At the end of 1912, when Europe was in the midst of strife. In this year, a lot has happened in the world, but the most important thing is that two major camps have been formed among the major European powers to prepare for war collectively.

Before that, there was a possibility that the smoke would blow away, but after the Moroccan crisis, it has become a sparkling explosive barrel, and now the only question is when this explosive barrel will explode.

When it will explode, no one knows now. But for Italy, the most important thing is to strengthen the military power of its kingdom.

In this year, the Italian Army increased by more than 80,000 people, forming 6 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry brigade, and 1 heavy artillery regiment in one go. In addition, the reform of the army's three-regiment division system has also become accelerated. Originally, there were still one-third of the divisions that had not been reformed, but after a year's efforts, only two divisions had not yet completed the restructuring.

In addition, the Army's firepower reinforcement of battalions and companies is also underway. Thanks to sufficient funds, the army purchased 2,000 Maxims, 4,000 Reveri light machine guns, 1,200 mortars of various types, and corresponding ammunition.

This large order is simply overjoyed for several arsenals, and it is even more important to expand the scale to provide them with weapons on the order. Because the army is in a hurry, the time is very tight, and this order must be completed within a year, so the arsenal can expand its production capacity.

Some people may ask, what to do after this order is made?

Someone will definitely knock you on the head, don't you see that Europe is going to war, and you are afraid that no one will produce weapons?

If a war breaks out in Europe, you can see it with a little brain, but everyone is still obsessed with the experience of the past, and if you gather an army, you can divide the victory and defeat in a few months, or even a day, and then the victorious country will take enough benefits from the defeated country, and then the world will be peaceful.

In addition to the fact that Italy's army is expanding its strength, the navy is also not lagging behind. At present, the Navy has accepted three super-dreadnoughts in this year, the Count Cavour, the Giulio, and the Duilio. At present, the total number of new dreadnoughts in the Italian Navy has changed from 8 to 11 now, which is definitely a big increase.

Not only that, this year, the Navy has also placed orders for 87 destroyers, cruisers, torpedo boats, submarines, and other ships, with a total tonnage of more than 70,000 tons. Two-thirds of the tonnage was given to the new cruisers and destroyers, because they had the most tasks in peacetime and in war.

As for why the Italian Navy ordered so many warships, it is still a make-up lesson for the Navy. In the past, due to insufficient funds, the navy chose to build large warships first. As for small and medium-sized warships, it is necessary to keep their number down and make up for them when the funds are sufficient or when large warships are almost built.

As we all know, a navy must have all kinds of warships, because its role is irreplaceable. The lack of small and medium-sized warships has led to a large number of old small warships in Italy not being decommissioned, and they are still dragging the old pace to carry out the tasks of the navy.

Fortunately, there have been no naval battles in recent years, otherwise it would have been embarrassing for the Italian Navy to pull out an excellent main fleet, and its guards in the rear or performing other tasks were old warships.

So now that there is sufficient funding, this section of the short board must be connected. Therefore, in this year, the Navy has made up for this shortcoming in a large number of funds.

As we all know, the cost per ton of small and medium-sized warships is much higher than that of large warships (the lower the tonnage, the higher the higher the tonnage, the lower the construction cost per ton), so the price of these small warships can be built at the cost of building three Cavour-class.

The construction of these small and medium-sized warships is also necessary, because the Navy will also take over the service of the Cavour IV ship Doria and two Milan-class battle cruisers next year. As for the year after that, four powerful Roman-class ships will also enter the navy.

And then what?

Nope.

This is a bit unacceptable for the current Italian Navy.

Therefore, the navy has moved the idea of designing new warships, and the navy has secretly promoted the research and development of 410 mm naval guns, but in view of the slow development of 410 mm naval guns, some people have proposed to improve 380 mm naval guns, artillery shells, propellants, etc., in order to obtain more powerful main guns.

Of course, artillery is only one aspect, in addition, power, armor, communications, unified shooting instruments, etc., the equipment required for a battleship needs to be considered.

This is not a matter of considering whether it is the latest technology, but rather of guaranteeing the latest technology with a reliability situation.

The Navy dares to start thinking about new ships now, on the one hand, due to the impact of the situation, the Italian Navy's main rivals in the Mediterranean, Britain and France, have started construction of a number of super dreadnoughts. And it is a bit unreasonable for the Italian Navy not to follow up.

Second, it's because the navy has money in its pocket, and as a qualified military branch, if you have money in your pocket, don't you use it to build ships, do you want to keep the cubs?

Why does the Navy have money in its pocket, it is because the Navy has received definite information, and their funding will increase next year, and the same will be true for the Army.

As for the one who gave them the news, it was our wise and mighty Majesty Carlo.

For Italy at present, preparations for war cannot be stopped, so military spending should also be increased. Military spending has been raised from the current 1.37 billion lira to 1.89 billion lira.

You read that right, it's this one-time increase so much.

Of course, this military spending has once again increased dramatically, and the complaints on the government's side have become even heavier. But unfortunately, now Carlo can no longer care about the government's complaints. Historically, this was the last full fiscal year before the war. So Italy has to make the most of this fiscal year and do more.

Of course, if the little girl in history doesn't follow the script, it's also simple, and when the time comes, Carlo will come by herself, and it's a big deal to shoot the first shot first.

Because the Italian economy could not afford to drag on, the kingdom was turned into a large military camp, and the Italian family could not hold on for long. If the war had not broken out in 1916, the Italian government could have declared its finances bankrupt.

Don't look at the current Italian economy is good, but this is a large number of orders from the military industry, if you put aside these military orders, and then put aside the state-owned enterprises, you will find that the current Italian private economy, except for a few fist industries, other industries have entered the era of declining profits.

And the reason for this is that the market of Italian industry is saturated, yes, saturated. The political turmoil in the Far East has led to a significant decline in sales of Italian products in the region, not only in other Italian countries.

And the sharp drop in market sales naturally makes it difficult for the factories that sell the goods, and then the factories will lay off employees. The next thing we all know is that the economic crisis is coming.

And for a country that is in the midst of a massive military build-up, the economic crisis can only divert contradictions, and war is the best diversion target.

So at this time, Italy does not hurry to expand itself, and it is still waiting for when.