Chapter 745 - 344: The Collapse of the Defensive Line

Although only four countries were involved in this war, its impact spread across the entirety of Europe.

Among the four countries involved in this war, except for Serbia, which has a relatively small population and area, the remaining powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia are Europe’s main grain-exporting countries.

Especially Russia, as the country with the largest population in Europe, its grain production is also the highest in Europe.

The Ukrainian Plain is known as the granary of Europe; the grain it produces each year is sold throughout Europe and is also a primary source of foreign exchange earnings for Russia.

The grain produced by Russia primarily includes barley, wheat, rice, corn, potatoes, and beets, among others, with wheat and rice being the most important, both planted around April and May each year.

This also implies that this war is likely to affect the grain planting of the warring countries and might even affect the harvests in a few months.

Without even considering the harvest issue, the planting of wheat and rice is bound to be affected.

Although Russia’s climate is colder and the planting and harvesting times for crops are delayed, the Ukrainian Plain is not considered a northern cold region compared to Germany and Austria-Hungary.

The planting time for wheat and rice on the Ukrainian Plain is from late April to early May, and it’s already mid to late March now, which means that in about a month, the Ukrainian region will commence grain planting.

Although the war is being fought on the Polish Plain, the grain planting on the Ukrainian Plain will inevitably be affected due to Russia diverting a large portion of its manpower post-mobilization.

Because in any era and any country, once war breaks out, most of the mobilized troops are farmers.

The reason is simple: farmers always constitute the majority of a country’s population.

With European grain production sure to decrease, the agricultural department of Spain has also submitted a new agricultural development plan to the Cabinet Government, intending to extensively plant grain both domestically and in the colonies to capture the European grain market.

With the outbreak of war, not only will Europe’s total grain production decrease, but the overall consumption will also dramatically increase.

This is partly due to the consumption of the war and partly due to the losses incurred in grain transport during wartime.

For Spain, as long as it can increase grain production, it signifies definite profit in grain exports.

After all, Spain itself hasn’t been affected by the war, meaning that the costs for farmers to plant grain won’t increase. With costs stable, the more grain sold, the more profit made.

This war is somewhat unfortunate because neither of Carlo’s main adversaries, the United Kingdom and France, joined the conflict.

If England and France were involved, Spain would certainly launch its plan to annex Morocco and Portugal.

But now, due to the British still watching intently, Spain can only cancel any military plans and quietly await the development of this war.

While the war rages on in Poland, Austria-Hungary has also launched a large-scale offensive against Serbia.

To speak frankly, the cause of this war roots from the conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, with this conflict being the focus of the war.

Russia stands firm against hundreds of thousands of the German-Austrian Alliance in Poland, which counts as good news for Serbia. However, this good news doesn’t change the fact that Serbia is steadily retreating on the frontline; if Serbia can’t get reinforcements, this war won’t last very long.

From the very beginning of the conflict, the Serbian capital, Belgrade, became the primary offensive direction for Austria-Hungary.

Under relentless artillery bombardments, the areas of Belgrade near the border quickly became a heap of ruins.

The Serbian government also had to relocate to the southern suburbs of Belgrade, where they could distance themselves from Austria-Hungary’s artillery range.

As for completely evacuating the capital, Belgrade, it’s a notion the Serbian government has never considered.

If the capital was moved from Belgrade, it would mean Serbia has already conceded on this matter. If the government conceded, naturally, the army on the frontlines would lack strong will to fight.

This is also why the Serbian government hasn’t evacuated, as they still hope to win this war.

If they lose this war, they would have to hand over the rebel leader of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This handover means they would completely lose control over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Thus, the plan for a Greater Serbia would become a mere fantasy. What can be achieved with just the small population and land within the country? Given the current size and population, Serbia is entirely incomparable to another big country on the Balkan Peninsula, Romania, and is akin to the yet partially independent Bulgaria.

On March 21, 1889, Austrian-Hungarian forces engaged in fierce battles with Serbian forces along the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

Austria-Hungary deployed more than 40,000 troops, three divisions, while the Serbian defenders numbered close to 20,000.

The Austrian-Hungarian army crossed the river to attack the Serbian border town of Loznica on the opposite side, and after several days of strong assault, forced the Serbian defenders to abandon this border town.