Li Zhangtong persuaded the crown prince to accept the Greeks' terms, after all, Greece is no longer a country to be ignored.

Relying on the geographical advantage, they are the countries with the best trade terms between Europe and China, whether it is Chinese goods from the Black Sea, or Chinese goods transported through the Mediterranean, Greece is an intermediate region, with the help of this advantage, the Greeks have developed a large-scale maritime industry, plus they have a maritime culture and business culture, and the Greek capital invested in shipping is very large, and Zhou Chenggong will also support the shipping industry as a strategic industry in Greece. In the past few decades, Greece's shipping industry has continued to grow, and now it is one of the world's largest maritime powers, second only to China and the United Kingdom, and can compete with France and Germany in shipping.

Based on the development of the shipping industry, Greece has created excellent ports and a well-developed shipbuilding industry. These are important military strategic assets, and if they can be used by China in this war, it will greatly enhance China's advantage in the Mediterranean.

In addition to its maritime power, Greece itself was not an independent state, but a convincing kingdom of the Balkan Empire.

The population of the Balkan Empire has reached as many as 20 million, of which Greece has the largest population, which is close to half of the population of the Balkan Empire, up to 9 million people. Moreover, it is the core country with the most developed industry and the best economic foundation among the three countries.

Zhou Chenggong attaches great importance to the military, the military system of the Balkan Empire is complete, although it is impossible to compare with Western European countries, the ability to mobilize 2 million troops is still there, Zhou Chenggong is no longer Wuxia Amon, although he is taking advantage of the fire to rob, but he does have the qualifications to take advantage of the fire to rob.

These human resources may be more important than Greece's maritime superiority. Because the war has just begun, China is not short of manpower, but it is not yet able to project manpower here. Greece could easily do this, as they were closer to Cyprus and, more advantageously, would be supported by the local Greeks once they landed in Cyprus.

These advantages are important, but they are not irreplaceable, it is a big deal that Sicily is occupied by the British, and China can take Cyprus sooner or later, this is a big war, and there is no need to care too much about short-term gains and losses.

Li Zhangtong was even more worried: "Your Highness, if Greece is on the side of Britain, Britain will definitely be willing to hand over Cyprus and Crete to Greece." We are not afraid of Greek neutrality, but if they turn to the British, it will be extremely detrimental to the overall situation. ”

The crown prince who was angry calmed down, which made Li Zhangtong breathe a sigh of relief, the crown prince is no longer the crown prince of the past, after so many years of experience, he has matured and stabilized.

The crown prince could see the danger of Greece falling to the British, and it was not a question of losing bases like Cyprus and Sicily, but a big problem of being suppressed by the British in the short term. Once the British had taken Sicily first, and they could still have the support of Greece, the British would have been able to attack the eastern Mediterranean. After all, in the Mediterranean, Britain also has the support of France, and the French navy also has a certain strength, although their capital ships are less than those of Germany, but they also have 60 capital ships available. With the Greek Navy and Greek ports as support, Britain could quickly deploy nearly 200 capital ships into the eastern Mediterranean.

If China has to fight step by step from the coast of West Africa, it will be impossible to determine the winner of this naval battle without four or five years of fighting. One thing that doesn't work out is the situation in the last world war, where China can suppress Britain, but it can't destroy Britain. It doesn't make sense.

Compared with destroying the British, the crown prince could give up such Greek-majority islands as Crete and Cyprus.

He said with a gloomy face: "The naval base must be in our hands. ”

Li Zhangtong said: "This is nature, we will permanently occupy the territory around the base." ”

China quickly agreed to Greece's request, and this time the Greeks did not do what they had done in the past, but quickly made their position clear and chose to enter the war at the beginning of the war. They declared war on Britain and France on the grounds that they had an alliance with China. At the same time, China's conditions were made public, which was used to boost the morale of the Greek people. The Greek navy quickly moved into Cyprus, and the Greek army landed, which was immediately supported by the local Greeks. But the local Ottoman Turkic groups opposed them, and the island was divided.

Just as China succeeded in wooing Greece, Britain and France persuaded the Italians to enter the war, and the Italians judged that it was impossible for China to hold the place when they saw that the British army had taken control of all of Sicily with the Sicilians, and that the Chinese navy was cowering in the base fortress. At the same time, the French handed over Tunisia to Italy, and the British promised to hand over Egyptian Cyrenaica (the Libyan region) to Italy after the war, which gave Italy a vast colony in Africa on the Mediterranean coast, and Italy quickly allied with Britain and France to declare war on Germany, China, and Greece, which also declared war on Italy.

At this time, only a week had passed since China entered the war, and two countries had already chosen their positions in the war.

Like Italy and Greece, there are still in Europe.

Now they are all jumping out and trying to use the war to make some gains, or settle some outstanding disputes.

Denmark in Northern Europe tried to resolve the legal problems of the Germanic states within its borders.

There was no territorial dispute between Denmark and Germany, because Germany was originally a country that was slowly merged by a large number of small states and free cities, and there were no territorial disputes between the states, so there were no obvious territorial disputes between Germany and its neighbors after reunification.

However, because of Denmark's historical relationship with Germany, there are historical legal problems here. At this time, the Danish territory, or not the Danish territory, but the territory under the Danish king, was much larger than the area of modern Denmark. The area ruled by the Danish king can be roughly divided into three parts, the northern region, most of Jutland can be counted as a sovereign unit, is the territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, and the southern region, which accounts for 40% of the entire Danish territory, is two states with legal disputes, the southernmost of which is close to Germany is the Duchy of Herstein, and between Herstein and the territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, is the Duchy of Schleswig.

The two principalities of Herstein and Schleswig, both of which were owned by the Danish king, who was also the Grand Duke of Herstein and Schleswig, due to the complex inheritance system in history. This may not be a problem in China, the whole world is not the king's land, and the emperor's land will not be divided into one, two, and three grades, all of which are the subjects of the Son of Heaven. In Europe, however, there is a clear legal distinction. A duchy is a duchy, a kingdom is a kingdom, a king is a king, and an archduke is an archduke.

Just as historically, the Kingdom of Prussia was not considered a German state for a long time, and in Germany, the status of the king of Prussia was that of the Elector of Brandenburg, and the status of king could only be used for the Prussian regions belonging to Poland. Thus, for a long time, the Grand Dukes of Prussia and Brandenburg, although they ruled over two territories and the contiguous territories formed an inseparable territory, Prussia in the east was loyal to the Kingdom of Poland, and Brandenburg in the west belonged to the Holy Roman Empire, and one king became a vassal of two countries in two capacities.

The problem of Denmark is similar, the Danish king is the Grand Duke of the two Duchyes of Helstein and Schleswig, this is not that Denmark annexed these two territories, or fought for the sovereignty of the two territories, in fact, the Danish king's family itself is from the German region, it can be said that the German region of Glücksburg, it can be said that the nobles of German origin, inherited the Danish throne, and at the same time, at different times, inherited the title of Archduke of Herstein and Schleswig.

And Herstein and Schleswig, in the midst of complex historical changes, declared that although they were two independent principalities, the Grand Dukes would be inherited by the same person, and the union of the two principalities was inseparable. This kind of claim is legally efficient, embodied in a certain legal document, and has formed a historical reality.

However, the population composition of these two indivisible principalities is different. The Duchy of Herstein, which borders Germany to the south, is a purely German state, with a population of basically Germans, and the language is basically Low German, and the official language is influenced by Germany, using High German. Sandwiched between the territory of Germany and the Kingdom of Denmark, Schleswig was predominantly Germanic in the south and Danish in the north.

After the development of European politics to the modern stage, this ancient tradition of the system of feudal succession, coupled with the formation of modern national ideas, has caused more and more trouble.

Denmark, in particular, is a small country, but nationalist sentiment is high, coupled with the glory of the Viking period, there is a strong sense of national cohesion and identity.

The development of the social system has made various political forces in Denmark promote the modernization process, they want to implement a constitutional monarchy, they have a monarch, and their monarch is willing to accept the constraints of the constitutional system, they also have a parliament, and constitutionalism is not a problem, the problem is the scope of application of the constitution.

It is disputed in Denmark whether it should be implemented only in the territory of the Kingdom of Denmark or in the Duchy of Denmark, Herstein and Schleswig under the rule of the Danish king.

The Danish political forces wanted to implement the new Danish constitution in both the Kingdom of Denmark and the Duchy of Schleswig, and to unite the Kingdom of Denmark into a modern nation-state.

This is not that Denmark wants to annex Schleswig, in fact, the Danish political forces with strong nationalist sentiments do not even want the southernmost principality of Herstein, do not care about the belonging of this principality, and even want to split this principality directly from Denmark.