Chapter 754 - 347: Surrender

At this time, the Austro-Hungarian army was completely unaware of the chaos within Serbia, but this did not prevent them from launching major assaults on Serbian cities.

After conquering Uric, the Austro-Hungarian army did not head north to attack Belgrade as Serbia expected. Instead, they continued east along the roads, attacking the strategic transportation hub city of Starach within Serbian territory.

Compared to Uric, the city of Starach is smaller in scale. However, in terms of strategic importance as a transportation hub, Starach is in no way inferior to Uric.

As long as Starach is captured, even if the Serbian government still holds Belgrade, they would be forced to surrender.

Because this would mean that almost the entire interior of Serbia would be occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although the capital Belgrade is important, without the other regions, Serbia essentially becomes a shell of its former self.

Marching east from Uric, the Austro-Hungarian army once again appreciated the advantages provided by the roads.

The soldiers embarked on the roads one after another, not only did their marching speed increase, but supplies from the Austro-Hungarian Empire could also be delivered more efficiently to the soldiers.

Although continuing the eastward attack was somewhat of a rash advance, the Austrian army had undertaken detailed preparations.

In Loznica and Valjevo, there were two armies, each with 20,000 troops, stationed. The purpose of these two garrisons was precisely to protect the Austro-Hungarian army deep in the Serbian heartland, preventing their retreat route from being cut off by the Serbian forces.

The facts proved that these two armies protecting the retreat route did indeed play a significant role.

The Serbian government attempted a final gamble even after the scales of war had completely tilted towards the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The final gamble was to mobilize all the troops they could muster to attack the Austro-Hungarian-occupied Loznica.

Loznica was the westernmost border town and the breach in the Austro-Hungarian defense line. If this gap could be sealed, the Austro-Hungarian army deep in Serbian territory would be completely cut off, and then Serbia could fully encircle this army.

If this army could be destroyed, the outcome of the war would truly be uncertain. After all, the main force of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was in the northern Polish Plain, and in the south, only about a hundred thousand troops were actually present.

But while the ideal is rich, reality is quite harsh.

Serbia reorganized a force of over 40,000 troops, launching a massive assault on Loznica.

The 20,000 Austro-Hungarian troops defending here held off the 40,000 Serbian troops for several days until 20,000 reinforcements from Valjevo arrived, successfully repelling Serbia’s last counterattack.

Seeing the ineffectiveness of the final counterattack, the Serbian government completely lost its will to fight.

On May 3, 1889, the Austro-Hungarian army broke through the Serbian heartland city of Starach, and an army of 80,000 marched north from Loznica, Valjevo, and Starach to attack Belgrade.

This was like doomsday for Serbia. Not only was the capital Belgrade facing a situation of being attacked from both the north and south, but many internal Serbian cities were also facing the onslaught of the Austro-Hungarian forces.

After all, this was a war, and the Austrians’ attitude towards the Serbians would not be overly merciful.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire had placed a great emphasis on maintaining order after occupying Serbian cities, many atrocities such as burning, killing, and looting still occurred.

To preserve the fighting strength of the army, such things could only be restrained, not completely eradicated.

This caused great suffering for the Serbians in the occupied cities. On the one hand, they harbored deep hatred for the invading Austrians, and on the other hand, they were deeply resentful of the ineffectual Serbian government.

Under the watchful eyes of European countries, a major upheaval erupted in the Serbian capital of Belgrade.

First, groups of protesters stormed the government and parliament, holding banners demanding the dismissal of the Cabinet, venting their dissatisfaction with the government and parliament.

Belgrade, as the capital, would not be shaken by mere civil unrest.

But the turning point came right here. Serbian King Milan Obrenovic decisively announced the dissolution of the Cabinet, the dismissal of Parliament, and the formation of a wartime interim cabinet, declaring his commitment to end the war and save the Serbian people in the occupied territories.

If this had been done before the outbreak of the war, King Milan Obrenovic of Serbia would definitely not have gained the people’s support.

After all, he himself was a monarch who favored absolute monarchy, and the stability of his throne still relied on foreign aid.

But in the situation where the Cabinet had lost popular support, King Milan Obrenovic of Serbia’s move to forcefully dissolve the Cabinet and Parliament unexpectedly gained him some favor among the people.

Not long after announcing the dissolution of the Cabinet, Milan Obrenovic, in his capacity as King, issued an order to the Serbian army on the front lines, instructing them to surrender to the Austro-Hungarian forces and bring an end to this war that should never have occurred.

Although the Serbian army on the front lines was shocked by the orders from home, they had no choice but to comply.

After all, the logistics and supply of the Serbian army were entirely reliant on the government. If the government did not support the war, their persistence would have been in vain.

On that very day, the resisting Serbian army surrendered en masse to the Austro-Hungarian forces.