My Italy

After solving the problem of Governor Lanfang, Carlo felt much better. After all, this is related to trade with the Qing Dynasty, and this may be Italy's only profitable colony in the past ten years.

In addition to the Lanfang colony, Carlo was also concerned about Italian colonial activities in Somalia.

I don’t know. I was shocked when I found out. Currently, Italy has few major strongholds in East Africa. They are mainly in coastal port cities. The inland has not been developed much. For example, Italy currently controls Massawa, Beijing in Eritrea. In a few areas such as Darfur and Zaun, the vast interior has not yet been occupied, while in other places, such as Djibouti, which was taken over from France, and Berbera, Mogadishu and other places in Somalia. At present, there are also deep inland areas, all in coastal areas.

"This won't work. We need to speed up."

After learning about Italy's colonial activities in East Africa, Carlo was not very satisfied. Of course, he also knew that operating East Africa had not received much attention before, because Italy's main focus was on Tunisia at that time. It was only after Tunisia suffered a setback that it began to increase investment. However, limited by Italy's national strength, the increase in investment was also limited.

"Chief Guard, please invite the Prime Minister over and tell me that I have something to discuss."

Carlo asked the captain of the guard to invite the prime minister. Of course, colonization cannot lack the support of the military, so the minister of army and navy was also invited.

The military was the most active in the expansion of colonies. Not only did the two generals arrive before the Prime Minister arrived.

So when the Prime Minister arrived, he found that two military bosses were already waiting for him.

"Sorry, I'm late."

When facing the Prime Minister, the two generals who had already arrived said that they had just arrived.

Seeing that the military and political leaders had arrived, Carlo began to tell the purpose of calling everyone. "As we all know, our country's current colonial activities are basically in East Africa. Many of them are funding private expeditions. This is too slow. Our country needs to speed up. I think it should be led by the government."

"I think it works."

"I think that's okay too."

Carlo's words immediately attracted the support of the two military bosses. Although private funding for colonial activities cost less, the efficiency was too slow. If the government stepped in, it would be much more efficient than private funding. More importantly, when the government comes on stage, it needs to use the military, which is of course a good thing for the military.

Facing the words of support from the two military bosses, Depretis, as the Prime Minister, gave them a cold look. "I don't object either, but the government doesn't have any extra money to pay for colonization."

The Prime Minister's words made the two military bosses stuck. How could they send troops without money? How could they develop colonies without money?

"I remember that the government prepared 80 million lire to compete with the Dutch for Lanfang, but only spent less than 50 million lire. Why is it gone?"

The counterattack from the Secretary of War, General Golek, revealed without hesitation that the Army knew all about government funds.

Faced with the Army Secretary's point, Prime Minister Despretis smiled slightly. "It seems that the military is very concerned about the government."

"This is just the military's inherent sensitivity to funding."

Facing the Prime Minister, Admiral Lake still gave an explanation, but his momentum was obviously much lower than before.

"Then do you know that these remaining expenses have been included in the Lanfang development expenses?"

"Ah~"

The Prime Minister's words made the two military generals look surprised. The government must have acted too quickly.

Seeing that the military was no match for the Prime Minister, Carlo had no choice but to take action personally. "If the government lacks funds, the royal family can advance part of it. Of course, this requires the government to return the money to the royal family in next year's budget."

Carlo's words immediately made the Prime Minister's excuse of using funds untenable. Everyone knew how rich the royal family was. Although we cannot say that we can just take hundreds of millions of liras casually (this would require selling off royal properties in various places), but the royal family can still come up with tens of millions of liras. Especially the Prime Minister also knows that His Majesty has taken a lot of benefits from the temples in India.

"Thank you for your majesty's generosity. However, although the government has no money, it is also very important for Italy to open up colonies in East Africa, so let me consider where to transfer some funds after I return."

This is the Prime Minister's submission. Compared with before, with the addition of a big royal benefactor, the military can completely dominate colonial activities. This is something he does not allow. Colonization can only be under the leadership of the government. This is why the government failed just now. Money reasons.

But he didn't expect that His Majesty could be so determined.

Now that the Prime Minister has surrendered, Carlo will certainly not embarrass the Prime Minister. "Since the government is considering misappropriating funds from other places, this is not a good idea. Otherwise, the royal family can set an example and purchase a batch of bonds."

"Then I would like to thank the royal family for their generous help."

Facing the steps given by the king, the prime minister immediately took them.

Next, the topic of colonization can continue.

"According to our intelligence, the current situation in East Africa is the most favorable moment for us. Among them, our country's main competitor, the United Kingdom, has just been driven out of Sudan by the Mahdi. According to their habits, they will not give up their occupation of Sudan, so our country is in East Africa. Just face the indigenous people. Another thing to note is that Johannes IV, the black emperor in Abyssinia, has unified the chaotic Abyssinia and our country's colonization in Eritrea. It’s best to be cautious in your activities.”

After the captain of the guard told the current intelligence about East Africa, the minister of army and navy had already made his own judgment. Of course, they already knew this information, but there was no harm in hearing it again.

"Our army can send five thousand people for colonial activities in Somalia."

"Our navy can be responsible for protecting the sea area and providing necessary help."

Yes, both the army and the navy believe that the Somali region can be given priority in colonial activities in East Africa.

Carlo also agreed with the idea of ​​​​the navy and army. Although Eritrea is closer, it is really not suitable to start a conflict with Abyssinia, a powerful country in East Africa, and its domestic plateau terrain is very unfavorable to Italy. Besides being poor, there are no resources that Italy covets.

As for the Prime Minister, he also knows something about the situation in East Africa and also believes that it is more appropriate to give priority to soft persimmons, so he also agrees with the military's suggestion.

However, for the purpose of saving funds, he still prioritized drawing a boundary for the military. "This time the government can only provide 30 million lire in funding. Two generals, you need to consider the scale."

"Rest assured, Prime Minister, we will not exceed funding limits."

Facing the Prime Minister's words, the two generals patted their chests in assurance.

Everyone applauds His Majesty the Sultan. This is an extra update for the Sultan.