The Battle of Transylvania ended in a crushing defeat for Germany and Austria, and the Allies not only lost the Transylvanian plateau, but also burned to the Great Hungarian Plain, and the situation on the southern front changed dramatically.

At this time, the pressure on Marshal August von Mackensen increased greatly, there is no reason in the war, defeat is defeat! For politicians, the process doesn't matter, the means don't matter, they only care about the result!

Fortunately, now that the German military is in power, the junta headed by Hindenburg has given full understanding of what happened on the southern front.

After all, this is caused by the unequal strength of the two sides, and the strength invested by Germany on the southern front is only two layers of the strength of the German army.

Without air supremacy, bombing is inevitable! Unless the Luftwaffe can be transferred to the southern front, it is inevitable that the Austro-Hungarian air force alone will suffer!

Even so, August von Mackensen had a hard time. Understanding is understanding, but if he really loses the battle on the Southern Front, he will be a sinner in the German Empire.

The Hindenburg government did not remove him, is it really because he is highly respected and everyone trusts him? I'm afraid that anyone with a little political common sense will not think so!

August von Mackensen knew that the main reason why he had kept his current position was that no one wanted to take over the mess.

Capable people know that the southern front is not easy to fight, don't forget that the woolly bear is still eyeing the side? Even if they win the battle on the southern front, they will not be able to really defeat Bulgaria several times, and the polar bears will definitely stab them in the back!

This is due to geographical location, and for the bears, Bulgaria now not only controls their most important sea shipping routes, but is also their largest foreign trade partner, with which Russia now conducts more than 80 percent of its trade.

This is also a matter of no choice, the war has continued until now, the export of grain by the Russians has long been stopped, only the export of industrial raw materials remains, if it is not sold to Bulgaria, who else can they sell to?

If you want to sell it to others, at least they have to ship it out! Of course, even if it is shipped out, it can't be sold now, Britain and France don't need it, their biggest buyers were Germans, and now it is definitely impossible to continue trading!

Similarly, due to the outbreak of the world war and the rampant Allied submarines, the prices of industrial goods on the international market rose to the sky.

For the Russians, apart from buying cheap goods produced in Bulgaria, the impoverished tsarist government simply could not afford the high prices, and could not afford the high shipping costs!

Unless it is a shortage of strategic materials, the two countries will purchase from foreign countries, otherwise in peacetime, the two countries are trying to cooperate behind closed doors as much as possible, and minimize their dependence on the outside world, in order to save huge war expenses and grasp the initiative of war as much as possible!

In this case, Bulgaria has naturally become the largest industrial production base of the Russians, and Russia has also become the largest supplier of raw materials to Bulgaria, so at this stage, Bulgaria and Russia are now interdependent.

This is one of the core reasons why Ferdinand is now desperately expanding his territory, in order to obtain enough resources to free Bulgaria from its dependence on the raw materials of the woolly bear, and thus become a real power!

This unique relationship between the two countries naturally gave the commanders of the Southern Front of the Central Powers a headache, where was this just fighting the battle on the Southern Front, obviously stuffing the work of the Eastern Front battle, and still only increasing the tasks, but not increasing the number of troops for them!

Of course, during the battle on the Eastern Front, Falkingham also felt this way, but at that time, Bulgaria's strategic center of gravity was on the Asia Minor peninsula, and the German army was strong enough.

The most important thing is that the Entente is pitting their teammates, and the Russians are losing so quickly that it's too late for Ferdinand to help!

Although the woolly bear is not in the state now, the possibility of them taking the initiative to participate in this big battle is very small, but there must always be necessary precautions, right?

Otherwise, if the tsarist government suddenly changed its mind, or if the Entente completed an internal bargain of interests in exchange for the woolly bear to send troops, wouldn't they be miserable?

In this context, smart people naturally will not jump into the pit, they are already at a disadvantage, and there is another woolly bear that may break out at any time, this is simply a sinkhole, and there is no hope of victory at all!

As for the fools, there are people among them who want to be in the position of this commander, but unfortunately the Hindenburg government is stupid, how can it be possible to let a few fools make the current situation on the southern front worse?

At least the competence of Field Marshal August von Mackensen is still obvious to all, and having him in command of the troops may not lead to a big victory, but it will not make the situation worse either!

After knowing all this, it is strange that August von Mackensen's mood can be better, it is obvious that there is no hope for the southern front in the country, and the increase in troops naturally does not exist, and the only hope of the Hindenburg government now is to be able to make a breakthrough on the western front!

……

Chief of Staff Holman Reynkis said in a low tone: "Marshal, this is the number of casualties, weapons and equipment, and material losses have been counted.

In this battle of Transylvania, the coalition forces lost a total of 58,346 people, of which Austria-Hungary lost 14,368 people, Romania lost 456 people, and the rest were our troops!

The equipment losses mainly included: 1,846 artillery pieces, 186506 rifles, 8,468 light and heavy machine guns, 623 vehicles, 86 aircraft, 687 radio stations, 126 tanks, as well as more than 1.2 million artillery shells, 500,000 grenades, and nearly 200 million rounds of ammunition!

Material losses include: 20,000 tents, 300,000 military uniforms, 50,000 tons of flour, 150,000 tons of potatoes, 8,000 tons of canned ......"

Obviously, the weapons and equipment that are counted are the main ones, and a small amount of equipment such as pistols is naturally ignored.

August von Mackensen sighed and said: "I am afraid that the main force of the future war will change, and the Bulgarian Air Force has destroyed so many of our supplies in just one week, which is enough to show the importance of the Air Force!"

Bulgaria has come to the front of the world in this regard, and sure enough, any emerging power should not be booed!

If the empire is unable to make a breakthrough on the Western Front in the short term, the outcome of this war is not optimistic! ”

Chief of Staff Holman Reynkith wondered: "Marshal, are you too pessimistic?" Even if we are at a disadvantage for a while, with the strength of the Imperial Army, it is still enough to defeat any enemy, even if it is a temporary setback, the victory will still be ours in the end! ”

August von Mackensen said coldly: "That's right, with the strength of the Imperial Army, it is indeed enough to defeat any enemy!" But the strategic materials of the empire are no longer able to meet the consumption of the army!

Just like now we have just lost nearly 60,000 troops and more than 200,000 troops of weapons and equipment, if the empire's weapons reserves are sufficient, we can immediately take out this batch of weapons and restore the combat effectiveness of these troops.

However, at present, our front army has only replenished the equipment of more than 10,000 troops, and it will not be able to arrive until a week later, and there are still 130,000 troops who continue to wait for equipment with their bare hands, which means that our military production has reached the limit! ”

The chief of staff's face changed drastically, and asked with some fear: "How is this possible?" Didn't the country say that because the traffic on the Austro-Hungarian side was too bad, so we were asked to wait for a month? ”

Auguste von Mackensen looked at him and asked, "Do you believe such nonsense?" How much capacity is needed for these weapons and equipment alone? Didn't Austria-Hungary know the gravity of the matter?

With this little capacity, not to mention by rail, even if it is transported by road, Austria-Hungary can deliver weapons and equipment to us within half a month! ”

The chief of staff was silent, the battle on the Southern Front was important for the Germans, and for Austria-Hungary it was fatal! In this context, as long as the Austro-Hungarian government is not stupid, it will definitely do its best to meet the supply of materials to the front, let alone weapons and equipment?

After a pause, Auguste von Mackensen added: "Order the troops to save rations from now on, keep the supply of the main forces unchanged in combat state, cut two layers of rations in non-combat state, and all others cut three layers of rations!" ”

The chief of staff sighed and said, "Has it come to this point?" Even if we lose a batch of military rations for more than two months this time, we won't have to cut the food supply, right? ”

August von Mackensen said coldly: "Our current military rations can only last for a month, you don't think that the enemy will let us get logistics supplies so easily, right?"

It is conceivable that the stations, railways, bridges of the Austro-Hungarian Empire will be patronized by enemy aircraft, and it is simply impossible to maintain normal transportation!

Do not forget, Berlin was patronized by British and French aircraft, and it is said that there were still considerable losses, how about the air defense of Austria-Hungary, you don't know, right? ”

The chief of staff said in a roaring tone: "Oh no, with the strength shown by the Bulgarian Air Force, I am afraid that the Austro-Hungarian lines of transport will be paralyzed in a short time!"

Damn politics, can anyone tell me what's going on here? If the Bulgarians had bombed Austria-Hungary in advance, I am afraid that the battle on the southern front would not have been fought at all! ”

August von Mackensen was also silent, what was hidden in this was no longer something they could participate in, it was obvious that this was a higher-level political game!

Why didn't Bulgaria exert its strength? How much of this is insider trading between them and Austria-Hungary? How much was the German Reich involved? Or is there any other reason?

……