Mediterranean Hegemony Road

Discussion came and went, and in the final analysis, it came back to the original point - money!

It takes money to expand the army, money for weapons and equipment, and even more money for wars! It happens that the Serbian government is short of money now!

Alexander I asked angrily: How much do we need for the war?

The Minister of Finance thought for a while, and calculated very skillfully: According to the expansion of the army by 200,000, the purchase of weapons and equipment will cost at least 30 million dinars. (Note: The Serbian currency dinar is equivalent to the lev, which is about gold. 2.9 grams, 2.5 dinars ≈ £1) there may actually be more;

The monthly military expenditure will not be less than seven million dinars. If there is a war, this consumption may increase several times! How much money is needed depends on when Bulgaria can be defeated.

Faced with the blame of the Minister of Finance, the Minister of War decisively chose to ignore it. Don't watch him clamoring for war. In fact, the Serbian military is not ready at all!

The so-called army of 300,000 is still on paper, and the Serbian army is now only 110,000.

Who knows when Paul will attack? What if the war broke out earlier? Bulgaria is not a fool. It has to wait for Serbia to be ready before launching an attack!

Whether it can win or not is unknown, how much it will cost, this can only be known by God! Anyway, he knows the situation of the Serbian army. According to the most optimistic estimate, when the expansion of the army is completed, it can be a battle!

Looking at the silent crowd, Alexander I's face was ashen. After all, he had just been in power for a long time, and his prestige had not yet been established. These ministers still didn't give him face. Just like the current situation, he could only record it first and settle accounts later in the autumn!

Glancing at everyone, he continued to ask, What plans does the military have? How long will it take to win the war?

Seeing that he couldn't escape, the war minister bit his head and said, Your Majesty, the war has not yet started! We are not gods, how do we know how long it will take? Bulgaria has not yet mobilized, maybe another ten or eight years. , they started the war!

Of course, this is just an analogy. Bulgaria is now preparing for the war. It is expected that in the next two to three months, the war will break out!

The Prime Minister took a deep breath. He now regrets that he was greedy for power and did not step back sooner. Tens of millions of dinars are gone before the war begins. If the war breaks out, I am afraid that there will be no one or two million that will not be able to fight!

You must know that in the last Bulgarian war, Serbia's military expenditure was only 60 to 70 million dinars. The main reason was that the defeat was too fast, and the duration of the war was too short to do national mobilization!

Asked: So, to ensure safety, we have to prepare 200 million dinars??

The Minister of War said affirmatively: Yes!

The Prime Minister did not buy it, and said in a very firm tone: You know this is impossible! Everyone knows exactly how the government's finances are. If it is 10 to 20 million, it can barely make up for it!

Two hundred million dinars, this is our fiscal revenue for five years! It's not what we want to be able to take out. Your military must find a way to keep military spending down!

The Minister of War thought for a while and said: I also know that the government is in financial difficulties now, but you all know that our army's combat effectiveness is not as good as Bulgaria's, and it is difficult to win without superior strength!

Therefore, the number of troops cannot be reduced, and daily training cannot be reduced. We have lowered the standard of weapons and equipment. The only way is to shorten the war time. Now we can only speed up the mobilization and start the war before the Bulgarian mobilization!

The words of the Minister of War, except for King Alexander I, were not heard by anyone else. It's not a strategy at all, just hope that Bulgaria will be foolish!

The Prime Minister sighed and said fiercely: One hundred million dinars! This is the highest limit,

We can't come up with more than this number!

The Minister of War was shocked, this price reduction is too harsh! Directly halved, and said angrily: No! There is not enough military spending, what are we going to fight?

The Prime Minister said coldly: Just take people's lives! From now on, the government will stop all expenditures and put all funds into the war. This is already our best effort! If we can't win, then the government will declare bankruptcy!

In addition, the national mobilization will be carried out immediately, recruiting all young men over the age of 15 and under the age of 60 to join the army, and select 200,000 people to join the regular army, and the rest will be reserved as reservists!

Alexander I couldn't sit still, he was desperately trying, and you can imagine that once the war failed, his throne would definitely be over! His father, the King of Milan, is the best example!

He hesitated and said, Prime Minister, should we think about it and use diplomatic means! No matter whether we win or lose this battle, our vitality will be greatly damaged!

The Prime Minister explained: Your Majesty, we will fight for it, but we can't relax our preparations. Only when the Bulgarians see our determination will they return to the negotiating table!

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, it turned out to be just a deterrent! Jiang is still old and spicy. They dare not think about it. If they really want to do this, what will the consequences be? To know that the rebellion in the country has not been quelled yet?

...

Serbia began the craziest mobilization, and the whole country was in a state of turmoil. There were long queues at each recruitment point.

Fortunately, this is the Balkans, and the people are used to war! Folks also have the habit of hiding guns. Fathers, sons and brothers bring their own equipment and join the army at the same time to join the sacred mission of defending the family and the country!

The suppressed rebels were the first to suffer. The government army began to attack regardless of casualties, and the artillery shells were vented to their positions without money!

The usual way of drilling ravines is no longer feasible. The government army has become ruthless, and directly fires and burns the mountain. If it cannot be tempered, the rebels who are rampant for a while are beaten and flee!

The rebels were suppressed, but the Minister of War could not laugh, the losses were too heavy! Within a week, 6,000 soldiers were killed and more than 20,000 were injured, most of them were minor injuries, and they could recover! Although the victory was brilliant and more than 30,000 rebels were killed, he was still not happy. This was a civil war!

Before the war with Bulgaria began, more than 10,000 people were forced to withdraw from the battle! Veterans with combat experience are not comparable to new recruits who have just joined the army!

The civil strife was suppressed, and Alexander I was deeply relieved. The civil war lasted for two years. Serbia lost at least 200,000 people and spent 50 million dinars. The economic loss is even more incalculable!

But Alexander didn't know. Although the government army suffered a lot of casualties, the military chose to hide the loss in order to report the good news and not the bad news!

Because of being attracted by Bulgaria, everyone ignored the rebel leader intentionally or unintentionally, which left hidden dangers for the future!