Just when the diplomats of the seven countries were in Rome, in order to propose to the warring sides what kind of negotiation terms, in order to be fair and just, the unprecedented scale of the Sofia war also kicked off, 400,000 Ottoman soldiers divided into three routes, first to the three strategic points of Samokov, Ikhtiman and Dupnica on the periphery of Sofia, the city is surrounded by mountains, these places are the gap in the Guò mountains.

The Bulgarians, who were behind the capital, also burst out with great courage at this time, relying on the mountainous terrain of this area, blocking the progress of the invaders, and even those Serbs who came to help the war, after understanding the significance of this battle to their country, also fought the battlefield, because of their stubborn resistance, the Ottoman army's offensive did not start very smoothly, after all, they fought too smoothly during this time, Yan zhòng lacked experience in attacking fortifications, and suffered more than 5,000 casualties on the first day.

But this was only a trivial matter for Hamid II, and no matter how tenacious the Bulgarians and Serbs were, when they ran out of ammunition, would they use bayonets against their rapid-fire rifles, submachine guns, and even machine guns? The consumption of 600,000 troops is a terrifying number, especially for those recruits, it is possible to shoot hundreds of bullets a day, as far as their army even machine guns and submachine guns have a daily ammunition consumption of tens of millions of rounds, this is just talking about bullets, not counting artillery shells and grenades, now all the foreign supply of the two armies has been cut off, even if they still have a bit of military industry in the country, it is pure fantasy to want to supply such a big war.

But the Ottoman army did not need to think about this problem, from Germany and Austria-Hungary, plus a steady stream of Swedish arms landed in Istanbul, and China, although the British intercepted all Chinese merchant ships transporting arms on the Suez Canal in the name of neutrality, but they were not a big deal, and they directly unloaded their goods at Aqaba. It was then trucked to the port of Jaffa, where it was loaded onto the Ottoman Empire's own merchant ship and transported to Istanbul.

There was practically no suspense in this battle, the logistical supply had already decided who would be the winner, the Bulgarians and Serbs were merely dying, and there were some naïve illusions, such as asking their ally Greece to send a naval blockade of Ottoman shipping, but unfortunately their clever ally rejected them again. Of course, it was not really refused, but it was just agreed that it was not done, because at this time, the two perfect battleships built for Hamid II by the Swedish Young's shipyard were completed, although as a neutral country. Such ostentatious arms could not be given now, but they drove directly to Trieste, an equally neutral Austro-Hungarian port.

Another group of Ottoman sailors who were in charge of receiving them also arrived, and it is clear that if the need arises, there will be a legend of these sailors stealing the battleship and leaving.

If the Greeks may have been lucky before, but after the arrival of these two battleships, they had completely lost any illusions, not to mention that the diesel fleet would go out to attack the Ottomans, and they would not even dare to go out of the military port, if they dared to go out to provoke. The Ottoman navy must have been happy to strangle this hidden danger completely.

Fortunately, at this time, Ferdinand I, who was in a desperate situation, still got a good news, just when the Ottoman army razed Ihtiman with overwhelming artillery fire and opened the passage to Sofia, the seven great powers in Rome made a strong statement in Britain, France and Russia. If no further research results were forthcoming, they finally worked out fair and just negotiation conditions under the threat of mediation in a separate group.

The Ottoman Empire and the Balkan Confederation maintained their pre-war borders, and the other four countries paid the Ottoman Empire 30 million pounds in war reparations.

After the results of the study. The Seven-Power Conciliator Group formally handed over the negotiation proposal to the five warring countries, and the four Balkan League countries naturally accepted the request for a cease-fire and peace talks without the slightest hesitation, but when it was handed over to the Ottomans. They got the sad news. Because of the night's worries and overwork, the respected Majesty Hamid II is unfortunately ill, and is currently bedridden and can no longer preside over the work, such a heavy matter as the armistice and peace talks, his ministers naturally cannot decide, so they need to wait, and now the experts of the Yang Medical Center are conducting consultations for His Majesty, and it is estimated that it will be more than a month, or as little as half a month, and will be able to barely be able to deal with government affairs.

When the news reached Sophia, Ferdinand I almost cried, Nima, this is going to kill me!

But no matter how anxious he is, it's useless, everyone is an emperor, they are all sick like that, even the seven great powers have no reason to drag him out of the hospital bed, and then force him to agree to start peace talks, everyone is a civilized person, how can he make such a barbaric act, even if they all understand that he is pretending to be sick, he must be treated as if he is really sick. For a while, the monarchs of various countries sent some princes and crown princes to visit, and it is said that the news that came back was that the emperor's majesty was in a state of dying in the near future, which made people wonder if his recovery period of half a month was enough.

However, Hamid II's illness also released a message, he was ready to take Sofia, and was not ready to continue to attack Serbia, at least not at present, in fact, this is understandable, although he did not mind helping Emperor Joseph to beat Serbia lame, and then facilitate the Austro-Hungarian Empire to invade Serbia in the south, but if he helped him cut off all his limbs, it was not a good thing for the Ottoman Empire.

He could cripple Serbia, but it would not be in his interest to destroy them completely, leaving them defenseless in the face of Austro-Hungarian aggression, after all, he also needed someone in the middle to separate him from Emperor Joseph, and Austria-Hungary had been no slower than Russia or Britain in the erosion of the Ottoman Empire over the years.

Therefore, a Serbia with a certain ability to resist is very beneficial to him, as for Bulgaria, it is different, this country must be completely defeated, their geographical location is too dangerous for the Ottoman Empire, to put it mildly, a charge can hit the city of Istanbul, such a country must be completely defeated, and it can never turn over.

The news he released made Britain, France and Russia breathe a sigh of relief, although Bulgaria was completely defeated for them, it was not good news for them, but at least they kept Serbia, with this country, Austria-Hungary also needs to allocate part of its energy to deal with it, and as long as Serbia is not affected by the war, it is not difficult to redevelop in the future, after this war, they can no longer have the courage to expand their territory, it can be said that part of the goals of Britain, France and Russia are still achieved.

For Austria-Hungary, such an outcome was not perfect, but acceptable, and the Serbs had already paid more than 200,000 casualties for the war, if not a broken leg.

When all forces acquiesced to Hamid II's goal, Bulgaria became a doomed victim, but unfortunately Ferdinand I did not know it at this time, and his prime minister ran to the embassies of Britain, France and Russia every day, hoping that they could pull him along, as long as Hamid II was willing to stop fighting, even if he paid more compensation.

Unfortunately, his efforts were doomed to be fruitless.

Even the Serbs who fought alongside him understood that after the news that Hamid II might recover in half a month reached Serbia, the hundreds of thousands of Serbian troops on the outskirts of Sofia were obviously absent-minded.

The Ottoman army continued to advance slowly like a steamroller, and as the battle progressed, the ammunition supply problem of the Serbian coalition army became more and more serious, and when the Ottoman army broke out of the mountains and entered the plains on the outskirts of Sofia, even the main force of the Bulgarian army had to meet the invaders with bayonets without bullets, and high-end goods such as artillery shells and grenades were even rarer, and even machine guns began to be smashed on the positions because of the lack of bullets.

Ferdinand I, who had no choice but to lose face, was preparing to escape from Sofia and take refuge in Serbia, and offered to Hamid II to sue for peace, but unfortunately his request for peace was not answered, and His Majesty, who understood that he was in a hurry, quietly boarded a train that had been prepared long ago on the night when the shells of the Ottoman army fell in his capital, and fled to Belgrade with the main members of the royal family and some ministers.

After he left, the Bulgarian soldiers and civilians, who did not know that the king had abandoned them, continued to resist the city of Sofia for three more days, and the city finally fell, and the Ottoman army that captured Sofia, because nearly 10,000 people were killed and wounded in the street fighting, in order to vent their anger, like their ancestors who had fought under the city of Vienna, sacked the city and burned it.

With Sophia's skyrocketing fire, the Ottoman Emperor Hamid II, who was already said to be dying, miraculously recovered after the experts of the Yang Medical Center made a miraculous recovery, and soon began to deal with government affairs, and the first decision he made was to agree to the proposal of the Seven Nations Mediation Group to hold peace talks on an armistice, and it is said that the emperor blamed himself for delaying the peace process in the Balkans because of his illness, and even severely reprimanded his ministers.

As for the fire in Sofia City, which was unfortunately caused by the explosion of artillery shells, he expressed great regret and urged the Ottoman troops occupying the city to quickly control the fire and do a good job in treating the victims. (To be continued......)