Chapter 182 Bargaining

The navy and the army, who were sitting opposite each other at the U-shaped table, were going back and forth, competing to belittle each other and elevate themselves. The conference room seemed to have become a vegetable market, noisy and chaotic.

Constantine, who was having a headache, slapped the table with his left hand, waved his right hand, and stopped everyone, saying: "Okay, okay."

"The scale of the navy and the army must be determined according to the specific national conditions of Greece. What is there to argue about?" Constantine said, looking at the people who finally calmed down.

After that, Constantine glanced at Prime Minister Alexandros who was sitting next to him. Alexandros had a gloomy face and muttered: "Three hundred thousand army, four battlecruisers and 12 destroyers for the navy, how much money does it cost? Greece's finances can't afford it at all."

It seems that the prime minister was shocked by the lion's mouth of the navy and the army. Even if the requirements of the navy and the army have not been estimated by the financial staff, it feels that this scale alone will require a lot of money.

"Regarding the size of the army, 300,000 people, don't even think about it, not to mention the issue of military expenditure. Greece's current total population is only more than 3 million. You have 300,000 people, and they are 300,000 young and middle-aged people. Why do you pull them into the army? There is no benefit, and the government has to pay for them. In wartime, the more troops the better, but now it is a peaceful era after all. If you expand the army like this, the enemy will not come in, and your army will eat up the government." The army does need to be expanded, but it is impossible to get 300,000 people according to the army's intention.

"But even the number of Serbian and Bulgarian armies is..." Seeing that Crown Prince Constantine was determined to reduce the proposal of the General Staff, Emmanuel argued hurriedly.

"You don't need to say how many people there are in the Bulgarian and Serbian armies. Can their untrained soldiers compare with the well-trained Greek soldiers?" Constantine interrupted Emmanuel directly and said.

The combat effectiveness of an army does not depend on the number of soldiers, but involves many factors, such as the quality of soldiers, including the cultural level and physical condition of soldiers, the number of technical weapons, such as artillery and machine guns, the quality of officers, the organizational ability of the army, the financial support of the country, etc. Of course, the number of people is also an important factor.

In terms of the various indicators related to the main combat effectiveness of the army, the Greek Army has almost overwhelming advantages over the Bulgarian and Serbian armies, except for the number of people.

In terms of the quality of soldiers, almost all soldiers in Greece, which has a higher economic level, have received compulsory education, and have no problem reading and writing. In addition, the army has sufficient food supply, and the physical condition of soldiers is better than that of Bulgarian and Serbian soldiers.

Greece has promoted compulsory education in the country for 20 years, and the results are very significant. So far, almost all children of school age in Greece have received education. Compared with Serbia and Bulgaria, the Greek army has a very significant advantage in the source of soldiers.

If the difference between soldiers who have received compulsory education and illiterate soldiers in simple soldier work does not seem to be as big as the gap in their education level, after all, they are all big soldiers fighting on the battlefield.

Then, when operating technical weapons, illiterate soldiers and educated soldiers perform very differently.

For example, machine guns. Since the current Maxim machine guns are relatively complex in structure, they require soldiers to maintain and service them frequently. Educated soldiers often only need instructors to teach them simply, and sometimes they only need to give them an operating manual to maintain and service machine guns.

However, for illiterate soldiers, this job requires instructors to teach them repeatedly, and even requires some ingenuity. Their performance seems very stupid to officers.

Not to mention operating more complex and precious technical weapons such as cannons. For artillery officers, the farther away those illiterate soldiers are from the cannons, the better. It is best to keep them away from the cannons forever.

In terms of technical weapons, most of the artillery and machine guns currently equipped by the Greek army are produced by domestic arsenals. In this regard, Serbia and Bulgaria are completely incomparable.

As for the organizational ability of the army and the support of the national finance, Constantine is also quite confident.

Therefore, although the Greek army currently has only 60,000 soldiers, the soldiers of this force are well-trained, the officers are professional and efficient, the morale is high, and the combat effectiveness is very impressive.

In contrast, the Bulgarian and Serbian armies are restricted by the government's finances, and most of the soldiers in the army are illiterate, of low quality, and have poor execution capabilities.

Seeing that Crown Prince Constantine exposed the army's tricks in one sentence, he was not fooled by the army at all - exaggerating the number of troops in neighboring countries, implying that the more the government's troops, the stronger the combat effectiveness, in order to achieve the purpose of asking for more military funds. This trick is OK to fool those government officials who do not understand military affairs. Constantine himself is a professional officer, and he can see through the purpose of the General Staff.

"Therefore, the number of the army will be expanded to about 100,000 to 110,000, and sufficient officers will be reserved for the expansion of the army in wartime," Constantine said to the army personnel.

"For the main officers in the army, establish the positions of chief and deputy at the same time, train a sufficient number of officers, and in peacetime, the chief and deputy officers will take turns to command the troops. You, the General Staff, must make good plans." Having said this, Constantine solemnly said to the army officers.

"This is mainly to train enough experienced officers. We cannot set up a commander and a deputy commander to fight for power, causing the army's command to fall into chaos, unclear responsibilities, and buck-passing, which will weaken the combat effectiveness of the troops. So your General Staff should study this system carefully," Constantine reminded.

When Emayinur heard the Crown Prince's plan, he found that half of the proposal of the General Staff had not been met, so he bargained: "Since the number of people cannot be increased, Your Highness, the number of technical weapons must be expanded. The artillery unit is not like an ordinary army that can be temporarily recruited in wartime."

This makes sense, Constantine could only say: "So what?"

"The main artillery currently equipped by the army is still the 75mm rapid-fire gun used in the last war. After all, it is a technology from ten years ago. As one of the main equipment of the army, the technical level of artillery cannot lag behind," Emayinur said.

Seeing Emayinur lying seriously to get benefits for the army, Constantine was also amused.

Greece's 75mm rapid-fire gun, as one of the main contributors to the last war, completely suppressed the Ottoman army equipped with German artillery during the war. The fierce fire of the 75mm artillery caused a serious blow to the Ottoman troops. This scene reminded the watching countries of the Franco-Prussian War, when the French army was bloodbathed by the Prussian army equipped with Krupp cannons.

After the war, the 75mm rapid-fire gun attracted widespread attention from countries around the world. Its firing rate, several times that of ordinary artillery, stunned artillery designers from various countries. In artillery production, Greece's 75mm rapid-fire gun can be said to have set off a wave of revolution.

After providing technical drawings to Germany, Britain, France, the United States, Russia and other countries successively became interested in the 75mm artillery and requested to purchase the 75mm rapid-fire gun.

The Greek arsenal has exported 150 artillery pieces, and through this business, the cost of research and development has basically been recovered.