Bulgarian Empire

Chapter 180: 40) 4 Uprising from Ottoman

Although the Sultan's government extinguished the uprising in Constantinople, there was no way to eliminate the aftermath, the formerly thriving cosmopolitan city; now it's almost like a ghost town!

Hundreds of thousands of people were buried here. It took more than a month just to clean up the bodies! The people who were lucky enough to escape also escaped instantly from this ominous land.

According to the official statistics of the Ottoman Empire after the war, the unrest caused the death of more than half a million people, including the loss of more than 30,000 soldiers involved in the quelling of the rebellion, and the economic losses were incalculable!

What mood the Turks were in now, Ferdinand did not know. Anyway, he was in a good mood. They extinguished this uprising in Constantinople, but the effects were far-reaching!

It was much more influential and destructive than it had been historically! It had shaken the foundation of Ottoman rule, and various regions began to grow vigorously with their revolutionary organizations.

The Greeks, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Blacks, and other ethnicities couldn't help themselves and joined the ranks against the Sultan's government!

With the secret support of Bulgaria and Greece, the Ottoman Empire began to be undermined from the Balkans to the Anatolian plateau!

The Albanians could not bear the long-standing brutal taxation by the Sultan's government and were influenced by the uprising in Constantinople.

With the secret support of Bulgaria, the Albanian Revolutionary Party planned a peasant revolt on July 14, 1895, and at one point also captured Durrs.

However, the uprising was composed of temporary and lacked strong organization, and they did not belong to each other and fought separately. The uprising broke out on July 14 and was extinguished by the Ottoman army on July 27, which lasted only 13 days!

After the end of the uprising, the Ottoman government ruled with a White Terror in the Albanian region. All organizations and individuals who supported or sympathized with the revolutionary party were persecuted!

In one moment, the entire Albanian Revolutionary Party was wiped out! Well, the Albanian Revolutionary Party in this era was not quite a political party, formed only by a few zealous young people or under the influence of Bulgaria.

A grassroots group, without formal preparation, under the influence of Bulgarian intelligence agents, and after providing a thousand rifles to support, hastily launched an uprising. Failure is inevitable!

On August 6, the Greeks launched another uprising in the Aegean coastal area of Asia Minor. The original plan was to launch the uprising on August 18, when the Greek navy would send a batch of supplies to support them, but they were betrayed by traitors and forced to launch it earlier.

Due to the early uprising, there was no time to receive support from the Greek government, and they extinguished the uprising just three days after it broke out!

Ferdinand knew that the Ottoman Empire had ruled Asia Minor for hundreds of years and that the local Greeks were mostly used to being ruled and not keen on the revolution!

As if this were not enough, on August 15, 1896, another uprising broke out in the heavily fortified Macedonian region of the Ottoman Empire.

This uprising can be divided into two stages, starting with the outbreak of the capitalist revolution in the region of Western Macedonia on August 15, when the insurgents once captured Kozani.

But due to the lack of prior preparation and the fact that the Ottoman Empire was in the Macedonian region with strong military power, the uprising soon fell into a slump.

It exposed the weakness of the capitalist, and after the uprising had fallen to a low point in the face of the Ottoman Empire's brutal repression, the revolutionary leaders decisively ran away. After the loss of the leader, the insurgent army began to split.

That was just the beginning, however; on August 24, another uprising broke out in the Kumanovo region of Macedonia. Due to Ferdinand's meddling, the Kumanovo did not attack the heavily-armed Skopje but instead turned towards Kosovo!

Well, actually, they drove it out! The Ottoman Empire had more than 100,000 troops stationed in the Macedonian region. The command is in Skopje, just over twenty kilometers from Kumanovo, so it's over if you don't leave!

This movement took place out like a bandit. Except at the beginning of the uprising was supported by the arms of Bulgaria. The rest of the time, the insurgents will have to test themselves to find a way.

No guns, no food, no supplies, looting! No soldiers, still loot, loot, loot!!!

The insurgents succeeded in carrying forward the essence of the word 'robbery' at the cost of the revolutionary army's change to a rogue army!

By the late stage of the uprising, it had already lost its spirit and was wreaking havoc all the way, starving people everywhere it went! In order to strengthen their ranks, the volunteers, under the training of Bulgarian instructors, fully learned the essence of the peasant uprisings of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong! (Translator: Rebels from late Ming Dynasty)

They raised the banner of fighting against the landowners and dividing the land. They constantly held the ordinary people hostage to participate along the way. As for the lack of willingness, that is simple: hold the people hostage to attack the estates of the Turkish aristocrats and then fully exploit them with the spiritual light, and after doing so, they have to set free a few informants.

Of course, if it is to believe in the high moral integrity of the aristocrats, who are not afraid of retaliation, the insurgents will not be forced to stay if they want to!

If it's just an insurgent army, then it's not a big deal, there is an Ottoman army chasing after it, and they can't harm many people.

'A bandit passes like a hairbrush, a soldier passes like a barb!'1) This is not the monopoly of Eastern dynasties, it is equally applicable in the West, and the Ottoman Empire is the best of them all!

They do not dare to move to the aristocratic lords' estates, but they are not so gracious to the ordinary people. It is not a problem to rob things politely, and it is easy to rape, pillage, and kill good people!

Of course, you can not completely blame the army that did not comply with military discipline. The Ottoman Empire's logistics are entirely too poor or inefficient. If you wait for the officials to deliver the supplies, it is estimated that the cabbage is cold!

At first, both sides are still doing real work, and in the later stages, the Ottoman soldiers are not paying attention!

They couldn't wait to be able to delay longer so they could keep salvaging! This fight went from Kumanovo to Kosovo, from Kosovo to Albania, and then back to the Macedonian area.

Both sides have formed a tacit agreement. The insurgents ran in front, and the Ottoman army then chased behind. From time to time to engage in a battle, the insurgents dropped a body to them as a military achievement.

The insurgent army could not win, and it had to run away! The Ottoman army is war-weary. Compared to the regular withholding of payment by the aristocratic lords, it is now a rare chance to make a profit by going to war!

To hell with military discipline! No matter what was done, the blame could be put on the rebels in front of them, kicking the actual benefits into their pockets, and the beautiful thing is that there was still a war to fight!

In the minds of ordinary soldiers or basic officers, it would be nice if they could not fight and loot with impunity!

In contrast, the top of the Ottoman army had a hard time. Although those below sent them a good amount of revenue according to the rules, he is under increasing pressure from the government!

After more than two months had passed, Chief Commander Kelter finally couldn't take it anymore, even though he knew his men were hoping to make a buck while they could, and it wasn't in their interest to take out the enemy now.

However, with the lesser of two evils, the most will be scolded for offending the people at the bottom. If you violate the Sultan's orders, the future is in danger!

Keeping thieves in their own right is also to be divided into objects. At least this group of rabble in front of you is not enough. Kelter knows that a random commander will win the war by taking command.

At that moment, they didn't dare to delay any longer and ordered all troops to attack with full force! The Ottoman army is serious!

Although they also lack training, morale is not high, but there is no pressure to deal with such a mob of insurgents!

When the Ottoman army started, the insurgent army could not stand it. Even though the force, now expanded to tens of thousands of men, was confronted with a much smaller number of regular troops, they still defeated it!

In order to preserve the revolutionary forces, the insurgents have scattered in all directions on the advice of Bulgarian intelligence agents. They suppressed the uprising, but the Macedonian region became even more chaotic!

The best choice for the routed soldiers is to settle down as a bandit and take over the mountain as a leader! It was easy to suppress the uprising but difficult to eliminate the mountain bandits! Until the Ottoman Empire completely lost the Balkans, it could not eliminate the mountain bandits everywhere!

In the future, Bulgaria occupied the Macedonian region but also launched a two-year campaign against bandits in order to clean up the place completely. Ferdinand said it is also considered to lift a stone and smash their own feet!

Translator:

1) It refers to the old days when the officials and soldiers harmed the people more than the thieves.