Greece to roman road

Chapter 95 The train opens to traffic

In the end, the two sides with opposing views agreed to adopt a compromise method. The magazine could be retained, but the original magazine capacity of 10 rounds was changed to 5 rounds.

The ten-round bullet version can be partially equipped, but the ten-round bullet capacity version is equipped with a bullet blocker. During the battle, the officers decide whether to remove the blocker to increase the firepower intensity of the soldiers.

In this way, this rifle uses 7mm bullets and has a total length of about 1257mm. It is improved from the British Lee-Meford rifle. It uses a rotating rear-pull bolt and a box-shaped detachable magazine invented by Mike White Lee. The rotating rear-pull bolt with a locked rear end can load bullets relatively quickly; it is equipped with a fixed box-type double-row magazine with a capacity of 10 rounds for loading (although the magazine is detachable, it is only for easy replacement for maintenance or damage. If it is in use, The magazine is not disassembled, and the bullet is loaded through the ejection port (loading port) on the top of the receiver), which improves the continuous firepower. It is a rotating bolt-action rifle with extremely fast firing rate in actual combat and is about to enter the Greek army.

After receiving permission from His Majesty King George, Supreme Commander of the Greek Army, the new rifle design was handed over to the machine factory for small-scale trial production.

Arms Minister Giannis issued the first batch of orders for one thousand rifles to the machinery factory, and the equipment will be trialled first to the army.

At the same time, after three months of construction, the electrolytic aluminum plant built by the steel plant with a loan from the Royal Bank of Greece finally began to produce pure aluminum.

After learning the news, the other two shareholders of the steel plant, Larisse Brothers and the Rodokanaski family, showed strong interest.

At this time, in Europe and the United States, the technology for industrial production of aluminum was immature and the cost was high. After the emergence of low-cost aluminum from electrolytic aluminum factories, the two companies first placed a batch of orders with the factory, and then exported it to Western Europe and North America at low prices. Metal aluminum.

Until two months later, due to the rapid increase in the amount of aluminum metal pouring into the international market, the price of aluminum metal in the European and American markets took a sharp turn and fell rapidly.

Thanks to this shareholder trend, the electrolytic aluminum factory has already earned back its investment.

Since the price of electrolytic aluminum has dropped significantly, Constantine personally issued an order to Scaloy, and the electrolytic aluminum factory provided aluminum lunch boxes and kettles to the Greek Army to replace the previous steel tableware.

There is no way, Greece's steel is a material in short supply, and after the factory put into large-scale production, Greece can already produce a steady stream of aluminum.

In Skarloi's words, in Greece, iron must not be used as long as it can be replaced by aluminum.

In order to further expand the scope of use of aluminum, at Skarloi's urging, the electrolytic aluminum factory and the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Athens cooperated to develop new aluminum alloys, hoping to overcome the shortcomings of pure aluminum - low hardness and strength.

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In August 1889, Constantine received news that the construction of the train track from Athens to the border city of Larissa in Thessaly was completed.

This is the first Greek main line railway to be completed. As soon as the news came out, the Greek people cheered and were delighted to end Greece's backward history of no main line railways.

On the morning of the 13th, the royal family, headed by King George, led Queen Olga, Crown Prince Constantine, Crown Princess Sophie, and Greek Prime Minister Trikoupis to the Athens Railway Station to attend the first opening ceremony.

Standing on the viewing platform, Constantine watched as King George and Prime Minister Trikupis delivered speeches respectively, puffing out thick smoke, and the train locomotive roared all the way north, getting further and further away.

Looking at Prime Minister Trikoupis, whose face was flushed with excitement, he walked forward and congratulated; "Congratulations, Mr. Prime Minister, no matter what, this is a great page in Greek history."

In the future, the Greek army can depart from Athens by train and quickly maneuver to the northern border to fight against powerful enemies. Later, this railway can also continuously transport logistical supplies to support the Greek Army's war effort.

In Trikoupis's plan, Greece will have 4,000 kilometers of railways. After that, Trikoupis will face a serious situation - whether these expensive means of transportation, which rely on foreign loans to build, can Let Greece's economy achieve rapid development?

Considering that the train was powered by a high-horsepower steam engine imported from Britain, Constantine asked: "Prime Minister, do you know how much hard coal Greece needs to import from Britain every year?"

Constantine's inquiry made the joy on Trikupis' face gradually fade.

"Last year (1888) 120,000 tons of coal were imported, the main part of which was due to consumption in steel mills and locomotives," Trikupis responded.

In Trikoupis's original expectation, after receiving loans from Britain and France, Greece's economy would get rid of its original weakness due to lack of funds. At the same time, Greece, with its strength developed, would be able to be more powerful in the face of European powers. Confident and independent.

However, the actual development was contrary to his expectation. Although Greece's economy did develop rapidly after the influx of large amounts of funds, it was due to the large amount of imported basic chemicals and energy, especially the import of coal and oil.

Especially after the steel plant came into operation, Greece's coal imports from the UK soared.

Although Trikupis had some luck before, he believed that as long as Greece's economy can get on the right track, Greece's political situation will be relatively stable in the near future, and its conflicts with Turkey can be alleviated.

That is to say, there will be no war in Greece in the near future.

However, judging from the current situation, the faster Greece develops, the sooner it will have conflicts with Ottoman Turkey.

The market for Greek industrial products, apart from mainland Greece and the Congo, is Ottoman Turkey.

Therefore, as Greece's industrial production capacity increases, the demand for the Ottoman Turkish market will become increasingly urgent.

Due to a series of unequal treaties signed by Ottoman Turkey, the Ottoman Turkish market has always been a meal for Britain and France. Recently, it has entered into Germany and Turkey. It is foreseeable that there will be more and more German products in the Turkish market.

Due to its geographical proximity, Ottoman Türkiye would become a natural and important market for Greek goods.

Will the Turks watch helplessly as the Greeks gain profits and develop step by step by selling large quantities of goods to themselves?

It is conceivable that under the dual influence of the instigation of European businessmen whose interests were damaged and the already contradictory Ottoman-Turkey-Greece relations, the Ottoman Turks made a choice.

For Greece, those capitalists and factory owners who have invested in industry will not be willing to easily lose the opportunity to suck blood from the Ottoman Turks.

Even from an economic point of view, the war was inevitable, a conclusion that frustrated Trikupis.

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