the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr shifting its focus from artillery and engineer training towards that of infantry and cavalry. After being informed of a Serbo-Bulgarian alliance, Venizelos ordered his ambassador in Sofia to prepare a Greco-Bulgarian defense agreement by 14 April 1912. This was due to fears that should Greece fail to participate in a future war against the Ottomans it would be unable to capture the Greek majority areas of Macedonia. The treaty was signed on 15 July 1912, with the two countries agreeing to assist each other in case of a defensive war and to safeguard the rights of Christian populations in Ottoman-held Macedonia, thus joining the loose Balkan League alliance with Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria. Fearing a new war in the Balkans, the Ottomans mobilized their armed forces on 14 September and began transferring units to Thrace; the Balkan League responded in kind. On 30 September, the League presented the Ottomans with a list of demands regarding the rights of its Christian population. The Ottoman Empire rebuffed the demands, recalled its ambassadors in Sofia, Belgrade and Athens and expelled the League's negotiators on 4 October. The League declared war against the Ottomans, while Montenegro had already began military operations on 25 September. Prelude Greece dispatched the Army of Epirus and the Army of Thessaly to its frontiers in Epirus and Thessaly respectively. The latter numbered 100,000 men, and was divided into seven divisions: namely the 1st, the 2nd, the 3rd, the 4th, the 5th, the 6th and the 7th Infantry Divisions, as well as a cavalry brigade and four independent Evzones battalions. The Army of Thessaly was commanded by Crown Prince Constantine. Facing the Greeks in Thessaly was the Ottoman VIII Corps under General Hasan Tahsin Pasha which included three divisions: the regular (nizamiye) 22nd Division and the reserve (redif) Nasliç and Aydın Divisions which, combined with the Ottoman garrisons in western Macedonia, totaled 35,000–40,000 men. The Army of Thessaly crossed into Ottoman territory in the early morning hours of 5 October, finding most border posts to be abandoned, with the garrisons at Melouna Pass, Profitis Ilias and Tsouka resisting for several hours before retreating. The first major clashes took place the following day when the 1st and 2nd Greek Divisions attacked hastily organized defenses north of Elassona. Elassona was defended by three infantry battalions, two artillery batteries and half a squadron of cavalry. The battle