Although the prime minister interrupted, the scale of the ship still attracted the attention of everyone present, especially Tejela, who is the chancellor of the exchequer.

"Admiral Yagill, what is the total scale of the warships you plan to build?"

As soon as the Chancellor of the Exchequer spoke, Admiral Yagill knew that the core issue was coming, and money was the core issue.

"Our Admiralty estimates that the total tonnage of the construction of these warships should be between 55 and 600,000 tons, and the total cost should also be between 1.354 billion and 1.421 billion lira."

Admiral Yagil's words made the important ministers present gasp, this cost is too high, the average annual government needs to invest 1.3-140 million lira for the construction of ships, is this investment too big?

Don't look at Italy's annual fiscal revenue of 1.7-800 million lira, but the expenses are also large. Infrastructure, industry, education and health, payment of principal and interest on government bonds, salaries of government personnel, etc., are basically full, and there will be an overrun of 100 to 200 million lira every year. This makes the government come up with more than 100 million yuan a year to build ships, and the pressure on the government will definitely be even greater. Not to mention that the newly built warship does not need personnel training, daily maintenance, etc., which also costs money.

Therefore, in the face of Admiral Yagill's words, it immediately attracted everyone's rebuttal.

"It's too much investment."

"Is your navy going to concentrate twenty years of spending into ten years?"

However, in the face of opposition from the government's side, Admiral Yagill was mentally prepared. "This is the result of careful consideration by our Navy, because the current situation facing the Navy is more difficult, and we need so many warships to defend the security and interests of our country."

"This is still too much, this has already endangered financial security, and our Ministry of Finance believes that 80 million lire a year can ensure financial rationality."

The reply of the Minister of Finance, Tejela, was a slash to the main artery of the shipbuilding plan, directly reducing the total cost of the shipbuilding program by five or six billion lira.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is very shrewd, and the cost of building the ship is 80 million lire a year, and it is easy for the government to solve it. First of all, doesn't the navy have 20 or 30 million lire of shipbuilding funds every year, and if it is directly merged, the Ministry of Finance only needs to solve more than 50 million yuan.

It is also feasible to take some unimportant funding items and increase fiscal revenues every year to maintain a healthy fiscal situation. As for the increase in naval funding after the commissioning of warships, then let's talk about it then, there will always be a squeeze of it.

It's just that Tejela's beautiful thoughts were shattered, and Admiral Yagill replied immediately. "This is simply not possible, the cost of building ships of 80 million lire a year is simply not enough for the needs of the navy. The shipbuilding plan given by our Navy is a plan that satisfies the minimum protection of China's interests. ”

Speaking of this, Admiral Yagill looked at the Chancellor of the Exchequer and said. "Your Excellency Tejela, our country has at least 200,000,000,000 lire a year from the Far East and the colonies of Borneo, and such a huge gain is based on naval superiority. And in order to preserve these interests, then our navy must have a sufficient presence. If tensions arise in the Far East and on the mainland, the Navy may not be able to draw out warships for deterrence. ”

It's a threat, an absolute threat. You must know that at present in the Far East, the relations between Japan and Russia are very tense, especially after Russia refused to carry out the second and third phases of the withdrawal of troops from the northeast, and the relations between the two countries have entered a state of imminent explosion.

In the Far East, Japan has a huge navy with six battleships and six cruisers, and of course this huge is in the Far East. And Russia is not bad, 7 battleships and 8 cruisers are slightly better than Japan in terms of quantity, but Russian warships are limited by tonnage, so in terms of actual combat effectiveness, they are slightly inferior to Japan's combined fleet.

As for why the tonnage is restricted, because the Russian largest dock in Arthur can only maintain 13,500-ton warships, so Russian warships can only choose under this tonnage.

In addition, the two Genoa-class battleships purchased by Russia in Italy were allocated to the Pacific Fleet, and the first ship, the Crown Prince, became the flagship of the Pacific Fleet.

Because the two Genoa-class battleships, both in terms of fire protection and speed, are slightly better than the current battleships of the Pacific Fleet. This shows how much the Russian Navy recognized Italy's purchase of two Genoa-class battleships. This also fully demonstrates the strength of Italian shipbuilding, of course, on the other hand, how much more boastful of Russia's shipbuilding ability is.

And with the exception of the two Genoa-class battleships, the other Russian battleships were all tonnage ranging from 11 to 12 thousand. On the Japanese side, on the other hand, except for the two 12,000-ton Fuji and Yashima, the others are the latest British 15,000-ton Shikishima-class battleships, and the difference in tonnage alone can be imagined, not to mention the performance of the two.

On the Tejera side, there was enough anger at Admiral Yagill's outrageous remarks. In any case, the Far Eastern Trade Route and the Borneo colony's annual revenue of nearly 300 million lire is an important source of revenue that the Ministry of Finance cannot ignore.

Yes, Admiral Yagill's intelligence is outdated. According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Finance, thanks to the significant increase in the use of rubber and the continuous expansion of the Far East trade route, the Italian Ministry of Finance will receive 294 million lira from the East this year.

"90 million lira a year is the limit of what our finances can accept."

"Your Excellency Tejela, the number of ships built by the Navy is based on careful planning and comprehensive consideration, and it does not mean that you can do whatever you want."

"100 million lira a year, if it doesn't work, I, the chancellor of the exchequer, really have no choice but to elect someone else."

The Chancellor of the Exchequer's sudden remark surprised everyone present, how could this good discussion of the Navy's shipbuilding suddenly turn around and talk so much that he wanted to resign?

Speaking of which, the Ministry of Finance is one of the top three powerful departments of the government, but because of Italy's previous arrears and the large investment in industrialization over the years, the Ministry of Finance, which is very powerful on the surface, can only know its own practical difficulties.

And Tejela, who has been in charge of the Ministry of Finance for more than ten years, has lost all his hair for Italy's financial problems over the years, and the whole person looks like a thin old man in his seventies. You must know that Tejera is only 64 years old this year, and when he became the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he can still be described as young and proud. In more than ten years, he has cultivated this virtue himself, and you can see how hard he works.

In addition, this day was not actually an angry remark, but the result of careful consideration by Tejela, who used it to throw the topic out of the head. Because after entering this year, Tejera obviously felt that his energy was a little lacking, and he was much slower in handling various affairs of the Ministry of Finance.

In the face of the cold phenomenon caused by Tejela's sudden resignation, Prime Minister Antonio hurried to the rescue. "In fact, the issue of the Navy's shipbuilding funds is mainly due to financial difficulties, so I think we can't just let one department of the Ministry of Finance think of a way, and all departments also need to think about it, tighten the financial budgets of various departments, and let colleagues in the Ministry of Finance breathe a sigh of relief."

In the face of the Prime Minister's rescue, the bigwigs of other departments also spoke one after another. "The Prime Minister's proposal is very good, we should be able to squeeze out a little bit of each part, and we should be able to squeeze out another part of the capital budget."

"It's a good idea."

"I agree.

After some preliminary estimates, the rest of the government can squeeze out a shortfall of 12 million lira a year.

In the face of the actions of the government departments, how could Yagil, as the Minister of the Navy, not be on the road.

"Since the government is indeed in difficulty, and our navy cannot force it, then our navy can only accept 112 million lira a year for building ships. However, our navy has said in advance that we can accept that the government's funding for building ships is based on financial difficulties, and if the finances are sufficient, then we hope to make up for the previous debts. In addition, I hope that the government will let the navy keep it for itself. ”

Seeing that the navy finally relented, the government side was relieved.

Then, after some discussion and study, the Navy's 10-year shipbuilding plan will build 12 new battleships, 5 battle cruisers, 21 new cruisers, 68 new destroyers, and 62 other special auxiliary vessels, with a total of 45-530,000 tons of large-scale shipbuilding plan.

Seeing that the two parties finally reached an agreement, Carlo, who did not speak during the whole process, was also relieved. You must know that he has spent a lot of energy to get the government to agree to build ships. As for how much can be discussed, it can only be up to the Navy itself. And the result is not bad, the talk is not bad.

However, the fly in the ointment is that the chancellor of the exchequer is a little reluctant to do it, which is a problem. Because the Chancellor of the Exchequer is not a job that can be done by anyone, he must have enough ability, and he needs to be approved by him, and such a person is not easy to find.