Chapter 112 Project Athena

Volgaris took Kuros into the warehouse, toured the entire warehouse, and introduced Kuros: "This warehouse stores the goods of the Greek Congo General Company, such as sugar, cocoa, timber and other commodities, which will be stored here. The goods here are mostly supplied to the market in the Thessaloniki area."

"Although your public identity, the clerk of the Greek Congo General Company in Thessaloniki, is a disguise, but after all, you also get a salary, and the company's work still needs to be handled on a regular basis," Volgaris walked in front and introduced Kuros who was following behind.

Employees like Kuros, although their real identity is the intelligence personnel of the Intelligence Department, the Greek Congo General Company will also pay them a salary, so the company's responsibilities must still be fulfilled.

"Your clerical work is to record and verify the information of these goods, such as how much sugar arrived on a certain day, how much was withdrawn, etc., but it is a bit tedious, just be more careful."

The two walked among the stacked sacks and quickly introduced Kuros's public work.

The two walked to the depths of the warehouse and saw that it was hidden and no one was around. After Kuros looked around, he said to Volgaris, "What about the intelligence work?"

Volgaris saw Kuros's cautious look and smiled, "You don't have to be so cautious. The Ottoman Turks don't have a tight control here. Relax a little."

"Intelligence gathering is my main responsibility. You just need to pay attention to it. Your main job is to draw a map of the Salonika area."

Kuros nodded, thinking of the Jews wearing small round hats that could be seen everywhere on the streets after getting off the ship, and asked, "Why are there so many Jews in Salonika? I always thought there would be many Greeks in Salonika."

"There are now more than 100,000 Jews in this city. Salonika is probably the city with the most Jews in Europe. These Jews are said to have originally come from Spain."

Speaking of this, he was angry: "Most of the people in this city were Greeks. The Ottoman government probably deliberately guided the Jews to settle here to dilute the number of local Greeks."

As a local of Salonika, Volgaris was naturally worried about the continued growth of the number of Jews.

He completed his secondary education in a church school with the support of the Orthodox Church in Thessaloniki, so he naturally tended to be more emotionally inclined towards Greece.

In the days that followed, Volgaris led Kuros to tour around Thessaloniki, drawing the surrounding ports, cities, roads, and topographic maps on drawings.

After the ship of the Greek Congo General Company arrived, the intelligence team hidden in the warehouse of Thessaloniki handed over the information they collected to the personnel who came to meet them on the ship and fed back to the Intelligence Department.

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With the abundance of funds, the Intelligence Department dispatched a large number of intelligence personnel. These intelligence personnel were either natives recruited locally or professionals sent from Greece. These intelligence personnel were widely distributed in major cities in the Ottoman Empire, such as Constantinople and Smyrna. A large amount of intelligence about the Ottoman Empire's politics, economy, and military was continuously transmitted back to Greece.

As information was continuously gathered to a certain department of the General Staff, with sufficient intelligence support, a certain department of the General Staff also began to try to conceive a military plan to deal with the threat of the Ottoman Turkey at the request of Constantine.

In the Athens Ministry of Defense building, Chief of the General Staff Emmainur showed Constantine the military plan drawn up by the General Staff in 1892 with the Ottoman Empire as the imaginary enemy.

Constantine flipped through the pile of papers in front of him and roughly browsed through it. The standard military plan was nothing more than an emergency mobilization when a conflict broke out between the two countries, and then replenished the Epirus Corps and the Thessaly Corps on the front line, the two main forces of the Greek Army, and then went to the border for defensive operations.

There was not much fancy stuff.

Seeing Constantine finished reading, Emmanuel stepped forward to explain: "Your Highness, the enemy is strong and we are weak. Once the war really breaks out, Greece will have little choice."

"I can understand, but Emmanuel, you are the Chief of Staff of Greece and an important senior official of the Greek army. You can't just focus on the army."

"You also said that Greece is weak against the Ottoman Turks, so in the military plan of the General Staff, it is natural to gather all the strength of Greece and defeat the Ottoman Turks at all costs."

"Does the power of the navy also contribute to the plan?"

It's not that Emmanuel looks down on the current Greek navy, but that the current Greek navy is indeed relatively weak. In addition to several destroyers (torpedo boats) purchased from the UK, there are only a few "civilian armed ships" built by Greece.

These warships usually patrol the waters around Greece. It is really difficult to expect these warships built according to the technical standards of civilian ships to perform in the future Greek-Turkish war.

Constantine could foresee that no matter how detailed the intelligence support was, the operational plan formulated by the General Staff led by Emmanuil would only modify the details of the plan, and it would be difficult to change the general idea.

Therefore, he reminded: "This year, the two Esmeralda-class cruisers and several destroyers (torpedo boats) ordered by the Congolese fleet will be delivered."

"After obtaining this part of the naval force, at least the Greek Navy still has some advantages in the Aegean Sea."

Since the financial bankruptcy of the Ottoman Turkish government in 1875, the Ottoman Turkish Navy has not purchased new warships in recent years, and its strength has declined precipitously.

Having said this, Constantine looked at Emma Enol and said solemnly, "The warship that was purchased with a huge amount of money must reflect its due value in the plan formulated by your general staff, right?"

Looking at Constantine who was talking eloquently, Emmanuel asked: "Your Highness, do you have other plans in mind?"

Constantine stood up, saw that there were no other irrelevant people in the room, walked to the Emmanuel device, leaned forward and whispered: "········"

Emma Enol was greatly surprised after hearing this, "Your Highness, is this plan too risky? Plans with too stringent requirements will have a higher failure rate."

Looking at the embarrassed chief of general staff in front of him, Constantine explained: "When the war breaks out, if the prerequisites for this plan are not mature, then we will immediately switch to your current plan."

"If this plan fails, we won't suffer much loss, but if it succeeds, we will have a great chance of success in this war," Constantine seduced.

Emmanuel stood on the spot, his expression changing. After a while, he said: "What you said makes sense. Although it is a bit risky, after careful consideration, it is not without the possibility of success. If the plan fails, , or you can go back to the original track. Speaking of which, your new plan is more like taking more active actions in the early stage of the current relatively conservative plan."

"I will organize the officers from the General Staff Headquarters to perfect the specific details of this idea."

"What is the code name for the new plan you conceived, Your Highness?"

"Just call it "Project Athena""

Before Emmanuel left Constantine's office, he turned around and glanced at Constantine who returned to his desk, and said secretly: "I hope this plan will really protect the Greeks like the goddess Athena."

Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war in Greek mythology, the patron saint of Athens.