There were two royal palaces in Athens, one named after the queen called Connie's Palace, and the other named after the king called the Palace of Victory.

The two palaces stand at both ends of the city of Athens, one south and one north, and are connected by a 30-meter-wide straight road between the two palaces, known as the Royal Palace Road, which is already the largest main road in the city of Athens.

The Victory Palace sits in the north and faces south, and the north is the hill where the famous Acropolis and the Acropolis are located, and over the hill is the seat of the Athenian administration, and the town hall is located in the north of the Acropolis Mountain.

Bounded by the Acropolis Hill, Athens was divided into two cities, the northern city for the administrative body of the vicinity of Athens, and the southern city for the center of power that governed the whole of Greece. The royal palace is the administrative center, Zhou Chenggong does not have a prime minister, he has a monopoly of power, a small Athens, the population is not as large as a county in China, in his opinion, there is really no need for too many administrative institutions and administrative levels.

As an ambitious and powerful king, he was extremely disgusted with the parliamentary system that checked and balanced the royal power, but he did not dare to risk offending both liberals and local powers, but in Athens, which he ruled, without a parliament, Athens was a territory that truly belonged to his king, and Athens was not a city, but a region centered on it.

Athens had only one parliament, the National Council, which was criticized for being set up in a place where there were no regional councils, but Zhou Chenggong insisted on rejecting the establishment of a parliament in Athens, insisting that Athens should be a direct domain of the king. As for this national assembly, the power is also very limited by the king, he has no legislative power or executive power, the parliament only has the power to discuss the law, they reach an agreement, and then ask the king. It is the king and the supreme judges appointed and dismissed by the king that really decide the legislation.

Parliament's request for legislation requires the king's consent to be valid, and the king can enact law at any time after consultation with the Supreme Judge. The Greek system was maintained by the prestige established by Zhou's successful war and the rule of the army loyal to him. Although the whole of Europe criticized this system for not conforming to the principles of ancient Greek civilization or modern European civilization, the country ruled by Zhou Chenggong has grown rapidly in recent years.

Especially in the area of Athens, where he had great power, the railroad connected the port to the small interior, and the whole of Athens quickly grew into the most developed industrial area in the whole of Greece. Relying on its geographical proximity to the Black Sea, Greek goods were constantly dumped into the huge Russian market, and Greek merchant ships sat on the most lucrative entrepot trade between China and Europe.

The rapid accumulation of industrial and commercial capital continued to expand the industrial strength of the Athens region through investment. Even the most scarce human resources were due to the king's insistence that Greece was the homeland of all Greek-speaking, Orthodox peoples, and that the influx of poor laborers from the Balkans was constantly being attracted. The Ottoman Empire's Orthodox population in the Balkans was as high as 14 million, and with the Greek diaspora from the Black Sea and Mediterranean countries, Greece could absorb nearly 20 million people. At least half of them are Greek and Orthodox Christians. The king's immigration policy in the Athens region was very lax, in fact, as long as any of the conditions were met, he could directly immigrate to the Athenian area, ascend the throne here, and become an Athenian.

A large number of Albanians, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Romanians poured into Greece, and at this time the national concept of these peoples had not yet been born. Serbia is just a geographical term, Bulgaria is a historical term, referring to the historical Bolgars of the Volga Valley, Romania is not even a geographical term, it is the principalities of Moldova, Wallachia and Bessarabia, a territory annexed by Austria. The word Romania in the Ottoman glossary refers to a province of Romania (Rumillia), which was centered on Eastern Thrace and Western Thrace, and included a province in southeastern Bulgaria and eastern Greece.

These complex historical concepts allowed the Greeks themselves, in the context of Ottoman rule, to refer to the vast majority of Orthodox Christians. Previously, these men considered themselves Romans with Roman citizenship. These people also generally refer to themselves as "Romans" or simply as "Christs."

Due to the vagueness of the modern concept of nationality originating in Western Europe in the Balkans, historically, in the early 20th century, when Greek and Bulgarian patriots competed for the allegiance of the Ottoman Macedonian Christian peasants, when asked "is it Romaioi (Greek) or Voulgaroi (Bulgarian)", the peasants also asked blankly what they meant, drew a cross on their chest, and then naively replied: "Well, we are all Christians- What do you mean by Romaioi or Voulgaroi? ”

Without a modern concept of nationhood, many people, even those who do not speak Greek, have only religious ideas, and do not understand their own ethnic composition at all, nor do they care about the different identities divided by ethnicity. In addition, Bulgarian and Romanian languages can actually be regarded as a dialect of Greek, which made it very convenient for the Greek kingdom to absorb immigrants.

With a population of 20 million Greek-speaking dialects in the Balkans and Orthodox Christianity, the industrialization of the Athens region continued to attract these migrants, and their languages converged in Athens and merged with the local dialect of Athens to form a new Athenian language, a new Greek nation. Of course, there were also people from other parts of Greece who migrated to the Athens region, and the population of the Athens region also grew rapidly, and now tens of thousands of people are pouring here every year. In less than a decade of Zhou's rule, Athens grew from an ordinary Greek region with a population of less than 200,000 to an industrial region with a population of 500,000, including 300,000 industrial workers.

The population of the Athens region has reached one-third of the population of the entire Greek population, and in this case, any criticism of Zhou's successful rule, at least in Athens, has no market.

Transportation, education, and municipal construction have developed in an all-round way, and Athens has become the most modern region in Greece.

When King Leopold of Belgium set foot on this place, he even had the feeling of being in a country in Western Europe.

Speaking of the relationship with Greece, Leopold originally had the opportunity to come here to be king, but he refused, because he had already been in contact with Belgium at that time, and the Belgians also planned to invite him to Belgium to be king, at that time, Greece was a country that had just assassinated the prime minister, and Belgium at that time was a country that was becoming independent from the Netherlands through revolution, these two countries were also unsafe, but the culture of the Belgians was closer to that of the German aristocracy.

Later, he was glad that he had made this decision, because Greece had been targeted by a dangerous person, and if he had chosen to accept it, he would have been a corpse long ago.

Leopold was welcomed by the Greek court at the port, and he was greeted directly to the small but very practical Greek royal palace, where he soon met the Greek king, the terrifying Chinese prince Zhou Chenggong. Leopold came to persuade Zhou Chenggong to exert more influence to end the war between the great powers.

After various welcome receptions and balls, the two kings had the opportunity to talk alone.

Leopold quickly turned the conversation to the ongoing war between the Anglo-Russian coalition and China, which he cared about and had come to mediate.

Don't look at Leopold as a king of a small country, but he has a lot of influence and ambitions, always wanting to make an impact on a bigger stage.

In order to increase his influence in Britain, he went to great lengths to send one of his nephews to the British royal palace and became the husband of Queen Victoria, that is, Prince Albert. Queen Victoria was very new to her husband, and Leopold had a great influence on Victoria.

So he came to Greece, apparently, with a special mission.

The Greek king commented: "This war is not for the Chinese to fight. ”

Leopold asked, "I wonder if it is possible for the war to end on the basis of peace?" ”

Zhou Chenggong shook his head: "It's difficult!" My father was a man of great honor, and since he had made a statement to the people, he would have done it. China currently has this national strength! ”

Leopold nodded: "This is really an unfortunate conclusion. This means that the war will be fought for a long time. Neither Britain nor Russia was a country capable of conquering. Even China, I'm afraid, it will take many years to win, right? ”

Zhou Chenggong nodded and said, "Maybe." However, the last thing Chinese lack is patience, and they are willing to persist for a long time in order to solve hidden dangers. Do you know the Huns? ”

"I once read the General History of the Huns, written by the French sinologist Joseph de Guines, and he made the point that the Huns in Europe might be the Huns who migrated west from the Mongolian Plateau," Leopold said. ”

Zhou Chenggong said: "Do you know how long it took the Chinese emperor at that time to remove the threat of the Xiongnu to China? ”

Leopold shook his head.

Zhou Chenggong said: "The emperor at that time was called Emperor Wu of Han, and he spent forty-four years launching a war against the Xiongnu and defeating the Xiongnu. ”

Leopold exclaimed, "It's breathtaking. Worse than the Thirty Years' War! Do you mean that the current emperor of China also has this kind of courage and perseverance? ”

Zhou Chenggong said: "My father's courage and perseverance are not lacking. Moreover, China's national strength is much stronger now than in ancient times. Do you think this war will end easily? ”

Leopold shook his head and said, "In this way, China regards Russia as a Xiongnu!" But I still hope that the war will end soon, don't you think? Peace is too precious for small countries like Belgium and Greece. ”

Zhou Chenggong sighed: "I'm afraid you don't think so in your heart, right? As far as I know, after the outbreak of the war, Belgium exported a large number of machinery and equipment to China, seizing a large part of the former British market. At least the war was favorable for Belgium. I wonder why, no matter how you look at it, this war is not good for Britain. Why do you think your relative, Queen Victoria, is fighting this war? ”

Leopold said: "From what you know about England, I am sure you should know very well that the king is only an integral part of English politics. There are too many political groups that want to fight this war, and the textile industry, the shipping industry, and the financial industry, all hope to gain an advantage through a war when they cannot defeat China in the competition. The king is nothing more than a puppet led by different political forces! ”

Zhou Chenggong disagreed: "The power of the English king may not be able to do many things, may not be able to start a war, but it can easily prevent a war." Victoria didn't stop the war, and I've always been weird. Do you think this young king is competent? ”

Leopold sighed: "Can you expect a little girl who has just stepped out of the shadow of an arbitrary mother to become the monarch of a great country and has power in her hands to deal with political issues sensibly?" ”

Zhou Chenggong smiled: "I can understand what you mean by a noble girl who is ignorant of the world, and after suddenly taking power, she wants to try the naivety of deciding a matter by herself?" Well, you don't have to answer me. Let's be honest, what do you want me to do for you? ”

Leopold said: "Not for me, but for Belgium and Greece. You are right to say that Belgium gained a lot of economic benefits from this war, and Greece did the same. But in the hunting ground of this big country, if a small country like ours cannot exert its influence, what reason is there to exist on the world stage? If our two countries can exert their respective influences, ending this war that the great powers can no longer afford, will be enough to demonstrate the influence of our two countries. What do you think? ”

Zhou Chenggong nodded and said, "What you said is very reasonable, I hope we can contribute to the peace of this world!" ”

With that, he stretched out his hand and shook it with Leopold.

Leopold sought political influence, Belgium's position among the great powers, and what did Zhou Chenggong seek?