When the Germans gave the ultimatum, the governments of Europe were busy, and the fateful moment had come!

Bulgaria was no exception, and Ferdinand immediately convened an enlarged meeting of the high-level authorities, and all the military and political circles could come.

Of course, this is not a combat meeting, Ferdinand will not be like in the TV series when the war is about to start, and then make a battle plan!

The General Staff had a plan more than ten years ago, but it has been revised and improved all the time, and now it is very detailed.

In fact, this was just a routine meeting before the war, and the front-line officers who were really responsible for directing the operation had already been on the front line, and as soon as Ferdinand gave the order, they could immediately launch an attack.

……

Ferdinand said calmly: "Prime Minister, let's talk about the material reserves first!" ”

However, from the tone, you can still judge the nervousness in his heart, more than 20 years of painstaking preparation, just to explode overnight!

The world war is not so easy to fight, personally participating in it and keyboard warriors are completely different feelings, the difference in strength between the Allies and the Entente is far less huge than later generations think, "five or five wins" This is the opinion of many people at that time!

In fact, at least at the beginning of the war, both sides had an equal chance of victory! There is no doubt that the further back it goes, the better the chances of the resource-rich Entente winning!

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Konstantin replied

"So far, we have 18.47 million tons of grain in stockpiles, of which more than 85 percent is rye, as well as some soybeans, corn, and potato flour.

1.2 million tents in reserve; Reserve 400,000 tons of various medicines, including some 'botanicals' (traditional Chinese medicine), reserve 2 million tons of oil, and reserve 5.8 million tons of precious minerals......"

Ferdinand smiled and nodded, and in order to save money on the premise of stockpiling as much food as possible, he ordered all the wheat in the grain reserve to be replaced with cheaper rye.

In any case, rye was more nutritious, and the staple food of the Bulgarians at that time was rye bread, and white bread was a luxury that people above the middle class could enjoy, and there was no need to worry about the soldiers' opinions.

In fact, there are still many strategic materials, but the Balkans have already produced enough to meet the needs of the war, so they are naturally not included in the reserves.

Ferdinand said routinely: "Chief of the General Staff, tell me about the preparations of the military!" ”

He is clear about the preparation of the army and the material reserves, but the others don't know, and now it's time to give them a reassurance!

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The Chief of the General Staff, Imya Dimitev, replied

"Up to now, we have restored 700,000 retired officers and soldiers, and at the same time formed 60 mercenary divisions, which have initially formed combat effectiveness, and now our total strength will exceed 2.3 million, and then we can decide whether we need further mobilization according to the actual situation on the battlefield!"

Obviously, these armies were trained in advance, otherwise these sixty cannon fodder divisions would not have been able to become combat effectiveness in just a few days.

As early as the end of 1913, Ferdinand amended the military service law to allow the military to include foreign workers in reserve training, and these troops have actually experienced at least half a year of training, although they are not as good as the regular army, but they are enough to be used as cannon fodder!

There is no doubt that the officers were all Bulgarian officers. However, in order to boost morale, they also apply to the military merit reward system of the Bulgarian regular army, with a series of benefits such as military salaries and casualty pensions.

Of course, these are just pies painted by Ferdinand, and those who survive can indeed get it all after the war; But the unlucky ones who died early are miserable, their families are still in the Russian Empire, if you want to get these pensions, you should emigrate first!

Well, there are still some fools who choose to take rubles as a military salary, and Ferdinand did not interfere, so they can only be considered unlucky.

Anyway, in order to save money, only a small amount of cash is now issued for military salaries, and the rest is directly transferred to the soldier's bank account, and then used to buy treasury bonds, but these treasury bonds can also be used as currency, and the principal can be exchanged directly at the bank!

This series of dazzling operations has indeed fooled many ordinary people. In essence, the government wants to use the additional currency to pay them military salaries, and it is worried about causing the currency to depreciate, so it plays a trick.

As long as these treasury bonds are not taken out in large quantities and circulated, it is equivalent to this part of the funds sinking to the bottom of the bank, and naturally there will be no inflation.

The unlucky ones who chose the ruble will deal with the ruble in the future, but they will be settled according to the interest rate of the current national debt, which on the surface really protects the interests of the soldiers, and they receive a higher interest!

……

Compared with the Italians next door to Bulgaria, the Balkan Peninsula is still rich in resources, and many strategic materials can be produced by themselves, and there are not many reserves that need to be reserved.

And Italy is the worst existence among the many European powers, and any material reserves are floating clouds! Even the most basic coal, steel, and grain had to be imported, and now that war was about to break out, the Italians' strategic reserves of materials could only support them for three months of war.

Of course, this is the general belief that this war will last for a short time, but everyone's strategic material reserves are basically prepared according to one or two years.

Obviously the Italians weren't ready, but the current Italian Prime Minister, Giuletti, is a smart man (many later generations thought he was a pessimist).

Giuletti had an extreme distrust of the Italian army, believing that the Italian army did not have the ability to protect the homeland, and that once it joined the war, it would be disastrous for Italy!

Due to Ferdinand's butterfly effect, the Entente did not make great efforts to win over the Italians, so now the pro-Entente forces in Italy are not strong enough, but the pro-Allied powers have the upper hand.

Therefore, at this time, the Italians were engaged in a fierce quarrel, and it is estimated that there will be no result for a while.

……

The British continued to play their diplomatic tricks, and the cabinet meeting was still unanimously neutral, but secretly the government was preparing for the war, and even the pro-Confederate ministers in the cabinet were concealed.

In order to convince the Germans of the neutrality of the British, George V had held talks with Prince Heinrich of Prussia (brother of Wilhelm II) two days earlier to make a last-ditch effort for peace; The British Foreign Secretary also held urgent consultations with the German Prime Minister in an attempt to end the war.

However, Ferdinand knew that all this was to cover up, and interests determined that Britain and Germany would have a war, and if the Allies won this war, there would be nothing to do with the British Empire!

……

The tsarist government in St. Petersburg, the atmosphere was much better, there was not so much explanation of the word "hit", turning the Baltic Sea into an inland sea was the dream of the Russians for generations.

It's just that the countries along the Baltic Sea are not easy to mess with, first of all, the Danes came up with the "Kalmar Alliance", and the woolly bear was still weak and couldn't be provoked at that time.

Then the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden rose again, and when they fell, the Germans broke out again, and in short, none of them were to be messed with!

Forced the woolly bear to fight in the Black Sea to defeat the Ottoman Empire, but unfortunately the hairy bear at its peak was blocked by Britain and France, suffered heavy losses and was forced to run to expand the Far East.

The Russo-Japanese War was lost again, and after looking around for a week, it was back to square one, and the tsarist government found that it was more reliable to take the Baltic Sea with a maritime strategy, and the big battle of the two alliances was their best chance!

……

The Viennese government is now embarrassed, if it were not for the fact that he had already been tied to the ship, Felanz-Joseph I definitely did not want to participate in this war, unlike in history, now the military pressure of Austria-Hungary is simply too great.

Facing two large countries at the same time, Austria-Hungary is not a hairy bear, not so thick-skinned and resistant to beating; It's not a German, not as capable as the German army, and the old emperor naturally doesn't want to fight this battle!

It's a pity that they can't help it now, Russia and Bulgaria are already eyeing each other, even if Austria-Hungary wants neutrality, the Russians will not agree, of course Ferdinand doesn't mind the neutrality of Austria-Hungary!

Needless to say, the rest of the Germans have all been issued war ultimatums, do they still need to be suspicious of their attitude?

As a republic, France is often the position of the government in many cases! Is it still necessary to be skeptical about the position of the French people? Of course, it's revenge, just look at the fact that their president was born in Lorraine, and you'll know the result!

……

In the early morning of the next day, the French government openly rejected the demands of the Germans, and the French Foreign Minister also clamored that the Germans should withdraw from Lorraine and Alsace within 24 hours, otherwise the French army would take extraordinary measures!

There is no doubt that the war has come, and after receiving a reply from the French, Wilhelm II was angry, and the French were provoking!

Is it tolerable or unbearable!

Enraged, Wilhelm II immediately ordered a declaration of war on the French, and after receiving the German declaration of war, the French ambassador to Germany also took out the war letter that had been prepared a long time ago and handed it to the Germans!

At the same time as Germany and France declared war, Ferdinand did a shocking thing, declaring war on the Central Powers on the same day on the grounds of the Four-Power Entente!

However, out of the pressure to share, Ferdinand still pulled the Russians to act together, and at the same time that Bulgaria declared war on the Central Powers, the Russians also declared war on the Central Powers almost at the same time!

Both Bulgaria and Russia behaved so actively, the French had no reason to coax it, and naturally they also followed the crowd and declared war on the Central Powers en masse!

Everyone knows that the world war broke out in full swing, and the Italians, who wanted neutrality, were stunned, they had already been declared war before they had done anything!

It's a pity that they can't say anything if they have grievances, in the eyes of the outside world, the Italians are allies, the two alliances are going to war anyway, and it doesn't matter if you declare war early and declare war late!

There's no way, no matter how reluctant everyone declares war, you can't pretend that you don't know anything, right? The Italians still couldn't do this kind of thing, so they had to declare war on Russia, France and Bulgaria.

The Bulgarians and Russians are nothing more than a little more active, this is all a small section, at least the French are still very moved, this money is not spent in vain, the allies are still reliable at the critical moment!

The eyes of the world are on the British Empire, and the government in London is now busy looking for a pretext for war?