Chapter 255 Central Empire Strategy

Prime Minister Venizelos spoke first: "Greece is located in the southwest of Europe, generally on the edge of Europe, and has an important geographical location."

"Greece should take advantage of this favorable geographical location to actively develop industry, commerce and shipping, and enhance Greece's influence in the Eastern Mediterranean."

"For Greece, the most important thing is not to be easily involved in the conflict between the two military groups in Europe."

"The government has decided to implement the Macedonian Development Plan in the next two years and adopt various measures to encourage the people to reclaim land in the Macedonian region."

At this point, Venizelos After a short pause, he continued: "If the finances are sufficient, the government will quickly build the railway trunk line from Thessaloniki to Skopje, as well as other necessary roads, to consolidate the Greek government's control over Macedonia."

Speaking of financial issues, Venizelos took off his gold-rimmed glasses and rubbed his brows: "Greece is under great financial pressure now. The Ministry of Finance has issued hundreds of millions of drachmas of national debt. This year's fiscal deficit is already considerable,..."

As prime minister, Venizelos has been worrying about money almost all day since he took office.

Since he took office, the Greek government has been secretly preparing for a war against the Ottoman Empire. Whether it is the construction of the navy or the army, a large amount of funds are spent every year to maintain it.

Especially the naval construction plan, Venizelos feels that his hair will be pulled out every time the navy buys a warship.

As for domestic transportation construction, in order to rapidly develop the economy, the government also has to invest a lot of money every year to build railway trunk lines and harden roads.

Every day in the Prime Minister's office, the Minister of Finance and Venizelos sighed as they looked at the expense bills on the table.

When the war broke out in 1912, Venizelos, who was the Prime Minister, actually breathed a sigh of relief. Although the expenses during the war were even higher, the days of worrying about money were finally coming to an end, and he felt a little relieved in his heart.

Even though hundreds of millions of national debts were issued to domestic banks, God bless, it is finally over.

What Venizelos did not expect was that after the end of the Balkan League's war against the Ottoman Empire, the situation in the Balkan Peninsula changed fundamentally, and the contradiction between Greece and Bulgaria escalated rapidly and became a new war threat.

The consequence is that even though the war has ended, the army not only did not reduce the troops it had called before the war, but the Army General Staff has continuously urged the Congo to mobilize more indigenous troops to support Greece.

Now Greece's domestic finances not only have to support 250,000 local soldiers, but also more than 100,000 black soldiers. The financial pressure has not only not decreased, but has increased a lot.

Even the navy requested an increase in military spending.

The reason was that thousands of islands in the Aegean Sea and Crete in southern Greece (after the 1912 war, European countries had recognized Greece's sovereignty over Crete) were recovered by the navy.

The navy suddenly had to protect thousands of targets, which was already overwhelmed and needed to purchase more warships to effectively defend the sacred territory of Greece.

In order to enhance its persuasiveness, the Navy Department also racked its brains to list the names of thousands of islands in the funding application list, which took up a whole stack of paper.

Therefore, when Venizelos talked about financial issues in the meeting that was originally about discussing national strategy, he ran away and lost control of his resentment.

"Ahem" Seeing that Venizelos was going to talk about financial issues, Constantine interrupted.

"The theme of our meeting today is still about Greece's national strategy. We will discuss the financial issues after today's meeting."

After the interlude, Admiral Kontoriotis said: "After the Aegean Sea Battle, Greece's territorial waters have greatly increased. We have not only recovered the islands in the Aegean Sea, but also made various countries recognize Greece's sovereignty over Crete."

"Among these islands, Lemue and Crete are the most important."

"Limue controls the entrance to the Dardanelles and has an extremely important geographical location. Now the Greek Navy has greatly increased its influence on the Aegean-Dardanelles-Bosphorus-Black Sea route."

"If necessary, the current Greek Navy can cut off this route to the Mediterranean at any time. Important waterway to the Black Sea"

"Crete is located in southern Greece, in the Mediterranean Sea between Tripoli and Greece, close to the world's most important waterway, the Indian Ocean-Mediterranean-Atlantic Ocean route"

Noticing that Kontoriotis was becoming more and more unreliable, Armaments Minister Yannis sneered and said, "Your Excellency the Navy Commander, as a soldier, we'd better be realistic and not be too ambitious. What kind of strength do you think the Greek Navy needs and how much military expenditure do you need to invest in order to control this most important waterway in the world?"

"What makes you feel that Greece can get involved in this route?"

The route that passes through the Suez Canal, runs through the Mediterranean Sea, and connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean is definitely the most important waterway in the world.

Thousands of ships pass through this golden waterway connecting China and the West every year.

If commercial routes are compared to blood vessels, this route is definitely an artery.

Kontoriotis was not to be outdone and said, "Our meeting today is to discuss national strategy. Strategic planning and deployment should be forward-looking."

"Under the current financial constraints, the government simply cannot invest heavily in the navy," retorted Yannis.

"If the navy really has the strength to control the Suez Canal route, it will probably be suppressed by the British immediately. Do you think your navy is confident that it can withstand the pressure of the British with a few warships purchased from Britain?"

The basis of Britain's global hegemony is its absolute control over India.

The British have more than 20 million square kilometers of colonies, but among all the colonies, only India is different.

Canada at this time is still a cold and wild place, and Australia is just a place where the British exile criminals.

As for the British colonies in Africa or other parts of Asia, they are nothing more than being able to obtain some resources.

India during the colonial period, including later Pakistan and Bangladesh, has a very large area.

The functions of colonies are two points. The first is to provide industrial raw materials for the mother country, and the second is to provide a dumping market for the country's industrial products.

And India perfectly meets these two points.

First of all, in the 19th century, India's population had reached 300 million!

In contrast, the population of Britain at that time was about 30 million, less than 40 million.

Such a huge dumping market made British capitalists make a lot of money.

The population of France at that time was only about 40 million, the German Empire was 50 to 60 million, and the United States was 70 million.

At that time, the population of the rich and developed industrial countries in the world was not as good as that of India!

The British transported raw materials such as tea, cotton, and wood produced in India to Britain continuously, and then continuously transported industrial products produced in their own country to India for dumping.

The British transported cotton produced in India to Europe, spun it into cloth, and then sold it back to India.

Without India, Britain would be just an ordinary European power.

The wealth that Britain squeezed from India every year is probably not even counted by the British themselves.

Some people in later generations estimated that during the period of ruling India, Britain stole a total of 45 trillion US dollars of wealth from India!

It is precisely because of the extraordinary importance of India to Britain that all routes from Europe to India are forbidden by the British Royal Navy and no one else is allowed to touch them.

The route through the Suez Canal is the fastest route from Britain to India.

It can be said that defending the route is to defend the hegemony of the British Empire.

Therefore, the Minister of Armaments Yannis naturally thought that Kontoriotis's statement of strengthening the influence of the Greek Navy on this route was a fantasy.

"At the current stage, it is enough for the navy to protect the safety of Greece's coastal areas."

"Greece's top priority is the threat on land. We should focus on the Balkans in the near future, increase investment in the army, ensure the defeat of Bulgaria, and guard against Serbia at the same time," Yannis, who stood on the side of the army, said.

"Greece's future is on land, and now there is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A weak empire is about to die."

"Who else has more sufficient reasons to accept her legacy except Greece?" Yannis said to everyone in a tempting voice.

Constantine listened to the speeches of the heads of the navy and army with interest. In order to get more sufficient funds, he even did not hesitate to draw a tempting pie.

Of course, objectively speaking, the goals mentioned by the two are not completely without opportunities for Greece.

In terms of feasibility, if Greece can really defeat Bulgaria and establish Greece's hegemony in the Balkans, then once the broken house of the Ottoman Empire really falls, then Greece will be the best recipient in terms of geographical location, historical origins, and the will of the people.

After the victory of the war in 1912, Greece not only gained most of Macedonia, but also recovered almost all the Aegean islands. Such a brilliant victory greatly stimulated and encouraged the Greeks.

For a time, almost all Greeks firmly believed in the possibility of realizing the "great ideal".

Especially in the army, after the two great victories in the war of 1896 and the war of 1912, officers at all levels were in high spirits, even if the opponent was the Bulgarian army, known as the "Prussia of the Balkans".

After the victory of the war in 1912, Greek newspapers reported that the new Greek empire would be established through three dynastic wars like the unification of the German Empire.

(The three dynastic wars refer to the three wars in the process of Prussia's unification of Germany, namely the Danish-Prussian War, the Austro-Prussian War, and the Franco-Prussian War)

The optimistic mood also infected the Greek Navy.

In the two wars, the actions of the Greek Navy also played an important role and performed well.

Especially in the 1912 war, the Greek Navy completely defeated the Ottoman Navy and gained control of the Aegean Sea.

The islands of the entire Aegean Sea, including those very close to the Anatolian Peninsula, were also occupied by Greece.

Now the navy and the army are fighting for military expenses.

Prime Minister Venizelos frowned, feeling a little worried about the war frenzy in Greece, whether in the military, the people, or even the government.

"Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, I think this kind of war optimism is very dangerous. I want to remind everyone that war adventure is a very dangerous thing, and it also consumes a huge amount of wealth. In dealing with international relations, we still have to use diplomatic negotiations as the main means. Relying on war to solve everything is a very dangerous method," said Venizelos.

"Greece's national strength is still relatively weak. We can't afford the consequences of a failed war, otherwise Greece's nearly 30 years of achievements will be lost," King George echoed.

"Your military leaders are full of war optimism, which is indeed a bit dangerous."

The country's strategic planning is related to the direction of funding investment. Naturally, as the senior leaders of the navy and the army, they all hope to influence the strategic planning to get more funding.

Constantine stood up and nodded to the two guards at the door of the conference room.

After getting Constantine's permission, several soldiers hung a huge map on the wall.

Everyone looked at it intently and saw that it was a map covering the Balkan Peninsula, North Africa, the Middle East and the Caucasus.

Constantine stood in front of the map and said to the people present: "As the map shows, Greece has a special geographical location, located in the center of the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. I call it the central empire strategy."

The impassioned voice lifted the spirits of everyone present.

Everyone knows that Crown Prince Constantine is the real protagonist of today's meeting.

Rather than saying that today's meeting is discussing Greece's strategic planning, it is better to say that Crown Prince Constantine is presenting his policy program to the Greek military and government.

King George is getting older and older. In recent years, except for certain public appearances, he rarely appears in front of outsiders.

King George has actually transferred the king's power to the crown prince.

"Greece is located like a central hub, at the intersection of the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa"

"If Greece wants to grow and develop, it must take advantage of this geographical location"

"Greece is close to three important waterways, namely the Dardanelles, which is the only route from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. Greece currently actually controls the exit of the strait"

"The second is the Oderonto Strait (the strait between Greece and Italy), the exit of the Adriatic Sea"

"If this is affected, it will greatly affect the countries around the Adriatic Sea"

"As for the third, it is the Suez Canal"