According to Ferdinand's plan, let Greece emigrate one million to Syria in the next five years, and after the outbreak of World War I, directly throw the Greek government to Syria, and let the Greeks fight the Ottomans!

Anyway, as soon as the world war broke out, the debts of the Allies could be relied upon, and in recent years, let the Greeks first try to pay off the loans of Britain, France and Russia!

Oh, mainly Anglo-French, the Russians have an underdeveloped financial industry, and the Greek government doesn't owe them much, and it's not in a hurry to pay it back!

However, the loans owed by the Greeks to Britain and France alone add up to more than 35 million pounds, plus more than 4 million pounds from the Russians, and this is not counting the debt owed to Bulgaria, which has nearly 40 million pounds of foreign debt!

Ferdinand couldn't help but scold the Greeks for being stupid, why did they borrow so many British and French loans? Aren't you a pro-German government? Why not borrow more money from the Germans?

If he borrowed all the money from the Germans, would he have to worry so much now? As long as you pay interest for a few years, when the world war breaks out, how good is it to pay the debt directly?

If George I had known Ferdinand's thoughts, he would have cried out! Everyone knows that Germany is a rising star, and it has not been long since it rose.

Although their total economic volume has surpassed that of the British mainland, it is still far from the old powers in terms of heritage!

To put it simply, most of the money of the Germans is invested in industry, the financial industry is not so developed, the German bankers lack time accumulation, and the family foundation is not as thick as that of Britain and France!

After hundreds of years of accumulation, many families in Britain and France are very rich, and they have a large amount of idle funds that can be used to lend.

The British still have overseas Dominions, and in addition to domestic investment, investment in overseas Dominions has also diverted some of the funds; The French, on the other hand, were obsessed with the windfall profits of international loans, and although they had large colonies, they did not develop them deeply, so they earned the reputation of the usury empire!

This is also one of the reasons why Ferdinand joined the Entente, the loans of the French are not so easy to get, coupled with the temptation of technology, he still did not resist the temptation of sugar-coated shells!

……

In the palace of Sofia, the top of the Bulgarian government gathered to consider what to do with the colony.

There is no way that the colonies that Bulgaria has acquired this time are really not small in terms of area! But is it worth it? From the perspective of this era, it's really not good!

Jordan: With an area of about 91,390 square kilometers, it is located in the west of Asia, the northwest of the Arabian Peninsula, the country is short of water, 80% of the land is desert, the arable land area is about 900,000 hectares, and there are a lot of mineral resources, but unfortunately there is no mining value! (In the 21st century, none of their oil is worth extracting)

(Ferdinand's assessment: yes, a worthless desert country)

Palestine: about 27,000 square kilometers (note: includes Israel)

A subtropical Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and warm, humid winters. There is a huge disparity in rainfall between the north and the south, with an average of 900 mm in the far north and only about 50 mm in the southernmost part.

The main mineral reserves are: 492 billion cubic meters of natural gas, 184 million barrels of oil, 185 billion tons of coal, 430 million tons of iron, 74 million tons of bauxite, as well as a large amount of chrome ore, marble and precious stones. (present-day Palestine)

Among them, the coastal plain soil is fertile and moist, suitable for agricultural production! The rest of the region is undoubtedly mostly desert areas, half to half!

(Ferdinand's comment: A rare treasure in the Middle East!) ）

Lebanon: 10,452 square kilometers

There is a plain along the coast, and there is plenty of rain and rivers, which is suitable for agricultural production!

Mineral resources are scarce, but Lebanese waters have 660 million to 860 million barrels of oil and 20 trillion to 90 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

(Ferdinand's assessment: it is suitable for the development of agriculture in the short term)

Syria: It covers an area of about 185,000 square kilometers

The coastal and northern regions have a subtropical Mediterranean climate, and the southern regions have a tropical desert climate. The Euphrates basin is suitable for the development of agriculture and is one of the five grain exporters of the Arab world. (Egypt, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Syria, Tunisia)

Syria is rich in mineral resources, mainly oil, phosphate, natural gas, rock salt, asphalt, apatite, copper, iron, etc. It has proven oil reserves of 2.5 billion barrels, and oil and its products are basically self-sufficient and partially exported. The proven reserves of natural gas are 650 billion cubic meters, phosphate reserves are 650 million tons, and rock salt reserves are 55 million tons.

(Ferdinand's evaluation: abundant resources, priority for the development of agriculture)

Libya: about 1.7 million square kilometers (minus Tripoli, the Italians are only interested in the coast and have no love for the sand, so the desert is still considered the border of Bulgaria)

More than 95 percent of the land area of the country is desert, only a few oases are located in the coastal areas, and less than 2% of the land suitable for agricultural production is the land area.

Oil, natural gas, iron ore and other resources are abundant, and the cause of the war is unknown.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Tripoli accounted for 80 percent of Libya's value.

(Ferdinand's evaluation: there is no development value in the short term, and agriculture is barely making do)

But in terms of area, it adds up to almost 2 million square kilometers, and the mineral resources and oil and gas resources are also very rich.

Oh no! Oil in this era is not worth much, but it will not necessarily be the first time that a world war breaks out!

In short, in the short term, it is better to plant fields in these colonies, clean them up by the way, and repatriate the Ottomans.

This is the information that Ferdinand has collected, and it is accompanied by reviews, of course, most of the data on these resources is hidden, only showing what has been discovered, and then giving it to the public to circulate.

……

"Your Majesty, we lack enough market, we should increase investment in the colony and cultivate a market of our own to enhance our ability to resist risks!" The new Minister of Industry, Nicholas, proposed

Ferdinand nodded, it is okay to invest, but it is a problem to invest in that step, at least the Syrian region that is most likely to be in danger, he is not ready to invest!

"This is a real problem, as it stands, the economic value of our colonies is very low, but simple agricultural development is still possible!"

Admiral Petrov put forward a different opinion: "Your Majesty, the colonies are not run in a reliable way, and with the development of nationalism, the cost of maintaining the colonies in the future will only become higher and higher, and it is the royal way to integrate them directly into the homeland!"

Now we only need to relocate a group of people to the past, treat it as a local governance, and slowly develop it, and within 20 years, we can become one with Bulgaria, and then our comprehensive national strength will be greatly enhanced! ”

Ferdinand nodded, Petrov said all the opinions he inadvertently revealed, and they had slowly begun to affect this era!

Oh, and the main thing is that such a strategy is in the interests of the Navy, after all, to incorporate these areas into the mainland, without a strong navy, it will definitely not be possible!

After thinking about it, Ferdinand still rejected Petrov's tempting offer, for the simple reason - a world war was about to break out!

If there is no world war, the international situation is stable, Ferdinand will definitely do this, although the early investment is relatively large, but the later benefits are also large enough!

Others don't know, doesn't he know yet? Except for Jordan, other areas are treasure lands of resources, especially Palestine, which is rich in mineral resources, which is even more mouth-watering!

Even in the desert country of Libya, in the mid-to-late 20th century, scientists still believed that as long as the cost of drawing out groundwater, hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of oases could be transformed!

This investment is not very large, it can be divided into multiple stages, and the capital investment in the early stage of renovating the oasis is much less than the investment in the south-to-north water diversion project!

The technical difficulty is not great, if you are not afraid of the long time it takes, even in this era, you can carry it out!

But the current international environment is no longer suitable for this slow farming model, otherwise with Ferdinand's character, he really doesn't mind developing slowly for a few more decades, when a country with a land area of more than two million and an economic aggregate surpassing that of Britain and France will become a world power!

Ferdinand shook his head and said: "No, the current international situation no longer allows us to implement this strategy, the smell of gunpowder on the European continent is getting stronger and stronger, or in a few years we will have to fight with the Allies!"

Against this background, our top priority is to improve our military strength in a short period of time as much as possible, which is why we are implementing the 'Third Five-Year Plan'."

Of course, now it needs to be modified on a small scale, and the Aegean islands and the Greek peninsula must be taken into account! At least the national defense plan must be significantly revised! ”

The main factor in this situation is that the Bulgarian government has no money, and the capitalists in the country have no money!

The financial resources of the Bulgarian government are not enough to maintain a large army and maintain a large navy!

Don't look at the rapid development of Bulgaria, everyone should make money in this context, but the leapfrog development of industry is based on the premise of large investment!

The money earned by everyone was invested in expanding production, and they also owed a lot of debt to the banks, which is the core reason for the rapid growth of the Bulgarian economy!

This is also the inevitable process that every emerging country will go through, and it needs primitive accumulation! And the rate of primitive accumulation in Bulgaria has obviously been artificially slowed down!

This is mainly to alleviate the domestic contradictions, not to allow the capitalists to exploit the country alone, but also to strengthen Ferdinand's control over the capitalists and limit the speed of capitalist development!

Of course, this is also because Bulgaria is a country with a nationalist economy as the main body, so it can do this!

If in the liberal capitalist world, the capitalists are discouraged from investing, they will either simply switch to finance or plot a coup d'état to overthrow the government!

Listening to Ferdinand's words, everyone fell into deep thought.

If it was someone else's words, it is estimated that everyone would regard that person as a madman, but Ferdinand is different, over the years, there has never been a big mistake in the judgment of the international situation, so everyone can't believe it!

After thinking about it, Konstantin asked uncertainly: "Your Majesty, although the situation on the European continent is tense, the possibility of a major war breaking out in a short period of time should still be unlikely, right?" ”

Ferdinand shook his head and said, "The British will find a way to make this war break out!" The Germans' big naval plan has already stimulated their sensitive nerves!

And have you noticed, the total amount of industry of the Germans has exceeded that of Russia and France combined, and even if we are added, the three countries of Russia, France and Bulgaria can only be equal to them!

If nothing else, the rapid economic growth of the Germans continues, although our development is faster, but the gap in size is still irreparable!

If the British had not added the Entente, now the balance on the European continent would have been broken! Most of us have also compromised with the Germans, and even the French will now give in to the Germans!

The Germans dominate the European continent, can John Bull stand it?

It has not yet been moved, it is they who are not ready, or rather, there are still people inside Britain who are ready to drag down the Germans through the arms race! ”

Everyone's faces changed again, once there is a big war on the European continent, Bulgaria will inevitably be involved, this war is not easy to fight!

War Minister Popov asked suspiciously: "Your Majesty, why didn't the Germans strike first?" In the previous Russo-Japanese War, if the Germans had struck first, the Russians would have been pinned down with a large number of forces in the Far East, and it would have been difficult to provide much support to France!

Especially after the outbreak of the revolution in Russia, Italy and Austria-Hungary were enough to hold us and the Russians back, and the Germans could have defeated the French again and forced the French to compromise!

At that time, it was too late for the British to do anything! After all, the Royal Navy could not go ashore again, and the British Army, limited by strength, was simply powerless to stop the actions of the Germans! ”

Ferdinand smiled faintly and said, "If I tell you that it was because the top of the German government suddenly got into the water and were fooled by the British, would you believe it?" ”

Popov shook his head and showed disbelief!

How easy is it for the German government to fool? It is impossible to become the great enemy of the Entente!

But the truth is sometimes so coincidental, this time it was really the German government that made a stupid move and missed the best opportunity to subdue the French!

This can be seen from the memoirs of Wilhelm II, who listed the five core strategic mistakes that led to the defeat of the German government, including the fact that the Germans did not preempt the French in the Russo-Japanese War, and wasted an opportunity to dominate the European continent, which is the greatest regret of his life!