Bulgarian Empire

Chapter 17, Education, Industry, Transportation

As the end of the year approached, Ferdinand's work suddenly became busy. He had just finished dealing with the ethnic issue, and the annual planning and budget for 1902 were about to reach the final stage.

In fact, these issues have been discussed many times, but many things are not determined by human subjective consciousness, but by changes in objective facts!

For example, now, Minister of Education Chekhov said with a sad face: "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Education may not be able to complete the plan we made before!"

Ferdinand's face changed slightly. In the past few years, Bulgaria's various departments have rarely failed to complete their plans, especially their own plans!

"What's going on?" Ferdinand asked suspiciously.

You must know that under the leadership of Chekhov, the Ministry of Education has done a good job in various tasks over the years, and Bulgaria's basic education once became the number one in the world!

Now the Ministry of Education has announced that it cannot complete the plan before it has had time to implement it. This is very abnormal!

Chekhov said with a wry smile: "Our previous estimates by the Ministry of Education were wrong. Based on the approximate data from the census, we now have a much larger number of illiterates in Bulgaria than previously estimated!

We now have a population of more than 13 million, of which the number of illiterates will not be less than 7 million. Even if more than 2 million elderly people and children are deducted, there are still nearly 5 million people who need to receive literacy education. Nearly a million more people than we previously estimated!

Not only that, even the previous plan to build two comprehensive universities had to be suspended.

Now the number of high school graduates in the country is about 12,000, and 85% of the candidates are concentrated in our original territory.

If we expand the two universities now, after we expand the enrollment, the number of students admitted each year will exceed 5,000.

Then the quality of students will definitely drop significantly. Instead of blindly increasing the number of students and lowering the quality of teaching, it is better not to expand enrollment! "

Ferdinand patted his forehead with some headaches. He originally thought that the quality of the population in the Balkans ruled by the Ottoman Empire was poor enough, with an illiteracy rate of 70 to 80%.

Unexpectedly, there is no worst, only worse! The rest of the Ottoman Empire is really bad. Judging from the statistics, the immigrants from the Ottoman Empire can basically be regarded as illiterate!

Of course, maybe they are not illiterate, but they just don't know Bulgarian characters. Now they are deported to the Ottoman Empire in order not to be exposed, so they can only pretend to be illiterate!

It's no wonder that, except for a small number of Bulgarians in the Ottoman Empire in later generations who returned to Bulgaria, the others gradually disappeared in the long river of history. After all, it really shouldn't be too simple to assimilate a bunch of illiterates!

With such a low literacy rate, the number of people who can apply for universities will naturally be even fewer!

Obviously Ferdinand ignored that the basic education in Macedonia and Thrace has little to do with the Ottomans, it is the result of the efforts of successive Bulgarian governments!

Twenty percent of the annual fiscal revenue is invested in the export of religious culture. How could there be no results after persisting for more than 20 years?

Ferdinand thought for a while and said: "The literacy education still needs to be stepped up, and the local government should take action to cooperate with the work of the Ministry of Education. The current plan is outdated, and the Ministry of Education should come up with a new plan!

As for the expansion of the university, let’s build a science and engineering school first! We still need to continue to maintain the principle of preferring shortage to excess, to ensure the quality of students first, and the number of enrollment should not be too large! "

Bulgaria implements basic education for all, and pays equal attention to university elite education. Naturally, it is impossible for Ferdinand to expand enrollment. The resources of higher education in this era are limited. Even if you want to use crowd tactics, it is not suitable for Bulgaria!

If you blindly engage in a bunch of universities with only quantity and no quality, what is the use of wasting resources?

Is it really like what later generations said: University is not a place to learn knowledge,

Just a place to teach students how to learn?

Instead of this, Ferdinand might as well set up a few more technical schools, so that the engineers trained can directly contribute to the construction of Bulgaria without worrying about employment problems!

It's better than cultivating a group of talkers, who haven't learned any professional knowledge, and don't know anything after being born in society. Apart from being crazy, I have nothing to do all day long, only to accept some messy thoughts, and then think about revenge on society!

Therefore, the liberal arts major that the education sector has been striving for to enter the university was taken away by Ferdinand this time. Anyway, giving priority to training talents in science and engineering is Ferdinand's established national policy, and it can never be shaken!

This is not entirely the case. Practical majors such as the Department of Law and the Department of Foreign Languages ​​have long been included in the classification of Bulgarian universities, and they are one of the few surviving fruits of the liberal arts!

Minister of Education Chekhov replied with a wry smile: "Yes, Your Majesty! Our Ministry of Education will come up with a more suitable plan as soon as possible!"

He knew that there would be big troubles in the future, and literacy education was nothing more than that, and not many people cared about it; but the plan to add two universities was no secret in the education circle, and many people were still waiting for it.

In particular, the enrollment of liberal arts majors that were previously planned to be opened has now been closed. This is absolutely unacceptable to many old masters!

Demonstration, find the government to protest? They can't do this yet, and the government has good reasons for doing so. In Ferdinand's words, "everything is centered on building Bulgaria!"

This point has been recognized by all walks of life in Bulgaria!

Now Bulgaria has finally climbed to the edge of the second-rate powers. If it steps in, it may not be able to become another European power after Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Austria, and Italy!

It is precisely because of this that many social contradictions in Bulgaria are suppressed by this common goal, and everyone is willing to fight for this great goal!

However, not being able to find trouble with the government does not mean that one cannot find trouble with the Ministry of Education. The old masters have no other way, but the preaching skill is still very powerful!

Chekov can already imagine the future in his ears, so don't think about it!

Of course, Ferdinand pretended not to know about these problems, even he didn't give up on these respected seniors in the education field!

He really has a high moral level, loves his own academics, loves Bulgaria, and is willing to give everything for this country!

When the University of Bulgaria was established before, Ferdinand cut off many people's majors on the grounds of national development needs, and they didn't make a fuss, so they accepted it!

Now that the country has grown stronger, it makes sense to come out again to fight for the interests of the cause I love!

Of course, there is another most important reason. These people are all stubborn royalists, pioneers who reject all messy ideas. This is the main reason why Ferdinand has been giving them high praises!

...

Ferdinand is now in a very depressed mood. Bulgaria has basically eliminated illiteracy before, and its basic education ranks first in the world. Even in the field of higher education, it is also among the top ten in the world!

But now, the bottom one in the world is not enough, there are a lot of worse bottoms in Asia and Africa, but the bottom one in Europe is coming soon, fortunately, Montenegro and Greece next door make them bottom!

Of course, they were also pulled down by the new population!

After dealing with the troubles in education, Ferdinand thought that it was about to be over, but he didn't expect bigger troubles to come again.

The Minister of Industry first fired at the Ministry of Transport: "Your Majesty, the current traffic conditions in our country are really terrible, and even many important cities are not covered by the railway network!

In addition, the quality of our road network is not up to standard, and the passage of horse-drawn carriages in many places is very reluctant.

You must know that the 20th century was a century of development and progress. Now that cars have appeared, it may not be long before cars will replace horse-drawn carriages and become the most important means of transportation.

The roads in many areas of our country are difficult even for horse-drawn carriages, let alone cars that have higher requirements on road conditions.

Now Bulgaria's domestic transportation has restricted our economic development. The most important factor is that our Ministry of Transportation is too ineffective! "

Hearing the upright and awe-inspiring words of the Minister of Industry, the Minister of Transport was immediately dissatisfied. Bulgaria's Ministry of Transport is definitely the busiest transport ministry in the world. The number of road construction troops under his command has exceeded 3% of the total population of Bulgaria for more than ten consecutive years!

Is this still called inaction? What is it called doing? For Bulgaria's transportation construction, the officials of the Ministry of Communications have worked hard, either running here or there, going around to supervise the construction and solve the problem!

"Or gossip! Your Majesty, the Ministry of Industry is clearly not making progress, so how can they slander us?

Whether our Ministry of Communications has done anything, the length of new railways and roads added every year is the best proof! The total mileage of road construction completed in Bulgaria last year ranked first in the world!

On the contrary, it is their Ministry of Industry that has held us back. They can't even meet the steel we need for railway repairs, and they have to use our precious foreign exchange to import from abroad. It is simply embarrassing! "

The words of the Minister of Transport undoubtedly stimulated the Minister of Industry. Now the Bulgarian government has invested a lot of money in industry, and at the same time squeezed the funds of other departments. Many departments have opinions.

Now the Ministry of Industry is holding a sigh of relief. It must show the results and show them to the people of the country to prove that the investment is worthwhile!

The Minister of Industry stood up angrily and said: "You are spitting blood, why doesn't our Ministry of Industry work hard? Can't you see our industrial growth?"

The Minister of Transportation sarcastically said: "I can see it, but if the funds were given to us, the current traffic problem would have been solved long ago, so that it wouldn't grow like yours!"

...

Ferdinand roared angrily: "Stop! Why are you arguing, this is not a place for you to swear, go back and quarrel slowly!

You are all high-level officials of the Bulgarian government, so you just quarrel over some things, what about your quality?

Can fighting solve the problem? If you can, keep arguing, if you can't, just sit down honestly and think about a solution! "

To be honest, now Ferdinand just wants to laugh. The quarrel skills of these technical officials are really embarrassing and thrown to grandma's house.

The words spoken are full of loopholes everywhere, and they just pop out naturally without going through the brain!

Even if you want to scold others, you should still scold them and expose your faults! Where do they seem to be swearing, they are clearly helping their opponents?

As for the conflict between the two parties, it was all caused by the word "money". Before that, Bulgaria's key investment had always been transportation construction. However, after the outbreak of the economic crisis, in order to buy bottom at low prices, the focus of investment has shifted to industry.

The problems that the two of them said now are real, and for a while, no one can solve them!

Ferdinand is a time traveler, but he is not a god, nor does he have a cheat!

Roads need to be repaired meter by meter, and industries also need to be accumulated bit by bit! And all of this takes time, and it is impossible to do it overnight!

Now Bulgaria's traffic problems are mainly concentrated in Macedonia, Albania, and Kosovo.

During the Ottoman Empire, the Sudanese government probably didn't have the concept of construction, and the infrastructure was in a mess. Now it's Ferdinand's turn to worry about these problems.

It has been four years since it started in 1897 and started construction in 1898. The construction of the main road of the transportation hub is only two-thirds of the initial completion, let alone the branch line!

According to the plan of the Ministry of Communications, after full completion: the total mileage of Bulgaria's railways will reach 4000 kilometers, and the total mileage of roads will reach an astonishing 9000 kilometers!

Of course, this plan is just a plan, and it is still far away to achieve this goal. At present, the total railway mileage in Bulgaria is only 8,867 kilometers, and the total road mileage is only 18,365 kilometers, which is less than a quarter!

Oh, in comparison, the large-scale industrial plan of the Ministry of Industry is really terrible. Although the road plan of the Ministry of Communications is a bit big, after ten or twenty years of hard work, Ferdinand felt that Bulgaria could still complete it!

The big industrial plan? Ferdinand thinks it's better not to mention it, to catch up with Britain and France, just think about it when dreaming, and the German Empire is still fighting for it?

We haven't experienced World War I or World War II yet, and the British and French are still in their heyday, so we can just dream with Bulgaria's current wealth.

If he wants to achieve it, Ferdinand believes that first expand the territory by ten or eight times, and then increase the population by ten or eight times. In theory, after ten or twenty years of hard work, it can almost be realized!

Of course, Ferdinand did not wake them up from the Ministry of Industry's dream of an industrial power. At least someone has found a great goal and is fighting for it, which is much better than walking dead without ideals!

There are always more solutions than problems, this is an idealist!

There are always more problems than solutions, this is a social reality!

Ferdinand did not have a good idea, and no one in the top Bulgarian government could come up with it!

In any case, the problems raised by the Minister of Industry and the Minister of Transport are objective facts, and it is impossible for anyone to solve them in the short term!

After thinking for a while, Ferdinand said: "You are all Bulgarian elites, leading the way of Bulgaria's progress, and if you encounter problems, you can find a way to solve them for me!

Industrial problems, your Ministry of Industry can handle it yourself, and I, a layman, will not interfere!

Regarding transportation, I have a suggestion. According to Bulgarian law, there is a universal military service system, but our current population base has increased a lot, and it is certainly impossible for the army to recruit all of them!

Then the remaining part of the military service, simply form a production and construction corps, specializing in production and construction.

Coordinate with the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of the Army, and borrow it first to use it. In this way, a lot of labor can be added! "

Ferdinand knew very well that the questions raised by various departments are all aimed at gaining a share of the next year's allocation of funds.

Obviously, they are all thinking too much, it is impossible for the Ministry of Finance to agree to increase the budget! Lack of money is the most commonly used and most effective reason for the Ministry of Finance!

No matter what your reasons are, the total financial expenditure is only so much, if you have the ability, go and compete with other departments!

As for his idea, it was a bad idea, at least for the Ministry of Communications!

The military is not so easy to talk to. If you want to borrow people, you can just give them money. People's military expenses are also very tight!

Otherwise, even if people go to reclaim wasteland and cultivate land, they will not come to help in vain. Farming is still an income, isn't it?

The facts were as expected by Ferdinand. The final allocation of funds was basically as planned before. If you want to seize food, you need at least one reason that Ferdinand agrees with!

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