Greece’s Roman Road

Chapter 256: Center for Empire Strategy

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Prime Minister Venizelos first said: "Greece is located in the southwestern part of Europe, generally on the edge of Europe, and its geographical location is important."

"Greece should take advantage of this favorable geographical location to actively develop industry, commerce and shipping, and enhance Greece's influence in the Eastern Mediterranean."

"The most important thing for Greece is not to be easily drawn into the conflict between the two military blocs in Europe"

"The government has decided to implement the Macedonian Development Plan within the last two years and adopt various measures to encourage people to reclaim land in Macedonia."

Speaking of this, Venizelos paused for a moment and continued: "If the finances are sufficient, the government will build the main railway line from Thessaloniki to Skopje as soon as possible, as well as other necessary roads to consolidate the Greek government's control over Macedonia. "

Talking about financial issues, Venizelos took off the gold glasses on the bridge of his nose and rubbed his brows: "Greece is under great financial pressure now, the Ministry of Finance has issued hundreds of millions of drachmas of national debt, and this year's fiscal deficit It's already pretty impressive..."

As prime minister, Venizelos has been worrying about money almost all day since he took office.

Since he took office, the Greek government has been secretly preparing for a war against the Ottoman Empire. Whether it is the construction of the navy or the army, it costs a lot of money to maintain it every year.

Especially the construction plan of the navy, every time the navy buys a warship, Venizelos feels that his hair will be pulled out a few locks.

In terms of domestic transportation construction, in order to rapidly develop the economy, the government has to invest a lot of money every year to build main railway lines and harden roads.

Every day in the prime minister's office, looking at the list of expenditure bills on the table, both the finance minister and Venizelos sighed.

When the war broke out in 1912, Venizelos, the prime minister, actually took a long breath. Although the expenses during the war increased to a higher level, the days of worrying about money all day are finally coming to an end. , I felt a trace of joy in my heart.

Even if hundreds of millions of national debts are issued to domestic banks, God forbid, it is finally over.

It was just beyond Venizelos' expectation that after the war of the Balkan Alliance against the Ottoman Empire ended, the situation in the Balkans underwent fundamental changes, and the contradiction between Greece and Bulgaria rose rapidly and became a new threat to war.

The consequence is that, even though the war has ended, the Army has not only not reduced the number of troops convened before the war, but the Army General Staff has continued to urge the Congo to mobilize more indigenous troops to support Greece.

At present, Greece's domestic finances have to support not only 250,000 local soldiers, but also more than 100,000 black soldiers. The financial pressure has not only not decreased, but has increased a lot.

Even the navy has called for increased military spending.

The reason is that thousands of islands in the Aegean Sea, as well as Crete in southern Greece (after the 1912 war, European countries have recognized Greece's sovereignty over Crete) were recovered by the navy.

The number of targets that the navy needs to protect has suddenly increased by thousands, and it has been overwhelmed. More warships need to be purchased in order to effectively defend the sacred territory of Greece.

In order to enhance its persuasiveness, the Admiralty also went to great lengths to list the names of thousands of islands in the funding application list, using a whole stack of paper.

Therefore, the original theme was a meeting to discuss the national strategy. When Venizelos talked about financial problems, he ran away and mentioned it, and his inner resentment lost control.

"Cough cough" Constantine interrupted when he saw that Venizelos was going to talk about financial issues.

"The theme of our meeting today is still around the national strategy of Greece. We will discuss the financial issue after today's meeting."

After the episode, Admiral Cantoriotis said: "After the Battle of the Aegean Sea, Greece's territorial waters have greatly increased, and we have not only recovered the islands in the Aegean Sea, but also allowed countries to recognize Greece's sovereignty over Crete. "

"Among these islands, Limous and Crete are the most important"

"The island of Limous guards the entrance to the Dardanelles, and its geographical location is extremely important. Now the Greek Navy's influence on the Aegean Sea-Dardanelles-Bosphorus-Black Sea route has greatly increased."

"If necessary, the current Greek navy can cut off this important shipping route from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea at any time."

"The island of Crete is located in southern Greece, on the Mediterranean Sea between Tripoli and Greece, and is close to the most important shipping route in the world, the Indian Ocean-Mediterranean-Atlantic shipping route"

Noticing that Cantoriotis is getting more and more unreliable, the Minister of Armaments Ioannis sneered: "Your Excellency Commander of the Navy, as soldiers, we better be realistic and not too ambitious, what do you think the Greek Navy needs? How much military spending is needed to control the most important waterway in the world?”

"What gave you the illusion that Greece had a hand on this route?"

The route that passes through the Suez Canal, runs through the Mediterranean Sea, and connects the Atlantic and Indian Oceans is definitely the most important shipping route in the world.

Thousands of ships pass through this golden waterway connecting China and the West every year.

If a commercial airline is compared to a blood vessel, this airline is definitely a large artery.

Not to be outdone, Cantoriotis said, "Our meeting today is to discuss national strategies. Strategic planning and deployment must be forward-looking."

"It is simply impossible for the government to invest heavily in the navy given the current financial constraints," retorted Giannis.

"If the navy really has the strength to control the route of the Suez Canal, I am afraid that it will be suppressed by the British immediately. Does your navy have the confidence to rely on the few warships purchased from the United Kingdom to withstand the pressure of the British?"

The basis of British global hegemony is absolute control over India.

The British have more than 20 million square kilometers of colonies, but among all the colonies, only India is different.

At this time, Canada was still a cold and barbaric land, while Australia was just a place where the British exiled criminals.

As for the British colonies in Africa or other parts of Asia, it is nothing more than being able to obtain some resources.

In colonial times, India, including later Pakistan and Bangladesh, was extremely vast.

Colonies have two functions. The first is to provide the suzerain country with a source of industrial raw materials, and the second is to provide a dumping market for its own industrial products.

And India fits both perfectly.

First of all, India in the 19th century had a population of 300 million!

For comparison, the UK at this time was about 30 million or so, with a population of less than 40 million.

Such a super huge dumping market has made British capitalists a lot of money, and their mouths are full of oil.

The population of mainland France at this time was about 40 million, the German Empire 50 to 60 million, and the United States 70 million.

At this time, the population of the rich and developed industrial countries in the world, combined, is not as good as India!

The British continuously transported raw materials such as tea, cotton, wood and other raw materials produced in India to the UK, and then continuously transported the industrial products produced in their own countries to India for dumping.

The British transported cotton produced in India to Europe, spun it into cloth, and sold it back to India.

Without India, Britain would be just an ordinary European power.

The wealth that Britain extracts from India every year, I am afraid that even the British themselves cannot count.

Some later generations estimate that during its rule in India, Britain stole a total of 45 trillion US dollars of wealth from India!

It is precisely because of India's extraordinary importance to the United Kingdom that all routes from Europe to India are prohibited by the Royal Navy, and others will never be allowed to interfere.

The route through the Suez Canal is the fastest route from the UK to India.

It can be said that defending the route is defending the hegemony of the British Empire.

So, for Cantoriotis to increase the influence of the Greek navy on this route, the Minister of Armaments Ioannis is naturally whimsical.

"At the current stage, as long as the navy can protect Greece's coastal areas, it is enough"

"Greece's top priority is the threat on land. We should focus on the Balkans in the near future, increase investment in the army, ensure the defeat of Bulgaria, and guard against Serbia," said Giannis, who was on the army side.

"Greece's future, on land, and now has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a feeble empire, dying"

"Besides Greece, who has a better reason to accept her legacy?" Giannis said to everyone in a seductive voice.

Constantine listened to the speech of the head of the navy and army with great interest. In order to get more adequate funds, he even did not hesitate to draw a tempting pie.

Of course, objectively speaking, the goals mentioned by the two are not completely without opportunities for Greece.

In terms of feasibility, if Greece can really defeat Bulgaria and establish Greece’s hegemony in the Balkans, then once the broken house of the Ottoman Empire really falls, no matter from the geographical location, historical origin, and the will of the people Greece are the best recipients in a way.

After the victory of the war in 1912, Greece not only won most of Macedonia, but also recovered almost all the islands in the Aegean Sea. Such brilliant results greatly stimulated and encouraged the Greeks.

For a time, almost all Greeks firmly believed in the possibility of realizing the "great ideal".

Especially for the army, after the war of 1896 and two major victories in the war of 1912, the morale of officers at all levels was high, even if the opponent was the Bulgarian army, known as the "Prussia of the Balkans".

After the victory of the war in 1912, Greek newspapers reported that a new Greek empire, like the unification of the German Empire, would be established through three dynastic wars.

(Three Dynasty Wars, referring to the three wars in the process of Prussia's unification of Germany, namely the Pudan War, the Austro-Prussian War, and the Franco-Prussian War)

Optimism has also infected the Greek navy.

In the two wars, the actions of the Greek navy also played an important role, showing remarkable performance.

Especially in the war of 1912, the Greek navy completely defeated the Ottoman navy and gained control of the Aegean Sea.

The islands of the entire Aegean Sea, including those very close to the peninsula of Asia Minor, were also occupied by Greece.

Now the navy and the army are fighting for military expenses.

Prime Minister Venizelos frowned, feeling a little worried about the atmosphere of war fever in Greece, whether it is the army, the people, or even the government.

"Your Majesty the King, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, I think this kind of war optimism is very dangerous. I want to remind everyone that war adventure is a very dangerous thing, and it also consumes a huge amount of wealth. When dealing with international relations, We still have to use diplomatic negotiation as the main method, and everything is solved by war, which is a very dangerous method," Venizelos said.

"Greece's national strength is still relatively weak. We cannot withstand the consequences of losing a war. In that case, all the achievements of Greece in the past 30 years will be lost," King George echoed.

"Your military high-level is full of war optimism, it is indeed dangerous"

The country's strategic planning is related to the direction of funding. Naturally, as the senior management of the Navy and Army, they all hope to influence the strategic planning to get more funding.

Constantine stood up and nodded to the two guards at the door of the conference room.

With Constantine's permission, several soldiers hung a huge map on the wall.

Everyone watched intently and saw a map that included the Balkans, North Africa, the Middle East and the Caucasus.

Constantine stood in front of the map and said loudly to the audience: "As the map shows, Greece has a very special geographical location, located in the center of the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa~www.wuxiax.com~ I call it the central empire. strategy"

The impassioned voice lifted the spirits of everyone present.

Everyone knows that, in fact, in today's meeting, Crown Prince Constantine is the real protagonist.

Today's meeting is not so much a discussion of Greece's strategic planning, it is better to say that Crown Prince Constantine presented his policy program to the Greek military and government.

King George has become more and more old, and in recent years, except for specific public appearances, he has rarely appeared in front of outsiders.

King George has actually handed over king power to the crown prince.

"Greece is located like a central hub, at the intersection of the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa"

"Greece wants to grow and develop, it must make use of the advantages of this geographical location"

"Greece is close to three important shipping lanes, namely the Dardanelles, which is the only route from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Greece has practically controlled the exit of the strait."

"The second is the Strait of Odranto (the strait between Greece and Italy), the outlet of the Adriatic Sea"

"If it affects here, it will greatly affect the countries around the Adriatic Sea."

"As for the third, it is the Suez Canal"

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