Chengde Summer Resort.

In the eyes of outsiders, Emperor Liu, who should be dying, has a ruddy face, and his emaciated cheeks have grown flesh, his weight is close to 150 pounds, and the big man who is more than 1.8 meters is 150 pounds, which is a little thinner, but it can never be called emaciated. Under the dedicated care of a health care team gathered by famous doctors, Liu Xian's health is very good!

He was standing in front of a detailed map of southeastern Europe, looking at it with a strange expression.

Balkan Wars!

When this noun that he had forgotten for a long time appeared in his mind, Emperor Liu really unearthed a lost impression in the precipitation of his mind, but when it came to the specific content, he couldn't think of anything. It is not even known whether the 'Balkan War' was fought by a handful of small countries in South-Eastern Europe on their own or with the Ottomans.

"This is the last test that the Ottomans will go through before the Great War."

"Call back to Beijing and ask the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to come forward to officially support the Ottoman Empire. Tell Abdul. Hamid II, China is still their strongest and most reliable backing! ”

Liu Xian felt that the current battle, the previous battle between the Ottomans and Italy, did not seem to be a big deal.

Behind this Greece is obviously the British support, the door of Negoro, that is, the later Montenegro, the only place in the history of the Balkans that has not been conquered by the Ottoman Empire, after the collapse of Tsarist Russia, also quickly fell to the British, Bulgaria is the loyal little brother of the Germans, but there is a certain resistance to the closer Austria-Hungary, Serbia after the collapse of Tsarist Russia 'lonely' for a while, but soon also connected with the British. After the revival of St. Petersburg, Serbia returned to the position of the 'second brother' of the Slavs. As for the Slavs, the other pole of the Moscow government. It has long been ostracized by the whole of Europe!

This time the four countries declared war on the Ottomans, and Liu Xian was very clear. This was a test for Britain and Germany to divert their contradictions.

If the Ottomans did not fight, the five major European powers of Britain, France, Germany, Austria and Italy would definitely swarm up and divide the Ottoman Empire.

At this time, the Ottoman Empire was no better than the Ottoman Empire in the original time and space, black oil was like soft gold rapidly accumulating wealth, and the desolate and backward Arabian Peninsula in the past was also like the fattest piece of fat, exuding an incomparably attractive fragrance. And this piece of fat falls precisely on the mouths of Europeans.

If it weren't for China's deterrence, the Europeans would not have dared to act rashly over the years, and they would have attacked the Ottomans a long time ago.

Now China's politics has changed dramatically. Less than half a year after the new emperor took over the throne, there were already many financial disputes between the central government in Beijing and the eastern and western feudal states. But China is still the same powerful China.

The Europeans do not dare to act rashly, they know that China is reining in its outstretched minions at this time, but whoever thinks that China will be soft, this behemoth will definitely not mind 'killing chickens and making an example of monkeys' once.

It would undoubtedly be the most stupid act to touch the sensitive nerves of China's behemoth because of this 'eagerness'. So, they launched their own little brother, and this Balkan war was not so much a war inspired by national contradictions. It's more like an East-West proxy war.

The Ottoman army was strong, especially their land forces, whose artillery firepower was in no way inferior to that of the European powers. That is, there is a certain deficiency in armored combat vehicles.

For the European powers, the Ottomans showed great fighting power in the war with Italy. is a pretty weighty opponent. is an opponent worthy of their attention. The Ottomans' army operations inherited the Chinese's war mentality, even if the fragility of their mobility greatly affected their mobility. The strong coordination of the Chinese army, as long as the Ottomans can learn half of it, their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated. What's more, the new army of the Ottomans completely replaced the old army five years ago. The total strength of the army reached the millions.

The Ottomans had their own General Logistics Department, General Armament Department and General Staff, and the Ottoman army had a complete staff system. It is impossible to overestimate their combat effectiveness.

Especially in recent years, the Chinese have expanded their military academy study abroad quotas, and trained a group of very good officers for the Ottomans, Persians and even Egyptians.

Among them, Mustafa, who rose to prominence in the Italian-Turkish war. Kemal. Atatürk, who has now gone from the previous captain to a lieutenant colonel. Although the appearance of a man does not prove anything, Kemal went from captain to now lieutenant colonel, which at least proves that the army of the Ottoman Empire still has a distinct vitality.

Liu Siam's meaning reached Beijing, a series of meetings were held and a number of resolutions were voted on in the parliament, and when the support of the Chinese came to Istanbul, the high-spirited Ottoman Sultan Abdul. Hamid II was even more relieved and boldly ordered his troops to counterattack the four Balkan allies.

The combat effectiveness of the Ottomans proved to be. Their air force was weak, but they had a large number of anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns. These high-level dual-purpose guns can also exert great combat power in two-dimensional spacing battles.

And the bottomless pit of the airship force, even the Ottomans did not dare to develop it on a large scale, how could the four small countries of southeastern Europe, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro have it on a large scale? Even if they have the support of the five European powers behind them. Shikoku's airship troops are also very weak.

So the Balkan War was a two-dimensional battle, and its technical content was inferior to that of the North American wars more than a decade ago.

The battle on the ground, which was entirely on the ground, was suitable for the Ottomans at the moment, and with its powerful artillery, the Ottoman Macedonian Army Group first thwarted the attacks of the Serbian and Menmenian Netheron armies on the Macedonian and Adriatic coasts. The Greek army also fought hard in the Aegean islands, but the Bulgarian offensive west of Istanbul made some progress, and the Second Army on the right flank of its front was the first to repel the Ottoman border defenders. The 1st and 3rd armies of the defending army, which fought on the left flank, also repelled the Ottoman army after many hard battles, and encountered the 3rd Army of the Ottoman army near Kirk-Kilishe on May 14~17. The Ottoman Fourth Army had arrived at this time under the command of Lieutenant General Nazmir Pasha, and in just one day the Ottoman army completely defeated the offensive of the Bulgarian army.

Although it was not until the 22nd that the Ottoman army completely expelled the Bulgarian army from its own territory, in just half a month, people all over the world have seen clearly that the Balkan Alliance will no longer have the slightest chance of winning the war without the intervention of a strong external force.

It was not only the Europeans who were shocked by the Ottomans' combat effectiveness, but even Emperor Xiao Liu took a special train to Chengde to meet his own Laozi. He also had a kind of frightened rush.

The four countries of the Balkan Alliance gathered more than 200,000 troops, and in only half a month, the Ottomans had already decided the overall situation. This combat power is so powerful.

"Father, news has come from Europe that the English are encouraging the Italians to show signs of intervening. Erchen felt that we should give the Ottomans a batch of airships. ”

The Ottoman Empire, whose status had increased greatly, proved itself to be enough to serve as a shield for China in the west with its own combat effectiveness. Emperor Xiao Liu didn't want this piece of good iron to be wasted, and wanted to take advantage of the Italians to mobilize warships and send a batch of airships to the Ottomans. At the same time, through the Caucasus, a large number of artillery shells will quickly fill the empty arsenals of the Ottomans.

From 75mm to 105mm, and then to 120mm, these three shells are the main field guns of the Ottoman Army - the volume of the 150mm cannon is too heavy, and the Ottoman Army is not able to move these big guys weighing more than 6 tons quickly, so the 150 heavy guns in the Ottoman army artillery are used as the last killer pressure at the bottom of the box. It was not used at all in the war with the Balkan Union. In other words, the maximum caliber of shells fired by the Ottoman Army in the war was 120mm. -- The reserve of artillery shells is more than 500,000 rounds, and the 75mm shells are as high as 1.5 million rounds.

Such a reserve figure made the entire Ottoman army top brass very relieved, believing that the war had begun, and such a reserve and the Ottomans' own production capacity could definitely meet the needs of the war.

As a result, the number of shells spent in this battle clearly told them their naivety.

In just half a month of fighting, the Ottomans had the largest number of 75mm guns and fired 120,000 shells, while the Ottoman arsenal had less than 30,000 shells in half a month.

The enemy on the opposite side was only more than 200,000, and the Ottoman army faced a force that had to detain the Greeks who were taking the sea route. In such a war, the hydraulic tube cannon was withdrawn from the artillery and consumed more than 200,000 rounds of various shells. How many enemies have they killed and captured?

Four shells are not enough for an enemy, and what about the cost of millions of rifle bullets? This is the same as the number problem that the Ottoman officers and soldiers thought were very simple in their minds - a single shell should destroy at least one enemy! It's two different things!

In modern warfare, with the gradual deepening of the development of thermal weapons, the ratio between ammunition consumption and battle results is also increasing step by step. Every soldier is aware of this fact, but without experiencing the test of real war, no one would have thought that the proportion has been so large!

The Ottomans should have realized through the war with the Italians. But they ignore that. Only one division of the Ottoman Army was involved in the battle, and it was another lost war. (To be continued.) )