1912 was a year of change, and while the Allies were consolidating internally, the Allies also made corresponding strategic deployments, most notably the Germans speeding up the construction of ships.

And at the end of 1912, Wilhelm II announced to the outside world Germany's new shipbuilding program, and the German government planned to add 3 super dreadnoughts and 4 battle cruisers in the next three years!

The reaction of the Germans provoked the British, but there was a fierce quarrel within the London government over whether to continue with the present naval acts.

The British Empire finally found that their finances were overwhelmed! According to the previous naval bill, now they had to add 6 more super dreadnoughts and 8 battle cruisers, which was not a small amount, at least more than 24 million pounds, which was more than the total military expenditure of Bulgaria in 1911!

The irony is that the super dreadnought was also made by the British Empire, which was originally going to crush the Germans in quality, but it turned out that the Germans were just starting to catch up again!

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Asquith [Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer] said: "Mr. Churchill, please calm down and think about the problems we are facing, even though my fiscal revenues are twice as large as those of the Germans.

Even if they have to take care of the army, but we have to defend the colony, if we continue to fight like this, I am afraid that we will be the first to hold on! ”

Well, this is also the after-effect of the welfare reform of the British Empire, although the internal contradictions have been alleviated, but the fiscal expenditure has also increased significantly.

Churchill, the Secretary of the Admiralty, said excitedly: "But, Mr. Prime Minister, can we withdraw now?" The Navy Act has just been passed, and it has been less than a year since it was implemented, and we have backed down, so what does this make the outside world think of us? What do you think of the British Empire? Is our British Empire already in decline? ”

The Secretary of State retorted: "We all know this, Mr. Churchill, but you also need to consider our financial affordability!" At present, our military spending has exceeded 25 percent of our fiscal revenue, and it will even exceed 31 percent in the coming year. ”

Churchill didn't buy it and said, "We can issue bonds!" As long as we hold on any longer, the Germans will soon find that they cannot compete with us in the navy and will continue to focus on the army.

In this way, once the war broke out, the Germans would fight with the French and the Russians, and the hegemony of the British Empire would be even more consolidated! ”

Asquith shook his head and said, "No! If we continue, we don't know if we can drag down the Germans, but we will be dragged down first!

Issuing bonds is easy to say! Don't you need to pay back the interest? If we continue like this, even if we can drag down the Germans, we will be greatly damaged, you don't think that our enemy is only one German, right? ”

Foreign Secretary Edward suddenly said: "Actually, we all know that the Germans are now riding a tiger, and our purpose is for the Royal Navy to be able to suppress the German Navy steadily, not to fight for face!" ”

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In the end, John Bull still had to compromise in the face of reality, abandoning the Navy Act, which had just been in effect for less than a year, and changing the original 2:1 to the current 3:2.

That is: for every 2 warships built by the Germans, the British built 3 warships.

The Englishman's confession did not surprise Ferdinand. It is obvious that the British Empire occupies a quarter of the earth's colonies (about 33.5 million square kilometers), and the cost of guarding it naturally cannot be low.

If you add a series of welfare policies to the British, this expenditure will be even more huge, anyway, the welfare treatment of the British in this era was not enjoyed by Ferdinand in his previous life!

Don't look at the fact that the total economic volume of the Germans has exceeded that of the British mainland, and the arms race also seems to be very awesome, in fact, the Germans are far inferior to Britain and France in terms of financial revenue!

Until the outbreak of the war, the Germans had less than half the income of the British, and even the French were seventy or eighty percent higher than the Germans.

To put it simply, the Germans are engaged in an arms race against the financial deficit, and as soon as the arms race begins, they can no longer stop, either start a war or finish themselves!

Oh, looking at the fiscal revenue alone, in fact, Bulgaria is no worse than the Germans, in fact, the two governments can use the funds but there is a world of difference.

Well, that's the system. Therefore, Ferdinand decided to make a financial cut, simply put, a series of expenses such as the salaries of the personnel of the government's enterprises, operating costs, and enterprise development funds were deducted in advance, and only the profits handed over by the enterprises were recorded!

However, this is also very troublesome, many government enterprises are still in a loss-making state, and they still have to rely on government grants to operate, if this part is also stripped from the treasury, how can they survive?

Obviously, Ferdinand was worried about eating a big pot of rice, and cut the corporate and government finances.

This is mainly due to the fact that these state-owned enterprises were not profitable at the beginning of their establishment, but with the rapid growth of the Bulgarian economy, many enterprises have now turned losses into profits and have the conditions for independent operation.

If it is not cut, uninformed people will think that Bulgaria's finances are really so good that they have surpassed the Germans.

In a good year, 20 percent of the annual fiscal revenue is nothing, but when the five-year plan is completed, an increase of 40 or 50 percent a year is nothing!

In fact, it is true that the year-on-year increase in income and expenditure cannot change the current situation of fiscal scarcity!

At present, nearly half of the top 100 enterprises in Bulgaria by assets are state-owned enterprises, and the rest are Ferdinand's industries. Or a thriving seedling!

How much profit do so many state-owned enterprises pay every year? In 1911, state-owned enterprises handed over profits of up to 750 million leva. Don't worry, if you look at the government appropriations, you will find that this huge amount of money has been consumed by their brother companies.

Before 1897, Bulgaria's biggest gold eater was the railway company, followed by the steel mills and arsenals, but with the end of the First Balkan War, the steel mills began to turn a profit.

By 1907, for the first time, the railroad company had managed to break even, replacing it with municipal infrastructure, such as the construction of hydroelectric power stations, roads leading to villages, and so on.

It's a pity that there is no way to build a highway toll in this era, otherwise with Ferdinand's festival, it is estimated that Bulgaria will also have toll booths!

The separation of finances and enterprises is not an overnight issue, at least until the completion of the "Third Five-Year Plan."

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Ferdinand instructed: "Chief of the General Staff, the British formed an air force in May this year, and I am ready to follow suit, and you must come up with concrete measures as soon as possible!" ”

There is no doubt that Ferdinand made a decision on this issue without consulting anyone. The main thing is that in this era, the Air Force is still a new branch of the military, and everyone does not know much about it.

Prior to this, there had been a proposal in Bulgaria to create an air force, but it was to be subordinate to the army, which was vetoed by Ferdinand.

If it is an air force subordinate to the army, then what is the difference between it and the current army aviation?

With the development of the times, by 1912 Bulgarian aircraft technology had made significant progress. The range has also increased from dozens of kilometers to more than 400 kilometers; The height has also increased from dozens of meters above the ground to more than 5,000 meters now; The newly developed heavy bomber has increased its bomb load to more than 800 kilograms.

With the development of aircraft technology, its role in warfare has become more and more obvious, and the current air force has the conditions to become an independent army.

"Your Majesty, what kind of scale should the newly established air force maintain?" Chief of the General Staff Imia Dimityev asked

Ferdinand thought for a moment and said, "Within two years, the Air Force will train 15,000 qualified pilots, and it will have at least 1,500 flight crews. ”

As for the specific formation, flight formations and the like, let's leave it to the professionals! The performance of today's aircraft cannot be compared with that of later generations, and if it were to be copied, who knows what will happen?

Fortunately, the planes of this era are cheap enough, the cheapest aircraft is only a few thousand leva, and the more expensive fighter is only tens of thousands of leva, otherwise Ferdinand would not dare to get so many crew members out if he killed him.

Oh, in fact, the plane is not worth much, it is the pilot who is worth it! No, pilots in this era are not as valuable as later generations, his requirements are much lower than those of later generations, and his training is much simpler.

In any case, Ferdinand decided to reserve a little more pilots, as for the planes, this production is really not difficult, if necessary, Bulgaria can produce thousands of them a year, which was enough in the First World War.

There is no doubt that the birth of the Air Force was a cross-generational change in military history, and after more than a decade of Ferdinand's efforts, Bulgaria finally came to the forefront of the world in this regard.

Of course, this also means that there is another competitor in the competition for military spending at the end of the year!

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