Chapter 100 Military Action

"The social structure of the local people in the Congo is still tribal. The local chiefs are the ones who hold the power. The relationship between different tribes is relatively indifferent," Brut said.

Since Constantine began recruiting large numbers of natives into the colonial army, Brut also studied this issue.

"As long as we try to avoid the situation where soldiers of local origin are stationed near their own tribes, that is, we encourage them to serve in other places, the so-called risk of rebellion can be effectively avoided."

This is indeed a good way to solve the hidden danger of a large number of indigenous soldiers entering the colonial army. Both Constantine and Banning agreed.

"At the same time, in order to maintain the security of the trade route from Congo to Greece, you Congolese had better buy a few warships," Constantine said to the two.

After hearing this, Banning pondered for a moment and said awkwardly: "Your Highness, I'm afraid Congo's finances can't support the cost of building a fleet, right?"

Unlike the Army, if the requirements of the Army are not high, it is completely fine for soldiers to be illiterate. If a soldier is asked to shoot a few bullets at the target and practice walking in a queue, he can barely become a soldier.

The cost of the navy is much higher. The cost of warships is high. It can be said that the tonnage of the navy's warships is accumulated with money.

Therefore, it is normal for Banning to feel embarrassed about Constantine's idea of ​​letting Congo purchase warships.

In fact, this was Constantine's helpless move. Don't rely on the Greek government's finances to build a navy in a short time.

Now the Greek navy is composed of a few patrol boats, and it is difficult to even call it a navy.

Moreover, the Greek government still needs to maintain the cost of upgrading the army's technical weapons. It really does not have the financial resources to worry about the construction of the navy.

Therefore, for Congo to purchase some warships, let alone whether they will be used in wartime, at least they can train a group of qualified sailors for the Greek Navy.

Sailors are not like the army. They can wait until wartime to relax recruitment.

If you don't worry that the navy will never return after leaving port, qualified sailors also need to practice it for many years.

"I know that your Congolese government is not financially well off, but when I talk about buying warships, I don't mean that you can get it done in one go. You can buy some light ships in the early stage."

The current annual fiscal revenue of the Congolese government is about 5 million francs. Excluding various expenses, the funds at its disposal are indeed not much.

After the two Bannings took a vacation and reported on their work, they embarked on a journey to Africa again with Constantine's new mission.

As for the purchase of warships for Congo, since it involves so many things, it still needs to be considered in the long term.

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Constitution Square Royal Palace

At the strong request of Constantine, King George again organized a council of war.

All top Greek military and political officials attended.

Looking at the report submitted jointly by Constantine and Chief of General Staff Emmanuel, George I almost slipped from his chair.

I saw the report clearly stated: Due to various reasons, the possibility of conflict between Greece and Ottoman Turkey is increasing. In this case, no less than 200 million drachmas should be spent on military expenses to comprehensively upgrade the existing army. Equipment, including rifles and new cannons, mortars, and heavy machine guns.

There is also an army logistics department that reserves 20 million rounds of ammunition and 1.5 million artillery shells.

This data almost made everyone except Terry Kupis take a breath.

"Is this too much?" asked King George I.

The current annual fiscal revenue of the Greek government is only 100 million drachmas. Now it invests 200 million marks in the army alone. This is really a big deal.

Emmanuel said: "Your Majesty, if we want to win the war against Turkey, without winning allies, I am afraid we will have to face the Ottoman Turkish army alone."

"In this case, these are the efforts that victory has to make."

Upon hearing this, King George I turned to Trikupis and asked: "Is it possible for us to win over Bulgaria and Serbia to form an alliance against the Ottomans?"

Trikupis thought for a moment, sighed, shook his head and said: "Your Majesty, this possibility is too low."

"First of all, not long after the last war (the 1885 Bulgaria War), Serbia is far from recovering. Regardless of objective conditions and subjective wishes, I am afraid that Serbia does not have the will to reignite the war in a short time."

"Although Bulgaria won the 1885 war, the damage was also great, and they had just acquired the Ottoman province of Eastern Rumelia. Both the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia were very afraid of Bulgaria. In this case, I'm afraid they are too There is no such intention”

"Furthermore, for the sake of maintaining stability in the Balkans, Britain and France will not watch us form an alliance against the Ottomans. Once the alliance wins, it is likely to stimulate the Russians."

At this time, Europe was enjoying a rare period of peace in European history since the Russo-Turkish War in 1878.

From a global perspective, the conflict between Britain and Russia is the main conflict. In order to block the Mao Xiong's greedy appetite for territorial expansion, the United Kingdom launched a blockade from the Balkans, Persia, Afghanistan, the Tibetan Plateau, and Japan. Bear expansion is busy.

Also later (in 1902), the main purpose of Britain breaking its tradition of glorious isolation and openly allying with an Asian country (Japan) was to curb Russia's expansion on the Pacific coast.

Although France has been trying to win over Russia and has achieved the strategy of attacking Germany from both sides, although Germany is making rapid progress on the road of industrialization at this time, its strength is still limited after all.

Before the Russo-Japanese War, Russia was still very confident about its 5 million troops.

It is in this environment that Greece wants to establish an alliance against the Ottoman Turkey and stir up trouble. I am afraid that no country except Russia wants to see it.

The whole of Europe generally maintains a political and military balance, and no one will destroy it for Greece.

After all, the Russians' ambitions for the Bosphorus Strait are almost known to everyone in Europe.

Once an alliance is really formed and the Ottoman Turkey is hit hard, it is almost certain that Russia will definitely add insult to injury to the Ottomans.

In this case, a chain reaction may occur throughout Europe, so the major powers will not agree with Greece's move.

After all, Europe at that time was not the Europe before World War I. At that time, two openly opposing armed groups had been formed in Europe, the Allied Powers and the Central Powers. Moreover, Turkey had clearly moved closer to the Central Powers, so naturally it would not organize the Balkan Alliance to join forces to deal with the Ottoman Turkey.