of local lower-class Muslims received some unexpected reinforcements as the local Serbs, encouraged by their religious and community leaders, began taking up arms and joining the resistance. This sudden cooperation between Muslims and Serbs contrasted remarkably with their grinding conflict of several years earlier during the Herzegovina Uprising when Serbian Orthodox kmets rose up against Muslim beys. However, according to historian Misha Glenny, the sudden alliance between Muslims and Serbs reflected a temporary coincidence of interests, rather than a basis for a future alliance. With a force of some 80,000 soldiers in total, 9,400 of which were 'occupation troops' under feldmarschallleutnant (lieutenant-general) Stjepan Jovanović, another ethnic Croat from Lika and former k. und k. consul in Sarajevo from 1861 until 1865, whose role was to move across the border from Austrian Dalmatia into Herzegovina and hold places once they're taken by the main fighting force, Filipović's Austro-Hungarian Army moved swiftly down through northern Bosnia, seizing Banja Luka, Maglaj, and Jajce, encountering several successful resistance ambushes along the way that slowed down their progress. On 3 August a group of hussars was ambushed near Maglaj on the Bosna river, prompting Filipović to institute martial law. Austro-Hungarian consul Wassitsch fled Sarajevo with his staff and belongings on 4 August after receiving a written directive from the revolutionary government to leave the city. He led a convoy of about one hundred consular employees and Austro-Hungarian citizens on the road to Mostar. The people's government provided armed escorts to ward off dangers posed by Muslim irregulars along the way. Wassitsch and his entourage safely reached the border near Metković several days later. Meanwhile, feldmarschallleutnant Jovanović's second occupying force, the 18th Division, had been advancing up along the Neretva river, capturing Mostar on 5 August. On 7 August a pitched battle was fought near Jajce and the Austro-Hungarian infantry lost 600 men. Within days of crossing the border into Bosnia, feldzeugmeister Filipović came to the conclusion that the Austro-Hungarian 'soft strategy' of capturing town-by-town is not going to work and that the aim of occupying Sarajevo would require more manpower and more brutal tactics, so he requested and received reinforcements. The k. und k. force more than tripled with 268,000 men now on the ground trying to occupy Bosnia Vilayet. Well equipped and well informed about the towns, roads, and bridges in their path, the Austro-Hungarians heavily defeated the local resistance at the battle of