Mediterranean Hegemony Road

Ferdinand had just completed the plan for the reorganization of the army, and before it was released, Prime Minister Constantine and Chancellor of the Exchequer Kennedy came to the door.

Grand Duke, this is our expense report for this war. The war expense is somewhat beyond our expectations, especially the Battle of Constantinople, which has greatly exceeded the budget! The Chancellor of the Exchequer said solemnly

Ferdinand nodded and said calmly: This is normal, the battlefield is ever-changing, and it is normal for a little accident to happen!

After all, we won this war, and a little monetary loss is acceptable! By the way, how much overspending?

The panic in the finance minister's eyes disappeared for a moment, and then he quickly calmed down and said, There is no overspending, but 70 million leva has been saved. Our original budget was 300 million leva for war expenses, and the actual cost now is Sales are about 230 million levs!

Saving 70 million levs, this figure flashed in Ferdinand's mind, and he was a little surprised. It is said that there is still a surplus in the war? It was unexpected!

You must know that 70 million levs, if equivalent to Kuping silver, is 18,666,700 taels, and you can buy the Beiyang fleet! (Note: The exchange rate is in 1901, 1 tael of silver = 3.75 levs = 0.15 pounds)

When he just crossed over, Ferdinand would definitely be ecstatic when he heard this number, but now, this number can no longer move him.

After being slightly startled, Ferdinand casually opened the information and looked at it carefully.

The first thing that comes into view is the consumption of ammunition. In the Balkan War, the Bulgarian army consumed a total of more than 3.87 million rounds of various types of artillery shells and more than 270 million rounds of bullets.

Ferdinand didn't look down on the specific consumption of various types of shells. Anyway, he only saw the total value of nearly 70 million levs, so he continued to look down.

Among them, in the Battle of Constantinople, 70% of the artillery shells and 30% of the bullets were consumed. It can be said that the main gold-digger in this war was the Battle of Constantinople!

Well, this is just Bulgaria's own ammunition expenses. All expenses are cost prices. Many raw materials for ammunition production are only charged for labor costs, and profits are not considered at all.

If it is purchased in the international market, it is impossible to buy it without hundreds of millions of levs!

As for the heavy artillery provided by the Russians, and the shells consumed, they are not counted in the class.

The Ministry of Finance also gave a preliminary estimate.

These more than 300 heavy artillery pieces cost hundreds of thousands of leva each, and a single shell would cost hundreds of leva.

If this cost is counted on Bulgaria, the value of more than 200,000 shells will not be less than 30 million levs. If the value of the artillery itself is not 70 million or 80 million levs, it will not be able to get it. !

Of course, for Russia, there is no problem at all. Converted to rubles, it is less than 30 million, and converted to pounds, it is only 3 million. Since the Russians have a big family, they can squeeze out casually.

After winning the Black Sea Portal, it only cost three million pounds. No matter how you look at it, Nicholas II made a lot of money!

You must know that even if the military value is not considered, just in terms of economic value: this golden waterway charges more than this number of tariffs every year!

And it also involves the issue of Russia's economic development, especially the export of agricultural products, which has controlled this golden waterway. The international competitiveness of Russian agricultural products will be greatly increased!

Of course now the Russians are still wrangling with the Ottomans over this issue!

As for Bulgaria? Ferdinand resolutely chose to give up. Countless historical lessons have taught him that those who grab meat with the boss since ancient times will not end well!

The next step is after the mobilization, the newly unsealed weapons and equipment, more than 400,000 new-style rifles, this is really not expensive, less than 10 million levs, it really is a work of imitation Maozi, the leather is durable, high quality and low price !

Next is the cannon, mainly the primary version of the mortar and 75mm field gun, a total of more than 1,000, with a total value of more than 30 million levs, which is not too expensive and acceptable.

Weapons that have been equipped before are not counted!

Further down is the consumption of various materials, a lot of mess, including food, cloth, tents, military uniforms, medicines...

Adding this together, the number is a bit large, reaching more than 70 million levs, and the large amount of materials seized by the army has not yet been recorded, and they have been used directly and are not included.

Taking into account the actual situation, although Bulgaria has mobilized a total of more than 600,000 troops, in fact, only more than 400,000 troops have been put into front-line combat.

In this case, based on three months of combat time, the average daily consumption of living materials for each soldier is about two levs.

If the seized materials are also included, this number is estimated to be greatly increased!

Moreover, these more than 400,000 people are not fighting every day. Except for the First Army, which basically fought for three consecutive months, most of the other troops ended the war in the first month.

In this way, the consumption is very large, but considering the transportation on the battlefield and the gathering of a large number of guerrillas, it is probably about the same!

In addition to these expenses, the rest is the salaries of the army. This does not need to be counted. Ferdinand knows that it is definitely an astronomical figure!

Even if an ordinary soldier during the war is given 100 levs for a month, if it is calculated based on the 400,000 people who directly participated in the war, it will cost 40 million a month!

Oh, in fact, it must be more than that. The engineer soldiers who have gone to the front line can't be left alone, can they? The rear did not directly participate in the war, and the army responsible for protecting the transportation line should also be given some subsidies, right?

I saw the military salaries, a total of 50 million levs! Looking at this number, Ferdinand was a little dumbfounded, and suddenly he wanted to ask if you wrote a zero less?

Even if the Ministry of Finance gave two or three hundred million levas for the military salary, Ferdinand could accept it, and he would not be surprised at all, but fifty million leva is really not enough for a month's army salary!

However, Ferdinand continued to read patiently. The more he looked, the more shocked he became. The 50 million levs not only included the soldier's salary, but also the casualty pension and wartime bonus!

Well, when he saw the word land, he understood it all!

This is due to Ferdinand's preferential policy of officers and soldiers who have made military exploits and who are willing to immigrate to Albania can get twice as much land as their own reward, and they can make up the difference with money!

The most important thing is that the land price of Ferdinand is now half of the domestic land price in Bulgaria!

There is a cheap but not a bastard, such a big benefit is enough to move people. In order to encourage immigration, even if there is land in the country, the government also provides exchange services.

As for whether it will suffer, no one will worry! Anyway, this kind of immigration relocation, everyone can freely choose, a group of comrades get together, even if there are, they are the only ones to bully others, and no one dares to find fault with them!

Besides, the matter of professional placement has long since spread!

If you stay in the same place, it is really difficult to become a government official, and the competition pressure is too great.

If you move out, it will be different. For ordinary soldiers, officials are mixed, but there is always a chance to mix with ordinary staff!

After all, whether it is seniority, merit, or reliability, they have an advantage over the locals!

Even in terms of knowledge level, these soldiers have an advantage. Bulgaria has the highest level of basic education in the world, which is really not bragging!

Seeing the number of applications for relocation, Ferdinand was dumbfounded. Is this a collective relocation?

123,000!

It doesn't look like much, but in fact, it represents the 123,000 families behind it, involving hundreds of thousands of immigrants!

This number has far exceeded the previous government estimates! By the way, the government still has nearly 2 million hectares of land, which will be distributed soon!

Among them, there are nearly six floors of land, all of which are paid for the difference. It seems that even if the excess part does not enjoy tax incentives, many people are still willing to buy land at a low price!

Now it was Ferdinand's turn to worry, and Albania's land was estimated to be insufficient. These hundreds of thousands of families also have a lot of land themselves, and the exact amount is still being counted. Anyway, after adding up, it is definitely an astronomical number!

Let's do it! Expand the scope of immigrants. Albania alone can't accommodate them, so just spread the immigrants all over the place!

The exact location is to be determined by the government! According to the actual situation, allocate the number of immigrants to various places!

Considering the complexity of many areas, the choice of immigrants should not be too scattered, at least one immigrant settlement should not be less than 800 people!

In addition, soldiers who have made military exploits are allowed to buy their own rifles, but they must report to the armed forces in various places and purchase bullets with a limit!

Ferdinand is still very protective of his shortcomings, and he still attaches great importance to these soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for him. Ferdinand knew very well that these soldiers were the cornerstone of his future stability in Bulgaria!

As for letting them carry guns, in addition to protecting their own safety, there is another advantage that they can suppress rebellions everywhere at any time!

There is no need to send troops to a regional rebellion with a thousand or eight hundred people. One hundred and eighty soldiers in a settlement will suppress them!

As for the bigger rebellion, are you a fool for the intelligence services? History tells Ferdinand that all the rebellions spontaneously organized by the people are from small to large!

As for the peasant uprising of 1,800,000 people, it is impossible in the Balkans!

Even during the Ottoman Empire, Ferdinand paid for a gun, and even sent someone to direct him, but he did not cause a peasant uprising of more than 10,000 people!

Even if it expands later, it is still learning how to fight rogues, and it is all the way! But this method has become more and more backward in modern times!

As long as they are stabilized in the future, then Bulgaria will be stable too!

Such an obvious benefit, Ferdinand can see at a glance, and Constantine can't see it without reason. Needless to say, as soon as Ferdinand proposed the plan, he immediately agreed.

Only the Chancellor of the Exchequer is left in pain, and this time he will lose a lot of money!

Seeing the reaction of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ferdinand was puzzled and asked: By the way, so many people are over-purchasing land, are they all so rich?

You must know that the current land in Bulgaria is not cheap. One hectare of land usually costs more than 16,000 levs.

In plains with good geological conditions, this figure can be as high as more than 23,000 levs per hectare, which is not cheap!

Ordinary workers can buy more than one acre of land after a year of hard work without food or drink. In theory, they can buy one hectare of land with their entire income for ten years. This is why Bulgarians are so keen to join the army. The main reason!

These days, being an ordinary worker really has no way of making money!

The Chancellor of the Exchequer looked at Ferdinand and said embarrassedly: No, the Grand Duke, for ordinary soldiers, the money to buy these lands is still a huge amount of money!

But the Royal Bank and Union Bank launched loan services specifically for them, and soldiers could use the land they bought as mortgages.

And it's still ultra-low interest. Basically, they buy part of the land, and the annual income is enough to pay for this part of the interest!

Therefore, there are many people who apply for land purchases. I estimate that if the government does not finalize these matters as soon as possible, the number of land purchases in the future will continue to increase!

Ferdinand was overjoyed. He did not expect that his subordinates would be so business-savvy, so quickly tied a group of high-quality customers under his banner!

What is the easiest money to make? Of course, follow the policy! Now Ferdinand is clearly supporting the military class and using them to conquer the world. Is it possible for them to go bankrupt on a large scale under this background?

Besides, at the end of the 19th century, agriculture was still a very stable investment method. Basically, before the synthetic ammonia came out, the income of agricultural land would not be too bad!