Bulgarian Empire

In addition to the industrial plan, the most important thing is transportation. According to the requirements of the "Three Five-Year Plan", the total mileage of Bulgaria's railways will reach 39,000 kilometers in the next five years, and complete coverage of all important cities and towns in Bulgaria!

You must know that in 1901, the total mileage of Bulgaria's railways was less than 13,000 kilometers. By 1907, the total mileage of the country's railways had reached 27,000 kilometers. You can see how much Ferdinand attached importance to railways!

Next is the road network. "Every Village Connected" is the slogan of this plan. To achieve this strategic goal, the total mileage of roads in Bulgaria will reach an astonishing 120,000 kilometers by then!

Well, don’t be picky about roads in this era. Asphalt roads are myths, and concrete roads are treated as strategic roads. It’s fine for other places to use. What road grade should you consider?

Even the maintenance of the roads was done by the local government organizing the people and providing volunteers for free, otherwise the maintenance cost alone would have destroyed Ferdinand!

How much was the total road mileage in Bulgaria in 1901? Only a mere 20,000 kilometers! By 1907, the total mileage of roads in Bulgaria had reached 68,000 kilometers, and it would reach 120,000 kilometers in five years!

No way, this was forced out by the World War! After all, in mountainous areas, the difficulty of railway construction is really great. God knows that the current technology in some areas can only be opened to traffic in the Year of the Monkey. This can only be made up by roads!

The experience of his previous life told Ferdinand that as long as there is enough manpower, it is really not difficult to build roads. As long as you are willing to put in the effort, you can do it on your own shoulders!

Besides, Bulgaria is an industrial country anyway, and there are no other things, but the standard equipment of excavators, bulldozers, and road rollers commonly used in later generations is still not lacking!

Although the performance is still very poor, it is still much stronger than manpower! Otherwise, Ferdinand would not be able to request that the transportation department build more than 10,000 kilometers every year! If only relying on manpower, that would be too crazy!

Well, Bulgaria's transportation department said that there is no pressure. Their road construction experience can be said to be the richest in the world. From 1887 to the present, they have been spending more than 20 years in road construction!

Due to the economic development of European and American countries, most of their transportation is based on personal investment, and there are not many government-led transportation projects!

But Bulgaria is different. The domestic economy was not good before, and road construction was a loss-making business, especially roads!

Now that the main roads have been repaired, the rest are remote areas or branch lines. Obviously, no economic benefits can be seen. There is no consortium that would foolishly come to this loss-making business!

This has allowed the Ministry of Communications to cultivate a group of road construction madmen. In their words, as long as you have money, road construction is not a problem at all!

...

"Mr. Chekov, tell us about the Ministry of Education's plan!" After hearing the report from the Ministry of Communications, Ferdinand continued.

"Yes!" Chekov replied.

"The Ministry of Education's plan is divided into three parts: higher education, compulsory education, and literacy education.

1. Two new comprehensive universities will be built. After completion, our four comprehensive universities can accommodate more than 30,000 college students at the same time, which can basically solve the talent gap in the future!

Since the number of our higher technical colleges has reached 36, which can basically meet the demand, there is no need to continue to expand.

However, according to the actual situation, we will continue to expand enrollment, and plan to train 200,000 engineers within five years to solve the gap in domestic grassroots technical talents!

2. Promote nine-year compulsory education throughout the country. All citizens of Bulgarian nationality, aged 7 to 15, must receive compulsory education!

3. Continue..."

"What about the funding?" Ferdinand asked lightly.

Education is different from industry and transportation. After all, investing in industry and transportation will pay off in the short term. After three to five years, it can always be fed back to the economy.

Increase comprehensive national strength in a short period of time!

However, investing in compulsory education is a long-term job, and the benefits will not be seen for a long time in the future, and the overall national strength will not increase in the short term!

"It's mainly financial appropriations, as well as private donations. Of course, some tuition fees can also be collected!" Chekov said as a matter of course.

"How much financial allocation does your Ministry of Education need?" the Minister of Finance asked with great concern.

"In five years, a total of 1.8 billion levs will be needed, and this goal can basically be achieved!" Chekov said lightly.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Kennedy rolled his eyes, and said bluntly, "Impossible! It may be possible at other times, but not now! The situation in Europe is imminent, and we must invest a lot of money in military spending!"

Before the two quarreled, Ferdinand said: "Well, education is related to our future, but the situation in Europe is already very serious now!

Whether we invest in industry or transportation, we can see returns in the short term, but the return cycle of education is much longer!

Therefore, I hope that you can compress the time of compulsory education to five years! "

That's right, Ferdinand only compressed the time, but he didn't ask the Ministry of Education to cut the course content, which means that Bulgarian students have to use five years to complete nine years of study content!

This is obviously impossible! Then you can only cut some less important course content! For example, art and music will disappear from primary school classrooms!

Fortunately, this is the beginning of the 20th century, and the knowledge of many subjects is still very little. If the difficulty is reduced, it is basically enough!

Chekov could only nod with a wry smile. Does Bulgaria value education? It can be said that it is very important. The annual financial allocation of Bulgarian University alone is as high as more than 50 million levs!

According to the Ministry of the Navy, the expenditure of one university in one year is equivalent to the military expenditure of a fleet, and the expenditure of two universities is equal to the military expenditure of the Bulgarian Navy!

This is really not a joke, there is no way who calls Lu Jun the real son? The Bulgarian navy has always been treated like a stepmother!

In other countries, the treatment of their naval officers and soldiers is estimated to be n times higher than that of the army, but in Bulgaria, except for slightly better food, the salary gap is really not that big compared to the main force!

There is no way, the Bulgarian army has the capital of arrogance, but the navy has not made any outstanding achievements since its establishment! Can you speak hard without military exploits?

As for the high cost of Bulgarian universities, this is the sequelae of poaching people. If scientists are poached, can scientific research funds be given less? If you don't give people money, how can you get any results?

The key is that the investment in scientific research has already seen the return. At least the current level of scientific research in Bulgaria can finally be shown to others!

At least now Ferdinand is no longer afraid of the technological blockade of the great powers! Oh, it seems that the technology is already in hand, and there is nothing to block!

But what about the Navy? If it weren't for the era of sea power, their sense of existence would probably be even lower!

This is also the reason why Petrov is keen to promote the colonial plan. Anyway, let the people of the country see that the navy is also useful!

Now that the arms race among European countries has started, can Bulgaria back down?

There is no doubt that Bulgaria must follow up! But after looking at the military expenditures of the European powers in 1907, Ferdinand knew what to do!

British Empire £58.92 million

French Republic £45.5 million

Russian Empire £53.28 million

German Empire £54.89 million

Austria-Hungary £22.13 million

Italy £18.57 million

And Bulgaria? The total military expenditure in 1907 was: 15.86 million pounds, of which the army accounted for 10.86 million pounds, and the navy only 5 million pounds!

This also includes the cost of building this dreadnought ship, otherwise the Navy can have a military budget of 3 million pounds, which is not bad!

Not to mention in 1908, the British had already competed with the Germans in making dumplings. Would Bulgaria dare to follow suit?

In this era, the cheapest one cost 16.7 million pounds to build a dreadnought; the more expensive 2-3 million pounds is still worth it!

With the strength of Britain and Germany, it is really nothing to have ten or eight ships, but for Bulgaria, if it dares to play like this, what should the expenses in other places be?

The result is self-evident, the navy will continue to play soy sauce, and the army will join the arms race! This is also a helpless move. Who told the army to be cheaper?

At the same time, it is not impossible to take care of land and sea, the premise is that you must have money, obviously this is not something Bulgaria can afford!

Warships are not just built, and the cost of personnel maintenance is also an astronomical figure!

Geographically speaking, the main threat of World War I still came from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and it is still Bulgaria's national policy to give priority to the development of the army!