February 1872
The snow did not stop falling for six days.
One of the harshest winters on record in recent years.
By the time the storm broke, the mountains of Montenegro glistened beneath a pale, pitiless sun, and the valleys below were buried in drifts taller than a man.
In that silence, the sound of progress never ceased — the hum of the refineries, still processing the last bits of the shipped back spoils of war.
Carts having been temporarily conveted into sleighs for easier transport in the deep snow.
The engineer corp was also hard at work, keep rail tracks as clear as possible allowing the growl of the mechanical snakes to carry on slithering through the region, as Trains ferried newly created units as far as they could.
Elias stood on the balcony overlooking Bar, his breath forming clouds in the frozen air.
Below, the harbor was alive with motion.
Since reaching the 2nd Rank his Navy had been upgraded from the Ironclad force he'd been using before, now Montenegrin steamships were common to be found in the adriatic sea.
Metal Frigates, and Corvettes had replaced Ironclads, and Wooden Frigates and ships of the line.
Beyond that turret mounted long guns had replaced static mounted cannon.
Luckily even in the pre-world war era, his naval seamen and officers were the peak that could be found for the era.
Leading to massive gains in their nautical war against the Ottoman navy.
Dozens of ships were sunk, long before they could get close enough for boarding action, but at the same time, around a quarter of all ships encountered were captured as the captains fearing for their lives against these Metal devils, from europe.
Compared to the gains from his land forces, the Navy was far superior.
Hundreds of cannons were claimed in each encounter, since most wooden ships still had at least thirty cannons even in the smallest ships.
Meanwhile the ottoman garrisons across the entire eastern region only amounted to justover one hundred cannons.
That wasnt to say that there werent gains to be made, local offices and more noble Ottoman abodes were looted, bringing in chests of Lira, in place of cannons.
And while the hearty amounts of Iron was certainly valuable to Elias.
Gold and Silver were even more so.
~
For the last month now, the Montenegrin advance had all but stopped.
Not because of exhaustion, or running into enemy forces.
Macedonia was his now—every major town, fortress, and supply line under Montenegrin control, with the first fleet being capable of docking in Thessaloniki before harassing the Aegean Sea.
The Ottoman forces that had once garrisoned the region were either dead, scattered, or located further east than Thessaloniki.
Yet, victory had birthed its own dangers.
Regions that had for Hundreds of years been under Ottoman control and oppression.
Now freed from that oppressive influence, Elias had to prepare for the possible National outpouring as the people attempted to wake up to their own national identity.
This was something he could not allow.
The newly captured territories were raw, unstable, and hungry.
Without proper control, they could ignite behind his lines like dry tinder.
So, before the next phase could begin, Elias would secure what he had taken — and prepare the hammer for the final strike.
And so regiments were sent out to become new garrison forces, while administrative teams joined to form new legislative bodies of the newly aquired provinces.
In the beginning the takeover would appear oppressive, but with time, the people would come to undertand that life under the new Montenegrin was far, far better than anything they had experienced under the Ottomans, and while the desire to be free to become their own nations would still smoulder in their hearts.
The belief that they could do better without Montenegro, would keep them from acting.
~
On the eastern front Commander Rex, sat patiently in his residence within Plovdiv, having just received news thanks to the System link that the supreme commander would be sending him reinforcements very soon.
The dispersement of new garrison forces had almost been completed, and thanks to the recent gains from the Navy, troop recruitment could be expanded further.
According to Elias by the time Rex was to start moving once again in the spring, he would have a force of over 50,000 men ready to storm into the Ottoman provinces of Edirne, Tekirdag, and finally Istanbul.
Forgoing conquest into the north, they would be the knife that would strike at the soft ottoman underbelly in Europe.
Stripping away the fat, leaving behind the lean muscle still competing with the Coalition in the north.
But even hearing the good news Commander Rex was worried, the Ottoman forces would be sending their reinforcements north against the Russians if everything continued to go exactly as planned, but if they managed to catch wind of the easter offensive.
Then his fifty thousand or so men, would be finding themselve contending with a massive army of over a hundred thousand pulled from the middle east facing against them.
Sure they could still win, but in doing so they would reveal their true power to the world, in a way that could not be covered up.
Not only that, but the losses they'd suffer in that offensive could lead to a delay in the capture of Constantinople, or worse allow the Russian coalition the chance to breakthrough in the north leading to compeition between their forces to claim the remains in Europe.
Luckily even if this was to come to pass, the Russian coalition would still need to contend with the 300,000 Ottomans currently on the frontline, throughout southern Bulgaria, before then fighting across Kirklareli province of the Empire.
Across the nation, Elias's forces would by this point already be reaching close to one hundred thousand, though most would be serving as Military police to maintain the peace, and prevent outside interferance.
Meanwhile diplomatic teams had begun to reach out to Greece.
With the Balkans almost all but falling into Montenegro's hands, Elias's spies working as diplomat's approached the Greeks to gauge their opinion in joining a Balkan league.
An alliance of the European Balkan states under the command of Montenegro to form a Kingdom or Empire of their own to not only continue resisting the Ottomans, and their eventual counter-war to reclaim lost territories, but also to protect agains the powers of Europe who desire the recently liberated territories to expand their own national presitige and power.