The Greeks were deliberately involved in the war, which made the British extremely dissatisfied, and if it was placed in other contexts, Britain would definitely impose sanctions on Greece, but now in the context of the European nation standing on the moral high ground and strongly condemning the Ottoman Holocaust, Britain will bear a great risk of public opinion when it takes measures to sanction Greece, and the parliament, especially the House of Commons, which is increasingly influenced by public opinion, will not support the decision of the cabinet.

The Greeks found a good time.

But Britain could not accept the expansion of Greece, especially to the strait, the Greeks controlled the strait, which was equivalent to China controlling the strait, so the British consul asked Greece to guarantee that it would not take the opportunity to expand its territory, their purpose was to seek a compromise, and finally force the Greeks to agree not to occupy the strait, in exchange for territorial expansion in other directions, such as the annexation of Macedonia or Albania.

But the Greek king refused, and if it was put in other contexts, Greece would definitely compromise, but at present, if he didn't dare to give it a go, then he would never have a chance. Historically, Ali of Egypt went crazy because the direction of expansion was completely blocked by the British. But Zhou Chenggong is not Ali, he is a Chinese prince, this identity has made Britain wary of him for more than ten years, but this identity, when necessary, will provide him with a protective umbrella.

Especially this time, although he didn't like it very much, he still chose to cooperate with his younger brother, and the Chinese crown prince persuaded Russia to encircle the main Ottoman force on the condition that Zhou Chenggong agree to participate in the war, and he was to win over the Manchus to join the war.

Although he knew in his heart that behind the crown prince was the emperor of China, and his father was in charge of all this, he was still very uncomfortable The crown prince was standing in the front desk playing a game of chess, why? Just because he was born well? So his father did everything possible to train him and train him?

So Zhou Chenggong can actually continue to be with the British and delay time, but he has adopted a tough attitude, if he wants to fight, this time it is the Chinese's westward expansion strategy, which has ruled out the possibility of interference by most European powers, won over Russia, weakened Austro, France has always been a quasi-ally, there is only one British obstruction, the worst case is just that Britain will have a decisive battle in advance, not even a separate decisive battle with Britain, but on the condition of the western Mediterranean, united with France to fight Britain. In this case, Zhou Chenggong judged that even if he took a tough attitude, the British could not do anything about him. Even if Britain did enter the war, he believed that China could guarantee control of the eastern Mediterranean, and that the United States would be able to cripple the British navy, if not completely destroy it, and then expel the British from the Mediterranean. In either case, Greece is safe.

After receiving a reply from Greece, the British cabinet met urgently, and they did begin to discuss whether or not to send troops.

Even at the risk of public opinion, in terms of implementing diplomatic strategies, the execution of British cattle is indeed admirable, and the continental balance can be carried out for hundreds of years, and few nations have this patience. And at the critical time, the British did not lack the courage to offend everyone, historically, they fought the Boer War, and the whole of Europe was opposed, but the British still insisted on putting the entire Boer nation in concentration camps.

This war is fought entirely because of diplomatic strategy and has nothing to do with interests.

Although Britain's commercial interests have developed rapidly in the Black Sea region in recent years, it is still ranked behind China and Greece, and can only compete with the Austrian Empire, the geographical location of the Black Sea is destined to make Britain unable to expand its interests here, and the biggest interest here must be China, followed by Greece, which has a geographical advantage, and the Austrian Empire has great potential, as long as it can develop peacefully, it should be able to surpass Greece, and Russia should also surpass Greece.

However, in the long-term competition, Britain is likely to gradually fall behind the Black Sea countries. Because of the expansion of interests in recent years, mainly due to the shrinkage of Austria and Russia on the Black Sea coast due to revolution and war, British businessmen took the opportunity to seize some market space, and once the other side recovered its economy, British businessmen were not in a position to compete directly with them.

Strategically, although the Eastern Mediterranean has become China's de facto sphere of influence, Britain has not completely withdrawn, and has retained its base in Cyprus, maintaining a small fleet here to compete for sea supremacy, but it can indicate Britain's presence here.

In the Sino-British naval battle in the Mediterranean, the Chinese could expel the British fleet from the eastern Mediterranean, but because of artillery technology, the Chinese did not succeed in capturing Cyprus. In the end, Britain insisted on keeping it, and China acquiesced to this condition.

Cyprus is in the hands of the British, although it is impossible to deter the Chinese, but it is enough to deter Greece. But once Greece is really blocked, there is no reason. Unless war is declared, the enemy country can be legally blocked. If it is an ordinary country, a blockade will be a blockade, and under the deterrence of the British Royal Navy, European countries will never dare to challenge the sea power of the Royal Navy. But Greece is involved in China, once there is no nameless blockade of Greece, and the merchant ships of Chinese European companies forcibly break through, will the Royal Navy dare to sink it? If you don't dare, in addition to embarrassing yourself, it will not make a blockade, and it will cause dissatisfaction among other countries, because they will find that Chinese merchant ships can do business, but they can't, which is not fair.

So the British began to discuss whether to declare war on Greece, and a huge risk of declaring war was whether China would enter the war, and they were sure that China was behind the scenes, but they could not judge China's determination to promote this event, and if China insisted on using this opportunity to enter the Mediterranean, Britain's declaration of war on Greece could cause China to declare war on Britain.

This was a great risk, because the strait was really worth a direct war between the great powers, at least Britain thought it was worth.

A war with China would be another risk of a world war, the first in a decade since the end of the last war, which threatened to trigger an all-out war.

In the last war, whether Britain admitted it or not, they actually failed, they ceded the land, paid compensation, and the reparations have not been paid yet, and they are going to fight another full-scale war, is Britain ready?

The attitude of the cabinet members is also inconsistent, most people think that the victory rate of this war is very low, the Chinese choose a too good time, Russia is on their side, so that the resistance forces are less powerful land forces, Puo and Russia have consumed one, it is impossible to continue to fight a war of attrition, the French Napoleonic dynasty is closer to China, Britain can only fight alone, well, it is possible to form an alliance with the Ottoman Empire, but this ally is now half-dead, otherwise there is no need for Britain to discuss whether to go into battle in person so urgently.

A small number of people believe that Britain will persist in fighting this war even if the victory rate is low, which expresses Britain's attitude and tells others that Britain still dares to fight a war and dare to resist the tyranny of the autocratic countries in the East. Britain has not fought such a war, the Seven Years' War, when the whole of Europe was pressed against Prussia, Britain supported Prussia, the politicians at that time who thought that they would be able to win, when the Napoleonic Wars, the whole of Europe succumbed to Napoleon, Britain always insisted on fighting, who thought that Napoleon could be defeated in the end.

Aren't they fighting without hesitation?

This is to defend the British Empire's own interests, if they dare not enter the war, the British Empire will prove to the outside world that it is just a coward, and who will be willing to stand on the side of the British Empire in the future and unite against the threat from the east.

The Black Sea does not have any interests, and it is unlikely that it will expand its interests, but if the Black Sea is not closed on the other side of the strait, China on this side of the strait will be allowed to freely enter and exit the Black Sea, and be integrated with their territory in the Black Sea region, and the Chinese will be able to maintain a fleet of the same size as the entire British Navy in the Mediterranean, and how will they compete with China in the Mediterranean at that time.

Once the British Empire lost its naval dominance in the Mediterranean, the mainland was completely exposed to the Chinese navy.

The main battle faction was very moving, but it still did not arouse unanimous support. In the end, the conservatives decided that it would be better to look at the outcome of the war, because perhaps the Greek army was weak, and they would not be able to defeat the Ottoman army at all.

I'm afraid that the people who say this don't believe it themselves, no matter how weak the Greek army is, it is also a regular army, the army of the Ottoman Empire, the main force is trapped in the Black Sea, and what is currently suppressing the uprising is nothing more than a rabble, which is simply a militia.

Sure enough, the outcome of the war soon became one-sided.

The Greek 100,000 standing army marched into the territory of the Ottoman Empire, and the Ottoman army was vulnerable and retreated, and the Greek army approached Istanbul.

However, Istanbul is the capital of the Ottoman Empire after all, the Ottomans fought against Russia, and the main forces can be withdrawn from other places, and the capital still retains a number of standing armies, as well as the Janissaries responsible for defending the Sultan, coupled with the long-term competition of various forces in the history here, geographical advantages, etc., the defense capability of the city itself is still very strong, and the Greek army is blocked on the outskirts of Istanbul.

This situation relieved the British, things were not all bad, as long as the Greeks did not touch the Channel, everything else was fine.

And the Greeks seem to follow this script.

The main Greek army of 100,000 was blocked in Istanbul, but in other directions the advance went unusually well. The Greek New Army, in which the Greek nation actively joined the army, recruited another 100,000 soldiers.

After a brief training of the recruits, 30,000 troops marched into Bulgaria, 20,000 troops into Macedonia, and 20,000 troops into Albania, all of which achieved great success.