on 23 September, General Louis Franchet d'Espèrey announced that the initial plan of the operation was to be modified. The Italians were ordered to strike Kičevo with the aim of preventing the enemy forces stationed at Monastir from reaching the railroad hub in Uskub, the 11th Colonial French Division was instead tasked with securing Prilep. Half an hour later the French entered Prilep, to the east Franco–Serbian columns marched on Štip, Veles, Brod and through the Peristeri mountain range. On 24 September, Bulgarian infantry supported by artillery halted the advance of the Italian cavalry between Kruševo and the Buchin bridge. At 17:00 pm, an Italo–Serbian assault resulted in the fall of Stepanci. On 25 September, the Sicilia Brigade captured Kruševo and the surrounding peaks after being reinforced by the 11th Colonial French Division. The Quadruple Alliance High Command set Uskub as the rallying point for its forces in Vardar Macedonia, intending to later strengthen them with units from Germany and Austria. The 30th and 156th French Divisions occupied Prevaletz and Drvenik respectively. On 25 September, a band of Bulgarian deserters who had previously fled from Dobro Pole arrived at Kyustendil, looting the city and putting the Bulgarian High Command to flight. The mass of retreating Bulgarian mutineers then converged on the railway center of Radomir in Bulgaria, just from the capital city of Sofia. On the evening of 26 September, Italian cavalry wrestled Goloznica from a Saxon infantry unit, later entering Drenovo where it received information of a Bulgarian withdrawal from Veles. On 27 September, the leaders of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union took control of these troops and proclaimed the establishment of the Bulgarian Republic. About rebellious troops threatened Sofia the following day, in what came to be known the Radomir Rebellion. The Serbian Second Army having previously taken Štip, entered Veles, Kochana and Grlena. Uskub was protected by a garrison of six and a half battalions, four armored trains and four artillery batteries split between a mountain range south of the city and a position north of lake Kaplan. Between 27–28 September, the 1st and 4th French Colonial Regiments made their way through Drachevo and Pagaruza, successfully bypassing any sentries located in the gap between the two Bulgarian formations that protected Uskub. At 4:00 a.m. on 29 September, French General François Léon Jouinot-Gambetta laid out the plan for the final stage of the offensive, the attack on Uskub.