Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 519: Yiprahin's Formation
Since the national population was less than 20 million, and less than 50% of the Ottomans were pure Ottomans at that time, and he had been in power for too short a time, the country really accelerated too late. Therefore, when expanding the new army, Ibrahim was greatly restricted.
After more than three years of selfless work and diplomatic success, the Ottoman Empire now has ten new divisions. Among them, four are basically composed of Ottomans. The remaining six are one Armenian division, one Azerbaijani division, one Georgian division, two Arab divisions and one Slavic division.
Of these six divisions, the first five were either from the Caucasus or from the Mesopotamian Plain—these were places where Ibrahim had fought or governed, and the soldiers from these places were generally quite loyal. As for the last Slavic division, its soldiers were mainly sourced from the Balkan Peninsula. It was hard to say how loyal and combat-capable this division was.
In addition to these ten new divisions, the Ottoman Empire still had about 300,000 old-style troops. But these troops were really vulnerable in front of the new EU army.
After all, even if we ignore the huge generation gap in equipment, one of the backbones of the old Ottoman army, the Sultan's personal guard group, has been destroyed. And what about the other backbone, the Sipasis? The best of them have been selected into the new army, and those Sipasis who adhere to tradition and have the money to buy armor and war horses for themselves can barely be considered heavy cavalry. And those who do not manage their estates well and come to report on a poor horse, are really not even as good as light cavalry.
After these two backbones were basically destroyed, the remaining ordinary soldiers were nothing more than cheap bullet consumables in front of the machine guns.
Therefore, Yiplashin simply decided: in addition to the ten divisions and 150,000 new troops, the country would no longer mobilize ordinary civilians for logistical support. The 300,000 old-style troops, except for a small number of troops with strong combat effectiveness to provide support, would contract out the rest of the logistical work.
However, in addition to the 150,000 new troops, the Ottomans still had more than 50,000 combat-capable troops.
One is a division from the Ming Dynasty. In Zhu Youdong's view, before the Ottoman Empire completely fell, the Ming Dynasty would not have a major war for a long time. However, the war between the EU and the Ottoman Empire would inevitably speed up the innovation of military technology and tactics again. Therefore, it is very necessary for the Ming Dynasty to send a troop to observe the Ottoman Empire nearby, and if necessary, participate in some low-intensity wars.
The Privy Council strictly implemented the emperor's order. After coordination with Chen Zizhuang, the Ming ambassador to Austria, the Ming sent the Sixth Division led by Zhao Lujiao to enter the Ottoman Empire in advance. This division had the exclusive title of "Iron Wall" and was famous for its defense.
In addition to the Ming Dynasty, the Safavid dynasty of Persia also sent two divisions equipped with new weapons for support: Abbas I made such a move instead of taking advantage of the situation, on the one hand, he liked Ibrahim, a young man who had defeated him. On the other hand, it was the long-term vision of the hero: he knew very well that if the Ottoman Empire failed to withstand the attack of the European Union, Persia would definitely be the next target.
In addition, Datar launched a frenzied attack on the Mughal Empire in southern India at this time, which greatly relieved the pressure on the Persian border in the east. Abbas I wanted to take this opportunity to lead his troops north again and wipe out the Uzbeks entrenched in Central Asia. After completing the military reform, the Persians did not need so many troops to fight the Uzbeks. Therefore, it was no problem to withdraw two divisions to support the little brother Ibrahim.
However, His Majesty Abbas was not a time traveler after all, so the new Persian military division had a full strength of 20,000 people: four infantry regiments, one artillery regiment, and a cavalry brigade with a total of 5,000 people.
"After full mobilization and with the help of our allies, we have assembled a total of more than 200,000 troops equipped with all new weapons. After repeated consultations with the generals and with the approval of the Grand Vizier, our troop deployment is as follows:"
Richelieu's voice rang out again in the meeting hall: "The Slavic Division, the Ottoman Third Division, and the Arab First Division will be stationed in Alexandria. The commander-in-chief of the front line is Nicholas Boris. The two Persian Divisions, the Ottoman Fourth Division, the Arab Second Division, and the Azerbaijani Division will be stationed around Jerusalem. The commander-in-chief of the front line is Ibrahim Hussein. If the enemy attacks Jerusalem, they will be responsible for defense. If the enemy does not come, they will be mobile forces.
The Ottoman 1st and 2nd Divisions, the Georgian Division, and the Armenian Division, these four divisions will be on the east side of Istanbul... Pasha, do you have any questions?"
"Sir, I don't mean to question you. But according to the arrangement you just mentioned, we have so many places in Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Greece. Are we going to give up all of them?"
"Let me answer this question." Ibrahim stood up and said, "Ali Pasha, I think you have already watched the new army's exercises?"
"Yes, Grand Vizier."
"Then do you think that after our four divisions reach the Hungarian front, can they hold the long front under the heavy pressure of 200,000 enemy troops with the same equipment as our new army?"
Seeing the Pasha speechless, Ibrahim walked to the center of the meeting room and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the innovation of military technology has brought about a huge change in the form of war. In the upcoming war, repeated battles in trench warfare will be the main form. To conduct trench warfare, with our limited manpower, we cannot defend a very wide front. We can only dig six trenches east of Istanbul to defend this narrow line of defense.
At the same time, due to the change in the form of war, the consumption of ammunition by both the attackers and the defenders has increased exponentially compared to the past. As a result, logistical support is very important. Our side deployed defenses near Istanbul, and the logistical pressure is almost zero. However, the enemy's logistical pressure is self-evident as they cross the rugged Balkan Peninsula. "
At this point, Ibrahim's strategy was very clear: relying on the two strong cities of Istanbul and Alexandria, he would engage in trench warfare and even urban street fighting with the European coalition forces. He would consume a large amount of the enemy's manpower and dampen their morale. He would wait for the opportunity to fight: the Ottoman Empire had a lot of internal problems. For example, when allocating troops, they had to consider their place of origin and beliefs. However, the Ottoman Empire was a country after all, while the European Union was an alliance of hundreds of political entities. As long as the war lasted long enough, the first problem to arise would definitely be the European Union!
"Your Excellency," another Pasha stood up. "Are we just going to retreat in one big step and abandon the entire Balkans without any resistance?"
"Of course not. We will use the Sipasi of the manor in the Balkans as the main force and organize a part of the light cavalry to conduct guerrilla warfare, striving to strike a powerful blow to the enemy's logistics lines."
However, that was the Balkans. Ibrahim knew very well that he had been in power for too short a time and had no time and energy to build a strong navy. In North Africa, where wars were almost all fought along the coast, there was no need to think about harassing the enemy's logistics.
"Sir, I have a suggestion."
"Oh? What does Emre Pasha have to say?"
"We should organize the Crescent Moon followers in the Balkan Peninsula. This is a holy war after all. We should arm all the Crescent Moon followers and launch guerrilla warfare against the Europeans in the mountains, in the fields, and wherever possible."
The Star-Crescent Sect in the Balkans? Ibrahim muttered: Aren’t they the Muslims in Bosnia and Herzegovina in later generations?
In fact, the ethnic differences between Croats, Serbs and Muslims in the Balkan Peninsula are much smaller than the differences between people in the north and south of China. But people in the north and south of China are all Chinese, and here they are three ethnic groups that are at loggerheads.
The root cause is religion: Croats believe in Catholicism, Serbs believe in Orthodoxy, and Muslims believe in Star and Crescent Christianity.
Of these three ethnic groups, the Serbs are pretty good at fighting. The Croats are also pretty good at running the economy. As for the Muslims...
In the mid-20th century, during World War II, the German SS had many foreign divisions. Among them, the SS divisions of the three Baltic countries fought very well. The main source of troops was the Holy Sword Division of the Muslims from the Balkan Peninsula. In addition to harming the people, they also served as Tito's transport captain, sending large quantities of Germany's sophisticated weapons to Tito's guerrillas many times.
In short, Ibrahim would not raise the banner of jihad: at least more than 30% of ordinary people in the Ottoman Empire did not believe in the Star and Crescent, and more than 40% of officials were not members of the Star and Crescent. If you raise the banner of jihad, the gains may be far less than the losses.
"Everyone." Ibrahim emphasized: "In this war, although Philip of Spain raised the banner of retaking Jerusalem and Constantinople and waging a holy war, we cannot follow suit and shout slogans of holy war. In my opinion, a country like our Ottoman Empire where multiple ethnic groups and religions coexist peacefully cannot be limited to religion. For us, this war is about defending our homeland and resisting aggression! All the people in the empire who do not want their land to be plundered and their families to be innocently killed must abandon their past disagreements and unite to resist foreign enemies.
When we promote this to the people at home, we must remember not to promote it as a religious dispute. On the contrary, we should remind our people that during the Crusades hundreds of years ago, those shameless Europeans dared to destroy the Byzantine Empire and even massacred Constantinople for their own benefit. These guys are simply a group of vicious robbers under the banner of religion! For us, this is not a religious war, but a just patriotic war in which 20 million subjects of the empire must participate! "
