Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 346: Defense Collapse
Although only four countries participated in the war, its impact extended to the whole of Europe.

Among the four countries involved in this war, except for Serbia, which has a relatively small population and area, the remaining three major powers, Germany, Austria and Russia, are all major food exporters in Europe.

Especially Russia, as the most populous country in Europe, Russia also ranks first in grain production in Europe.

The Ukrainian Plain is known as the granary of Europe. The grain produced every year is sold well in Europe and is also Russia's main way to earn foreign exchange.

The main grains produced in Russia include barley, wheat, rice, corn, potatoes and beets, etc. Among them, the most important wheat and rice are planted in April and May every year.

This also means that this war is likely to affect the grain planting of the participating countries, and may even affect the grain harvest a few months later.

Not to mention the issue of harvesting, the planting of wheat and rice will definitely be affected.

Although the Russian environment is colder and the planting and harvesting of crops will be delayed, the Ukrainian plains are not as cold as Germany and Austria-Hungary.

The wheat and rice planting period in the Ukrainian plains is from the end of April to the beginning of May, and now it is already mid-to-late March, which means that there is still about a month before grain planting will begin in Ukraine.

Although this war was fought on the Polish plains, because Russia withdrew a large number of manpower after mobilization, grain cultivation on the Ukrainian plains would definitely be affected.

Because no matter in which era or country, once a war breaks out, the vast majority of the mobilized troops will be farmers.

The reason is very simple, that is, farmers always account for the majority of the country's population.

As Europe's grain production was bound to decrease, the Spanish agricultural department submitted a new agricultural development plan to the cabinet government, intending to carry out larger-scale grain cultivation in Spain and its colonies and seize the European grain market.

With the outbreak of war, not only will Europe's total grain production decrease, but its total grain consumption will also increase significantly.

On the one hand, it is because of the consumption of war, and on the other hand, it is because of the loss of food transportation during the war.

For Spain, as long as it can increase food production, it will definitely make money from food exports.

After all, Spain was not affected by the war, which meant that the cost of growing food for farmers would not increase. Under the premise that the cost would not increase, the more food sold, the more money would be made.

This war was rather regrettable, as Carlo's two biggest concerns, Britain and France, did not join the war.

If Britain and France both joined this war, Spain would definitely launch a plan to annex Morocco and Portugal.

But now, because the British are still eyeing it covetously, Spain can only cancel any combat plans and wait quietly for the development of the war.

While the war in Poland was raging, the Austro-Hungarian Empire also launched a large-scale attack on Serbia.

Speaking of which, the outbreak of this war was caused by the conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, and this conflict was the focus of this war.

Russia's ability to withstand hundreds of thousands of German-Austrian troops in Poland was good news for Serbia. But such good news could not change the reality that Serbia was losing ground on the front battlefield. If Serbia could not get reinforcements, the war would not last long.

From the beginning of the war, Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, became the main direction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's attack.

Under the continuous bombardment of large-scale artillery, the area near the border of Belgrade soon became a ruin.

The Serbian government was also forced to relocate to the southern suburbs of Belgrade, away from the bombing range of Austro-Hungarian artillery.

As for completely moving out of the capital Belgrade, this is something the Serbian government has never considered.

If the capital is moved away from Belgrade, it actually means that Serbia has already given in on this matter. Since the government has given in, the troops on the front line will naturally not have too strong a desire to fight.

This is also the reason why the Serbian government did not withdraw. After all, they still want to win this war.

If they lose this war, they will have to hand over the rebel leader in Bosnia, which means they will completely lose control of Bosnia.

In this way, the plan for Greater Serbia has become a fantasy. What can be done with just the population and land in the country? In terms of its current size and population, Serbia is completely inferior to Romania, another major country in the Balkan Peninsula, and is in the same boat with Bulgaria, which has not yet fully gained independence.

On March 1889, 3, the Austro-Hungarian army engaged in a fierce battle with the Serbian army on the border with Serbia in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire sent three divisions with more than 4 troops, while the Serbian garrison had nearly 2 troops.

The Austro-Hungarian army crossed the river and attacked the Serbian border town of Loznica across the river. After several days of fierce attacks, the Serbian defenders were forced to abandon the border town.

However, the heroic counterattack of the Serbian army still caused huge casualties to the Austro-Hungarian army. After the battle, only less than 4 of the 3 troops dispatched by the Austro-Hungarian Empire could continue to fight, while Serbia still had nearly 1.5 troops who could continue to fight.

After the fall of Loznica on the border, the Serbian army built a new defensive position about 10 kilometers to the east.

This is also the disadvantage of being a small country. Serbia is less than 300 kilometers long from east to west and from north to south, and the border town of Loznica is only about 100 kilometers away from the capital Belgrade.

This also means that the extent of the Serbian army's retreat is limited. They cannot retreat dozens of kilometers to build positions, but can only retreat slightly and look for defensible terrain to build simple positions.

In this regard, Russia's advantage of large land area is fully demonstrated.

In the first month of the war, the Russian army had both victories and defeats in the battles with the German-Austrian coalition. Although there were many failed battles, fortunately, Russia had a large area and could retreat without restraint to form a new line of defense.

The German-Austrian coalition forces had no way to deal with such a Russian army. After all, their arms mobilization had not been completed, and it was impossible for the army to advance dozens or hundreds of kilometers to pursue the Russian army.

If they advance rashly, they will be surrounded by the Russian army.

It was for this reason that Germany, Austria and Russia fought in Poland for more than a month, but the front line advanced only a pitiful 30 kilometers.

It can even be said that Germany, Austria and Russia were all in the stage of testing. Everyone knew that the other side's main force was still there, and without finding a suitable opportunity to fight, there was no reason to fight a decisive battle with the other side's main force.

This has put a lot of pressure on Serbia, which is struggling to survive in the south.

After capturing Loznica, the Austro-Hungarian army immediately continued to pursue the retreating Serbian army eastward.

After several days of hard fighting, the Austro-Hungarian army discovered that Serbia had guarded the area west of Belgrade very well, so they made a prompt decision to abandon their eastward advance and continue to move south to Valjevo.

If Loznica is west of Belgrade, then Valjevo is south of Belgrade.

More importantly, Valjevo is an important transportation hub. To the north is Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, to the south is Užice, an important city in Serbia, and further south is the border city of Priboy.

Even if they could not capture Belgrade to the north through Valjevo, the Austro-Hungarian army could still occupy Serbia's western border to the south.

As long as the western border is completely occupied, it doesn't matter whether Belgrade is captured.

Without the protection of the western border, Serbia's small territory would be left to the Austro-Hungarian army to roam freely.

The border between Serbia and Austria-Hungary was mainly divided by the Drina River, and the Serbian army mainly relied on this river for defense.

The capture of Loznica was equivalent to opening a gap in this line of defense. The Austro-Hungarian army could continue to enter through this gap, cross the river and attack Serbia's land unscrupulously.

Knowing the importance of the western border, after the capture of Loznica, Serbia withdrew nearly 2 troops and planned to retake this important border town from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

As luck would have it, at that time the Austro-Hungarian Empire was planning to attack Valjevo in Serbia from Loznica to the southeast.

The regrouped Serbian army encountered the Austro-Hungarian army, which was ready to go. The attacking Serbian army had 3.5 troops, while the defending Austro-Hungarian army had 5 troops. From the number of troops, it can be seen who has a great advantage. At this time, one and a half months had passed since the outbreak of the war. The Austro-Hungarian Empire obtained a large number of weapons and equipment supplies from Spain and Italy, and a considerable number of rifles and artillery were transported to the southern battlefield.

Serbia was fortunate enough to become a victim of Spanish weapons.

As soon as the two sides encountered each other, their respective commanders issued orders to attack.

The clash of European armies was a contest between weapons, but also a contest between logistical supplies.

The weapons and equipment of the Austro-Hungarian Army were diverse, including some produced by itself and some supported by Germany, Italy and Spain.

It’s just that the weapons produced by themselves and those supported by Germany were used on the Polish battlefield, while the weapons and equipment supported by Italy and Spain were used on the Serbian battlefield because of the closer distance.

Because attacking Serbia was one of the important plans of the Austro-Hungarian army, the Austro-Hungarian Empire also attached great importance to the weapons and equipment of the attacking army.

These 5 troops were all equipped with more advanced rifles, including the Maxim M1884 rifles purchased by the Austro-Hungarian Empire from Spain.

Because this rifle was based on Spain's previous standard rifle, it can be used in a consistent manner.

The Austro-Hungarian soldiers armed with such rifles soon made the Serbian army feel what fire suppression meant.

As a country that had just gained independence from the Ottoman Empire, Serbia did not have a very developed industrial and economic base.

This has led to the fact that most of the Serbian army's weapons and equipment are exported from other countries, the most important of which are from Russia and the United Kingdom.

Because the Austro-Hungarian Empire occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina, the relationship between Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire took a sharp turn for the worse.

This is also the reason why Serbia purchased weapons and equipment from Russia and Britain. They needed to form a certain number of troops to guard against the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Because they were both Slavs, Serbia eventually turned to Russia.

This also led to the Serbian army mostly using Russian weapons and equipment, and the Russians were also very generous and sold the rifles equipped by their own army to the Serbs.

But it is obvious that the rifles used by the Russian army are still far behind the Spanish rifles.

As early as the birth of the breech-loading rifle, Spain was one of the first to try it out. Spain was also the leader in the subsequent birth of smokeless gunpowder, which also led to Spain's weapons and equipment being at the top of Europe and more popular with other countries.

During the previous Russo-Turkish War, Russia purchased a large number of weapons and equipment from Spain through population trade.

They have also experienced the performance of Spanish weapons and equipment, and their ally Serbia has simply experienced it in a different way.

The encounter lasted about three hours and ended with the complete defeat of the Serbian army.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was fully prepared for this attack. In addition to being ahead of the Serbian army in terms of rifles, it was also ahead in terms of the number of artillery pieces.

The Serbs, who had only experienced fighting against the Ottoman army, had never felt such exaggerated artillery suppression.

After holding out for less than three hours, the Serbian army's morale could no longer be maintained.

In the end, the number of casualties on both sides of this encounter exceeded tens of thousands.

Because the Austro-Hungarian Empire relied on the city's defense line, their casualties were actually lower than those of the Serbian army.

After this battle, the Serbian army's 3.5 troops had less than 3 available combat forces.

The casualties of the Austro-Hungarian Empire were better than those of Sivia, with more than 4.7 people still available for the next battle.

After leaving behind a part of its troops, the Austro-Hungarian army headed straight for Valjevo in the southeast without any hesitation.

The Serbian army had just suffered a defeat, and they did not expect the Austro-Hungarian Empire to counterattack so quickly. They did not expect that the Austro-Hungarian Empire would attack Valjevo in the south instead of Belgrade.

You have to know that the total population of Seville at that time was only about 270 million.

After the war broke out, the Serbian government issued a general mobilization order and expanded the army to about 10 people.

10 troops were already a lot for Serbia, whose population was less than 300 million, but for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, whose population was tens of millions, an army of this size was clearly not enough.

In the situation of fighting on two fronts, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had deployed 15 troops to the southern battlefield, and this was the number of troops after deducting casualties due to continuous fighting.

As for Serbia, although it is still mobilizing troops, the number of troops that can be mobilized is constantly decreasing.

After all, it is only a country with a population of 270 million. Under the extreme mobilization situation, it can mobilize at most 30 troops.

However, extreme mobilization will have an overall impact on the country's civil production, industrial economy, agriculture, and even all walks of life will be severely affected.

If Serbia really did this, even if it could win the war, Serbia would be destined to never rise again after the victory.

The Serbian government was still relatively rational at this time, and the mobilization red line they set was only 15 people.

This also means that once Serbia mobilizes 15 troops, it will be difficult for them to mobilize additional troops.

After one and a half months of general mobilization, Serbia still maintains nearly 10 combat troops.

But the price paid for this was that the mobilization quota of 15 troops had almost been filled, and there were still tens of thousands of wounded and sick soldiers lying in the hospitals in the rear.

So far, more than 10,000 soldiers have died in this war, and nearly 10,000 seriously injured soldiers are lying half-dead in hospitals. Most of them are still in critical condition, and their survival depends on God's will.

Even if the war stops now, Serbia has lost more than 2 people, which means that Serbia is likely to experience its first year of net population decline since its independence.

Moreover, this is not a decrease in the elderly population, but a decrease in the young and middle-aged population. Such a population decrease is quite serious, and it will not only affect the development of the next few years, but most likely the development of the next ten years.

Although Serbia still maintains an army of 10, nearly half of these 10 troops are responsible for protecting the capital, Belgrade.

This is also the disadvantage of having the capital located on the border, which is that a considerable portion of military forces must be dispersed to protect the safety of the capital.

There is no need to say much about the importance of the capital. Once the capital is captured, the country is likely to fall.

After reducing the 10 troops by half, Serbia only had 5 troops available.

A portion of these 5 people must be kept as reserve forces. When a certain line of defense is breached, they must rush to the loopholes in the line of defense to plug it and prevent it from being directly breached.

To put it simply, these 3.5 troops are almost the last troops that Serbia can mobilize.

The remaining troops are either defending the northern border or the western border and cannot be withdrawn.

The direction of the 3.5 troops' retreat was eastwards, after all, they had to protect the safety of the capital. This was equivalent to opening a big gap for the Austro-Hungarian army, allowing them to march towards their destination, Valjevo, without any obstacles.

(End of this chapter)