Greece to roman road

The land and sea parties sitting opposite each other at the U-shaped table were going back and forth, vying to belittle each other and elevate themselves. The conference room seemed to have become a vegetable market, and there was a lot of noise and chaos.

Constantine, who had a headache, slapped the table with his left hand and waved his right hand to stop everyone and said: "Okay, okay"

"The size of the navy and army must be determined based on the specific national conditions of Greece. What's there to argue about?" Constantine said, looking at the crowd who finally stopped.

After saying that, Constantine glanced at Prime Minister Alexandros sitting next to him. He saw Alexandros's face was gloomy and scary, and he was muttering: "An army of three hundred thousand people, a navy of four." 1 battlecruiser and 12 destroyers. How much does this cost? Greece’s finances simply cannot afford it.”

Emotions The Prime Minister was shocked by the huge mouths of the lions on both sides of the sea and the land. Even if the requirements of the navy and the army have not been estimated by financial personnel, it feels like a large sum of money is needed just for this scale.

"As for the size of the army, 300,000 people, don't even think about it, let alone the issue of military expenditures. Greece's current total population is just over 3 million. Your 300,000 people are still 300,000 people. In the prime of life, what are you doing by recruiting the army? There is no profit, and the government has to pay for their support. In wartime, the more the army, the better. But this is a time of peace after all. With such an expansion, your army will have to kill them before the enemy comes in. The government is in ruins. "The price is sky-high, and the money must be repaid upon landing. The Army does need to expand, but it is impossible to get 300,000 people according to the Army's wishes.

"But even the army numbers of Serbia and Bulgaria are..." Seeing Crown Prince Constantine's determination to reduce the General Staff's proposal, Emmanuel quickly argued.

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

The combat effectiveness of the army does not depend on the number of people. It involves many factors, such as the quality of the soldiers, including their cultural level and physical condition, the number of technical weapons, such as artillery and machine guns, the quality of the officers, and the strength of the army. Organizational capabilities, state financial support, etc., of course, the number of people is also an important factor.

Compared with the Bulgarian and Serbian armies, the Greek Army has almost a crushing advantage in all indicators related to the main combat effectiveness of the army, except that it does not have an advantage in numbers.

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

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

If soldiers who have received compulsory education and illiterate soldiers perform simple soldier jobs, the difference does not seem to be as big as the difference in their education levels. After all, they are both big-headed soldiers fighting on the battlefield.

Then, when it comes to operating technological weapons, there is a huge difference between the performance of illiterate soldiers and educated soldiers.

For example, machine guns, because the current Maxim machine guns have a relatively complex structure and require regular maintenance and upkeep by soldiers. Those educated soldiers often only need simple teaching by instructors, and sometimes even only need to give them an operation manual, and they can perform maintenance. And maintain the machine gun.

However, for illiterate soldiers, this job requires repeated teaching by instructors and even some dexterity talents. Their performance looks very stupid in the eyes of the officers.

Not to mention operating more complex and expensive technical weapons such as cannons. For artillery officers, the farther away those illiterate soldiers are from the cannons, the better. It is best for them to never get close to the cannons.

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

As for the organizational capabilities of the army and the strength of national financial support, Constantine was also quite confident.

Therefore, although the Greek army currently only has 60,000 people, its soldiers are capable, its officers are professional and efficient, its morale is high, and its combat effectiveness is very impressive.

In contrast, the Bulgarian and Serbian armies are limited by government finances. Most of the soldiers in the army are illiterate, with low quality and poor execution ability.

Seeing that Crown Prince Constantine pointed out the army's shenanigans, he was not fooled by the army at all - exaggerating the number of troops in neighboring countries, implying that the larger the number of government troops, the stronger the combat effectiveness, in order to achieve the purpose of asking for more military expenditures. , this trick is okay to fool those government personnel who do not understand military affairs. Constantine himself is a professional military officer, so he cannot 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 at the same time, enough officers will be reserved to expand the army during wartime," Constantine said to the army personnel.

"For the main officers in the army, set up the positions of chief and deputy officers at the same time to train a sufficient number of officers. During peacetime, chief and deputy officers take turns commanding the troops. Your general staff must make a good plan." Speaking of this, Constantine told the army The officer said solemnly.

"This is mainly to cultivate enough experienced officers. We cannot set up one commander and one commander to compete with each other for power, causing the army's command to fall into chaos, unclear powers and responsibilities, and a situation of buck-passing. On the contrary, this will It will weaken the combat effectiveness of the troops. Therefore, your General Staff must study this system carefully," Constantine specifically reminded.

After hearing the Crown Prince's plan, Emma Inur did not meet half of the General Staff's proposal, so he bargained: "Since the number of people cannot be increased, then Your Highness, the number of technical weapons must be expanded in place, and the artillery unit cannot be Like an ordinary army, it can be called up temporarily during wartime."

This made sense, and Constantine could only say: "So?"

"The main artillery currently equipped by the army is still the 75mm rapid-fire cannon from the last war. After all, it was a technology ten years ago. As one of the main equipment of the army, artillery cannot lag behind in terms of technical standards," Emma Inur said. talk.

Seeing Emma Inur telling lies seriously in order to seek benefits for the army, Constantine couldn't laugh or cry either.

Greece's 75mm rapid-fire artillery, 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. The scene reminded the participating countries of the Franco-Prussian War, when the French army was brutally beaten by the Prussian army equipped with Krupp cannons.

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

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

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