Chekov was the first to ask: "May I ask Marshal Popov, how much time will it take for the military to complete its plan?" How much manpower and material resources are involved? How to ensure that the strategic goal of globalization can be achieved with limited funds? ”

Budget inquiry is an indispensable part, and Popov has naturally been prepared for a long time, and the strategic goals thrown out by the military are bigger than the other, and of course it is impossible to achieve them all at once!

Popov replied calmly: "Let me answer the first question first, if you want to eliminate the unstable factors in the colony, it cannot be done overnight.

The total area of our colony is about 8 million square kilometers, which is 12 times the size of our homeland, and there are no railways or roads in such a large place, and even a tour is not a small task.

The military is a military action plan based on a five-year period, with the goal of initially eliminating the destabilizing factors in the colony within five years!

We can directly put the training of recruits on the colonial bandits, and use actual combat to train troops, although the casualties may be a little larger, but in order to ensure the combat effectiveness of the troops, this price is still worth it! ”

After a pause, after everyone had digested it, Popov added: "The globalization strategy is a step that every powerful country must take, and it is a long-term national policy.

There is only one person in the world today who has truly completed the strategic layout of globalization - the British Empire, and even the globalization layout of the French is still not perfect, and the rest of Japan, the United States, and we are just on the road!

It's a long road, but we can't afford to go! Bulgaria can go all the way from scratch, from weak to strong, relying on the strategic layout of the first step, and now we still can't lag behind!

This time limit, after careful consideration, the military finally calculated that the time limit is within 30 to 50 years, which means that our generation basically has no chance to complete this strategy! ”

Well, Popov is also a bachelor, not to mention how much it costs, and clearly told everyone that the globalization strategy just needs to think about it, and if you want to complete it, leave the opportunity to the next generation!

Naturally, Chekov would not let him go so easily, and continued to ask: "In this case, can we understand that Bulgaria's globalization strategy is just a plan, and there is no need to start it in the short term?" ”

Popov calmly replied: "Of course not, we must prepare in advance, otherwise if the international situation changes and the opportunity suddenly comes, we are not prepared, and it is a pity to waste the opportunity?" ”

After a pause, Chekov said cautiously: "Okay Marshal Popov, I understand what you mean, after your statement, I think there are serious problems with the budget proposed by the military this time!"

First, the work of suppressing bandits in the colonies can be carried out in a distributed manner, and I personally suggest that in 1918 the military should focus on the Asia Minor peninsula, and at most take into account the Middle East;

Second, the Navy can enter the Indian Ocean as long as it has a foothold in the Persian Gulf, and there is no need for us to overinvest in the short term.

Third, the globalization strategy can be put on hold first, and it is not too late to invest in it after our economy has developed, and there is no need to squeeze out precious construction funds now;

Fourth, although an integrated war is very important, I personally think that it is enough to improve it on the mainland, and with our current military strength, no one will be our opponent in the Balkan Peninsula, in the Middle East, or even in the Persian Gulf region!

The colonies in Africa are our weak point, but the African colonies have not yet found development value, and I don't think anyone will start a war against us for the sake of our African colonies in the short term!

To sum up, I personally recommend that a 45% cut in the military's budget for the coming year, that is, to keep 1.43 billion leva (about 57.2 million pounds) is a reasonable figure! ”

Bulgaria still came out of the Balkans in the end, even if it was necessary to limit military spending, everyone did not cut it too hard, and the huge amount of 1.43 billion leva was already comparable to Bulgaria's military spending in 1914 before the war!

Of course, this is also the need to use troops in the colonies, military spending cannot be too low, even now that the world war has just ended, Bulgaria still has a lot of strategic materials left, but military spending will still not be low!

There is no doubt that this figure is unacceptable to the military, and then they began to quarrel, as the protagonist Popov naturally belongs to the besieged, but everyone's face has been trained, whatever you say, he will not move!

Seeing that the time was almost up, Konstantin decisively stopped everyone's quarrel and scolded: "Quiet! The interrogation continues, now to the Ministry of Industry! ”

……

Two days have passed since a series of procedures have passed, and the funds of various departments have been suppressed, and of course there is still a long way from the budget of 5.2 billion leva.

No, it's 5 billion leva, of which 200 million leva has been withdrawn by Ferdinand as an emergency reserve, which is not within the scope of this budget.

However, Konstantin is still very satisfied with the current progress of the work, and the financial budgets of the various departments have been successfully suppressed to 6 billion levias, and the task can almost be completed after a few more debates.

Under normal circumstances, Bulgaria's budget meeting will not last more than a week, after all, everyone is very busy, and it is impossible to fight over budget issues every day.

Usually at the last minute, it is still necessary for the prime minister to personally cut the budget, and again there is one step before that, the heads of various departments evaluate the reasonable expenses of other departments!

This can't be messed around, it can't be said that in order to grab funds, you will deliberately lower other people's funds, this will be considered to have no overall view, the consequence is to prepare to go home, Bulgaria does not need a national leader who does not have a global view!

This data is also a reference standard, if everyone is willing to give you a big number, don't be complacent, it means that the workload of your department in the coming year will be bursting!

Corresponding to the annual plan, there is also the annual assessment, you can't put forward a lot of plans on the budget, and when the assessment is reached at the end of the year, none of them will be completed, right?

This is dereliction of duty, if there is no special reason, the Independent Commission Against Corruption will probably have to investigate the departments that have not completed the task, even if there are no economic problems, they must prepare to go home collectively, and the Bulgarian government does not want waste!

Therefore, when making a plan every year, everyone is cautious enough, not only to list the project to grab the budget, but also to complete the plan and make political achievements!

The budget meeting of 1918, which lasted until mid-December, took shape and was formalized with Ferdinand's approval.

The general framework is still within the scope of Ferdinand's plan, for example, the final military expenditure is fixed at 1.872 billion leva (about 74.88 million pounds), accounting for 36% of the fiscal revenue.

Education is priced at 780 million leva (£31.2 million), or 15 percent of total revenue.

The cost of industrial construction was only 500 million leva (about 20 million pounds), accounting for 9.6 percent of the total fiscal revenue.

……

Although the world war is over, it does not mean that the world is peaceful, and the international status achieved by Bulgaria must also be maintained by the army, so military spending is still high!

And the increase in education funding is also an inevitable result, just recruited a group of scientific researchers from Germany, they have to be resettled, right? You have to pay to build a lab, right?

There were still many "big shots" who were well-known at the time, and people's treatment must always be guaranteed, right? And the original high-level talents in Bulgaria, you can't cut down their treatment for no reason, right?

By the way, in addition to the state financial allocation, the education in Bulgaria also includes the income from patent fees of universities, donations from society, and the income from tuition fees of students!

Of course, Bulgarian universities do not charge tuition, this "tuition" is not an ordinary tuition, there are always some local tyrants who want to spend money to let their children go to college, although they can't get a formal graduation certificate, but they also learn something knowledge, right?

For these Ferdinand's policy of not slaughtering nothing, a few cheap liberal arts classes can be done, and he can also charge tuition fees ranging from 50,000 ~ 100,000 leva per year, he has no reason to refuse!

Anyway, for many people, the more expensive the price, the better, and there are many gentlemen who have been corrected after entering the university, and these rich people don't suffer at all when they spend their money!

The investment in industry does not seem to be large, in fact, this money is only used to provide basic supporting facilities for enterprises, after all, just from Germany swept a batch of cheap equipment back, as long as the construction of supporting facilities is completed, it can be assembled and operated.

As for whether the company can make a profit? I don't know this, anyway, in Ferdinand's opinion, the money in this era is really easy to make, it will take time for the Germans to recover from the crippled, and Britain and France are going farther and farther on the road of financial death, and now is the time when the European continent is the least competitive!

During this period, as long as there is no problem with the direction of investment, there will basically be no losses, the European continent is in ruins, and the spring belonging to the bourgeoisie has come.

If this period is missed, when the order in Germany is restored to normal and industry begins to operate normally, then a large number of cheap goods will flood the European continent, and then the competition will be cruel.

Well, Bulgaria was originally playing with knockoffs, and cheapness was almost taken to the extreme by them, taking advantage of the wage gap between Eastern and Western Europe, as well as the difference in the price of raw materials, which had their place in the most competitive period of European countries before the First World War, not to mention now.

Ferdinand, on the other hand, had little interest in light industry, for the simple reason that he was not short of money! The use of banks to control enterprises is far higher than the rate of return on direct investment in enterprises, and it is no wonder that the British and French consortia have run to play finance!

……

In fact, before the outbreak of the world war, Bulgaria also had a key industry - agriculture, but with the end of the world war, neither Ferdinand nor the cabinet paid much attention to it.

The reason is very real - there is more land! Since the land has increased, the grain production has naturally increased, but the demand for food in the international market has not increased!

The Ministry of Agriculture proposed agricultural transformation at the annual budget meeting, and the area of arable land that the government forced to keep is no longer needed, but to guide the people to switch to cash crops!

Of course, the crisis of food oversupply will not break out in the short term, at least until the Russians resume grain exports, and Bulgaria will not have to worry about this problem.

But the work of preparing for a rainy day must begin, otherwise in a few years, the large-scale reclamation will be completed, and a large area of wheat and potatoes will be harvested, and the feeling will not be so wonderful!

To resolve this crisis, it is still necessary to rely on the Family Planning Commission, and only when the population increases can this problem be perfectly solved, so family planning must continue to be carried out.

Then, in this round of budget battle, the Population Agency took the lead, not only got 250 million leva in funding, but also received special approval from the cabinet: the distribution of incentives or subsidies stipulated by national laws, and the government is responsible for the part that exceeds the budget!

To put it simply, it is better to encourage everyone to have children, and the more the merrier! Even if the budget is overrun, it doesn't matter, anyway, now the Bulgarian government wants the population!

According to the plan of the Bulgarian government, the human resource gap in Bulgaria will exceed 8 million in the next ten years, and there seems to be no better way to make up for this gap in the short term except for immigrants from Russia and Europe!

However, migration is not a long-term solution, and the quality of these people is also flawed, and it is increasingly unable to meet the needs of Bulgaria's development.

At the 1918 work conference, Ferdinand made a request to the UNFPA to double the population within twenty years!

This is also the conclusion that has been accurately calculated, and due to the factors of the Russian civil war, Bulgaria is currently accepting tens of thousands of refugees every month, and more than 100,000 refugees.

Combined with immigrants from European countries, Bulgaria's population needs to survive an average of 2.3 million newborns a year if it wants to double its population in 20 years.

Of course, this population doubling refers to the population doubling with Bulgarian nationality, not the population doubling of the areas controlled by Bulgaria, otherwise the officials of the Population Agency would not have done it, and it would not have been done at all!

Bulgaria still has a long way to go to complete this great demographic strategy.

However, theoretically, as long as the current birth rate is maintained, it may not be necessary to wait for 20 years to achieve this strategic goal in the 14th or 15th year, and the government is optimistic about this plan!

Ferdinand naturally did not discourage everyone's enthusiasm, although he knew that after the destruction of the small peasant economy, the population growth rate declined, which was an inevitable trend, but he did not know when this point in time began!

……