Greece to roman road

This was the situation facing Constantine politically. Read 520 official website

Constantine made a gesture of spreading his hands towards Sophie to show his weakness.

"The focus of the recent struggle between the two factions is Greece's participation in the war and the new inheritance tax." After saying this, Constantine walked behind the desk, opened the drawer, and took out two documents.

He held up the document on the left and explained to Sophie: "This is a proposal initiated by the People's Party. The main content of the proposal can be summarized in one sentence."

“In order to prevent one party from becoming dominant in the Greek Parliament and threatening Greece’s democratic system, legislation should be introduced to limit the number of seats a single party can hold in the Parliament and clearly stipulate that no party can hold more than 45% of the seats in the Parliament.”

When Sophie heard this, she knew that this was the People's Party trying to restrict the growing Liberal Party, because now everyone in Greek politics knew that after Venizelos came to power as prime minister, politicians had joined the Liberal Party.

The total number of seats in parliament is fixed, and as the Liberal Party occupies more and more seats, other parties will naturally decline.

Seeing that the Liberal Party continues to develop, it will exceed 50% of the seats.

In addition to the People's Party and the Liberal Party, the Greek Parliament also has a large number of small and medium-sized parties.

Now Venizelos's Liberal Party has made remarkable achievements in recent years, and its public support has been rising. It is now the largest party in Greece.

The Liberal Party advocates taxing the rich more, providing welfare protection for workers, setting a minimum wage standard, expanding voting rights, establishing an insurance system and pension system, and providing social security for workers.

Greece now has relatively high qualification requirements for the right to vote, requiring men to be over thirty years old, have a stable income, and also need a certain amount of education.

How could ordinary people in society not support these views of the Liberal Party? They are seeking their own benefit, so naturally they cheered and cracked down in support.

Therefore, the Liberal Party has many supporters in society, public opinion is very high, and there is a further upward trend.

The People's Party's proposal is naturally intended to dampen the Liberal Party's momentum.

"This proposal is a joint effort between the People's Party and other small parties in Parliament to challenge the Liberal Party."

Constantine put down the document in his left hand, then raised the changed document, and said to Sophie: "This is the new proposal of the Liberal Party. To summarize the main idea, it is: In view of the increasingly obvious phenomenon of wealth differentiation in Greek society, , a few rich people own most of the social wealth. In order to curb the gap between the rich and the poor and prevent social division, the government began to impose inheritance taxes.”

Just hearing the name inheritance tax, Sophie imagined the waves this tax would cause in the Greek Parliament.

You can imagine how excited the rich people and aristocrats of the People's Party will be when they hear the Liberal Party's proposal to introduce an inheritance tax.

Inheritance tax is based on the amount of inherited wealth. The higher the amount, the higher the tax share. In the highest bracket, the property tax will reach 50%.

The Liberal Party is a massive blow to Greece's wealthy class.

"These days, the two parties have voted on these two proposals many times in parliament. The disputes between the two parties are too great and the differences are obvious."

"The Liberal Party launched an inheritance tax proposal, and the People's Party opposed it all."

"The People's Party launched a proposal to limit the seats of party members, and the Liberal Party opposed it."

Hearing Constantine's confession, Sophie also sympathized with Constantine. She understood that Constantine was keen on political struggle, and he formed gangs all day long, and fought for interests, especially the battles between parties.

Constantine has always stayed away from the political quagmire. As he said himself, a wise king does not need to be in front of the public all the time and maintain a superior posture to show his majesty and authority. Its influence has penetrated into every corner of the political arena and exerted its influence invisibly.

In contrast, Constantine prefers to focus on things that have immediate results, such as the successful commercial application of new technologies, which are tangible.

Noticing the fatigue on Constantine's brows, Sophie naturally knew that even though he didn't like politics, Constantine still paid close attention to every move in the parliament and asked with concern: "Then what are you going to do? , the contradiction between the two major parties is so sharp, they may ask you for help in order to pass their proposal."

Although the Liberal Party's inheritance tax proposal does have the intention of attacking the People's Party, it is also a way to ease the financial pressure on Greece and increase government tax revenue.

The huge consumption of the two wars, government loans and national debts, Macedonia's development and transportation construction, and now the war in the Balkans, the Greek army has spent a lot of money on military expenditures in order to cope with the war.

These expenditures are a severe test for Greece's fiscal revenue. The Liberal Party, headed by Venizelos, is also racking its brains in order to raise money and develop new tax sources for the government.

The Liberal Party is now the ruling party, and the government's fiscal revenue issue is now their biggest headache.

Other opposition parties would be happy to see them get the short end of the stick on this issue.

The parliament is now in a stalemate due to fierce struggles and insufficient tax revenue, which will inevitably affect Greece's preparations for war and Macedonia's development.

According to normal tradition, the king needs to come forward at this time to mediate and ease the relationship between the parties, so as to achieve a result that satisfies all parties and help the government tide over the difficulties.

Constantine shook his head, with a sly smile on his lips: "The struggle between the two sides is fierce now, and both sides have strong vindictive emotions. If I step forward now, I'm afraid I will suffer from both sides and be thankless for my efforts."

Constantine sat on the sofa, leaning on the backrest, and stretched lazily: "Let them continue fighting. When both sides are exhausted, I will come forward to bring the two sides to compromise." when."

"Is there anything I can do to help you?" Crown Princess Sophie still wanted to share Constantine's worries.

Sophie has been busy with the Royal Educational Foundation over the years. Sophie seldom cares about other matters of the royal family.

Of course, in fact, the education foundation itself is not easy. After all, it needs to provide funds to a large number of students in Greece to support their studies, and the workload is also very heavy.

"No need." Constantine shook his head: "You only need to run the Royal Education Foundation well and continue to provide wisdom to the Greeks. That will be the greatest help to me."

With the development of the Royal Educational Foundation, the scale of the Educational Foundation is now getting larger and larger. At present, the Educational Foundation has clarified the scope of responsibilities of both parties in the field of education with the Greek government.

The compulsory education stage of Greek students is entirely funded by the education department of the Greek government.

Except for the compulsory education stage, the government only has public funding for a few universities, such as the Greek Army Academy, the Maritime Academy, the University of Athens and several other special schools.

Students can enjoy discounted tuition fees at these public universities.

The Royal Education Foundation is mainly responsible for the non-compulsory education stage.

A portion of the investment profits of the Royal Educational Foundation is allocated every year to meet the scholarships proposed by students with excellent academic performance but from poor families.

Before the war broke out, there were a group of foundation-sponsored students every year who went to study in Western European countries. Greece provided a large number of high-end talents.

"Okay then." Seeing Constantine's insistence, Sophie had to give up and change the topic: "In that case, you can go and relax."

"It's like this. The overseas students that the foundation has funded before came back from studying in Germany and worked at the Andros Machinery Factory. They were in charge of the research laboratory there. They sent us an invitation today. It seems that the military gave them research and development. Mission achieved a breakthrough”

"Their test site is just outside Thessaloniki. I recently heard that Andros Machinery Factory is building a huge new factory in Thessaloniki Industrial Zone."

When Constantine heard Sophie's invitation, he also thought that the aircraft developed by Andros Company had already produced results, so he naturally wanted to take a look with great interest.

As the war progressed on the Western Front, the role of aircraft, a new type of equipment in the war, was increasingly accepted by the Greek army.

Since among all the companies in Greece, those dealing with internal combustion engines also had huge technical strength, Constantine only wanted to think about Andros Machinery Factory.

Therefore, the development of military aircraft for the Greek army fell on Andros.

Now Andros Machinery Factory, with its business expansion, has more and more products. It can be said that this company is becoming more and more important to the Greek army.

Andros is now Greece's largest tractor manufacturer, truck manufacturer, and car manufacturer.

Not only is it responsible for the task of developing tanks for the Greek army, but it is also responsible for the production of heavy-duty military trucks for the army.

Now, at the request of the Greek military, the mission has been expanded to the field of aircraft manufacturing.

Just when the two were about to visit together, Constantine's attendant suddenly came in and said: "Your Royal Highness, the Minister of Arms, General Manujianaski, wants to see you."

"Invite him in." Constantine knew that if the Minister of Arms came at this time, there must be something important.

Manougianaski walked in, saluted Constantine and his wife, and said to Constantine: "Your Highness, the commanders of the Greek Army at all levels are now very concerned about the application of aircraft on the Western Front battlefield. . Our Greek army also needs new weapons like aircraft."

"I heard that a breakthrough has been made in the development of aircraft. They have produced a prototype. I am anxious to inform you, Your Highness."

"This requires the efforts of Andros Company. After all, this company is the only company in Greece that has the technical strength to engage in aircraft R\u0026D and manufacturing," Constantine replied.

"It just so happens that you are here too, let's go together to see how Andros Company's R\u0026D capabilities are."

He called the guard and ordered: "Prepare the vehicle, we are going to inspect the laboratory outside Salonika."

"Okay, Your Highness."

When the Constantine motorcade arrived at the experimental base outside Salonika, Andros and Dr. Krygis, who was responsible for the aircraft research and development task, led a group of employees to welcome the crown prince at the door.

After seeing the Crown Princess and his wife and the Minister of Arms getting out of the car, they stepped forward to greet them and said: "Welcome to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

Constantine looked at the oil-stained clothes of Andros and Krygis, and knew that they had put in a lot of effort for the inspection of himself and others.

"We came here this time because we heard that a prototype of the aircraft has been produced. Let's see how the development of your aircraft is going."

Dr. Krygis stepped forward and greeted everyone: "Let's go and see this plane together."

Andros guided the group to the tall warehouse. The researchers opened the door, and a propeller biplane appeared in front of everyone.

"Your Highness, this is the aircraft developed by our company." Dr. Krygis pointed at the aircraft Edel saw.

"This is all the result of the support of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the army, otherwise we would not have enough funds to complete the research and development work," Dr. Krygis said flatteringly.

Andros also echoed.

"Now that the demand for aircraft in the military is increasing, you must speed up the progress. If the performance of the prototype can satisfy the military, it can be put into production first," Constantine reminded the two Greek aircraft manufacturing pioneers.

"Your Highness, let me introduce this aircraft to you now." Dr. Krygis said enthusiastically.

Constantine and his team, as well as several technical personnel sent by the military, stood in front of the plane and discussed quietly around the plane.

"Then you will tell us about the situation of this aircraft." Arms Minister Manujianaski said impatiently.

"We named this brand new aircraft Ranger. It has a frame made of wood and is covered with skin."

"The aircraft is 4 meters long, the wings are 1.1 meters wide, the distance between the wings is 3 meters, and the entire aircraft weighs 680 kilograms."

"Due to the urgent time for research and development, we used the French Land God engine as power. After our testing, the flight range of this aircraft is 90-110 kilometers, and the altitude is about 2,300 meters, which is enough to meet the military's reconnaissance missions. "

After listening to Dr. Krygis' explanation, Constantine's senses about the two of them became much better.

"You have done a good job. As long as the military is satisfied with this performance, I hope you can have this Ranger complete various inspections as soon as possible. I will ask the military to come for acceptance by then. I guess there will be another big purchase list waiting for me. you."

The need for air combat emerged after the successful development of the shooting coordinator.

When airplanes first appeared on the battlefield, their main function was for reconnaissance and observation. If they wanted to attack ground targets, they could only use hand-thrown bombs, and the hit rate could be imagined.

The principle of the shooting coordinator is very simple, but it is very effective. When the world war in another time and space just broke out, in addition to a pilot, there was also a shooter on the aircraft, so that the aircraft could have certain attack capabilities.

After the emergence of the shooting coordinator, the pilot can position the aircraft while launching an attack on the target. The shooter position is eliminated on the aircraft, which further reduces the weight. Naturally, it can load more bombs or more fuel. , attack targets at longer distances.