Mediterranean Hegemony Road

"Your Majesty, the UK general election has ended prematurely, and Conservative leader Stanley Baldwin has become the new UK Prime Minister!" said Foreign Secretary Metev

Ferdinand smiled slightly, and the emergence of a moderate prime minister in the UK is undoubtedly good news for the whole world.

Stanley Baldwin was considered by Churchill to be one of the three main culprits of appeasement policy and one of the main culprits in letting the world war break out.

Well, before the outbreak of the World War, Stanley Baldwin was highly regarded by the outside world. He led Britain out of economic difficulties. He was a conservative and a pacifist.

It was not until Churchill took office that his merits were completely wiped out, but the struggle between politicians is not black and white, and there is no need to evaluate.

For Ferdinand, this conservative prime minister was undoubtedly the best prime minister in the British Empire, which bought another five years of precious time for Bulgaria.

"Well, it seems that the world is going to be peaceful for a while in the short term. Stop our preparations first. We shouldn't cause trouble to our friends at this time!" Ferdinand said with a smile.

As long as they are pacifists, they are now friends of Bulgaria. The election from Stanley just proves that Bulgaria has more friends than enemies in the British Empire.

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, we had no intention of planning an anti-colonial uprising at this time, and now our job is to spread revolutionary ideas in the British colonies.

It's not just our family that is doing this. Judging from the information we have collected, both the Japanese and the French are doing it, and even the Moscow government in Siberia is doing it! "Sim said calmly.

Ferdinand nodded, spreading revolutionary ideas is an obscure method. Even if it was discovered by the British, they could not find any evidence related to Bulgaria, which is essentially different from directly supporting the independence of the locals.

"Your Majesty, the Germans are trying to join the League of Nations, should we stop us?" Metev asked casually.

"Don't worry about them, let the French do it!" Ferdinand replied

This is just a trivial matter, for Bulgaria, the Germans and the League of Nations have no direct interest.

No matter how you look at it now, Germany does not have the ability to provoke a world war. By contrast, a civil war is more likely.

On the contrary, Italy is now very active in Nazi thought,

However, Ferdinand did not think that they would be able to accomplish anything, which was determined by comprehensive national strength.

Don't look at the fact that the total industrial volume of Italy seems to be increasing significantly, and think that their overall national strength has increased, but in fact the opposite is true.

Just look at Italy's heavy industry. Domestic arsenals have closed collectively, and steel companies have also gone bankrupt. Without a sales market, Italian capitalists will not insist on patriotism.

In this regard, Italy no longer has the potential to explode troops. With the invasion of British and French capital, Italy is now a large foundry, and the domestic economy is completely controlled by Britain and France.

They do not have the strength to challenge the world order, but if they want to expel Britain and France from Italy, there is still a chance of success. It depends on whether they will choose the time.

...

The British Empire is worthy of being the world hegemon of this era. When Stanley Baldwin entered Downing Street, the whole world paid attention to it.

Paris

French President Gaston Doumergue is holding a meeting to discuss the impact of the change of British government on the conflict between Britain and France.

The meetings are usually chaired by the French Prime Minister, and now the President is chairing them. Don't be surprised. French people change their government like women change their clothes. They always like the new and hate the old.

From the end of the world war to the present, they have changed the cabinet in double digits. The French cabinet is reorganized every year, and the highest record is seven times a year.

Even the French tried several times of anarchy very willfully, and finally found that it was too inconvenient to have no government, so they reluctantly formed a government.

There is no country in the world as capricious as they are, and it only takes a vote of no-confidence through the parliament to bring down the cabinet.

If someone has been Prime Minister up and down several times in a year, it must only be in France, and only in France can it be possible to go up and down non-stop.

From the establishment of the French Third Republic to the present, no cabinet has been able to serve until the end of the term. The shortest cabinet term is only 2 days, and if calculated accurately, it may be less than 48 hours.

Historically, the waywardness of the French continued until 1940, when the Germans fought over, and it was not changed until the constitution was amended in 1958, which completely changed the situation.

This is also one of the reasons for the rapid decline of France in modern times. The change of government like a revolving lamp makes it difficult for the policies formulated by the French government to be continued.

If it wasn't for the fact that diplomatic and military power were not in the hands of the president, and the ministers of various departments were directly accountable to the president, then France would have long since collapsed by their own play.

Although I didn't play the collapse of the country, I still played the collapse of the country's economy. From 1870 to 1925, France's economic aggregate fell from the second place in the world to the current fourth place in the world, ranking first in the UK and Bulgaria. , After the Three Kingdoms.

The total industrial volume has dropped from the second in the world to the fifth in the world. The first four are Britain, Bulgaria, Germany and Austria. If nothing else, it will soon be surpassed by Italy and become the sixth in the world. bit.

This is also because the French are rich enough, otherwise if they were ordinary countries, they would have fallen apart after such tossing.

...

St. Petersburg

"The British are finally changing. Damn Lloyd-George get out of the way, here's our chance!" Nicholas II laughed and said

The Russian Empire has become what it is now, and the British Empire should bear the main responsibility. Without their selfless assistance, the Russian Civil War would never have been fought as it is now.

Even earlier, if it wasn't for their black hands in the world war, the civil war in the Russian Empire would not necessarily have broken out. For the Lloyd-George government that dominated all this, Nicholas II wanted to cut them into pieces.

Now that it is finally replaced, he can't help but be unhappy. In any case, at the juncture of the government's change, it will take a few months to familiarize himself with the situation and change his thinking mode.

This is his chance. If there is no accident, the British will not increase their assistance to Little Nicholas in the short term, and he will have the opportunity to fight a time difference and complete the reunification of the country.

"Prime Minister, negotiate with the Bulgarians immediately, I hope to get the loan within a week, this is our best chance!" Nicholas II said.

He did not expect that Britain's policy toward Russia would change. As his opponent, Nicholas II knew the British. In the eyes of the British, any country that might pose a threat to them was their enemy.

And the Russian Empire happens to have this condition. If it wasn't for the outbreak of a civil war in the Russian Empire, where would the hegemons of the European continent still get the French?

In addition, the territory of the Russian Empire in Central Asia threatens the security of India. Once the Russians completed national unity, expansion into India was almost inevitable.

The huge debt owed by the Russians alone has prompted them to expand abroad. Is there a better choice than India?

But what do the Russians think, the British think so, and the plan they made is the same, otherwise they are not full and have nothing to do, why should they pay for the Russian civil war?

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid this will not work, a week is too short, and under normal circumstances, such a large loan cannot be negotiated within a few months!

If we rush too quickly, the Bulgarians will find out our purpose and then take advantage of the fire, then we will lose a lot! ' the Prime Minister explained with a wry smile.

"Damn Ferdinand, how come I never found out, why does he hate it so much?" Nicholas II complained.

In the face of the tsar's grievances, everyone chose to shut up, this issue is not something they can participate in.

In terms of dealing with people, Ferdinand has done an impeccable job. After the outbreak of the Russian Civil War, the Bulgarian royal family did not give less assistance to the Russian royal family.

But once the national interest is involved, nothing is discussed. On the surface, Ferdinand was avoiding suspicion. In fact, Nicholas II knew very well that Ferdinand did it for his own reputation.

All things have put the Bulgarian cabinet in the forefront. Even if he takes advantage of the situation, it cannot be said that there is a problem with his morality.

This made Nicholas II very annoyed. He called Ferdinand several times, trying to figure out what Bulgaria wanted. Unfortunately, Ferdinand gave him Tai Chi.

Bulgaria is not in a hurry, but the Russian Empire cannot wait! If it is delayed, the price to be paid in the future will only be greater.

Once the Russian Empire did break up, the loss could never be remedied.

You must know that as of now, the territory they actually control is less than one-fifth of the Russian Empire. Although it is the essence of Europe, the remaining more than four-fifths of the territory is also very important to the Russian Empire. !

"Your Majesty, in any case, we can no longer take the land as a mortgage. If we continue to mortgage the land, I am afraid that when we have just unified the country, we will fight another war with Bulgaria!" said the Minister of Finance in embarrassment.

Nicholas II's face was ashen. Everyone knows this problem. If they continue to take the land as collateral, they will definitely not be able to cash in in the future.

After all, the land area mortgaged by the loan is that big! In any case, the Russian Empire can't really give up millions of square kilometers of land!

It is almost inevitable that the loan will not be paid in the future. They know it, and so do the Bulgarians! In this context, it is not so simple to want to get a loan from Bulgaria.

Ferdinand almost unabashedly told the Russians not to play tricks, otherwise the consequences would be serious.

Of course, Nicholas II did not want to accept this kind of threat, but he did not dare to turn his back on it. The current Russian Empire has no confidence at all.

There is also good news, of course, that Bulgaria is not colluding with the chaos, otherwise it would be really screwed.

You must know that if Bulgaria chose to support Little Nicholas, it is estimated that Ukraine would not be mentioned. Even the Caucasus region would be packaged and sold together, and people would not blink an eye.

In fact, even Nicholas II didn't take these lands as the lifeblood, but he didn't want to send them out in such a humiliating way. He really wanted to tell Ferdinand, if you take the initiative to say where you want, you can make an offer directly.

It is common to buy and sell territories in Europe. He sold the Crimean Peninsula earlier, but the same is true in Russia. No one said anything?

"Of course, we can't continue to mortgage. This time, we don't need to mortgage, and we will directly conduct land transactions with Bulgarians. As long as the price is right, let's sell it!

But only this time, this time we have to do more adequate preparations, to unify the whole country in World War I, the civil war must not continue! ' said Nicholas II coldly.

"Yes!" Everyone answered in unison

They were all tied up with Nicholas II, and everyone lost and prospered.

It can be said that the current Nikolai government has been the cleanest time in the Russian Empire for a hundred years, and even the corruption of the officials has restrained a lot.

At this time, whoever dares to swallow his Nicholas II's money is killing him. Of course, those who want his life must not be spared!

...

Sofia

Ferdinand did not know that because of the change of the British cabinet, the Russians had decided to speed up the pace of unification.

Of course, even if he knew, he wouldn't have any reaction! This is not his problem, but the Russians themselves.

As long as you turn over the history of the Russians, you will be surprised to find that they and all their neighbors eventually became enemies, and so far there have been no exceptions.

Once Russia is strong, they will immediately start a war, and their neighbors are the victims, so there are so many countries in parallel time and space to contain Russia, and it is not only the intervention of the United States.

The most crucial question is still because of their own factors. They have invaded all the neighbors. Can you blame others for standing on their opposite?

There is also credibility, and now the most popular sentence in Europe is: the credibility of the Russian government is no credibility!

The reason, of course, is that the bonds issued by the Russians did not perform when they matured. From the outbreak of the World War to the present, all the bonds due by the Russians have not been performed.

This situation is not only happened to Russia, Bulgaria also had its debts due during the World War and could not perform the contract.

It's just that Ferdinand wisely filled this hole by borrowing loans from Britain and France through diplomatic efforts.

In the middle, due to the factors of war, the redemption work was delayed, but all the redemption was carried out normally.

Even the bonds sold in Germany, Austria and Italy were paid normally after the war by Ferdinand, and he did not lose his debts because of the defeat of Germany, Austria and Italy.

In fact, Ferdinand's repayment is not much different from the default.

It can only be said that there are skills required for default, such as taking advantage of inflation. In 1914, 100 million francs were worth 100 million leva, while 100 million francs in 1925 were only worth more than 5 million leva.

In fact, even the principal has not been repaid enough, but isn't it also making normal repayments according to the original promise? Bonds sold to individuals, you don't need to bear inflation, and you don't have a lot of money, why not use it to build your reputation?

If the Russians took it seriously, in fact their credibility wouldn't be so bad. If you can't repay a large amount of debt, you can also repay the personal one first!

It doesn't need much money, and the value of the currency has fallen like crazy. If the Russians want to repay the bonds issued in Germany, they may only need a few hundred pounds now.

However, since Nicholas II did not respond, Ferdinand naturally would not kindly remind him.

Reputation is something that works, as long as you work hard to restore it. As long as the people are convinced that you are working hard to repay the debt, you can declare that the debt is postponed if you are unable to repay.

The consequences of losing credibility can be seen from the fact that Russia has been unable to enter the international capital market in history. Everyone does not believe you and is unwilling to play with you.

...

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