Oil exploitation in Baku, not to mention the Persian Empire and Greece, there is a definite written history in modern times, at least in 1837, there were 52 artificially dug oil pits here, but the production was very small. The inhabitants of the area mainly rely on crude oil as fuel and to treat the skin diseases of camels. As a fuel, it can only meet the needs of local people, and the price and production are very limited, and it is difficult to promote it as a home remedy. But kerosene, as an industrialized product, immediately became a broad prospect, and Rockefeller became a billionaire by relying on the kerosene business, and automobile oil was a matter of many years after Rockefeller monopolized oil extraction and smelting.

Therefore, this is a large industry worth hundreds of millions of taels and can make tens of millions of taels of profits every year, but it is limited by output and chaotic operation, and cannot expand rapidly. The Baku region is rich in oil and gas seedlings, which can be seen with the naked eye, and the 10th-century Araber geographer Abu ? Hassan? Ali? Max Odi and Marco in the 13th century? Polo had described Baku's oil fields, which they said could extract hundreds of ships of oil per day. The explorer's description may not be accurate, but many merchants in the vicinity of the Black Sea have been surveyed by this generation, especially the Austrians, who believe that if the oil here is extracted with the technology that Austria has already explored, the production will increase by a factor of 100.

The biggest limitation is not the technology, the technology has been stimulated by the strong Chinese market, quickly matured, Austria has used drilling technology in Romania to extract oil, the style of kerosene lamps has also changed again and again, with Bohemian crystal manufacturing technology, a kerosene lamp is a work of art, deeply liked by the wealthy class in China.

The commodities that the Chinese like must be bulk commodities, so that Austria made a small fortune by making high-grade kerosene lamps, and through a long-term monopoly on kerosene supply, selling millions of taels of gold every year, which is a big business, because the cost of industrially produced kerosene is always much cheaper than vegetable oil, not to mention that the brightness is higher and the smoke smell is smaller. The Chinese have a strong ability to imitate, and the kerosene lamp invented by the Austrians soon changed from the conspicuous consumption of the wealthy class to the daily necessities of ordinary people. Kerosene lamps have no technical content, and are similar to the structure of Chinese horse lanterns and lanterns, except that the lampshade is replaced with glass.

The level of Chinese craftsmen processing glass may not be comparable to Bohemian craftsmen, Bohemian craftsmen make glass products into artificial crystal, Chinese process ordinary leaded transparent glass without problems, so the Chinese market soon appeared a variety of daily kerosene lamps, but kerosene is in short supply, many places with vegetable oil instead. Because despite the low cost, the excellent quality and limited production make kerosene more expensive than vegetable oil in many places.

If the oil in the Black Sea region is as good as the Austrians say, it is a big business comparable to the salt trade, and there is more than one merchant group targeting this business. However, Austria had little influence in the Manchu Empire, and other merchants lacked capital and influence.

They had to work with the local merchant groups of the Manchu Empire to extract oil from the Black Sea region on a small scale, digging artificial pits in the ground, collecting the oil seedlings that were constantly spilling underground, and then transporting them by livestock and ships, which was very inefficient. Even so, the oil trade has become more and more prosperous in recent years. The Austrians built a refinery in the port of Silla to refine this Baku oil, which was transported to the Chinese market by rail nearby, earning the largest share of the profits, which made others covetous.

And the merchant groups in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, mainly the merchants of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, were in Baku, by bribing local officials, to obtain the power to exploit, but their capital and technology were insufficient, and they could only be developed through this primitive method. Chinese businessmen sneaked into the area through the Chinese ports on the Caspian coast, and were convinced that the development potential here was huge, so they had long intervened to get a piece of the pie, but there was no opportunity, because the Manchus were very conservative, refused the penetration of European commerce, and at the same time were very wary of China, and even more vigilant, so that they could never find a good opportunity to contact local officials, and the other party did not dare to cooperate.

As a result, when the Greek king approached them, the merchant representatives of the Chinese public office saw this as a good opportunity.

When the Greek king asked if they could provide a sum of money for the Manchus, and it was a non-debt situation, the merchants immediately used their brains and came up with this way, with the state as the backing, they were not too worried about the Manchus taking the money and not doing anything, and the public office held a plenary meeting, and everyone collectively financed and lent the Manchus 10 million taels of gold to obtain the monopoly of Black Sea oil, and after a heated discussion, most people were interested in this business, and they decided to set up an oil company for exclusive development.

As a result, in this multi-year-long battle for oil in the Black Sea, the advantage over Austrian merchants was completely achieved.

Later, they hired Austrian technicians, helped them build oil refineries, helped them drill oil wells, built a railway connecting the oil fields in Baku, and so on.

This is all an afterthought, the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which received financial support, began to arm more armies and buy new equipment, their military production has fallen behind in recent years, and can only produce smoothbore guns, which obviously cannot meet the requirements of the new war, they buy rifled rifles from Britain, France and China, and the cannon is because the Karen cannon is already a technology shortly after the Napoleonic Wars, and they have the ability to produce it.

Weapons and ammunition can be obtained from the international market, and in terms of military training, the Manchu Qing Dynasty has long translated the Western drill code, and now there is a reason for joining the war.

According to the agreement with Greece, Greece was to find the reason, and the Manchus entered the war with a military alliance with Greece.

Greece's justification for war is still the same old-fashioned way, and the reason why the old-fashioned thing appears again and again is only because it is easy to use.

The old-fashioned method used by Greece was to provoke a European national uprising in the Ottoman Empire.

The Ottoman Empire, though losing control of Romania, retained absolute rule over Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Albania, while Serbia retained nominal rule. After the Napoleonic Wars, these European peoples, especially the middle class, had a strong sense of national independence, and secretly established organizations such as the Friendship Society established by the Greeks in the past to seek national independence.

For such an organization, over the years, Zhou Chenggong has not been less co-opted and controlled, and he can at least instigate an uprising in Bulgaria, which borders Greece.

So just after reaching an agreement with the Manchu Empire to enter the war, the Bulgarians immediately revolted.