Balkan Peninsula
The Russians and the Allied Army had already fought until blood ran like rivers. Worth noting was that the Ottoman Army, despite having the largest numbers, had been reduced to a supporting role in this war. The main force of the Allies had become the United Kingdom and France.
In the Sliven region, the two sides had fallen into a stalemate. The French had halted the Russian advance, and every step forward now had to be paved with human lives.
Because the Ottomans were so ineffective, they had been pinned down by a small Russian force. It was now 160,000 French troops facing 280,000 Russian troops. It was already no easy feat for the French to hold back the Russians; a counterattack was out of the question.
The French commander, Aimable Jean Jacques Pélissier, had a terrible headache. In the previous fighting, he had traded 10,000 French soldiers for 20,000 Russian soldiers—a brilliant result by all accounts.
Unfortunately, his allies were useless. The Russians had merely detached a flanking force, together with several tens of thousands of Bulgarian guerrillas, and were pressing more than 400,000 Ottoman troops into the dirt while still holding the upper hand. Anyone would get a headache with teammates like that.
Aimable Jean Jacques Pélissier admitted that the Ottoman Army's combat strength was poor, largely due to its long-standing practice of drawing pay for nonexistent soldiers. The actual number of men sent to the battlefield was always twenty to thirty percent lower than the nominal figure.
Even after that discount, there should still have been more than 300,000 Ottoman troops. They had nearly twice the manpower, yet were still being beaten down by the enemy. He was utterly speechless.
Plans could never keep up with change. They had overestimated their allies' strength, and the