Propaganda quickly worked because it was real and credible. The king told the soldiers that he had sent Greek officers, recruited 50,000 mercenaries in Africa, and united with Egypt to invade Ottoman territory from behind. Now the coalition forces are fighting in Asia Minor, and it can now be said that the Ottoman Empire is being flanked by Greek native armies and Greek mercenaries.

At the same time, the king explained why he disappeared for three months, he said that he went to South Africa and Egypt for diplomatic activities, had been working hard for Greece, was not sick, and was not under house arrest. Then the king and Queen Connie attended various events together, and all rumors were shattered.

The invasion of 50,000 Greek mercenaries into the Ottoman mainland was of great political propaganda significance, and the king's actions were legendary, greatly increasing the king's prestige and the confidence of his soldiers to win the war, and their defense was more solid.

Things were not going well for the Ottoman Empire, and when the Manchus attacked the valley of the two rivers, they were able to stop it by mobilizing their reserves, but the more powerful Egyptian army attacked Asia Minor directly from Syria, and they could not cope with it with their reserves.

The Ottoman Empire finally began to withdraw elite troops from the front, and the pressure on the front line was further reduced.

Until now, the Ottoman Empire's rule over the Greek occupation has begun to have problems, and even with the local powerful factions as puppets, the resistance has not been extinguished. Spontaneous uprisings continued uninterrupted, and the people of the occupied territories, who had been sneaking across the front lines into the rear of Greece, joined the Greek army, bringing the number of Greek troops at the king's disposal to 50,000. As his own strength grew, the Ottoman army retreated, and the king decided to launch a real counteroffensive.

The counterattack was very difficult, the strength of the Ottoman army was still there, and the combat effectiveness of the Greek army was worrying, but it slowly began to regain some lost ground, and finally forced the Ottoman army to retreat without defeat, the Ottoman army retreated, and the Greek army advanced, and every step had to pay the price of life.

The Greek army regained the shattered Greek lands. Although the Ottoman Empire was not as barbaric as it was ten years ago during the occupation, and did not carry out massacres and genocides, some oppression of the local people was still the norm, and things such as raping one or two Greek girls were not worth mentioning. Because the new Ottoman army was established not long ago, the military discipline was quite good. This, combined with the fact that the last suppression of the Greek Revolution turned the whole of Europe against their atrocities, made the Ottoman Sultan attach great importance to maintaining military discipline.

But as they retreated, they began to wreak havoc. At this time, there was nothing left to worry about, burning bridges, barns and even cities, delaying the pursuit of the Greek army, and even direct orders from the Sultan.

The Greek army that went north to regain the lost territory saw such a miserable appearance, Zhou Chenggong personally led the troops, and every time he went to a place, he must first purge the local local powerful factions, these people can no longer turn over, and the cooperation with the Ottoman Empire during the occupation put them to death, and the really powerful local magnates have actually retreated with the Ottoman army. Those who remain are some middle strata who are not up or down, they are landowners, they are the traditional elite class at the grassroots level, and there are more people who belong to the level of the puppet army squad leader.

The angry people poured all their anger on these people, and many of them tore them apart without waiting for the regular army to arrive, without trial or defense.

What Zhou Chenggong needs to do is to uproot these famous families who have been entrenched in the area for hundreds of years or thousands of years, confiscate their land, and incorporate their army.

The number of regular troops continued to expand, and after the recovery of Central and Western Greece, Zhou Chenggong's military strength had reached 100,000, and with the current population of Greece, it can be said that almost all the people were soldiers. The backbone of the group was also constantly changing, at first there were regular officers to organize the army, and soon the reserve officers were not enough, and Zhou Chenggong began to use those rebel soldiers in the rear as grassroots officers. The Greeks were very enthusiastic about joining the army, and the reason why they could make it a soldier was not necessarily how patriotic they were, but because they were forced to make a living, because the retreat of the Ottoman army ruined the local economy, making it impossible for most people to make a living without joining the army, let alone support their families.

Zhou Chenggong is also open to recruitment, and as for financial issues, he has not considered it now. During the Greek Revolution of Independence, he borrowed 1.1 million pounds of debt from the British for nearly ten years, and Zhou successfully borrowed 10 million pounds of loans through African companies and European companies, which was more than enough to cope with the short-term recruitment.

The Ottomans stopped retreating at Thessaly and Epirus. Thessaly has the best agricultural conditions in Greece as a whole, with the largest plains and has always been the largest grain producer in Greece, and therefore the largest population. Epirus is a predominantly mountainous region, but the geographical location is important, to the north is Albania, Albania is relatively developed in agriculture and animal husbandry, and the population is larger than that of Greece, and the Ottoman Empire has always ruled Greece through Albanian legions.

Now the Ottoman Empire relied on the Albanian and Macedonian reserve armies to defend both places, and the main force was drawn back to Asia Minor to resist the Egyptian army. Since Zhou Chenggong did not intend to restrain these mercenaries, the slave owners and black mercenary officers from the slave repair team even began to round up Ottoman civilians and sell them to the Americas as slaves. The Manchu Empire, for its part, conquered the entire valley of the two rivers and had already invaded the peninsula of Asia Minor.

Faced with this situation, Mahmud II continued to draw the elite of the Greek front, and at the same time began to ask for help from the foreign powers.

Britain supported Mahmud II, and Russia began to communicate with Britain because of Egypt's indentation, as long as Britain agreed to Russia's right to pass through the straits and recognize Russia's right to build a navy in the Black Sea, Russia would turn to support the Ottoman Empire.

The British took into account the Russian opinion, and they could only agree that Russian merchant ships had the right of passage in the strait area, but refused that Russian warships also had unrestricted right of passage.

Britain felt that Russia was unreliable, so it turned to France, and France also opposed the penetration of Russian influence into the Mediterranean, and Britain and France reached a consensus on this issue, but France insisted on supporting Greece.

Austria persistently opposed the restoration of Russian military power in the Black Sea.

Therefore, on the issue of resisting Russia's entry into the Mediterranean, the three countries had the same attitude, but on the question of whether to support Greece, Britain, France, and Austria began to come close to unanimity.

The main reason for the British support for the Ottomans was to limit the strengthening of Chinese influence in the Mediterranean through Greece; Austria feared that Greek expansion would bring about the independence of the Greek-speaking Romanian and Bosnian communities in its own territory; Russia's feelings for Greece have always been mixed, as Russia has traditionally considered itself the heir to the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Tsar is the Russian pronunciation of Caesar. Russian Orthodoxy was introduced from Greece, which has always preached that Moscow was the third Rome after Rome and Constantinople (Istanbul). Greece is the only country capable of challenging Russia for Orthodox clergy. Therefore, it is okay to support Greece out of religious identity, but it is not in Russia's interest to make Greece too strong.

The interests of the four great powers of Britain, France, Russia and Austria were not aligned, and the Muslim civil wars in Egypt and the Ottoman Empire were more complicated, and Britain proposed to convene an international conference to discuss this issue.

The meeting was held in Vienna, the closest to southern Europe, and was chaired by the Austrian diplomat Metternich.

Unlike last time, this time they invited representatives of the Ottoman Empire and Greece to attend, and as for the Manchu Empire and Egypt, they ignored it. This was a decision made by Britain and Austria after careful consultation, and they wanted to limit the meaning of the war to Europe, and to unify the external language of coordinating European peace, Egypt as an African country, and the Manchus as an entirely Asian power. Obviously, Britain and Austria do not want the involvement of forces outside Europe, and it is obvious who to guard against.

At the meeting, the four great powers agreed that the war between Greece and the Ottoman Empire should be stopped and peace should be restored quickly.

The Ottomans were willing to accept it, they had already given up on Greece once and didn't care about giving up the second time. In any case, Greece's barren land and population were not of much value to the Ottoman Empire. If peace with Greece could be restored, the Ottomans could draw more forces to stop the Manchu and Egyptian attacks.

However, the Greek representatives did not agree, Zhou Chenggong and the Manchus and Egypt had an agreement to advance and retreat together, if these two sides were left aside to make peace with the Ottoman Empire alone, if the Ottoman Empire was destroyed in this war, it would be better to say, if he did not perish, Greece would still need to rely on the alliance with the Manchus and Egypt to fight against the Ottoman Empire, and he could not and did not dare to break the treaty.

The four great powers put pressure on Greece, which in turn offered an unacceptable condition for the Ottoman Empire, to return Constantinople, the former capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. How is this possible, Constantinople was renamed Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and the Cathedral of Sophia, the holy site of Orthodox Christianity, is now a large Muslim temple.

The demands of the Greeks were troublesome, and when the news was reported through the newspapers, it was very sympathetic to the people at the bottom, whether Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox, who were angry that Hagia Sophia had been occupied by pagans and converted into a Muslim temple. The feelings of the people put a lot of pressure on politicians.

Negotiations at the Viana Conference reached an impasse. There was also a stalemate on the battlefield, and the improvised Greek army was of a huge size, but in fact the average combat effectiveness had decreased. It was simply impossible to break through the Ottoman defenses. But on another battlefield, the Manchu Empire and Egypt were closing in on the heart of the Ottoman Empire.

In this case, it is difficult for Greece to make further progress in whatever the war looks like. Therefore, Zhou Chenggong refused to make peace with the Ottoman Empire alone, but on the other hand, he began to negotiate with Egypt and the Manchu Empire about the end of the war.

The convening of the Congress of Vienna and the exclusion of Egypt put great pressure on Ali. Just as the Manchu Empire had always been worried about China, the Ali dynasty had always been worried about the European powers.

Therefore, Ali was willing to consider restoring peace with the Ottoman Empire without destroying it; The Manchu Empire, which was determined to seize the entire valley of the two rivers, had achieved its current strategic goals, and they had no strong motivation to destroy the Ottoman Empire.

During the Congress of Vienna, a small discussion was also taking place within the Greek, Egyptian, and Manchu alliances, and an agreement was quickly reached.