02) Recovery Steps

The Great Powers are the Great Powers, and even if they are the weakest of the Great Powers, the strength of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is still not a secret! The Austro-Hungarian Empire quickly solved the Serbian government's problem!

Is this really the case?

Anyway, after receiving the information, Ferdinand laughed. He knows how good the Serbs are at causing death!

On the surface, the situation is calm, but in reality, there is no telling how much turbulence is surging! That is, it has just now been hit hard and is still licking its wounds, a little more peaceful!

At the end of 1894, Serbia had a population of more than 2.3 million in parallel time, but this time was much more miserable!

First, the economic crisis shaded by Ferdinand, with heavy losses; and because of the arms race provoked by Ferdinand, which intensified domestic conflicts, they should have suppressed the rebellion at once, in Ferdinand's meddling dragged on for two years, more than 100,000 Serbs died in the civil war.

The war broke out again soon afterward, this time losing nearly a third of its territory, with direct losses of more than 300,000 people and countless economic losses!

As of today, the total population of Serbia is less than 1.7 million, and there is a serious lack of a young and strong labor force. Most of the hot-blooded young people have already been killed, so there is a natural lack of the main force of the trouble!

On the surface, Austria-Hungary helped stabilize Serbia. In essence, nearly 300,000 untimely bombs still have not been defused!!!

Keeping it for a long time? Austria-Hungary is not a charity!!!

Give them a way to earn a living? Most of the 300,000 are old, sick, and disabled. What can they do?

Not all so. In fact, there are still resources available. After all, those who go to war are young and strong men, and women do not have much to do with it!

Even so, these 300,000 people will still be a burden on Serbia in the short term, and the Serbian government is now bankrupt. Boss Austria-Hungary will have to help for the time being!

Who can not stand a long time? At that moment is, the moment of conflict between the two sides intensified!

But none of this has anything to do with Ferdinand. After the defeat of Serbia, the border line advanced more than a hundred kilometers, and the strategic security of the capital Sofia, mainly in the hilly area, was guaranteed!

And within twenty years, Serbia does not have the ability to cause trouble for Bulgaria. After twenty years, if Bulgaria still has to worry about Serbia, Ferdinand does not need to work, find a block of debris and crash to death in advance!

The shadow of defeat in the Second Balkan War was also completely gone! Without Serbia as the main force, several other small countries in the Balkans, even if added together, Bulgaria is also enough to deal with it!

The Balkan countries at the end of the 19th century: Montenegro had few people and could simply be ignored; Greece, with its terrible finances, supported a navy, so it was natural that the land force was inert; the only real threat to Bulgaria was left with Romania!!!

Carol I of Romania, born in the army, has always attached great importance to developing armaments, but the army's effectiveness? The soldiers in the plains are unable to do with the soldiers in the mountains, and nothing is surprising!

Originally, with Romania's natural resources, there was still a chance to develop, but it's a pity who called Romania a bad location?

The west is bordered by Austria-Hungary, the north by Russia, and the south by Bulgaria, and the direction of expansion is blocked!!!

On the face of it, the only direction of escape seems to be the annexation of Bulgaria to the south and thus the unification of the Balkans!!!

In fact, history proves that this simply does not work, no matter the attitude of the two Great Powers; purely in terms of military power, the Romanian army born in the plains can not do with the tough Bulgarian army!

Well, there is no more ambitious Russia as a neighbor. One must be cautious. If a mistake is made, it will be swallowed by nothing left!

It can be said that, as long as the Great Powers are not at full strength, the Balkans will no longer be able to threaten the existence of Bulgaria!

He can toss Serbia's problems aside for now! The governance of the additional land is the big issue now!

The population is a complex problem, 18,000 square kilometers of land, less than 20,000 people are living! It is not even 5% of what it was before, and there is nothing to do to exploit this land!

Who can't help that Ferdinand sent all the people back to Serbia? The local Bulgarians are few and far between, and with some easily assimilated minorities, there are still less than 20,000 people!

Immigration is a must, and the challenge before the Bulgarian government is how to resettle?

It is clear that to develop the industry, the region that has proven in later times to be the most suitable is Niš. Still, unfortunately now, the Niš region is the new border of Bulgaria!

Ferdinand is no longer sure of himself but will not be foolish to put the industry on the border if the Serbs suddenly go crazy and come over to do damage. The loss will be a big one!

If the industry does not work, you only need to engage in agriculture! In addition to the areas along the river, there are some plains. Most other areas are mountainous, hilly forests, harder to develop!

But this problem, Ferdinand is not worried about it. The big deal is that later on, many rural poor, and the problem will erupt, at least in the mid to late twentieth century!

At the end of the 19th century, everyone's standard of living was not very good. Although the income of urban and remote mountainous areas differ, the standard of living is similar, struggling on the poverty line with their survival line!

Ferdinand thought about it and decided to take some of the lands in the plains and reward it to the soldiers who had succeeded in battle, to inspire morale and develop a group of high-quality military aristocrats out!!!

Turning to the history books, one knows that officers of civilian origin are not as good as the aristocrats in terms of overall military literacy!!!

The best example is Germany in World War I. Even with the Junker aristocracy holding high positions in the military and blocking fair promotion channels for civilian officers, their combat power still topped the world!!!

Isn't Bulgaria known as the Prussia of the Balkans? Now let them be more faithful to their name!

As for the aftermath? Ferdinand believes in the rising military aristocrats. He can still hold them down!!!

As for the future? After the two world wars, the birth of nuclear weapons, the world situation has stabilized, and the military aristocrats in times of peace, their influence is naturally much smaller. There are no hidden dangers to talking about it!

For the remaining part, they will establish farms directly managed in the mountains in the plains. It is too costly to recruit bankrupt farmers to reclaim the land or adopt a ransom policy to sell to farmers!

Now that he had decided, Ferdinand did not delay and threw the matter directly to the cabinet government.

After all, it is easy to make a plan, but the actual work was a lot of trouble. Ferdinand did not have so much energy to ask. Of course, the primary thing is 'lazy'!