Greece’s Roman Road

Chapter 95: The train is open to traffic

In the end, the two parties with opposing views agreed to adopt a compromise solution. The magazines could be retained, but the original 10-round magazine capacity was changed to 5 rounds.

The ten-round version can be partially equipped, but the ten-round capacity version is equipped with a bullet blocker. During the battle, it is up to the officers to remove the blocker to increase the soldiers' firepower.

In this way, this one uses a 7.7mm bullet with a total length of about 1257mm. It is improved from the British Lee-Mayford rifle. It uses a rotating pull-back bolt and a box-shaped detachable magazine invented by Mike White Lee. The rear-end locking rotary pull-back bolt can load bullets faster; install a fixed box-type double-row magazine for 10 rounds of ammunition (although the magazine is detachable, it is only convenient for maintenance or damage to be replaced, and the bullet is in use The box is not disassembled, and the bullets are filled through the ejection port (loading port) at the top of the receiver, which improves the continuous firepower.

After receiving permission from His Majesty King George, the Supreme Commander of the Greek Army, the new rifle design was handed over to the machine shop for small-scale trial production.

The Minister of Armament Giannis issued the first order to the machine factory, one thousand rifles, and the first trial equipment to the army.

At the same time, after three months of construction, the steel mill took a loan from the Royal Bank of Greece, and the electrolytic aluminum plant it built finally started to produce pure aluminum.

After learning of the news, the other two shareholders of the steel plant, Laris Brothers and the Rodo Kanazki family, showed strong interest.

At this time in Europe and the United States, due to the immature technology of industrial production of aluminum and the high cost, after the emergence of low-cost aluminum in electrolytic aluminum factories, the two companies first placed a batch of orders with the factory, and then exported to Western Europe and North America at low prices. Metal aluminum.

Until two months later, due to the rapid increase in the amount of metal aluminum pouring into the international market, the price of metal aluminum in the European and American markets turned sharply and fell rapidly.

With this shareholder wind, the electrolytic aluminum factory has already earned back its investment Chen Ben.

Since the price of electrolytic aluminum has dropped significantly, Constantine personally issued an order to Scarroy, and the electrolytic aluminum factory will provide the Greek Army with aluminum lunch boxes and kettles to replace the previous steel tableware.

There is no way, Greece's steel is a scarce material, and after the large-scale production of aluminum in the factory, Greece has been able to continuously produce it.

In the words of Scalloy, in Greece, as long as it can be replaced by aluminum, iron cannot be used.

In order to further expand the use of aluminum, at the urging of Scalloy, the electrolytic aluminum factory and the metallurgical laboratory of the University of Athens cooperated to develop new aluminum alloys, hoping to overcome the shortcomings of pure aluminum - low hardness and strength.

 

In August 1889, Constantine received news that the construction of the train track from Athens to the border city of Larissa in the Thessaly region was completed.

This is the first completed Greek mainline railway. As soon as the news came out, the Greek people cheered and rejoiced that the backward history of Greece's no-access mainline railway had ended.

On the morning of the 13th, the royal family, headed by King George, led Queen Olga, Crown Prince Constantine, Crown Princess Sophie, and Greek Prime Minister Trikupis to the Athens Railway Station for the first opening ceremony.

Standing on the viewing platform, Constantine watched as King George and Prime Minister Terry Kupis delivered speeches respectively, the smoke billowing, and the locomotive roared all the way north, drifting away.

Looking at Prime Minister Trikupis, who was flushed with excitement, he stepped forward and congratulated; "Congratulations, Mr. Prime Minister, no matter what, this is a great page in the history of Greece."

In the future, the Greek army can start from Athens by train, move quickly, and go to the northern border to fight against powerful enemies. After that, this railway can also continuously transport logistical supplies to support the Greek army in the war.

In Trikupis' plan, Greece will have 4,000 kilometers of railways. After that, Trikupis will face a grim situation - whether these expensive vehicles built on foreign loans can Let the Greek economy achieve great development?

Considering that the power used by the train is a high-horsepower steam engine imported from the United Kingdom, Constantine asked: "Prime Minister, do you know how much hard coal Greece needs to import from the United Kingdom every year?"

Constantine's inquiry made the joy on Trikupis' face gradually fade.

"Last year (1888) imported 120,000 tons of coal, and most of this was due to the consumption of steel mills and locomotives," Terry Kupis responded.

In the original expectation of Trikupis, after obtaining the loan from Britain and France, the Greek economy will get rid of the phenomenon of weak performance due to lack of funds. At the same time, Greece, which has developed its strength, can face the European powers. Confidence and independence.

However, the actual development went against his expectations. Although Greece's economy has indeed developed rapidly after a large amount of capital inflows, the import of a large number of basic chemicals and energy, especially coal and oil (kerosene lighting), has grown rapidly. UU Reading www.uukanshu.com

Especially after the steel plant was put into operation, Greece's coal imports from the UK skyrocketed.

Although before, Trikupis had some luck in his heart, thinking that as long as Greece's economy can get on the right track, then in the near future, Greece's political situation will be relatively stable, and the conflict with Turkey can be eased.

In other words, there will be no war in Greece in the near future.

However, judging from the current situation, the faster Greece develops, the sooner the day of conflict with Ottoman Turkey will come.

In addition to the Greek mainland and Congo, the market for Greek industrial products is Ottoman Turkey.

Therefore, as the industrial production capacity of Greece increases, the demand for the Ottoman Turkish market will become more and more urgent.

Due to a series of unequal treaties signed by Ottoman Turkey, the market of Ottoman Turkey has always been a dish of British and French food. Recently, as Germany and Turkey approached, it is foreseeable that there are more and more German goods in the Turkish market.

Due to its proximity, Ottoman Turkey would be a natural and important market for Greek goods.

Will the Turks watch as the Greeks make profits by selling a lot of goods to themselves and develop step by step?

Under the dual influence of the provocation of European businessmen whose interests have been damaged and the already contradictory Ottoman-Turkish-Greek relations, the choice of the Ottoman Turks can be imagined.

For Greece, those capitalists and factory owners who have invested in industry will not be willing to easily lose the opportunity to **** blood from the Ottoman Turks.

Even from an economic point of view, the war was inevitable, a statement that frustrates Trikupis.

​​

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like