The news of the military defeat of the British in Southeast Asia, with the selfless help of Ferdinand, spread as quickly as possible.

Everyone's first reaction after stopping at this news was - impossible!

No matter how good the British army is, it is not something that the rebels can bully, not to mention that even the battleships have been sunk, can it be more nonsense?

Whether you believe it or not, as soon as the news spread, the good days of the London government were over, and countless British people have taken to the streets to demand that the government reveal the truth!

The sudden blow directly hit the Stanley Baldwin cabinet. Now it's a question of whether or not to hide it, and the whole world knows the news and doesn't give them time to react at all.

Before they could hold them accountable, Mr. Churchill had already resigned, and he became ill and went to the Americas to recuperate.

All the mess has fallen into the hands of their cabinet, and there is no need to do anything else, so let's concentrate on this mess first.

The opposition parties have already submitted impeachment cases to Parliament, but fortunately there are more Conservative MPs at this time, and this time the impeachment motion did not pass.

There is no way for the public opinion of the people, the facts are in front of them, and if you lose, you will lose, and you will not be able to hide such a large number of casualties.

"If the British government is in trouble, the world will be peaceful!"

A casual sentence that Ferdinand said at the beginning has also become the most widely circulated sentence of this era, and has been regarded as a classic by politicians all over the world.

The reason is very simple, as a world hegemon, if you don't do things and prove your sense of existence, then who still treats you as the same thing?

It's just that the British have a little stronger ability to do things, and the United States in later generations will seize small countries to bully and brush up their sense of existence, and John Bull will do it when he sees whoever is strong!

Therefore, after the First World War, the mainstream contradictions in the world became: Anglo-French contradictions, Anglo-Bulgarian contradictions, Anglo-Japanese contradictions, and Anglo-Russian contradictions.

With so many countries in conflict and none of them being jointly targeted, John Bull's diplomatic methods are indeed eye-catching.

For example, now that Ferdinand wants to form an alliance around the Mediterranean, the French are waiting for the price to sell, the Spaniards are directly not interested, and it is not a matter of leaving Austria-Hungary alone!

"Your Majesty, it is difficult to establish a Rim of the Mediterranean Union now, but we are going to dig the Aqaba Grand Canal, and they still support it.

It's just that due to the geographical location, the Spaniards now don't have the courage to fight the British, and the French have too much appetite for us to meet their demands. Foreign Minister Metyev said

"Hmph, it's not that you want us to make a bird and break the hegemony of the British in the Mediterranean.

This time they got their wish, and we dug the Grand Canal in the Gulf of Aqaba!

Now that the British have not bothered us for a while, this is our chance to complete the exploration work as quickly as possible, and then start construction! Ferdinand said angrily

He is not really angry, international politics is originally based on interests to make decisions, and the choice of the French is understandable, at most it is a little short-sighted.

Now that the Rim of the Mediterranean Union cannot be established, then the Grand Canal in the Gulf of Aqaba can only be dug by Bulgaria alone, and it is impossible for the interests in its hands to be ceded for no reason.

The Suez Canal is one of the dead holes of the British, and whoever touches them will fight to the end, and now that the Bulgarians are digging the Grand Canal in the Gulf of Aqaba, perhaps many British anti-war factions will breathe a sigh of relief.

Once the new canal was opened, the contradiction between Britain and Bulgaria around the Suez Canal would become a purely commercial conflict, which had nothing to do with the vast majority of British.

And the biggest contradiction between the two countries on the surface no longer exists, and it seems that everyone has a lifeline, which seems to be a good choice.

"Your Majesty, according to the results of our exploration, the two routes originally formulated are theoretically feasible.

It's just that the first option, directly with Gaza, is too costly, requiring at least more than 30 billion levits of investment.

The second option is to connect the Gulf of Aqaba to the Dead Sea, divert the Red Sea into the Dead Sea area, connect the Jordan River to Lake Great Bariel, and finally enter the Mediterranean.

The second option is much cheaper from an economic point of view, with an initial budget of about two billion leva. Transport Minister Beshir explained

Is there anything else to consider about such an obvious question? The difference between the two options is fifteen times the cost, which is simply not an option.

"What about the other factors?" Ferdinand asked with concern

Such a large project is never excavated when you want to, and there are many factors to consider.

"Your Majesty, because this Grand Canal is in the colony, including politics, economy, culture, ecology, and people's livelihood, we have not considered a series of factors.

At present, there are less than 300,000 immigrants in Palestine and less than 50,000 immigrants in Jordan. Behill explained

Ferdinand nodded, he didn't care about the ecological impact of the Grand Canal on the local area, and in terms of strategic value, the two areas together were not as good as the Grand Canal.

Economic value? In addition to mining some minerals in the Palestinian areas in this era, there is also a fart economy, even if the impact of the Grand Canal is greater, it will not interfere with mining?

The impact of freshwater resources was not on Ferdinand's mind, and he had no intention of developing agriculture in the area, and it was difficult to calculate the amount of rainfall along the banks of the Grand Canal after the entry of the Grand Canal.

In order to save the Dead Sea, isn't there still a plan to introduce the waters of the Red Sea? That's the amount of work that would have taken place for half of the Gulf of Aqaba Canal, which would have been navigable before Ferdinand had even crossed it, if it weren't for the fighting power of environmental groups.

"Well, let's dig according to the second plan, but we still need to minimize the ecological impact on the local area, and if nothing else, after the completion of the ten-year plan, the local area will also become a province of Bulgaria!

By the way, the Aqaba Canal must also be navigable, and I don't want to see one day our warships want to enter the Indian Ocean and go around in a big circle! Ferdinand thought for a moment and said

"Your Majesty, the largest navigable ship we have designed at present is 250,000 tons, the lowest passage area of the canal is 2486.5 square meters, the draft is 15.8 meters, and the largest ship in the world is only more than 70,000 tons, and there is no problem at all for warships to pass!" Beshear explained

"Under the current state of technology, how much can this traffic area and draft increase without significantly increasing the cost?" Ferdinand asked with concern

As the world's largest oil tycoon, this is a problem that cannot be avoided, and if the Gulf of Aqaba Canal is limited, he will have to build a large number of oil pipelines in the future.

And everyone knows that it is easy to dig a canal, but after digging through, it is difficult to widen the canal.

Once the Gulf of Aqaba Canal is opened, it will be difficult to increase the draught.

"Your Majesty, if you increase the draft of the canal by one meter on this basis, you will increase the passage area by eighteen percent, and the cost will increase by two .3 percent.

If you add 2 meters, you can increase the traffic area by 34 percent, and the cost will increase by 5.5 percent! Beshir thought for a moment and said

"Well, then increase the draft to 20 meters, I don't want to dig the Grand Canal in the Gulf of Aqaba again in my lifetime!" Ferdinand said casually

"Yes!" Beshear replied nervously

The boss's casual words directly made him swallow all the reasons for his objections. Anyway, the area through which the Grand Canal of the Gulf of Aqaba passes is not very high.

If you dig four more meters, you will dig four meters, which is not a big deal at all. The future Grand Canal of the Gulf of Aqaba is tentatively estimated to be approximately 318 kilometers long.

According to the calculation of the narrowest width of 150 meters, even if all the earth is dug down two meters, the amount of earthwork is only 190 million cubic meters at most.

(Note: This width is the width of the bottom surface, and the width of the water surface should not be less than 300 meters.) ）

In fact, the increased amount of earthwork will not exceed 100 million cubic meters, which is determined by the terrain, and it is no longer an impossible task to have an excavator, and it is a big deal to increase some costs.

Compared with the last century, the French organized the manual excavation of the Suez Canal, sacrificing 120,000 laborers, excavating 75 million cubic meters of earth, costing 16 million pounds, and it took ten years to barely complete.

At this time, the excavation of the Aqaba Bay Canal has advanced machinery and equipment, excavators, automobiles and other series of tools, and the difficulty of construction has been greatly reduced.

"Your Majesty, the Grand Canal in the Gulf of Aqaba is of great importance, and we, the Ministry of Finance, have decided to establish a canal management company to be responsible for the construction and operation of this canal.

With the required funds, we are ready to mortgage the bank with the title of the canal, and the loan will be repaid in the future by the navigation fee collected! Kennedy said calmly

There is a precedent for the success of the Suez Canal, and there is no problem at all with the future profitability of the Grand Canal in the Gulf of Aqaba, even if Bulgaria's own ships pass through, it will also be profitable.

Of course, capital is not a problem in this kind of business, and everyone knows that the volume of ocean transportation is increasing year by year, and the tonnage of ships is also increasing day by day.

Under Ferdinand's butterfly effect, the world's oil industry has developed much faster than the same period in history, and low oil prices are undoubtedly the best driving force to promote the popularization of internal combustion engines.

In this context, oil transportation has also become the most important problem at present, and the tonnage of oil tankers has also risen again and again.

Bulgaria, for example, consumed 35.86 million tons of crude oil in 1926, more than all the belligerents in World War I combined.

And this consumption is still rising sharply, and in this context, the tonnage requirements for oil tankers are also growing.

If the previous oil tankers of 10,000 or 20,000 tons, or thousands of tons, were used, wouldn't Bulgaria need thousands of oil tankers to keep running back and forth?

You must know that limited by the technology of this era, there is no way for oil pipelines to climb peaks of hundreds of meters or even thousands of meters to complete oil transportation.

Even though Bulgaria itself is an oil-producing country and has oil pipelines in the country, in practice the main mode of transportation is still by oil tankers.

In this context, the tonnage of Bulgaria's oil tankers began to expand upward, from more than 5,000 tons at the beginning, to more than 50,000 tons now.

It's a pity that such a giant oil tanker can't pass through the Suez Canal, so this giant can only run the Black Sea route to transport Romanian crude oil.

(Note: Historically, since 1956, the tonnage of oil tankers has only begun to skyrocket, mainly because the Suez Canal is impassable, in order to save costs, the tonnage of oil tankers has increased tenfold in more than ten years.) ）

In fact, with the shipbuilding technology of Bulgaria at this time, even a merchant ship of more than 100,000 tons could be built.

It's just that limited by the Suez Canal, if you want to go around the Cape of Good Hope, this distance is increased several times, and the economic value is lost.

It can be said that the tonnage of merchant ships in European countries is almost not very large, and the Suez Canal factor in this is undoubted.

Once the Grand Canal in the Gulf of Aqaba is opened, these large-tonnage cargo ships will surely spring up in order to save transportation costs.

At that time, the British will find themselves in great trouble and want to widen the Suez Canal, which seems to cost much more than digging the canal with the technology of this era.

If the Suez Canal is not widened, not only will the business be robbed, but even the Royal Navy will have to go through the Gulf of Aqaba Canal if it wants to pass through both places, which is simply a disgrace to the people of the British Empire.

"Yes, the government of the Grand Canal in the Gulf of Aqaba must be in its own hands, and the Ministry of Finance must secure the funds as soon as possible to ensure the smooth start of the Grand Canal!

The Ministry of Communications can now prepare to start construction, the Grand Canal in the Gulf of Aqaba is so long, you can divide the project sections according to the actual situation, and then carry out construction at multiple points at the same time. Ferdinand thought for a moment and said

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Kennedy replied

"Your Majesty, our Ministry of Communications is preparing to build two more roads along both sides of the Grand Canal to make up for the lack of our railway transportation, and we need eight million leva!" Behill thought for a moment and said

"Yes, it will be counted in the canal fund, and now you can start construction, and Zengpu will connect the canal within three years!

The British will not give us much time, and judging by the current situation, the rebellion in Southeast Asia this year the British are powerless.

Until the end of the rainy season, the London government did not dare to take major military action. Then their military operation, which should begin at the end of the year.

Now that the rebel army has grown, it is impossible for them to be wiped out in half a year. With this lesson, they did not dare to attack in the rainy season, and the war dragged on until 1929, or even 1930.

This is our chance, and during this time the London government certainly does not have the energy to provoke us, and there is nothing they can do as long as we dig the canal before the British react! Ferdinand said cautiously

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Beshir replied earnestly

Although I don't know what kind of damage the British can do, it is better to dig the Grand Canal as soon as possible, in the spirit that more is better than less.

Otherwise, the British blocked the Suez Canal, and Bulgaria would have a headache. If it were to be transported by rail, this loss would have been enough to break the bones of Bulgarian enterprises.

……