The Path to Mediterranean Supremacy/Bulgarian Empire

Ferdinand was now in a good mood. First, the Right Army had won, and then the Left Army had made a breakthrough!

Although the battle results have not yet been counted, the General Staff estimates that 40,000 to 50,000 young men in Serbia have lost their lives! That's right, the young men, in the opinion of the staff, can not be considered an army at all!

None of this is the point. The point is that the Bulgarian army's losses were minimal!

In order for Serbia to hold out a little longer, Ferdinand decisively blocked the news and kept down the results of the battle!

Otherwise, when they see this loss, the Serbs will likely be unable to bear it and simply admit defeat! By then, when Austria-Hungary comes out, Bulgaria will have fought for nothing!

In fact, seeing the battle results, the Bulgarian military itself was shocked! The killing power of artillery plus machine guns on the battlefield was beyond expectation!

It has almost been made known that in the future of warfare, manpower tactics will soon be obsolete, and arms and equipment will become the mainstream!

Ferdinand interrupted their unrealistic fantasies with a sharp effort! Do not look at the results of the stunning Bulgarian army. If you look closely, you will find that most of the Serbian losses were young and strong who had just picked up their guns!

Although the Left Army also routed 30,000 enemy troops, but the main Serbian 5th Division, at least half of them ran away, mostly veterans!

Most of those who died were untrained recruits who didn't know what to do when the guns fired! The guns began to fire before the Left Army could launch an attack.

Under the tension of the recruits, they started firing regardless of whether there was an enemy in front of them. Some even fired directly into the sky, seemingly planning to shoot the shells down!

By the time the Left Army really attacked, many Serbian positions were blank. That's right, and it was out of bullets!

As a decoy, the 30,000 troops that came out were completely cannon fodder! Subrovich also could not afford to take 30,000 main forces to take the risk. The equipment is naturally very diverse and not usually worth anything. The battlefield logistics supply becomes a problem!

In theory, fifty rounds of ammunition per person are enough to aim and fight. It is a pity that if you know modern warfare, you know that a few thousand rounds of ammunition to take out an enemy is the normal situation!

Of course, this was not true at the end of the 19th century, and breech-loading rifles were only just making their debut in practice! The machine gun only made its debut on the battlefield in 1894! In previous wars, the consumption of ammunition was not so great!

Even though Bulgaria has opened a war economy under control, the mood in Sofia is now a pretty good one.

The exact results of the battle are not yet clear, but anyway, there was a victory on the front! Everyone had reason to be happy. As soon as the war began, the Bulgarian army fought out and beat the Serbian army back!

It is better to dispense with the celebrations now! In times of war, everything is simple, save your money on supplies to support the front, besides this time, it is the Serbs who are fighting, and the people have no reason not to support!

Boskue is one of them. His left leg was crippled in the last war and now walks in waves!

For the government to fight Serbia, he was all for it! The country had to implement a wartime economy, and before it was properly mobilized, Boskue signed up, and then his shoe store was subject to compulsory requisition!

Now that the army has won the war, Boskue is proud too and then seeks out his old friend Laurel to join him in bragging, or rather, gloating!

Boskue has reason to be proud, and the troops were fighting at the front. Someone is wearing the military boots he made! And old friend Laurel, who is involved in international trade, had nothing to do with business once the war started!

"Laurel, wouldn't my friend like to celebrate today? How about I buy you a drink?" Boskue said with a smile.

"Boskue, of course we should celebrate, but it's war time and we can't afford to get wasteful, so I've given up drinking for now!" said Laurel, glaring at Boskue.

Obviously, Laurel saw what Boskue was trying to tell him and dryly blocked it back!

"You've quit drinking? That's sad news! But I have a stockpile of it at my house from earlier, so you're really not drinking it?" Boskue said with a teasing smile.

"Of course you should drink it, it's war time, it helps to save food by not drinking! Your family has stored it in advance, so don't drink it for nothing!" Laurel said with a straight face.

"Then let's go! You know, my shoe store has been taking a lot of military orders lately?" Boskue said excitedly.

"Come on, you take orders for shit, it's not the same as the government's allocation!" Laurel rolled his eyes and said.

"That's just as well, how can I say that I have contributed to this war, much better than you guys do in international trade!" Boskue said smugly.

"You are right, after the war I am also ready to join the industry! To put it nicely it is international trade, to put it badly is to buy the office! There is not much help for the strength of this country!" Laurel said with a sigh.

Boskue was startled and surprised, asking, "You figured it out?"

Laurel said cautiously: "What do you think? We can't make international trade anymore! With the successful process of domestic industrialization, many foreign goods will face competition from local businesses!

If I continue to work for them as an agent, I may starve to death! I can't interfere with agricultural products, mineral resources, large machinery, and types of equipment imported and exported, and I can't interfere with these commodities!

If you continue to do wholesale small goods and face competition from local companies, how promising can you be?"

Boskue looked at his old friend in surprise and said, "You've thought about it! What are you going to do back there?"

Laurel shook his head and said, "I don't know yet! Now there are many potential industries in the country, there are giants in, to compete with them, it is difficult!"

Boskue also does not know how to comfort him. Business is risky. If they go to compete with the giant, it will be even more difficult!

...

It wasn't just Boskue's shoe store that was requisitioned, either. As soon as the war started, big and small, Bulgarian businesses were basically requisitioned, and it was obligatory!

Ferdinand had created a state economic system that was starting to pay off, and in times of war, it would have cost much less!

Under the pressure of the general public opinion, the Bulgarian capitalists, with good sense, chose to cooperate! Anyone who disagrees is a traitor to the state and is crushed!

Without capitalists to make a profit from the war, with all the cost of domestic purchases, the Bulgarian government found that the expenses during the war were much smaller than expected! Although the material consumption has exceeded the initial estimates!

Even Ferdinand had to admire the power of Bulgarian nationalism! That's right. He suppressed the capitalists with general public power, forcing them to give up the opportunity to make profits from the war!

Surprisingly, after the capitalists gave up their profits, the general public supported the war with real actions!

Countless workers chose to work overtime without pay; farmers joined the transport brigade on their own accord, and in order to speed up efficiency, the people in the village played a relay, and people along the way offered meals and boiled water on their own accord!

All community sectors are donating money and goods, regardless of class, and are taking it upon themselves to participate in this war!

It was an all-out war, and Ferdinand understood somewhat why, in the First World War, Bulgaria, with a population of four million, was able to mobilize 1.26 million troops, fight all over the Balkans, and fight with high intensity for two years, before it crumbled when they lost the war!

Truly, the Bulgarian is the Prussian of Balkan.