Bulgarian Empire

In any case, the procrastination and incompetence of the Ottoman government was just as Ferdinand wanted, so he didn't ask for trouble!

Looking back at China, the "Second Five-Year Plan" is still in full swing. As of 1895, many projects have achieved phased success!

With the Bulgarian government's investment at all costs, heavy industries such as steel factories and arsenals have achieved leapfrog development!

In 1895, Bulgaria produced 150,000 tons of steel annually, including 48,000 tons of steel and 102,000 tons of iron!

The arsenal can now do it: on average, it produces 500 new-style rifles (water drops), 15 machine guns, 1.5 75mm rapid-fire field guns (Italian guns or Miss France), 500,000 rounds of bullets, and 2,000 shells!

The heavy-duty 150mm howitzer has also been copied successfully, so let’s forget about the production capacity. This is not something Bulgaria can afford now, just make a few for appearances!

The steel plant has reached its limit for the time being, and if you want to continue to break through, you can only wait for Bulgaria to obtain sufficient mineral resources after the Balkan War!

The pace of expansion of the arsenal did not stop for a moment. According to the requirements of the military, the production capacity of rifles and machine guns needs to be doubled, that of artillery can be increased by one-third, and that of ammunition should be increased by five times!

According to the plan, by the end of 1896, Bulgaria should be able to arm 40 divisions, with a total of more than 600,000 troops, and have strategic material reserves sufficient for continuous combat for half a year.

According to the military's calculations, the ammunition reserve must not be less than 1 billion rounds, and the ammunition reserve must not be less than 10 million. No way, who told Bulgaria to equip all gold swallowing beasts?

The Mark core heavy machine gun, which claims to be able to fire 600 rounds of ammunition per minute, showed its power in the Baosai War.

After the unremitting efforts of the engineers of the arsenal (copycat), the successful weight was reduced by one-fifth, and other performances still did not improve much.

It is still favored by the military. In one breath, it placed an order for 10,000 units to the arsenal. Each machine gun is equipped with 50,000 rounds of ammunition, which is 500 million, and the rest is for rifles!

Now that the war is not far away, Ferdinand doesn't expect to make a technological breakthrough now! If the quality is not good, just make up the quantity. Anyway, the opponent is the Ottoman Empire, and it is not an industrial power!

Not to mention the Bulgarian Type 75 rapid-fire gun (Miss France), how can the rapid-fire gun not fire fast? The corresponding fast rate of fire naturally means that the consumption of shells is fast. With a rate of 15 rounds per minute, the rate of fire far exceeds that of traditional artillery!

According to Ferdinand's plan, the main first-class division is equipped with 32 doors, and the new second-class division is equipped with 24 doors. In addition, five heavy artillery regiments were formed, and each regiment was equipped with 72 artillery pieces of various calibers.

Regardless of quality, in terms of firepower alone, at the division level, it has caught up to two-thirds of the French Army in World War I. Of course, it is still far behind overall!

Well, who asked Ferdinand to set his strategic goals so high? Regardless of the requirements of the military, whether the lion opened his mouth, he must try his best to complete it!

In this regard, it has been unanimously recognized by the top leaders of the Bulgarian government. In any case, winning this war is the most important task for Bulgaria now!

Thousands of artillery and tens of thousands of machine guns are much stronger than the war between the British and the Boers in South Africa! These are Ferdinand's biggest confidence in challenging the Ottoman Empire and swallowing the Balkans!

...

At the annual inventory meeting, Ferdinand was in a good mood. For Bulgaria, 1895 was another bumper year!

In terms of population, Bulgaria still maintains a high-speed growth rate. The natural population growth rate after excluding new immigrants is as high as 2.73%, and the new population is about 110,000.

In fact, 1895 was another year of Bulgarian emigration,

New land development lacks sufficient labor force. In order to develop the Niš region as soon as possible, the Bulgarian government introduced a total of 242,000 immigrants throughout the year.

By the end of 1895, the actual population of Bulgaria had exceeded 4.3 million, of which 3.948 million had Bulgarian nationality, and most of the rest were new immigrants who did not meet the conditions for obtaining nationality!

In agriculture, land mergers have been curbed. By the end of 1895, the country had a total of 41,300 square kilometers of arable land, and the per capita arable land area remained at a relatively high level of 0.95 hectares!

65% of them are scattered in the hands of more than 2.3 million self-cultivating farmers; the Bulgarian government is the largest landowner, holding 29% of the country's cultivated land; the remaining 6% is owned by the landowners. And accounted for a considerable proportion!

The total agricultural output increased by 18% compared with 1894. It is mainly due to the increase in the area of ​​cultivated land, the promotion of new technologies, the construction of water conservancy projects and many other factors.

With the development of new territories, Bulgarian agriculture will maintain a high growth rate in the next few years!

At the same time, the core problem restricting the development of Bulgaria's agriculture - scattered use of land, has not been resolved!

The point is that Ferdinand didn't intend to solve it now, mainly because land mergers would cause farmers to go bankrupt, easily lead to social conflicts, and destroy the stability and unity of Bulgaria!

At the end of the 19th century, the material base was not rich, and Ferdinand lowered the agricultural tax. For quite a period of time, the income level gap between the peasant class and the working class was not large!

In terms of living standards, many farmers with lower incomes have actually surpassed workers. In the short term, the scissors gap between industry and agriculture is not so obvious.

As for the future, let's talk about it later! Anyway, maintaining social stability now will help the rapid growth of the population, and it can also prepare for war to the greatest extent!

"Military merit" is the most effective way for the Bulgarian people to go to the upper class of society and become the ruling class!

The development of industry is changing with each passing day. At the end of 1895, there were 318 large and small enterprises in Bulgaria, employing 897,600 workers, with total assets of 1.75 billion levs!

Among them, there are 15 large enterprises with total assets of more than 300 million levs. Royal Bank ranks first with total assets of 350 million levs, followed by Bulgarian State Railways with total assets of 280 million levs.

There are also companies such as Shuanghui Food Group, United Commercial Bank, Bulgarian National Bank, Bulgarian Iron and Steel Factory, Bulgarian Machinery Factory, Bulgarian Armory Factory, etc., all of which are on the list!

The 15 giants add up to a total of 685,000 employees, of which the Bulgarian National Railway Company has 342,000 workers! The total assets are as high as 1.58 billion levs, and the total assets of the remaining more than 300 companies add up to less than 200 million.

Monopoly capital has accounted for 90% of Bulgaria's total industrial and commercial volume, and most other enterprises also survive around these giants!

Except for the three major banks, all others are real industries. Among them, the three state-owned enterprises, the Bulgarian Railway Company, the Iron and Steel Plant, and the Arsenal, have been in a state of loss.

Well, in fact Ferdinand was going to divest the road from the railway company, but after thinking about the actual situation, he gave up.

If the railway company has a bright future and lost money in the early stage; then the independent road project, it is estimated that even if it waits until the next century, it will still lose money, and it will be a huge loss!

Now the performance of the car is terrible. On average, after running 30 to 40 kilometers, it needs to be repaired once. The performance is very unstable, not to mention the comfort!

Now on the road, it is still a horse-drawn carriage. As for tolls, forget it! Originally, the transportation cost is high, but if we scrape another layer, do we still need to develop the economy?