Greece to roman road

Constantine was well aware of Greece's industrial strength. Compared with Britain, France, Germany and other countries, the gap was still very obvious. Read 520 official website

After the war began, these three old industrial powers with strong industrial production capacity all faced the problem of ammunition shortage. With Greece's currently weak industrial system, the huge gap between the production capacity of military materials and the amount of military consumption naturally caused a contradiction. More serious.

Greece's military production capacity is weak, mainly due to Greece's lack of high-quality coal and iron ore. Low steel production capacity will naturally severely restrict the production of Greek military supplies.

The main metal material consumed in the production process of artillery, guns, shells, bullets and other important military supplies is steel. Greece's annual steel production capacity of more than 800,000 tons is really not enough in a war of attrition. look.

Although ordering military factories to produce military supplies now will crowd out civilian steel and exacerbate the steel shortage in Greece, there is no better way.

Therefore, Constantine agreed very much with Manugianaski's proposal: "I think your suggestion is feasible. In view of the current shortage of military supplies, your armaments department immediately urges the military factories to fully produce military supplies."

Since there is no possibility of solving the root cause of Greece's low production capacity of military supplies in a short period of time, the only option is to lengthen the production time of military supplies and make early preparations to ensure that when the Greek army joins the war, it will have sufficient supplies in a short time. Material supplies.

Hearing that the crown prince agreed to his proposal, Manujianaski said happily: "Although this still cannot ensure that the army's long-term supply of supplies will not be short, at least in the short term when the Greek army joins the war, our logistics supplies will be sufficient. "Guaranteed"

After arriving in Salonika, the three of them split up to deal with various affairs of the Greek Army.

Manugianasky was anxious to implement the order of the military factory to produce at full capacity and hurried to the steel plant in the industrial zone to negotiate.

Chief of General Staff Emmanuel went to the army garrison to inspect the troops.

Prime Minister Venizelos requested a meeting after learning that Constantine had also come to Salonika.

"His Royal Highness, I heard rumors from the military that you are more inclined to the Allies between the Allies and the Central Powers. Is that true?" Venizelos asked cautiously.

"Your Highness, which camp Greece chooses is related to the fate of the Kingdom of Greece. As the Prime Minister of Greece, I should have the right to be informed about the choices that are of great interest to the Kingdom of Greece, right?"

Although Venizelos tried his best to organize his words as tactfully as possible, Constantine still heard a hint of reproach in Venizelos' tone.

Venizelos's sudden accusation made Constantine stunned for a moment, and then he realized that Venizelos must have learned about the changes he made to join the Allied Powers when discussing the European war situation in the Ministry of Defense building a few days ago. Remarks that were in the interests of Greece reached the ears of Venizelos.

People with high positions and powerful positions should be cautious in their words and deeds on important matters, because every move of a person with a respected position will be noticed.

"Of course, you are the Prime Minister of Greece elected by the parliament and represent the will of the Greek people. Of course you have this right," Constantine explained.

"It's just that, Your Excellency, the deduction I made in the Ministry of National Defense building was purely from a military perspective. That does not mean that my point of view is to join the Allied Powers."

"My view is clear at all times that the best option for Greece is to remain neutral."

After heaving a sigh of relief at Constantine's answer, Venizelos handed Constantine a copy of The Times of Athens.

On the front page, the headline in bold black letters clearly stated: Crown Prince Constantine advocates joining the Allied Powers camp.

Constantine had already realized that some of the officers participating in the meeting that day were dissatisfied with Constantine's views, so they revealed Constantine's remarks.

Europe is now divided into two major camps, the Entente and the Central Powers. After the war pattern has developed towards a long-term war of attrition, both camps have begun to actively win over neutral countries in Europe.

Prime Minister Venizelos met with the ambassadors of various countries in Athens within a few days. These ambassadors were testing Greece's attitude both internally and externally.

Currently, among the three countries in the Balkans, Greece has the strongest economic and military strength. After years of development, Greece can be regarded as a semi-industrialized country. Although the industrial system is not perfect, major military equipment can be produced independently.

In contrast, Bulgaria and Serbia are completely agricultural countries, with almost negligible industrial capabilities. The rifles and artillery equipped by the military basically rely on purchases from foreign powers.

The Serbian army is equipped with a large number of Russian weapons, such as Mosin-Nagant rifles, and cannons also donated by the Russian army.

Therefore, Greece's choice will greatly change the direction of the war in the Balkans.

"Then you should be careful. After the newspaper published it, ambassadors from various countries flocked to me. They asked me to confirm whether the news in the newspaper was accurate, but I had no idea at all," Venizelos complained helplessly.

The Greek navy is undoubtedly leaning towards the side of the Allies. Whether it is Britain or France, the fleets stationed in the Mediterranean are powerful and cannot be competed by the weak Greek navy.

After the war began, the navies of Britain and France coordinated. The British navy was mainly responsible for the North Sea battlefield, while the French navy was responsible for the Mediterranean.

Naturally, the Greek navy would not choose an opponent for itself that it could not fight.

By the same token, there were many officers in the Army who did not agree to stand on the opposite side of the Confederacy.

Because joining the Allied Powers means that the Greek army is likely to fight against the armies of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The strength of the German Army has shocked Eastern Europe since the Battle of Tannenberg.

Although the Greek army officers are confident in their own strength, after all, the Greek army has never been defeated in modern times.

However, the reputation of the German Army still makes some officers feel intimidated and feel that the Greek Army is no match for the German Army.

Therefore, they did not agree to join the Allied camp.

"Yesterday I met with the British Ambassador. If Greece agrees to join the Allied Powers, after the war is won, Greece can get the entire Thrace," Venizelos said slowly.

"Since Your Highness the Crown Prince also leans towards the Allied Powers, what do you think? Although the current strength of the German army and navy cannot be underestimated, in my opinion, the Germans have lost the war."

"Since the end of the Battle of the Marne, the Germans have had no hope of victory. Your Highness should be very clear about this."

Constantine understood what Venizelos meant.

In the Battle of the Marne, Germany's idea of ​​a quick victory was shattered, and the war mode became the war of attrition that the German military leaders were most worried about before the war started.

Before the war, the military leaders of various countries predicted that the direction of the war would be a quick victory, with several decisive battles between the main armies of both sides to determine the outcome.

This is why after the war started, countries did not transform into a war-fighting system in terms of military production.

Now, both the Entente and the Central Powers have noticed this change.

Since the war has become protracted, it is necessary to attack the enemy's production capacity and weaken the opponent's war potential until the opponent is exhausted and dies.

At the beginning of the war, Germany could also obtain some scarce supplies, food supplies and overseas raw materials through neutral countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, and Sweden.

Shortly after the Battle of the Marne, Britain immediately declared the North Sea area a war zone. All merchant ships bound for Germany were subject to inspection, and goods on the embargo list were confiscated.

Whenever ships from neutral countries transport raw materials back from overseas. Reports had to be made to the British Navy, or failure to do so was punishable by confiscation of the cargo.

All raw materials are indeed exclusively for the neutral countries' own use, and must not be imported into Germany in the slightest.

For Germany, all overseas sources have been cut off, and Germany is currently in a food shortage crisis.

On the eve of the war, the system of food production, import and rationing had left Germany in a precarious situation.

Changes in urbanization mean that imported food accounts for a quarter of the entire food supply that Germans rely on.

The advantage of this is that cheap imported food can be afforded by people in cities with low wages.

German politicians intervened in 1911 by passing a tariff designed to protect large landowners. The agreement raised the price of bread but angered urban workers who relied on low wages.

In other words, imported food has long accounted for a considerable share of German people's total food demand in Germany.

Now, Germany's import channels are cut off.

Predicting the victory of a battle is similar to gambling, because there are too many uncontrollable factors and there are not many rules to follow.

However, there are indeed traces to predicting the victory of a war.

The larger the scale of the war, the higher the possibility of victory for the side with stronger overall strength.

Therefore, as long as the territorial area, population, food production, industrial production capacity, such as coal, steel, science and technology level, etc. of both parties are listed, these data can be listed for a simple comparison.

It is obvious that in all these data, the Entente Powers have an advantage over the Central Powers.

Venizelos could naturally come to the same conclusion.

Otherwise, why would the Italian government change its attention immediately after the Battle of the Marne?

People naturally saw that Germany was at a disadvantage after the Battle of the Marne.

Although the Germans' ceaseless fighting spirit impressed Constantine.

After Germany was blocked, German scientists tried their best to remedy the situation through inventions and creations.

For example, minerals such as saltpeter are very lacking in Germany. Saltpeter is an essential raw material for making fertilizers and gunpowder.

The manufacture of explosives and fertilizers is inseparable from nitric acid, but its industrial production has long relied on saltpeter produced in Chile, so much so that the British believed that as long as they had sea power in their hands, cutting off the supply of saltpeter during wartime could force Germany to withdraw from the war (it could not make explosives to repay the war). To put it bluntly, saltpeter is indispensable for making black gunpowder).

In 1898, the first industrial nitrogen fixation reaction, the Frank-Carlo reaction, was invented, which used calcium carbide and nitrogen to react at high temperatures to form calcium cyanamide. However, this method of nitrogen fixation consumes a lot of electricity and is not economical.

It is worth noting that the two chemists who invented this reaction, Adolf Frank and Nicodemus Carlo, were both Jewish Germans.

In 1909, the Jewish-German chemist Fritz Haber discovered the key catalyst for hydrogenating nitrogen to synthesize ammonia. It was first based on the precious metal osmium, and later improved to a multi-component Fe catalyst containing K-Al2O3 additives, and finally Finally, it was possible to use nitrogen in the air as raw material to continuously produce ammonia. After oxidation, nitric acid can be obtained. The cost is much lower than the Frank-Carlofa method. German fertilizers and explosives are no longer restricted by overseas saltpeter mines.

The largest source of saltpeter in the world is Chile, which the British control. Germany is in a shipbuilding competition with the United Kingdom, so it is natural to do everything possible to prevent the Germans from purchasing saltpeter.

Later, the Germans invented the technology of air nitrogen fixation, which solved this crisis.

Germany achieved mass production of ammonia using the Haber process in 1913, only one year before the outbreak of the war.

Even if Haber's process was not available, Germany would still have to use the Frank-Carol method invented by two Jewish chemists to fix nitrogen and produce nitric acid when fighting a world war. Otherwise, we would see Germans searching the world for urine on toilet walls. Alkali is used to make nitrate.

After Germany's overseas trade was blocked, there was a shortage of cotton and textiles. The Germans invented the technology of making silk from wood fiber, so that the textile industry would not be paralyzed.

But this still cannot make up for the huge gap in comprehensive strength between the Allied Powers and the Central Powers.

"Do you think the Entente will win the final victory? Should Greece join the Entente camp?" Constantine asked Venizelos.

Venizelos sat on the sofa in front of Constantine and enthusiastically promoted his plan: "We have the same point of view, don't we, Your Highness? We all believe that the Entente will win."

"After the end of this war, Europe's political and military landscape will inevitably undergo a reshuffle. If you miss such a once-in-a-century opportunity, it will be an unforgivable crime against the country and the nation."

"Which country can seize such an opportunity, and after the war, in the new European layout, it is possible to become a new power in Europe."

Venizelos became more and more excited and spoke faster and faster: "Now such an opportunity is presented to Greece, and we should seize it."

"We all know that it is impossible for the Germans to win. The best outcome for the Germans is to strive for a relatively tolerant treatment after exhaustion."

"We can all foresee this outcome. If that's the case, what reason does Greece have for not joining?"

"Maybe we really have a chance to realize the great ideal that the Greeks dreamed of and liberate the remaining Greek compatriots on the land of Asia Minor."