My Italy

In the evening, there were many guests at Cruz's house today, and all of them were big bosses from the National Socialist Party.

For example, Mr. Zarger serves as the Minister of Education, Mr. Andry serves as the Minister of Transportation, and Mr. Caleb serves as the Minister of Industry. In addition, National Socialist Party executive committee members Campos, Lacerda and others also came.

The gathering of National Socialist cabinet ministers and executive members at Cruz's home was certainly eye-catching.

For this reason, Cruz deliberately let the outside world know that he is planning to discuss the midterm elections with senior officials of the National Socialist Party today. Regardless of whether others believe it or not, at least it can give this party a reasonable excuse.

Although the party was in name only, it still needed to be done in a decent manner, so after drinking some wine, the group of people came to his study.

Fortunately, the Cruz family's study room is large and can accommodate a dozen people.

After everyone was seated, Cruz, the convener this time, spoke. "Everyone, I have called you here this time to discuss something important with you. I met with Your Majesty today. Your Majesty plans to increase military expenditures from more than 30% of total fiscal revenue to 40% starting next year. I came to you because I thought we should What can we do to get all government departments to reduce their budgets to 60% of the total budget?”

Cruz's words made everyone at the scene look at each other because the news was so shocking. Although relations between major powers are currently tense, this approach of directly increasing military spending to 40% of the fiscal budget is too radical.

Because this is not preparing for war at all, but preparing for war. There is still a moment when war preparations can be cancelled. Although this will cause certain losses and may cause turmoil, it is still bearable.

There is basically no possibility of canceling preparations for war, because a large amount of investment has been squeezed out of other government departments and a large number of various weapons have been manufactured. If canceled at this time, there will definitely be backlash. The turmoil is light, and it may not be possible to change the system. possible.

And 40% of the fiscal budget is basically the maximum limit that countries can use in peace, because this is the limit that the government can use in peacetime (except of course, the red system, which is too organized, and it is simply a foul to compare monarchy and republic).

As long as a country invests 40% of its fiscal revenue into the military, it means that there is no turning back and it must fight a war.

Everyone present also knew this, so they were shocked by the Prime Minister's words.

"Is there no room for reversal?"

Minister of Education Zarger couldn't help but ask at this moment.

"No."

The Prime Minister knew what it meant and answered directly and decisively. "Not only the king thinks so, I think so too. There is no room for turning around in Italy. You have also seen the development of Italy in recent years. I believe you also know how difficult it is to develop Italy to this level in recent years. Now we just rely on immersing ourselves in development. It’s no longer possible. Italy’s market capacity is almost over. What should we do then? If we don’t figure it out now, how long will it take?”

No one here understood the meaning of Cruz’s words. The National Socialist Party is now the ruling party. Except for those who serve as ministers, the other top leaders of the National Socialist Party are more or less familiar with the situation in the government.

Knowing the current crisis lurking in Italy, we also know that Cruz’s words are Italy’s only way out.

Although this is not as domineering as the Kaiser's phrase "Use German swords to obtain land for German plows," it still means the same thing, which is the need to find a market for the country.

This is also a disadvantage for late-developing countries, because the market has already been occupied by early-developing countries. Unless your home market is big enough and can complete its own cycle without relying on external markets. But currently the only ones in the world that can possibly do this are the big countries in the Far East. Even America, the chosen country, cannot do it because its population is not large enough. Although its resources are still abundant, people need to buy the goods to produce them.

If you want to break this passive situation, there is only one way to seize the market it occupies.

How can the first-mover country allow you to seize its market? Then it can only use the most straightforward method, which is just a war, and whoever wins gets it.

"So what do we do?"

This is what Secretary of State Andrley is asking. On the surface, it is a question, but in essence, it means that he agrees with Cruz's point of view.

With Andre taking the lead, several others followed suit. "Prime Minister (party leader), tell me what to do."

Even Zarger, who asked before, made the same statement. After all, he is not stupid. When everyone agrees, how can he object? This is not isolating himself. No one with a modicum of emotional intelligence would do this, let alone a political figure.

Faced with the tacit support of everyone present, it would be a lie to say that Cruz was not moved, but at this moment he could not express his gratitude and could only keep it in his heart.

"First we need to count the budgets of the departments we are in charge of, and directly cut off the unimportant or minor budgets, and then we will add them up to see how much has been reduced. Next, I will talk to the Minister of Finance first about this year's overall budget. Then we will discuss with several other department ministers and ask them to lower their budgets, leaving 40% of the budget for the military."

Everyone present recognized the Prime Minister's words very much. This kind of budget reduction is really the only way to do it. Talk about it department by department. If we make an appointment together, it will be difficult to talk.

Unlike them, they are all from the same political party, and the budget saved is to restore Italy's glory, so they can make sense.

This moment also shows the importance of Carlo's choice of the National Socialist Party to become the ruling party. This extreme approach can only be recognized by extreme political parties. If it were the left-wing party that had been in power before, it would be absolutely difficult for them to agree to such an extreme approach. Even if Carlo forced them to do it, procrastination would be considered good.

After the tone is set, there are still details. Several National Socialist Party bosses serving in the cabinet began to discuss which budgets should be cut and which ones should not be cut. However, they basically had more important budgets and less unimportant ones.

This kind of quarrel failed to reach a preliminary result for two or three hours.

In the end, Cruz came up with a way to make reductions in each department based on the proportion of each department in the fiscal budget last year and the proportion of the government's withdrawal this year. If it really cannot be reduced, you must explain it to him and give him a reason that is convincing enough, otherwise it must be cut.

Cruz's method may not be the most reasonable, but it is the best solution at present, otherwise they would have been arguing about it for three days and three nights.

If the ministers of the National Socialist Party are so difficult to deal with, it is conceivable that Cruz has a new understanding of his task.

Sure enough, in the following time, Cruz summoned other responsible ministers one by one to talk about budget cuts in his departments. The attitude of the ministers is so resolute.

The basic process is as follows:

"Totally impossible!"

"Our department's budget cannot be reduced. Every budget is very important."

"There is only so much that can be reduced. If we reduce it any more, it will affect the operation of the department."

"There is no other way. I can only reduce one more item. Just one item will do."

"Prime Minister, why do you insist on forcing me? You can find other departments. Our department has already reduced everything it can."

"Cruz, are you satisfied now?"

Although the words are different, the attitudes are basically the same.

Moreover, these ministers persisted for varying lengths of time. Some agreed in a few days, some took more than ten days to agree, and some even delayed their acceptance for a month, almost before the budget meeting.

In more than a month, the energy spent in it is unimaginable to others. Just one data shows that in more than a month after Cruz took over the task, the prime minister lost more than ten kilograms. Almost out of phase.

Finally, at the budget meeting at the end of the year, the government passed the budget for the new fiscal year. In this total financial budget of 34.19 lire, the total military expenditure of the navy and army reached 1.37 billion lire. Among them, the army received 822 million lire and the navy received 548 million lire.

It can be said that this budget, which far exceeded the estimates of the navy and army, made him overjoyed. However, when they saw the murderous looks in their government colleagues' eyes, the two navy and army ministers did not dare to express their inner joy.

Of course, they also knew that since the king had secured such a generous budget for the navy and army, what they had to do next would not be simple. The idea of ​​fighting a war has already taken root in the mind of the Minister of Navy and Army.

Next, all kinds of military preparations are needed to make Italy's sword sharper and slash at the enemies pointed by the kingdom.

The third update is over, I’m exhausted!