Greece's entry into the war was not an accident, but Greece was an unexpected factor.

Because Greece has maintained close relations with European companies, Greece has provided all the support it can to support the expansion of European companies in Europe, and European companies have also invested heavily in Greece. Zhou Chenggong debt-fueled Balkan railway network, with European companies providing the vast majority of the funding. Greece also owes the most of its external debt to European companies.

And Zhou Chenggong has always had the motive to recover the territory from Austria-Hungary, he is a cautious and cautious person, who has been forbearant for so many years, and has not been idle, and has established close relations with Italy, with the aim of forming a common front against Austria-Hungary, because Italy also has the motive to take back Venesia from Austria-Hungary.

A Greek or Balkan empire alone was not enough to embolden Italy to go to war with Austria-Hungary, but Italy was supported by French and European companies.

Italy saw that France had blockaded the Austro-Hungarian coast, and France also actively pushed Italy to attack Austria-Hungary.

At the same time, the European companies that occupied Sicily also expressed their support for Italy, and behind the European companies stood China, with the support of China and France, which gave Italy enough courage to dare to shoot Austria-Hungary in the back.

Therefore, the biggest surprise is not Italy, but a big country like China and France, which is unwilling to be played by diplomats like Bismarck.

Bismarck had the ability to control Germany and Poland, and to control Austria-Hungary to cooperate with Germany's diplomatic actions, but he had little control over France, and could only contain France through Britain and the international situation.

The French were never willing to be manipulated by Bismarck, under the joint pressure of Britain and Germany, France did not dare to go to war, but France could support Italy to enter the war, and France also asked the female tsar for this, telling the female tsar that it was France that facilitated Italy's entry into the war, hoping to appease the dissatisfaction of the female tsar, and continue to maintain the Franco-Russian alliance after the female tsar successfully quelled the rebellion.

Compared with Bismarck, Li Zhangtong is even worse, he can't even completely control China, he can only influence the crown prince. But the crown prince is not an easy person to control, he has always been reluctant to engage in such a complex and slow political game, he prefers to cut through the chaos quickly, likes to use force to solve problems, and has long hated to go to war with Britain directly.

Fighting a world war, the crown prince has no scruples.

If it is said that the European companies can barely do this by using all his connections to express their support for Italy, then the European companies will never dare to confront the British fleet without the benefit of the Chinese leadership.

So the biggest variables, one is France, the other is China.

These variables have brought Britain in again.

The seizure of the Ionian Islands by Greece was justified, since the Greeks lived there, and the Balkan Empire had chosen Austria-Hungary to capture it without any legal problems. But Albania was a small country supported by Austria-Hungary and supported by Britain, which was a wedge for Britain in the Balkans, and Greece suddenly annexed it, which made Britain very angry.

But anger is anger, the Greek king is sure that Britain will not dare to risk a world war with China, and at this time he will do it to Greece, so he can rest assured that he will boldly annex Albania, although in the war with Austria-Hungary, the annexation of such a country will make Greece's military pressure very great, but if this opportunity is missed, Greece will also find it difficult to find an opportunity to continue to expand.

In the other wars, Greece did not gain anything, and in this war, if it only helped Wallachia to seize territory and Bulgaria to seize territory, Greece would be even more dissatisfied, and would think that Greece had been suffering in the Balkan Empire. For the sake of political balance, Zhou Chenggong must give Greece something to gain, so the Ionian Islands are one harvest and Albania is another. But just one Ionian archipelago was not enough for Greece to go all out for this war, so an Albania was added.

In this way, in order to keep the relatively large territory of Albania, the Greek kingdom will definitely have the power to support this war, among the three kingdoms of the Balkan Empire, Greece's economic strength has always been the strongest, and Greece's industrialization is also the fastest developing.

In these years, the industrial areas of Greece were still mainly around Athens, and the king's direct domain, but in the northern part of Sassaloniki, where it was the center, industrial centers also began to form. Agriculture in Bulgaria and Wallachia has developed rapidly, while industrial development has been slow. They lack the geographical advantages of Greece and the rich mineral deposits that can be exploited, and Wallachia's oil resources are okay, but under the blow of Black Sea oil, they are not profitable.

In the first industrial revolution, the importance of resources was clear. From the point of view of the phenomenon, all countries with rapid industrial development are rich in resources, especially countries rich in coal and iron resources, compared with France and Germany is the best example, Germany is the latecomer, not that the Germans are better than the French, but that Germany's coal and iron resources are superior to France. In other aspects, whether it is the level of education or business culture, the gap between France and Germany is actually not large. Another example is Belgium, which had the highest degree of industrialization in Europe, and was the first to industrialize in Europe, and then to complete industrialization in the immediate aftermath of England, at a time when the industrialization of France and Germany was just beginning. Compared with Belgium, the Dutch are actually more dominant in terms of education level and business culture, but the Netherlands just does not have Belgium's rich coal and iron deposits, so the Netherlands loses to Belgium in industrialization.

Of course, coal and iron resources are not the whole of industrialization, and they can also be industrialized through human efforts. But it is inherently lost to those countries that are rich in resources. Because progress such as industrialization and urbanization requires material accumulation, if the country does not have abundant material resources, it can only obtain these resources through trade and exchange. In other words, it is necessary to rely on the labor of the people of the country to import raw materials and export manufactured goods, leaving behind a meager processing fee, which not only has to maintain the livelihood of the workers, but also imports a large amount of resources for the construction of the country, and it is unimaginable to rely entirely on labor to develop.

This is the situation faced by the three Balkan countries, all of which lack abundant coal and iron resources, and coal and iron resources are the basis of industrialization, and steel must be imported to build railways, and steel must be imported to build factories, otherwise there will be no railway network, no machinery and equipment. The people of the three countries have similar cultures and similar attitudes towards labor, so it is natural that Greece, which has better geographical advantages, has taken up all the resources for industrial development, and the industrial and commercial capital of the empire has flowed into Greece, supporting Greece to continue its rapid industrialization, while squeezing the development funds of the other two countries.

However, Greece's level of industrialization is also very limited, and in Europe it is about the same level as Italy, and it is a notch lower than that of an industrial powerhouse. It's not that the Greeks don't work hard, or it's the conditions.

In terms of the degree of effort, the Greeks cannot be compared with the East Asian nations, and the degree of effort made by the Japanese for industrialization in history cannot be done by the Greeks, and in terms of population, Greece is not as large as the Japanese, the labor force is not as abundant as Japan, and the resources are as scarce as Japan, so the level of development of Greece is about the same as the level after the Meiji Restoration, and it can only be a second-rate level in Europe.

The second-rate level of industrialization, coupled with the fact that the total population of the three Balkan countries was only more than 10 million, was too far from that of Austria-Hungary, so the Balkan Empire had to form alliances with other countries to regain lost territory from Austria-Hungary. Therefore, when the king of the Urals, Zhou Chun, sent a request to his uncle, Zhou Chenggong immediately took action.

After a series of actions, it attracted British pressure, and as a result, China and Britain confronted each other in the Mediterranean.

As a result of the confrontation, both sides withdrew, and it was clear that Britain was not prepared for a direct war with China, and Bismarck did a great deal of work to tell Britain that it would be extremely unwise to go to war with China at this time.

This was tantamount to acquiescing in the annexation of the Principality of Albania by Greece.

After obtaining Albania, the Kingdom of Greece really began to fully support the war and announced a general mobilization, and then Bulgaria, which had been holding back West Wallachia for many years as compensation for the loss of Dobroga, and the Duchy of Wallachia, which had been holding back Transylvania and Moldova for many years, also carried out a general mobilization.

The combined population of the three countries is only 12 million, but under the general mobilization, an army of 1.5 million has been mobilized, which shows that they are desperate for the territory.

A million Balkan troops marched into Austria-Hungary and quickly captured Wallachia, north of the Danube, south of the Southern Carpathians, and west of the Oort River, which was controlled by Austria-Hungary. Bulgaria quickly declared that the Lower Danube Plain had been annexed to Bulgaria as the Bulgarian province of Wallachia.

At the same time, the troops of the Principality of Wallachia had broken through the Carpathian Mountains and entered the Transylvanian plateau, where they were engaged in battle with the army of the Kingdom of Hungary.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire has also carried out a general mobilization, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire has a huge population, although it has lost some territory and population over the years, it still has a population of 35 million, and under the general mobilization, it has armed an army of 4 million. As in the past, the Kingdom of Hungary was generally delayed, but this time, since the Kingdom of Hungary was also threatened with attack, the Austro-Hungarian government was always in a state of flux, and the general mobilization was rapid, and the army quickly moved to the front.

But Austria-Hungary had to face, in addition to the 1.5 million troops of Greece, there was also a populous Italy, Italy had integrated the south, suppressed the separatist forces in the south, with a population of up to 24 million (excluding 2 million in Sicily), and Italy mobilized 2 million troops for the battle for Venezia.

Austria-Hungary also sent troops to Constantine to support Constantine and defuse the Russian threat, which was the main purpose of Austria-Hungary to fight this war, so they sent 1 million reinforcements to Constantine, mainly Austria and the Kingdom of Bohemia, and these troops were sent in front, Greece and Italy entered the war later, and there was no condition to withdraw for the time being.

However, Austria-Hungary has always looked down on the Balkan and Italian armies, and after years of contact, they realized that the Russian army in their neighboring countries also threatened them.

Therefore, Austria-Hungary was full of confidence, and in his opinion, although the strength of the enemy was equal, there was no accident in their victory.

In the eyes of the outside world, at least in terms of military strength, the two sides are still balanced.