Mahmoud II, who had finally come to power from a bloody coup d'état, was more courageous than all his predecessors, and he did not wait for the Yenisiri to oppose him, taking the lead in purging the Yenisiri with the artillery of the new army he had formed, and then pushing for reforms.

The expropriation courts were abolished in the country and the powers of many local pasha (governors) were restored. Abolish transit taxes and encourage trade. It has changed the practice of Sudan not participating in the Council of State, and has also restricted the power of the Council of State, which is controlled by religious forces. Continuing the policy of his elder brother Selim III, all important resolutions must be discussed and passed by the reform committee he led before they could be implemented.

The power of the Sudan has been greatly strengthened, the rule of law and politics have been reformed, and a new army has been formed. The Navy was also rebuilt, and even new technologies were introduced, a steam battleship was built, but the paddlewheel battleship did not have practical value, what was really valuable was the creation of a battleship of the first rank with one hundred and twenty-eight cannons.

Mahmud II was so desperate to redress his shame that he persecuted the Greeks at home, even executing the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch in Istaphur and killing judges who were unwilling to sentence the Ecumenical Patriarch.

Britain expressed its support for the Ottoman Empire, supporting them in their fight against Greece and promising that if the Sultan captured Greece, Britain would recognize Greece as Ottoman territory again.

Little Greece has never been in the eyes of the Ottoman Empire, but it has always been worried about the protection of European powers, and the Greek king has the status of a Chinese prince, which also makes the Ottoman Empire jealous.

Now that Britain is offering support, China is far away, which is a rare opportunity for the Ottoman Empire.

So the Ottoman Empire began to create trouble, their warships began to seize Greek merchant ships passing through the Turkish Straits at will, shipping and trade are irreplaceable pillar industries in Greece, not only the Athens region controlled by the king depends on trade, but also the local powerful faction relies on trade, which once again makes the local powerful faction close to the king.

Greece lodged a strong protest with the Ottoman Empire, but to no avail. The king ordered the warships to escort the warships, but the friction could not be avoided, and instead a naval battle was fought in the Sea of Marmara between the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, in which the generally smaller Greek navy was defeated and almost completely wiped out in the Ottoman-controlled inland sea.

After the naval battle, both sides blamed each other, saying that the other side first provoked the war and then severed diplomatic relations, the Ottoman Empire declared the strait permanently closed to Greece, and the Greek king, driven by major local powers, declared war on the Ottoman Empire.

Greece alone certainly couldn't defeat the Ottoman Empire, but since Britain could hire thugs, Greece could also hire helpers. China, the biggest backing, is not using this card for the time being, and Zhou Chenggong carefully considered the consequences before the election. He specifically confirmed to his father through the Greek ambassador to China that his promise to help him fight the War of the Succession was valid. That's why he was relieved to boldly declare war, and with China behind his back, this battle would not be too ugly.

In addition to China's trump card, European companies still support Zhou Chenggong, he has been in the company for ten years, and the relationship with the company's senior management cannot be bad, because his identity as a prince is valued by the high-level, and the power of the high-level is also valued by him, and there is value in using each other, and the relationship will not be bad.

His connections in the company can give him a lot of support, but in the war, he can't do it for the time being.

But it is still possible to give a diplomatic advantage to the countries under the influence of the companies through European companies.

In recent years, Zhou Chenggong has not completely relied on China's support, to be honest, the support given to him by the motherland and family is limited to expanding trade, such as the Kazakh wool trade, the Black Sea tea trade, etc., and more is Zhou Chenggong's own identity, pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger, and some of the benefits obtained.

For example, he focused on the imaginary enemy Ottoman Empire, and established good relations with the Manchu Empire around the Ottoman Empire and the Ali Dynasty of Egypt. The Manchu Empire was still ruled by Daoguang, and after annexing half of the Lianghe River Valley, the Manchu Empire, which had a vast territory, was strengthened. However, there was still a huge gap compared to China, and Daoguang also made some reforms, recognizing the gap between the Manchu army and the European army, and through the open Black Sea passage, they absorbed a lot of Western culture. built its own military academy and even created a small navy.

Although the Manchu Empire became stronger, their fear of China did not decrease, and they had already stationed permanent envoys in China to see the country's growing power up close. Therefore, forming a good relationship with China has become the national policy of the Manchu Empire since the Jiaqing era and has been maintained until now.

Zhou Chenggong, as a prince, conducted diplomacy with the Manchu Empire, which naturally achieved twice the result with half the effort, giving the Greek merchants the same privileges as the Chinese merchants in the territory of the Manchu Empire, and also signed a secret agreement with Daoguang that the Manchu Empire would support Greece in the event of an attack by the Ottoman Empire.

In Africa, Greece has also achieved some diplomatic successes. The Kingdom of South Africa was nominally a vassal state of China, but it pursued an independent foreign policy and had a higher degree of freedom than the thousand-year-old vassal states of Annam and Korea, and basically China did not control the Kingdom of South Africa at all.

The king of the Kingdom of South Africa is no longer Su Chong'a, but is succeeded by his son Huashana, Huashana, a person who is more civilized and familiar with the Han classics, in his hands, the Kingdom of South Africa has changed the policy of brutal expansion in the past and began to strengthen governance.

The Manchu Empire did not dare to offend China, and Huashana did not dare to do so. When the Greek diplomatic team came to establish diplomatic relations with a letter from King Zhou Chenggong, who was a prince of China, they Lima agreed. A series of agreements were then reached, and Zhou Chenggong suggested that South Africa introduce high-quality sheep to develop the wool industry, and the Kingdom of South Africa responded. Now the South African wool industry has started to export high-quality wool to Greece.

Although Huashana did not agree to help Greece fight the war, he agreed that Greece could hire troops in South Africa, and South Africa had a large number of slave teams, many of which had left the commercial field and specialized in thugs, and could help fight the war if they gave money, so these slave teams were mercenaries.

Although the African company had hired these slave crews to fight the British in India, and found that their military discipline was too poor to be a match for the British-trained Indian soldiers, Greece was willing to pay for these thugs when they had no other choice.

So after declaring war on each other, Greece immediately sought the help of the Manchu Empire, and at the same time sent people to South Africa to recruit mercenaries.