Mediterranean Hegemony Road

1912 was a year of changes. While the Allies were integrating internally, the Allies also made corresponding strategic deployments. The most obvious thing was that the Germans accelerated shipbuilding.

And at the end of 1912, Wilhelm II announced Germany's new shipbuilding plan to the outside world. The German government plans to add 3 super dreadnoughts and 4 battlecruisers again in the next three years!

The reaction of the Germans stimulated the British, but there was a fierce quarrel within the London government over whether to continue to implement the current Naval Act.

The British Empire finally discovered that their finances could not hold up! According to the previous Navy Act, now they have to add 6 more super dreadnoughts and 8 battlecruisers, which is not a small sum, at least more than 24 million pounds, which is more than Bulgaria's 1911 Total military spending!

Ironically, the super dreadnought was also created by the British Empire. It was going to crush the Germans in terms of quality, but the Germans have just started to catch up!

...

Asquith (Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer) said: Mr Churchill, please calm down and think about the problems we are facing now, even though I have twice the income of the Germans.

Even if they have to take care of the army, we have to guard the colony. If we continue to fight like this now, I am afraid that we will still be the first to hold on!

Well, this is also a sequel to the reform of the welfare system in the British Empire. Although internal conflicts have been eased, financial expenditure has also greatly increased.

The Admiralty Churchill said excitedly: But, Mr. Prime Minister, can we withdraw now? The Naval Act has just been passed, and it has been less than a year since it was implemented, and we withdrew. How does this make the outside world see us? How does it see the British Empire? Has our British Empire fallen?

The Minister of State retorted: Mr. Churchill, we all know this, but you also need to consider our financial affordability! Now our military expenditure has exceeded 25% of our fiscal revenue, and it will even cost more in the next year. More than 31 percent, this is already a very dangerous number, you understand?

Churchill disagreed, saying: We can issue bonds! As long as we persist, the Germans will soon find that they cannot compete with us in the navy, and will continue to focus on the army instead.

In this way, once the war breaks out, the Germans and the French and Russians will lose both, and the hegemony of the British Empire will become more consolidated!

Asquith shook his head and said, No! If we continue, we still don't know if we can bring down the Germans. We are going to be brought down first!

Issuing bonds, easier said than done! No interest, no repayment? If we go on like this, even if we can drag down the Germans, we will be greatly damaged. You don't think that our enemy is only one German, right?

Foreign Minister Edward suddenly said: Actually, we all know that the Germans are now in a difficult situation. Our purpose is to ensure that the Royal Navy can stabilize the German Navy, not to fight for the so-called face!

...

In the end, John Bull had to compromise in the face of reality, abandoning the Navy Act, which had just been implemented for less than a year, and changing the original 2:1 to the current 3:2.

That is: for every 2 warships built by the Germans,

The British built 3 warships.

The admission of the British did not surprise Ferdinand. This is obvious, the British Empire occupies a quarter of the earth (about 33.5 million square kilometers) of colonies, and the cost of guarding is naturally impossible.

If you add the series of welfare policies of the British, this expenditure will be even more huge. Anyway, the welfare benefits of the British in this era were not enjoyed by Ferdinand in his previous life!

Don't look at the fact that the total economic output of the Germans has surpassed that of the British mainland, and the arms race also seems to be very arrogant. In fact, the Germans are far less than Britain and France in terms of fiscal revenue!

Until the outbreak of the war, the Germans' financial income was less than half that of the British, and even the French were 70 to 80 percent higher than the Germans.

To put it simply, the Germans are engaged in an arms race with a budget deficit. Once the arms race starts, they can't stop, either start a war or die!

Oh, looking at fiscal revenue alone, Bulgarians are not worse than Germans. In fact, the funds available to the governments of the two countries are vastly different.

Well, that's the reason for the system. Therefore, Ferdinand decided to make a financial cut. Simply put, it is to deduct a series of expenses such as the salary, operating costs, and enterprise development funds of the government's enterprise personnel in advance, and just record the profits handed over by the enterprise!

However, this is also very troublesome. Many government enterprises are still in a state of loss, and they have to rely on government funds to operate. If this part is also stripped from the finances, how can they survive?

Obviously, Ferdinand was worried that there would be a situation of eating a big pot of rice, and cut corporate and government finances.

This is mainly because these state-owned enterprises were not profitable at the beginning of their establishment, but with the rapid growth of the Bulgarian economy, many enterprises have now turned losses into profits and have the conditions for independent operation.

If you don't do the cutting, people who don't know will think that Bulgaria's finances are really so good that they have surpassed the Germans.

The growth rate is even more like a spacecraft. In a good year, 20 to 30 percent of fiscal revenue per year is nothing. If the five-year plan is completed, it is nothing to increase by 40 to 50 percent a year. !

In fact, it is true that income and expenditure have increased year-on-year, but in essence, the status quo of financial scarcity cannot be changed!

Nearly half of the top 100 companies in Bulgaria's national assets are state-owned enterprises, and the rest are Ferdinand's industries. As for the capitalists? Still thriving seedlings!

How much profit do so many state-owned enterprises turn over each year? In 1911, state-owned enterprises turned in profits as high as 750 million leva. Don't worry, if you look at the government funding, you will find that this huge sum has been consumed by their brother enterprises.

Before 1897, Bulgaria's biggest gold beast was the railway company, followed by the steel factory and the arsenal. However, with the end of the first Balkan War, the steel factory began to turn losses into profits.

In 1907, for the first time, the railway company broke even and was replaced by municipal infrastructure, such as the construction of hydropower stations, roads to the villages, and so on.

It is a pity that there is no way to build highway tolls in this era, otherwise, with Ferdinand's integrity, it is estimated that Bulgaria will also have toll stations!

The financial separation of finance and enterprises is not an overnight problem, at least until the completion of the Three Five-Year Plan.

...

Ferdinand instructed: Chief of the General Staff, the British formed the Air Force in May this year, and I am going to follow suit. You must come up with specific measures as soon as possible!

There is no doubt that Ferdinand made a direct decision without consulting anyone on this issue. Mainly in this era, the Air Force is still a new branch of the military, and everyone is not very familiar with it.

Before this, some people in Bulgaria proposed to establish an air force, but it should be subordinate to the army, which was rejected by Ferdinand.

If it is an air force subordinate to the army, what is the difference between it and the current army aviation?

With the development of the times, by 1912 Bulgarian aircraft technology had made remarkable progress. The range has also increased from tens of kilometers before to more than 400 kilometers; the height has also increased from tens of meters above the ground to more than 5,000 meters now; the newly developed heavy bomber, the bomb load has been increased to eight more than one hundred kilograms.

With the development of aircraft technology, its role in war has become more and more obvious. Now the air force has the conditions to become an independent army.

Your Majesty, what size will the newly established Air Force maintain? asked Chief of General Staff Imya Dimitev.

Ferdinand thought for a while and said, The Air Force will train 15,000 qualified pilots within two years, with at least 1,500 flight crews.

As for the specific preparation, flight formation and the like, leave it to professionals! The performance of the current aircraft can not be compared with the future generations. If it is mechanically copied, who knows what will happen?

Fortunately, planes in this era are cheap enough. The cheapest plane is only a few thousand levs, and the more expensive fighter jets are only tens of thousands of levs. Otherwise, if Ferdinand was killed, he would not have dared to create so many crews.

Oh, in fact, the plane is not valuable, the valuable is the pilot! No, pilots in this era are not as valuable as later generations, his requirements are much lower than later generations, and the training is much simpler.

In any case, Ferdinand decided to reserve more pilots. As for the aircraft, this production is really not difficult. If necessary, Bulgaria can produce thousands of aircraft every year, which was enough in World War I.

There is no doubt that the birth of the Air Force is an inter-generational change in military history. After more than ten years of hard work by Ferdinand, Bulgaria has finally come to the forefront of the world in this regard.

Of course, for the Army and Navy, it also means that another competitor has been added to the competition for military spending at the end of the year!

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