While Italy and Austria were trying to woo Bulgaria with a lot of interest, Britain and France were doing the same, except that they did not choose Bulgaria.

In the Prime Minister's Office in Athens, the capital of Greece, the British and French ambassadors were talking with Prime Minister Venizelos.

Speaking of which, the Prime Minister of Venizelos is a man of the hour, having been born in Crete. His father was a Cretan revolutionary who was exiled to Sylo by the Turks.

Venizelos lived there with his family from the age of two, and later attended university in Athens, where he was also a student leader. After obtaining a law degree, he returned to Crete and worked as a lawyer and journalist.

After the First Balkan War, when Italy had established the Republic of Crete there, he gladly joined as a member of parliament. However, Venizelos soon discovered that the Italians were too strong in Crete and were constantly influencing the situation in the Republic.

This angered Venizelos, who then organized a rebel army to try to overthrow the puppet republican government, but failed, and was captured by the Cretan police, along with men and weapons.

However, in view of Venizelos' high prestige in Crete (after all, he was the son of the leader of the Qian Revolution), the Cretan government exiled him without amnesty and could not return to the Cretan Republic.

Venizelos then traveled to Greece to associate with a military association composed of young officers. Later, the Military Association launched a revolution in Greece and invited Venizelos to take over as its leader. At the urging of Venizelos, the Military Association and King George amended the Constitution. In the general elections held in August 1908, Vinizelos was elected to parliament and became prime minister of Greece in October.

After becoming prime minister, Venizelos continued to consolidate his secret alliance with Serbia, and later brought Romania in before the outbreak of war. Thus, under the wonderful diplomacy of the prime minister, the fate of Bulgaria was decided by the three countries.

The rest of the story is known, and under the leadership of the prime minister, Greece acquired South Macedonia and many islands on the eastern side of the Aegean Sea, bringing Greece's strength one step closer.

On a sideline, Prime Minister Venizelos was a pro-British Frenchman who, after the outbreak of war, called for Greece to join the Entente. However, because the new king of Greece, Constantine I, was related to the German royal family by marriage, sympathized with the allies and rejected his proposal.

Now, the king of Greece is pro-German and the prime minister is pro-British, which makes the diplomacy of the Greeks unpredictable.

However, this is unfathomable to be questioned, because its pro-British tradition has not been lost, so London believes that Greece has a strong pro-British tradition, although its king is pro-German, but the prime minister who holds most of the power is pro-British, so Greece is a country that is very easy to pull to the side of the Entente.

"Prime Minister Venizelos, as long as your country joins our Entente camp, then after the victory over the Central Powers, the southern Albanian region, the island of Cyprus, and the Italian twelve groups can be owned by your country. In addition, your country can annex the Republic of Crete, and I believe that the Greeks on the island of Crete are eagerly looking forward to merging with Greece. ”

The British ambassador, Mr. Vergas, was trying hard to tell Prime Minister Venizelos the terms offered by the Entente.

It is fair to say that the terms of the British ambassador were simply too good for Greece.

Although Prime Minister Venizelos was very impressed by the terms of the British ambassador, as a good prime minister, he certainly knew the importance of this choice. Not to mention that the current performance of the Entente camp in this war is not good.

"Thank you for your fancy to our country, although we are also willing to join the alliance camp that punished and provoked this war, but at the moment our country is not ready, I am sorry that this disappointed your country."

Although Prime Minister Venizelos politely refused, since he came with a purpose, how could the two ambassadors give up.

I saw the French ambassador Durden speak. "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, your country is not ready, it doesn't matter, if your country lacks weapons and funds, we can provide it for your country. In addition, don't look at the current alliance camp as if the alliance camp has the advantage on all fronts, but your country also needs to see the huge advantage of our Entente camp. Although our country lost a lot of territory, even Paris was occupied by the Germans. But we are working to recapture Paris. The soldiers of our two countries worked for this. Although we suffered a slight setback at Bontailu, this did not affect the fact that we were bound to take Paris.

In addition, in terms of population, territory, and finance, our Entente camp is far more powerful than the Allied camp. To be fair, as long as our Entente camp does not fall in the first wave of the attack, then the Allied camp has no chance at all. Because we can draw manpower from the colonies, even if these colonial armies are less than a third of the German and Italian battles, but there are only as many of them as there are and we have more. Not to mention that we can also procure supplies from all over the world, and what about Deeao?

They can only obtain it from their own country, and at most from the surrounding neutral countries, but you must know that many of our strategic materials in Europe do not have them at all, and they must buy them from all over the world. For example, rubber, saltpeter ore and other important materials related to the victory or defeat of the war, the same is true of weapons and ammunition. In addition......"

In the French ambassador's account, the difficulties now encountered by the Entente were only temporary. With a large number of people and supplies, they can pile up the alliance camp, but the time is a little slower.

And after the French ambassador finished speaking, the British ambassador Vergas continued. "If your country joins, then we will immediately prepare £20 million for your country, and we are also willing to provide fifteen million pounds of military supplies."

The British and French ambassadors' analysis and words of assistance made Prime Minister Venizelos moved. Just as the French ambassador said, Britain, France and Russia are much stronger than Germany, Italy and Austria in every respect. Although the two camps have also joined the Ottomans and Japan, it can also be seen from these two new countries that Japan is far stronger than the Ottomans, and the military strength of the two sides is not comparable at all.

And to join the Entente, according to the conditions revealed by the British and French ambassadors, Greece will increase its territory by a third, and by a quarter of its population. This kind of opportunity doesn't happen all the time.

Prime Minister Venizelos, who had figured it out at this time, spoke immediately. "I personally agree with the words of the two ambassadors, but joining you requires the consent of His Majesty the King, and we have great difficulty in this regard."

At this time, Prime Minister Venizelos had already expressed his agreement, and now it was the king's pass, which was a little sad.

After hearing Prime Minister Venizelos' expression of willingness to join the Entente, the two ambassadors also suppressed their excitement.

"Your Excellency, please rest assured that our two countries are ready to fully support Your Excellency, and I believe that a good king will not ignore the will of the people, and if he must do so, the anger of the people will be enough to burn through the throne of this king, and perhaps a new king who can listen to the voices of the people will be more worthy of the people's expectations."

Well, the king will be so fresh and refined, not a loss of business proficiency.

"Thank you for your support, I think Your Majesty will definitely consider it seriously."

Although these two can say it casually, Venizelos, as the prime minister, can't say it, but the meaning of his words has already made it clear that he agrees with the words of the two ambassadors.

Then if the pro-German King Constantine is obsessed, then abdication and exile are the best ending.

As for why Britain and France did not hesitate to pay a lot of money to win over Greece, it was mainly because of the situation in the Mediterranean.

The current situation in the Mediterranean began to deteriorate with the successive commissioning of the Roman class. Although the Combined Fleet of the Mediterranean of the Entente countries had all kinds of battleships from Britain, France and Japan, none of them were equipped with 380 mm caliber warships.

As for why the 380 mm guns are mentioned so emphatically, because from the beginning of the design of battleships equipped with 380 mm guns, the designers of battleships no longer pursued the defense of battleships against the attacks of their own guns. This means that from the 380 mm calibre, the firepower of the battleship is greater than the defense. This also caused the fact that starting with the 380-mm battleship, other battleships with a weaker caliber than it were not its opponents.

The imbalance of naval power has also led to the deterioration of the situation in the Mediterranean, and before the British Queen Elizabeth class is put into service, if the enemy wants to delay the capture of the Suez Canal, it will be necessary to expand the front. And the accession of Greece will allow the Allies to disperse some of their power in the Mediterranean to Greece.

This also doomed Greece to the fate of cannon fodder, but after the victory of the war, then Britain and France were also very willing to fulfill their promises, after all, Greece played a sufficient role.

(End of chapter)