In the evening, there were many guests at Cruz's house today, and the visitors were all bigwigs of the National Socialist Party.

For example, His Excellency Zarg as Minister of Education, His Excellency Andre as Minister of Transport, Kaleb as Minister of Industry and others. In addition, the National Socialist Party Executive Committee members Campos, La Serda and others also came.

The gathering of the Socialist ministers in the Cabinet and their executive members at Cruz's home is certainly eye-catching.

For this reason, Cruz deliberately released the wind to the outside world, which is to discuss the midterm election with the top level of the National Socialist Party today. It doesn't matter if anyone else believes it or not, at least it can give this party a reasonable excuse.

Although the party was in name, it needed to be done decently, so after a staggered meeting, the group came to his study.

Fortunately, Cruz's study is large, and more than a dozen people can sit down.

After everyone was seated, Cruz, as the convener of this time, spoke. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have summoned you here this time to discuss important matters with you. Today I have met with Your Majesty, who intends to increase military spending by more than 30 percent of total fiscal revenues starting next year. I've figured out what you can do to get the government departments to reduce their budgets to 60 percent of the total budget. ”

Cruz's words made everyone at the scene look at each other, because the news was so shocking. Although relations between the major powers are currently tense, this direct increase in military spending to 40 percent of the budget is too radical.

Because this is not at all preparing for war, but preparing for war. There is still a moment of cancellation in the preparation for war, and although this will cause some losses and may cause unrest, it is also bearable.

However, there is basically no possibility of canceling the preparations for war, because a large amount of funds have been invested to squeeze the funds of other government departments and a large number of various weapons have been manufactured.

And forty percent of the budget is basically the maximum limit that countries can use in peace, because this is the limit of what governments can use in peacetime (except, of course, the red system, which is too organized, compared with the monarchy and the republic, it is simply a foul).

As long as a country invests 40% of its fiscal revenue in the army, it means that there is no turning back, and it must fight a war.

All of you here also know this, which is why you were shocked by the Prime Minister's words.

"Isn't there room for turnaround?"

Education Minister Zarg couldn't help but ask at this moment.

"Nope."

The prime minister knew what he meant, and replied categorically. "It's not just the king who thinks so, I think so too. There is no room for turning back in Italy, and you have seen the development of Italy over the years, and you must know how difficult it is to develop Italy so far over the years. Now it is no longer enough to just bury your head in development, and the market capacity of Italy is almost at the end. What should we do then, don't think about it now, when will we wait. ”

The meaning of Cruz's words, none of you here understood. The National Socialist Party is now the ruling party, and apart from those who are ministers, the other high-level members of the National Socialist Party have some understanding of the situation in the government.

Knowing the current hidden crisis in Italy, I also know that the words in Cruz's mouth are the only way out for Italy at present.

Although this is not as domineering as the Kaiser's sentence of "using the German sword to obtain land for the German plow", it all means the same thing, and they all need to find a market for their own country.

This is also a disadvantage for late-mover countries, because the market is already occupied by first-mover countries. Unless your home market is large enough to complete the self-circulation without relying on the external market. But at the moment the only thing in the world that is possible to do so is the great powers of the Far East. Even America, the chosen nation, is not good because its population is not large enough, and although it is still rich in resources, it needs people to buy goods to produce them.

And if you want to break this passive situation, there is only one way to grab the market it occupies.

And how can the first-mover country allow it to grab its market, then it can only be done in the most straightforward way, and it is just a war, and whoever wins will be whom.

"So what do we do?"

This is the Minister of Communication, Andrew, asking, which is an inquiry on the surface, but in essence represents agreeing with Cruz's point of view.

With Andre taking the lead, several others followed suit. "Prime Minister (party leader), what do you say?"

Even Zarg, who had asked earlier, made the same remarks. After all, he is not stupid, how can he oppose it when everyone agrees, isn't this isolating himself. The slightest bit of emotional intelligence wouldn't do that, let alone be a politician.

In the face of the tacit support of everyone present, it would be a lie to say that Cruz was not moved, but at this moment he could not say words of thanks, he could only put it in his heart.

"First of all, we need to count the departmental budgets that we are in charge of, cut out the unimportant or minor budgets, and then we can sum them up and see how much they have decreased. Next, I will talk to the Chancellor of the Exchequer about what the total budget will be for this year, and then I will negotiate with the other ministers to reduce the budget and leave 40% of the budget for the military. ”

For the Prime Minister's words, everyone present was very recognizable. This kind of budget reduction can really only be done in this way, and it will be difficult to talk about it if you make an appointment with one department at a time.

Unlike them, they all come from a political party, and the budget saved is to restore the glory of Italy, and they can be justified.

It also shows the importance of Carlo's choice of the National Socialist Party as the ruling party, a radical approach that only radical parties can endorse. Replacing the left-wing party that has been in power before, this kind of radical approach is absolutely difficult to get them to agree, even if Carlo forces them to do it, it is good to procrastinate.

After the tone is set, then there is the question of details. Several Nationalist Socialist bigwigs who served in the cabinet began to discuss which budgets should be cut and which should not be cut, but basically they had more important budgets and less important ones.

This kind of noise, two or three hours did not reach a preliminary result.

In the end, Cruz came up with a way to reduce the proportion of each department in last year's budget and the proportion of the government's withdrawal this year. If it really can't be reduced, you must explain it to him, and say enough reasons to convince him, otherwise he must cut it.

Cruz's solution may not be the most reasonable, but it is the best solution at the moment, otherwise they would have quarreled for three days and three nights.

The Socialist ministers were so difficult to handle, so the other ministers could imagine that Cruz had a new understanding of his own task.

Sure enough, in the time that followed, Cruz summoned the other ministers in charge to talk about the budget cuts in his department. The attitude of the ministers is that resolute.

The basic process is as follows:

"Impossible!"

"Our department's budget can't be reduced, and every budget is very important."

"There is only so much that can be reduced, and if there is more reduction, it will affect the operation of the department."

"There's no way, I can only subtract one more, and one won't work."

"Prime Minister, why do you have to force me, you can find other departments, our department can reduce everything."

"Cruz, you're satisfied now!"

Although the words are different, the attitudes are basically the same.

Moreover, these ministers insisted on it for a long time or a short time, some agreed in a few days, some agreed in a dozen days, and some even longer dragged on for a month before they were accepted until the budget meeting was approaching.

In this more than a month, the energy spent is unimaginable, and with a single data, we know that in more than a month after Cruz took over the task, the prime minister lost more than a dozen pounds, and people are about to lose their appearance.

Finally, at the budget meeting at the end of the year, the government approved the budget for the new fiscal year, which totaled 34.19 lire, and the total military expenditure of the army and navy reached 1.37 billion lire. Of these, the army received 822 million lire, and the navy received 548 million lira.

It can be said that this budget, which far exceeds the estimate of the Navy and Army, makes it overjoyed. However, when they saw the murderous eyes of their government colleagues, the two navy and army ministers did not dare to reveal the joy in their hearts.

Of course, they also knew that since the king had obtained such a large budget for the navy and army, the next thing to do was not simple. The idea of fighting a big war has already taken root in the minds of the Minister of the Navy and Army.

The next step was to rearm the Italian sword to sharpen its sword and slash at the enemies the kingdom was pointing to.

------Off topic------

The third watch is over, and I'm tired to death!