Greece’s Roman Road

In fact, Constantine learned about the news of Mr. Nobel through the Greek ambassador in Paris.

After learning that France had developed the world's first rifle using smokeless gunpowder, Constantine urgently contacted the ambassador in Paris and asked him to inquire about smokeless gunpowder and the Lebel rifle.

Coincidentally, the recent lawsuit between Nobel and the British government has caused a stir in Europe.

As a diplomat, the Paris ambassador himself has the responsibility to inquire about important information, so he paid special attention to this matter.

After Constantine inquired about it, he told him about Nobel, and by the way, he tried to get a new rifle from France, the Lebel rifle, which was just equipped by the French army, and sent it back to Greece for testing.

Nobel began to study smokeless powder in 1887. After a long experiment, he finally developed the world's first double-base smokeless powder, and applied for a patent in France in 1887.

But by the time Nobel went to sell his advanced smokeless powder to France, it was too late. As early as 1884, the single-base smokeless powder invented by Vieille (not as good as double-base powder) had been widely used by the French military. , was therefore rejected by France.

The United Kingdom, which also recognizes the importance of smokeless powder, is also seeking the production technology of smokeless powder. Nobel's technology naturally entered the British's field of vision, and then directly copied Nobel's technology.

And now the two sides are fighting a lawsuit over this matter, which is well known in Europe.

And Nobel's double-base smokeless powder technology is still in hand.

"Since this is the case, then it is up to you to personally invite Mr. Nobel to take a trip to Greece," said King George I after Constantine told Nobel.

"It is best to invite Mr. Nobel to come to Greece and set up a factory to produce gunpowder," said Chaimiis.

Obviously, the officer in charge of military technology had heard of Mr. Nobel's name.

The Nobel family has established factories in various European countries to produce gunpowder and is an important gunpowder manufacturer in Europe.

"Whether it's smokeless powder, or small-caliber rifles that use smokeless powder, these Greek troops will have them sooner or later. They are all minor details, and I want to say something more important."

Constantine saw that the main high-level leaders of the Greek army are here today, so he wanted to take this opportunity to explain his thoughts to everyone.

"We Greece and Ottoman Turkey are in hostile relations. Obviously, Greece is absolutely disadvantaged in terms of population, finance, territorial area, and the number of troops."

"Under this circumstance, if Greece's military development is still following the rules and developing step by step behind the **** of the major countries, it is foreseeable that this absolutely weak situation will not change."

Constantine said solemnly to the higher-ups of the Greek army.

"If this situation continues, if there is no major change in Europe, whenever there is a conflict between the Ottomans and Greece, it is impossible for Greece to win."

In the confrontation between the strong and the weak, the weak side will always appear weak in some aspects. For example, the number of Greek troops is not as many as the Ottomans, and the Turkish troops will be the first to equip advanced rifles. This is a concrete manifestation of the confrontation between Greece and Turkey. .

If the Greek army has overcome the gap in the number of troops and technical weapons, it will not be called a confrontation between the strong and the weak.

But if you want to do this, unless the gap between Greece's national strength and Turkey's hard power is narrowed, you can't change Greece's weak position.

"Therefore, in order for Greece to have the possibility of winning in the conflict that broke out with Ottoman Turkey, we must put aside some fixed prejudices, actively carry out military reforms in an eclectic manner, and boldly use the latest and most advanced military tactics and military technology"

Although in the history of world military affairs, people can always hear the battle of the weak over the strong and the outnumbered, which gives the illusion that the case of the weak over the strong is easy to do.

In fact, in most wars, it is a miracle that the weak overcome the strong, and the victory of the strong is the norm in war.

It is precisely because the case of defeating the strong by the weak is legendary, people's impression will be more profound, giving people the illusion that it is not difficult to defeat the strong by the weak.

As for the war where the strong overcome the weak, because it is so common and has no suspense, people naturally have no interest in remembering it.

"If the Greek army in the war with Turkey, without any other allies, responds uprightly and according to the rules, Greece will be defeated without victory."

"We can only actively seek change and win by surprise"

Everyone listened carefully to Constantine's speech without saying a word.

"Then, Constantine, since you say so, are there any specific measures?" King George asked.

Greece is weak and Turkey is strong. This is not a matter of one or two days.

"First, in terms of the military system, we should actively learn from Western Europe, especially Germany. The German general staff system is an important institutional basis for the German army to win three battles and three victories. Although the Greek army also tried to establish a staff system, but due to Due to the limitation of strength, Greece cannot train as many high-quality officers as Germany can. Therefore, the Greek staff system is just like a cat and a tiger, learning a little bit of fur.”

"Therefore, it is not appropriate for the Greek Army to expand its army. We do not have enough high-quality officers."

The number of the Greek Army is about 50,000. Although it is about twice as large as the army deployed by Turkey on the northern border of Greece, because Turkey’s territory in the Balkans is sandwiched between Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria, its geographical location is very awkward. , the Turkish army needs to be alert to the armies of the three countries.

Compared to Greece's population of more than one million, the proportion of this militia is already very high.

"On the basis of the current army, with the help of the compulsory education of the Royal Education Foundation, we will select the best among the children of the right age, and improve the quality of the students enrolled in the Athens Military Academy."

Greece did not have a policy of compulsory education before. Basically, the students who entered the military academy were children of wealthy families. This also led to the fact that the officers of the Greek army did not have enough selection bases.

"Furthermore, the army should actively carry out innovations in military theory. For example, new-style rifles have appeared now. Since technical weapons have changed, the tactics of infantry have also changed accordingly. This is the law of war."

"Then what about the inferior number of Greek troops?" asked the chief of the general staff, Emmanuel.

"No matter how elite soldiers are, when the number of soldiers is at a disadvantage, even if they use new tactics, they will still be in a passive situation."

Constantine had already responded: "If the situation requires, we can recruit indigenous soldiers from Africa. There are 20 million people in the Congo area. It is still possible to call tens of thousands of people to fight in Greece, provided there are enough qualified officers."

"Such a gap in the number of people, to a certain extent, is not that serious."

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