Rebirth: Romania Rising

June 6, southern Serbia, Macedonia region.

The Tsar of Bulgaria took matters into his own hands, believing that "the time was right" and relying on his own strength.Without any awareness or preparation, the government and cabinet announced that the army would quickly launch an attack on Greece and Serbia, and any army that disobeyed the order would be disbanded on the spot.

But the next day, the reacting government put pressure on the military to stop the war and settle the matter.As a result, such an operation plunged the Bao army into chaos. The preemptive advantage of the undeclared war was lost, and it was already irreversible - the war had begun!

Bulgaria mobilized more than 60 people, 9 organic divisions (the actual size and strength of the army), and more than a thousand artillery pieces. Its firepower far exceeded that of Serbia and Greece combined. Although the initial attack was chaotic, it still failed in the face of absolute firepower. Consider it a success.

Since the First Balkan War, Bulgaria has almost never lost a battle against the Ottomans. All the armies are experienced but complacent...

In the hasty offensive two weeks ago, the Bulgarian 7th Division Group grabbed the tail of the Serbian Army in eastern Macedonia, wiped out three infantry divisions in one breath, drove the Serbian Army far across East Macedonia, and rushed all the way to Macedonian hinterland, and directly threaten its capital Skopje.

In the Serbian city of Skopje, the silent military camp was broken by a slowly approaching carriage. The sound of rumbles stopped, and an old man with a bloated body and short limbs got out of the car beside the tall city wall.

He refused the help of his servants, leaned on crutches, and walked tremblingly towards the stairs. His body felt like he might fall at any time, and the medals on his body jingled...

Being able to wear medals, dress in a high-profile manner, and even dare to run to the front lines of the battlefield in no-man's land, he is certainly not an ordinary person.But the city wall is an important part of the city's defense, and not everyone can climb it.The officer in charge of the defense of this city wall immediately stepped forward to stop him. However, after the servants surrounding the old man presented a military order, their colors changed and they gave a military salute to the old man in fear.

“I don’t know, this junior, but it’s [Iron and Stone General] Peter Bojovich!”

Hearing the title of "General Iron and Stone", the soldiers guarding the city stood up one after another and stared at the old man solemnly.

In Serbia, there are many generals, but there is only one iron-clad general, and that is Bojovic, who is half a century old!Participated in the Serbian-Turkish War, the Serbian-Bulgarian War, and the First Balkan War.In the future, he will participate in two world wars, annihilating countless enemies in his life, guarding one side, and protecting his family and country.

Now, although he is not a nobleman, nor is he involved in politics, no one in the government, parliament, or in the countryside dares to disrespect him.Because this old man is a legend in the eyes of Serbian soldiers!

Now he is over fifty years old. If he fails to guard the country, he may never have the shame to stay in the army.Time and gunshot wounds have left too many traces on his body. Although the old man is old and his body looks fragile, his thinking is quick.He smiled and waved his hand, letting everyone continue their work.

"All the officers and soldiers defending the city have worked hard. No need to be polite. I will be in charge of the next battle."

Then Bojovich said to the officer: "Senior, can you take me to the top of the city wall to see it?"

The officer looked hesitant and said hesitantly: "General, the city wall is too high and too dangerous, and the enemy forces shell the city from time to time. If there is a problem..."

If something goes wrong and Bojovic makes any mistakes, he will be reviled by people all over the country?

Bojovic laughed loudly: "I have been fighting for decades and have seen Bulgaria and our army go through no fewer than ten sieges. However, I am senior and have been fortunate enough to experience most of them. Shelling of city walls, for example, has long been a common occurrence. , Bulgaria has conducted more than a dozen sieges, but none of them were successful. Every time, as long as our Serb soldiers and civilians work together, we can defend the city and drive away all invading enemies!"

These words cheered up the low morale for a moment. The Serbian soldiers even raised their weapons and let out a long-lost cheer!

Seeing that everyone's energy had recovered a little, Bojovich said: "Now take me up to the city wall to observe. I just want to see with my own eyes how big the defense force is surrounding the city this time."

Although the general himself didn't care, the officers didn't dare to be careless. Bojovich's life was still very important, so he asked a few soldiers to hold telescopes and keep an eye on the enemy in the distance.

.........

Bojovic witnessed more than ten siege battles in his life. The Serbian army's failure to attack the city was mostly due to lack of supplies and the lone army went deep into the city, making it impossible to remove the stronghold and occupy the entire land.To this day, the offensive and defensive momentum is different. Is the nightmare of protecting the army finally coming?

In Bojovich's view, this is all the result of Bulgaria's military success in recent years and its ultimate arrogance. As long as the defenders can maintain their morale, the Bulgarian army will probably starve to death first.

It seems that this time, the Bulgarian tsar is really impatient, and his frontline command is also in a mess. Even with the logistics already in this state, he is still determined to capture Macedonia.

Even a calm and experienced person like Bojovic cannot remain calm after guessing the current situation of the Bulgarian army.He looked up at the enemy's camp and sighed in a low voice: "If the Bulgarian tsar didn't give blind orders, I'm afraid this victory would be indistinguishable. It's a pity that the tsar is still too impatient, and what's even more pity is that his opponent is me. "

But what can they do?They had no choice but to silently drink the tasteless gruel and nibble on pieces of black bread that could break their teeth, hoping that the Serbian army would collapse as soon as possible and end this hasty war.

Bojovic observed Bulgaria, and the Bulgarian army also observed him: "Is it true that Serbia has run out of ammunition and food, and it is so difficult for the old man to defend the city wall? It has only been two weeks, and there has not been a fierce siege. , not that much."

This is Bulgaria's new general. After sighing, he turned around and walked back to the camp without stopping.The camp was full of soldiers ready to go, and everything looked lifeless.

At the beginning of the siege of the city by the Bao army, although there was still sufficient food, grass and ammunition, it was unknown how long this war would last.Moreover, the Bulgarian army encountered repeated obstacles in Greece.So the Tsar ordered that the army began to supply limited supplies of artillery shells. Even the soldiers on the front line could only get one-third of the food every day. There are dishes...

What's even worse is that the first impression on the battlefield is the heat. The sun is scorching during the day, and the long-sleeved military uniforms cannot be worn at all. Even if they are all put on summer clothes, they are still sweating profusely from the heat.

Even with sufficient ammunition supplies in the past two weeks, we were still unable to pull out Skopje, let alone the current embarrassing state.Bojovic cursed: "I never thought that the Baojun would be like this."

The Bulgarians are anxious, so why not Bojovic?

"Lay off reconnaissance balloons and observe the enemy's artillery positions. We will take them down in one fell swoop!"

Bojovic spent a lot of money, preparing to use up all the artillery shells in one fell swoop, and then without any probing attacks, he came up and launched a full-scale assault.

Not only did they plan to charge the remaining 200 cavalry directly into the formation, but they were also followed by a large number of infantry. Behind them, the horses originally used to pull large-caliber howitzers were also requisitioned for the cavalry, barely enough to make up 350 cavalry. .

The Bulgarian made his fastest choice and response, but unfortunately it was too late. The soldiers who were caught off guard were knocked down by the continuously exploding shells, and the soldiers who finally climbed into the trenches had not had time to take a breath. The army's artillery shells came one after another.

The Bulgarians had no other choice but to report to the messenger. They couldn't believe that such fierce artillery fire could be fired by the weak Serbs. As long as they held on, the Serbs would run out of artillery shells, and Bulgaria still had a line of fire. hope.

Sure enough, the battalion commander at the rear sounded more anxious than the soldiers at the front: "I estimate that the Serbian army has launched a full-line attack. You must resist it. The artillery will fight back soon... If you persist and resist it, there will be a way!"

"Yes, hold on firmly."

However, all the British officers and soldiers on the front line were soon disappointed. They were eagerly expecting the artillery position to fire to cover them, but it did not happen. Instead, there was also a very violent explosion behind them. The direction they heard turned out to be the artillery position. What came from there - just when the artillery group of the division received the order and was preparing to show off its power, terrifying artillery shells flew over.

In the past two hours or so, Bojovich made full use of his experience in reconnaissance balloons and attacks, and found out the defense status and strength of various positions.

In response, the unceremonious artillery immediately aimed their guns at the positions of the 2nd, 4th, 11th Bulgarian Artillery Regiment and the 146th Field Artillery Regiment. The defenses they built in an emergency were quite crude. If they were ordinary It can be easily defeated by the fire suppression, let alone a precise strike.

"Precision strike mission, extremely fast 5-shot burst, high-explosive bombs."

"Coordinates 255020, height 85, load the first bomb, launch!"

"Load! The second shot is ready... to fire!"

"Waiting for evaluation!"

Almost at the same time that the Bulgarian artillery troops were preparing to launch an attack, Bojovic issued a firing order. The Serbian artillery had just marked the enemy's artillery positions and fired at the elements. They struggled to raise the muzzle and prepared to support the Bulgarian artillerymen on the front line of the infantry. Before he could react, dozens of flames suddenly burst out from the flanks, and more than a hundred artillery shells landed on our position as if they had eyes. Not only did they cause explosions all day long, they also caused other people who had just opened their ammunition boxes to The artillery shells exploded, and the entire position was suddenly enveloped in flames and screams. Shrapnel flew across the field, and severed limbs and arms were thrown into the air from time to time and fell heavily. Many artillerymen were killed directly on the gun positions.

The Baojun cavalry accelerated their advance, using their broadswords and rifles to rain dense rain of bullets on the surviving enemy artillerymen who were fleeing in panic, turning the artillery position into a miserable hell in one breath.

Without the support of artillery, the infantry alone would obviously not be able to withstand the full-line attack of the Serbian army. Moreover, at this time, the Baojun troops did not even have cover troops - because all the rear troops were transferred by the tsar to support the Greek front. Within 10 minutes, the position was completely breached by Serbian soldiers.

After executing Bojovich's quick assault order, the entire army marched in and turned the Bulgarian army upside down. There were flaming wreckage everywhere and piles of Bulgarians begging for surrender.

At the beginning of the attack, these groups of Bulgarians ran around like frightened rabbits. Later, after seeing that Se's cavalry and infantry had surrounded the entire area, they "wisely" chose not to fight but Obediently became a prisoner.

The few who tried to resist or escape became appetizers for the cavalry, and only a few who saw the opportunity slipped out to spread the news.

Looking at the scene of victory, Bojovic was very satisfied. He smiled and said to his adjutant: "My estimate is good. The Bulgarians were all short of supplies. They surrendered to our army in an organized manner. All their weapons were disarmed. The results of the inventory Although they haven’t come out yet, I believe we have at least killed more than 50 artillery pieces in one fell swoop.”

The adjutant was also very satisfied with this: "Fortunately, we attacked decisively and with all our strength. If we dragged the infantry and artillery slowly, we don't know how long we would be able to deal with the Bulgarians. Let me tell you, we should have done this a long time ago. Maybe we are all ready now." The army has marched to the enemy’s capital, Sofia.”

General Bojovich shook his head and said: "There is no need to march now. Our artillery shells have been exhausted. If we go deep alone, we may run into the enemy's carefully prepared position. We cannot make the same mistake as defending the army." .”

Bojovich was about to refuse to expand the results of the victory, but a piece of news made him give up the idea in an instant - "General, great news, the Baojun logistics troops have surrendered! Most of the baggage is well preserved!" said the signal corpsman.

"Is this true or false? It's too smooth, right?" the adjutant exclaimed.

"There is no need to investigate. It is definitely not a conspiracy by the Bulgarians, but an uprising organized by the Serb compatriots..."

The adjutant was so shocked that he stood there blankly and said to himself: "General, what should we do next?"

"As expected of our fellow Serbs, we are all good men...give the order and continue the attack, for the sake of the motherland and compatriots!"

……