My Italian: Chapter 193 The mysterious figure of Sophia

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In 1889, a new year began.

Stefan Stambolov ended his busy day at work. He left the Prime Minister's Office under the protection of bodyguards, and rode a carriage to prepare to drive all the way to his home.

Stambolov sat in the car and closed his eyes, soothing his tired brain after a long day of work.

This Stefan Stambolov is not an ordinary person, he is the current Prime Minister of Bulgaria, and the new King Ferdinand I is his successor. It is no exaggeration to say that he is the number one person in Bulgarian politics at present.

What is even more enviable is that compared with the prime ministers of other countries in their 50s and 60s, Stambolov, who is only 35 years old, can be said to be terrifyingly young.

The reason for this, in addition to its own excellent ability (known as Bulgarian Bismarck), is unparalleled luck and keen judgment. At the time of Bulgaria's independence in 1878, he was only a young excessive parliamentarian, and in 1884 he became the speaker.

Then, in 1886, a group of pro-Russian Bulgarian officers staged a coup d'etat to expel Archduke Alexander I from the country. At this time, Stambolov stood up. He took advantage of public opinion and the pressure of the people to make the coup officer have to return power to the parliament.

And it was by virtue of his status as Speaker that Stambolov then selected new monarchs from various countries, and finally Prince Ferdinand from the family of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Kohali became the new king of Bulgaria. During this period, he forcibly withstood the pressure from Russia, so much that Russian Foreign Minister Gorchakov once said angrily. "The fruits of the Russian-Ottoman wars were all stolen by the thief Stambolov."

in spite of

With Italy's methodical preparations for the secret war, the time soon approached the end of the year, and something happened during this period, that is, the navy of the Qing Dynasty in the Far East was finally built. This Beiyang navy, controlled by Li Zhongtang, can be said to be the essence of the navy of the Qing Dynasty. It owns the Four Great Kings (internal names); Dingyuan (flagship), Zhenyuan, Zhiyuan and Jingyuan. Among them, it is not necessary to mention the second ship of calm, and the second ship of Zhijing is even more famous in the Far East.

In addition to these four great kings, the Beiyang navy that formed the army also has dome armored cruisers; Jingyuan and Laiyuan (the original Zhiyuan-class dome armored cruisers in history, their main tasks are to cooperate with Zhiyuan and Jingyuan). The ship formed a fast cruiser formation, responsible for the second ship Zhijing), Jiyuan ship (due to insufficient speed, not included in the fast cruiser formation).

Crash cruisers; Yangwei, Chaoyong. Coastal defense ironclad; Pingyuan. Unprotected cruisers; Weiyuan, Kangji, Guangjia. and gunboats; Caojiang, Meiyun, Zhenhai, Tai'an. Torpedo cruiser; Guang B, Guang C. And other torpedo boats, minelayers, transport ships and other ships, with a total tonnage of more than 45,000 tons. Although a fleet of this tonnage in Europe is not particularly powerful, in the Far East, it is the existence of overwhelming force, and even the great powers of various countries do not have such a tonnage fleet in the Far East.

Moreover, most of its naval ships are newly built in the past ten years, and the newer weapons and equipment of the warships are also very good.

For this reason, Colonel Antonio, who is currently teaching in the Beiyang Fleet, commented on the officers and soldiers of the Beiyang Navy in his telegram to the country.

"Dear Admiral Gorek, I have served the Qing Northern Fleet in the Far East for nearly four years, and have a deep understanding of the officers and soldiers of the fleet. The officers and soldiers of the fleet are still very good as a whole, and they meet the strict requirements of advisors from various countries. All skills are well trained, and they can have the level of 70% of domestic officers and soldiers.

This indicator refers to the low-level officers and soldiers on board. The middle and high-level officers on board are lower, which can reach about 60% of our country. Of course, I think this is more because they lack proper training. The Northern Fleet of the Qing Kingdom was somewhat reluctant to spend more on projects. This is also because the actual controller of the fleet, Governor Li, is relatively short of money, which has a lot to do with it.

In addition, the fleet also has a big problem, that is, the fleet commander Ding Ruchang was born in the army, and he did not know much about the various regulations and measures of the navy, and his orders were basically from the general counsel Colonel Lang Weili. This result is very worrying.

Moreover, the relationship between Colonel Lang Weili and the upper-middle and upper-level commanders of the Qing Dynasty is not very good, and he is personally strict and not humane, which is a bit unusual for a human society like China. In addition, the officers and soldiers of the Northern Fleet are basically from the Fujian region. This kind of general fleet officers and soldiers all come from the same region, which is also not conducive to future joint naval operations. "

It can be seen that Colonel Antonio has a very thorough understanding of the Beiyang Fleet, and of course it has a lot to do with his belonging to Bian Guan Zheqing.

Of course, this is just an episode at the end of the year, and in addition to the formation of the Beiyang Fleet in the Far East, Italy's domestic development is also continuing.

This year, Italy's fiscal revenue reached a new high of 1.518 billion lire, the highest in history. The growth of government revenue also comes from the development of industry.

Italian industry's demand for electricity has soared this year. At present, the State Grid Corporation of China has 47 thermal power plants and 2 hydropower plants in various parts of the country, which can provide 2.14 million kWh of electricity to Italy every year, making it the largest electricity user in Europe.

Of course, that's not all of National Grid. In the new year, the company has ambitious plans to reach 3 million kilowatt-hours of electricity in the new year. Strive to initially meet the electricity demand of the Italian industry.

That's right, it is the initial meeting of industrial electricity.

Speaking of the role of electricity in promoting industry, everyone can see that companies that want to get electricity are like crucian carp crossing the river. The State Grid is also working overtime to expand its own power plants. However, the demand is too great to bear, and its efforts to expand the power generation have been unable to keep up with the power demand.

The great development of electric power in Italy has also played a leading role. At present, other European countries have also started to use electricity, but their scale and power plants are not as good as Italy's~www.mtlnovel.com~ But it is certain that European electric The big development has already started. Of course, among them, Westinghouse Power, which produces various AC motors, can naturally get a share of the pie.

And apart from electricity, Italian agriculture is also doing well this year, with the exception of grapes. This year, European grapes have generally been attacked by pests and diseases, and the grape production in various countries has dropped significantly. Among them, the production of Italian wine has dropped by one-third compared with last year. Of course, this is not the only one in Italy. This is basically the case in all European countries.

Therefore, the price of wine has risen sharply this year, but even with such a high price, the wine exported by Italy has plummeted, because Italy, like the French, is a hobby of wine, and it is almost regarded as a necessities of life. No matter what you do, you must Have a glass of wine.

The lack of wine, a major item, has led to a decline in agricultural exports, but fortunately industry and re-export trade are not bad, so Italian imports and exports still maintain growth.

Although Italy's fiscal revenue is growing this year, this year's expenditure is even more violent, reaching 1.979 billion lire, and the fiscal deficit has been pulled to an unprecedented 451 million lire. Such a large-scale deficit has made Italy's finances even more difficult.

But no matter how difficult it is, we have to do it. For this reason, the Ministry of Finance has been busy all over the world. After several revisions, a financial statement that looks pretty good is freshly released. For example, the training costs and weapons procurement costs allocated by the army and navy are listed in other names. If you don't have the bottom line, you can't see the flaws.

Although the Ministry of Finance has been fooled this year, it will be more difficult in the next two years, because government spending will further expand, and so will the size of the deficit.

These costs have been invested in secret preparations by Italy, so they need to continue to be covered up.