After receiving the telegram asking for help, Prince Konstantin didn't look at it, he threw it aside, thought for a while, and said: "Transfer a regiment from our newly formed militia division to reinforce the 18th Division!" Tell Major General Andrew that this is his last batch of reinforcements, and that he must hold the line, and if he can't hold it, he won't have to come back! ”

After saying that, Prince Konstantin got up directly and went to the field hospital, he knew that with the current strength in his hands, it would be very difficult to hold the defensive line!

In order to increase the number of troops, he has even ordered the capture of strong men in the local area. The militia reserve that has just been formed is made up of people captured in the Thessaly region!

Theoretically, he added another division to the strength of the force; In fact, this newly formed militia division does not even have a single gun, and its combat effectiveness is better than nothing!

Anyway, when you get to the front, there will be! The war continues, there are always people who die, and when others die, they will have guns!

That's what the Russian army did in the late years of World War I! Now it has been made out in advance by the Greeks!

Now Prince Constantine has started the idea of a field hospital again, starting from the attack on the city of Trikala, and now the wounded in the field hospital have exceeded 20,000!

Removing the seriously wounded who have completely lost their combat effectiveness, there are still at least seven or eight thousand lightly wounded, and they can still barely go to the battlefield! Even if the combat effectiveness is to be reduced, this batch of "veterans" is stronger than the newly formed militia division!

Prince Konstantin has already given the order, but unfortunately there are still very few people who are willing to go to the battlefield again!

Approaching the field hospital, a foul smell came to his face, and Prince Konstantin, who had never suffered this crime, still endured his nausea and continued to move forward!

Not far away, rows of stretchers appeared, and on the stretchers there were wounded people, all of whom had just come down from the front line! From time to time, there were bursts of wails from the wounded, which was terrifying!

A handful of medical staff were busy working with first-aid kits. That is, to do some first aid work, take a bandage and re-bandage the wound!

Pharmaceuticals? Sorry, in the 19th century, this was a luxury! With the exception of a few officers, ordinary soldiers are not entitled to it!

And many of the seriously injured, even if they can be rescued, are still wasted, which makes it even less worth the Greek government to spend this huge price!

Even with medicines, the chances of a seriously injured person surviving are low! In this era, there are no antibiotics, and the inventor of penicillin is still a little kid!

Whether the wound will become inflamed or not depends on luck! Once the wound suppurates, if it is on the limbs, it will be amputated!

If it's something else, God willing! The chance of a miracle will not exceed 1 percent!

It is clear that the field hospitals of the Greek army are not capable of accepting so many wounded! Even simple treatment can't do it!

Seeing this scene, Prince Konstantin somewhat understood why those lightly wounded refused to go to the battlefield again! After experiencing such an environment, it is estimated that many mentalities will collapse!

Prince Konstantin is thinking about how to send these people to the front again. Coercion is useless, and in order to resist re-recruitment, many of the wounded who have been cured have broken their bones again!

……

At the headquarters of the 18th Division on the front line, Major General Andrew was about to go crazy when he looked at the batch of reinforcements sent to him by Prince Constantine!

From twelve or thirteen-year-old boys to seventy or eighty-year-old men, there is everything!

Not to mention combat effectiveness, Andrew doubts that many of them will be able to resist guns!

At this moment, he even wondered if he had offended Prince Konstantin somewhere, and now he was wearing small shoes!

Soon, he dismissed the idea! At this time, everyone is a grasshopper on a rope, and no one can run away if something happens!

In any case, it is better to have reinforcements than not to have them, no matter how rabble, as long as you can pull the trigger, it is always a little useful!

The premise is that he has to teach this rabble to use weapons first!

After sulking, Major General Andrew shouted loudly: "Guards, notify each regiment to come to the division headquarters to receive people, and tell them that reinforcements have arrived!" ”

All right! Soon, he was not the only one who was depressed, and it is estimated that the people below will be even more uncomfortable! And there is no choice, there are so many reinforcements, love or not!

Anyway, now all the troops are short of people! Since Prince Konstantin transferred a division to the front, everyone's defense line has become longer, and the corresponding forces have also been thinned!

……

Since the Ottomans launched a full-scale counteroffensive, Prince Constantine sent a telegram to the Greek government with a sternly worded letter asking for help!

The content is very short, and it means one thing: if there are no more reinforcements, everyone will receive the news of his defeat in less than three days!

At this moment, George I could not sit still! Unlike the previous letters asking for help, this time it was really dangerous, and no commander would send such a telegram for help until the moment of life and death!

"How many troops are there in the country?" George I asked eagerly

The Minister of War smiled bitterly and said, "No more than 40,000 people, and most of them are old, weak, sick and disabled!" All the units that have combat effectiveness are now transferred to the front line! ”

George I thought for a moment and said, "That's it! Send my guards out as well, form a reinforcement of 30,000 men, and immediately set out to reinforce Prince Constantine! ”

The Minister of War said with a dead face: "But Your Majesty, there is no time at all!"

These peasants who have just formed an army, and they are all farmers who have just taken the hoe, or workers who have just come out of the factory, not to mention whether they have combat effectiveness or not!

Now they are still distributed all over the country, and when they come, I'm afraid it'll be too late! Now the army that was able to reinforce Prince Konstantin in three days was less than 10,000 people! ”

George I's face was even more gloomy and terrifying, and at this moment he suddenly realized that the situation had reached such a crisis!

The government has been suppressing not to send reinforcements to the front, not because they don't want to, but because they simply can't come up with a decent army in the country!

That is, from the moment you sit down at the table, the Greek government is already studing! If they didn't do their best, the Greek army would not have been able to easily break through the Ottoman defenses!

This is also a common problem of all small countries - they can't afford to lose! If you fail once, you'll lose all your chips!

George I glanced coldly at the Minister of War and said, "I don't care how many reasons you have, but within three days, reinforcements must arrive at the front!"

And also to hold the line of Trikala, don't tell me that your military department doesn't even have a plan for reinforcements!

Even if all the reinforcements can't arrive, you have to be as good as you can get! I only ask to hold the line, and no matter how much it costs, it must be defended! ”

"Yes!" The Secretary of War replied with a wry smile

——

After a moment of silence, seeing that George I's anger had subsided slightly, the Prime Minister suddenly sighed and said: "Now is not the time to hold accountable, the top priority is to get Bulgaria and Mentegro (Montenegro) to join this war immediately!"

Otherwise, it would have been impossible to win this war on our own, and even a decent armistice would not have been fought! ”

George I can be regarded as a generation of Greek heroes, but unfortunately some were born at the wrong time, and the current Greek foundation is too thin!

At the prompting of the Prime Minister, George I immediately understood and asked: "Let's talk about it!" What price do we have to pay in exchange for the Bulgarians sending troops immediately? ”

Everyone's faces changed greatly, from the beginning of the war to the present, not even ten days have passed, and Greece is about to be defeated!

The plan to rebuild Greater Greece failed at the first step!

Today's Greece is not comparable to later generations, not only is its territory less than half that of later generations, but its population is only about 2 million! Once defeated, the Greek army will not be able to recover for a long time to come!

The Chancellor of the Exchequer was the first to speak: "Isn't it too early for you to talk about post-war gains?"

The current situation on the battlefield is very unfavorable for us, and I propose to urge Bulgaria and Netnegro to enter the war as soon as possible!

Judging from the situation on the battlefield, the Ottoman army is still strong, and it will be difficult to end the war in the short term!

Without the intervention of the great powers, whether the alliance can achieve the final victory is a big question mark? ”

The lid has been lifted, and the Balkan Union must be fast if it wants to win this war! Once the Ottoman Empire reacted and the war turned into a protracted war, the other countries were still uncertain, but Greece would definitely not be able to hold out for two months!

The Home Secretary smiled wryly and said, "This is indeed a problem! But we have to gain something from this war, right?

If there is not enough income, what will we do to explain to the people in the country!

If we now promise too many benefits in order to pull Bulgaria into the war, in case the Russians intervene later and the alliance wins the war, we will lose a lot! ”

Everyone looked at each other, and they all had helpless expressions! Everyone has now lost faith in the Balkan alliance and is pinning their hopes on the support of the Russians!

The foreign minister said dissatisfiedly: "It's all at this time, why do you want to do so much!" If we have to think about it so much, won't others think about it?

Do you think that Bulgaria and the Mentnegro government do not think of this? If we don't have enough benefits, why should we let our family take corn from us? ”

George I was stunned, wasn't he? If it's a guaranteed war, they won't have to be promised by the Greeks, they'll join it!

But now that the odds are clearly slim, do you expect a covenant to bind everything?

Ferdinand didn't even have to tear up the Covenant, this war was triggered by the Greeks in advance, and according to the provisions of the Covenant, Bulgaria joined the war within three months, and it was not considered a breach of contract!

As for the Bulgarian government's promise, don't be funny, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs verbally promised that as long as the Bulgarian government does not admit it, Greece will not even be able to make accusations in public opinion!

If Greece can hold out for three months, well, Bulgaria will definitely enter the war! This means that the strength of the Ottoman Empire is limited, and everyone will not have any pressure to pinch soft persimmons!

If Greece can't hold out for three months, it will be defeated, Bulgaria can completely act as if nothing happened, anyway, they have not declared war on the Ottoman Empire, the existence of the Conservative Russian Alliance, the Ottoman Empire will not dare to do anything with them!

At this moment, George I knew that he had been pitted by Ferdinand! And it was pitted very badly, without substantial concessions, Bulgaria is estimated to continue to watch the show!

But he didn't believe it either, the Bulgarians weren't worried at all, they would really watch Greece lose, and Bulgaria wouldn't have a good time!

Well, he overestimated Ferdinand's temperance! Ferdinand, who was far away in Bulgaria, was watching the battle report in a leisurely manner, drinking tea, and enjoying himself!

From time to time, I also commented a few words, a melon-eating crowd who was alive, and I didn't worry about the Greeks at all!

The Greeks were able to fight until now, and Ferdinand was satisfied! According to the initial estimate of the General Staff, Greece was fully defended and could withstand the attack of 150,000 Ottoman troops at most; If it is an active attack, it will be defeated in no more than ten days!

This is similar to the performance of the Greek Army in history, which was defeated a week after the start of the war!

Now the performance of the Greek army is already very good, it can fight with hundreds of thousands of Ottoman troops for so long, and at least 30,000 or 40,000 Ottoman troops have been killed, which is already very surprising to Ferdinand!

As for sending troops to help? No problem! Just wait a little bit, and after the defeat of the main Greek forces, it will be time for Bulgaria to send troops!

Two lives, countless lessons in history have taught Ferdinand that the distribution of benefits is never based on contributions, and strength is the core factor that determines the distribution of benefits!

Isn't Bulgaria the biggest contributor to the Balkan War in parallel time and space? I thought I could get the biggest piece of cake, but what happened? Without enough strength, in the face of interests, the former allies became enemies, and they were beaten half-by-half!

Now Ferdinand's plan was to pit one by one, and Bulgaria was acting according to the plan agreed in advance anyway.

It is the responsibility of the Greeks themselves to start the war in advance, and if they can't hold it for half a month, what confidence will they have to blame Bulgaria!

Of course, even if it lasts for half a month, it's useless! Even if Bulgaria enters the war, it will take care of Istanbul first, followed by the Macedonian region, and it will not be able to help the Greeks for a while!

……

Ferdinand put down the teacup in his hand and asked, "Prime Minister, how is Mentenegro ready?" Is it possible that they will enter the war in advance? ”

Prime Minister Konstantin laughed and said: "Mentenegro is now frightened!" Their eyes are on us now, and it seems that as long as we don't end up, they won't go to war! ”

Ferdinand's face changed, no! Nicholas I was a man who had participated in two wars against Turkey, and he definitely knew a lot about the military strength of the Ottoman Empire! Even if the Greeks are now defeated, it will not frighten him!

"Don't despise them, Nicholas I is also a famous general! The strength that the Ottomans are showing now is not enough to scare him!

We can fool the Greeks, but we can't fool him! It seems that through the Bulgarian War, Nicholas I has a preliminary understanding of our strength, otherwise now Mentenegro has directly withdrawn from the alliance and will not be waiting! ”

Everyone's faces changed greatly, and they recovered casually, and at this time, even if their strength was exposed, what could they do?

Can the Greeks still make peace with the Ottoman Empire? Mentnegro is just like that, with a maximum of two divisions, can it still threaten Bulgaria?