On a new day, the Prime Minister's Office was unusually busy.

The Prime Minister's Mansion is full of people coming and going, and it is full of people shuttling around.

"This is the new plan of the Ministry of Transport for the port of Durres, and it needs to be given priority to the Prime Minister."

"The construction plan for the coal mine in Kosovo is waiting for the Prime Minister to sign off and the Ministry of Finance will allocate funds."

Documents that needed to be signed by the prime minister slowly piled up on his desk, so that Prime Minister de Pretis could not raise his head at all.

"Prime Minister, His Excellency Tejera is here."

The secretary's words made Depretis finally raise his head.

The 61-year-old Chancellor of the Exchequer is not much younger than the Prime Minister, and he also looks old with silver hair.

But despite this, it is still a little worse than the first.

Wrinkled and tired, this is the current image of Prime Minister de Pretis.

Everyone, especially those close to the Prime Minister, knows that His Excellency the Prime Minister is aging very quickly after entering this year.

However, De Pretis approached the Chancellor of the Exchequer not to discuss this. I saw the prime minister, who raised his head, first asked the chancellor to sit down, and then spoke. "I came to you this time, and it was like this, the new Governor Antonio, who reported to me a plan......"

It was in the Prime Minister's account that Chancellor of the Exchequer Tejera learned why the Prime Minister had invited him. Sure enough, there is nothing to do to go to the Three Treasures Palace, which is asking for money.

Antonio, the new governor of Borneo, had his own ideas after taking office and getting to know the colony of Borneo.

Knowing that he was not as good as the old prime minister financially, in order to leave his mark, he thought of another way out. Expansion of the Borneo colony.

That's right, Antonio wants to make trouble!

And his goal is to still hold the Netherlands, which is half a small part of Borneo.

And he also has good reason that Dutch Borneo is a backwater compared to the booming Italian Borneo. In recent years, the Dutch have invested less than 10 million lire in Dutch Borneo, and the largest investment has been the construction of the road from Mazen to Nahab'an. The main reason for the construction of this road was to prevent the infiltration of Italian forces next door.

In addition, Antonio's plan was not decided at a glance, but also had a realistic need.

Although the construction of Italian Borneo is in full swing, there is one key factor that has been looming over the minds of the locals, that is, the suitable places for development in Italian Borneo have been almost developed. This is especially true for cash crops such as rubber pepper, which are currently suitable for exploitation. If you want to continue development, you will have to pay additional costs, especially in the original areas of the interior, which are even more expensive.

And at this time, the Dutch Borneo next door, which has almost stagnated, is so delicious and tempting.

In the face of Antonio's assumption of office, the first request, as the prime minister, De Pretis, should be supported according to reason. However, because the funds required for his plan were not small, in order to avoid opposition from the Ministry of Finance, Tejela, who was the chancellor of the exchequer, was brought in first.

As soon as he heard the prime minister's introduction, as expected, Tejera immediately raised his objections.

"Prime Minister, I personally support Governor Antonio's plan in principle, but it costs too much, isn't it inappropriate to invest nearly 10 million lira a year?"

In the face of the Chancellor's words, Prime Minister de Pretis laughed and defended Governor Antonio. "It's not a lot of money at all, I've already done the math, and it's reasonable in terms of personnel composition and expenses. Compared with the earnings after that, it is already very good. ”

There is also a reason for the prime minister to exonerate Antonio, in Antonio's plan, it only takes four or five years of preparation to seize the territory of Dutch Borneo for Italy. Although these lands are largely undeveloped and not as good as those in the west, they can still expand the benefits of Borneo for Italy. According to his estimates, it would only take four or five years of development for the Borneo colony to provide Italy with more than 100 million lira a year.

Such a return on investment is one of the main reasons why the Prime Minister is willing to support Governor Antonio. Of course, diplomacy and other aspects need to be calculated separately.

But for Tejela, while the return on investment is tempting, it is difficult to meet the requirement that the Ministry of Finance reduce its revenue by nearly 10 million lire a year for four to five years.

"Prime Minister, you also know the current situation of the Ministry of Finance, last year because of the war, we have already spent 2.471 billion lire, and this year due to the development of new territories, another 514 million lire. And according to the plan, another 429 million lira will be invested next year. Prime Minister, you should know the fiscal gap in recent years, and now the annual yield on our 10-year Italian government bond has increased to 3.18%, which is already very high. We have to pay 192 million lira a year in interest alone, and if we continue to spend like this without moderation, it is not impossible to go bankrupt. In addition......"

De Pretis didn't expect the Chancellor of the Exchequer to suddenly blow up and pour out all the in the Ministry of Finance.

This is not to blame him, he has changed anyone to be the chancellor of the exchequer, and in the face of Italy's high debt, it is similar to this one.

Fortunately, Italy has developed well in recent years, otherwise it would have been on the verge of financial bankruptcy and domestic problems, and nearly a decade of time would have been wasted.

In the face of the fried Chancellor of the Exchequer, of course, Depretis can't be hard topped, so he can only follow the hair.

"In that case, why don't you reduce your expenses from other places and make up this money?"

For the pleasant prime minister, Tejera also recovered after venting. I saw him say with a bitter face.

"My Prime Minister, where is there a place where the government can cut spending, the current spending of each department is carefully calculated, and it is impossible to reduce it at all. And it's not like I'm saying that the only place where you can reduce your expenses at the moment is the royal family's expenses. Elsewhere, I really don't think of any other way to cut expenses. ”

Tejela's suggestion left De Pretis dumbfounded. Reducing the royal family's expenses may seem feasible, but it is not easy to do so at all. And this is not something that the king can do with a nod alone, if he brings it up, the House of Savoy will not hate himself to death.

Faced with this situation, DePretis's old habit of hesitation was repeated.

"Is there any other way?"

He was greeted by a shaking Chancellor of the Exchequer.