After the German-Austrian forces retreated to the Tisza River, the Bulgarian army had no choice but to halt its advance as well. They had no boats—surely they could not swim across, could they?
Besides, Bulgaria had already won the Southern Front Campaign. No one bore any blood-deep grudge against the other, so why fight to the bitter end?
Thus, the two sides began staring each other down across the Tisza River. The flames of war temporarily subsided. Everyone was busy: the German-Austrian forces rushed to construct defensive lines, while the Bulgarian army was busy looting homes and making a fortune.
The grain the capitalists of the Kingdom of Hungary had painstakingly hoarded now conveniently fell into Ferdinand's hands, even solving the problem of provisions for the front-line troops.
The issue now was not whether they could break through. If Ferdinand wished, he could still launch a river-crossing operation. The Tisza River was not wide, and they had air-force cover; so long as they did not count the casualties, crossing the river would not be a problem at all. There was simply no need to keep fighting!
After the Bulgarian army entered the Great Hungarian Plain, Dante-Christoph began plotting to seize Belgrade—the gateway to the Balkans.
But before he could put the plan into action, Ferdinand called a halt. The reason was simple: the Austro-Hungarian Empire would not hold out much longer, so there was no need to squander precious troops here.
Because of the war, the Kingdom of Hungary had gained several hundred thousand more refugees. This clearly further strengthened the Hungarians' resolve to withdraw from the war. Once the Kingdom of Hungary left the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire naturally would not be able to hold on either.
The only thing now preventing the Kingdom of Hungary from leaving