Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 349 Surrender
At this time, the Austro-Hungarian army was completely unaware of the chaos in Serbia, but this did not prevent them from attacking Serbian cities.

After capturing Uzice, the Austro-Hungarian army did not go north to attack Belgrade as Serbia had expected, but continued eastward along the road to attack Starácsy, another transportation hub in Serbia.

Compared with Užice, Starácsy is smaller in size, but its strategic importance as a transportation hub is no less than that of Užice.

As long as they captured Starać, even if the Serbian government still defended Belgrade, they would be forced to surrender.

Because this means that almost all of Serbia's hinterland was occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The capital Belgrade is important, but without other places, Serbia would essentially exist in name only.

Marching eastward from Užice, the Austro-Hungarian army once again felt the benefits of having roads.

The soldiers took to the roads one after another, which not only made the marching speed faster, but also allowed the supplies from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to be transported to the soldiers more efficiently.

Although continuing to attack eastwards was a bit rash, the Austrian army had also made detailed preparations.

There were also 2 troops stationed in Loznica and Valjevo respectively. The purpose of these two troops stationed here was to protect the Austro-Hungarian army deep into the heart of Serbia and prevent the army's retreat route from being cut off by the Serbian army.

It turned out that these two armies protecting the retreat route were indeed very useful.

After the balance of war had completely tilted towards Austria-Hungary, the Serbian government still tried to make a last-ditch effort, which was to mobilize all the troops that could be mobilized to attack Loznica occupied by Austria-Hungary.

Loznica is the westernmost border town and the gap in the defense line torn open by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If this place can be blocked, the Austro-Hungarian army deep into the heart of Serbia will be completely cut off, and Serbia will be able to completely surround this army.

If this army could be destroyed, it would be hard to say who would win or lose the war. After all, the main force of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was in the Polish plains in the north, and the army in the south actually only had a few hundred thousand people.

But the ideal is full, the reality is very skinny.

Serbia reorganized more than 4 troops and launched a massive attack on Loznica.

The 2 Austro-Hungarian troops defending here managed to hold back the 4 troops for several days. Finally, 2 reinforcements from Valjevo came to support and successfully repelled Serbia's final counterattack.

Seeing that the final counterattack had lost its effect, the Serbian government completely lost its fighting spirit.

On May 1889, 5, the Austro-Hungarian army broke through the Serbian hinterland city of Starać, and 3 troops marched northward from Loznica, Valjevo and Starać to attack Belgrade.

This was like the end of the world for Serbia. Not only would the capital Belgrade face being attacked from both the north and the south, but many cities within Serbia would also face the baptism of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This was a war after all, and the Austrians would not be too kind to the Serbs.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire paid great attention to maintaining order after occupying the city of Serbia, there were still a lot of burning, killing and looting.

In order to maintain the combat effectiveness of the army, such things can only be prevented but not eliminated.

This also made things difficult for the Serbs in the occupied cities. On the one hand, they hated the Austrian invaders very much, and on the other hand, they also hated the Serbian government for doing nothing.

Under the watchful eyes of European countries, a major riot broke out in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia.

First, the demonstrators attacked the government and parliament. People held up banners calling for the removal of the cabinet and expressed their dissatisfaction with the government and parliament.

Belgrade is the capital after all. If it is just a demonstration by the people, it is impossible to endanger the government's rule.

But the turning point was precisely here. Serbian King Milan Obrenović decisively announced the abolition of the cabinet, the dissolution of the parliament, and the establishment of a temporary wartime cabinet, announcing that he would be committed to ending the war and saving the Serbian people in the occupied areas.

If it were before the war broke out, Serbian King Milan Obrenovic would definitely not have received public support.

After all, he himself is a monarch who advocates absolute monarchy, and the stability of his throne still needs foreign support.

However, when the cabinet had already lost the support of the people, Serbian King Milan Obrenovic's act of forcibly dissolving the cabinet and parliament actually won him some favor from the people.

Shortly after announcing the dissolution of the cabinet, Milan Obrenovich, as king, issued an order to the Serbian troops on the front line, demanding that they surrender to the Austro-Hungarian army and end this war that should not have happened.

Although the Serbian troops on the front line were very surprised by the orders from home, they had to obey.

After all, the Serbian army's logistical supplies all come from the government. If the government does not support this war, it will be of no use for them to persist.

On the same day, the resisting Serbian troops surrendered to the Austro-Hungarian army one after another.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire also accepted these surrenderers quite generously and provided them with relatively rich three meals a day.

This was one of the ways the Austro-Hungarian Empire won over the people. Serbia was like a nail, seriously blocking the expansion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire into the Balkan Peninsula.

This also means that if the Austro-Hungarian Empire wants to expand southward again, it must solve the biggest problem, Serbia.

It would be a better way to put all the responsibility and impact of the war on the Serbian cabinet government, thereby getting rid of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's crimes against the Serbs in this war.

Although some Serbs hated the Austro-Hungarian Empire, at least there was the Serbian government to help share the blame.

And there are other purposes for letting the Serbian government take the blame. The war broke out because the pro-Russian Serbian government was very hostile to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The pro-Russian Serbian government had great ambitions for the Bosnia and Herzegovina region occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. With the support of Russia, they even sidelined the pro-Austrian Serbian King Milan Obrenovic.

If the responsibility for this war could be shifted to the pro-Russian Serbian government and the pro-Austrian Serbian king could be put in power, this would definitely be good news for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

If Serbia turns pro-Austrian again, it will not only not become an obstacle to the continued expansion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but it will even become a powerful helper for the Austro-Hungarian Empire in its fight against Russia.

Balkan nations like Serbia and Bulgaria, although their territory and population are small, their fighting power is indeed very strong.

This place has been a battlefield since ancient times. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, it became the front line for European countries to fight against the Ottoman Empire.

Although the Ottoman Empire is now weak, it has become the front line of the confrontation between Russia and Austria. It is precisely because of so many experiences that the people here have formed a very tough and warlike character. The Serbian army of the same size can also play a good combat effectiveness against the Austro-Hungarian army. If it were not for their poor level of weapons and equipment and logistical supplies, it would be quite difficult for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to win this war so easily.

For the Austro-Hungarian Empire, if it could arm 10 Serbian troops, the role they would play would be comparable to that of 10 most elite Austro-Hungarian troops.

These 10 people can hold back at least 20 Russian troops. If there is another war with Russia in the future, the role of the Serbs will obviously be quite important.

The news of Serbia's surrender caused an uproar in Europe and made almost all countries focus their attention on the ongoing war on the Polish Plain.

In fact, Germany, Austria and Russia had no intention of putting all their efforts into this war.

This also made the war on the Polish Plain more like a real-combat exercise among the countries. The three countries all sent a certain number of troops to test various weapons and equipment developed by themselves on the one hand, and to try out various array deployments and tactical ideas on the other.

The Austro-Prussian War and the Franco-Prussian War completely swept line infantry into the trash can, but European countries have not yet reached a clear conclusion on the various strategic deployments and tactical ideas for the latest war.

This war between the three great powers was obviously a good way to explore. The war between the three countries on the Polish Plain attracted many great powers to send military observation groups to record the details of each battle, for fear of missing out on any critical moments.

After Serbia announced its defeat, the three countries all knew that this war would not last long.

There is no need for everyone to fight to the death. After all, the main focus of this war is still on the Balkan Peninsula, and the current war in the Balkan Peninsula has ended.

On the fifth day after Serbia's surrender, an envoy sent by Tsar Alexander III officially arrived in the German capital of Berlin and requested peace talks on the war.

For Germany at this time, this war can be said to have satisfied their goals.

After all, Germany had not experienced a large-scale war since the Franco-Prussian War, and this war with the Russians was a good philosopher's stone.

It turns out that even after nearly 20 years, the German army is still one of the most powerful armies currently.

In the limited-scale war on the Polish Plain, the German army achieved the greatest results with the lowest soldier losses, which is the best evidence and proof of the German army's strong combat effectiveness.

Currently, among the three countries of Germany, Austria and Russia, Germany's casualty ratio is as high as 1:3, which means that on average every 1 German soldier can replace 3 Russian soldiers.

奥匈帝国最精锐的军队能够达到1:2的战损比，普通的军队只能达到1:1或者1:1.5的战损比。

The Russian army was the worst in combat effectiveness. It was not without elite troops that could fight Germany and Austria at a 1:1 loss ratio, but the size of the elite troops was limited.

The casualty ratios of most armies were terrible, and those that were urgently mobilized were even worse.

It is precisely because of the drag of these less combat-effective troops that Russia's casualty ratio looks so bad.

However, this is not a bad thing for Russia. After all, Russia's population is several times that of Germany and Austria, so such a loss ratio is not too serious for Russia.

Russia can grit its teeth and bear tens of millions of casualties, but the question is, do Germany and Austria-Hungary dare to bear millions of casualties?

This was not the time of World War I, and the population of Germany and Austria-Hungary was not as large as it was during World War I.

According to current estimates from various sources, the population of Germany should be around 4780 million, and the population of the Austro-Hungarian Empire should be around 3980 million, which are already at a good level compared with other European countries.

You have to know that at that time the population of Britain was only 3200 million, and the population of France was only 3950 million. A country with a population close to 4000 million can be considered a populous country in the world.

After all efforts to catch up, Spain's population is only 2560 million. This is also the biggest advantage of European countries compared to Spain. The population has allowed the comprehensive national strength of each country to continue to rise, and the mobilizable army has also expanded from hundreds of thousands to millions or even tens of millions.

Although Germany and Austria-Hungary had large populations, they seemed insignificant compared to Russia.

The current statistics on the Russian population can only be limited to an approximate range. There is no other way, Russia's territory is too large, and it is difficult to calculate the population on this land.

Moreover, Russia's internal administrative system was rather chaotic and corrupt. Even a streamlined government like Spain, which had been reformed, was unable to keep a detailed count of the domestic population, not to mention the Tsarist government, which was more difficult to count and more corrupt.

The Tsarist Russian government could only make a rough estimate of its population, which was approximately 1.1 million.

After Spain conducted certain statistics on Russia's birth and death data in recent years, it estimated that Russia's population data may be as high as 1.12 million.

Don't underestimate these two decimal places. Even if it is only 0.02, when added to the 200 million population, it still amounts to million people.

Moreover, such statistics are not very precise, and it is very likely that millions of Russians are excluded from the statistics.

After all, technology was not well developed in that era, and no country could achieve relatively detailed population statistics.

But what is certain is that Russia has the largest population among all the major powers, and its population is far greater than the sum of the second and third places.

Such a population advantage is exactly what Russia relies on, and it is also the reason why Russia is not afraid of any war.

Considering Russia's huge population alone, it was enough for the German government to seriously consider the need for peace talks.

If Russia was really provoked, Germany and Austria-Hungary would have to mobilize more than a million troops in addition to mobilizing millions of troops.

If war cannot achieve its purpose, then it will only be a waste of resources and money.

Although the war between Germany and Russia was fought on the Polish plains, Germany at that time had no idea about Russia occupying Poland.

If Germany wants to take this piece of Poland, the price it has to pay is definitely very high. Instead of doing this, it is better to enter into peace talks with Russia earlier.

Anyway, the original purpose of this war has been achieved. Not only did the Austro-Hungarian Empire solve the problem of Serbia, it even had the hope of making further progress in the Balkan Peninsula.

If Austria-Hungary goes further in the Balkans, it means that Russia must withdraw from the Balkans. This is a strengthening of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and a weakening of Russia.

(End of this chapter)