"King George I of Greece personally sent a telegram asking us to enter the war immediately, or they will have to negotiate peace with the Ottoman Empire alone!" Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs

Chekov laughed and said: "The Greeks now know that they are in a hurry!" It's a pity that they haven't figured out the situation yet, and this is to threaten us with withdrawal from the war? ”

Everyone burst into laughter, all with a gloating expression!

Konstantin said with a smile: "Greece still has some effect, at least they still drag down the Ottoman army of more than 100,000 troops, there is no merit and hard work, we still don't want to discourage their enthusiasm!" ”

Ferdinand added: "Yes, the fearlessness of the Greek government is still worth encouraging! In this way, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called back to George I and said that we would enter the war immediately, and now we are working on a battle plan to go to war as soon as it is completed! ”

Foreign Minister Mejev was embarrassed and said: "Your Excellency, this is not good! The Greeks are still allies now, so they have to give a specific time to join the war, right? ”

Ferdinand thought for a moment and said cautiously: "Then three days!"

Tell George I, let them hold on, we Bulgaria are responsible allies, and in three days we will definitely go to war!

In three days, I hope the Ottomans are not so incompetent and can take care of the Cyril army! ”

Metev couldn't complain, he wanted to laugh but didn't dare to laugh. Ferdinand's words, if not added later, are indeed like that, plus the latter sentence, there are some ~~~

What was the mood of George I, Ferdinand did not care. Three days passed in a hurry, and today was the day when Bulgaria entered the war.

On May 3, 1897, Bulgaria issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the Ottoman Empire.

The core content is to demand that the Sultan government return the occupied territory of Bulgaria, that is, the entire territory of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, and compensate for the economic damage of two billion pounds!

Anyway, the second Bulgarian Empire, five hundred years was indeed destroyed by the Ottomans, and now that Bulgaria is independent, take back the homeland from the Ottoman Empire and find them to compensate for losses, there is nothing wrong!

Of course, there are a lot of contents of the ultimatum, from more than 500 years ago to the present, a detailed list of grievances and grievances between the land, and the mess adds up, there are more than 100 pages!

I don't know what the Ministry of Foreign Affairs thinks, it is estimated that the Sudanese government may not be able to read the content in 24 hours!

But none of this mattered, anyway, the Balkans were lively, and after the Greco-Turkish war, Bulgaria joined the declaration of war on the Ottoman Empire.

The matter is not over, Mentnegro also jumped out to brush up on his presence, and on the day Bulgaria declared war, he also issued an ultimatum to the Ottoman Empire!

The European people instantly turned into melon-eating people, commenting on the world while watching the excitement!

According to the unscrupulous media, the Balkans have always had a tradition of a small war every three years and a big war every 10 years, and in the past ten years, except for the two Republican wars, the rest of the time has been generally peaceful, and it is long overdue for a big one!

Public opinion from the outside world is not important, and the Sudanese government, which is aware of the hindsight, now has a headache, and it looks like it is about to settle Greece, and Bulgaria and Mentnegro have jumped out again!

But the Sudanese government is much tougher than seeking the country, and directly refused, in a word: if you want to fight, come to war!

After the Sultan government refused, on May 4, 1897, Ferdinand authorized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to submit a letter of war to the Ottoman Empire; The next day, Mentenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire, and the Balkan Wars broke out!

At the same time as the war report was submitted, the Bulgarian army also began to move.

Unlike the first Balkan War in history, when the Union 630,000 troops fought against 500,000 Ottoman troops (Bulgaria 350,000, Serbia 150,000, Greece 100,000, Netnegro 30,000), this time it was almost Bulgaria and the local chickens went head-to-head!

In 1897, the Ottoman Empire had about 450,000 troops in the Balkans, which crippled the Greeks, and the Ottoman Empire also paid a lot of losses, and the number of troops dropped to about 400,000.

In order to win this war, Bulgaria mobilized a total of 600,000 troops, Mentenegro mobilized about 30,000 troops as in history, plus the crippled Greece, the Balkan Union still had an absolute superiority in troops!

On May 4, the Bulgarian army divided into five directions and launched a full-scale attack on the Ottoman Empire!

The first way: that is, the Bulgarian First Army, consisting of five first-class divisions, five second-class divisions, five heavy artillery regiments and two cavalry regiments, as well as two engineer divisions, with a total army of about 184,000 men (about 156,000 combat troops).

Including: the 1st, 8th, 9th, 10th Bulgarian Division, the 1st Guards Division, the 11th to 14th Divisions of the new formation, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Heavy Artillery Regiments, the 1st and 2nd Cavalry Regiments, and the 1st and 2nd Engineer Divisions!

Military commander: Lieutenant General Popov as commander of the army group, Major General Petrov as chief of staff

Strategic objectives: Thrace (located south of the Balkan Mountains, north of the Aegean Sea, west of Macedonia, east of the Black Sea, southeast of the Turkish Straits. ）

Note: Thrace included the European part of present-day southern Bulgaria (Northern Thrace), northern Greece (Western Thrace) and Turkey (Eastern Thrace)

Second Road: Bulgarian Second Army, consisting of three First Class Divisions, five Second Class Divisions, two heavy artillery regiments, one cavalry regiment, and three engineer divisions, with a total army of about 165,000 men (about 130,000 combat troops).

Including: the 2nd, 3rd, 4th Bulgarian Divisions, the 15th to 19th Divisions, the 6th and 7th Heavy Artillery Regiments, the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, and the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Engineer Divisions!

Military commanders: Lieutenant General Dante Kristof as commander of the army group, Andrei Braskov as chief of staff

Strategic objectives: Macedonia region (Republic of Macedonia and Central Macedonia, Western Macedonia, Eastern Macedonia in northern Greece), Thessaloniki, Epirus, Albania

The third route: that is, the Bulgarian Third Army, consisting of a first-class division, a second-class division and an engineer division, with a total army of about 42,000 men (about 31,000 soldiers).

Including: the 2nd Guards Division, the new 20th Division and the 6th Engineer Division!

Military commanders: Major General Ilya Dimityev as commander of the army group, Vicho Dykov as chief of staff

Strategic objectives: Kosovo region, Albania

The fourth road, the Bulgarian 6th Division + 1 engineer regiment, about 19,000 people.

Military commanders: division commander George Ivanov, division chief of staff Stefan Bogdanov

Strategic goal: cross the Rhodope Mountains and kill the Aegean Sea

The fifth road, the Bulgarian 7th Division + 1 engineer regiment, about 19,000 men

Military commanders: division commander Parif Khristov, division chief of staff Stoyu-Bratislov

Strategic goal: to cross the Rhodope Mountains and follow the Struma River into the Macedonian region

As for the remaining one first-class division (the fifth division) and eight second-class divisions (newly formed twenty-first to twenty-eighth divisions), there is no doubt that they are the general reserves, and of course they are also left to watch the family!

Otherwise, like during the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria was the elite and did not leave a caretaker of the troops, and was stabbed in the eye by Romania, so it was defeated so quickly!

Of course, Ferdinand had to learn his lesson, leaving behind nine divisions and a heavy artillery regiment, about 140,000 troops, not to mention for defense, even if it was enough to fight Romania alone!

Note: The engineer division is a separate column and is not counted in the 600,000 main force!