Re: Blood and Iron

As 1913 entered the middle of its year, Bruno found himself deployed away from home for the first time in a very long time. Since the end of the Russian Civil War, he had more or less operated primarily out of the Central Division of German High Command, meaning he was no more than an hour's commute back and forth from his home.

For the better part of a year now, Bruno had been given command over the 8th German Army, a unit of some renown, especially during their newest commander's past life, where they had been responsible for the victories at Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes.

The conclusion of these battles had more or less cemented a German victory in the east, even if it took the Russian Empire another two years to fully capitulate. In this life, however, Russia was an ally of the German Empire, and thus Bruno was not sent to East Prussia to guard against a potential Russian invasion.

Instead, he was sent into the Balkans, specifically to the borders with the Kingdom of Serbia. The German 8th Army combined with the Austro-Hungarian 5th Army, as well as the Russian 1st and 2nd Armies, combining into a force of roughly one million men in total.

These armies were equipped with the latest weaponry employed by the three European nations within the United Imperial Powers and had deployed to the easternmost territories of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as security concerns in the region became increasingly present. To put it simply, the Second Balkan War had already begun and was nearing its end. The Kingdom of Bulgaria was losing, badly. And in their efforts to claim Thrace for themselves, Bulgaria had managed to effectively antagonize all of its neighbors into declaring war on them.

Whether it was Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, the Ottoman Empire, or even Romania, which, as a result of Bruno's grim warning, had tried its best to stay neutral until now, Bulgaria found itself beset on all sides by a coalition of enemies who under any other circumstances would be just as likely to fight among themselves as they currently were with Bulgaria.

Even if Bruno had some form of inexplicable desire to aid Bulgaria in its defense, doing so now served no practical purpose as the war, which was meant to last no more than two months, was already nearing its completion.

Because of this, Bruno had been dispatched to the southeasternmost portion of Austro- Hungary with 300,000 men in tow under the guise of joint-security operations within regions of Habsburg rule that were showing revolutionary sentiment.

As for the roughly 500,000 Russians, they were set upon their own borders, which neighbored the belligerent nations of the Balkans, under a similar fa?ade. The very act, while seemingly hostile to the world, had some validity in the eyes of the public, as recent attacks by partisans, ethnic militias, and religious extremists against other such communities warranted some kind of Gendarmerie response.

Although many foreign political and military analysts concluded that the overwhelming number of troops sent into the Balkans by the three European nations of the United Imperial Powers was a pretext for far more sinister plans, such as an outright and total invasion of the independent nations within the region.