The Rise of the Empire

The tone of this matter has been set now, but the subsequent outcome depends on the situation. Germany will intervene at the appropriate time for mediation and negotiation, but there is a premise for this, that is, the Turkish army must perform well. Otherwise, what cannot be obtained on the battlefield cannot be obtained at the negotiation table! For people at the level of the Kaiser and Ruprecht, they will not invest much energy in this matter until the situation becomes clear. Just leave it to the people below to do it.

But for the Turks, this war was a real and huge crisis. Caught off guard, the Turks were beaten back step by step and lost part of Macedonia. However, the Balkan countries are still pressing forward step by step. Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece continue to compress Turkey's territory in Europe from three aspects.

However, after all, Turkey carried out reforms a few years earlier than in history, and its military and economic strength had improved. After the troops mobilized from Asia Minor and Mesopotamia and German assistance were in place, the Turkish Empire began to regain its strength and gradually stabilized the front line. Come down.

Under the guidance of the German officer corps, the Turks counterattacked very quickly. First, they carried out defensive mine-laying operations in the remaining coastal areas, using camouflaged mine-laying ships and small boats. The Turkish Navy dug out the mines in stock that were used against the Italians last time and then deployed them on large and small waterways in the northern Aegean Sea.

This action also caught the inexperienced Greek Navy a little off guard. On the third day after the Turkish Navy implemented mine laying, two Greek transport ships transporting troops were sunk by mines, and by the way, thousands of Greek army officers and soldiers sank. seabed. And this is not just fun. A week later, a Dandong-class pre-dreadnought ship also hit a mine in the waters near Samothrace. Although it did not sink in the end, the best outcome for this battleship was to go to the Alexandria dock for repairs for several months.

Mines, a simple but highly effective offshore defense weapon, have almost caused losses to all the world's naval powers. Even with prevention, problems will still occur from time to time. For a junior navy like Greece, it is necessary to use the equipment leased from France. The battleships of the small country were barely able to show off the power of the tiger, but the Turks were full of loopholes and immature sea minecraft, which actually turned the Aegean Sea coastal area into a forbidden area for the Greek navy. If the navy and transport ships cannot get through, it means that the southern region is safe. And then, the only directions the opponent could attack were the western and northern fronts.

Needless to say, the Western Front itself is conducive to defense, because the front is very narrow, and the Greek and Serbian legions cannot deploy their forces, and all military advantages are greatly reduced. As for the Northern Line? Although the battlefield is very wide, there is only one Bulgarian army on the relatively long front, and the number of the Bulgarian legion is nothing but that. As the country with the largest population and the largest territory among the Balkan countries, the size of the Bulgarian army is only smaller than that of Montenegro. A little more…. Therefore, for Turkey, which has been continuously transferring troops to the Balkans, the wide front has become its advantage.

The Germans did not dispatch a large number of troops for Turkey, but there was a lot of supplies and assistance. The Turkish army obtained 800 machine guns, 85 rapid-fire cannons, and 32 150MM heavy howitzers to fight in defensive operations. It’s also impressive, and this is just the first batch of aid. The entire war situation gradually changed from an offensive battle by the Balkan Alliance to a stalemate. The Serbian states were unable to break through the Turkish defenses, and equally the Turks were unable to launch a deadly counterattack.

General Shevkay, who is the actual ruler of Turkey, is quite satisfied with what the Germans have done.

He did not expect that Germany and Austria would really send a large army to launch an offensive from behind Serbia, because the result of this would be that a war between the Allies and the Entente would break out at the same time. Turkey was also not prepared for this kind of war that would determine the fate of the country, and rashly launched a direct attack. I don’t know the situation in Germany and Austria-Hungary, but at least the situation in Turkey will be very bad.

And he also knows that although we are allies, allies do not mean that they do everything. They only enjoy the benefits and do not provide help. Until now, Turkey has enjoyed the economic and military assistance it received from Germany, but Turkey has not done anything for it. What direct contribution did the Allied Alliance make, and the German government guaranteed that if a war breaks out in the future, Turkey can take back the occupied territories in the Balkans if the war is victorious, which can be considered a reassurance for the Turks.

Although Turkey's current national strength is still not as good as Italy, the worst among European powers. But in the face of the bloody facts, the Turks really understood the true meaning of the saying that if you fall behind, you will be beaten. The Turks feel that they can cope with the situation on land, but there is really no way to deal with the situation at sea. Three ships are in Among the first-rate naval powers, the Dandong-class quasi-dreadnought ship, which can only be considered second-rate or even third-rate, can show off its power at Turkey's doorstep. This feeling is really uncomfortable.

Historically, after suffering the consequences of having no defense at sea, Turkey, which had just ended the war, was able to order two dreadnoughts from Britain to deal with the crisis, and this plane is even more capable of doing so.

Therefore, even if the war is still going on, even if the financial situation is not good, and many of the war funds are advanced by Germany, Turkish leaders believe that both from the perspective of national defense and from the perspective of rewarding allies In terms of security, Turkey should make an announcement, for example, ordering two warships or something...

So, in January 1909. The ambassador of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in Berlin officially issued a request to the German government, hoping that the German government could build two super-dreadnought battleships for the Turkish Empire. The cost of each battleship is about 2.5 million pounds! The German government, which received the diplomatic call, directly placed an order for two warships, one to the Blomfors shipyard, and the other to the Germania shipyard in Kiel, under the instruction of the Kaiser.

As for how to build it specifically, the Kaiser directly put the blame on Ruprecht, who had just returned from Prague. After all, in the Kaiser's view, Turkey is still a very important ally, not one that just wants to make money. The navy that can come out must also be able to fight. After all, in the future, the Turkish Navy will be the key force for the Allies to dominate the Black Sea and control the Aegean Sea!

"It's finally stable." When Ruprecht saw the telegram that the Turkish representative was coming to Munich, Zhongzhu breathed a sigh of relief. Turkey finally decided to build a navy, and this had a huge impact on Ruprecht's plan. It is undoubtedly good news!

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