Greece to roman road

Since diplomatic matters are involved, in the absence of Venizelos, the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, neither of them knows much about diplomacy.

Constantine walked to the door of the conference room and asked Colonel Hammett, the aide-de-camp waiting at the door, to notify Venizelos to come for a meeting.

Ten minutes later, Venizelos hurriedly entered the Ministry of Defense building and entered the conference room under the guidance of Colonel Hammett.

The two men reported the movements of the Bulgarian army to Venizelos.

Venizelos thought for a moment and said to the two of them: "Your Majesty the Crown Prince, Your Excellency the Chief of General Staff, if a war breaks out between Bulgaria and Greece, in order to increase Greece's winning rate, I think we should carry out active diplomatic operations around the Balkans to increase the number of Number of countries Greece is friendly to, isolate Bulgaria as much as possible"

"Can you tell me more specifically? Is it possible to win over two allies for Greece?" Emmanuel asked eagerly.

Seeing Constantine and Venizelos looking at him in surprise, Emmanuel explained: "If Greece can find a common alliance against Bulgaria, then it can reduce the risk of war in Greece and reduce the risk of the Greeks. loss"

Constantine agrees with this. Every Greek is precious. The population of Greece is not large, especially now. Almost all young people in Greece have received complete compulsory education, and the quality of the population is very high.

"Bulgaria is a central country caught between various countries. Its geographical location is somewhat similar to Germany. Germany is at the center of Europe, so Bulgaria is at the center of the Balkans." Venizelos pointed to the Balkan map in the conference room and showed the two people explained.

In fact, Bulgaria’s geographical location is the most beneficial factor for Greece.

None of Bulgaria's surrounding countries, Romania, Serbia, the Ottoman Empire, and Greece, wanted Bulgaria to rise in the central Balkans.

Because once such a central country becomes powerful, it will inevitably compress the living space of surrounding countries.

The geopolitical environment in Bulgaria is terrible.

Greece is different. Greece is a peripheral country in the Balkans. This means that Greece's expansion into the Balkans will not be met with hostility and hindrance from neighboring countries like Bulgaria.

"The north of Bulgaria is Romania, and the two countries have a dispute over South Debroga on the lower Danube River. This is a good opportunity for us to win over Romania," Venizelos said, pointing to Romania on the map.

"The Ottoman Empire suffered heavy losses in the war that just ended, especially the loss of Adrianople, an important barrier to Constantinople, and the entire Thrace was almost completely taken away by the Bulgarians."

If Constantinople was not still under the control of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire would have no other territories in Europe.

Bulgaria's territory extends to the northern shores of the Sea of ​​Marmara (the inland sea between the Bosporus and the Dardanelles).

"The Ottoman Empire may attack Bulgaria once Bulgaria falls into a war with Greece, and I believe the importance of Adrianople will allow them to do so."

Emmanuel asked in confusion: "In the war that just ended, Greece was also an enemy of the Ottoman Empire. Will the Ottoman Empire and Greece form a common alliance against Bulgaria?"

Although it is said that there are only eternal interests between countries and there are no eternal enemies, the mood changes too quickly.

After all, during the war, in order to publicize the war and increase public support for the war, newspapers in Greece reported almost endlessly on the tragic experiences of the Greeks during the Ottoman rule.

For example, Greek boys were taxed on blood by the Ottomans, and girls from Christian families were raped as concubines.

Now, just a few days after the war ended, the attitude towards the Ottomans immediately changed, and the people could not accept it emotionally.

"It is not necessarily necessary to reach an alliance. Even when a war breaks out between Greece and Bulgaria, the Ottomans can mobilize the troops on the Bulgarian-Ottoman border to relieve the pressure on the Greek army," Venizelos explained.

"As for Serbia's attitude, I can't guess," Venizelos said hesitantly.

"As a landlocked country, it is conceivable that Serbia has an urgent need for access to the sea. In order to obtain access to the sea, Serbia may join forces with Bulgaria to attack Greece. For Serbia, the access to the sea in northern Albania is the only possibility for Serbia. Got access to the sea,” Emmanuel guessed.

Bulgaria and Serbia join forces to attack Greece. Bulgaria gets Macedonia and Serbia gets Albania. Both sides get what they need and both get the territory they want. Naturally, there is a basis for an alliance.

Greece is likely to fail when faced with a land attack from Serbia and Bulgaria.

Whether it is Serbia or Bulgaria, their armies have strong combat effectiveness, which is almost at the same level as the Greek army.

However, the combined number of armies of the two countries far exceeds that of Greece.

The originally relaxed atmosphere in the conference room suddenly became oppressive, and it was so quiet that you could clearly hear a pin drop.

What Emmanuel said is indeed a very likely scenario.

The rise of Bulgaria is naturally something that Serbia, as a neighboring country, does not want to see. Is the rise of Greece, which is also a neighbor of Serbia, what Serbia wants to see?

"Serbia is unlikely to do this, because that will cause a strong reaction from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Austro-Hungarian Empire will never sit back and watch Serbia gain access to the sea. This will violate the core interests of the Austro-Hungarian Empire," Constantine said, breaking The silence in the conference room.

"Unless all countries are ready for war, they will definitely stop Serbia's move, because Serbia's move is likely to become a trigger and trigger a war that will spread throughout Europe," Constantine said expressionlessly. said.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire would never allow Serbia to gain access to the sea, and Russia was Serbia's Slavic brother and would never let the Austro-Hungarian Empire bully its younger brother.

Austria-Hungary and Russia belonged to the Central Powers and the Entente Powers respectively.

At this time, the two major military groups, the Entente and the Central Powers, were engaged in an unwilling military competition.

"So, if countries don't want a world war to spread across Europe right now, they will try their best to stop Serbia's crazy move to attack Greece."

After Constantine explained, the expressions on the faces of Venizelos and Emmanuel became more solemn and serious.

In order to ease the tense atmosphere, Constantine had no choice but to say: "After all, these are just our analyzes and guesses. How the situation in the Balkans will develop depends on your specific work."