Re: Blood and Iron

"Tattered Banners on the Greek Border" were the headlines that appeared throughout international news outlets over the course of the following days, depicted corpses as far as the eyes could see, many of which were grouped together around both national and regimental colours.

To put it simply, after being caught in between the German Army, and their rapid advance, as well as the courageous sons of Leonidas who held their ground long enough against overwhelming odds for it to pay off the Allied Forces in the South of Serbia were completely annihilated.

Annihilation in terms of military context didn't necessarily mean the death or injury of every soldier. It simply meant reducing the enemy military's capabilities to fight to a non-existent level forcing the enemy commanders to surrender.

And surrender they did, but only after losing the majority of their entire force. What remained of the Serbian Provisional Army, or at least those who had not found a way to desert the chaos with their lives intact, had surrendered their arms and waved the white flag.

But enough casualties were sustained to forever change the course of Serbia's history as a nation. Even though the Austro-Hungarians and Russians were miles behind their German Allies, having not yet even captured the city where the Serbian Provisional Government hid away, the war in Serbia itself had effectively come to an end.

All that was needed was for Bruno to officially accept their surrender. And surrender they would. There was no other option. Even their attempts to rally their entire population, which was capable of taking up arms had resulted in an unmitigated disaster.

There was simply no feasible solution for them to continue to resist. Serbia had fallen, and Montenegro was surrounded and currently being assaulted by German forces on all sides. This meant that the only other player in the Balkans currently on the allied side was the Ottoman Empire, who were already dealing with an invasion from Russian Occupied Armenia into their territory in Anatolia. However, with Serbia's fall, Thrace had now become Bruno's concern. There was just a matter of finding out how exactly to launch such an invasion. Hence why he first decided to deal with the aftermath of battle, along with visiting the Serbian Provisional Government where he would wait for the German Kaiser, Austro- Hungarian Emperor, Russian Tsar, and of course the King of Greece to come together and force some form of peace treaty acknowledging their victory, and whatever terms the Habsburgs required for satisfaction.

Bruno had no way of knowing it, but the Kaiser was extremely tempted to just throw medals at him. Technically speaking, the man had already accomplished all that qualified for awards that had only ever been given to monarchs.

For example, the Grand Cross of the Pour Le Merite with Oakleaves. But... Bruno was only really now showing his capabilities as an exceptional military commander on behalf of the German Army. Every battle he had won in the past for the Fatherland was a junior officer during the Boxer Rebellion.

And those were small scale skirmishes in a war not worthy of issuing a grand decoration such as the Iron Cross. Not to mention, there were certain people whispering in Wilhelm's ears like his own daughter towards a more measures approach with rewards rather than just spamming the man with them.