On June 14, 1845, the British leased most of southern Albania to the Ottoman Empire under the same pretext.

However, due to the tragic experience in Afghanistan, the former did not intend to go deep into the interior and fight with the Albanian army.

At the same time, due to the payment of a million Ottoman lira in escrow to the Ottoman Empire, the British had already planned a raid on the Albanian plains.

The deal between the British and the Ottoman Empire immediately spread in Europe, and seeing that the former continued its blockade policy against the Austrian Empire, France, Prussia, and Russia breathed a sigh of relief, and even McJid became more relieved.

This time the British were in direct contact with the Austrians, regardless of whether the two would misfire, but there was a certain amount of internal friction in Albania.

But there are also countries that are dissatisfied with this, and this is precisely the "little brother" of the British, the Kingdom of Greece.

The king of Greece at this time was Otto I, who was elected the first king of the Greek kingdom in 1832.

Although the king was escorted to the throne by 3,500 Bavarian soldiers and the British, French, and Russian navies.

But he had extraordinary ambitions, and at that time Otto was crowned King of Greece rather than King of the Greek people, meaning that millions of Greeks were still under Turkish rule.

And this king wanted to change the status quo, and the ambition he showed to the Greeks is also known as the "Great Ideal of the Greeks".

The "Great Ideal", that is, the reconquest of territorialism, was the dream of the Greeks for the restoration of the Byzantine Empire.

The Ottoman Empire had 2.5 million Greeks, and the Greeks in Constantinople, Thessaloniki, and Smyrna demanded unification, which were also centers of Greek merchant activity; Crete was ready for an uprising at any moment.

At that time, there were a large number of Greeks living in southern Albania, and Otto I took it for granted that it was also Greek territory.

Thanks to Otto I's long-term practice, that seemingly outrageous "great ideal" actually became the national ideal of the Greeks.

Even after the deposition of Otto I, his "great ideals" were influencing the nation.

The actions of the British at this time undoubtedly slapped Otto I in the face and deeply hurt the national feelings of the Greeks.

Tearing your face with the British? It is not yet possible for a country that has just become independent for more than a decade, but it is possible to secretly give a little support to the local Greek forces.

Otto I was born into the Wertbach family, the Bavarian royal family, and although he was asked not to merge with the Kingdom of Bavaria, this did not prevent him from becoming a relative.

The Wertbach family is prosperous, and there are naturally many compassionate "good relatives" who have both strength and financial resources. For example, his aunt Madame Sophie and his cousin Franz.

Since the Austrian Empire's weaponry was rapidly replaced, it was natural that a lot of "obsolete goods" would be produced, which would usually be sent to the colonies or sold to countries in need such as Russia.

But since it's a relative, it's better to sell it half and give it away, and you can even make an installment payment or something.

So a small country with a population of just over 800,000 actually asked Otto I to pull out a team of 40,000 people.

Of course, these 40,000 people were not professional soldiers, and the vast majority of them were government soldiers similar to those of the Tang Dynasty, who were farmers and craftsmen in peacetime, and would only be conscripted into the army in times of war.

(Historically, the Greeks had only 8,000 troops, including 3,000 Praetorian Guards guarding the palace.) ）

The Greek government was very poor at the time, so it was necessary to sell some weapons to maintain the financial balance.

As a result, a large number of weapons from Greece suddenly appeared in the market in southern Albania, which were cheaper and more powerful than the Ottoman standard weapons, and most importantly, appeared in a timely manner.

After all, both the British and the Austrians claimed to put down the rebellion and separatist forces for the Ottoman Sultan, and those "rebels" naturally could not sit idly by.

In fact, Austrian operations in the mountains of northern Albania were swift and bloody, and although they tried their best to block the news, it was impossible for the Albanians in the south to be unaware of it.

So when the British arrived, they found abandoned manors and heavily guarded forts.

Of course, the Albanians, who thought themselves to be strong fortresses, were no different from a house made of biscuits in the face of British fire.

The British began to raid as usual, and the dock forts were easily pried open by the new artillery, but this also strengthened the local people's determination to resist.

After all, the Greeks in the eastern mountains did not want to share their land with others at all, and the Albanians could only choose to stay in the plains and continue to fight with the British.

Fortunately, the British army did not have many numbers, so they could not occupy too many places. In fact, the British did not plan to occupy all of Albania, they only wanted to prevent the Austrians from breaking out of the Strait of Otranto.

The British army, which numbered less than 3,000 men, was scattered in large and small cities and ports, and the smallest outpost even had only a few British troops, which gave the Albanian rebels an opportunity to take advantage of them.

The latter could gather a large number of troops in a short period of time to besiege small groups of British troops, a tactic that made the British very unhappy.

But without sending a small force out, there would be no way to collect taxes, no taxes to pay the one million Ottoman lira escrow fees without taxes, and not enough money to maintain the occupation.

Due to the discord between William Gladstone, Secretary of State for Colony and Army, and Duke Hardington, Lord of the Admiralty, the final Prime Minister Robert Peele's solution was to leave the matter to the Navy, since Southern Albania was not nominally a British colony.

Although the Marines were sufficient to deal with the Albanians, they were not good at maintaining order in the occupied territories.

In fact, the British also wanted to use the old method elsewhere, which was to install a puppet regime. It's just that this trick doesn't seem to work well in Albania, and that is that the puppet regimes will mutiny faster than they can capitulate.

There were even guerrillas who voluntarily surrendered, and then took the opportunity to attack the British who came to surrender.

And the worst thing was that the British soon discovered that the weapons used by those partisans were no worse than theirs. In the case of the enemy's darkness and our own light, it is obviously the former that suffers greater losses.

To be honest, Franz still admires the courage of the British to take the initiative to go to the mines, after all, the Balkans are also famous.

Of course, the British dared to fight Afghanistan three times, and now the invasion of the Balkans seems to be a routine operation.

Franz was well aware that the British could not send too many troops to the poor country of Albania, after all, that would make ends meet.

However, if the number of troops sent is too small to establish a stable order on the ground, it will be bogged down in an endless war of law and order, so the Balkan problem is almost unsolvable for Britain.

(End of chapter)