On the southern front, after the Battle of Transylvania ended, the Alliance shifted from offense to defense. Those routed soldiers who had lost their weapons and equipment were rearmed by Marshal August von Mackensen. Naturally, there were no German-made weapons to spare, but they had captured quite a bit of equipment during the earlier battles on the Eastern Front. Picking out a portion for temporary use was still possible.
In other words, Dante-Christophe's assessment had not been accurate. The Alliance now had an army of 530,000 men, not the 400,000 they had estimated beforehand.
However, even with that miscalculation, it did not change the balance of power between the two sides. Whether it was 400,000 troops against 900,000, or 530,000 against 900,000, the Alliance remained at an absolute numerical disadvantage.
Most crucially, after several months of fighting and adjustment, the Indian divisions with the weakest combat strength had been completely worn away, while the newly formed "mercenary" divisions had turned from green recruits into veterans!
Overall, the Bulgarian army's combat strength had not declined. On the contrary, it had risen slightly. That was hardly wonderful news for the battered German-Austrian Allied Army.
As for the Romanian Restoration Army, they could be ignored for now. If not for political necessity, their establishment would have been disbanded long ago. Even for political reasons, their troops were mostly Romanian recruits from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with a total strength of less than ten thousand. They simply could not alter the overall situation!
At the military conference, August von Mackensen said in a low voice, "The enemy is advancing with tremendous force, while our army has just suffered a heavy blow. In the short term, we do not have the strength to fight a decisive battle with them!
"The enemy now holds air superiority.