Seeing that Xiao Zhenlei denied his plan, Yang Du was not surprised, he also felt too troublesome when he thought of this plan, but he couldn't think of other ways for a while, and when he saw that others didn't speak, he could only take the lead himself.

At this time, Jiang Fangzhen said: "President, I think we can start the battle of the Second Army, the Fifth Army and the First Army in Southeast Europe?" After all, it is too dangerous to keep the Second Army and the Fifth Army in a situation of being embattled at any time for a long time, and now that the battlefield on the Western Front has begun, the British and French armies have gained a firm foothold on the coast of the Western Front, and at present, the follow-up large forces are landing one after another, and the German army is also stepping up time to deploy troops, and our task on the Eastern Front is to contain the forces of the German-Austrian forces, containment does not mean that it can only defend, or it can be attacked as appropriate with a minimum of casualties, taking advantage of the transfer of a large number of German troops to the Western Front, At the same time, as long as we fight well and quickly, we think that we can completely take the Balkan Peninsula and let the First, Second and Fifth Army join forces in Romania, as long as these three legions are connected in a line, even if the German-Austrian army adds another two million people, we can't do anything about us. Unless Wilhelm II makes a desperate gamble and puts all the chips on our side! ”

In fact, this plan was planned by Xiao Zhenlei a long time ago, but only a few people knew about it. After Jiang Baili finished speaking, Xiao Zhenlei smoked a cigarette and weighed the pros and cons, in this situation, the advantages of conducting the battle of the division were undoubtedly much greater than the disadvantages. The attention of the German army had been drawn to the Western Front by Britain and France, and the German army had secretly transferred a lot of troops from the Balkans, Romania, and the Eastern Front to the Western Front. The Germans thought they were stealthy enough, but they did not hide from the eyes of the Allies. Originally, the German army was deployed in the Balkan Peninsula with about 500,000 people, but due to the outbreak of a major war on the Western Front, the German army had transferred 200,000 people from the Balkan Peninsula in order to supplement the troops on the Western Front, leaving only 300,000 people, and they were scattered all over the country, most of which were concentrated in the Thrace region. In addition to the 300,000 German troops, there were 400,000 Austro-Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Turkish troops in the Balkans, which were slightly stronger than the Italian army. However, it is far inferior to the British and French armies, and it cannot be compared with the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army at all, and it is several grades worse.

In Jiang Fangzhen's view, Jiang Fangzhen absolutely had a chance of winning by using 300,000 troops of the First Army Corps, which had strong combat effectiveness and mobile combat capability, to attack the Balkan Peninsula defended by the troops of the three countries, Austria, Bulgaria, and Turkey.

Xiao Zhenlei smoked a cigarette and pondered for a few minutes before speaking: "If we lose the transportation lines in Russia, then our transportation pressure on the sea will more than double, and now we have a total of two corps in Asia Minor, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, the Mediterranean, and Italy. There are about 600,000 men in all, and for the supply of these 600,000 men, our transportation capacity in the south can barely be maintained, if we add the 1,100,000 men of the Second and Fifth Army Corps. Our troops in Europe alone have reached 1.7 million troops, and there is only one supply line for these many troops, so the pressure is too great! ”

Yang Shiqi was surprised: "President." According to our agreement with Britain and France, it does not mean that our army has investigated 500,000 people in Europe. Was the supply of the surplus army all taken care of by Britain and France? ”

Jiang Baili said: "The agreement says so, but Britain and France can't solve so much at all. The agreement stipulates that food and living materials and some ammunition will be solved by them, but other military supplies and another part of ammunition need to be solved by ourselves, and Britain and France can only owe debts in the absence of a solution, and we need to pay in advance out of our own pockets! ”

Yang Du couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard this: "Hey, what kind of thing is this?" Britain and France are still in arrears? How can this be? ”

The two years of war have already pulled off the pants of the old empire of Britain and mortgaged it, and the British are now poor, and all the goods imported from foreign countries by the British and French governments, including weapons and ammunition, are on credit, among which China and the United States are the largest creditors of Britain and France, while the British hold the gold in their hands tightly and do not let go.

Xiao Zhenlei kept smoking, and finally made up his mind: "Now only by launching a battle can the current predicament of the Second Army and the Fifth Army be completely solved." In that case, let's do it, the problem of supply, especially the food problem, I wonder if it can be solved on the spot? The attacking troops captured the cities of the Central Powers, first occupied the official treasury of the local government, and then forcibly requisitioned the materials of the civilian merchants, as long as our army could use them, they were forcibly collected, and the materials of the enemy army were also captured, and if our army could use them, we would keep them, and sell those that our army could not use.

In addition, we can use the enemy's arsenal in the occupied area, so that we can solve part of it on the spot, and Britain and France can solve part of it for us, and the rest of the part will be transported from home, so that the supply of food and ammunition can be met for the time being, and then the rest will be replenished when we have the ability, so that our logistical pressure can be greatly reduced. ”

Liang Qichao nodded and said: "According to the president's plan, it can indeed solve the most basic problem of food and ammunition for the expeditionary force, and the method of feeding the war with war is indeed feasible, but if we do something to those merchants in the occupied area, will it cause hostility among the local residents, and will it be detrimental to our next operations?" ”

Xiao Zhenlei waved his hand and smiled: "Don't worry about this at all, we only target the occupying government and businessmen, not the civilians, just fight the local tyrants, those residents at the bottom of the society are afraid that we will kill those local tyrants, after all, everyone has a hatred of the rich, right?" ”

Xiao Zhenlei asked Jiang Baili to issue operational orders to the Eastern European Theater and the Southeast European Theater in the name of the Military Commission and the General Staff, and officially started the battle of the division within a month, and initially planned to let the First Army Corps, the Second Army Corps, and the Fifth Army Corps join forces in the lower reaches of the Danube River at the junction of Bulgaria and Romania.

If the division were to be met on the lower Danube section of the border between Romania and Bulgaria, the First Army would have to undertake much more combat missions than the Second and Fifth Army Corps.

It seems that the task of the First Army is much heavier, but only Wu Shiyou, the commander of the First Army, knows that in fact, if you want to fight the Balkans, his task is the easiest, don't look at him only 300,000 horses, and the German-Austrian army has 700,000 people, but 700,000 have to be stationed in various places, so the Allied troops stationed in each place are not enough, and there are many guerrillas and scattered Allied armies throughout the Balkan Peninsula, such as Montenegro, Serbia and Greek remnants, These people generally hid in the mountains and forests and insisted on fighting the Allied forces, and as soon as the First Army landed in the Balkans and the news of a large-scale attack on the Balkans spread, the guerrillas and the remnants of the Entente would surely rush out of hiding to help.

The orders of the Supreme Military Council and the General Staff were sent to Cai Guodong and Cai Yi, and the operational deployment of southeastern Europe soon began, and the machine of war was also in operation.

On 15 May, the two armies of the First Army of the Southeast European Theater of the Chinese Expeditionary Force landed in Athens, Greece and Burgas, Romania, respectively, leaving two divisions in the Middle East and the Asia Minor Peninsula to help stabilize order in Turkey and the countries of the Middle East.

The strong sea and air superiority made the landing of the First Army in Athens and Burgas very smooth, and the Allied army did not expect that the Chinese army would suddenly move in southeastern Europe, and also chose to be in Athens and Burgas.

In order to keep the Balkan Peninsula, the German-Austrian forces were ready to move troops south to resist the attack of the Chinese army on the defensive line facing Russia, but they did not expect that the Second Army and the Fifth Army launched a fierce onslaught on the southwestern defense line of Russia.

The Second and Fifth Army Corps totaled nearly 1.1 million men, and such a large force had a huge impact on the German-Austrian defense line deployed in Romania, and in Rome Mea, as long as the Allied army was surrounded by Austro-Hungarian troops, there were only a few German troops, and there was also a part of the Romanian puppet army.

Just when the German-Austrian army was resisting the fierce attack of the second and fifth armies of the Chinese army, the Romanian puppet army raided the back of the German-Austrian defense line from behind, which made the German-Austrian army suffer from the enemy, and the defense line completely collapsed for a while.

After the Chinese army carried out a landing operation in Greece, the news quickly reached the ears of the local Greek guerrillas and the remnants of the Greek army, and the guerrillas and remnants of the army from all over Greece immediately emerged from all over the country to attack the Allied troops stationed in various parts of Greece. (To be continued......)