07) Strategy Formulation

No matter how you look at it, Ferdinand has formulated a strategy that is full of temptation, and once Bulgaria has completed the recovery, the losers have instantly become wealthy!

Of course, it was not easy to fulfill this strategy, the Ottoman Turkish Empire was rotten, but it was still so big that the risk of failure was still not small!

But how many people can resist the temptation in front of their interests? If there is, it must be because the temptation is not big enough!

The Bulgarian government, anyway, is now unable to resist the temptation to expand. Once the gains of the war in Bulgaria finished absorbing, it was enough to make the Bulgarian government fight for ten years less!

Konstantin said with uncertainty, "Your Highness, can we do it? The Ottoman Turkish Empire is not weak either. Can we win if we ask them to give up the Balkans, unless there is a full-scale war?"

Ferdinand grinned and said: "If the Ottoman Turkish Empire can mobilize fully, we are certainly no match for them! But are they able to mobilize fully?

Don't forget that the Ottoman Turkish Empire has many other things but many enemies!

In the Caucasus and Crimea, they had to defend themselves from the Russian Empire; in Central Asia, they had to worry about the invasion of the British from India; the Italians were eyeing the Libyan region; Austria-Hungary had set its eyes on Bosnia and Herzegovina and is ready to swallow it!

The Armenians themselves are becoming independent, and the other minorities are restless, so if we give them a push, they could rise at any time!

So many bad factors add up, the Sublime Porte1), even if it attaches more importance to the Balkans, in the absence of certainty that we are going to make a move, it is impossible to put more than half of the forces to idle in the Balkans!

As long as these bad factors are picked up, and there are plans, the rotten Ottoman Empire is not so invincible!"

After listening to Ferdinand's analysis, the crowd nodded happily, and it looked like the chances of success were still high.

At the end of the 19th century, the Ottoman Turkish Empire was not good in terms of transportation, and the country was so large that the troops had to be divided in all places.

If war suddenly broke out, the Ottoman Empire feared that the war in the Balkans would be over before they could assemble the troops from all over the empire.

It's easy to lose territory, but it's hard to take it back, even more so for a weakened empire!

After all, weakening the Ottoman Empire was the consensus of all European powers, and even Germany, which supported the Sultan's government, could not possibly stand up for it on this issue!

Unless one does not want to be a part of Christendom, after all, it is not yet World War I, international conflicts have not yet intensified, and the European public is all about saving God's followers from the heathen, which is a political right!

The ongoing crisis in the Near East is an example of this. The Armenians are making independence, and the European powers are putting pressure on the Ottoman Empire due to the pressure on public opinion.

Chekhov asked excitedly, "Your Highness, so when do we do it? Can we prepare now? The Armenians are now gaining independence, and the international community has condemned the Ottoman Empire's efforts to suppress the Armenians!

If we intervene and the Armenians become independent, it will be easy to gain the support of the Great Powers!"

With expectant eyes, the crowd looked at Ferdinand and startled him. It is too quick, right? Just now, we were discussing strategy, and now we are planning to do it?

No wonder after the first Balkan war just ended, the second Balkan war broke out again! Even if there are conflicts, they can still use diplomacy to stall for time!

And if they had delayed only the second Balkan war a few months later, and Bulgaria had finished stockpiling strategic supplies, then they might have rewritten history!

Ferdinand also knew that this is the common problem of small countries, lack of patience in strategy, easy to be aggressive, and lack of long-term vision!

"No! We have just finished fighting Serbia, and the strategic supplies are greatly consumed and still need to be replenished. Moreover, we still need to absorb the war gains gained this time in order to transform them into national power!" Ferdinand affirmed.

Like a pot of cold water falling from the sky, Ferdinand's words pulled Konstantin and the others back from their dreams.

Indeed, the Ottoman Empire is now very weak, but why does Bulgaria not need to recuperate? At this moment, launching a war is completely wasted energy in a lose-lose war, right?

After calming down, the group began to develop a series of plans around this strategy again.

First, reserve training will have to be further expanded!

The Ottoman Empire is not Serbia, no matter what the army's combat power, but the number is absolutely nothing!

You can hang Serbia with two hundred thousand Bulgarian troops, but if the opponent is the Ottomans, it is possible to be buried by the sea of people!

The Serbs were the best counter-example when the war broke out and sent soldiers they had never trained to the battlefield, and then it was the Bulgarian army contributed to the world's attention!

The cabinet has always decided they must expand the reserves each year. They must extend the duration of their training and the range!

Why not train for two months when the farming period is over, which is four times as long as the previous half month; the range, the whole population can take part, all young people of school age should take part, including government officials!

When Ferdinand looked at it, he gasped coldly, and this is too hard! Even the cabinet members, who are part of the reserves, must take time to participate in training.

It is true that the nation of fighters, mad, even not spare their own! And then, Ferdinand very simply put the top government, drawn from it.

Are you kidding? If the war is fought to the point where cabinet ministers are required to carry guns to the front line, it is estimated that Bulgaria is also finished!

Second, of course, is the stockpile of supplies!

Later in the war, the Serbian army's logistics collapsed, thanks to the fact that they defeated them too quickly to realize the misery of running out of ammunition!

The people of Belgrade experienced first-hand the pain of lack of supplies!

Food reserves are the easiest. The government still holds most of the country's land in its hands. If the food is produced and sold less each year, it will be saved.

And there is new territory, as long as in a year or two, the migrants in place, to develop the land, the total food production in Bulgaria, as well as a further increase in this area can not worry!

The most troublesome is still the weapons and ammunition. Just like in the Bulgarian-Serbian War, Bulgaria shot more than 90 million rounds of ammunition and more than 200,000 rounds of artillery shells, which completely crushed the Serbs in terms of firepower to win the victory easily.

Needless to say, of course, the production line is expanding at once. As for the exceeded budget, it does not matter how many million Leva. The Bulgarian government can still find a way to come up with it!

...

Translator:

1)Sublime Porte was a synecdoche for the central government of the Ottoman Empire.