Ferdinand's trip to Portugal ended in a hurry, and it took less than a week to finish.

Combined with the more than half a month in London and the time spent on the road, more than a month has passed since this visit. When he left Sofia, it was still the beginning of May, and now it was the middle of June, and Ferdinand's heart had already flown back.

Well, in layman's terms, his wife gave birth! And this time Ferdinand also hit the jackpot, two at once!

Receiving this good news, Ferdinand's heart could no longer be calmed. Everyone knows that the chance of having twins is very low, under normal circumstances, it is about one percent, and Ferdinand did not expect that he would be able to win this prize!

Of course, this winning lottery refers to now, if it was in Ferdinand's previous life, his current expression would definitely be completely different, because two boys came at once!

But that's not a problem now, the more the merrier! Even if it's quintuplets or sextuplets, Ferdinand will not refuse to come!

Anyway, the king's son doesn't have to worry about anything, and no one will ask him for a car, a house, or a ticket! If there is a rich list now, how can the wealth of the Bulgarian royal family be at the top now!

At most, it is a little more difficult to find a suitable daughter-in-law when marrying in the future, but this doesn't matter in Ferdinand's opinion, it is difficult to find a noble lady with a comparable status, wouldn't it be okay to lower the standard?

Anyway, there are many sons, and marriage is definitely dominant, and the prince will make a lot of money at least in the dowry, which Ferdinand has personally experienced!

If it's all princesses, it's miserable, if the family is not enough, this marriage will be troublesome, and it's a must to slap a swollen face and become fat!

For details, you can refer to the king of Montenegro next door, Nicholas I, the European father-in-law is not so easy to be, in order to marry his daughter, he has changed from a rich man to a loser!

For this reason, Ferdinand also watched a joke for a long time, why do you want to marry your daughter to slap a swollen face and become fat, isn't this asking for trouble?

Originally, the Kingdom of Montenegro was poor, no matter how much it was looted, it wouldn't get much benefit, what was the purpose of being poor?

But then Ferdinand didn't see it that way, after the Second Balkan War, during the Peace Conference of Constantinople, a large number of people came to intercede with him, which made Ferdinand embarrassed, as if he had become a big villain and did something heinous!

In fact, Nicholas I still lost a fortune! In Ferdinand's opinion, if this money is invested in the industry of the Black Mountain Kingdom, not to mention other things, it can at least achieve self-sufficiency in weapons!

Then in the first Balkan War, the Kingdom of Montenegro could at least annex most of Albania again, and there was no need to take risks, making it so embarrassing now!

Oh, now Ferdinand still hopes to have another daughter, these are all six sons, if there is another one, it will be a combination of King Kong gourd babies!

Just thinking about that image makes Ferdinand shudder! The main reason is that the memories left by the previous life are too deep, and I always feel that some of them can't be accepted!

……

Time flew by and Ferdinand returned to Sofia, already in July 1910.

He went to visit the two little ones as soon as possible, because they had been born for more than a month, and now the two little ones are pink porcelain dolls, with a baby fat face, which makes people can't help but want to pinch it.

After much hesitation, Ferdinand stretched out his claws and pinched the faces of the two little ones, and then a cry rang out.

Obviously, these two little guys didn't give him the face of this dad at all, and they broke out directly, and then ushered in a burst of complaints from Xenia, and then Ferdinand was kicked out of the nursery!

You can't go if you don't leave! After more than two months of absence, as soon as Ferdinand returned home, the cabinet came up with a lot of brushes, and there were still a lot of things that he needed to decide personally?

……

The Minister of the Navy, Petrov, handed over a stack of documents to Ferdinand, and confidently introduced: "Your Majesty, this is the new shipbuilding plan of the Admiralty, and the Ottoman Empire has reached an agreement with the Germans to purchase two dreadnoughts that the Germans have just designed, the Emperor-class battleships.

In order to meet the challenge of the Ottoman Empire, we must act, and for every battleship you ask the Ottomans to build, we will build two, so the Admiralty plans to build four new dreadnoughts to meet the Ottoman challenge, with a total budget of 170 million leva (about £6.8 million). ”

This is not surprising, in history the Ottoman Empire still had to struggle with whether to buy from the Germans or from the British, and now there is no need to be entangled, of course to join the Allies will have to buy German goods!

Otherwise, the British would dare to sell you a ship, but would you dare to use it?

Ferdinand didn't just glance at it, he smiled and said, "Very good, let's just announce it to the public, add another fire to this arms race!" ”

Petrov was stunned for a moment, reacted casually, and asked suspiciously: "Your Majesty, we haven't decided on the final design yet?" That's it? ”

Ferdinand smiled slightly, and said lightly: "When did I say that I wanted to start work now?" I'm just asking you to announce your shipbuilding plans now!

The problem of the design plan is not in a hurry, you can take your time! We are not in a hurry, and if we are later, the technology will be more mature! ”

Listening to Ferdinand's words, Petrov's face suddenly fell, he thought that the navy was about to be built, but he didn't expect it to be a dream!

Unrelentingly, he continued: "Your Majesty, this is not good, it will damage your reputation!" You've just made the announcement in London, and it's just begun, isn't it a shame for us to back down now!

And the Ottoman Empire's naval plan is obviously aimed at us, and if they put two dreadnoughts into service, the pressure on our navy will be great! ”

Ferdinand still smiled, and said lightly: "How can I break my word? For every warship the Ottomans built, we built two, that's for sure!

But when to build it, it's our own business! Do you think that in the future the Bulgarian Navy will not be able to build just four dreadnoughts?

Moreover, the dreadnoughts of the Ottoman Navy cannot be put into service immediately, the Germans are now engaged in an arms race with the British, and the construction of ships must give priority to the German Navy, they are busy expanding their production capacity, and these two dreadnoughts want to be built, at least in two or three years!

Besides, how can just two dreadnoughts support a country's navy? Supporting warships and personnel training, the mess came down, and how could it be after 1914 to form combat effectiveness!

In the meantime, we only need to build two more dreadnoughts, so why do we have an advantage over three-on-two? ”

Of course, it is impossible for the navy to have only dreadnoughts, and the supporting fleet is indispensable, otherwise there are only two dreadnoughts, how can it exert its maximum power?

At this point, Ferdinand also helped the Ottomans by sending their old fleet down to the sea to feed the fish, freeing them from the burden of history and traveling lightly!

This also allowed the Ottomans to save a lot of maintenance money, which could be invested in the shipbuilding program.

But Ferdinand was not worried, who called the Ottoman Empire poor?

Why would it cost four million pounds to build two dreadnoughts! If there is a ship, then there must be officers and soldiers, right? Companion fleets should be built too, right? How can you not save daily training and maintenance?

In this way, if all these things are matched, the Ottoman Empire will have to spend at least another two or three million pounds, and the annual maintenance cost cannot be less than two or three million pounds, right?

But how much does the Ottoman Empire have now? Due to Ferdinand's butterfly effect, the current Al-Shabaab government in Turkey is much more difficult than the same period in history.

Since the main battlefield of the war was on the Asia Minor Peninsula, and both sides combined had more than a million troops fighting together, how could the losses be small?

At this time, the Ottoman Empire's financial revenue was only less than 20 million pounds, how could it afford to support the gold-swallowing beast of the navy with this little money?

If you don't have enough strength, you will blindly invest, and in the end it will be a poor man's fleet!

Oh, it is estimated that the Ottoman government will soon react, and then the naval arms race will naturally stop!

In Ferdinand's view, the Turkish Youth Party, which is now in power, has not yet left the category of secondary two teenagers, and due to the influence of the outside world, they have joined the naval arms race in a daze, and when they mature, they will understand that the navy is not something they can afford!

However, Ferdinand also had to react to the actions of the Ottomans, and he couldn't let the outside world think that Bulgaria was afraid, right?

The arms race is often forced! The enemy expands the armament war, and you don't follow up, what if the fight starts?

This is also the reason why the British want to smash the Germans, not because they really have a life-and-death contradiction, but mainly because the Germans' military expansion makes them feel threatened!

Well, the Germans built one dreadnought, and the British built two domineeringly, which in turn stimulated the Germans, and then it caused the current situation, and both sides began to make dumplings!

In addition to the battleships, the two sides were also beginning to storm the battlecruisers, and of course this Ferdinand did not follow.

It would be more appropriate to give the glorious task of the decisive naval battle to the British, if not, then let the French be the substitutes!

If Britain and France can't even hold back their navy, then it can only be said that the Germans are too powerful, and there is no need to fight a world war, and the Entente can just admit it!

Petrov wanted to know that it was impossible for the Navy to expand its forces on a large scale, but he still did not give up and said: "Your Majesty, the British are planning to build super dreadnoughts, and our designers have also put forward similar ideas, you see?" ”

Obviously, he knew that Ferdinand was not active in building a large navy, but he spared no effort to promote the development of naval shipbuilding technology!

……