Greece to roman road

"According to the response from our embassy in Germany, Germany has been advocating for the Eastern Railway in recent times. Could it be related to this matter?" Constantine guessed.

In Europe at the end of the 19th century, when everyone mentioned railways, they would think of one word - war.

The emergence of revolutionary land transportation tools such as railways has greatly promoted the flow of land materials and personnel. Officers in the armies of various countries have a headache, how to transport huge amounts of supplies to frontline military camps, or thousands of people. How can the army quickly appear where they are needed? Railway transportation provides the answer.

In the just-concluded Greco-Austrian War, the railway from Athens to Larissa played an important role.

During the war, a military train arrived in Larissa every day, carrying thousands of tons of supplies, including guns and weapons, bullets and shells, additional soldiers, army rations, etc.

It can be said that the victory of the Greek army was largely due to the railway.

After the emergence of the railway, the Ottoman Empire had always hoped to build a railway system that could connect all parts of the empire and strengthen its control over the territory - to prevent the recurrence of Greek independence.

Prior to this, almost all railway projects in the Ottoman Empire were built by the Germans.

Due to depletion of financial resources, almost all the Ottoman railways that had been built so far were in Asia Minor.

After hearing Constantine's reminder, King George also understood the reason why Germany supported the Ottomans at the ongoing London Conference.

"What's the attitude of the Russians?" King George was in awe of the huge Russia and its strength.

Millions of gray cattle raise the eyebrows of almost all of Europe.

Because of the marriage (Queen Olga came from the Russian royal family), George I had hopes for Russia.

"The Russians have no clear attitude," Augustatiano replied.

"The Russians are now going all out to expand to the east."

"In order to build the long Trans-Siberian Railway, it can be said that there is no time for other things. I heard that in recent years, the cost of building railways in Russia has even exceeded the annual military expenditure," Constantine added.

This railway is known as the backbone of Russia and receives special attention from the Czar. It is precisely for this reason that Russia, which has always been ambitious, is the least willing to cause trouble at this stage.

Originally, the Greek government, including Constantine, had high hopes for this meeting with the Ottomans, but the current direction of the meeting is indeed not optimistic.

A land like Greece, which is short of resources and does not even have basic agricultural conditions, is not suitable for industrialization.

Apart from anything else, in order to reach the current industrial level, Greece has spent a huge amount of money on transportation conditions. Trikoupis's major infrastructure plan has mainly invested in this aspect.

In other words, limited by resource endowments, the return on investment in Greece is too low.

If Greece can obtain the Aegean coast of Albania and Macedonia, let alone resources, at least Greece can obtain part of the scarce arable land.

This will solve the current dilemma of Greece needing to import a considerable amount of food every year.

Food security is of great importance to a country.

But now the Germans crossed the line, which was beyond Constantine's expectations.

As for Italy's opposition, it seems that no one is too worried, so much so that King George asked the surrounding countries about their attitudes, but Italy was missed.

There are two jokes circulating in the current European Military Festival. One is the Ottomans who were defeated by their country of origin, and the other is Italy who was defeated at the hands of African chiefs.

Almost at the same time that the Greek army defeated the Ottoman army on the border, European countries received news that in the Battle of Aduga, the Italian army went deep alone and suffered a disastrous defeat. 7,000 Italians were killed, 1,500 injured, and 3,000 injured. captive.

Among them were 252 officers below brigadier general. Italian commander Baratieri abandoned his army and fled during the night.

After the defeat of this decisive battle, the Italian expedition officially came to an end in humiliation.

This was something unprecedented in Europe: a European power lost to an African country.

At the end of the 19th century, European pride reached its peak. Everyone's impression of African countries is that a small number of European adventurers used advanced European weapons to defeat a large number of African indigenous people.

Abruptly, I heard that tens of thousands of fully armed European soldiers were defeated by European black uncles. This strong contrast showed a strong drama.

Bismarck commented: "The Italians have a good appetite, but they have rotten teeth."

The Italian representatives who had a strong attitude at the London meeting suddenly died down.

Among the representatives from various countries participating in the meeting, almost no one took the Italian representative seriously.

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In the territorial talks between Greece and the Ottoman Empire, the differences between the two terms were too big: the Ottomans insisted on handing over only Epirus to Greece, while Greece’s conditions were Epirus, Albania, Macedonia’s Aegean coast and Crete. Special Island.

The Ottomans were supported by Germany, while Greece was alone. No representative from any country explicitly expressed support for Greece.

The meeting was deadlocked.

Rumors about the talks spread freely among the people, triggering a lot of speculation among the people.

On February 25, the Athens Times reported that Greek Prime Minister Trikoupis planned to return Macedonia and Albania occupied by Greece to the Ottomans during talks in London.

This caused a huge uproar in Athens.

The Greeks, who had gone through the war, were now more motivated and were thinking about how to restore the glory of the empire. Suddenly they heard that the Prime Minister wanted to return the territory they had just gained to the Ottomans at a huge cost to the Greeks. They simply couldn't accept this.

Angry Athenians gathered in front of the Capitol and denounced Trikupis as a traitor who had betrayed national interests.

For a time, the Greek government was once again forced into a corner by the people.

On the 27th, Greek Ambassador to Germany Krygis received domestic requests and visited the German Chief of General Staff, Schlifen.

Krygis stated that Greece was willing to use the technology of 75mm rapid-fire guns as payment to prevent Germany from supporting the Ottomans on territorial issues.

As early as the fierce battle between Greece and Austria, Shi Lifen received news from German officers in the Ottoman army, saying that the Greek army was equipped with a field gun with an extremely high rate of fire.

In fact, the matter of Greek rapid-fire artillery is no longer a secret in the European military circles. After all, they have already been on the battlefield. The military attachés stationed in Greece and the Ottomans from various countries are more or less concerned about the Greek artillery and are sending it to the country. described in the report.

On February 29, Madsen, the German military attaché in Athens who received orders from Berlin, personally came to the school grounds on the outskirts of Athens and, with the help of Greek artillery, personally operated the artillery.

The 75mm artillery can reach the ultimate rate of fire of more than ten rounds per minute, which shocked Colonel Dydson.