Mediterranean Hegemony Road

In any case, the procrastination and incompetence of the Ottoman government, just like Ferdinand, he did not ask for trouble!

Looking back at China, the Second Five-Year Plan is still in full swing. As of 1895, many projects have achieved phased victories!

Under the investment of the Bulgarian government at all costs, heavy industrial industries such as steel plants and arsenals have achieved leapfrog development!

In 1895, Bulgaria produced 150,000 tons of steel annually, including 48,000 tons of steel and 102,000 tons of iron!

The arsenal can do it now: on average, the daily production of 500 new-style rifles (water in a row), 15 machine guns, 1.5 75mm rapid-fire field guns (Italian guns or Miss France), 500,000 bullets, and 2,000 shells!

The heavy-duty 150mm howitzer has also been successfully copied, and the production capacity is still forgot. This is not something Bulgaria can afford now, just build a few to fill the facade!

The steel plant has temporarily reached its limit. If you want to continue to break through, you can only wait for Bulgaria to obtain sufficient mineral resources after the Balkan War!

The pace of expansion of the arsenal has not stopped for a moment. According to the requirements of the military, the production capacity of rifles and machine guns needs to be doubled, the production capacity of artillery has to be increased by one-third, and the production capacity of ammunition has to be increased by five times!

According to the plan, by the end of 1896, Bulgaria should be able to arm 40 divisions with a total of more than 600,000 troops, and have strategic material reserves to meet the needs of continuous operations for six months.

According to the calculation of the military, the reserve of bullets shall not be less than 1 billion rounds, and the reserve of artillery shells shall not be less than 10 million. No way, who said that Bulgaria is equipped with gold swallowing beasts?

Mark core heavy machine gun, known as the master who can shoot 600 bullets a minute, his power in the Bulgarian war was shown.

After the unremitting efforts of the engineers of the arsenal (copycat), the successful weight was reduced by one-fifth, and other performances still did not improve much.

It was still liked by the military. In one breath, he placed an order for 10,000 guns for the arsenal. Each machine gun was equipped with 50,000 bullets. This is 500 million, and the rest are rifles!

Now that the war is not far away, Ferdinand does not expect to achieve a technological breakthrough now! If the quality is not good, the quantity is enough. Anyway, the opponent is the Ottoman Empire, and it is not an industrial power!

Not to mention the Bulgarian Type 75 rapid-fire gun (Miss France), how can the rapid-fire gun not fire fast? The corresponding rate of fire is fast, which naturally means that the shells are consumed quickly. The speed of 15 rounds per minute is far higher than the rate of fire of traditional artillery!

According to Ferdinand's plan, the main first-class division was equipped with 32 doors, and the new second-class division was equipped with 24 doors. In addition, five heavy artillery regiments were formed, each with 72 artillery pieces of various calibers.

Regardless of the quality, in terms of firepower alone, the division level has caught up with two-thirds of the French Army in World War I. Of course, it is still far behind in general!

Well, who told Ferdinand to set the strategic goal so high? Regardless of the military's request, whether it's the lion's big mouth, he must do it with all his strength!

In this regard, it has been unanimously approved by the high level of the Bulgarian government. In any case, winning this war is the most important task for Bulgaria now!

Thousands of artillery pieces and tens of thousands of machine guns are much stronger than the war the British fought against the Boers in South Africa! These are Ferdinand's greatest confidence in challenging the Ottoman Empire and swallowing the Balkans!

...

At the annual inventory meeting, Ferdinand was in a good mood. For Bulgaria, 1895 was another harvest year!

In terms of population, Bulgaria still maintains a high growth rate. The natural population growth rate after excluding new immigrants is as high as 2.73%, and the new population is about 110,000.

In fact, 1895 was another year of Bulgarian immigration,

There is not enough labor for new land development. In order to develop the Niš area as soon as possible, the Bulgarian government introduced a total of 242,000 immigrants throughout the year.

By the end of 1895, the actual population of Bulgaria had exceeded 4.3 million, of which 3.948 million had Bulgarian nationality.

In agriculture, land consolidation has been curbed. By the end of 1895, the country had a total of 41,300 square kilometers of arable land, and the per capita arable land remained at a high level of 0.95 hectares!

Among them, 65% are scattered in the hands of more than 2.3 million peasants; the Bulgarian government is the largest landowner, holding 29% of the country's arable land; the remaining 6% is owned by the landlords, among which the emerging military class, It's a huge percentage again!

The total agricultural output increased by 18% compared with 1894. Mainly due to the increase in the area of ​​arable land, as well as the promotion of new technologies, the construction of water conservancy projects and other factors.

With the development of new territories, Bulgarian agriculture will maintain a high growth rate in the next few years!

At the same time, the core problem that restricts the development of Bulgarian agriculture, the decentralized use of land, has not been solved!

The key is that Ferdinand did not intend to solve it now. The main reason is that land annexation will cause farmers to go bankrupt, easily lead to social conflicts, and destroy the stability and unity of Bulgaria!

At the end of the 19th century, the material foundation was not rich, and Ferdinand lowered the agricultural tax. For a considerable period of time, the income level gap between the peasant class and the working class was not large!

In terms of living standards, many peasants with lower incomes have surpassed the workers. In the short term, the scissors difference between industry and agriculture is not so obvious.

As for future issues, let's talk about it when the time comes! Anyway, maintaining social stability now will help the rapid growth of the population, and it can also prepare for war to the greatest extent!

Military merit is the most effective way for Bulgarian people to go to the upper class and become the ruling class!

The development of industry is changing with each passing day. By the end of 1895, there were 318 large and small enterprises in Bulgaria, employing 897,600 workers and possessing total assets of 1.75 billion levs!

Among them, there are 15 large enterprises with total assets of more than 30 million levs. Royal Bank ranks first with total assets of 350 million levs, followed by Bulgarian National Railway Company with total assets of 280 million levs.

There are Shuanghui Food Group, United Commercial Bank, Bulgarian National Bank, Bulgarian Steel Factory, Bulgarian Machinery Factory, Bulgarian Arsenal and other companies, all of which are on the list!

The 15 giants combined have a total of 685,000 employees, of which the Bulgarian National Railway Company has 342,000 workers! The total assets are as high as 1.58 billion levs, and the total assets of the remaining 300-odd companies are less than 200 million.

Monopoly capital has occupied 90% of the total industrial and commercial volume in Bulgaria, and most of the other companies also survive around these giants!

Except for the three major banks, the rest are real industries. Among them, three state-owned enterprises, the Bulgarian Railway Company, the Steel Plant and the Arsenal, have been in a state of loss.

Well, actually Ferdinand was going to split the road from the railway company, but after considering the actual situation, he gave up.

If the railway company has a bright future and lost money in the early stage, then it is estimated that the individual highway project will still lose money even if it waits for the next century, and it will be a huge loss!

Now the performance of the car is so bad that it needs to be repaired once it runs for 30 to 40 kilometers on average. The performance is very unstable, not to mention the comfort!

On the road now, it is still a horse-drawn carriage. As for collecting tolls, forget it! Originally, the transportation cost is high, and if we scrape another layer, do we need to develop the economy?