George I's mood is very unbalanced now, he is also doing things in the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria has done a lot of things without problems; It's not the same when it's Greece's turn, a Cretan uprising traps Greece and makes it difficult for him to ride a tiger!

George I asked with a depressed heart: "Foreign Secretary, contact Bulgaria and Mentenegro to ask them to fulfill the Covenant, I want to get a clear answer from Bulgaria, is there a problem?" ”

Well, weak countries have no human rights, Mentenegro is only incidental, who calls them few soldiers?

The Foreign Secretary said solemnly: "No! ”

George I nodded with satisfaction, whether Bulgaria would enter the war or not, this question does not need to be considered at all, it is nothing more than a question of time, or how much benefit you want!

George I asked again: "Prime Minister, how are the preparations at home?" If it were only us, would it be possible to wage war against the Ottoman Empire now? ”

The prime minister's face turned slightly pale, and he said cautiously: "I'm afraid there are still difficulties in this, we are not ready for war!" When the Balkan League was established before, the Bulgarians demanded that the war be timed after 1900, and the war reserve we made was also made according to this plan.

Not only us, but even Mentenegro and Bulgaria had drawn up a plan for the war against the Ottomans in 1900, and it is estimated that their war preparations were not much better than ours!

Oh, the Bulgarian reserve training, going a little faster, began to be in full swing last year, and if the war breaks out now, their mobilization capacity should be fine! ”

George I's face changed, this is the biggest bad news, now not only Greece is not ready for war, but also the two allies are not!

After thinking about it, George I said, "It's not just that we're not prepared, are we? The Ottoman Empire is estimated to be much better, and in the last two or three years, there have been endless uprisings in the Ottoman Empire, and I don't believe they are ready for war now!

We have a plan, don't we? How much time will it take for us to start the national mobilization now, and how long will it take to be able to complete it?

How many troops will we be able to mobilize at the limit? How long can the strategic material reserve be supported? How long can government finances support the war? ”

The prime minister thought for a while and said: "Theoretically, in the case of national mobilization, we can mobilize 250,000 troops, but because we have not received professional training, in the short term, only the current 110,000 army will have combat effectiveness!"

The naval situation is better, the main forces of the Ottoman Navy were dragged in the Bosphorus due to the presence of that Bulgarian fleet, and the pressure on us is not very great!

Strategic materials, this is a bit troublesome, 250,000 troops in the case of high-intensity operations, our current reserves can only support two months at most!

Of course, this problem is not too big, we can still buy from the British, French, Italians, it can still be solved!

The trouble is money, the government's fiscal revenue has not been good, especially in the past few years after the outbreak of the economic crisis, the fiscal has been in a state of deficit! ”

George I nodded, the strategic reserve is insufficient, that is simple, with the geographical location of Greece, it can be bought! Even if there is an embargo in times of war, as long as there is money, the capitalists will always think of a way!

It's a headache to have no money, Greece has a long history of financial problems, it's normal to have no money, but it's difficult to solve financial problems!

And what he is more worried about now is the attitude of Bulgaria, if the Bulgarians are not ready and cannot enter the war immediately, then without Bulgaria to contain the main forces of the Ottoman Empire, then the pressure on the Greek army will be too great!

George I sighed and said, "After Bulgaria has made a decision, we will decide whether to declare war on the Ottoman Empire or not!"

Now for the national mobilization first, and the Ministry of Finance must find a way to raise a sum of money for the war! The Ministry of Foreign Affairs first approached the Great Powers to purchase strategic materials. Whether we fight or not, we must be ready for war! ”

……

In fact, just looking at George I's preparations, you know that this war is decided, and the forces of the main war faction in Greece have taken over, even if they don't fight this time, they will still make other excuses to declare war!

The preparation of the Greeks put Ferdinand's hanging heart at ease, whether George I wanted it or not, Greece must be the first bird this time!

The Greeks demanded that Bulgaria fulfill its obligations as an ally, and Ferdinand immediately said that there was no problem, reassuring them that Bulgaria would definitely do what the Covenant required!

This is a pit for the Greek ambassador to Bulgaria, according to the requirements of the Covenant? A war broke out in advance, and Bulgaria entered the war in three months? If this is the case, Greece will be wronged! With such a result, how can he make a difference to the country?

Then there was another war of words, the Bulgarian government agreed to make concessions, and Ferdinand said that if the Greek government could delay the declaration of war until next year, Bulgaria could declare war at the same time!

Angry that George I scolded his mother, isn't this a joke? Is this something that the Greek government can decide? Even if the Greeks were willing to wait, they would have to ask the Ottoman Empire to agree!

After such a round of bargaining, the Ottoman Empire was also beginning to prepare for war, and the Greek government knew that it could not drag on any longer. Otherwise, it is estimated that the war will break out, and the two sides will still not be able to negotiate a result!

The Greek government gave up its demand that Bulgaria enter the war immediately, and of course Bulgaria could not really wait three months to enter the war.

In the end, a compromise was reached, and as soon as the war broke out, Bulgaria had to mobilize the whole country, contain the Ottoman army, and within fifteen days of the start of the war, declare war on the Ottoman Empire and launch an attack!

At the same time, Ottoman envoys also arrived in Sofia to demand Bulgaria's neutrality in the war, and in return, the Ottomans agreed to cut tariffs on Bulgaria!

Well, the difference between the asking prices of the two sides is too big, Ferdinand directly left it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deal with, anyway, it is impossible to negotiate with the Ottoman Empire to achieve a result, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is better at the matter of hypocrisy and snake tails!

In order to let the Ottoman Empire and Greece enter the urn as soon as possible, Ferdinand also added some material to both sides. It's a very simple operation, which is to hype up public opinion!

In this era, it is still very safe to hype up such public opinion, and there is no need to worry about being discovered!

"Patriotic intellectuals!"

In the Ottoman Empire, the Greek threat theory was promoted. Describe Greece as a pawn of the great powers, a pawn of the great Ottoman Empire!

Demand that the Ottoman government destroy the evil Greek government to deter the eyeing powers!

If there is a compromise with Greece, it will trigger a frenzy of partition among the great powers, and the Ottoman Empire will be finished!

All in all, Greece is evil and must be eliminated, whoever dares to make peace is a traitor, and the slogan of "Heaven punishes the country" has been shouted!

As soon as these theories were put forward, they were widely recognized by all walks of life in the Ottoman Empire, and these contents existed in the first place, but they were not as serious as they were in the newspapers!

Since it exists, it is simple to find evidence, and the Bulgarian intelligence officer, who led a wave of public opinion, also became a patriotic intellectual of the Ottoman Empire!

The propaganda in Greece is similar, just in a different version. The Cretan uprising orchestrated by the Greek government is described as a national liberation movement in Greece.

And preached that "the liberation of all Greeks under the enslavement of the Ottoman Empire is the greatest sacred mission of contemporary Greek youth!" ”

Well, this slogan caters well to the hot-blooded youth of Greece and is in the interests of the main battle faction, so it was quickly exploited by politicians, and the opposition parties have adopted it as a campaign slogan!

Ferdinand made people in the 19th century understand "what it means to hold the people together"! Of course, in this era, no one really sees it, and even if it is not good for the government, they all think it is the cry of patriotic youth from the heart!

Patriotism is innocent!! When countless young students took to the streets to demand that the government defend national sovereignty, it was too late!