The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1408 Unexpected Peace

The army in front of us is naturally not the army of the Kingdom of Greece, but the Austrian army in changed uniforms.

In fact, in Albrecht's original plan, the army of the Kingdom of Greece should be enough to deal with the Ottomans. According to his estimation, the two sides should reach a stalemate on the land of Eastern Thrace, which exactly meets Franz's requirements.

However, Albrecht seemed to overestimate the level of the Greeks, as these temporarily recruited soldiers were unable to fully master the Austrian Empire's rifles.

The reason these rifles were eliminated by the Austrian Empire was because they had various problems from loading to design, and the models purchased by the Kingdom of Greece were even more diverse, including many models from other countries.

The Kingdom of Greece was very poor. The so-called 100,000 standing troops were mostly in meditation training. Their mastery of firearms was very low. Coupled with the high pressure on the battlefield, many people had never even fired a shot.

In fact, the Austrian army arrived at the battlefield three days ago and should have been sent directly to the battlefield after a day of changing equipment and preparation. However, the commander of the Greek army in this war was very stubborn and asked Albrecht to give him two more days.

This was the Greeks' home ground, and the Austrian army also needed time to familiarize themselves with the battlefield environment, so Albrecht agreed to the other party's request.

In fact, this is good news for the Austrian side. After all, there is no need to use Austria's own troops as cannon fodder to test the enemy's firepower.

After two days, the Greek army lost more than 10,000 soldiers, and Albrecht finally saw what Franz called the stupid general.

It was hard for him to imagine that such an idiot was qualified to command an army of 100,000. This was pure murder.

Albrecht resisted the urge to kill the idiot and completed the handover of the battlefield. In the previous battle, the firepower and defensive configuration of the Ottoman army had already been clearly seen by the Austrian side.

With the guidance of the hot air balloons, the Ottoman artillery suffered a devastating blow as soon as the battle began. After two hours of bombardment, the Austrian infantry began to enter the battlefield.

Ibn Hassan wanted to organize his troops to launch a counterattack, but his troops were often suppressed by the enemy's firepower as soon as they rushed out of the valley.

The few Ottoman soldiers who survived the explosion were quickly killed by the Austrian skirmishers.

What was even more terrifying was that the enemy's sharpshooters were aiming at Ibn Hassan himself, and several of his close subordinates died beside him. Ibn Hassan did not even dare to stick his head out to observe the battlefield, and the Ottomans lost control of the battlefield.

The entire battle was an all-round crushing defeat. The Austrian mountain division took the lead in controlling both sides of the canyon, and a siege battle turned into an annihilation battle.

In just six hours, the Ottoman army suffered 1.5 casualties and was forced to withdraw from the battlefield in Western Thrace. On the way of escape, this number increased to 5. The Ottoman Empire's Western Thrace Corps was almost wiped out.

The news of the disastrous defeat in Western Thrace immediately reached Istanbul, and Queen Mother Shefkefza felt dizzy and almost fainted.

She looked around at the Ottoman Empire leaders around her in a panic, but no one dared to look her in the eye and they all kept their heads down and remained silent.

Murad V, who was less than ten years old, seemed to have no idea what was about to happen, but also seemed to know everything.

The young Sultan walked onto the stage with a determined look, looked around at the backbones of the Ottoman Empire and said, "A true Sultan will not retreat. This is the land God has given to the Ottoman Empire. If death is unavoidable, I will fight to the last moment!"

After saying this, Murad V turned and left. His words made many Ottoman officials ashamed, and Queen Mother Shefkefza felt even more guilty.

However, after a brief moment of guilt, everyone began to seriously discuss the details of moving the capital. Some even suspected that Murad V had a mental illness and wanted to replace the Sultan.
In fact, there were people who were more anxious than the Ottomans at that time, and that was the British. The latter had tried their best to tear down the east wall to repair the west wall, but there was nothing they could do about the broken house of the Ottoman Empire, which was leaking everywhere.

Viscount Stratford and George Villiers looked at each other helplessly, both hoping to see hope in each other, but the reality was that neither of them had any way.

Just as Prime Minister John Russell initially judged, if you can't win the war, you can only negotiate. But the question is what should you do if the other side doesn't want to negotiate? What can you do?
This is not self-pity, it’s just that I really can’t find a way out of the situation.

In northeastern Bulgaria, after a bloody battle, the Russian army finally opened the passage to the Danube Plain.

However, Nicholas I was not happy about this victory, because the Russian army had lost at least 150,000 people since the beginning of the war, two-thirds of whom died in this fierce battle.

Moreover, the Ottomans only chose to retreat temporarily, and they had no intention of giving up. The Ottoman troops continued to build breastworks in the rear, as if they wanted the Russian army to fight to the end.

At the same time, very bad news came. The sentry found a touch of red on the Ottoman position. It was the symbol of the Redwood Army. The British words were obviously more than just a threat.

In addition, the Russian Black Sea Fleet attempted to deliver supplies to the Dobrudja front at night, but was intercepted, two third-class battleships sank, and eight transport ships were captured.

This was a huge loss for the Russian Navy, but the bigger problem was supply. Military supplies were seriously insufficient, and the wounded could not get any treatment and could only die in pain.

Diseases such as malaria and typhoid began to spread in the army. The Russian military leaders even believed that Constanta was no longer safe and strongly recommended that the Tsar leave the front line.

This was a great humiliation for Nicholas I, but this time no one dared to let the Tsar do whatever he wanted. If Nicholas I was beheaded by the Ottomans or the British, the impact on the whole of Russia would be irreversible.

Besides, epidemics don’t care who you are. Whether you are a tsar or a serf, whether you survive often depends on God’s will.

However, what really made Nicholas I collapse was that the Greek army had captured Western Thrace and was heading towards Constantinople.

George Villiers came to Constanta just to give it a try, hoping that the Tsar would stop the war for God's sake.

To his surprise, the Tsar actually agreed to his request. The location of the peace talks between the two sides will be set in St. Petersburg, and the news immediately spread throughout Europe through the hands of Britain and Russia.

Hostilities would be suspended among the belligerents, but occupied territories would not be returned to the Ottoman Empire, at least not yet.

Otto I was very depressed because he received two stern warnings in one day.