reliable to seize Macedonia and Western Thrace first.

Previously, due to Russian interference, Greece was forced to give up most of the land in Western Thrace. This time, Otto I did not want to give up his territory again.

There are large numbers of Greeks in Western Thrace and Macedonia, who will provide the Greek army with a steady supply of intelligence, manpower and supplies.

This should have been the case in theory, but everything has two sides. Before the Kingdom of Greece announced its intervention in the war, some Greater Greek nationalists launched an uprising.

So Istanbul received the news that the Ottoman high-ranking officials were indeed afraid of Russia and Austria, but they had no respect for the Greeks at all.

To be honest, most of the Ottoman high-ranking officials believed that the Greeks were only able to gain independence with the support of European powers, and that they were just a group of shameless thieves who stole territory from the Ottoman Empire.

However, Greece was too close to Istanbul and had to be guarded against, so the Ottoman high-ranking officials unanimously decided to transfer an army of 80,000 from Anatolia to cooperate with the troops in Western Thrace to attack Greece.

The Greek Kingdom's attack was not smooth because the Ottoman garrisons in Western Thrace and Macedonia were on alert.

The Ottoman Empire was indeed in decline, but it had not yet collapsed as it did during the Balkan Wars in later generations.

In addition, the battlefield was narrow, and the two sides' total forces of 200,000 could not be deployed at all. The soldiers of both sides were squeezed like sardines in a can on a battle line several kilometers long.

The result was that Western Thrace became the bloodiest battlefield at the time, with both sides fighting a high-intensity war with simple weapons.

The people most shocked by Greece's entry into the war were neither the Russians nor the Ottomans, but the British.

Because the British goal has always been peace talks, but the participation of Greece obviously increased the bargaining chips of the Holy Alliance, and the Russians, who held the advantage, were even more reluctant to cease fire.

Will the entire Balkans really be ceded to Russia? Who will be able to control this giant in the future?

What’s even worse is that the Ottomans also hoped that Britain could send a fleet to threaten the Greek rear, but in fact Britain and Austria had signed a non-aggression agreement at sea.

Now the Austrian Imperial Navy has retreated to the Adriatic Sea and the British Navy is active in the Black Sea, so the two sides can keep to themselves.

But if the British Navy took the initiative to leave the Black Sea to attack Athens, it would be difficult for the Austrians not to regard such behavior as a provocation and a betrayal of the treaty.

The situation Britain will face by then will definitely be worse than it is now. Even during the period when the main force of the British Navy leaves the Black Sea, the Russian Navy may take the opportunity to launch a counterattack.

The British don't want to gamble, they just want to negotiate as soon as possible because the situation gets worse with every passing day.

When the Austrian and Greek attacks were in full swing, the Russian troops sitting by the Dobruja River fishing looked particularly embarrassed.

Nicholas I led more than 300,000 Russian troops to face the Ottoman army across the river, which made him feel unwilling and uneasy.