The recognition of regional independence was not voluntary, but was a last resort at the suggestion of Germany and the status quo facing the Ottomans.

Although the Ottomans were spared from being partitioned after the war, the civil conflict that broke out during the war seriously weakened the overall strength and cohesion of the country, resulting in a post-war crisis, and Britain and France and other countries also took the opportunity to make such a decision.

Just as Britain and France turned a blind eye to the nascent Soviet regime, Germany turned a blind eye and occasionally provided some help to the Soviet Union on the premise of satisfying its own needs, and this betrayal of its teammates not only curryed favor with Britain and France, but also prevented Germany from being deliberately troubled by the United States and other Western countries in terms of energy imports. Now that Hungary and Romania were in full swing, Eric appropriately adjusted the Soviet pressure on Britain and France, leaving the latter weak and unable to take care of them, and at the same time, seizing the opportunity of Britain and France to obtain the right to use the Suez Canal, leaving them to turn a blind eye, so that Germany had a relaxed time to calmly lay out the layout in the Balkans.

Germany, which had no serious competitors, rapidly expanded its influence in the Balkans, and Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Albania had to turn to Germany. In addition, the financial intrusion and purchasing power of the Deutsche Mark have spread, and the ideological trend of supporting Germany as the boss has been formed. However, just when Eric thought that the general situation was set, he did not expect Greece to jump out and do it, which made Eric feel very uncomfortable.

After the meeting, which was later called the "First Hansa Felt Palace Conference", according to Eric's intentions, Rathenau immediately contacted the representatives of the Ottoman Empire and explained the attitude of Germany, which agreed to Eric's request almost without hesitation, and especially to the gratitude of Ottoman Turkey, in order to reduce its pressure, Germany decided to collect only the down payment for this batch of weapons orders for the time being, as for how much to pay for the goods in the future, the Ottoman side did not consider, the key is to survive the current priority.

At the same time that Rathenau was in contact with the representatives of the Ottoman Empire, German and Greek representatives were also negotiating and unilaterally canceling the arms sales order to Greece. The Greek representative first made appropriate threats, but to no avail, angrily announced the severance of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Eric didn't think there was anything wrong with it, after all, Germany had inadvertently played someone else this time, and he could only hope that relations would be slowly repaired in the future.

A few days later, Greece suddenly declared its sovereignty over the territories along the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, demanding that the Ottoman Empire immediately return all occupied territories. This was something that Eric did not expect, and what was even more unexpected was that the thousand waves stirred up by the German stone had just begun, and then, the Greeks with a strong temperament did not wait for the official response of the Ottoman Empire, and directly sent troops to attack.

The Ottoman army, which did not react for a while, was chased all the way by the Greek army to the outside of Istanbul, and the main Austrian army rushed to stop it. At this time, Germany also began to struggle because of its military alliance with the Ottoman Empire. From many details of the march, it can be seen that the Greek style has the presence of Britain and France, Eric is not sure whether Britain and France will directly intervene after Germany declares its entry into the war, and at the same time, once Eric declares his entry into the war, the relationship between Germany and Greece will be even worse, so Eric has not announced Germany's entry into the war for a long time.

I really don't want so many things to happen, but there are so many things that happen, Eric is very big. So he contacted Max, who was in London, to find out what the British were about it, and especially how French diplomacy was moving around in Britain.

"General Counsel Max once said that Lloyd George had completely vetoed the fact that Greece was behind the instructions and support of the British, because Max did not inquire about the situation in an inquiring tone, but in a reproachful tone." Rathenau reported to Eric, who was thinking about it at the Hanseatic Palace.

"And what about the French side?" Eric asked.

"Similarly, the French side did not admit that they directly instructed the Greeks to start the war, especially since the British said that Britain and France had never communicated with each other on the question of Greek territory." Rathenau said it officially, implying that the official did not admit that Britain and France were behind the war.

"They played very beautifully, allowing Greece to come out as a thug and secretly take advantage of the opportunity to insert their own influence in the Middle East." Eric is not stupid "Oil exploration in the Middle East has been going on for more than a year, and we have already reaped obvious benefits, and Britain and France are naturally not willing to let us enjoy it alone. ”

Eric understood that, in fact, Britain and France had long been stumbling behind their backs, and that even if there was no territorial dispute between Greece and the Ottomans, they would find other reasons to obstruct it. Fortunately, the United States is not interested in interfering in the Middle East for the time being, because the affairs in Asia and South America have already made them anxious.

"How are we doing with Greece now? What are their requirements? Eric doesn't think that a single cancellation of an arms order would be enough to make Greece so aggressive.

"Greece, of course, strongly demanded that the Ottomans cede the Aegean coast, and it was very tough." Rathenau knew the whole story of the Greek-Turkish dispute in this respect, and quickly replied.

"Gone? That's all there is to it? Eric asked very strangely.

"There is no other case, Greece has only one claim, and the Ottomans do not recognize the Greek territorial claim." Ratnow looked at Eric and shook his head.

"Didn't you say that Germany would go to war for the sake of its allies?" Eric really didn't understand where the Greek ambitions came from, and although the Ottoman Empire was in the sunset, Germany was still alive and strong.

It is not surprising that Greece attacked the Ottomans so decisively, and now the German naval power in the Mediterranean is almost nil, and in addition to inheriting a few old and broken ships from Austria, the German naval power in the north cannot compete with the Greek fleet, let alone the Ottomans, not even Germany. Therefore, Greece also took great pains at the beginning of the war and settled on the context of Germany and Austria.

The idea of attacking Greece at sea can be put on hold, and the only thing that can be used is land. However, Greece does not share a border with Germany, and is separated by a group of countries, including Croatia, Serbia, Bavaria, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and so on. It is certainly not easy to win the support of these countries if they want to attack by land, not only will they cause international disputes and even face the possibility of being forced into war, but at the same time, these countries will also have to risk becoming enemies of Greece, which will make it more likely to lead to unpredictable diplomatic disputes.

"Damn Greece, they attacked the Ottomans so blatantly, they were actually provoking Germany!" Eric couldn't think of a solution, so he had to vent: "We must quickly strengthen our own naval construction, and we can only be trapped on the mainland and do it in a hurry!" ”。

Rathenau now had no choice but to shrug his shoulders helplessly, and it was true, if a land power like Germany had no strong navy to support it, it would be like a caged tiger and a dragon in the shallows. Now, Eric is in a dilemma, he can't directly intervene on land, and he can only swallow his anger at sea. Siam was like this at the beginning, relying on Germany's inability to intervene directly from the sea, and never gave a satisfactory answer to Germany, until Eric solved the Suez problem, Siam relented.

Unable to use military means to attack Greece, Eric had to resort to other ways to end the farce and instead provide Turkey with a large amount of military supplies to establish a victory, which was not obvious but at least showed the help of the allies.

The Ottomans, who were in chaos all over the country, could not withstand any military blows from the outside, not to mention that Greece at this time was only stronger than the Ottoman Empire because it did not join the First European War and was spared huge losses, and it was the new force in southern Europe.

The original reigning Constantine I lost his prestige due to the cancellation of arms sales by Germany, and abdicated to his son Alexander, which led to a good show of war between the main side and the Ottomans.

"Where is Konstantin now?" Eric now had to find a way to put chaos in Greece in order to ease the pressure on the Ottoman Empire.

"He's in Gerva." Rathenau had just finished speaking, when there was a rush of footsteps outside. Then the door was pushed open with force, and Chancellor Stresemann and Minister Brauchitsch stood in the doorway.

"What's going on?" Eric watched his door being pushed open with force, a little annoyed, and felt that the person in front of him was too rude.

"I'm sorry, Mr. President, that the Kemal coup d'état imprisoned Mohammed VI." The Prime Minister gasped.

Eric fell silent for a while, this is really a wave of unsettled, no wonder the relationship between Britain and France has been wiped out, it is entirely because they do not need to intervene directly, and now Osman himself has collapsed from within.

"What is the attitude of the military?" Eric believes that a regime that wants a coup d'état cannot do without the support of the armed forces.

"Most people support Kemal." Stresemann replied.

"So what do you mean? Now that we're all there, let's talk about it. Eric is running out of ideas now, everything came too suddenly, and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire seemed to be in an instant, and like the Austro-Hungarian Empire, once it collapsed, it was too late to support it.

"We can only support Kemal now because Osman is basically the big picture now." Chancellor Stresemann immediately expressed his opinion.

"Ministry of Defense? Brauchitsch, you tell me about it too. Eric asked again.

"I also tend to support the Kemal regime, but it is mainly up to Mr. President to decide." Receiving the same answer, Eric was a little speechless.

"So what's the opinion of the Home Office?" Eric continued.

"At present, this is the only way to keep the relationship between the two sides from scratch." Hans Luther explained the current predicament in Germany.

"First Austria-Hungary! Now it's Ottoman again! This bunch of pig-like teammates! Eric finally shouted out the words he had been holding back in his heart.

Germany's two most powerful allies, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, had collapsed, and the Ottoman Empire had been torn apart.