After listening to Wester’s report, Otto toured his territory, smiling and greeting his busy subjects, perfectly maintaining his approachable image.
After walking for a while, Otto saw a church, but its style was not the common Catholic one seen in Germany, but Eastern Orthodox.
Compared to Easterners, Europeans are more serious about their faith, and the power of the church is also very strong. Although Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox are both one of the three major branches of Christianity, there are still many conflicts between them.
Going back one or two hundred years, it was not surprising for wars to be launched for religious reasons. The Pope could even decide the succession to the throne and call for believers to crusade against countries with different faiths.
One typical example is Spain, which fought wars for years for its faith, depleting countless gold and silver harvested in the New World.
Now, with the development of the times, the church's influence continues to decline, but it still has extremely high influence. When Britain opened up colonies, it did so with a Bible in one hand and a sword in the other.
Otto himself was indifferent to religion, but due to the overall environment, he still chose Catholicism, while Eastern Orthodox has a high influence in Eastern Europe, such as Russia.
Last life, when Otto played Civilization 6, for a while he particularly liked choosing Russia. Everyone who used the nuclear-powered Holy Site said it was good; with faith, you could do whatever you wanted.
Besides the Russian region, the Balkan Peninsula where Greece is located also has Eastern Orthodox in a dominant position in terms of faith.
Due to the Ottoman Empire's policy over the past two hundred years, most of the numerous Eastern Orthodox dioceses in the Balkan Peninsula were headed by Greek priests.
Even the governors of many regions in the Balkans were served by Greeks.
But all this changed with Greece's independence. Many Greek bishops and governors in the Ottoman Empire's territories were purged and their homes confiscated.
The church Otto saw now was actually established by missionaries who had fled from the Ottoman Empire.
Considering that he would need to utilize the influence of these missionaries in Greece and even the Balkans when he arrived in Greece in the future, Otto took in these missionaries and had them teach the Greek language and script.
Before long, these missionaries mobilized the Greek people in the territory to raise funds and labor to build a church, preached in their spare time, and attracted many local believers.
From this perspective, these European missionaries have strong subjective initiative and are extremely active in proselytizing, no wonder missionaries often accompanied voyages during the Age of Discovery.
After confirming that the territory was developing well, Otto returned to Munich to check on the department store's development, especially to calculate his own financial standing.
He needed to confirm how much capital he had during this time, and at the same time, gather information within Greece to plan for the future.
Days passed one by one, and while Otto was busy preparing, he was also gathering intelligence on Greece.
As time went on, the infighting in Greece became more intense.
The current President of Greece, Kapodistrias, had previously served as Foreign Minister in Russia. After visiting various countries, he gained recognition and obtained the position of President of Greece.
According to his character, he preferred to establish a centralized state.
However, in reality, after independence, the power of the Greek government was divided among a 27-member National Assembly composed of local nobles and influential church figures. These people, of course, would not allow Kapodistrias's idea to succeed.
At the same time, because Greeks were influenced by the liberalism and radicalism from France, while they opposed nobles and the church, they also opposed centralization, believing that such a government was no different from despotism and dictatorship.
From an Easterner's perspective, centralization is inevitable. Countries that cannot achieve centralization often fail to accomplish many serious matters due to various mutual bickering and dragging their feet.
But in the Wester, due to the strong tradition of local factions, coupled with an over-interpretation of liberalism, centralization became extremely difficult.
Looking at the current situation in Greece, this small country's politics appear extremely chaotic. To describe it with Otto's slang from his previous life, it's like “a small temple with strong evil winds, and a shallow pond with many turtles.”
Amidst such a chaotic situation, these so-called Greek elites only considered themselves. They demanded compensation for economic losses during the War of Independence, but the President directly refused due to the Greek government's financial problems.
At the same time, for the sake of national development, Kapodistrias issued new tax decrees, collecting taxes from these people. However, these people, while increasing the burden on the populace, blamed the President, thereby loudly opposing Kapodistrias.
These actions, in Otto's view, were a complete replica of the Donglin Party at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Kapodistrias clearly wanted to achieve something, but ended up touching the interests of these vested interests.
Finally, in October 1831, the President was assassinated on his way to church to pray.
When this news reached Munich, Otto, who was checking accounts, couldn't help but stand up from his seat and ask Wester, who had come to report, “When did this happen?”
Although Otto knew the fact that Kapodistrias was assassinated, he only remembered it happened this year.
With the end of the year approaching, he was inevitably a little anxious, fearing that the hurricane caused by the butterfly effect would blow away his Greek throne. Upon hearing this news, his emotional reaction was inevitably a bit strong.
“It happened this month, ten days ago. Because of your instructions, I came to report as soon as I got the news.”
Wester was a bit puzzled by Otto's reaction. In his opinion, Greece was too far away, and the life or death of a president there was not worth Otto's attention.
“Is Father in the palace now?” After calming down slightly, Otto prepared to implement his plan. The first step was to ask Ludwig I to help him contend for the throne of Greece!
“His Majesty the King is currently in his study,” Wester thought for a moment and replied, “When I entered the palace just now, I noticed the light in His Majesty’s study was on.”
“I’m going to see Father. As for you…” Otto thought for a moment and said,
“Early tomorrow morning, go to the territory and organize all the people participating in the reserve training.
From tomorrow onwards, these people will undergo full-day military training. Also, how much longer until the armed merchant ships I asked you to purchase can be launched?”
“Because we placed the order relatively early, the shipyard in London is already manufacturing them. All eight armed merchant ships should be delivered in about two months.”
“Very good.” Otto nodded, “The sailors must also be prepared in advance. As soon as the ships are launched, have people take delivery and sail them to Hanover’s port first. From now on, our goods can be transported using our own merchant ships. In addition, we must continue to order more armed merchant ships. Besides Britain, we can also place orders with French shipyards. We need to at least quintuple our fleet.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Wester nodded, “However, with our current volume of goods at the department store, it seems we don’t need so many ocean-going merchant ships.”
As the department store's business expanded, for markets like Spain, Britain, Italy, and the New World, transporting goods by large merchant ships at sea was indeed more convenient.
As for why they were armed merchant ships, pirates were rampant in this era, and sometimes even the national navy served as pirates. Therefore, most merchant ships sailing at sea now had cannons, and most of those sailors were desperadoes.
As for accelerating the order for more armed merchant ships than needed now, it was, of course, to be able to take the army by ship directly to Greece after the London Conference. Would Otto lead the army through the territories of Austria and the Ottoman to reach Greece?
Not only would it take a lot of time, but while Austria might be somewhat accommodating given the relationship between the two countries, how could the Ottoman possibly allow Otto to lead a large army across the Balkan Peninsula?
After giving his instructions, Otto left his study, preparing to go see his father, Ludwig I.
