Chapter 1335 - 344: The New Meat Grinder—Southern Front

The Allies wield both carrot and stick, compelling Romania to comply, naturally contradicting Ferdinand I's wish to remain "neutral" until the end, so it's understandable that Ferdinand I felt some dissatisfaction.

Of course, Ferdinand I had many small schemes. His agreement to join the Allies certainly wasn't solely due to their threats; fundamentally, it also indicated he had a relatively optimistic view about the Allies' prospects.

Although the entry of the United States has greatly boosted the momentum of the Allies, the Allies currently hold a military advantage in Europe, not to mention the German Country's East Africa hasn't entered the fray overseas.

Crown Prince Rudolph doesn't care about Ferdinand I's little schemes; he only needs Romania to obediently follow the arrangement of the Allies, or rather, that of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Crown Prince Rudolph said, "You needn't worry too much; we don't need Romania to join the Western front. Your main task is to coordinate with us and Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire, attacking Greece, Albania, and other countries on the Balkan Peninsula."

"At the same time, organize an expeditionary force of at least two hundred thousand people to enter the territory of the Ottoman Empire, assisting us and the Ottoman Empire in reclaiming the coastlines of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, opening the trade routes between the Allies and East Africa."

"The Allied forces in these two directions are not strong. If we can rout the Allied forces in these two directions, our chance of winning will be even greater."

The Allies have obtained a large amount of Russian territory, but re-organizing local agricultural and industrial production to benefit the Allies will take time, and these new territories can't provide the Allies with strategic materials such as cotton, rubber, and sugar.

Therefore, the Allies clearly know that only by breaking the Allies' maritime blockade can the Allies stand invincible.

Among them, the easiest is to reclaim the lands along the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, so Crown Prince Rudolph, after discussing with Germany's William II, decided to have Austria-Hungary lead the new Eastern front battlefield affairs.

Leading the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, and Romania, clearing the Allies' forces along the Balkan Peninsula and the major passageways in the Middle East.

...

Romania joining the war and aligning with the Allies is terrible news for the Allies. Romania not only provides the Allies with nearly six hundred thousand elite soldiers but also resolves the Allies' oil shortage.

Because of investment in Romanian oil fields by East Africa and other countries, its oil production exceeded historical levels at the time, so relying on Romania's current oil production ensures there's no issue in keeping the Allies' cars and machinery running; not to mention Russia's Baku oil field can provide supplementary support to the Allies for a while.

Moreover, during the trade from East Africa with the Allies before 1918, the Allies themselves had stockpiled a large amount of gasoline and diesel.

This means that, for a long time, the Allies don't need to feel tense about energy problems. Currently, the energy the Allies need is no more than coal and oil, and the Allies never lack coal, with several member countries being coal-producing nations.

Besides ensuring industrial production and military needs, the energy for the Allies is crucial for guaranteeing social needs, especially winter heating for cities, particularly for Germany, the backbone of the Allies' military power.

Germany is the only high-latitude country among the Allies and is also the most industrially developed and populous, so Germany's energy demand far exceeds its allies like Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire.

After solving the energy problem, Germany's biggest issue is food, as human survival cannot be separated from "food and warmth," so energy and food are fundamental issues; but the food problem is easing as the Eastern European grain-producing regions are occupied.

Aside from gaining new food access routes, trade with East Africa is also a key reason why German society can maintain normalcy; from 1914 to 1918, East Africa exported a large amount of agricultural products to the Allies.

Especially important agricultural products like wheat, meat, sugar, which not only maintained the basic living needs of the Allies, but the Allies even had the capacity to import non-essential survival goods like tropical fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy, sweets from East Africa.

A typical statistic can illustrate the importance of East African export trade to the Allies: historically, it's estimated that at least over seven hundred thousand Germans died of hunger or hunger-induced diseases during World War I, but thanks to East Africa's existence, before 1918, Germany's essential living supplies were barely maintainable.

Moreover, the Allies also had the capacity to import enhanced non-essential survival goods from East Africa. Historically, Germany's food shortage problem became severe enough to threaten aristocratic survival.

For instance, an English woman, Blücher, married to a Prussian nobleman, wrote in her diary in January 1917: "We are growing thinner every day. The once plump body of the German nation has become a legendary past. Now, we are all skin and bones, with dark circles around our eyes, mainly pondering what the next meal will be."

Suppose there was no trade with East Africa and the Allies; the Allies would have struggled to continue as early as early 1917. Given that even nobles were disturbed by food shortages, the living conditions of ordinary citizens can be imagined.

Thus, reopening trade with East Africa is extremely important for the Allies, which is why Germany supports its allies like Austria-Hungary to seize the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea's coastlines.

For this, the Allies are even willing to abandon part of the troop support for the Western front to first eliminate the Allied forces within the Balkans and Ottoman Empire, to achieve the strategic aim of reopening trade with East Africa.

This strategy relies mainly on the army as the main force, although the naval power of Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire still exists, it's unable to challenge the overwhelming advantage of England and France's navy in the Mediterranean.

If not for weak naval forces, the Allies' target would likely not be the Balkans and Middle East, but the Suez Canal under British control.

August 1918.

With Austria-Hungary as the main force and Bulgaria and Romania in support, the Allies assembled nearly 1.2 million troops, officially sending them to fight within the Balkan Peninsula and Ottoman Empire.

Among them, seventy thousand belong to Austria-Hungary, thirty thousand from Bulgaria, twenty thousand from Romania, plus the original Allied forces fighting on the Greek and Albanian fronts, and the Ottoman Empire troops.

From the Balkan Peninsula to the Middle Eastern battlefield, the Allied forces exceeded five million, with the Ottoman Empire troops being the largest, reaching over two million, followed by Austria-Hungary with nearly two million, Bulgaria's troops in the Balkan Peninsula were around seventy thousand, lastly Romania, which just joined with only twenty thousand but will gradually increase its troops later.

As for the Allies, mainly England and France along with Greece, they gathered around four hundred thousand troops including those recruited from their colonies.

However, the Allies' composition of forces is worrying, with England the most numerous, the British Army in the Middle East reaching an astounding over two million, yet nearly ninety percent of the British troops are Indians. French forces are mainly composed of Black and North African whites, which makes the real combat effectiveness of the English and French forces possibly less reliable than Greece's, with less than seventy thousand troops.

Both sides reinforced the Balkan and Middle Eastern battlefields, turning the so-called "new" Eastern front into a Southern front not inferior to the Western and Eastern fronts during World War I.

Both sides fielded nearly ten million troops, fighting across the long battle line from the Balkans to the Middle East, and as time goes on, England and France will surely continue to enlist troops from India, Nanyang, North Africa, and West Africa to support the Southern front.

It's only a matter of time before the forces on the Southern front exceed ten million, rapidly transforming the entire Southern front into a new meat grinder.