This left Otto I and his ministers utterly bewildered; it was the complete opposite of what they had imagined.
Not only did Greece's local elites refrain from making trouble at this juncture, they instead took the initiative to come to the palace, declare their loyalty, and donate money and grain.
Had they misunderstood them all along? Had these Greek local elites always loved and supported him? Only, their love ran too deep?
Of course not! Otherwise, they could have won Oscars.
In fact, these Greek elites had indeed considered it. They had even contemplated blowing up the railway to give the Austrian Empire a show of force.
As long as there was no evidence left behind, the Kingdom of Greece had nearly two million people at this point. The Austrian Empire could hardly kill them all, could it?
Yet the moment they saw the Austrian Imperial army passing through, most of them abandoned such thoughts.
Thus came the scene before them. No matter what, Otto I was quite gratified—after all, he was being taken seriously again.
But joining the war was not something one could simply do on a whim; there were still procedures to follow.
The Greek government separately delivered diplomatic notes to Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The note to the Ottoman Empire was easy enough to understand: since they had come to claim a share of the spoils, they had to find a pretext.
As for a pretext, it was not hard to find. There were over a million Greeks within the Ottoman Empire; not every one of them could be living happily.
Wasn't there their reason?
To rescue their oppressed Greek brethren.
It was really just going through the motions. Whether the Ottomans explained themselves or not would not affect the outcome.
The note sent to